Lin and the others all focused their attention on that young man—that is, Xuanren.

With an ordinary appearance and a bookish air in his eyebrows - from the outside, Xuanren has a very standard appearance as a doctor.

"Then -" Shenshan said as he slowly stood up, "I have already sent you there, so I'll take my leave now."

Lin and the others were not surprised that Shenshan left so quickly.

After experiencing a series of events such as the "Nijo Castle attack" three days ago, when Toda Tadahiro was forced to self-imposed confinement at home, all the big and small matters in Kyoto City fell on Kamiyama's shoulders.

The various scrolls and documents currently piled up on the table at Shenshan Mountain are probably already piled as high as a mountain.

Kamiyama was able to take time out of his busy schedule to meet Makimura, which actually surprised Lin and her party.

He stood up straight and walked out of the room. When Shenshan was about to pass through the door, Shenshan's feet suddenly stopped.

"...Makimura."

Standing at the door of the room, Shenshan turned around and looked at Mucun.

"Do I need to announce to the whole of Kyoto: The reason why our Kyoto Prefecture was able to capture those lunatics who planned to destroy Kyoto was all thanks to the 'original force' named Makimura Yahachi?"

"No need." Makimura shrugged and replied without thinking, "I didn't do so many things just to make the common people in Kyoto feel grateful to me."

"Besides, it's not all my fault that I was able to catch those lunatics."

Having said this, Makimura raised his left and right hands, hooking his right hand around the neck of Shimada, who was sitting on his right, and his left hand around the neck of Asai, who was sitting on his left.

"Without the help of my companions, Mr. Hasegawa, and the officials at the execution office, I would not have been able to uncover those lunatics even with all my strength."

"Kamiyama-sama, instead of announcing my great achievements to the whole of Kyoto with great fanfare, you might as well use that energy to thank my companions, treat Hasegawa-sama to a drink, and give some generous rewards to the officials at the execution office."

As soon as Makimura finished speaking, Asai, who was hooked on the shoulder by Makimura, immediately said:

"I didn't do anything three days ago, so you don't need to thank me."

As soon as Asai finished speaking, Shimada, who was also being hooked by Makimura's neck, immediately said:

"There's no need for me. I didn't do anything extraordinary three days ago, so there's no need to thank me or give me a reward or anything."

Shenshan directed his gaze towards Makimura.

The emotions shown in his eyes are quite complex, making it difficult to see clearly what Shenshan is thinking right now.

After a while, Shenshan let out a few low laughs:

"Instead of thanking me, why not thank others... Haha, Makimura, this answer is really full of your style."

"I understand. Since none of your companions want to accept my thanks and you don't want everyone in Kyoto to know about you, I won't force you."

"I will, as you said, treat Hasegawa to a nice drink later, and give adequate rewards to the officials in the prison."

After that, the sacred mountain stopped making any further stops and strode out.

It wasn't until the sacred mountain disappeared from everyone's field of vision, and its footsteps gradually faded away until they were completely inaudible, that Lin and her group turned their attention back to Xuanren, who was still kneeling solemnly opposite them.

"That..." Xuanren whispered softly, about to say something.

However, before Xuanren could say the complete words, Lin interrupted first:

"We'll talk slowly after we get down to business. Anyway, we still have plenty of time. Let's eat first."

Lin took out the pile of buns that Shimada had just bought.

"I can tell just by looking at your face - you must not have eaten well in many days, right?"

As if to confirm what Lin just said, Xuanren swallowed crazily after seeing the bread Lin took out.

"Katsurokuro."

"exist!"

"You go outside and buy something and come back."

"yes!"

…

…

That night——

Kyoto, Fuma's mansion.

Ogata, Lin, and Fuuma gathered in the same room and had dinner together.

Ogata, who was silently drinking the hot porridge from his bowl, looked at Omachi who was sitting opposite him from time to time.

As for Omachi, he didn't seem to notice Ogata's gaze, and just kept eating the food in his bowl silently.

Fuma also noticed the slightly strange atmosphere between Ogata and A-Machi. From time to time, he raised his face from the bowl and looked at Ogata and A-Machi at the same time.

Ogata originally thought that Omachi would slap him when he saw him wake up, blaming him for why he knocked her unconscious three days ago and did such a dangerous thing as "attacking Nijo Castle".

However - such a picture did not appear.

After Amachi went home this afternoon after buying the ingredients for tonight, and saw Ogata who had woken up, Amachi's reaction... was very dull.

After just saying "that's great", he took the pile of ingredients he bought to the kitchen and prepared for tonight's dinner.

Atachi's overly bland reaction gave Ogata a feeling...of being neither up to nor down.

Probably in order to ease the somewhat weird atmosphere around him, Fuma suddenly cleared his throat, and then said to Ogata:

"By the way, brother Ogata, there is something I forgot to tell you."

"Kondo came to my house late at night three days ago. He said that his master and him were waiting for him at my house."

"Kondo?" Ogata raised an eyebrow.

——Yeah...I almost forgot about this...

After hearing the name "Kondo", Ogata suddenly remembered that he and Kondo had another agreement.

Ogata promised Kondo that he would give Kondo some guidance on swordsmanship as long as Kondo handed over the wife and daughter of the owner of Inaba Hall and the rifled gun to Kamiyama or Hasegawa.

The place the two agreed upon was Feng Mo's home.

"Because you were still injured and in a coma at that time, I told Kondo: Your master was slightly injured and is recuperating. Come back after a while. I sent Kondo away temporarily."

"Master Fuuma, I'm really sorry to trouble you..." Ogata said with a bitter smile.

"It's nothing." Feng Mo waved his hand, "It's just a small matter."

Thanks to Feng Mo's intervention, the atmosphere around him improved a lot.

After silently eating everything in the bowl and saying, "I'm full," Oubon silently got up and returned to the room where he was recuperating and resting these days.

Although Ogata was still a little unsteady when walking due to the various injuries on his body, Ogata was still able to do such a small thing as walking back to his room.

After returning to his room, Oubon walked directly towards the knife rest placed in the corner of the room.

On the knife rest, there are Ogata's two precious swords - Daishiten and Daizizai.

After taking off Da Shi Tian and Da Zi Zai from the sword holder, Ogata slowly pulled the two swords out of their sheaths.

With the help of the candlelight nearby, Ogata carefully looked at the blades of the two knives.

Looking at the blades of these two swords, Ogata frowned slightly.

Then he sighed softly:

"Even such a great sword can be damaged..."

At this time, Da Shi Tian and Da Zi Zai were no longer like the ones they had just obtained on Butterfly Island, and the blades were intact as new.

Both knives now had gaps on their blades.

Ogata counted and found that there were three gaps in Daishuken's sword.

There are as many as 4 gaps in the Great Freedom.

Fortunately - these gaps are very small.

The extra gaps on these two swords were all made during the "Battle of Nijo Castle Castle" three days ago.

Even such a great sword, whose quality is far superior to that of ordinary swords, is not immune to damage after experiencing such a fierce battle.

To a certain extent, the fact that the gap has not appeared until now just proves the extraordinary quality of Mahavatar and Mahavatar.

If it were an ordinary sword, in the fierce battle three days ago, it would be impossible to use it after killing a few people.

However, Da Shi Tian and Da Zi Zai were able to fight the entire battle, and after the battle, there were only a few more gaps.

After looking up and down the blades of the two swords again, Ogata put the Daishiten and Daizizai back into their sheaths.

Although there is some damage, this damage will not have a great impact on the sharpness of the two knives, nor will it affect Ogata's use of them. From a certain perspective, it is indeed unfortunate.

Very lucky.

Just as he put Da Shi Tian and Da Zi Zai away and put them back on the knife rest, a female voice suddenly sounded from outside the room:

"Ayi, it's me. I'm here to change your cloth."

It's Atachi's voice.
To be continued...