Koutarou had a confused expression as this was the first time he had ever heard such a word.

"What is a ronin?"

"You can understand it as a wandering swordsman," Seiji explained while wiping away the blood at his mouth.

"Oh…" Koutarou glanced over at Seiji's longsword. "A samurai… is that right?"

"It's fine if that's how you look at it."

"Samurai-sama… why were you collapsed here?"

"Because I was fatigued and injured."

"Injuries are no good… Should I take you to an apothecary?"

"No need." Seiji paused for a moment. "Could you please tell me more about the town?'

"About the town?"

"Information about the town, such as how many people live there, who's in charge, how long this town has been around for, and so on."

Why would this person want to know such things? Koutarou was rather confused.

This samurai named "Harano" was truly strange in every way.

Although he was really handsome, his clothes were strange, and his words were also strange. Everything about him was strange… would it really be alright to travel together with such a person?

As a low-born coal seller, Koutarou had never spoken to a samurai before.

In his mind, samurai were authoritative upper-cla.s.s individuals. One would have to be very careful when even approaching them. You might come to a pitiful end if you accidentally enraged a samurai. That was why samurai were to be respected from afar.

But even though Koutarou should have been nervous when talking to a samurai, this samurai was just far too strange. Koutarou was confused to the point of forgetting about his nervousness.

But, the foundational reason was probably because Harano seemed so friendly and warm.

Although he had a sword and claimed to be a samurai, he seemed quite different from the samurai in town… this was something else strange about him.

While Koutarou kept commenting about Seiji in his mind, Seiji was also observing Koutarou.

There was no mistaking it. Koutarou was a spiritual creature.

This "coal seller" named "Koutarou" was no human at all. Seiji could tell that he was a spiritual creature!

A spiritual creature that could talk and had his own will, believing himself to be human… And, apparently, there was even a town here with many similar "people"! Seiji was truly astonished about this, although he didn't allow it to show on his face.

He felt like he had transmigrated yet again. This was deep within the Realm of Cherry Blossoms, close to the Evil G.o.ddess's personal domain. Why were things here like this!?

Seiji didn't understand.

Kazuko was no longer with him. They had gotten separated from each other. He could only hope that she was alright.

Seiji tried to use a spell to contact her, but failed.

Was it that she was unable to enter? Had the Evil G.o.ddess managed to stop her from entering? Or…

Seiji stopped himself from thinking along these lines.

If something bad happened to Kazuko, then he would load. But until he found out, he would first stay here to learn more about what was going on here.

...

Seiji didn't encounter a single other "person" on the mountain path towards the town.

Only when they reached the town did Seiji see other "people". As he expected, they were all actually spiritual creatures, just like Koutarou.

As for the entire town and all the buildings, they were the same as Koutarou's clothes, basket, and coal. Everything was spiritual, not physical.

This was a completely spiritual town filled with only spiritual creatures!

According to Koutarou, he had no idea how many people lived in this town, or how long this town's history was. The samurai were in charge of this town.

Apart from this town, Koutarou didn't know of any other towns. He had never met a single other person from another town before. Neither had he even heard of such a person. Nor had he ever heard of anyone leaving this town.

A completely isolated town… Seiji asked Koutarou, "Do you think that anything is wrong with this?" Koutarou answered "No, not at all." It turned out that Koutarou had never even considered the existence of other towns before.

'Although these spiritual creatures are intelligent and have their own will, they're rather simple,' Seiji thought to himself.

In the streets of the town, Seiji saw that all the other "people" were looking at him as if he was something strange, the same reaction that Koutarou had. To the people of this town, Seiji was unmistakably something strange as he was from the outside world.

Koutarou said goodbye and went off to sell coal. Seiji was left alone on the street as he thought about what he should do next.

Although Seiji was rather curious about how this town was created and maintained, the most important thing right now was his mission to rescue s.h.i.+gure's body.

If the portal that Kazuko opened up for him was correct, then this was where s.h.i.+gure's body was located… Basically, s.h.i.+gure's body was highly likely to be somewhere within this town!

However, this town appeared to be rather large. How was he supposed to locate s.h.i.+gure's body?

Seiji walked around as he thought about things. He then suddenly saw a pack of samurai.

These samurai were wearing traditional samurai garb with swords at their waists. All of them had cla.s.sical bald samurai hairstyles. They all had icy expressions and icy auras as if they had all come out together from some samurai era television drama.

Seiji paused in surprise when he saw them.

The samurais also paused in surprise when they saw Seiji.

Seiji and the samurais all stood perfectly still on the street as snowflakes fell. This scene appeared quite ethereal.

"Hey… who are you!?" the samurai in the lead shouted loudly while placing his hand on his sword.

"I'm just a ronin," Seiji answered.

"A ronin… what is that?" The lead samurai stared at the strange person while slowly approaching.

'What should I do?' Seiji swiftly thought about the matter.

It would become troublesome if he was surrounded. Judging from the samurais' att.i.tude, it didn't seem like they would simply allow him to explain. It might also cause something unexpected to happen if he explained.

It would be the same if he fought with them. Something unexpected might happen.

So, the only remaining choice was to...

Seiji suddenly turned around and ran!

"Stop!!"

The samurais immediately started chasing after him.

They were all astonished by how fast the strange person was at running away. Although the samurais chased him at top speed, they suddenly lost his figure after pa.s.sing through several streets and alleyways.

The samurai leader panted for a while to catch his breath before angrily giving commands to search everywhere for the strange person. However, he didn't notice that the strange person was actually hiding on the rooftop right behind him.

Seiji then swiftly ran off by jumping between rooftops. He finally dropped into an alleyway several hundred meters away.

'Hey, maybe I have the talent to become an a.s.sa.s.sin,' Seiji commented to himself.

The next moment, he suddenly felt unwell as he began to violently cough!

"What's going on?" Seiji frowned after he finished with his coughing fit.

He had already used healing magic to cure himself. His injuries shouldn't have been so serious anymore.

Yet, he was now feeling unwell.

"You've been affected by the ripples in the environment," Yomi suddenly spoke up in his mind.

"By the ripples in the environment?"

"The laws of time and s.p.a.ce in this place are rather unique. Originally, this place has been self-sustained. However, your intrusion caused a breakdown in the status quo, causing a ripple in the environment," his bonded female spirit explained.

"Just like throwing a stone into a pond, then?"

"Yes, that's a good a.n.a.logy. You are the stone that's breaking the original environment here, as well as a leaf that will be affected by the ripples… This effect is like the backlash that you will suffer as the cost for breaking the environment here."

"What should I do, then?" Seiji inquired. "How can I prevent myself from receiving this backlash?'

"It's impossible for the current you to stop it," Yomi answered.