Sir, Times Haven't Changed!

Abe Masahiro was bewildered once again; he had no idea what kind of medicine the other party was hiding in their gourd. Didn't Westerners and those Dutch scholars always love to say, "My lord, the times have changed!"?

Yet, what was this? Did the Austrians cross mountains and seas just to tell the Shogunate that the times had not changed? Were they here to help maintain the isolation policy? If so, why were they pointing guns at them?

Countless questions threatened to burst Abe Masahiro's brain. He smiled—a polite, if awkward, smile—because he truly did not know how to respond.

Abe Masahiro and his advisors had spent days and nights agonizing over how to handle the Austrian request to open the country, and he had even prepared for the worst-case scenario: "sacrificing his life for righteousness."

Now, being told that all their previous efforts were in vain left Abe Masahiro feeling both deeply frustrated and caught off guard by a sudden sense of relief, though his intuition warned him that things were not that simple.

Consequently, Abe Masahiro began to laugh toward the heavens, laughing until he could barely breathe before finally stopping.

The surrounding retainers and samurai exchanged confused glances. They had no idea what had happened and even suspected that their Chief Roju had been struck by some sorcery, especially since the leader of the opposing party appeared to be a shrine maiden.

"What you fear is nothing more than unruly mobs, treacherous merchants, disloyal subjects, and foreign barbarians."

With a single, understated sentence, Kagura pinpointed the four things the Shogunate feared most at that moment. In truth, the Shogunate could tolerate the mobs, the merchants, and the barbarians; it was only the "disloyal subjects" that they could not abide.

"What do you mean by 'disloyal subjects'?" Abe