Crown Dead

Muramasa touched his hair impatiently, and finally agreed to Minamoto's request.

As she said, the black shadow's whereabouts are unknown and the motive is unknown, and that existence may not be able to harm it even Musashi's Immortal Sword Demon Slayer.No matter how you look at it, you need to forge the last sword quickly, and if you can't catch up with Xianyu and his party before then, it will be the worst joke.

"Then I will go ahead, don't die in this kind of place."

Minamoto Yorimitsu nodded to Muramasa, and then reluctantly used the boy Kirie Yasuna as a crutch to get up on his body.

——Even if this body rushes over now, it won't be of any help. Think about what else you can do.

"……correct!"

Minamoto suddenly remembered something.

Many people have asked me, can believing in religion really change your current situation?

To be honest, I don't know how to answer such a question.

There are always many, many things I want to say every time, but maybe that will become an unscheduled sermon, right?Moreover, in fact, even I don't know whether [Piety] can really be related to [Harvest].

In the final analysis, I was not a natural preacher, and I was half-pushed to become a "holy child". Even I would feel quite embarrassed.

"As long as you believe in God, all difficulties are just for you."

In the end, I can only use this method to appease those people.

I always thought that the darkness and decay that remained in this land would slowly improve over time.However, later, officials and samurai sent by the imperial shogunate arrived here. They imposed heavy taxes on the farmers on this land with unreasonable figures, and those who failed to pay the corresponding amount would be beheaded and executed.

When a believer died of starvation, I finally understood something.Sometimes faith alone doesn't change the status quo.

Prayer can only get courage, and use courage to drive yourself to action-this is the only way to change this endless slaughter and oppression.

Uprising, rebellion, struggle - I lead the masses against the oppression of the imperial court. I have always believed that this is a battle destined to win. The righteousness is with me, and the Holy Lord is also guiding me.

But the victory and advance lasted less than a month, and we were counterattacked by unimaginable terror.

Ultimately, the uprising failed.

The last memory I have as a human being is the picture scroll of hell where my believers are surrounded by flames, constantly rolling and screaming.

At that moment, I finally understood that the Lord I believed in could never hear my voice—because the place I was in was not the world, but hell.

Above the castle tower, Qing Ji was tied up with ropes and could only kneel and sit beside the wall. She looked into the distance along the wooden fence, and all she could see was the other end that was as scarlet as blood.

"It's a beautiful scene, isn't it, Matsudaira Mori's daughter, Princess Kiyohime?"

On the dark side of the castle tower where there is no light, a white-haired man with a mix of Japanese and Western styles and a samurai sword walked out slowly.

"...Who are you?"

Although she was so frightened that she wanted to cry, Qing Ji's reserve and pride as a princess gave her the courage to raise her head and confront the man who seemed to be a priest.

"Do you still not know my identity? It's only been less than a year, and you have already used this hypocritical peace and prosperity to forget all the hell you drew with your own hands!!"

"Ugh...!"

The white-haired man yelled at Qing Ji, and the blood-red whites of his eyes and monster-like pupils made Qing Ji scream in fear.

"A year ago, it was you, Tokugawa—the ones who burned me and those innocent civilian believers alive into coke and ashes!"

"A year ago, Tokugawa...could it be the Shimabara Rebellion?"

Kiyohime thought of a certain Shimabara Rebellion that was quickly suppressed but still caused a lot of casualties.

So this suspected missionary in front of him must be the mastermind of the uprising during the Shimabara Rebellion: Amakusa Shiro.

"It seems that you still have at least a trace of guilt left in your heart. Yes, I am thanks to you, the leader of the Shimabara Uprising who witnessed the birth of hell in front of my eyes, Amakusa Shiro. Although it is the first time we meet, our karma seems to be It's quite deep, Princess Qingji."

Amakusa Shiro showed a not so scary smile to Kiyohime, but Kiyohime could feel that this man was only crazy and bloody from beginning to end.

"Are you here for revenge? Are you the avenger who took revenge on Tokugawa, my father, and Japan because that anger has not dissipated..."

Qing Ji questioned the other party. She had heard the whole story of the Shimabara Rebellion.

What puzzled her was that the version she occasionally heard from soldiers or street vendors was completely different from the version heard by her father and senior officials around him.

For the imperial shogunate, the Shimabara Rebellion was nothing more than a small rebellion to suppress heretics, which was not worth mentioning. It was a trivial matter that would not exceed a few lines in the historical records of later generations.

But for the group of people who rebelled, the Shimabara Rebellion was about faith and survival. When they were desperate, they chose to follow the so-called "holy boy" Amakusa Shiro to initiate a battle of resistance that was destined to end.

As she grew older, Qing Ji gradually believed in the latter version of the story.Because of the power of spirit, everything that Qing Ji encountered made her understand that even in the peaceful and prosperous world, there is invisible darkness hidden.And in the deepest corner of the darkness, there will always be a spark of rebellion and resistance to the uprising.

"That expression—it seems that you and your father have different views on the battle of Shimabara."

Amakusa noticed the way Qing Ji looked at her: anger, panic, confusion, and guilt.

This princess who has always been in the deep boudoir, and it is difficult to catch a glimpse of the outside world, will feel sad about her own life.

but

"Please take back your cheap and meaningless sympathy, Princess Qing Ji. And you seem to have made a mistake."

Amakusa Shiro laughed, although those bloody eyes did not make people feel any happy feeling.

"At this moment, I am not a rotten corpse, nor a burnt coke. I can come here again as 'Amakusa Shiro', which means that I have reached a reconciliation with hell."

Amakusa Shiro stretched out his hands, looking down at the scarlet sky at the far end of the castle tower.

"Revenge, fighting between cities - war games of this level are meaningless, the new master I serve, his grand plans are incomparable! In that suffocating darkness and despair In contrast, the hatred of the Tokugawa group is simply outrageously insignificant."