Chapter 32: Mind Your Own Path

The magistrate of Snowy village stared dumbly at the two corpses on the ground, only feeling his limbs go cold, his head heavy and his feet light. He staggered and was about to faint.

Someone nearby quickly supported him.

"Thank you, Fuguchi," the magistrate of Snowy village said casually.

"Sir, I'm not Fuguchi."

The magistrate of Snowy village turned his head and met the gaze of a samurai stranger.

Only then did he suddenly snap back to reality.

Fuguchi was already dead. Zabuza Momochi and Raiga Kurosuki were also dead.

The magistrate of Snowy village's gaze grew panicked. He raised his hand and pointed at Ryosuke, "How could you… how dare you!"

These were members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, the upper echelon of Kirigakure.

If one were to say that Ryosuke killing Fuguki Suikazan was due to exposing the human trafficking matter, where there was room for debate in public opinion, then barging into the county governor's residence now, swaggering in and killing two of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, was, in the true sense, making an enemy of Kirigakure.

People had died in the area under the magistrate of Snowy village's jurisdiction, he too would be implicated. His career, the magistrate of Snowy village's thoughts were abruptly cut off.

A shadow loomed over him.

Thud!

The Breaker Blade smashed down beside the magistrate's feet. The ground trembled. The samurai guarding the magistrate were instantly so terrified they fell on their butts.

The magistrate saw a pair of shoes. He stiffly looked up, but before he could fully raise his head to meet Ryosuke's gaze, a hand grabbed his hair.

"Ahhh!"

The magistrate let out a pig-slaughtering scream.

To be fair, a life of luxury had given the magistrate a decent physique. His scream was full of breath, loud enough for more than half the city to hear.

Heads poked out from behind every window, mouths half-open, watching as the magistrate was dragged by his hair like a stray dog.

Due to the whirlpool just now, a large clearing had formed. Ryosuke threw the magistrate into the center of the empty space. A ripple of power surged from his toe as he kicked him once.

The magistrate was terrified. His body seemed bewitched, uncontrollably kneeling down, lowering his head. Only his still-movable eyes widened to the extreme. Beads of fine sweat covered his forehead.

This... was clearly the posture of one about to commit seppuku, waiting for the executioner to decapitate him.

At this moment, chaotic footsteps approached from afar, and a row of torchlight came near.

It was the city's defensive samurai reinforcements arriving, at a glance, there were over a hundred people. Leading them at the front was the accountant.

"Stop!"

The accountant's eyes were red with urgency, "You can't kill him!"

The magistrate quickly echoed, "Yes yes yes! You can't kill me!"

"Why can't I kill him?"

Ryosuke's gaze swept over the corpses of Zabuza Momochi and Raiga Kurosuki.

He had already killed those two, so what was a petty county official in comparison?

"It's different!"

The accountant strode over and said, "Killing ninja and killing officials are two separate matters!"

"You killed two members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, at most you've made an enemy of Kirigakure."

"But if you kill the magistrate of Snowy village, a local official personally appointed by the Daimyo, that's declaring war on the entire Land of Water!"

"You must understand, Kirigakure is merely a ninja village. At the Daimyo's command, it could be renamed Hidden Water Village, Hidden Mist Village by tomorrow. But the Land of Water, the Daimyo, that will never change."

The accountant stood before Ryosuke.

"If you kill the magistrate of Snowy village, then it is true treason!"

"You've done enough today. Stop here."

The accountant's words were clear.

The Land of Water and Kirigakure were not on the same scale.

Kirigakure was merely a blade. The Daimyo was the true wielder of the blade.

Even if Ryosuke killed countless ninja, the Daimyo wouldn't bat an eye. But killing the magistrate of Snowy village was slicing off the Daimyo's profit.

One must know, the magistrate was still able to make monthly tributes to the national treasury even in this barren land.

A man who bore the burden of the Daimyo's concerns, if he died, the Daimyo of the Land of Water would surely be heartbroken.

"Do you understand now? Ryosuke, if you kill me, it will bring endless trouble! As long as you let me go, all the gold and silver in the warehouse, I'll give you half, no, I'll give you all of it!"

The magistrate had amassed untold wealth. The fortune in his warehouse was enough for a person to live worry-free for the rest of their life.

He panted heavily. His eardrums buzzed.

"You finished talking?" Ryosuke asked.

Over a hundred samurai held up torches. The red firelight lit up Ryosuke's face and also reflected in the eyes of the villagers secretly watching.

The accountant swallowed hard.

He had spent his whole life calculating accounts, reading people, but he couldn't calculate Ryosuke's next move, nor could he see through Ryosuke's thoughts.

"I..."

The accountant opened his mouth, trying to say more, but suddenly, a hot, bloody, fishy liquid splattered on his face, flowing into his mouth.

It was blood.

The magistrate's blood.

Thud!

A head rolled to the ground.

Behind every door and window, the townspeople who witnessed this with their own eyes let out faint gasps.

That magistrate, who had once covered the sky with one hand, was actually... Dead!

A gust of wind howled past, making the samurai's torches flutter wildly, but not a single person dared to draw their sword.

The two Seven Ninja Swordsmen's corpses weren't even cold yet. No one believed they were stronger than Zabuza or Raiga.

The giant blade in Ryosuke's hand, just looking at it brought an unmatched sense of pressure. Compared to that, their samurai swords were like toothpicks.

The magistrate's head rolled to the accountant's feet. He wanted to pick it up, but his waist wouldn't bend no matter what. In the end, he fell flat on his butt, sitting on the ground, hugging the magistrate's head, crying old-man tears.

"Just kill me! Ryosuke, just kill me too!"

The accountant sobbed, while cautiously watching Ryosuke out of the corner of his eye.

Since begging didn't work, he decided to reverse it, just to try and survive.

Ryosuke walked past him, "I'll spare your life. Keep this head and hand it over to the next magistrate. Give him a message."

"W-what message?"

"Mind your own path."

The accountant watched Ryosuke's retreating figure. Those four words churned in his heart. The tears in his eyes gradually stopped. Complex emotions surged, finally turning into a heavy sigh.

'Mind your own path?'

'Did the magistrate really do wrong? Indeed, he had enacted harsh tax laws, but… Did he embezzle?'

Most of the wealth the magistrate extorted was handed over to the Daimyo.

From the peasants' point of view, life was indeed hard, but… are peasants even considered people?

In the eyes of nobles and ninjas, peasants were just a bunch of dumb beasts that could grow grain.

Only this Ryosuke, treated people, as people.

The accountant dropped to both knees, and toward the direction where Ryosuke disappeared, he bowed deeply.

"Thank you, my lord… thank you…"

"For guiding me from confusion."

———

Mei Terumi collected the corpses of the two Seven Ninja Swordsmen. After retrieving the two broken ninja blades, she found Ryosuke inside the magistrate's residence's warehouse.

He was walking out of the warehouse with a bag of preserved fruit, eating one himself, and tossing another to the horse waiting at the gate.

Mei Terumi looked him over and confirmed that besides the bag of fruit, Ryosuke had taken nothing of value. In disbelief, she asked, "You're not taking anything?"

Ryosuke chuckled, "I told you, I don't lack money. Compared to me, you need this money more, don't you?"

Mei Terumi fell silent.

She understood what Sasuke had meant.

While she was observing Ryosuke, Ryosuke had also been observing her. The man before her was more perceptive than she had imagined.

Mei didn't know how to speak.

Her thoughts and plans, once spoken, would bring death to any who heard them.

Ryosuke already had enough trouble.

As she hesitated, something appeared in front of her. It was a preserved fruit Ryosuke handed over.

She took it, bit into it.

It was very sweet. The worries in her heart seemed to have been greatly diluted.

"I'm going to do something big. I want to…"

Ryosuke glanced at her and spoke her heart's desire for her, "You want to punish the unjust and slay the tyrant."

"You want to kill the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura, and bring an end to the Bloody Mist Village."

"Am I right?"

Mei Terumi's mind went completely blank. Her years of ninja training, her composure and calculation, all vanished, leaving only one question, "How do you know?!"

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