The slacking samurai, unlucky as always.

The afternoon sun slanted into the quiet, tidy courtyard of the Terakoya.

Reg arrived as promised. The air was filled with a tranquil atmosphere that involuntarily calmed his mind.

He paused briefly under the eaves, adjusting his cloth tunic.

Being invited by Keine always left him feeling both honored and slightly awkward.

“Reg-kun, please come in.”

Keine’s gentle voice came from behind the sliding paper door.

She was kneeling by a low table, next to which were the small wooden bird he had made that morning and several stitched books.

The afternoon sun draped her in a soft light, enhancing her gentle and serene demeanor.

“Excuse me for intruding, Teacher Keine.”

Reg took off his shoes and stepped onto the tatami, sitting properly on the cushion opposite Keine.

He consciously tried to ignore the subtle, unnerving feeling of being watched that persisted around him, focusing his attention on his surroundings.

“You mentioned you had something to show me?”

“Yes,”

Keine’s eyes held a smile as she pushed a well-preserved volume toward him.

“This is a record of ancient craftsmanship. It contains details on exquisite mortise-and-tenon structures and patterns from the Heian-kyō period. It might inspire your woodwork. I found it while organizing old books and thought you might like it.”

Reg’s eyes instantly lit up.

These kinds of records were exactly what he had been dreaming of!

He opened the first page of the volume with a mixture of excitement and reverence. The beautiful illustrations and detailed text immediately captured his full attention.

“Thank you so much! This is exactly… this is a truly precious gift!”

His voice was filled with sincere gratitude, and he momentarily forgot everything else around him.

Keine quietly watched his focused profile, her expression soft.

Even the cicada chirps in the courtyard seemed distant. The moment was peaceful and beautiful.

However, this tranquility didn’t last for long.

A sudden clamor and the sharp clang of metal striking metal came from outside the courtyard, shattering the peace of the Terakoya.

“Teacher, run!”

The hurried cry of the Terakoya servant sounded from the far end of the yard, followed by panicked screams and the sound of frantic footsteps.

Keine’s gentle expression instantly became serious and sharp—a type of half-Youkai alertness Reg rarely saw on her.

She rose abruptly, her movements carrying a swiftness completely unlike her usual calm demeanor.

“Stay inside!”

Keine uttered a low command to Reg, her body sinking into the shadows. Her blue-and-white hair moved without a breeze, and a powerful aura subtly radiated from her.

Reg’s heart sank. He unconsciously gripped the volume on his knees.

‘Another accident? An attack? Who is the target? Teacher Keine, or…?’

Before Reg could think further, several Ronin samurai, dressed in old-style armor and wielding gleaming naginata (pole weapons), crashed through the courtyard gate like hungry wolves, charging straight in.

They were clearly well-disguised, having bypassed the village’s standard security, and their target was explicitly the Terakoya.

“Keine Kamishirasawa!”

The leading samurai roared, his naginata flashing with murderous intent.

“The future of the Human Village doesn’t need interference from Youkai! We will turn him into the Master’s s*ave.”

They were attempting a kidnapping under the guise of fighting for human rights, no doubt sent by a certain reincarnated shady young girl.

Reg had always been Miss Hieda no Akyuu’s covetous target, and now that the “fruit” had finally matured upon his coming of age.

“Hmph, ignorant! If your strength were sufficient, you could protect! But now, why do you turn your swords against me?”

Keine snorted coldly, facing the incoming blades without fear.

She began chanting, a faint blue light surging around her. Her powerful History-Manipulation ability was ready to be unleashed.

“Teacher! Our apologies! We’re looking for this young man; we have a job to do!”

But the samurai were prepared.

One of them suddenly pulled out a scroll etched with complex spell markings from his robe and violently tore it in half.

Vwoom.

A dark purple energy wave instantly spread out. This power seemed specifically aimed at Keine’s Youkai power and her control over the flow of history.

The power released by the scroll fiercely suppressed Keine’s key abilities!

Keine’s face turned pale, clearly caught off guard.

However, her Youkai body could easily kill everything around her, but she had a reservation: she didn’t want her student to see her killing.

That would surely lead to Reg disliking her!

That was absolutely unacceptable!

“Teacher, look out!”

Reg’s pupils suddenly contracted.

He saw that under the suppression of the scroll, another samurai’s naginata, accompanied by a whooshing sound, was swinging fiercely from the side toward Keine’s temporarily undefended waist and abdomen.

But oddly, the samurai didn’t seem to be attacking accurately.

Reg could not stand by and watch others get hurt. His left fist shot out with extreme speed, striking the naginata. A massive amount of blood instantly gushed from his left fist.

The samurai seemed stunned. He hadn’t expected so much blood to flow.

This blade wasn’t even sharpened! Why did it cause such severe damage to this young man?

“Get lost!”

Reg’s fist slammed hard against the blade’s edge. Excruciating pain exploded instantly.

Blood splashed onto the courtyard dirt, and his palm was cut open to the bone.

He let out a muffled grunt and staggered backward, his entire left arm numb.

“Reg-kun!”

Upon seeing this situation, Keine instantly struck the samurai with her palm, sending him flying. A massive, human-shaped indentation was left on the wall, his armor completely shattered.

There was a thick barrier between humans and Youkai.

More samurai flooded into the courtyard. A samurai wearing a jingasa (traveling hat) swung his sword toward Reg’s face with a sinister grin.

“If we just grab this hostage and make him ours, Keine will be helpless!”

The samurai were stating a fact: this unrelated person who helped Keine, despite having a good reputation in the Human Village, had no especially significant ties to the majority of the villagers.

Therefore, compared to kidnapping a small child as a hostage, Reg was better suited for the role.

And if they managed to abduct him, countless riches awaited!

Reg endured the blood flowing from his left hand. Now that he had been ambushed, his combat and operational abilities had drastically declined.

He felt his left arm instantly numb, followed by piercing pain.

Warm blood continuously poured from the wound, dripping onto the courtyard mud and rapidly staining the area dark red.

He gritted his teeth, enduring the pain, his body swaying from blood loss and agony.

The samurai continued their assault, almost as if playing a turn-based game, not truly committing to their cuts, which Keine easily parried. Nevertheless, a few managed to slip past.

“Damn it…”

Reg swore under his breath and violently threw himself to the side.

Swish!

The blade barely grazed his back, slicing a long tear in his tunic.

“What?!”

The samurai was confused again, bewildered as to why he had been so clumsy with such an important target.

The action of falling to the ground aggravated the wound on Reg’s left hand, making his vision momentarily go black from the pain.

He gasped for breath, trying to climb up, but his body was weak from excessive blood loss, as if filled with lead.

The samurai strode closer. He seemed slightly annoyed now, as anyone would be after being helplessly punched several times.

“Ugh!”

The pain almost made him pass out.

The samurai bent down, his thick arm shooting out abruptly, roughly grabbing Reg’s collar, intending to drag him up from the ground.

“Behave! Follow me…”

Reg felt the samurai close in. He managed to land one last punch on the samurai. In a moment of unconscious disorientation, the samurai instantly pressed his hand against the sword sheath. A sword directly stabbed towards Reg’s eye.

“Wait, I didn’t mean to!”

The samurai couldn’t keep his composure. He didn’t know why his hand had shaken. Using the force of inertia, the blade directly pierced Reg.

“Holy cow, don’t die, Big Brother!”

“Wait, those were all fake moves just now!”

“No, don’t die! We’ll be purged because of this!”

In an instant, all the samurai were dumbfounded. How did a real samurai sword get mixed in with the fake ones?

Are these people Fakes?

Reg thought to himself. The sword did not lessen its force; in fact, it hurt even more due to inertia. He could clearly feel the bone-chilling pain in his eye, the cold metal touching his flesh.

Time seemed to freeze for a second.

All of Reg’s muscles tensed up. Cold sweat mixed with blood and grime flowed down his forehead, and his vision began to blur.

The cold sensation of death spread from the sword tip, more suffocating than the searing pain of the wound on his hand.

The sword stopped. It did not penetrate further.

Perhaps they still wanted to take him alive, or perhaps the samurai managed to salvage something?

But the touch from the sword tip was undeniably real.

Reg went into emergency mode!

“I really don’t want to cause trouble for others! I will absolutely not be caught, hehe! Jade-Face Grenade King!”

Reg pushed against the sword tip, and with a hiss, he died.

“No! How could this be! You scoundrels! Be swept away into history!”

Keine roared in fury. The entire Terakoya instantly exploded. The snowflakes floating in the sky were like history etched onto this very moment.

Silver hair and green hair began to intertwine. In her emotional agitation, Keine entered her Hakutaku (flow) state.

Keine had gone berserk.

Her power was a hundred times greater than usual.

And just like that, the samurai’s morale shattered. They had absolutely not anticipated that this kidnapping attempt would turn out like this.