The sound of this female voice made Sotaro instantly stunned.
He immediately stopped talking and quickly followed the sound.
The owner of the female voice just now was naturally none other than Atachi.
Because the vision on the watchtower was dim just now, and Soutaro's attention had been focused on Konnosuke, Soutaro did not notice a woman standing behind Konnosuke just now.
And this woman is still an acquaintance of mine.
"Oh My God!"
With a look of ecstasy on his face, Sotaro spoke in a frivolous tone towards Omachi, who was standing on the watchtower and piercing his angry eyes.
"Isn't this A-Machi? Long time no see!"
"Since my eldest brother and I defected to Shiranui, we haven't seen each other for nearly two years, right?"
"Why are you here?"
At this point, Sotaro's face showed a strong look of ridicule.
"You shouldn't be... here to perform some mission, right?"
"Hey, hey, isn't it? The leader is too gentle, isn't he?"
"Two years have passed, and you, a useless ninja like you, have not been given as a reward to someone else as a wife, or have you just been thrown into the 'Flower House'?"
Soutaro's words just now seemed to turn on some switch.
As soon as she finished speaking, A-Machi's hands that were hanging naturally clenched tightly.
Various emotions began to appear on her face. Anger, sadness, unwillingness...
"A-Machi, I still have things to do now." Soutaro waved his hand, "I don't have that free time to care about you. Let's talk about old times after I'm done."
After saying that, Sotaro fixed his gaze on Konnosuke again.
"I'm sorry, Konnosuke-sama. I met an old friend by chance just now. I accidentally talked too much with him, which delayed the serious business."
"I'm too lazy to talk anymore. Please hand over the rice quickly!"
"otherwise……"
Soutaro slowly pulled out the wakizashi from his waist and pressed the blade of the wakizashi against the neck of the villager closest to him.
"Soutaro!" Konnosuke, who was already furious, roared, "put the sword down!"
"Kinnosuke-sama." Sotaro not only did not put down the knife, but also said in a strange tone, "You should still remember what happened when we borrowed rice from you last time and you refused to give it to us, right?"
"As a punishment, we cut one of the four captured villagers into pieces."
"If you had handed over the rice obediently, the poor boy wouldn't have had to die so miserably."
"One of the four people is dead, and only the three next to me are left."
"So——Kinnosuke-sama, you should understand what I'm going to say, right?"
"If we don't want any more of the three villagers we have to die, then we should be more alert."
"I'm still rushing to go back to bed, so hurry up and hand over the rice."
"Otherwise - every five breaths, I will cut the young man next to me with a knife."
"The clock starts now."
After that, Sotaro slashed the villager next to him on the back of his neck.
“Ahhhhh——!”
The villager immediately let out a shrill wail.
The place where Sotaro made the cut was not a vital part, so he would only feel immense pain but not death.
At the same time—Soutaro deliberately slowed down the cutting speed.
He did not cut it in one go, but slowed down and cut the villager's skin bit by bit, doubling the pain.
"Hurry up, Konnosuke-sama." Sotaro played with the wakizashi in his hand and made a sword dance, "Two breaths have passed."
On the watchtower, Konnosuke clenched his fists tightly, as if he wanted to draw blood from his palms.
"The five breaths are almost here, Konnosuke-sama." Sotaro said in a joking tone, while slowly leaning the wakizashi in his hand towards the villager next to him again...
Although the blade had not yet cut his body, the villager's shrill wails had already sounded again due to intense fear.
Listening to the villager's wailing, Kinnosuke slowly closed his eyes containing various emotions, mainly anger and pain, and then——
"...Go." Konnosuke said softly to a young man behind him, "Bring our rice...move quickly..."
After saying these words, Konnosuke's body, which was originally tense due to clenching his fists, suddenly "softened", and then it seemed as if all the bones in his body had been pulled out.
at this time……
Whoosh——!
Konnosuke suddenly heard a sharp breaking sound in his ears.
A thin black shadow suddenly shot out from the watchtower where Konnosuke and others were, and struck Sotaro at an alarming speed!
Looking at the slender black shadow approaching, Sotaro's pupils shrank suddenly, and then he followed his body's instinct and tilted his head to the side.
The moment he tilted his head to the side, this thin black shadow brushed against his left cheek and took away part of the skin on his left cheek.
After grazing Sotaro's left cheek, the thin black shadow continued unabated and pierced straight into the ground behind Sotaro.
It wasn't until this thin black shadow penetrated the ground that Sotaro finally saw the true face of this black shadow - a wakizashi.
A stream of blood flowed out from the cut wound on Sotaro's cheek.
Soutaro, who had a grim look on his face, took his eyes away from the wakizashi, and then looked at the watchtower.
To be precise, he was looking at the person on the watchtower who just threw the wakizashi—Ogata.
"...who are you?"
Ogata did not immediately respond to Sotaro's question.
Instead, he first retracted the right hand that had just thrown the wakizashi, then held the sword at his waist, and under the astonished gazes of Konnosuke, Atachi and others, he climbed directly over the watchtower and jumped off the watchtower.
.
Bang.
With both feet firmly on the ground, standing behind Soutaro and the others, Ogata said in a calm tone that seemed to be without any emotion:
"No one, just a ronin who happened to be standing on that watchtower by various chances."
"Ronin...?" Soutaro's face was already full of vigilance, "Are you also a prisoner thrown to this island by the shogunate..."
"Ayi!" At this moment, Atachi on the watchtower shouted anxiously towards Ogata, who had jumped off the wall, "What are you going to do?"
"A'yi..." Soutaro frowned slowly, "Did you and A-Ting know each other?"
"She is my companion and friend." Ogata replied without thinking.
"...Hmph, that's it." Sotaro sneered, "Are you planning to teach me a lesson just because you think I said bad things about Amachi?"
"Then you have misunderstood. The words I just said to A-Ting are not bad words, but the truth!"
"I guess Atachi hasn't told you, right? What kind of existence is she in Shiranui?"