Gathering Samurai Companions / Samurai Women Everywhere

What should we do in this situation?

'Of course, I have to agree!'

"I know! Then everyone stay here," Shirou agreed, giving in.

"Alright! It's just sharing a bed." To hide her flushed face, Jeanne d'Arc lunged forward, about to jump onto the bed. Even though lying down might make her stiff with nervousness, just lying down would be fine, right? Lie down!

Artoria frowned and said to the silver-haired girl, "Wait, do you really want to stay in Shirou's room all dirty, having crawled around in the woods? Get out of here, wash yourself clean, and don't ever come back!"

"Uh... you wait!"

Jeanne d'Arc hesitated for a moment upon hearing Artoria's words.

She looked at herself and realized she did look rather disheveled. These past two days she'd been spending time in a closed container, then wandering through the woods, accidentally ending up in a cave and nearly getting into a fight with a bear. It wasn't surprising to have some wild animal fur on her.

'Won't it smell bad?' Jeanne d'Arc glanced at her clothes.

Finally, seemingly having made up his mind, he summoned his battle armor once more, flames erupting from his entire body and engulfing him in flames, burning away all the filth on his body.

"Hmph! Is this acceptable?" After doing all this, Jeanne d'Arc looked at Artoria defiantly and asked.

"You actually went so far as to burn yourself just to stay here? How shameless can you be!" Artoria finally understood the other party's determination. He was as difficult to deal with and as reckless as ever.

Because she arrived here more than a day later than the cold-blooded woman, Jeanne d'Arc stayed behind regardless of whether it was under the guise of surveillance or for some other reason, until she could even out the time she spent with Shirou.

Just then, the boy opened the wardrobe, took out a mattress, laid it on the floor, and straightened and flattened it.

"Shirou, what are you doing?" Jeanne d'Arc asked, puzzled.

"Hmm? Sleeping on the floor, huh?" Shirou agreed without hesitation.

"Shirou, if you sleep on the floor, then there's no point. But I'll sleep on the floor with you, you know," Artoria said to the boy.

"No, what I mean is, Artoria, you and Jeanne d'Arc can sleep in the bed, and I, as a boy, can sleep on the floor," Shirou explained. "Or you two could just go back to your own rooms and sleep. And Artoria, you said from the beginning that it's meaningless, so what exactly constitutes something meaningful?"

"Shirou! Get down on the bed! I don't want to sleep with the Cold-blooded King!" Jeanne d'Arc d'Arc said, grabbing the boy's arm.

"Hmph, what a coincidence, that's what I was thinking too," Artoria said.

"Hehe, then why don't you go out?"

"Hmph, shouldn't it be you, the one who barged in, who should be leaving?"

Another major battle seems imminent.

"Um... how about we all sleep outside? I'll sleep on the sofa, Jeanne d'Arc and Artoria can go back to their own rooms too," Shirou suggested cautiously.

"Shirou, turn off the light," Artoria instructed, already seated on one side of the bed.

"Huh? Is that really the decision?" Shirou asked in surprise.

Under the intense gazes of two pairs of eyes, the girl, in her most willful altered state, felt that if she didn't agree, the consequences would be dire.

So the boy lay down on the large bed with the two girls. The three of them lay on it, and even though their shoulders were slightly touching, they didn't actually touch each other.

First of all, I want to thank my parents for buying me a spacious double bed. Now, even with three people lying in it, it's not too cramped, so I can finally get a good night's sleep.

How could I possibly sleep?!

Perhaps because they could relax in this world, since the surrounding environment was very safe, both girls were sleeping soundly. Because they were so close, their breathing could be heard clearly. In the dark room, the only light came from the moonlight shining in through the window.

In the dim light, the postures of the two girls, shrouded in blankets, could be seen, outlining alluring curves. Yet, they showed no suspicion towards him; Jeanne d'Arc of Arc, lying on the left, even pulled the blankets aside, revealing half of her body.

Shirou tucked the silver-haired girl in with the blanket, then tiptoed outside. Since the door was burned, he skipped the trouble of turning it; he simply pushed it open. He'd come back up to fix it tomorrow morning.

"Shirou!" the girl called out.

"Huh? Hmm?" Shirou asked softly, turning his head in confusion.

"Come with me to buy pajamas tomorrow, light and airy pajamas... absolutely... more suitable for me..."

Shirou looked closely and saw that the girl hadn't said anything after that. It seemed that Jeanne d'Arc was talking in her sleep... He breathed a sigh of relief and quietly left the room.

Shirou went downstairs and, using the moonlight streaming in, went to the sofa in the living room, intending to spend the night there.

The girls came into this world for him, helped him defeat the black mud Heroic Spirit, and only used the Holy Grail to obtain a physical body. They were all exceptionally charming women; it was impossible for him not to like them.

He was indeed moved and knew he had to reciprocate those feelings, but now was not the time.

Two more black mud Heroic Spirit are still lurking behind the scenes. The crisis in this world has not yet been resolved, and the world on the Chaldea side has not yet found a solution. Alaya has not yet told him what needs to be done, and it is believed that it will not be a simple matter.

But this time he wants to overcome everything and bring happiness to everyone, including his own.

The boy made a vow to the moon hanging high in the sky outside the window.

Hmm... but before that, let's take a cold shower first...

That night, Shirou lay on the sofa, while Jeanne d'Arc and Artoria in the upstairs room kept moving closer to the middle of the bed in their sleep, even vying for the middle pillow.

Finally, clinging tightly to one side of the pillow, she mumbled in her sleep, "Shirou... Don't Run..."

Chapter 215 Gathering Samurai Companions

The boy, who had drifted off to sleep, once again found himself in the world of dreams. At the pleading of the kneeling farmers, he agreed to save the village from the bandits and began gathering men; including himself, they now needed six more.

At this moment, Shirou and Yukino, led by four farmers, arrived at a house made of wood and thatch. This was their temporary lodging, a dilapidated post station provided for outsiders.

There are no partitions or even doors here, so it can't block the wind. At most, it can only shelter the people inside from the rain. The sleeping area is just on these wooden floors, where other people are also sleeping, each occupying a corner.

Having traveled the world, these samurai were well-traveled and experienced much hardship. They were used to battlefield combat and had endured all kinds of suffering, so Shirou's body was not at all uncomfortable.

The little girl beside him, however, showed no sign of boredom, which impressed him.

This place is not only shabby, but also a melting pot of all sorts of people, gathering the most down-on-their-luck individuals in society. There are old men who make a living by playing the shamisen, drunkards and gamblers who live a life of debauchery, ronin who have lost their jobs, and pickpockets with shifty eyes. Any traveling merchant with even a little spare money would not choose this place.

But all you need to do is pay for firewood to move in. If you don't need to light a fire, or if you bring your own firewood, you can stay here for free. This is the only place that the farmers can afford to live.

It is understood that four farmers brought two bags of grain here, poured the rice into a jar, and had one person hold it by their side day and night to guard it; that was their only valuable possession.

Upon arriving at this place, the four farmers didn't say much. They simply asked Shirou and Yukino to sit down and rest, while they started a fire to cook, letting the samurai taste the rice they had planted themselves.

Shirou noticed that the farmers were giving him and Yukino white rice, while they themselves were hiding to the side eating unhulled millet.

Driven to desperation by poverty, the peasants, in their desperate search for survival, sent their able-bodied young men to the city with a sack of rice and a sack of millet, seeking warriors willing to help them.

Barnyard grass is a close relative of rice, and it often grows together with rice, competing for nutrients in the soil. So when it grows to a certain size and can be distinguished, it will be removed.

Although barnyard grass looks very similar to rice, and even after hulling it resembles rice grains, it is not suitable for human consumption. Barnyard grass grains are very hard and can easily mix into cooked rice.

If you suddenly experience a sharp, grinding toothache while eating, and what comes out isn't a stone but rather white, fragmented grains, that's millet. The fine husks are like needles, and you might accidentally prick your skin.

It's as hard as small pebbles, impossible to chew, and swallowing it feels like eating sand.

In modern times, this barnyard grass is used to grind into flour to make barnyard grass cakes or to brew wine. However, in this era, it was often regarded as a last resort for desperate farmers.

However, these four farmers worked hard without complaint, simply swallowing the barnyard millet calmly, all for the sake of survival.

They were the lowest-ranking farmers, paying taxes and debts every year, handing over eight or nine tenths of their harvest to the government and landlords. But when bandits came, no one came to protect them.

Written as peasants, read as weak, this was an era where imperial power was merely a formality, the shogunate was weak, and various lords constantly fought and annexed each other, with wars raging everywhere. Such tragedies were commonplace.

"..." Yukino felt sorry for them and wanted to share the rice in her bowl with them, but Shirou stopped her.

"Master?" The girl looked at Shirou, her eyes seemingly seeking an answer.

But this question remains unanswered. Muramasa has never stopped pondering the true nature of this body, but ultimately he has failed to find a way to bring happiness to the people of the world.

Shirou could say to the girl was, "All we can do is fulfill our duty."

In ancient He State, the hierarchical system was strict, dividing the country into several classes, just like in China, including scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants. However, He State adhered to its long-standing tradition of introducing Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism, and then adapting it to local conditions.

Unlike the traditional Chinese social hierarchy of scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants, the "scholars" in the He Kingdom referred to warriors who relied on military merit rather than the imperial examinations.

First came the ruling class, the imperial family and the Shogun, then the nobles and samurai, followed by merchants and artisans, and finally the peasants. This evolved into the samurai code, which emphasizes loyalty, righteousness, and bravery, but the people were not loyal to the state, but rather to the shogunate or local feudal lords who employed them.

This issue was highlighted in the conflict between Sakamoto Ryoma, a pro-imperial and anti-shogunate figure in Japan, and the equally famous Mibu Wolf and Shinsengumi, who supported the Shinsengumi.

Although this world is different from the history Shirou knows, as a world where samurai live, the basic social rules are the same.

The imperial family nominally held the power to appoint officials and perform sacrifices, but had no real power and could only live a life of decadence and debauchery within the Imperial City. In contrast, the pinnacle of the samurai was the Shogun, who held military and administrative power and established the shogunate.

The term "Wakoku samurai" refers to a class of samurai who made a living through martial arts and whose profession was fighting. It was a profession with family traditions, where they received training in military strategy, swordsmanship, horsemanship, spearmanship, and archery from a young age. They studied and practiced martial arts, and when they came of age, they went to the battlefield to fight.

During times of war, one can help the lord of the city where one was born to fight, capture cities, and gain military merit. If one can gain the favor of a daimyo or castle lord and become a retainer, upon achieving great success, one may even be granted several cities and become a regional lord.

Even within the samurai class, there are vast differences. High-ranking samurai generally hold military positions, akin to nobles, while mid-ranking samurai are often retainers who begin learning military strategy and martial arts at a young age.

The samurai that Shirou can find now are probably just like the samurai he encountered with Iroha Isshiki before—they are all low-ranking samurai.

Those were the most destitute samurai, those who lost their Lord, were defeated in battle, or were dismissed. They were called ronin and could only become henchmen for merchants or soldiers recruited for war, that is, professional mercenaries.

Of course, there are also some who devote themselves to cultivation and travel the world, and some hermits who live in seclusion in the deep mountains, but they are extremely rare.

During the Late Ming Dynasty, Zheng Chenggong, who was of mixed Chinese and Japanese descent, repeatedly sought military assistance from Japan to fight against the Qing Dynasty, but was refused by the Tokugawa Shogunate. However, many ronin (masterless samurai) actively participated in the effort.

Zheng Chenggong, who came from a pirate background, gathered gunners and musketeers from Europe, slave crew members from Africa, pirates, and ronin from Japan, along with professional weapons. Although it was a ragtag army, it formed a very powerful fighting force. Even the Netherlands at the time had to temporarily avoid its sharp edge in this sea area.

But Zheng Chenggong had the righteous cause of overthrowing the Qing and restoring the Ming, while Shirou only had white rice for two meals a day.

As samurai, they generally have two desires when they go to the battlefield: one is to distinguish themselves, and the other is to make a name for themselves. If they win, they can establish merit and become a local lord, which is the dream of almost all samurai who study military strategy and hone their battlefield combat skills.

Even if you lose, you should still make a name for yourself on the battlefield. As long as you can become famous throughout the world, it will be worth it for a warrior who makes a living through martial arts and whose duty is to fight on the battlefield.

Even now, with only two meals of rice a day, expecting samurai to risk their lives for farmers is still not very worthwhile, even in this era when rice was only a daily luxury for the upper classes.

After this victory, there was no reward or glory, because of the prevailing values. Samurai were scholars who served the Emperor and the daimyo, and should not meddle in the affairs of the lower classes.

Protecting farmers is the job of the tax-collecting government, but now, with war and chaos, the magistrate only cares about tax collection and not about the aftermath of the taxpayers' deaths. This can only be considered bad luck for the farmers.

For a samurai to fight for peasants instead of fighting on the battlefield or serving the samurai or noble families is considered impolite and a breach of the dignity of the upper class. It's like a dog that doesn't guard the house or hunt but instead tries to catch mice.

Even if they win, no one will praise them; they'll only be seen as meddling. If they lose, not only do they deserve it, but they've also brought shame to the samurai class and should commit seppuku (ritual suicide) as atonement.

Under such circumstances, gathering six reliable samurai as companions is no easy task.

Fortunately, after traveling around this small town for a while, Shirou discovered that it was a samurai country with a chaotic and ambiguous history. The number of samurai was much greater than in history, and even outside of big cities like Kyoto and Osaka, there were plenty of skilled samurai on the streets.

The so-called samurai were a samurai system that gradually developed when the Emperor of Japan was unable to achieve centralized power and could not fight against local warlords on his own. They created a profession specifically for fighting and encouraged them to fight against local separatist forces.

In fact, the Yamato people Kingdom, whose main ethnic group was the Yamato people, was able to invade and conquer all the islands, large and small. Places such as Emishi and Okinawa were conquered spontaneously by the military power of the shogun or local daimyo, and belonged to these lords. It was only later, with the changes of history, that they were incorporated into the map of Wa Kingdom.

The patient's complex emotions were palpable. After Shirou and Yukino finished their meal, Shirou gave the farmers a few instructions.

"I plan to take her to the city center to learn about the city. We'll start looking for other warriors this afternoon. You can rest for a while now."

"..." Upon hearing Shirou's words, the four farmers exchanged glances, their expressions a complex mix of panic, despair, and unspoken words. Their fear was that Shirou would never return, shattering their hard-won hope once again.

"If you're worried, you can send someone to follow us," Shirou said casually, then led the girl out of the residence, turned right, and walked along a long straight road to the bustling street outside.

The two farmers followed at a distance, and seeing that Shirou showed no sign of leaving, they finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"That's great! I thought this samurai would just eat one meal and then run away. If that were the case, we might as well have eaten all that rice ourselves." A farmer in his forties squinted his eyes, his face long and mournful, and finally said with relief.

"Idiot! Don't talk such discouraging things! This man is different. He speaks to us very kindly, like a farmer talking to another farmer. He doesn't look down on us," another leading farmer in his thirties cursed.

On both sides of the street, there were vendors selling all kinds of goods, as well as geisha and street performers. Every now and then, you could see samurai walking by, holding a katana in their left hand or carrying a long spear or other weapon.

"By the way, Yukino, do you know how many types of samurai swords there are?" Shirou asked the young samurai as he explored the city and experienced its ancient folk culture.

"The samurai swords specifically include the tachi, Ōdachi, tachi, Uchigatana, naginata, and nagama; the legendary Miyamoto Musashi was a master of the Dual-wielding, wielding both a tachi and a wakizashi, and he created the 'Niten Ichi-ryū' military strategy and swordsmanship. Tokugawa Ieyasu's loyal Honda Tadakatsu used the famous spear 'Tonbokiri'." Yukino answered without hesitation, showing surprising erudition at such a young age.

"Hmm... Miyamoto Musashi..." Shirou replied hesitantly. If it were the real Miyamoto Musashi, he would indeed be a very reliable and helpful person. However, if it was the one on the edge of a cliff, he would rather give up.

The right of all samurai to wield a sword was generally granted by carrying a long sword and a wakizashi (short sword) tucked into their belt.

However, the concept of weapons in Wa is different from that in other places. For example, although it is a samurai sword, it also has the concept of a 'sword'.

The term "katana" is also broadly considered a general term for "weapons," so a samurai's right to wield a katana, besides a sword, also includes a long-handled, slender-bladed weapon like a naginata.

Weapons such as the "long-handled sword" (similar to a horse-slaying sword with a handle as long as the blade of a large sword), as well as "long spears" and "cannons" (matchlock guns), can also be broadly referred to as samurai swords.

Then Shirou saw a group of burly women carrying various weapons walking together down the street. It seemed that female samurai were not a rare thing in this world.

"Speaking of which, Yukino, there are surprisingly many female samurai here, and they are all very confident, with an aura that is in no way inferior to that of the male samurai. Are there some famous female samurai among them?" Shirou asked curiously.

"Master, even if you want to test me, you should use some difficult questions. There are many powerful female warriors, such as the Honda Tadakatsu whom I mentioned before, as well as the 'Dragon of Echigo' Uesugi Kenshin and the 'Tiger of Kai' Takeda Shingen. Aren't these all remarkable female warriors?"

'Not only is time chaotic here, but even genders are messed up?' Shirou broke out in a cold sweat and asked again, 'What about Miyamoto Musashi?'

"Of course the Sword Saint is a man!!!" Yukino replied matter-of-factly.

Chapter 216 Female Warriors Everywhere

Ancient warriors possessed the right to ride horses and wield weapons, and even had the privilege of killing commoners without consequence. In the rigidly class-based He Kingdom, the children of the gentry could only marry within the gentry class.