Pirate: It’s not a phantom beast, it’s a phantom god!

Chapter 373 Willie's Rural Adventures (Part 1)

【Baiwu】is a small village nestled against the mountains in the countryside.

An elderly man with gray hair and thin skin was kneeling on the ground, holding onto the hem of a samurai's kimono and refusing to let go.

Around them, hundreds of men, women, and children watched this scene from afar, their eyes filled with a complex mix of emotions, including anger, fear, worry, and helplessness.

"Sir Samurai! Sir Samurai!"

"Please! Please have mercy on us and spare our village!"

“Our village has over a thousand people, and we rely on these few acres of meager land passed down from our ancestors to survive… If we lose them, how are we supposed to live?!”

"Fuck you!"

Seeing the skinny village chief covered in mud, clinging to his clothes, the samurai with a long sword at his waist frowned and kicked him hard in the chest!

"Hey!"

"grandfather!"

A six- or seven-year-old girl saw her grandfather being kicked to the ground. Ignoring her mother and the villagers' attempts to pull her up, she ran desperately to the village chief's side, trying to help him up.

"Grandpa, are you alright?!"

"You filthy mud-legged bastard! How dare you get my clothes dirty! Believe me or not, I'll chop you up alive!"

Disgusted, he wiped the muddy handprints from the hem of his kimono, ignoring the wailing samurai pointing to the vast expanse of nearly ripe rice paddies before him, and impatiently berated him:

"Give me back my land! Call it and see if it responds!"

"I'm telling you, the entire land of Wano belongs to the Shogun!"

"Now that the General wants to build a weapons factory and has chosen this site, it is your honor."

"Instead of kneeling down and kowtowing to express your gratitude to the General, you dare to make excuses here..."

Qiang~
The samurai drew his sword and held it to the neck of the gaunt peasant who was clutching his chest and crying out in pain.

"Could it be that you guys are accomplices of those rebels?"

"No, no, no, no... Sir Samurai, our village is full of good people, not some traitors who defy the general!"

"We don't have the guts!"

Upon hearing that the other party claimed to be an accomplice of the rebels, the village chief disregarded the fields and immediately knelt down, kowtowing frantically.

People's nature is always about compromise. If you say you want to requisition the land of these farmers to build a factory, they will resist desperately... But if you say they are traitors and that you want to implicate the whole village, they will agree to the land requisition.

The hundreds of heads of samurai who participated in the secret rebellion that Orochi threw back to the daimyo after the ceremony a few days ago had a tremendous deterrent effect.

Many tenant farmers of samurai families watched as their once high and mighty lord was reduced to nothing but a head, while his children and family members were either exiled or beheaded...

If even those high-ranking officials acted this way, how could these honest, simple farmers who had been tilling the land since their ancestors' time bear the burden of treason?
They watched helplessly as signs reading "For Imperial Requisition" were placed on the village's best rice paddies, and then the samurai hummed a little tune and strode away...

The gaunt village chief and his young granddaughter embraced, burying their faces in their hands and weeping loudly.
Unbeknownst to them, under a large tree not far away, a middle-aged man in a suit and tie was calmly watching this scene with his hands behind his back.

Beside the middle-aged man was the samurai who had just left.

"Lord Willie~"

The samurai was no longer the arrogant and disdainful man he had been when facing the villagers... he was now bowing and scraping.

Hearing the samurai's clearly ingratiating greeting, the middle-aged man simply nodded indifferently.

"Ah."

"Well done, Ono-kun."

"Not at all~ It was just a small favor."

"Also, you're too kind. You can just call me Ono."

Upon hearing this, Willie simply smiled and then gestured to the butler beside him to hand over a money pouch to the other party.

"Here is ten gold coins, the reward we agreed upon beforehand."

"Take it."

"Wow~ This, this is really... haha~"

Although the samurai named Ono was polite in words, his actions were swift and decisive as he took the money pouch, then subtly weighed it in his hand.
Hmm~ that's the weight.

After pocketing the generous reward, Ono couldn't help but ask curiously, "Lord Willie, the general clearly gave the order to just kill those disobedient peasants... why bother having me step in and threaten them?"

"Well..."

"Ono-kun, I am a businessman, and businessmen value harmony above all else."

Willie said somewhat 'embarrassed':

"Although I have the authority of General Orochi to act as I see fit... I would still prefer to avoid bloodshed if possible."

This is a lie~
In order to expand the overseas business of Beasts' arms, Willie had killed countless people and destroyed countless families and even countries during this period.

As the patriarch of a family that has been involved in arms smuggling for over a century, this guy has never known how to write the words "show mercy".

This time, however, he's playing the role of a kind-hearted person.

"Yes, I see~"

Hearing this, Ono inwardly curled his lip in disdain... It seems the other party is just a weak businessman who can't stand the sight of blood.
However, on the surface he still maintained a submissive demeanor:
"Mr. Willie is truly kind-hearted!"

"If you ever need anything in the future, please don't hesitate to come to me. I will be happy to serve you."

……

Watching Ono Takeshi walk away, Willie took off his gold-rimmed glasses and wiped them...

When he put it back on, the smiling expression on his face had vanished, replaced by a look of worry mixed with curiosity, as he strode towards the village.
……

"Village chief, what should we do?"

"We've lost all our fields, what will we eat now?"

"We don't have any food at all. The four of us are counting on this year's rice harvest to survive."

In the open space in front of the village, the villagers, seeing the samurai walk away, gathered around the village chief.

"Ah~"

The gaunt village chief sat on a stone stool, his petite granddaughter patting his chest to help him catch his breath... Although Ono had held back his kick, it had almost killed the nearly seventy-year-old village chief.

"Look, let's see who has any surplus grain. Let's all contribute and chip in... If all else fails, I'll go to the next village and borrow some to get through this difficult time."

"This isn't a matter of one or two meals, village chief!"

"Without the land, our village will have no way to survive! We'll all have to go out and beg!"

"Damn it! Let's just fight those guys to the death!"

"If anyone dares to take our land, I'll fight them to the death! The worst that can happen is I lose my head!"

"Yes! Being beheaded is better than starving to death!"

One of the men in the village picked up a hoe and got up to knock down the sign that Ono had erected... The other men from the various families were also eager to do the same.

"Wait a minute!"

"We...we can't do such a thing!"

"Disobeying the general means not only yourselves, but the entire village will lose their heads!!"

"Have you forgotten the fate of those rebellious samurai lords?!"

"Think about your wives and children... cough cough!"

"Cough, cough, cough!"

"Then what do you suggest, village chief?!"

"We don't want to rebel. But, we really have no other way out!"

"Cough, cough, cough!"

"There is still a way."

"This old man will go and beg Lord Kang, he will definitely... cough, cough cough cough!"

With nowhere else to turn, the village chief decided to go to Daming's place one last time to see if he could find a way to save the villagers.

(End of this chapter)