"...Miss Toshisuke, hang in there."
With a volume only audible to herself and Toshisuke, Chokata Mitsuo gave this advice to Toshisuke and then left without a moment’s hesitation.
"Eh?" Toshisuke turned around in surprise, staring blankly at the departing back of her elder sister.
Moments later, as if coming back to her senses, Toshisuke let out a long sigh. Then, a brilliant smile, like a flower, slowly blossomed on Toshisuke’s face.
The rule for victory in the Red and White Battle is to "kill" the opponent’s Grand General.
To make it easier for the contestants and audience to identify the participants, both Grand Generals would wear eye-catching and luxurious array feather robes.
In short, if you want to win in the Red and White Battle, you don’t need to defeat anyone except for the porcelain bowl on the Grand General’s forehead, which must be broken.
As Aoto and other participants were tying porcelain bowls onto their foreheads, sudden exclamations burst out from the "audience stands" on the north and south sides of the arena.
The people of Shiwei Hall looked around in confusion, and in the blink of an eye, they realized why the audience was exclaiming.
In the "Main Array" of Xuanwu Hall, a very tall young man was wearing a white and red array feather robe symbolizing the identity of the Grand General.
And this youth... was Chiba Daisaburo!
In an instant, a series of low exclamations sounded around Aoto and the others.
"What’s there to be afraid of?" Hijikata glanced disapprovingly at the people exclaiming around him, "’There’s a good chance Chiba Daisaburo will personally assume the role of Grand General’—this is something we anticipated, isn’t it?"
"Chiba Daisaburo personally donning the Grand General’s array feather robe... the worst-case scenario we thought of has come true," Toshisuke said calmly with a smile, handing a cloth bundle to Aoto.
Aoto smiled silently.
He silently reached out to take the cloth bundle from Toshisuke, then vigorously shook it—this cloth bundle was the neatly folded "Grand General’s array feather robe"!
The "audience stands" on the north and south sides once again erupted in astonished exclamations.
The majority of the spectators on the "audience stands" and all the contestants from Xuanwu Hall opposite, focused their variously emotional gazes on Aoto, who was wearing the array feather robe.
"Oh?" Chiba Shigetarou’s eyes lit up, "Is it Mr. Tachibana as the Grand General again?"
"..." Sazanoko didn’t speak, she just attentively watched the proceedings on the arena.
Time passed in the blink of an eye.
Amidst everyone’s anticipation, Chiba Dingji, presiding as the judge for this competition, finally slowly walked to the center of the arena.
After delivering some standard opening remarks and congratulations, Chiba Dingji vigorously waved his hand toward a young man standing in front of a small taiko drum not far away—
Dong... dong, dong! Dong—! Dong dong—!!
The drumbeat, transitioning from slow to fast, instantly pushed the atmosphere of the arena to a tense state!
The competition officially begins!
The first to initiate the grand contest was... Shiwei Hall!
"Everyone, follow me!"
A loud shout replaced the taiko drum sound, shaking the air in the arena.
Under the astonished gazes of the crowd, Aoto led everyone straight toward Xuanwu Hall’s Main Array in a swarm!
The author took a leave yesterday and slept all afternoon, from 1 PM to 6 PM... Now fully recharged! Ready to have fun again!
Requesting monthly tickets! Requesting recommendation tickets! (Cry of a Leopard Head.jpg)
Some readers might feel the author is taking leave too frequently recently... Okay, that’s true, but it’s all due to unavoidable circumstances, not because the author is being lazy (Leopard Exhausted.jpg)

Comments

Loading...