Listening to Hong Malu’s account, Gen’nosuke’s thoughts gradually began to follow his line of reasoning.
"You mean the nobles used you to oppose us?"
"But that doesn’t make sense. Whatever they could give you, the Uchiha could give you even more."
Gen’nosuke rejected Hong Malu’s explanation.
But Hong Malu had never been trying to tell Gen’nosuke what Gen’nosuke wanted to hear.
Humans really could only hear what they wanted to hear.
Gen’nosuke wanted to hear the reason for his failure.
Hong Malu, however, wanted to tell him about how meeting Gen’nosuke had changed him, and about the ideals and ambitions those changes had inspired.
"Lord Gen’nosuke, you see? This is the difference between us."
"You are a noble. I’m a poor man."
"Our ways of thinking will always be different!"
"How are they different?"
Gen’nosuke genuinely did not understand.
"The difference is that no matter what happens, you always have a choice."
"We have no choice."
"You can afford to make mistakes."
"I believe that even after what happened today, you’ll still walk away safely."
"But we can’t afford to make even a single mistake."
"Even incorrectly judging the situation surrounding your clan has already brought disaster upon us!"
A helpless, bitter laugh escaped Hong Malu.
It expressed all the sorrow he carried.
But no matter how bitter it was, it could not withstand Gen’nosuke’s persistent questioning.
"Hong Malu, what exactly are you trying to say?"
With a sorrowful smile, Hong Malu continued.
"Lord, what I’m trying to tell you is the difference between poor people like us and nobles like you."
"I want you to understand that, in the end, people like us and people like you can never truly walk the same path."
"Enough!"
Gen’nosuke erupted in fury.
Hong Malu had completely denied everything Gen’nosuke had worked for during this period.
Gen’nosuke almost couldn’t stop himself from running his sword through him.
Hong Malu didn’t care.
He simply wanted to say what he needed to say.
"Lord, do you know something?"
"When the moment of life and death arrives, nobles possess enough wealth to scatter and flee in every direction."
"Their prosperity and decline have never truly been tied to the land beneath their feet."
Hong Malu paused and actually asked Gen’nosuke a question.
"I imagine that if the Land of Fire ever faced a catastrophe, Lord Gen’nosuke, the Lord Kei you speak of would also choose to abandon your country at the first opportunity and take your people somewhere safer, wouldn’t he?"
Gen’nosuke did not answer.
But Hong Malu was telling the truth.
Lord Kei certainly would not sacrifice himself for the Land of Fire.
It was hardly the first time Lord Kei had done something like that.
Seeing Gen’nosuke remain silent, Hong Malu knew he had been right.
A mocking expression appeared on his face.
"You see?"
"It’s exactly as I said."
"As long as you protect your little treasury, even if your country falls, your home doesn’t have to fall with it."
"With your wealth, you can continue living in luxury."
"Seeking profit and avoiding harm is simply your instinct."
"Move somewhere else, and you can continue living the same extravagant life."
"The Uchiha will still be the Uchiha that commands fear throughout the shinobi world."
"There will still be hidden villages willing to accept you."
Everything Hong Malu said was true.
But Gen’nosuke still didn’t want to hear it.
"Hong Malu, you can become Uchiha too!"
"We’re willing to accept you!"
Gen’nosuke felt uncomfortable hearing Hong Malu draw such a sharp line between them.
He wanted Hong Malu to understand that they were both red-eyed people.
They could be one of them.
But Hong Malu did not appreciate the offer.
"No."
"We aren’t."
"We are the red-eyed people—a bunch of wretches who scratch food from the soil."
Hong Malu had a very clear understanding of himself.
"Lord Gen’nosuke, you don’t understand us at all."
"Our ancestors have struggled to survive on this land for generations."
"You don’t understand how deeply we are attached to every blade of grass and every tree here."
"To you, one’s homeland is merely a beautiful memory recalled after drinking and feasting."
"But for us, it is something we have experienced with our own bodies and our own lives."
Hong Malu pointed toward the ground beneath his feet.
"This land beneath my feet may be barren, but we love it."
"It is the place that gave us life and raised us."
"When invaders come, we can only take up our weapons."
"We have nowhere else to go."
"This tiny plot of land beneath our feet is everything we have."
"It is where we make our living."
"No one has the right to make us abandon it."
"And no one can take our land away from us."
This was the first time Hong Malu had ever shouted at the Lord Gen’nosuke he respected.
Yet that roar contained the passion of his entire life.
"To protect the land beneath our feet, even if countless people have already fallen before us, even if this country has already been torn apart, we still have to advance."
"Because we have no way back."
"Because taking even one step backward means the country falls and the home is lost!"
"Loving the place that gave us life and raised us is the only precious thing poor wretches like us possess."
"It is what gives us the courage to stand proudly before the nobles whenever disaster strikes."
"They were born noble."
"But we possess something they do not—a more honorable soul."
Watching Hong Malu become even more impassioned than himself, Gen’nosuke seemed to understand.
But not completely.
"So you’ve classified me as an invader too?"
Hong Malu nodded.
"Isn’t that what you are, Lord?"
"From the moment you people arrived in the Land of Rivers, those rogue shinobi and missing-nin who had been hiding everywhere became increasingly bold."
"Does any of this have nothing to do with you?"
Gen’nosuke did not dare answer.
Because Hong Malu was right.
It really was true.
But why?
Why, if Hong Malu knew that all of this had been orchestrated behind the scenes by the Uchiha, had he still been willing to associate with him for so long?
Seeing Gen’nosuke’s expression, Hong Malu finally felt some relief.
Unfortunately, that relief was merely the temporary satisfaction of winning an argument.
"Lord, I know how powerful you are."
"I’ve also witnessed your wealth."
"Just a few dozen of you can easily manipulate everything in the Land of Rivers."
"Even the daimyō have been forced to flee from place to place because of your arrival."
"But poor people like us aren’t afraid."
"No matter who the enemy is, no matter where the war takes place, we’ll always charge to the front."
"Even if victory is impossible, we are still willing to fight for our country until our blood runs dry!"
Such righteousness made Hong Malu stand proudly beneath Heaven and Earth.
Even the various yokai rampaging around them seemed to keep their distance from him.
"But Hong Malu, why?"
"You knew everything, yet you were still willing to associate with me."
"I may not understand you, but I could feel that you genuinely recognized me."
"That part wasn’t fake, was it?"
"Yes, Lord."
"Lord Gen’nosuke, I truly did recognize you."
"But I only recognized you."
"Although you didn’t understand us, you were still willing to help us."
"We wanted to change you into one of us."
Hong Malu clenched his fist, expressing his determination to Gen’nosuke.
"I wanted to bind your fate tightly to ours, and to the rise and fall of this country."
"We wanted this country to prosper with your help."
"Because only then could we prosper."
"If you knew all of this, why did you still recognize me?"
Gen’nosuke still couldn’t understand.
At Gen’nosuke’s question, Hong Malu burst into laughter.
"Because after all these years, we really have never encountered a noble lord who genuinely cared about poor people."
"Not one who showed us sincere compassion."
"Not one who was willing to spend real money on us."
After saying everything he needed to say, Hong Malu laughed wildly.
His laughter echoed throughout the battlefield for a long, long time.
Until the laughter turned into sobs.
Until even the sobbing finally ceased.
Hong Malu had bent over once more from his laughter.
Then, for the final time, he straightened his back.
He raised his head and looked around.
The mountains and rivers remained unchanged.
The same wind and moon still hung over the land.
The green mountains remain beneath the same clouds and rain; the bright moon itself is my homeland.
"But unfortunately..."
"My homeland is still here."
"But my home is gone."
With those final words, Hong Malu threw himself onto Gen’nosuke’s blade.
The sword pierced through his chest.
Yet he still wore that same smile of deep attachment.
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