Chapter 941: , Originally It Was Ohhou Master!

The luxurious cabin on the ferry's upper deck stern, once the door closed, shut out all sounds from the hallway; the window was a full wall of floor-to-ceiling glass, facing the stern, offering a view so expansive it resembled a massive oil painting mounted on the wall, the sea outside spreading into a deep blue satin with fine ripples under the afternoon's slanting light.

Uesugi Muneyuki stood before the ferry, which would drift at sea for twelve hours before reaching Hachijo Island.

For a time he actually had nothing to do.

The water trail cut by the ship's side as it passed trailed a long, continually diffusing white wake at the stern, that wake in the field of view growing wider and fainter, eventually dissolving into the distant horizon; there were no other ships astern, the sea surface bearing only the ferry's own trace, like Pablo—front forgotten—middle forgotten—end forgotten—Picasso slowly drawing a line with a brush on an endless blue sheet, then another, setting down the brush, never to return.

No one came to disturb in the cabin; the ferry had few passengers, and on such a non-holiday winter afternoon, few would spend several hours on a boat to Hachijo Island.

Uesugi Muneyuki sat a while on the window-side sofa, the sea outside alternating between deep blue and gray-blue, each shift signaling time slipping past unnoticed.

His gaze did not fall on that sea surface, but farther beyond, where behind that sea lay the direction of Hachijo Island, currently invisible, yet gradually rising from below the horizon as the ferry moved.

Exile—what exactly does it feel like?

Uesugi Muneyuki wondered what difference there was between exile to Hachijo Island and exile to Ningguta and being enslaved by armored men.

Probably the only common point is that he does not want to try any of them.

Loyalty!

Humph, before satisfying the change to Han feet, I won't utter a single word!

Afterwards Uesugi Muneyuki recalled Ukita Hideie.

As Maeda Toshihide said, after Ukita Hideie was exiled, his days on Hachijo Island were not harsh; the Maeda family sent goods at least twice a year and exchanged letters twice, Hideie here fathered children, and the Maeda family had already secured his pardon and was willing to put up 100,000 koku for him—why did he refuse?

One person guarded that memory for decades until death. Why? Merely because of loyalty? Or because he knew something others did not?

If he were truly loyal, he should understand that Tokugawa Ieyasu was then gradually dismantling the Toyotomi administration.

A true loyalist ought to have stepped forward.

Thus the only explanation is that Ukita Hideie still has another mission.

Mai Xuejie once said that in the Sengoku period, Uesugi Kenshin, Oda Nobunaga, Akechi Mitsuhide, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and Nankobo Tenkai all became New Gods, Nankobo Tenkai being also the most recent and last New God, all the way to An.

Though generally looked down upon, Oda Nobunaga is actually a very charismatic person, merely severely lacking empathy, and unlike what everyone imagines, his military ability is in fact very strong, not inferior to Uesugi Kenshin, and Nobunaga's strategic ability is even more outstanding, while Kenshin's diplomatic ability is abysmal and heavily reliant on Jiang Shizuoka and Konoe Saku, strategically only realizing the problem in his later years, yet before Kenshin's death he was still torn over preparing to march again in Kanto.

After becoming a New God, Nobunaga madly used New God power and nearly unified Japan; Mitsuhide, after ascending as a New God, resolved to kill Nobunaga and launched the Honnō-ji Incident, but Nobunaga was not so easily defeated, Mitsuhide exhausted New God power to defeat him, only to be driven back by Hideie at the Battle of Tennozan.

Ieyasu watched all this.

Therefore, compared to these few, Tokugawa Ieyasu is far more restrained.

After becoming a New God, Ieyasu has always been restrained, only occasionally revealing sharpness, such as the Battle of Komaki and Nagakute, such as Sekigahara and the Siege of Osaka, his life maintained restraint and endurance, never indulging, never reckless, and precisely because of this he only exhausted all New God power at the Siege of Osaka and passed peacefully.

But Toyotomi Hideyoshi is not.

Nobunaga is. Mitsuhide is. Ieyasu is. Kenshin is. They each walked different paths, each in their own way becoming transcendent existences beyond mortals, but Hideyoshi did not.

He was merely a mortal, a mortal who climbed from peasant to ruler of the world, a mortal who spent his life pursuing things he could never truly possess.

Upon further reflection, the whereabouts of Oda Nobunaga's corpse and bone ash are likely unknown because Mitsuhide took them, but Mitsuhide's remains were obtained by Hideyoshi.

Further reflection: An desperately sought Kenshin's bone ash.

Uesugi Muneyuki had a hypothesis.

That is, what Ukita Hideie desperately guards might be Mitsuhide's New God bone ash! Thus he would rather abandon everything and persist in exile, guarding Hachijo Island to fulfill Hideyoshi's final entrustment and firmly prevent Ieyasu from obtaining Mitsuhide's remains to use against the Toyotomi descendants.

Does Ieyasu know?

Without doubt, Ieyasu absolutely knows!

What kind of person is Tokugawa Ieyasu? The one of the Three Great Unifiers who finally unified the realm, the one who established the Tokugawa new system, and moreover the one who could abdicate in life to allow smooth, stable succession of power; his nickname before being called the Old Turtle was "Old Raccoon Dog," cunning and deeply thoughtful.

Yet Ieyasu still spared Hideie, spared Mitsuhide's remains, and originally intended to spare the entire Toyotomi clan, if not for Chacha's deadlock with Ieyasu, firmly refusing transfer and firmly refusing dissolution of the Toyotomi administration, the Toyotomi clan would at least not lose their lives, and facing the Yonezawa Uesugi, the Old Turtle ultimately chose pardon, even facing the son of Ishida Mitsunari who became a monk, Ieyasu did not exterminate them to the last, and it is said Mitsuhide's several sons lived to ninety.

Capable yet restrained, possessing New God power but not using it lightly, hiding behind the scenes coldly observing all while maintaining benevolence, striving to let Japan, whose rites and music have collapsed, return to the proper path, and maintaining three hundred years of peace and general stability.

Lord Ieyasu truly is a decent person!

But if my speculation is true, then it indicates a very bad omen!

Very bad!

Namely, the Hachijo Island side has already————

The door was knocked.

The knocking was light, but the rhythm clear, intervals even, as if the person at the door knew exactly what they wanted and also knew the person inside would not refuse her.

Uesugi Muneyuki withdrew his thoughts. "Please come in."

He knew who it was.

Originally it was Oh Master!

The door was pushed open a crack, Ikeda Erena slipped in sideways. She did not immediately close the door, first using her shoulder to brace it, then retreating half a step, pulling the door shut behind her.

The sound of the latch tongue snapping into the door frame was exceptionally clear in the quiet cabin, like the whistle before kickoff in a World Cup final.

"Master?" Uesugi Muneyuki narrowed his eyes, half-smiling: "Not sleeping a while?"

Ikeda Erena's face instantly flushed, she revealed an ambiguous smile, coquettishly saying: "Do it first, then sleep."

After speaking, Erena planted her hands on her hips, gesturing please, staring intently at me!

Uesugi Muneyuki involuntarily let his gaze slowly drift downward.

Today Erena wore a deep navy Metropolitan Police Department standard winter uniform coat, tailored close-fitting, the waist-cinching line sculpting her figure like a carefully shaped sculpture.

The coat's hem just covered the hip bones, revealing a section of deep gray straight skirt, the skirt hem about three fingers above the knee, when walking the fabric swayed slightly with the stride's rhythm, revealing the leg lines wrapped in a pair of thick black velvet "passionate" silk stockings.

The velvet's texture fine and uniform, under the cabin's warm yellow light it emitted a soft, sandpaper-like sheen, those gleams flowing along the leg's contours with each shift in stance, from ankle up the calf's arc, past the back of the knee, disappearing where the skirt hem conceals, and moreover the back of the stockings bears a fine shrimp line, from ankle extending upward until vanishing between the skirt hem.

On her dainty feet she wore a pair of black red-soled high heels, the shoe surface matte lacquer, the heel slender and upright, about nine centimeters high.

That red on the sole under light resembles blood or lipstick, starting from the heel's base, extending to the forefoot's edge, like a thin, fixed flame.

Her hair today hung loose, medium-length dark brown strands slightly curled inward at the shoulders, a few strands falling at the cheeks, accentuating her features: the brow's arc, the cheekbone's height, the lip's fullness, each as if meticulously calculated.

She walked up to Uesugi Muneyuki, stood before his knees, lowered her head to look at him, bathed in light with a gentle yet focused meaning: "Muneyuki~"

"I saw clearly, originally it was Ohhou Master!" Uesugi Muneyuki laughed.

"Fulfilling all the Master's needs is your duty as a disciple!" Seeing Uesugi Muneyuki not refuse, Erena immediately bent over, hands braced on the sofa armrests, her whole body looming above, close enough for him to smell that faint body wash scent on her, mixed with the sea wind's saltiness from outside the window.

"Muneyuki, are you feeling better?" Her voice was a little lower than usual: "You haven't even glanced at me lately?"

""

"Is it still because of what happened before? I told you, I have nothing to do with Ahiru. We were indeed master and disciple, but when Ahiru hinted that he wanted me to accept his private guidance, I ran away. Are you bothered by that?" Eirina's voice trembled: "I was your first, you know that, right on the hospital bed in the VIP ward of Tokyo Medical and Dental University, where you inspected the goods!"

Uesugi Muneyuki leaned against the sofa back, his gaze moving from her face to the exposed line of her collarbone, then back to her eyes. "I haven't been feeling well lately. I need time to recover."

"How about now? Have you recovered?" Eirina tilted her head, light falling on his face, full of anticipation.

"I have recovered."

"That's good." She didn't look away. Her face slowly lowered, her lips brushing the edge of his ear, her breath forming a small patch of warm, slightly humid air in the close proximity: "That thing that bastard Ahiru can never get, it belongs only to you, okay?"

"I like that line!" Uesugi Muneyuki instantly felt very comfortable upon hearing it~

The Master has become increasingly articulate under his training.

"Hehe~ I knew you'd like it, it's Minami who taught me!" Eirina's expression lit up, she retreated half a step, straightened up, and spun in front of him, her spine held very straight, her waistline presenting a smooth curve under the waist-cinching design of the uniform coat, the seam of the black velvet pantyhose at the waist mostly covered by the skirt hem, only a small edge exposed.

She wrapped her arms around Uesugi Muneyuki's neck: "How do you like this uniform? I changed into it especially. Metropolitan Police Department winter suit, thick black velvet pantyhose, red-soled high heels. All your favorites."

After speaking, she didn't wait for his answer, turned around to face him again, pressed her knee against the edge of the sofa cushion, leaned her whole body forward, a pair of arms wrapping around his neck, the fabric of her chest pressing against his sternum through two layers of clothing.

His chin rested just right on top of her head, her hair strands brushing against his jawline as she sat on his lap.

Uesugi Muneyuki lifted his hand from the sofa armrest and placed it on her waist: "Excellent, I really like it."

Her back arched slightly in his palm, as if triggered by a switch, then her whole body softened further in his embrace as she leaned in to kiss him.

"Muneyuki, you bastard, you're really hateful!"

"But Muneyuki is the best!"

I am the divider line for "Muneyuki is the best," and at the same time, in the ferry's public lounge, Maeda Toshihide and Asō Kōta sat facing each other on either side of a small table by the window, the tabletop spread with two half-finished cups of Coca-Cola.

Outside the window, the sea surface was rapidly receding; inside, the argument between the two people was quickly heating up.

No outsiders around, no need to pretend.

Tyrant's Will, activate!

Today either I bully you, or you bully me!

Asō Kōta first recommended Korean entertainment to Maeda Toshihide.

"Even if Kim Tae-yeon is Ultraman, I still like her!" Asō Kōta said earnestly.

"Kim Tae-yeon is what cjb, she's already had plastic surgery to look like an alien, you should still like your Lisa and your Crazy Horse Show!" Maeda Toshihide obviously had no interest in Korean entertainment.

Asō Kōta's recommendation failed, so he changed the topic.

"In terms of open-world detail handling, Genshin Impact is in a league of its own. Wuthering Waves is not bad either, but it still lags behind in detail polishing."

Asō Kōta put down his coffee cup, leaned his body slightly forward: "If you want to talk details, Wuthering Waves' action system is much smoother than Genshin Impact's. Genshin Impact's combat feel is notoriously sticky. Moreover, Wuthering Waves' character design better fits modern aesthetics."

"Do you know why Genshin Impact's scenery can be done so well? Because they invested a lot of effort into the background story. When you visit Liyue, you'll feel it's alive. That kind of immersion isn't piled up by technology, it's piled up by heart."

"I admit Genshin Impact's scene construction does have a set, but games can't just look at scenery, right? Combat system smoothness,

character motion continuity, operation feedback immediacy—these are what determine whether a game is fun or not. Wuthering Waves' optimization in this area is obviously better. Moreover, its character design has more tension, more breakthrough feeling."

"Genshin Impact is awesome!"

"Wuthering Waves is awesome!"

"I, Wang Baobao, am not convinced!"

"Blue Jade Explosive Kill, you original final boss!"

The two couldn't convince each other.

The sea surface outside the window began to show noticeable undulations at some point, the ferry's forward motion accompanied by a continuous,

like being pushed sideways by something, a swaying, not large in amplitude but very high in frequency.

Maeda Toshihide's plastic cup slid slightly on the tabletop with the ship's rhythm.

Asō Kōta reached out to steady his own cup, his gaze withdrawing from outside the window: "How come the boat is shaking so unusually?

Maeda Toshihide also felt that continuous sway: "No way. It's a ferry. Wind and waves on the sea surface are normal."

Asō Kōta also followed suit and lifted his cup, the two made eye contact, then simultaneously put their coffee cups back on the table.

"Do you feel————this swaying rhythm is off? Normally it's sway a bit, pause, then sway again, but this one just keeps swaying?"

Maeda Toshihide fell silent for a moment: "Maybe it's because today's wind direction is special? Or maybe this sea area is naturally like this?"

Asō Kōta looked out the window at the rapidly changing sea surface, the wind and waves were indeed much stronger than before, but not strong enough to make a large ferry continuously shake.

He turned his head to look at Maeda Toshihide, opened his mouth to say something, when the floor beneath his feet transmitted another more obvious sway.

This time the amplitude was larger than before, the plastic cup on the table slid to the edge. The ship then stabilized again: "Forget it. Doesn't matter. Anyway, we can't get off the ship. Keep chatting. Do you play Punishing: Gray Raven? If you do, we can still talk about the plot link between Wuthering Waves and Punishing: Gray Raven."

"No, thanks." Maeda Toshihide shook his head, he casually said: "Indeed, you still have to look at the feet, I now understand Uesugi Chief's hobby, I made plans with several COSER for the New Year holiday, each one is black and stinky, disgusting to me!"

"So you're a congee batch!" Asō Kōta immediately sneered: "Congee batch, enough already, wait for the fungal infection! Pure trash! I still like Blue Archive! Big is beautiful! The big thrown grenades are the right way!"

"What, so you're a blue batch!" Maeda Toshihide's face full of shock.

On the ferry, a new round of war has begun!