A remote area of North District 68
The concentration of Reishi here is thin
Sixth Division's four Squad Member are surrounded, two in front and two in the back, sandwiching Uesugi family's team in the middle. Their hands are pressed on the handles of their swords. There are many noble guard tasks, and there is no need to use brains to direct where to put your hands.
Uesugi family's nephew was sitting on the sedan, using a folding fan to block the sun. He glanced at the mines on both sides and curled the corners of his mouth downwards. His expression seemed to say: That's it? After running for several days, just to see a few holes?
Behind the sedan were three attendants, one holding the Reishi detector for surveying, one carrying the iron box containing the samples, and the other carrying Uesugi family's family crest flag "Bamboo Sparrow Crest", which was the family crest passed down by Uesugi family for more than ten generations. The two sedan bearers walked in tandem, their footsteps heavy, and each step made a creaking sound on the gravel ground.
Behind them is the team of Uesugi family. Uesugi is not Four Great Noble Clans, but it ranks high among Upper Nobility. The family operates minerals. Reishi Iron Ore, Reishi Crystal Ore, Seireitei and Reishi have a small amount of equipment and materials passed through their home.
This time I came to North District 68 to confirm the situation of a Reishi Iron Ore mine. The report said that the reserves had changed and that on-site inspection was required. The owner of the Uesugi family family did not come. Instead, it was the nephew of the family owner, a man in his early thirties, wearing a dark blue straight coat and a decorative folding fan hanging from his waist. He was sitting on an open-air sedan. He was not very satisfied with this trip and his brows had not loosened since the departure.
North District 68 is not a good place
The bigger the number Rukongai is, the more desolate it is. District 68 is already a place where even the Tenth Division patrol team is too lazy to go every day. The mine is at the junction of District 68 and District 69. Further north are District 70, District 71, and all the way to District 80.
Even the people at Rukongai call those areas "the back"
People from Uesugi family come here not for fun, but for Reishi Iron Ore, Reishi Iron Ore is the strategic material of Seireitei, Gotei 13's equipment, Noble Armed Forces's military uniforms, and even Shin'ō Academy's training equipment are inseparable from it. Whoever masters the mines masters one of the lifebloods of Seireitei.
The entrance to the mine is an open-pit mine that has been mined, with piles of excavated earth and rocks on both sides, forming a natural narrow passage. The ground inside the mine is uneven, with abandoned mine cars and scattered broken ore everywhere. When the wind blows over the edge of the mine, it makes a whistling sound, as if something is crying in the cracks of the rocks.
"We're here." Seated Officer stopped at the entrance of the mine and signaled the team to stop. Uesugi family's nephew got off the sedan, patted the dust on his clothes, and looked around with a frown.
"That's it? The reserves report says there are new mineral veins. Where are the people? Where are the people surveying?"
"The survey team should be deep in the mine," the attendant reminded in a low voice.
"Then go in." Uesugi family's nephew waved his folding fan and walked inside.
The people in the dark were squatting in the ruins outside the mine. They were not just one or two people, but a group. They were squatting behind collapsed houses, in dry ditches, and in grass half as high as a person. Their clothes were shabby and their weapons were crude. They had iron knives, wooden sticks, and sharpened bamboo poles.
And Sixth Division, the noble guards are completely uninterested in the beggars who are directly wearing rags.
The two people who spoke were squatting at the front. One was dark-skinned, the other was younger, thin, with a pointed chin and big eyes.
Two people squatted behind a low wall half as high as a person, with their heads sticking out and then back in. The dark one was the head, and everyone called him "the head", not because he had a name, but because he was the first to stand up and say "Follow me," and the others followed.
"Hey boss, there are four Soul Reaper. Do we really want to intercept this noble?" The younger brother's voice was very low.
The head's eyes did not leave the distant team
He counted four Soul Reaper, one noble, three attendants, and two bearers, a total of ten people.
Soul Reaper is trouble, but there are only four of them. There are dozens of people on his side. It's not that dozens of people can fight, but dozens of people rush up. Even with the number of people, they can swamp four Soul Reaper. The question is not whether they can fight, the problem is whether they can fight. What to do after that? Soul Reaper will chase, Seireitei will investigate, and Sixth Division will send more people. By then, instead of dozens of people squatting in the ruins, there will be dozens of corpses lying in the wilderness.
But he still wants to intercept it, not because he is crazy, but because he needs it.
"Our boss hates nobles very much."
The head's voice was louder than that of the younger brother, with a "you don't understand" determination. "If you do this job, maybe you can be favored by the boss."
The younger brother blinked a few times. "Really? How do you know that the boss hates nobles?"
The head's gaze retracted from a distance and fell on the younger brother's face.
He was silent for a moment, as if hesitating whether to speak, and then he spoke, his voice lower than before, low enough that only the younger brother could hear. "I once heard the boss scolding the nobles in the air by the river."
The younger brother was stunned. "... to the air?"
"Yeah. He cursed in the air for a long time. The words he cursed were very unpleasant. I didn't understand some of them, but I did understand the word 'noble'. He wasn't scolding any specific aristocrat, but the word 'noble', all of it."
The little brother's mouth opened and closed again
He didn't quite understand what "noble" was, and he didn't understand why some people would curse in the air, but he knew one thing. Tou felt that it was worth doing, that if he did it he would be favored by the boss, and that it was important to be favored by the boss. That was enough. His brain didn't need to think too much. His brain was for listening, not thinking.
Tou stood up from behind the low wall, hunched over, and waved towards the ruins behind him. The dense crowd lowered their bodies at the same time, and dozens of pairs of eyes looked in the direction of Tou at the same time.
"When they enter the mine, the terrain inside the mine is narrow and Soul Reaper cannot unfold. We will cover them up and hold the nobles down first. If Soul Reaper doesn't chase us, we won't fight."