This person just happened to stand directly beneath the hole purely because he wanted to kill time.

Feeling bored and needing some fresh air, he sneaked into this room and stood under the large hole in the teahouse, breathing in the fresh air coming through the hole.

From a while ago, he kept yawning due to drowsiness, with his mind extremely unfocused.

This careless attitude made him completely unaware that—there were two people standing on the hole above his head.

Squatting above his head, Mukiwa adjusted her direction, then swiftly leaped down!

Upon hearing a strange whooshing sound from overhead, the samurai felt a sudden jolt of alertness, quickly raising his head to look up.

But clearly—it was already too late.

As he raised his head, he felt as if something had clamped down on it.

Then...

Bang!

The samurai felt a heavy strike on the neck.

The intense pain induced by this heavy blow left the samurai without even a chance to scream before he lost consciousness and fainted away...

Successfully knocking out the samurai, Mukiwa waved at Aoto, who remained atop the hole.

Seeing Mukiwa’s motion, Aoto nodded, leaped down, and landed steadily beside Mukiwa.

—There truly was an unknown samurai lurking in this teahouse...

Seeing the samurai knocked out by Mukiwa lying at his feet, Aoto’s expression instinctively became serious, a sense of vigilance rising in his heart.

Are you ready—Mukiwa asked Aoto with her eyes.

Aoto didn’t respond verbally, only nodded firmly.

Mukiwa nodded back, and then, together with Aoto, lowered their bodies and walked out of the room one after the other.

As soon as they opened the paper sliding door, the darkness from the corridor outside swept over Aoto and Mukiwa.

Soon after exiting the room, they spotted another samurai—a somewhat scrawny-looking samurai standing at the corner of the corridor ahead.

This samurai, too, like the one just knocked out by Mukiwa, probably thought this place was very secure and impossible for outsiders to enter, so his mind was not focused, just yawning repeatedly.

Aoto and Mukiwa exchanged a glance.

Let me handle this—Aoto conveyed to Mukiwa with his eyes.

And Mukiwa didn’t waste words, just nodded, then stopped in place.

To avoid the Orange Water at his waist hitting something and making a noise, Aoto carefully steadied the Orange Water with his left hand, half-squatted, and inched his way behind the yawning samurai.

In the next instant, silently coming up behind the unfocused samurai, Aoto swiftly sprang up, firmly covering the samurai’s mouth with his left hand and hitting the back of his neck hard with his right forearm.

The floor of this corridor was wooden.

Thus, if one were to draw a sword and kill, the sound of blood splattering and flowing onto the wood floor would be especially pronounced, easily drawing the attention of others.

Moreover, without knowing who these samurai really were, Aoto didn’t want to resort to bloody measures.

The samurai ambushed by Aoto rolled his eyes back, unable to make a sound, and passed out.

After successfully dealing with the samurai and laying him flat on the ground, Aoto raised a hand in signal to Mukiwa, then proceeded onward together.

The two continued along the corridor, advancing in the darkness, and soon discovered a sentry post.

This time, they found 2 sentries at once.

The distance between the two samurai standing at these sentry posts was extremely close; taking down any one of them would alert the other.

Thus to avoid detection, both samurai had to be taken out simultaneously.

Hence Aoto and Mukiwa exchanged glances once more.

Without any verbal communication, relying solely on an exchange of glances, they made decisions and allocated tasks.

Aoto walked towards the samurai on the left.

Mukiwa approached the samurai on the right.

Mukiwa’s movements were softer and less likely to be noticed than Aoto’s.

Aoto repeated the steps from before: subtly sneaking around behind his target, then delivering a strong blow to the neck.

As Aoto rendered his target unconscious, Mukiwa simultaneously dealt with hers.

*******

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As promised yesterday, I’ve surpassed 10,000 words today (crying leopard.jpg)

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