Swallow Return

Eguchi Sukezaemon looked sullen and unconvinced, but dared not refute him.

He, a man of legitimate ruling class origin—even if only the lowest level of the ruling class—still did not want to see random people transform into warriors.

Of course, if someone is of Kinoshita Tokichiro's caliber, no matter how humble their origins, outsiders wouldn't dare say anything.

But such examples are one in a million. How could two servants brought from Kyoto as part of a dowry possibly be any talented people?

Iori noticed the doubt in Eguchi Sukezaemon's eyes, but instead of explaining, he sent two servants from the stables and kitchen.

One was called "Aqing," tall and strong, with a fierce and imposing presence; the other was called "Ahei," lean and capable, with piercing eyes.

Iori asked them to introduce themselves, and the two of them were not at all shy.

Aqing spoke first, saying in a simple and honest way, "I was tall and strong from a young age, and I had a huge appetite. There was never enough food in the village, and I was always hungry. So I went to Kyoto and worked as a bodyguard for a few years. Later, I had the chance to work for the Kakaiin family. Then I accompanied Miss Iori to the Sasaki family."

Then Ahei said in a gentle and refined manner, "I was originally a monk soldier in Kofukuji Temple in Nara. However, I offended the ward official with my rude words and was dismissed. Fortunately, I was able to find a place to live thanks to the protection of the Kakaiin family. Three years ago, I escorted Miss Iori here with Brother Ao."

The two men, one rough and the other slender, were both articulate and articulate. Aside from their disheveled appearance, they certainly didn't seem like ordinary people, but rather worldly individuals; their mannerisms and speech were perfectly suited to the role of warriors.

Eguchi Sukezaemon was speechless, sighed with some disappointment, and muttered to himself, "So Lady Iori's dowry included someone like this. And this person is just a servant of the Kakeruin family... Aren't the noble families of Kyoto supposed to be in decline?"

However, when Liu Yun saw "A Qing" and "A Hei," a subtle, unseen glint flashed in his eyes. After hearing their accounts of their backgrounds, he had already made up his mind, but he didn't say it aloud. He immediately decided, "You two are quite good. Prepare well today, and come with me to Hengshan City tomorrow. If you are competent, I will grant you the title of Zhixing upon your return and formally accept you as my disciples."

Chapter Eight: Aotabo and Kurotabo

The following night, Ryuun and Lady Iori slept peacefully, separated by a curtain.

This time I wasn't as nervous, and my thoughts weren't as scattered. It wasn't just because practice makes perfect, but because I understood the principles and my belief was stronger.

As a transmigrator from a civilized era, if I were to act so hastily and impulsively, it would be disrespectful to the beauty and too crude. How could I possibly live with myself?

It is best to go with the flow.

After all, we can talk about it later; there's plenty of time.

In the future, time will pass swiftly.

Eventually, that day will come.

Thinking about it this way, I'm not so conflicted anymore.

Besides, there were other important matters to attend to at night, so I couldn't indulge in romantic thoughts.

With his improved martial arts skills, Liu Yun's control over his body has become increasingly stronger. Even when he is half asleep or half awake, he can still maintain a keen awareness of his surroundings if he wants to.

He vaguely heard Lady Iori lie down and murmur a sigh, the regret in which seemed a little stronger than the night before.

But perhaps it's just my imagination.

This is not important.

At the very last minute of midnight, Liu Yun opened her eyes as if she had an alarm clock inside her body.

Then he immediately grabbed the nodachi beside him, flipped himself up, and silently walked out of the room.

……

To prevent accidents, the lanterns and torches at the four corners of the "Sasaki House" are, according to custom, always kept lit.

However, they hadn't really faced a test yet, and gradually their guard had relaxed.

Tonight, two figures appeared in the northeast corner.

A hushed discussion could also be heard.

"This is a bit unexpected! Lady Iori actually wants me to become a samurai, what should I do?"

"Calm down. We can't just leave the Sasaki residence, but we need a reason to refuse."

"What reason could we possibly have? That Lord Liuyun doesn't seem like someone who can be easily fooled!"

"Therefore, it can't be a complete lie; it needs to be half true and half false. Our identities must be given a reasonable explanation..."

The two people who talked at night were a tall and strong man and a lean and capable man. They were the two servants, Ao and Ahei, whom Lady Iori had introduced during the day.

They were whispering and discussing something when suddenly, without them noticing, another person appeared in front of them.

Both of them were startled, looked at each other, and didn't know what to say or how to react.

The one who came was Liu Yun.

He stroked the hilt of his sword and chuckled softly: "How did two demons become servants of the Kyoto Kakeruin family, and even live here with Iori for several years? What are their true intentions?"

As soon as the words were spoken, the two people opposite them—or rather, the two demons—became even more tense.

Aqing chuckled and scratched the back of her head: "Are you talking about me? My parents aren't monsters, and neither am I."

Ahei shrank back and lowered his head to hide his face: "Lord Liuyun is joking. How could I be a monster?"

Liu Yun frowned and looked up at the sky: "I am very familiar with the aura of demons, and I am absolutely certain that I am not wrong. Please tell me what your plans are, or we will have to resort to swords to question you."

The two people—no, the two demons—had nothing to say to each other. They exchanged a glance and then, with remarkable tacit understanding, lunged forward together.

Aqing spread his arms, which were as thick as a giant bear's, and with a low growl, pounced head-on, as if to grab him.

Ahei moved with the agility of a raccoon, swiftly flashing to the side and pulling out a rope, as if to launch a pincer attack from behind.

Liu Yun's expression remained unchanged. He gathered his energy slightly, reached out but did not draw his sword. Instead, he used the scabbard to unleash his power.

Aqing attacked fiercely, her skills far surpassing those of ordinary people, yet she was still a step too slow. She was struck squarely in the face and immediately lost her balance, letting out a cry of "Ah!" before collapsing to the ground, clutching her head.

Ahei swung the rope with effortless skill, intending to bind the opponent's hands and feet, but was struck in the chest first. He then fell headfirst, letting out a muffled groan as he clutched his ribs and rolled several times.

The two demons were then defeated.

Liu Yun breathed a sigh of relief and stood still.

The two monsters, Aqing and Ahei, are clearly much stronger than Hayami Seibei from yesterday.

Although both were easily cleaned up in one go, yesterday's effort was minimal. Today, however, it took the equivalent of blowing away several mouthfuls of dust.

Based on Liu Yun's combat experience over the years, a monster that can make him perform to this extent is no weakling.

But the opponent doesn't know that!

Those two demons were probably arrogant people in the past, but now they were being beaten to a pulp by an ordinary monk who had just left the monastic life. They were dumbfounded, as if they had seen something earth-shattering.

Aqing reacted quickly, her eyes wide as she hurriedly raised her hand and said, "Sir, please wait! We are indeed monsters who have infiltrated, but we have no ill intentions!"

Then Ahei gritted his teeth and stood up to speak in his defense: "Lord Liuyun, you are wise. We have never committed any evil deeds. We dared to attack you just now, but we did not use weapons. We only tried to subdue you and had no intention of harming you."

"If that weren't the case, you would probably already be..." Liu Yun lazily sheathed his sword at his side, snorted, and asked, "So what exactly is your background? Now you can tell me the truth!"

The two demons exchanged glances for a while before "Ahei" finally spoke up: "Reporting to Lord Ryuun, we are demons from Kyoto. My original name is Kurotabo, and this 'Ao' is Aotabo. We were entrusted by our senior to take care of Lady Iori, so we first infiltrated the Kakeruin family and later managed to come to the Sasaki family."

Upon hearing this, Liu Yun became suspicious and asked, "You say you were entrusted by a senior demon? But what is the connection between Lady Iori and that senior demon? Why would she receive such favor?"

Ahei—or rather, Kurotabo—said again, “Lady Iori’s father was a direct descendant of the Kakeruin family, while her mother was the daughter of a yokai senior. Both of them died tragically ten years ago. When this yokai senior heard the bad news about his daughter and son-in-law, he was furious, but he could not intervene personally for the time being, so he entrusted the two of us to protect them in secret.”

Liu Yun's brows relaxed slightly, but her doubts remained: "What is the background of that demon senior you mentioned?"

Kurotabo looked bitter and shook his head: "Ao and I drank the 'Hundred Demon Tea' of that demon senior and received the favor, which greatly increased our demon power. But the price is to do our best to protect Lady Iori until she dies of old age, and not to reveal that senior's secret for twenty years. If we break the oath, we will be immediately destroyed."

This sounded unbelievable, but Liu Yun could sense that the other party was not speaking recklessly. So he relaxed a little and asked again, "If that's the case, Lady Iori should have half-demon blood in her, so why can't I sense it at all?"

Kurotabo shook his head and said, "I heard from you that a secret technique was used at birth to conceal Lady Iori's demon bloodline. But I have no idea what kind of secret technique it was."

Liu Yun nodded and said with a gentle smile, "Although it sounds very strange, I can tell that you are not lying."

Kurotabo Wenyan breathed a sigh of relief and bowed respectfully: "Lord Ryuun has keen insight; how could I possibly speak nonsense?"

Qing Tianfang smiled and nodded repeatedly: "Lord Liuyun is so powerful, Ahei and I would never dare to lie to you!"

"Hehe..." Liu Yun chuckled, then suddenly his smile vanished, and he said sternly, "However, not telling a lie doesn't mean telling the whole truth. A truly skillful swindler doesn't fabricate lies to deceive, but rather uses partial truths to mislead."

The two demons immediately tensed up.

Kurotabo forced a smile and said, "I wonder how I can show my sincerity and put your mind at ease?"

"Well..." Liu Yun shrugged, then suddenly relaxed and smiled, putting his serious mood behind him: "There's no particular reason to doubt you. We still need to observe you. As we agreed yesterday, you two will temporarily serve as warriors and stay by my side."

"This..." The two demons immediately looked distressed.

Kurotabo hesitated for a moment before cautiously explaining, "Just before you arrived, I discussed this matter with Ao. After all, our duty here is to secretly protect Lady Iori. If we were to leave home with you, what if something happened..."

“There’s no need to worry about that.” Liu Yun calmly shook his head: “This place is relatively safe, and my uncle and junior brother are also used to martial arts. They may not be weaker than you two. They can stay here.”

These words come from the bottom of my heart.

Over the past two days, Liu Yun has conducted a general inspection of the area and, apart from Qing Tianfang and Hei Tianfang, two people of unknown origin, he hasn't found any dangerous factors.

As Eguchi Sukezaemon probably said, the Oda family was very trustworthy in maintaining order.

Qingtianfang and Heitianfang both looked very unhappy upon hearing this.

Liu Yun's senior uncle is the old monk Xinghe, whose back is already somewhat hunched. His junior brother, the young monk Suifeng, is not yet an adult.

These two monks didn't seem to have any real skill, yet they said they were "not necessarily weaker than you two," which is truly unbelievable.

However, the two demons were easily defeated in one move, and dared not disobey. They could only keep it to themselves and pitifully cast pleading glances their way over.

Seeing this, Liu Yun pretended to ponder and feigned reluctance, saying, "Since you are so worried, then fine, Kurotabo will stay, and Aotabo will join me in the battle."

The two demons breathed a sigh of relief. Although they didn't agree immediately, their expressions weren't as sorrowful.

Chapter Nine claims to be able to defeat hundreds or thousands of people.

After dealing with the two monsters, Liuyun went to sleep.

As for whether Aotabo and Kurotabo can rest in peace, that depends on their own temperament.

Do monsters need to sleep?

Because Liu Yun's combat experience was almost entirely focused on killing enemies with a single strike, and he had never engaged in prolonged combat, he was previously unaware of the physiological characteristics of monsters.

The next day, upon inspection, it seemed necessary.

At least Aotabo and Kurotabo are needed.

Both demons looked listless and had low energy, clearly indicating they hadn't had enough rest.

As previously agreed, the tall and strong Aotabo was to take up swords and spears, and carry bows and arrows, to serve as a samurai follower as "servant Aotabo".

However, this guy was too tall, and it was really hard to find armor that fit his size, so he could only wear a makeshift Wu-style robe.

In addition, five ordinary young men were recruited as peasant soldiers, whose main responsibilities were to wave flags, shout slogans, and serve as attendants.

Especially in this era of limited information and communication, the position of flag bearer is indispensable; otherwise, if you meet someone on the road, they won't know whether you are friend or foe.