The appearance of Ozuki Minoru, compared to more than a year ago, has changed little.
If there is any change, it’s that her features have acquired more charm, a mature beauty, and her hairstyle has changed from the Shimada Bun, which only unmarried girls could wear, to the Round Bun, exclusive to married women.
After a brief moment of shock, the surprise on Aoto’s face slowly transformed into a complex, bizarre expression, his mouth involuntarily twitching slightly.
—How could I encounter her here... Wasn’t she already married off far away to Nara...
At this moment, memories belonging to the “Original Tachibana Aoto” flashed quickly before Aoto’s eyes, beyond his control.
These images from memory all related to his past with this woman... It’s simply unbearable!
To detail the relationship between “Original Tachibana Aoto” and this woman, one must start with the previous generation of the two families.
Aoto’s father, Tachibana Ryuzo, and Ozuki Minoru’s father, Miyakawa Shunzao, were extremely close friends.
Thanks to this connection between their fathers, the similarly aged “Original Tachibana Aoto” and Ozuki Minoru grew up together as childhood sweethearts.
Because Ozuki Minoru looked quite decent, “Original Tachibana Aoto” always liked her very much.
Yet the falling flower was willing, but the flowing water was merciless.
Ozuki Minoru had no feelings for the “Original Tachibana Aoto”.
If she only had no romantic feelings towards “Original Tachibana Aoto”, that would be one thing, but this woman had a particularly malicious disposition.
Even though her father, Miyakawa Shunzao, was an exceptionally noble and loyal distinguished samurai, it’s unclear whether due to genetic mutation or inadequate family upbringing, Ozuki Minoru’s personality was particularly sharp, harsh, and selfish.
She treated “Original Tachibana Aoto’s” feelings for her as an amusing joke, playing with “Original Tachibana Aoto” like a toy.
She unabashedly accepted “Original Tachibana Aoto’s” kindness, but always played dumb, only taking pleasure, never giving.
She neither clearly rejected nor accepted.
She kept “Original Tachibana Aoto” lingering in hope.
Giving “Original Tachibana Aoto” the constant illusion of “maybe I have a chance”.
The naive “Original Tachibana Aoto” really fell into her trap!
He found various ways to be good to Ozuki Minoru.
Both showing care and concern, and carefully preparing gifts... trying to warm Ozuki Minoru’s heart with his sincerity.
But a person can never wake someone pretending to sleep.
The desperately eager “Original Tachibana Aoto”, invested countless time, energy, and affection in Ozuki Minoru...
Then Ozuki Minoru married another man.
Unbeknownst to the “Original Tachibana Aoto”, Ozuki Minoru had long been flirtatiously involved with a young wealthy merchant in Nara named “Ozuki Changci”.
Although to maintain their ruling foundation, the Shogunate and Feudal Domains constantly extolled the so-called samurai honor and ensured the privileged status of samurai, no amount of pomp or propaganda could change the reality that the vast majority of samurai lived in poverty or alter people’s instinctive pursuit of a better life.
Since merchants, through the flaws of the system and the rise of early capitalism, had amassed tremendous wealth and lived in luxury unimaginable to ordinary people, a “worship of money” inevitably spread across the land of this country.
Many people no longer pursued samurai honor or the Bushido spirit, turning instead to embrace wealth and extravagant material life.
To this day, many young girls would rather marry wealthy merchants than samurai who, apart from their so-called noble status, were penniless—Ozuki Minoru was a person of such character.
Even though the social hierarchy of “Scholars, Farmers, Artisans, and Merchants” had long since lost its authenticity, merchants’ explicit political status remained at the very bottom.
But for those great merchants, the low political status was no big deal!
For livelihood, many subordinate samurai, desperate and unable to engage in risky business, were forced to sell the swords at their waists.
If selling the sword couldn’t solve their food problem, they would sell the only valuable thing left on them: the family name of the samurai.
The family name of the samurai had far more market than a samurai sword.
Many powerful merchants were quite willing to spend a little money to buy a samurai family name to embellish their image.
Many wealthy merchants, by “buying samurai status” and “adopting samurai,” used various methods to change their family’s status, transforming from “merchant” to “scholar”.
The young wealthy merchant named Ozuki Changci whom Ozuki Minoru married was a prominent example of this.
Their family originally was just a merchant household without even a surname, which, after their business grew, purchased the family name from a military family bearing the surname “Ozuki”, allowing their family to assume the identity of the Ozuki Clan from then on.
Ozuki Minoru, coveting the wealth of the Ozuki Family, frequently exchanged flirtatious glances with Ozuki Changci, displaying a passion that “Original Tachibana Aoto” had neither seen nor experienced.
Before long, Ozuki Minoru became engaged and married to Changci.
The beloved girl ended up with someone else, yet the sweetheart wasn’t himself... This greatly struck the “Original Tachibana Aoto”.
Moreover, the news of Ozuki Minoru’s marriage reached “Original Tachibana Aoto” just shortly after his father, Tachibana Ryuzo, had passed away...
The poor performance of “Original Tachibana Aoto” at the North Guard Station was closely related to the series of devastating mental shocks he suffered at that time, unable to recover promptly from this string of setbacks.

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