"Fine! You're more generous than I am."
Putting herself in Ubume's shoes, Yae Sakura realized she could never be so tolerant. She would protect those children, but as for the other villagers... while being protected, they still doubted and suspected her behind her back, especially when she could hear it all so clearly.
Even if she would not harm them, she would still drive them away and make them struggle to survive outside on their own.
This was an age of chaos. The daimyo levied taxes of sixty to seventy percent, and even the minimum taxes left countless people miserable. Yet even so, they still had to face monster attacks at any time.
In Ubume's village, they did not need to worry about the daimyo's taxes or monster attacks. That alone was an enormous blessing, yet they still could not control their mouths. Why should anyone bother protecting them?
"Don't mind them. I'll take you to see the children!" Ubume did not take those villagers too seriously. Taking them in had only been incidental; the children were the ones she truly cared about.
Of course, she had never expected anything in return for taking in the children. She only hoped they could grow up and gain the strength to survive in this chaotic age. That was why she forced them to practice swordsmanship.
Even now, Ubume could not forget the child she had taken in who had died in a monster's jaws because he had not possessed even the slightest ability to resist. She had once believed that she could protect the children no matter what...
It was from that time onward that she began forcing the children to learn swordsmanship, hoping they would gain the strength to protect themselves.
Led by Ubume, Yae Sakura soon saw more than