Chapter 24 Ren's Malice
Yukiko led them through winding corridors, while clear, flowing pond water gave the entire garden a spiritual aura.
Although the scenery was beautiful, it was clearly unbearable for boorish men like Oden and Kin'emon.
Kin'emon twisted his face and quietly said to Denjiro, "Wouldn't it be faster to just walk straight? Why do we have to go around like this?"
Oden clearly felt the same. At first glance, the garden was beautiful, but the winding corridors turned what should have been a short journey into a long one.
The greenery and water features were elegant, and the rockeries and carved railings were exquisite, yet they still made them feel uncomfortable.
The long corridors twisted and overlapped like nine-bend intestines. With a single leap, they could easily cross a span of several meters, yet they were forced to follow the path step by step, making Oden feel extremely stifled.
Or rather, restrained.
At this moment, he felt that Kuri, like the Flower Capital, restrained him—not only through its paths, but also through its rules and regulations. It made him want to break free.
What he failed to realize was that acting purely on impulse could not truly be called freedom.
Some of the rules that made him feel restrained were, in fact, necessary.
Of course, he had not yet realized this, and later he would be even less able to understand it.
Right now, all he wanted was to break out of this framework as soon as possible and escape the shackles binding him.
"Hey, woman, tell me which room the Daimyo of Kuri is in. I'll go find him myself!" he shouted at Yukiko.
Hearing this, Yukiko, who was walking ahead, slowly stopped and turned to look at him.
"Go find him yourself? What does that mean?" Yukiko said coldly. "Do you think I would let rude people like you wander freely here?"
Her words were sharp and unrestrained. She disliked Kozuki Oden, and although Lord Ren had requested to see him, he had never said to treat him with courtesy.
Moreover, there were many maids within the Daimyo's Mansion, all of whom she had painstakingly gathered. They were the harem she had built for Ren.
The inner mansion was a place that even those branded with the Serpent's Seal were forbidden to enter. Who knew what these people might do if they saw those beautiful maids?
"To call us rude people…" Kin'emon gritted his teeth, clenching his fists in anger. "Watch your words, woman! The one standing before you is—"
"Wait, Kin'emon. I am no longer the son of the shogun," Oden interrupted, leaving Kin'emon speechless.
"But… but…" Kin'emon and the others could not understand why Lord Oden could still maintain such patience at this moment.
They did not understand, but Ren, who was watching everything from the high pavilion, understood clearly. It was because Oden, with his Kozuki bloodline, possessed extraordinary tolerance.
Seeing this, Ren casually raised his hand and beckoned to a maid.
Keiko, who was on duty serving Ren today, hurried over in small steps. Standing before him, she respectfully asked, "Lord Ren, do you have any instructions?"
Keiko, like Yukiko, had not been branded with the Serpent's Seal. In fact, most of the maids bore no such mark.
Although they had all been gathered by Yukiko, there had been no coercion in the process.
On the contrary, it had allowed many of them to escape suffering.
Keiko had originally lived in another village. Because she was beautiful and from an ordinary background, she was noticed by a local wealthy man.
When his proposal was rejected, he devised a scheme to destroy her family, saddling them with massive debts they could not repay. Originally, she could only be sold into the Yoshiwara as a courtesan to clear the debt.
Later, after hearing about Kuri, Keiko decided that if she was going to enter the Yoshiwara anyway, she might as well go to Kuri. She had heard that courtesans there received a much larger share.
It was also rumored that Kuri's Yoshiwara placed great emphasis on hygiene, greatly reducing the risk of illness.
Keiko had seen courtesans who had fallen sick, and their miserable condition had terrified her.
After enduring many hardships, she finally arrived in Kuri. During registration, she caught Yukiko's attention, who helped her repay her debts and brought her into the Daimyo's Mansion.
Having escaped a fate of repeated exploitation, and with no one else to rely on, Keiko came to regard the Daimyo's Mansion as her home.
Moreover, the Daimyo himself was exceptionally handsome, making her feel as though her life had completely changed.
"Keiko, send someone to inform Yukiko to bring those people to the first floor and avoid any conflict," Ren said calmly.
"Bring them to the high tower?" Keiko exclaimed, covering her mouth in surprise.
"Yes. Go."
"Yes, I understand."
The high tower, or rather the tall building, was the largest structure within the Daimyo's Mansion. It stood like a massive tower with a total of 9 floors.
The bottom 2 floors were used for handling official affairs, while the 3rd floor served as a dining hall, usually reserved for banquets. Each floor above had a different function, but all were places where only maids were permitted to enter.
Normally, outsiders were only received in the council hall of the outer mansion.
Aside from this towering structure, the mansion also contained housing for workers, kitchens, a dojo for training, a private academy, and other facilities.
In the garden, Yukiko faced Oden with a grim expression. Oden did not care about being called rude to his face.
After all, it was true, and not something he felt ashamed of. On the contrary, he took pride in it.
At times, he deliberately committed obvious mistakes simply to experience the exhilaration of breaking free from restraint.
Ren did not dislike straightforward people. In fact, his opinion of Kozuki Oden had changed after watching the anime.
Originally, he felt neither particular fondness nor dislike. However, Oden's refusal to take responsibility as a man, followed by a series of infuriating actions, coupled with a "everyone must like him" causal force no weaker than Red-Hair Shanks' charisma, made Ren despise him.
Even so, this disdain was still far less than what he felt toward Oden's son.
At times, Ren maliciously wondered whether it would be better if that destined-to-die individual were never born, or if he should be born only to suffer torment before death.
"Kozuki Oden, since you have admitted that you are no longer the son of the shogun, then in Kuri, you must act according to Kuri's rules," Yukiko said coldly.
Oden's expression twisted, his face contorting as if layers of flesh were piling atop one another.
Yukiko was half-mad with anger. If a maid had not arrived at that moment to deliver Ren's message, she would likely have already drawn her sword and attacked.
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