The court lackeys of the eight-hour workday

Chapter 553 Eating its flesh raw
The next morning.

Ryota Miyoshi, his eyes bloodshot, stood up from his chair, strapped two katana, one long and one short, to his waist, and pushed open the door to go out.

Nanako is packing her luggage in the outer room.

"Where did my eldest sister go?"

Miyoshi Ryota asked.

"I went to deliver breakfast to that sir."

Nanako replied.

"Oh."

Ryota Miyoshi nodded. He hadn't slept a wink last night, feeling both anxious and excited. Now that he was about to set off, he felt sleepy and couldn't help but want to say something to perk himself up.

"Speaking of which," he looked Nanako up and down, "I don't see that you know any martial arts. Yesterday you even performed Buddhist rituals to the corpses hanging in the street... How could a noblewoman like you, a Buddhist, be traveling with those two?"

Nanako shook her head, unwilling to answer, but since the two were in similar situations, she was unwilling to end the conversation there, so she brought up another question that had been weighing on her mind.

"I have a question."

"Enryakuji Temple's actions, its wanton slaughter of innocent people... why has no one intervened? And why has no one mentioned it?"

Ryota Miyoshi snorted coldly upon hearing this.

Who's willing to take care of this?

"The Uesugi family, the Takeda family, the Emperor? Don't be ridiculous... Enryaku-ji Temple has nearly 10,000 warrior monks, and countless believers throughout the land. They have no ambition or righteousness to seize the world."

"Reputation, righteousness, and profit—those great figures kill each other for nothing more than these things. What do they gain by exposing the evil deeds of Enryaku-ji Temple?"

He squinted, his teeth grinding together.

“I talked with my older sister yesterday. It turns out that monks in the Central Plains are not allowed to eat meat, drink alcohol, or marry and have children! They adhere to strict rules and regulations and maintain a Zen mind. That’s what makes a monk!”

"By day they chant scriptures and worship Buddha, by night they drink and make merry, and after they're full and satisfied, they go back to their rooms to entangle themselves with their wives and concubines. What kind of monks are they! But that's exactly what the monks in our Japan are like! Temples where the son inherits the temple after the father dies! Monks with three wives and four concubines!"

"Is it so strange that such a Buddha, such a temple, and such monks would do such beastly things?"

Nanako stared in disbelief, clutching her chest with both hands, feeling as if her faith was shattering into pieces.

But Ryota Miyoshi, who knew that Enryakuji was his true enemy, was clearly not done talking and did not notice her loss of composure. He just kept talking.

"Do you know how many people have died in Akutagawa Castle in the past six months, and do you know how many Akutagawa Castles there are in the world?"

"No, you don't."

"Ha, nobles! Ha, great names!"

Ryota Miyoshi spat out a disdainful "Pah!"

After a long pause, Nanako asked in a hoarse voice.

"I have another question... Why did killing a few monks yesterday attract pursuers? But after killing the pursuers, it seems no monks came to avenge us, even though it was on their territory?"

"Yes or no--"

Before Nanako could finish speaking, Ryota Miyoshi interrupted her with a cold laugh.

"Are you saying that the incident at Akutagawa Castle might not have been a top-down operation by Enryakuji Temple, but rather a private scheme orchestrated by the monk who died yesterday, so once he's gone, the matter ends there?"

"what!"

He said sarcastically.

“Akutagawa Castle is only a hundred miles from Enryaku-ji Temple and is the last checkpoint between Settsu and Kyoto. Without orders from above, how could a monk have ruined Akutagawa Castle like this?”

"Besides, how do you know no one will come looking for revenge?"

"Why don't you think that person lives with us? It was that person who killed the monk, and the Gu worms could only have directed them. Would it be a pointless act for him to leave us to live alone?"

"How many bald monks died at his hands last night! That's why we can sit here in peace, yet you're still thinking about avenging those evil monks!"

Ryota Miyoshi spoke frankly. Nanako, however, began to sob softly.

This crying left Ryota Miyoshi completely bewildered.

Yes, he was so focused on his own pleasure that he didn't realize that none of this could be blamed on Nanako. How could he be considered a hero for venting his anger on a naive young girl? What difference was there between him and those evil monks who bullied the weak?
"Uh, that—"

He wanted to offer some words of comfort.

But with a bang, the door was kicked open, and Lu Wushuang stepped in, frowning as he glanced at Miyoshi Ryota.

"Good lad, I was only gone for half an hour and you've already made her cry. I didn't see how tough you were yesterday?"

"What, have you become a beast?"

Ryota Miyoshi's face suddenly turned red.

"I'm not--"

Lu Wushuang waved her hand.

"Never mind, I don't care. Take your things and get to Toshodai-ji Temple tonight, don't delay."

Having said that, he reached out and picked up Nanako, then turned and left. Strangely enough, Nanako seemed used to being carried around, and when Lu Wushuang lifted her up, she stopped crying and seemed to relax slightly.

Ryota Miyoshi quickly left the house.

On the street, there was still that oxcart. Li Miao was still wrapped up tightly in his cloak, leaning against the railing with his eyes closed, resting. Nanako had already started massaging his shoulders, and Lu Wushuang had already taken the reins.

Ryota Miyoshi quickly climbed into the car.

The oxcart slowly made its way along the street toward the city gate.

After a while, the group passed by the place where Li Miao had stayed the night before, and Nanako and Miyoshi Ryota both stared wide-eyed.

The two-story building has windows on the side, with open window frames.

Like a waterfall, the bloodstains cascaded down the lower edge of the window to the ground, and the blackish-red, hardened blood covered half the street.

These are the monks they didn't see last night who came seeking revenge but ended up at Li Miao's door. Judging from the amount of blood, there must have been at least fifty or sixty of them.

Strangely, although there was a lot of hair and bone fragments stuck to the blood, there was not a trace of flesh or blood.

Ryota Miyoshi was puzzled, so he asked Shiku Musou about it.

Lu Wushuang chuckled without turning her head.

"Let's eat it."

"have eaten!?"

"Eat—uh!"

Ryota Miyoshi's pupils suddenly contracted, and Nanako covered her mouth, her face turning deathly pale.

The two instinctively turned their gaze to Li Miao, who was resting with his eyes closed and looking relaxed. His handsome, godlike face seemed to gradually distort into the appearance of a vengeful ghost in their eyes. Even the faint scent of soap on his body seemed to gradually permeate with the smell of blood.

Before the two could even move their buttocks away from Li Miao, they heard Lu Wushuang laugh.

"What are you thinking? Do you think my master is worthy to eat the flesh of these bald monks?" This was followed by a whisper as soft as a mosquito's buzz: "If anyone should be eating, it should be me."

Lu Wushuang glanced back at Li Miao nonchalantly, and seeing that he didn't react, she continued with disappointment.

“We have a saying in the Central Plains: ‘We wish we could eat their flesh raw.’ Those who divided up the flesh of these monks are naturally your compatriots within this Akutagawa Castle.”

The boy and girl suddenly realized that hundreds of gazes filled with resentment and glee were being cast from the hundreds of windows around them.

Ryota Miyoshi abruptly lowered his head.

Nanako hugged her knees, hiding her face in her arms, until the oxcart left Akutagawa Castle, swaying gently in the sunlight, heading towards the direction of Toshodai-ji Temple.

(End of this chapter)