Serving as Kiyohime's bodyguard tonight, when Paraíso comes to take her life?
Naoki frowned. "Why would Your Highness make such a request? I'm not a samurai, just a commoner. How could I protect Your Highness from a Heroic Spirit Swordsman?"
"Regarding that, it was actually a suggestion from Yagyū-sama."
Kiyohime clapped her hands. "Please come in, Yagyū-sama."
"Yes."
A deep voice sounded from outside the door.
Then, the wooden door slid open. An elderly man with a sword at his waist entered the room.
"!"
"!"
Instantly, the expressions and gazes of Tomoe and Musashi shifted.
But as soon as their expressions changed, another wave of Mana transferred from Naoki, forcibly suppressing the turmoil in their hearts.
[Yagyū]
Kiyohime addressed the elderly man before her as such. Musashi and Tomoe recalled that when Naoki listed the True Names of the Heroic Spirit Swordsmen earlier, one of them was Yagyū—Yagyū Munenori.
"Pleased to meet you all. I am Yagyū, the Shogun's Grand Inspector."
(The same name?!)
(No, the same person?!)
A True Name identical to a Heroic Spirit Swordsman. Could the man before them be…
"Yet another distinguished figure."
While Musashi and Tomoe heightened their inner vigilance, Naoki had already activated his business mode. He played his current role perfectly, speaking respectfully to Yagyū.
"I am Natsukawa Naoki. It's a great honor to meet Yagyū-sama."
"Hmm." Yagyū nodded slightly. "Princess Kiyohime, leave the discussion with him to me. You may rest outside for a while."
"Very well, thank you for your efforts, Yagyū-sama."
Kiyohime stood. "I'll see you shortly, Naoki-sama. This little girl is very much looking forward to spending time with you tonight."
With that, Kiyohime left the room. And after the sound of her footsteps faded outside the door—
*SWISH!*
Instantly, the lavishly decorated room vanished. In its place was an endless grassy plain. Naoki, who had been kneeling before Yagyū, now stood in front of him, one hand gripping his throat.
Likewise, Yagyū's drawn blade was positioned at the same spot on Naoki's body.
Staring coldly at Naoki, mere inches away, Yagyū sneered. "Showing your fangs? Foreigner. You have no patience at all."
"I don't think patience is necessary for you—one of the seven Heroic Spirit Swordsmen, Saber Empireo." Naoki met Yagyū's gaze. "You're bold to show up in front of me. Quite confident in your abilities."
"Indeed, killing you would be easy—"
*SWOOSH!* *SWOOSH!* *SWOOSH!*
Before Yagyū could finish, tearing sounds rang out like a torrential downpour. Yagyū, his throat held by Naoki, quickly retreated. A single slash swept through the air!
*KRAK!*
The blade shattered. Yagyū's arms and legs were instantly severed and obliterated in a vacuum layer. His entire body collapsed helplessly to the ground.
The greatest swordsman of Edo, Yagyū, dubbed the Greatest Swordsman under Heaven, was defeated by Naoki in a single encounter!
"So that's how it is… No wonder that Caster said he couldn't face you directly."
Yagyū, his limbs severed, looked up at Naoki from the ground. "You truly are a foreign entity beyond human strength."
"You knew that and still came to die… No, a Shikigami?"
Naoki frowned. "You knew you'd be killed instantly, so you used a substitute Shikigami—What are you planning, Saber Empireo?"
Yagyū sneered. "As Her Highness said, to invite you to Tsuchiura Castle, to serve as her bodyguard, and to fight Paraíso."
"Do I need to use mind-control Magecraft to make you tell the truth?" Naoki pressed down on Yagyū's head. "Letting me kill your comrades—right, I was careless. There's no bond of camaraderie among you Heroic Spirit Swordsmen. So, the purpose is… to get me into Tsuchiura Castle."
Though his memory wasn't entirely clear at first, after recalling so much, Naoki had pieced together most of the details about this world.
One of the four fragments Chaldea was meant to experience before the end of the Human Order Incineration and the start of the Remnant Order—the Stage of the Mountain of Corpses and Sea of Blood, Shimōsa Province.
The cause was the Shimabara Rebellion, which ended last year.
It was a peasant uprising triggered by the Shogunate's persecution of foreign Christianity. Led by a young man named Amakusa Shirō, it had a significant impact on the current Shogunate.
Of course, the rebellion was ultimately quelled. Everyone involved was beheaded without exception.
That was the story in Pan-Human History.
But in this Lostbelt, Amakusa Shirō, who should have been beheaded, became an existence like Miyamoto Musashi—a rōnin able to travel back and forth between different worlds.
Thus, Amakusa repeatedly tried to lead his people to change the outcome, but each rebellion ended in failure. After failing multiple times, he abandoned his dream of saving all humanity and turned from his faith to vengeance against the Tokugawa clan and the world.
That was roughly what would happen in this world.
And Tsuchiura Castle was the site Amakusa chose to become the Enri Eido-jō (Castle of Hatred and Defiled Land).
Now, Yagyū's intent was to let Naoki enter that castle, the one destined to become Enri Eido-jō.
"Do you think I'm clueless? To be blunt, I'm not going—bodyguard mission? Sorry, I refuse, Yagyū Munenori."
Naoki said coldly, "By the way, please pass this message to the Caster and the Heroic Spirit Swordsman Magus behind you: Wait until I cut off your head."
With that, Naoki once again created a vacuum layer around Yagyū, reducing his entire body to countless fine particles of dust. The next moment, a Shikigami paper with an eye symbol appeared in its place, slowly burning away.
◆━⊰✧⊱━◆
"Failed, huh."
In a certain space.
Watching the outcome of the negotiation between Naoki and Yagyū's Shikigami through a spell, Amakusa, his eyes blood-red, let out a slight sigh.
"The negotiation failed. What a pity. If he could be trapped in Tsuchiura Castle, the Heroic Spirit Swordsmen wouldn't need to carry out a large-scale massacre… Such a shame. I thought we could shorten the time."
"—Paraíso."
Glancing at someone hidden in the shadows behind him, Amakusa said in a heavy voice, "Tonight, sever the Tokugawa bloodline."