Then, the three bodies on the ground were naturally discovered.

He was so frightened that he quickly escaped from the alley, then looked for the official to report the discovery of the body.

Soon, four officers arrived at the alley carrying fishing gear.

The four officials, who originally had serious faces, entered the alley and saw the faces of the three corpses. Their expressions froze at first, and then their serious expressions dissipated at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"What?" One of the four officers curled his lips, "It turns out that the person who died was Ezo... I instantly lost the motivation to investigate the case. What is there to investigate about Ezo's case?"

"They are wearing kimonos." Another person said, "And I seem to have seen their faces. They seem to be naturalized Ezo."

"That's right." Another person said, "Regardless of whether he is naturalized or not, Ezo is Ezo. Look, they all have bows and arrows on them. They look like a bunch of beasts who want to kill people and take wealth."

"Stop talking," said the leader of the four officers, "Anyway, let's call someone to quickly bring straw mats over and collect the bodies of these guys. Although the dead people are only Ezo, the way they should be done is still

Gotta do it.”

…

…

This time, there were no surprises.

Ogata and Atachi successfully arrived at the hotel they had heard about from a passerby.

After asking about the price and confirming that it was a reasonable price, Oufang bought a room large enough for two people.

It was already past 4 o'clock in the afternoon when they landed.

The two of them are now in Matsumae Castle, which is further north than the Ou area. In such a deep winter, it gets dark faster.

After finding the hotel, opening the room, placing the luggage, and taking care of everything, the sky started to get dark.

Looking at the darkening sky, Ogata quickly made a plan to find a restaurant for dinner. After dinner, he would go back to the hotel directly and go to bed early tonight.

They spent most of today wandering at sea.

Ogata was fine. But Omachi, who has a constitution prone to seasickness, was not so fine.

From the time he landed until now, A-Machi's face is still pale, which shows that A-Machi still suffers from the sequelae of seasickness.

The two of them randomly found a decent-looking restaurant quite close to the hotel where they were staying.

After entering, I saw a young waiter in this store greeting Ogata with a warm smile.

There is a large menu hanging on one wall of the restaurant, which lists all the food sold in this restaurant.

Under the guidance of the waiter in the store, after sitting down at a still empty table, Oubon asked Amachi:

"Is there anything you want to eat?"

Ogata left the decision to Amachi.

In order to take care of those who cannot read Chinese characters, the menu hanging on the wall of this store uses only pseudonyms.

So even Atachi can understand all the dishes on the menu.

After Amachi glanced at the menu list hanging on the wall, he pointed to one of the dishes written on it and asked:

"What is this 'crab pot'?"

“Crab pot is a must-eat specialty here!”

The waiter introduced Ogata and Atachi in a thick accent.

“The crabs from our Matsumae clan are bigger and more delicious than those from other places!”

“Crabs, mushrooms, greens and other vegetables are boiled together to form a ‘crab pot’, which is most suitable for eating in such a winter.”

"Just one bite will warm you up and make you feel comfortable all over!"

The waiter seemed to recognize that Ogata and Omachi were foreigners, so he kept emphasizing that the crab pot was a specialty delicacy of their Matsumae clan.

And he successfully piqued A-Machi's interest.

After learning that the crab pot was a local specialty of the Matsumae clan, he turned his head and cast a questioning look at Ogata.

Ogata didn't care what he was going to eat. After Amachi cast a questioning look, he nodded immediately.

"Then let's have some crab pot!" Amachi said.

"Okay! How many crabs do you want?"

"About how big is one of your crabs?" Amachi asked.

The clerk raised his hands and gestured: "They are basically this big."

"Are the crabs here so big?" Amachi said with a bit of surprise in his tone, "Well... let's get 4 crabs first. Then 2 bowls of white rice."

"Okay! Do you need a drink?"

"Want to drink?" Amachi asked Ogata.

"Okay." Ogata said cheerfully, "Let's drink a little."

"Then bring over two bottles of wine." Amachi turned his attention back to the waiter.

"No problem! Please wait! The drinks and food will be served soon!"

The waiter quickly left the sight of Ogata and Omachi and ran to the kitchen.

In order to pass the boring time while waiting for the dishes to be served, Ogata turned his head and looked at the restaurant.

The interior layout of this restaurant is that of an ordinary Japanese-style building, and there is nothing exotic in it.

While looking around, Ogata suddenly found something on a certain wall that was difficult for him to ignore.

"...Omachi, look at that." Ogata stretched out his finger and pointed towards the wall.

After looking in the direction pointed by Ogata's finger, Atachi raised his beautiful eyebrows and said, "A wanted order..."

On a certain wall of this restaurant, there are dozens of wanted posters.

The most conspicuous one posted in the middle of these dozens of wanted posters is clearly Ogata's wanted poster.

It's not uncommon for wanted posters to be posted on restaurant walls.

The government often forces restaurant owners to post wanted notices in their stores so that enough people can pay attention to the fugitives.

After taking a few glances at the dozens of wanted posters posted on the wall, Amachi asked Ogata: "It's just a wanted poster. What's so interesting about it?"

"Look at the wanted poster in the middle for the executioner Ittousai. Look at his reward."

"Executioner Ittosai?" A-Machi showed a puzzled expression and turned his attention to the wall again.

A-Machi just glanced at it briefly, so he didn't read the numbers written on the wanted poster in detail.

This time, after focusing on the numbers written on the wanted poster, a strong look of surprise appeared on Atachi's face.

"Huh? Why has the bounty increased..." Amachi murmured.

Ogata doesn't have Alzheimer's disease yet, so he remembers very clearly when he saw his wanted notice from Huosaka more than a month ago. The reward written on the wanted notice was 500 taels of gold.

But now, the bounty written on the wanted poster posted on the wall of this restaurant has increased.

It becomes 800 taels of gold.

Ogata feels very confused now.

He didn't understand why his bounty suddenly increased again.

At this time, a waiter from this restaurant happened to pass by Ogata, so Ogata quickly stopped him.

"Excuse me, I want to ask a question."

Ogata raised his hand and pointed to his wanted poster posted on the wall.

"What's the deal with the wanted notice for Executioner Ittosai? I remember that the reward for Executioner Ittosai was not 500 taels of gold? Why is it now 800 taels of gold?"

"Ah, that's right. Sorry, samurai-sama, I don't know very well." The clerk smiled bitterly, "The reward for Executioner Ittosai was indeed 500 taels."

"But just four days ago, someone from the government suddenly came to our door and asked us to post a new wanted notice."

"Among those new wanted orders, there happens to be a new wanted order with a reward of 800 taels of gold from Yitousai."

"That's it...thank you." Ogata thanked the waiter and let him leave.

After the guy left, Ogata looked at the wanted poster posted on the wall again.

The wanted notice on the wall is indeed very new. The paper is white and clean. You can tell it was newly made at a glance.

"Samurai-sama, there is no need to be confused!"

At this moment, a strange voice sounded beside him and Ating:

Ogata turned his head and looked at the owner of the voice.

The owner of this voice is a middle-aged and elderly man who is probably over 40 years old.

The most conspicuous appearance feature of this middle-aged and elderly man should be his shiny bald head.

The bald man was sitting at the table next to Ogata and Omachi, and there were 6 middle-aged people of similar age to him at the same table.

None of them carried swords on their bodies, so it was obvious that they were just a bunch of ordinary town residents1.
To be continued...