I Was a Swordsman in Ancient Japan

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Mamiya and Mucun led Ogata to run and leap in the mountains and fields.

It wasn't until the sky was about to be completely dark that the shadow of the building finally appeared within Ogata's field of vision.

Looking at the building in front of him, Ogata was taken aback.

Although he didn't know much about architecture, Ogata could still tell—it seemed to be the gate of a temple.

Mamiya, who saw Ogata's doubts, explained from the side:

"This place used to be a temple."

"It was later abandoned for unknown reasons."

"My lord saw that the location of this temple is good, so I slightly remodeled this temple and used it as the base of our gourd house."

"I see..." Ogata muttered while looking around.

I have to say - the location of this temple is indeed excellent.

There is a small stream flowing next to the temple, and there is sufficient and stable water source.

At the same time, it is hidden in the deep mountains, the location is hidden, and it is not easy to be discovered by others.

Although the gate of the temple was closed, Ogata could still vaguely see a faint light coming from the temple.

Mamiya stepped forward and knocked hard on the temple door.

The sound of knocking on the door directly broke the silence of this deep mountain.

The knock on the door "hovered" and "echoed" over the temple gate for a while before it gradually dissipated.

Ogata noticed——When Mamiya knocked on the door, he didn't knock casually.

Instead, knock on the door according to a specific rhythm.

After the knock on the door fell, Ogata heard footsteps coming from far and near behind the temple gate.

Squeak...

The gate of the temple was slowly opened a crack.

The gap at the door is small, but it is enough for people behind the temple gate to observe the movement outside the door.

A crack was opened at the gate of the temple,

The person who opened the door took a look at who was knocking on the door through the crack of the door, and a bland, almost emotionless young male voice sounded from behind the door:

"Mr. Jiangong, Mr. Mucun, you are back, long time no see."

"Well, it's been a long time, Asai. It was still winter when I parted from you, but now it's almost summer."

"The two of you seem to have brought a guest back... come in first."

After all, the temple gate, which was only opened a small crack, was slowly opened, and a big mouth was opened that was big enough for people to pass through.

Only now did Ogata finally see clearly what the man who was in charge of opening the door and talking to Mamiya just now looked like.

He's a beautiful boy—this was Ogata's first impression after seeing this man.

The man is believed to be between 20 and 25 years old.

Like Ogata and Mamiya, this handsome boy did not shave his head, but kept his hair in a regular bun.

The face is handsome enough to make people exclaim.

He is neither fat nor thin, with curvy and long eyebrows, sharp eyes, straight and high nose bridge, ruddy lips with beautiful lines, fair skin, and the skin quality is so good that Ogata can believe that this guy's skin must be very envied by women .

If there is any shortcoming in this person, it should be short.

If this person's height is converted into the length unit of the modern earth, it should be only about 1.6 meters.

Of course, this height can be considered in the Edo period, and it can be classified into the category of "tall and tall".

All in all - this is a downright handsome guy who is definitely popular with women.

He was the most handsome man Ogata had ever seen since he came to this Edo period, so handsome that Ogata couldn't help feeling a little envious.

While Ogata was looking at this handsome man, this handsome man was also looking at Ogata.

As for Jiangong, he was standing between the two of them at this time, introducing them.

"Ogata-kun, this is Asai Shichirobei. It's one of the other two members of our gourd house that I told you just now."

"Asai. This is Itsue Ogata. It's the executioner Ittosai."

"Oh?" After listening to Mamiya's introduction, Asai raised his eyebrows slightly, "You are the executioner Yidaosai..."

Asai's tone seemed to have known Ogata a long time ago - but Ogata was not puzzled by this.

After all, it is quite normal to know his character. After all, his arrest warrants can be said to be spread all over Japan.

After exchanging salutes with Asai, Asai led Ogata and the others through the temple gate and headed towards the depths of the Buddhist temple.

When Asai was leading the way, Mamiya kept throwing questions at Asai one after another.

"Is the lord here?"

"My lord and Mr. Yuan went to the mountains to practice hard."

"Have you gone to practice again... When will you be back?"

"The practice they started 3 days ago will probably be back tomorrow morning."

"Tomorrow morning...that's okay. It's rare for guests to come to the door. If they take ten days and a half months to come back, it will be troublesome. What about Shimada? Is Shimada here now?"

"Shimada is preparing today's dinner. You came back at the right time, just in time for dinner. If you come back later, there will be no dinner for you."

"That's really great, we just happened to be hungry. Ogata-kun, before we eat, let me take you to your room. We don't have many things here, and we have the most vacant rooms."

"Okay, then there is work."

...

...

The room that Mamiya arranged for Ogata was very simple, and it should be the wing room where the monks who lived here originally lived.

Although the room is not spacious, it is very clean and all kinds of furniture are available.

Ogata bent down and touched the floor casually - his fingers were clean without any dust.

"It's so clean..."

"My lord likes to be clean." Jiangong said, "Under my lord's request, this temple will always be kept spotless."

"Every day, villagers from the village down the mountain who are responsible for serving as the outpost of our gourd house will come to help us clean it."

"You can take a rest here, and I will have someone come to call you when we are going to have dinner."

"Ok."

After watching Mamiya leave, Ogata stretched vigorously, and then sat down on the tatami mat under his feet.

This morning he was still riding a horse on the road, and this evening he lived in a gourd house—for some reason, this rapid change in his life history made Ogata feel unreal.

Just when Ogata was thinking about staying here for a few days, there was a soft knock on the door.

"Please come in."

The sliding paper door was pulled open, and a young face that had never been seen before appeared in Ogata's field of vision.

The young man who knocked on the door of Ogata's room was still holding a quilt in his hand.

"Excuse me, is this the guest brought back by Mamiya-senpai and Mucun-senpai--the executioner Isai Ogata Yishi?"

"That's right." Ogata nodded, "May I ask who you are?"

"This is Katsurokuro Shimada. On the order of Mamiya-senpai, I come to deliver bedding to my step and call my step down to eat."

——Shimada Katsurokuro...

Ogata chewed on the name silently in his heart.

——This should be the last of the other two members of the Gourd House that Mamiya mentioned...

——Now, except for their mysterious lord and Kinoshita Genichi, I have met all 4 members of Gourd House...

Shimada's first impression of Ogata was that he was young.

Very young, from the appearance, he should be less than 20 years old, with a childish look on his face.

He has regular facial features, sword eyebrows and starry eyes -- he can be considered handsome, but he is still far from handsome men of Asai's level.

He has long hair and a bun, and two knives pinned neatly to his left waist. His height, converted to the length of the earth, should be only about 1.57 meters.

After placing the quilt in his hand on the ground respectfully, Shimada pouted his chin outward.

"Master Yidao Zhai, please come down, I will take you to a place to eat."

"Okay. You don't need to call me Mr. Yidaosai, just call me Ogata."

"Yes, Ogata-sama, please come down with me."

"You don't need to add the suffix of 'adult'...forget it, you can call him whatever you like."

...

...

Under the guidance of Shimada, Shimada and Ogata walked one after the other on the way to eat.

"Our gourd house has not had any customers for a long time."

Shimada, who was walking in front, smiled at Ogata behind him as he walked.

"I'm so happy to finally see new faces here."

"I won't stay here for too long." Ogata smiled, "After all, I'm just here as a guest, and I'll leave after a day or two."

Through this brief contact, Ogata has discovered two characteristics of Shimada.

The first feature-talkative, very happy to talk to people.

When he was leading the way for Ogata, he never stopped talking.

The second feature - his body exudes a kind of aristocratic temperament.

Whether Shimada speaks or gestures, there is an air of elegance.

This made Ogata sure--Shimada's background must be very good, and his family background must be very good.

"Shimada." Ogata took the initiative to say to Shimada, "How old are you?"

"17." Shimada replied without hesitation.

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"17...so young."

"That's right." Shimada smiled wryly, "I'm the youngest person in Huluwu, so whether it's the lord or Senior Mamiya, they all treat me like a little brother, which makes me very distressed. He is already a man who can stand on his own."

"Your family background must be very good." Ogata continued, "I think your self-cultivation is very good."

"Well. In terms of family background, my family is indeed considered superior."

"Below is the 9,000-stone-high banner of Edo—the eldest son of the Shimada family."

"Flagmoto?" Ogata couldn't help but burst into tongues.

The Banner Samurai—the samurai directly under the shogun, have the right to directly meet the general, and have their own territory, but the total stone height of the territory is less than 10,000 stone.

There are also high and low points between banners.

According to what Shimada just said, their family's territory is as high as 9000 shi - this is already considered a high-level banner.

"So you came from a famous family." Ogata couldn't help but sighed, "Why did you join the gourd house when you came from a famous family?"

The base is located in the gourd house in the deep mountains and old forests—it doesn't look like a place where such a nobleman would come.

"Why did you join the Gourd House..." Shimada raised his head and looked at the starry sky above his head, with a faint look of memory floating on his face, "Because I was looking forward to a certain person, when I came back to my senses, I had already followed that person." People have joined the gourd house."

"Although I am a member of the Gourd House, I haven't joined the Gourd House for a long time. I was invited to join the Gourd House last summer. I am the latest person to join the Gourd House. Ah, Ogata-sama, we are here. "

Ogata looked forward - and saw a pot driving in the open space in front of him.

There was already burning firewood under the pot.

5 small stools were placed around the pot, 3 of which had been used by Jiangong, Mucun, and Qianjing, leaving only 2 empty stools.

These two stools must have been reserved for Ogata and Shimada to sit on.

Seeing Ogata and Shimada coming, Mamiya beckoned to them, signaling them to sit down.

After sitting down on the stool, Ogata looked at the hot water in the pot in front of him that was bubbling continuously and was about to boil, and said:

"What are you eating today?"

"Eat a big miscellaneous pot." Asai on the side replied blankly.

"Big miscellaneous pot?" Ogata asked doubtfully.

"Except for the lord, all of us have a strong...laziness in cooking." Mucun smiled wryly, "Usually the lord is in charge of our three meals a day. When the lord is not around, we just eat it to save trouble. Can cook a big mixed pot."

"The so-called big mixed pot..." Asai said, picking up a pot of vegetables at his feet, "It's just throwing all the ingredients into the same pot."

After all, Asai directly threw all the vegetables in the pot into the pot.

And Mucun followed suit, throwing a few pieces of jerky into it.

Mamiya and Shimada were not to be outdone, and threw all the materials at hand into it.

Looking at the appearance of the four Mamiyas constantly throwing ingredients into the pot, Ogata somehow reminded Ogata of a witch who was throwing all kinds of strange things into a black cauldron to make potions...

The color of the soup that was originally clean in the pot gradually became weird with the continuous input of ingredients...

Looking at the soup that has turned into a weird brown color, Ogata gradually felt that he lost his appetite...

While waiting for the ingredients in the pot to cook, the five of them chatted casually.

"Gamiya." Asai asked first, "What did you bring the executioner Yidao Zhai to our Gourd House? Have you successfully persuaded him to join our Gourd House?"

"No. I have already sent an invitation to Ogata-kun, but Ogata-kun refused. Ogata-kun, he came to our gourd house this time, simply as a guest."

"A guest?" Asai frowned slightly, "Mamiya, my lord doesn't welcome us to bring outsiders in casually."

"I know." An intriguing expression appeared on Mamiya's face, "But Mr. Xufang is not an outsider."

"From a certain point of view, Ogata-kun can be regarded as the lord's junior."

"What do you mean?" Asai frowned even tighter.

Even Shimada cast a puzzled look at Mamiya.

"Ogata-kun, he has mastered the no-self dual-sword style."

"What?!"*2

Asai and Shimada shouted in unison.