“T -This is…!”
Some time after Seiichi and the others had repelled the samurai attack and headed for the Shadow Village, a group of suspicious men appeared at the scene.
They wore robes that covered their bodies from head to toe, an unusual sight in the Eastlands. Their clothing carried none of the region’s usual Japanese flavor. Even more unsettling were the masks on their faces, shaped like demonic visages that made their presence deeply eerie.
The members of this mysterious group approached the fallen samurai and began checking each body in turn.
“Captain… It looks like they’re all still alive.”
“They’ve been beaten badly, though. None of them will be able to move anytime soon.”
“W-What in the world happened here?”
Listening to his subordinates’ reports, the man called the captain felt a headache coming on.
“I sent fighters more skilled than ever before, since we couldn’t afford another failure,” he muttered. “And that was with the Heavenly Blade supposedly gone! The people still attached to the House of Yamato should have been nothing more than a handful of shinobi at best. How could this possibly…?”
“Captain! One of the samurai has regained consciousness!”
“What? Bring him here at once!”
At the captain’s command, one samurai was carefully lifted and carried over. He was battered from head to toe, barely clinging to consciousness.
“What happened? Explain yourself!”
The captain forced himself to rein in his impatience as he demanded an answer. The samurai grimaced in pain, then somehow managed to speak.
“F-First… t-the Heavenly Blade… he was still alive…”
“What?!”
The captain could not hide his shock at the report. The Heavenly Blade, the Guardian Deity of the House of Yamato, feared for his strength, was supposed to have been killed.
No one had ever been able to accurately measure his full combat potential, but it was said to rival that of an S-rank adventurer from foreign lands.
The Heavenly Blade had been overwhelmed by numbers in the previous attack, or so they believed. They had been certain he was dead.
That was why the next assault would settle everything.
At least, that was what the captain and his men had thought.
“Damn it… the fact that the Heavenly Blade is still alive is certainly a blow. But you were supposed to be even more skilled than the group that attacked him before. On top of that, you outnumbered them by more than double. And yet… why?!”
“That’s the thing… I-I don’t really know…”
“You don’t know?!”
Not only the captain, but the subordinates listening nearby were visibly shaken by the samurai’s response.
“You expect us to believe that men of your caliber were defeated without even understanding what happened?!”
“Yeah… Ngh… It was sudden. Water tentacles… rock tentacles… They came out of nowhere and tore through us one after another…”
“What kind of situation is that supposed to be?!”
None of it made any sense.
That was the shared impression of everyone present.
There was no one in this country capable of controlling something as incomprehensible as water tentacles or rock tentacles. Even if it had been some newly discovered monster, there was no way these elite samurai should have been so completely overwhelmed.
“W-We don’t get it either… b-but… near the target… There were some unfamiliar people. Looked like foreigners…”
“What did you say? Explain in detail!”
“I mean… there’s not much to explain. By the time we even got a glimpse of them… we were already being taken out by those tentacles. Every last one of us…”
“Tch…!”
Judging by the circumstances, those foreigners were clearly the most suspicious element. But the fact that the samurai had been defeated before even grasping what those people really were made the situation all the more troublesome.
“What do you think, Captain? Some kind of sorcery? Taoist arts? Or perhaps ninjutsu?”
“No. If they were foreigners, then it must be that thing they call magic. How utterly detestable…”
The captain spat the word out, his anger barely contained.
Sadly for him, he would never learn that this devastation had not been caused by magic at all. It had simply been the sea and the land answering Seiichi’s request, a suppression carried out by raw natural forces.
Realizing there was nothing more to be gained from questioning the samurai, the captain issued orders without delay.
“Have a few men take the samurai back with us. Even damaged, they are still valuable assets.”
“Yes, sir!”
“The rest of you, come with me. They are likely hiding in the Shadow Village. We will search for its entrance.”
“Yes, sir!”
With their next course of action decided, the mysterious men moved at once.
“Just you wait… Next time, we will not fail.”
With that vow burning in his chest, the captain sprinted off into the forest.