Chapter 93: Iaido · Preemptive Draw Strike, the First Wave and the Restless Ones (4k words combined, please vote!)
Silence.
Uesugi Tetsu's voice sounded especially clear on the street where no demons or monsters existed, yet the courtyard remained utterly silent. Even after he waited for a minute or two, no one opened the door.
He lowered his head and glanced at the broken Walker Token in his hand again, discovering that it was indeed still glowing.
He had not knocked on the wrong door.
"So the owner of the courtyard simply doesn't want to open the door?"
Sure enough, this identity-promotion mission was not as easy as he had imagined.
The mission description had played a simple word game with hidden information.
In other words, the objective was to deliver the token to the swordsman, but it had not said whether the swordsman was willing to accept it.
Uesugi Tetsu waited for a while longer, but did not knock or call out pointlessly again. That would only make the courtyard owner's already slim chance of opening the door even more remote.
He might even anger the other party, who could come rushing out and cut both him and the token in half with a single slash, causing the mission to fail outright.
Uesugi Tetsu silently walked away.
What a hassle. Do I have to find out the courtyard owner's identity first, then prescribe the right medicine?
He temporarily put away the token and added investigating the courtyard owner's identity to his list of things to do.
For now, however, his top priority was to find more easy-to-deal-with lesser monsters and obtain Soul Ash—for example, wandering samurai who would charge in and clash with an enemy even when they knew the enemy was stronger than themselves.
But Uesugi Tetsu had