Dead bodies everywhere.
After a night of raging fire, this prosperous village that was once comparable to a town was left with only huge charred black ruins, silently telling the story of its past glory.
The settlement was built bit by bit over a span of more than half a century. Although shabby and dirty, it was a place that thousands of people called home.
But just like that, overnight, it was wiped off the map of the Moon Country.
More than four thousand people were killed, of all ages, genders and professions. The ashigaru broke many spears, chopped many swords, and even the samurai's arrows were used up. After a night of searching and cleaning up survivors, despite the exhaustion of a sleepless night, the Ashigaru were still driven by samurai the next morning to search for bows and arrows that could be recovered from the dead bodies of civilians.
Their top officer still planned to continue chasing the survivors, without even counting the bodies. The bodies of the killed were left in the streets and alleys, and the mighty two thousand people were ready to continue marching.
The adjutant tried to advise not to expand the scale any further to avoid affecting the actual operation, and also mentioned the fact that the army of more than 2,000 people was insufficiently supplied. But the red-eyed warrior in red armor just glared at the opponent without saying a word, and then emphasized again and ordered the team to organize quickly for pursuit.
Hundreds of corpses were floating on the river, turning purple with cold.
"They did come here before." The elite ninja troops accompanying the army discovered dense horse hoof prints hidden under the messy footprints by the river. The warriors themselves did not stay on the same spot for such a long time on horseback, so the hoofprints of their own horses were all straight in single or double rows, and the style of the hoofs was also consistent with the horses used by the warriors who had disappeared before.
They also found some black oil stains floating up from the river bottom on the water near the horse's hoof prints. They thought it was caused by the drowning person struggling to stir up something that sank to the river bottom. After repeated attempts with the tether hook, the object that was already stained with some mud was found to be partially peeled off by the temporary black paint, revealing the bright red-painted samurai armor underneath.
"They are here, right here! But they must have escaped!" The red-armored warrior, who had lost the ability to think in anger, roared loudly: "There are more than a thousand people who escaped, more than a thousand people, how can this happen? Let them escape. Where is your reserve? More than two thousand people have allowed them to escape so much against a group of unarmed pariahs!"
No one dared to speak to refute him. The Ashigaru and lower level samurai stood silently listening to their leader's reprimand.
In fact, they had a lot to say, such as insufficient preparation at the beginning of the operation, which should have surrounded them from all directions to ensure that it was truly airtight; or that the number of more than 4,000 dead bodies was only roughly calculated, and they were not verified one by one at all. Is the villain dead?
It's just that "some people ran for their lives and they couldn't kill them all" so "the villain who killed my brother must still be alive." Even if this is indeed a fact, it is not an answer determined by calm thinking and investigation, but a conclusion drawn from overly simple logic that is as clear-cut as a child's.
He is no longer qualified to be a leader, he is now completely carried away by the desire for revenge. If he follows his orders, not only will a large number of non-combat attrition be caused by the lack of supplies for the two thousand-man march, but it may also threaten the larger plans of the Northland feudal kings.
The relatively calm-minded warriors could recognize this, but no one mentioned it to the red-armored warrior.
It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s that I can’t.
"If you want your minister to die, you will have to die."
In the Moon Country with such a strict class concept, even if the leader really makes a mistake, even if the leader leads them in the direction of mountains of swords and seas of fire, they will jump off one after another without saying a word.
Just like the civilians who would rather be killed than resist, and would prevent others from resisting the samurai.
Compared with the death of themselves or their wives and children, they believe that the nature of such behavior is more serious.
It may seem ironic to outsiders, but even for rebels who intend to rebel, the internal rules are still so strict that they are more important than life.
"How many people have been reduced?" The hot-headed red-armored samurai was still urging the ashigaru who collected arrows from a distance, while the adjutant was consulting the ninja in charge of intelligence work.
"19 died in battle, 9 of them accidentally fell into the fire or were accidentally killed by our own side. The additional 10 are..." the ninja said, and the adjutant raised his hand: "No need to say , I know, what next?”
"There are still five people whose whereabouts are unknown."
"Yes." The adjutant's face looked a little solemn, and then he sighed: "There are very few casualties, but it is not without casualties."
"Hoo-ho-" the cold wind blew through the charred black wreckage, and the charred human hands stretched out twistedly toward the sky exposed by the hole in the roof, as if facing something that did not exist. The gods asked for help.
Even the cold air couldn't suppress the smell of burnt corpses and charcoal that filled the sky over the entire swamp village. Seeing that the Ashigaru who had scattered to collect bows and arrows finally returned from their mission, the red-armored samurai hurriedly raised his sword high again:
"March!!"
So shout.
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The Crescent Continent is a long and narrow land plate with mountainous terrain. It is an area with extremely intense geological activities.
The year-round fog on Kirishima that Henry and others passed through when they came from the world of Rigar is an add-on to the volcano's landform. The long and narrow Crescent Continent, including some isolated islands on the sea, has the largest number of large and small volcanoes in the world known to mankind.
Although the Rigal continent has similar landforms, the people of the Moon Country truly live with volcanoes. There are three huge volcanoes in the Honshu region where Shinkyo, the country's capital, is located. Once one of them erupts, at least half of the population of the prosperous imperial capital will need to relocate.
The overwhelming magma is enough to destroy all human civilization within its range. Even the most valiant warriors wearing the finest armor will be melted into ashes together with their armor. Even if the magma itself is not counted, the landslides caused by violent geological changes and the continuous earthquakes are enough to have a great impact on people's lives.
Kazuto's houses are always made of thin paper windows and wooden frames, which is inseparable from frequent earthquakes.
It is true that stone houses are more stable, but once they are stepped on, the falling heavy stones are enough to kill the occupants. In comparison, lighter-weight wood and paper windows greatly increase the possibility of survival after being crushed by a collapsed house, as well as the convenience of excavation and rescue afterwards.
Although this country has a strong unified political power and a history of four thousand years without encountering foreign enemies or civil strife, it does not mean that it is free from any disasters.
Human life is like a piece of grass, and a civilization that thinks it will survive for a long time may be wiped out in an instant. Due to the continuous natural disasters, the people of the Moon Kingdom have a far deeper understanding of crisis and time than the Rigal people.
Human beings are a race in a hurry. In the eyes of longevity species, humans always seem to worry about things not being completed in time. And Kazuto of the Moon Country is the most extreme embodiment of this among human beings.
Because it may be destroyed at any time, they have stipulated all aspects with strict and almost paranoid requirements; because it may be destroyed at any time, they are always in a hurry to seize the time and try to polish every aspect to the extreme.
"No regrets" is something that is engraved in the bones of this nation.
"Don't make mistakes" is the pressure they put not only on themselves but on the entire country.
This is a repressed nation. Under the huge pressure of survival, they must maintain unity, which has resulted in a harsh class concept. Otherwise, in the face of sudden natural disasters, it would be impossible to even organize efficient escape and evacuation.
Life is easy to perish, and the time you once thought was abundant may not be enough in the end.
This is a view that is implemented in the spiritual culture of Kazuto.
In this way, it is no wonder that Kazuto is fond of cherry blossoms, a flower unique to the Crescent Continent that only blooms for a week.
Gorgeous, but prematurely old.
Clear water flows forever. At night, when Henry and Mira fled with the oiran, all the easy-to-find boats had been taken by the fleeing people.
But having a local born means they have other options. The oiran pointed out to them a shallow spot in the nearby river. The three of them and two horses quickly waded to a long beach covered with weeds. They then walked for most of the night and stayed away for the time being when they came to relatively dry and hard ground. After reaching the tributary of Yongchuan River, they stopped to light a fire and rest.
It is not easy to find dry materials for fire in humid swamp areas. If it is autumn, you can still pick some lint from the tops of weeds, but in spring you can only use whatever you have.
Mira finally found some papers in the saddle bag of the horse she was riding, with words written on them in the language of the Moon Country. She couldn't fully understand it, but she roughly understood that it was a letter written by the samurai killed by the sage to his family.
These details are always a reminder, over and over again, of the fact that they are killing real people.
She didn't try to defend herself in her heart, even if she could find many reasons, such as having to do it, or else she would be the one who died.
This is just a disguised evasion, shifting the responsibility to force majeure, trying to alleviate the guilt of killing a stranger he has never met with his own hands.
The fact is that they could have turned around and fled. It was she and Aya who were determined to save the oiran and therefore turned back with the sage, leading to a new encounter and the death of this strange samurai whose name was not even known.
It was my own choice that led to this outcome.
Face the facts instead of looking for an excuse to justify your behavior.
The oiran watched in silence as the Luoan girl hesitated for a moment while looking at the family letters, then kneaded them loosely, and then lit them with a fire sickle and flint.
She stared blankly at this foreigner girl who was about the same height as herself and had white hair.
She could tell that Mira had suffered a lot. If not for this, the kind of perseverance and decisiveness that might not be seen in Kazuto samurai would definitely not exist.
But she didn't feel that this experience gave her the courage to face the facts and the clarity that remained untainted even after that.
Take this step.
Keep moving forward.
"Pa—" The oiran took off the crushed silver hair ornament on her head, and her waist-length black hair swayed in the wind. She took a careful look at the hair ornament with an adult's tattoo engraved on it, put it into the pouch at her waist, then walked over and stretched out her hand to Mira.
"Can you lend me the knife?"
The Luoan girl raised her face, and the flames that were burning at this moment illuminated her eyes.
And when the sage returned from collecting ingredients nearby, he saw the long black hair and expensive fabrics drifting away in the stream, as well as the beautiful Kazuto who had torn off her long skirt and shaved her hair into short hair.
"If you don't throw it away, you can use it to bandage the wound after washing it. Although your wound is very shallow, you still need to prevent infection." The sage said with a very shameful shrug.
"Pfft." The other person covered his mouth again and chuckled, then stretched out his hand to both of them.
"I'm Sakura." She introduced herself.
"Henry."
"Mira."
The two of them also shook each other's outstretched hands.
