"Put them down."
Hagoromo took a deep breath. In the end, he still could not bring himself to bear it. "This is an order."
The samurai before him hesitated for a moment, but ultimately obeyed the order.
"Release them."
He spoke, then stepped forward of his own accord. Together with the samurai beside him, he opened the prison cart and let several of the children inside out.
The children seemed to sense Hagoromo's kindness, so they took the initiative to dodge away and hide behind him.
They begged Hagoromo for protection.
Hagoromo looked at the children before him.
Although they were descendants of rebels, none of them were very old. At that moment, however, they looked ragged and worn, and their overall condition was far from good.
They hid behind Hagoromo with their heads lowered, avoiding the gazes of everyone around them. Yet every so often, when they looked up at the samurai before them, their eyes held deep hatred. The sight made Hagoromo's heart jolt.
"Your Highness Hagoromo..."
The samurai leader watched Hagoromo's actions and hesitated to speak. "Bringing these rebels' clansmen here to be offered as sacrifices to the God Tree is His Majesty's order."
"I understand."
Hagoromo nodded, his expression remaining calm. "I will discuss this matter with Father later."
"But for now, put down what you are doing."
At his command, the samurai before him, though unwilling in his heart, ultimately had no choice but to abandon his task.
There was nothing they could do. Their opponent was a prince, after all.
As Namikawa Yū's eldest son, he was the heir apparent of the Land of Ancestors. Once Namikawa Yū was gone, he would be the most legitimate successor to the Land of Ancestors.
When such an important person spoke, they could only obey. They had no room to say anything else.
And so, a cruel sacrifice was stopped by the Hagoromo Brothers.
Yet the Hagoromo Brothers felt no joy over the matter.
Their hearts were a tangled mess, with all kinds of emotions churning inside them.
And afterward, similar sacrificial acts continued.
Whenever a sacrifice to the God Tree began, they would arrive at the Temple beneath it on time and lie in wait, rescuing those they believed to be innocent.
As the number of times they did this gradually increased, the impact they caused grew greater and greater.
Finally, one day, Namikawa Yū learned what they had been doing.
On that day, Namikawa Yū formally summoned them.
After arriving at the palace of the Land of Ancestors, the Hagoromo Brothers felt anxious before meeting Namikawa Yū.
They had expected to incur Namikawa Yū's wrath, but Namikawa Yū did not react that way.
He appeared very calm.
"Yū are willing to step forward and help the weak. This is a manifestation of compassion, and you naturally should not be reprimanded for it."
He spoke softly. "But if this continues for too long, it will ultimately be somewhat inappropriate."
Because of the Hagoromo Brothers' prolonged interference, some people in the country had already begun to express their dissatisfaction. They believed the Hagoromo Brothers sympathized too much with these rebels.
These people had once been rebels, so no matter how they were treated, it would not be excessive. Now they were merely being used as sacrifices to the God Tree. They were neither tortured nor deliberately humiliated, which was already quite merciful.
Yet the Hagoromo Brothers still often intervened to stop it.
At first, this behavior was acceptable, but later it aroused the resentment of many people.
The Hagoromo Brothers thought Namikawa Yū felt the same way and were about to explain.
However, Namikawa Yū before them shook his head.
"Being dissatisfied with the current situation and thus developing the desire to change it is not a bad thing. It is nothing worth criticizing."
"The reason I summoned you back was merely that your methods were somewhat improper."
He spoke softly. "Since you wish to bring about change, I will give you the authority to do so."
In front of the Hagoromo Brothers, he issued an appointment document and assigned them official positions on the spot.
From that day onward, the Hagoromo Brothers became the commanders in charge of managing all the criminals in the Land of Ancestors.
In theory, they had the authority to intervene in, investigate, and handle every matter concerning criminals throughout the Land of Ancestors.
If such authority had been given to an ordinary person, it would have been no different from rising to the heavens in a single step, directly becoming one of the most powerful people in the entire Land of Ancestors.
Even for the Hagoromo Brothers, this was a considerable surprise.
In the Land of Ancestors, they were princes with extraordinarily exalted statuses. That much was true.
But because of their age, they had spent the past years studying all kinds of knowledge in the palace and were still far from being ready to take charge of a territory.
Namikawa Yū's stance this time had nevertheless given them a pleasant surprise.
"Thank you, Father."
Their faces filled with excitement. They immediately bowed in gratitude and declared that they would surely fulfill their duties properly.
Being appointed ministers of justice and placed in charge of such affairs was precisely what they had hoped for.
They hoped that fewer tragedies would occur under their authority and that they could fundamentally reverse the situation endured by the innocent children who had been implicated.
Thus, change began soon afterward.
Under the Hagoromo Brothers' administration, the entire system of judicial law in the Land of Ancestors began to change, and the criminals within it were subjected to stricter interrogation.
At first, this approach achieved excellent results, and the number of criminals in various regions fell sharply.
Aside from the criminals sentenced to death, all the other criminals received the best possible treatment.
But soon, the Hagoromo Brothers noticed that something was wrong.
They discovered that no matter how hard they tried, some people would always violate the law and be sentenced to become sacrifices.
Whether they publicized the matter or worked hard in other areas, the number of crimes committed each year still did not decrease.
No matter how hard they tried, they could not reduce the number of sacrifices sent to the God Tree.
In fact, as the population grew, the number of criminals sent to the God Tree as sacrifices each year was steadily increasing.
Soon, they realized something was wrong and began a careful investigation and deliberation.
They then discovered a result.
The situation before them seemed to be the deliberate work of someone.
Throughout the various regions of the Land of Ancestors, there seemed to be an unspoken rule.
That was that every region had to meet a certain quota.
That's right. Every year, each region had to gather enough sacrifices to meet its quota and send them to the God Tree to become offerings in its rituals.
This quota was fixed. As time passed, it would only increase each year, never decrease.
Because of this, no matter how hard the Hagoromo Brothers worked, they could not reduce the number of sacrifices sent to the God Tree.
Faced with this result, the Hagoromo Brothers could not help but feel a chill in their hearts.
At that moment, they could not help recalling the Toad Sage's words from the past.
For the first time, the darkness hidden beneath the prosperity of the Land of Ancestors was revealed before their eyes.
"Why... Why would Father do this?"
Beneath the God Tree, Hagoromo stared at the Temple before him, his face filled with confusion. "Every year, he sends so many living people into the God Tree. What exactly is he trying to do?"