[Six o'clock in the Morning]
Lighthearted music echoed through the corridor.
Inside the two-person prison cells, prisoners wearing prison uniforms suddenly woke up.
Among them were high-ranking officials, conglomerate heads, and samurai, all of them were once big figures.
At this moment, all of them silently got up from their beds.
They had thirty minutes to take care of personal chores. At six-thirty, the correctional officers would come to do roll call one by one, take them out for morning jog until seven o'clock, and then go to the cafeteria for breakfast.
The meals didn't taste good, but they could meet basic nutritional needs.
After eating breakfast at seven-thirty, the day's work would begin.
This was a prison within the borders of the Land of Fire. The prisoners' main job recently was using sewing machines to sew clothes for children in impoverished areas.
As for samurai, who were good at using blades, they were assigned to make wooden furniture.
Work ended at five o'clock in the afternoon. After that came dinner, and then a session of studying awakening ideology. At eight o'clock was free rest time, and at nine o'clock the lights were turned off for bed.
This was the daily life of the criminals.
When Tsunade arrived at the prison, it was already eight-fifty in the evening. In a little while, it would be bedtime, and many prisoners were washing up.
When they heard footsteps, and turned around to see Tsunade's trembling bosom, all their eyes froze.
Many people thought beautiful women were rare.
But what was truly rare… was the powerful and wealthy.
To them in the past, women were the easiest resource to obtain. Many times, even when they didn't want them, people who wanted to curry favor would think of ways to stuff beauties into their beds.
It was annoying to the extreme.
Only after entering prison did they realize…
"What was I pretending about back then?"
"Why didn't I sleep with a few more?"
Having held it in for too long, the prisoners rushed to the cell bars, eyes wide open.
But when they clearly saw who the visitor was, the movement of sniffing eagerly froze.
They silently retreated to the corner of the cell, not daring to look again.
Tsunade continued walking until she reached the cell at the end of the corridor.
There were still two people in the cell. One was in his early thirties, tall and straight, it was Sakamoto, the man who previously came to persuade Tsunade and had his pen taken away.
The other was in his fifties, thin, with a long face and drooping eyes, looking muddle-headed. This was the Land of Fire's Daimyo, Uesugi Tadakatsu.
With Sakamoto's service, washing up, soaking his feet, giving a massage, Uesugi Tadakatsu was easing the fatigue from a day's labor.
You could say that after entering prison, status no longer existed, but Sakamoto insisted on serving him.
Tsunade stood outside the cell, watching the scene, and shook her head slightly.
Ryosuke overturned the powerful above the people and gave everyone in the world the qualification to stand up. However, some people, after kneeling too long, grew roots in their knees and simply refused to stand.
There was nothing that could be done about it.
"Did you come to laugh at me?"
The Land of Fire's Daimyo, Uesugi Tadakatsu, slightly turned his head, his drooping eyes casting a look at Tsunade.
Tsunade had met Uesugi Tadakatsu a few times when she took office.
He was considered a fairly good Daimyo, respectful toward subordinates and talented people, and not too harsh toward the citizens in his country.
It was precisely because of this that Tsunade specially came to visit.
She glanced at Uesugi Tadakatsu's throat. There were still strangulation marks from his attempted suicide.
"I heard you tried to commit suicide some days ago. I came here first to visit you, and second to ask you to live properly."
During Uesugi Tadakatsu's term, he had not committed many sins. It was estimated that in five years, he would be able to walk out of prison with a clean record.
"If you were a Daimyo who pursued pleasure, then you can go die."
"But if in your heart, even just a little, you were for this country, and hoped the common people living here could live better lives, then wait five years. Walk out yourself and see for yourself."
"I know you want to question me about 'why didn't I send troops'. After five years, what you see and hear, will be my answer."
Uesugi Tadakatsu stared quietly at Tsunade, saying nothing.
Tsunade passed the gift box through the metal bars, placed it on the floor, then nodded to Uesugi Tadakatsu and turned to leave.
After watching Tsunade's back disappear at the end of the corridor, Sakamoto opened the gift box. Inside were some snacks commonly eaten by commoners, things Uesugi Tadakatsu wouldn't even glance at in the past, but in prison, they were rare treats.
Sakamoto respectfully presented it to Uesugi Tadakatsu.
Uesugi Tadakatsu took it and ate in silence. After a long while, he asked, "Sakamoto, am I really such a terrible Daimyo?"
"No, you were just born in the wrong era."
"What era?"
"The era of Ryosuke."
Uesugi Tadakatsu nodded, savoring the sweetness spreading in his mouth, and said seriously, "Food of the commoners… seems quite good."
Pa!
Lights out.
———
[Land of Wind, Daimyo's Residence]
Tokugawa Shingen stood by the window, looking at the night sky.
He didn't expect Ryosuke would win, and even more so didn't expect that after victory, Ryosuke would deal with the Daimyo and bureaucratic systems of the Fire, Earth, and Lightning countries so decisively and cleanly.
All of this was thanks to the information scroll Nagato left before he died.
Through their previous collaboration, Nagato had basically exposed all the secrets of the three major countries' conglomerates and Daimyo. Even if there were fish that slipped through the net, it wouldn't exceed thirty percent.
Delays would lead to change.
The longer they waited, the less useful the information scroll would become.
Naturally, Ryosuke acted swiftly to cut the mess cleanly.
The three Daimyo never imagined that the ones who sold them out would be the Akatsuki Organization, whom they regarded as their "final hard bones" and "financial backbone."
"Luckily…"
Tokugawa Shingen tapped out a cigarette and held it between his lips. Thinking of others in prison stepping sewing machines while he was still enjoying life, he couldn't help but smile.
"Luckily I surrendered early!"
Just as Tokugawa Shingen was about to light his cigarette, a small hand reached out.
"Give me one."
He glanced at his daughter, Tokugawa Yukino, standing beside him, shook his head helplessly, tapped out another cigarette and placed it between her lips. Yukino bit the cigarette, then lifted her chin at the lighter in her father's hand.
Tokugawa Shingen had no choice but to light hers too.
Only then did Yukino take a satisfied drag and sigh, "I really didn't expect Ryosuke to win."
Tokugawa Shingen froze for a moment.
He thought his daughter was already bewitched by Ryosuke, the type of silly girl who believed Ryosuke could do anything.
Yukino flicked her cigarette and said, "A person ought to have at least a few flaws. Ryosuke looks good, and his personality is the abstinent type. If he also won the world, wouldn't he be an almost perfect man?"
"Why 'almost'?"
Yukino shrugged. "I haven't slept with him, so who knows how 'little Ryosuke' performs."
Such wild and thirsty tiger-wolf words were something Tokugawa Shingen was already used to. He thought for a moment and asked, "Now that the war is over, since you want him, why don't you go to the Land of Water to find Ryosuke?"
Yukino shook her head.
"Dad, you got two things wrong."
"First, I only want to sleep with him, not 'have' him."
"Second, I am a daughter of the desert. By the rules of the desert, when you are thirsty, you may hope for rain to fall from the sky, or hope a camel takes you to an oasis."
"But you must never place your expectations on someone else."
Yukino slowly exhaled a stream of smoke.
"I will make the Land of Wind stronger and stronger, until the day Ryosuke needs something from me…"
"I will sleep him into submission."
Tokugawa Shingen stared blankly at his daughter.
He… was so moved.
The Tokugawa family needed exactly this kind of smart person who wasn't bound by so-called emotions.
After Ryosuke took the world, power would be restrained. But as long as the era of AI ruling everything hadn't arrived, there would still be people making decisions, and people carrying them out.
The Tokugawa family would always be the decision-makers.
"Right, what is Ryosuke doing recently?"
Yukino asked, "Ever since he subdued the Land of Earth, I haven't heard any news about him."
"Him…"
Tokugawa Shingen thought for a moment. "I heard he's looking for a woman lately."
"Who?"
"Seems like her name is…"
"Kaguya."
Yukino frowned slightly. "What kind of trash name is that? Just hearing it, she doesn't sound like a proper woman."
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