Chapter 3 Weixin's Memories

Following the instructions in the manual, Han Zhou now understood the basic operation of this Honmaru. Her Honmaru was quite large, already a complete and independent space.

There are mountains and sea, many houses, and uncultivated fields behind them. The most important thing is to protect the barrier surrounding the citadel, which also requires the spiritual power of the Saniwa to maintain.

The larger the Honmaru, the more spiritual energy it requires. Moreover, spiritual energy supports not only the Honmaru but also the swords.

To awaken the swords, maintain their daily functions, and handle injuries—all of these daily tasks require spiritual power.

Therefore, it is evident that a Saniwa who possesses an S-rank Honmaru and a complete collection of swords, regardless of their combat strength, possesses a terrifying spiritual power that is unmatched by ordinary people.

Han Zhou has traveled the world for thousands of years, and she has only seen a handful of humans with such spiritual power.

Her power permeated the entire citadel, allowing her to easily sense the movements of the swords. But Hanshu was never one for control, nor did she try to sense them.

late at night

Hanshu, holding a flask of sake, sat on the roof of the castle tower. His golden eyes reflected the crescent moon in the sky.

Her heart, worn smooth by thousands of years, was like a stagnant pool, yet upon seeing the sword of an old friend, ripples stirred within it.

at the same time

Bang—bang—bang—

The powerful pounding of her heart reminded her of one fact:

She lived through the endless years.

Click

It was the soft thud of wooden clogs landing lightly on the roof tiles. Han Zhou had already noticed the newcomer and wasn't surprised.

"General," Yagen called softly.

"Still up in the middle of the night, coming to find me?" She poured the sake from the flask into a cup, turning to look at Yagen Toushirou, who had sneaked in at night.

"I just guessed the general might not be able to sleep," Yagen said, sitting down next to Kanshu and looking up at the bright moon.

As Han Zhou's former protector, he could somewhat guess his lord's thoughts. Whenever she encountered something familiar, she would always be alone, gazing at the scenery while drinking wine or tea, sometimes sitting there for an entire day.

Hanzhou took a sip of his drink but didn't reply. Yagen knew this wasn't the right time to speak, so he quietly sat beside Hanzhou, watching the moon.

When her glass is empty, refill it at the right time.

Han Zhou drank the wine quickly, but showed no signs of drunkenness. She had an excellent tolerance for alcohol.

Yagen watched as she stood up, brushing the dust off her yukata, her pale gold eyes calmly watching him. Just like in the beginning, she placed him on her lap, gazing serenely at him when he was still a sword.

"Go back, Yagen. Gokotai woke up and found you were missing; he's a little uneasy."

She looked down into Yagen's clear, amethyst-like eyes, raised her hand to gently pat his head, and spoke in her usual calm, even tone.

But you can feel the care from it.

"Don't worry, I'm here."

After saying that, he took the sake bottle and his own sake cup from Yagen's hand and returned to the castle tower.

Yagen paused for a moment, then left with a smile. Just as he reached the corridor, he encountered a small tiger, followed closely by footsteps.

"Yagen-ni..." Gokotai's voice was soft and trembling. He was uneasy upon arriving at the citadel, and when he woke up in the middle of the night, he found his trusted older brother missing.

The timid and cowardly boy panicked immediately. Sensing his emotions, the little tiger also woke up from its sleep and accompanied him to find Yagen.

"Sorry, Tai. I just went to the restroom. Let's go back." Yagen patted Goko Tai's head and took his hand as they returned to the room.

Back at the castle tower, Hanshun didn't sleep. Instead, he took out a notebook from the cabinet, wrote down the date, and recorded all the swords that had arrived at the citadel that day. Then he quietly waited for dawn.

Knowing that the swords would be going into battle soon, Han Zhou changed into a pair of short-sleeved shirts and shorts for easy movement and went to the kitchen. Although she wasn't good at cooking, she could still make noodles and rice balls.

On the other side, the swordsmen who had gotten up early finished washing up and were walking together toward the main hall when they happened to run into Hanzhou, who was carrying a meal and wearing an apron.

Everyone froze on the spot, as if by unspoken agreement.

"I made some rice balls, would you like to try some?"

Kashuu Kiyomitsu took the plate first, his tone slightly complaining, "You could have just given us this kind of thing, Master! You didn't have to cook it yourself."

"We're short-handed right now, and you're all going into battle today. Let's go to the main hall first, and you can hear the details while you eat," Han Zhou calmly explained to Kashuu Kiyomitsu why he was cooking.

The Saniwa (Master) possesses spiritual power and is capable of perceiving spatial distortions, but whether or not they can learn to do so depends entirely on their talent.

The time converter in the Honmaru courtyard can automatically identify eras with spatial distortions, but it is, after all, an inflexible machine and cannot accurately pinpoint the era in which the Time Retrograde Army is located.

This can cause errors when the sword spirits travel to their destination. As for the magnitude of these errors... it depends entirely on probability.

This is precisely why a Saniwa is needed. The Saniwa, by sensing the distortion of spacetime, shortens the error and sends the sword spirits to the correct timeline.

But at the same time, Han Zhou's doubts deepened. Those who possessed spiritual power were few to begin with, and those who could sense spatial fluctuations were even rarer.

What if someone with spiritual power cannot sense spatial fluctuations?

Based solely on that machine that malfunctions at some unknown time?

Han Zhou suppressed his doubts and chose to tell them about the expedition first.

"I sense that many eras have unusual spacetime distortions, and based on our current situation, the era you are about to travel to is one of them."

"The Reform Movement period, which was from the 1860s to the 1890s."

In the courtyard, five sword spirits, dressed in their battle uniforms, stood before the Time-Turner. To their astonishment, Han Zhou, also clad in battle attire...

Her long hair was tied into a neat ponytail. She wore a black vest, with a dagger hanging at her waist. She wore cargo pants and Martin boots.

He looks very handsome

"My lord... what is this?" Yagen had already guessed Hanzhou's thoughts, but still asked with a last glimmer of hope.

"I plan to go with you to check out the situation. You are the captain, Yagen Toushirou."

Yagen was taken aback; he hadn't expected to be the captain on his first mission. But he still earnestly responded to Hanshu's expectations.

"Yes, General. I will take good care of everyone."

"No, no, I won't kill my comrades just because I'm not the captain~" *Higekiri's voice was soft and gentle, making people want to sleep.

"Anija!" Hizamaru looked at his joking older brother with a hint of helplessness.

Seeing that Genji's two swords were getting along so well, Hanzhou was relieved. Although she had entrusted them to Genji, she had still been secretly keeping an eye on their whereabouts.

The Genji clan was in serious internal strife. Although both Higekiri and Hizamaru were Genji swords, they were not owned by the same person.

"Stop messing around!" Kashuu Kiyomitsu stopped Higekiri from teasing his younger brother again, his red eyes full of helplessness.

Han Zhou took in this scene, the golden power flowing into the time converter. After adjusting to the correct time, he looked at Yagen.

Instructing the other party to activate the time converter

The boy's clear voice reached her ears.

"Then, let's go into battle!"

A note from the author:

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The lines marked with an asterisk are game dialogue.