Horizon:GT3 Chapter14

Chapter 14: Resistance and Strength

Nowwww

What’re you gonna doooo?

Point Allocation (No Regrets, Okay?)

○

Silver Wolf: “Um, mother? I know you’re playing the role of Ishin Suden, but your hints like ‘has she figured it out?’ do actually have a payoff later, I hope?”

Still Got It: “Don’t be ridiculous, Nate. There’s nothing to worry about.”

Silver Wolf: “R-really? That’s good. So you were basing that hint on something?”

Still Got It: “Testament, nothing at all to worry about. Because I’m having fun with it.”

Flat Vassal: “Asama-saaaaan! Asama-saaaan! Prepare a correction!”

Asama: “Well, the thing is, we’ve started on a new chapter, so any corrections will have to wait until after we’ve compiled everything together.”

Vice President: “Hmm. Well, for now, we might as well keep going.”

●

Masazumi had some thoughts on the matter, but she decided to go for it anyway. She tapped the sign frame displaying the 13 articles of the Buke Shohatto.

“We’ve already discussed Article 1, so let’s skip it here. To start with, I want to see if we have a consensus on the 12 remaining articles.”

2. Show restraint in drink and amusement.

Don’t be a drunk or a lazy bum, mkay?

3. Do not harbor those who violate the Shohatto.

Report anyone who disobeys these laws, mkay?

4. Rebels and killers must not be employed and must be expelled.

No hiring terrorists or murderers, mkay?

5. People of other domains must not be employed.

No hiring people from other domains, mkay?

6. Building new castles and repairing old castles without advance notice is forbidden.

No building or fixing castles without letting us know, mkay?

7. Report any in neighboring domains who are plotting rebellion.

Report any rebels you notice, even if they’re with your neighbors, mkay?

8. Marriage without permission is forbidden.

The buke can’t get married without our permission, mkay?

9. Each daimyo must periodically visit Edo to serve the shogunate.

Come visit us from time to time, mkay?

10. Follow the rules for clothing based on status.

We’ll choose the fashions for different kinds of people, mkay?

11. Restrict who can ride a palanquin regardless of status.

Don’t squander money riding around on palanquins all the time, mkay?

12. Be frugal.

Don’t waste money, mkay?

13. Domain leaders must choose capable people for government roles.

Domain leaders need to focus on skill and capability when filling government jobs, mkay?

Suden viewed the indicated 12 articles and nodded.

“Musashi Vice President, I will let you lead here. Give your thoughts on these 12 articles. But no need to go in order – you can start with the simplest ones.”

“Judge. We have already categorized them, so I appreciate that.

“Now,” she said, selecting three from the list.

2. Show restraint in drink and amusement.

Don’t be a drunk or a lazy bum, mkay?

11. Restrict who can ride a palanquin regardless of status.

Don’t squander money riding around on palanquins all the time, mkay?

12. Be frugal.

Don’t waste money, mkay?

“I think both the Far East and the other nations can manage these three without issue.”

“Why?”

“Because many religions say the same things Tsirhc does: control your gluttony and sloth – and the same goes for lust if you include the addition. Not seeking the easy way out and avoiding waste is a basic restriction seen even in the deadly sins.

“Also,” she added. “The palanquin in article 11 can refer to any similar human-powered vehicle. Vehicles of that sort have existed in other nations and the article establishes a restriction to their use. Not a full ban.”

“Then,” said Suden. “What if I told you to precisely define that restriction?”

Masazumi knew what she wanted to say to that.

“The Catholics and Mlasi can use their similar doctrines. That will allow the Testament Union nations to take part without any negative influence from the provisional rulers.”

“So you’re taking their religion’s teachings hostage?”

Suden leaned back in her chair and shrugged.

“Fine. …This much is so basic there’s really no point in even restricting it. If anything, you could say the Far East will be applying the other nations’ lifestyle to themselves. Continue.”

●

…So she’ll allow me that much, will she?

Masazumi breathed a sigh of relief on the inside.

It was true that articles 2, 11, and 12 were related to lifestyle and, as Suden had said, most religions made similar commands.

Horizey: “Hm, restrictions on gluttony, sloth, and lust? We gave those articles a very Horizon flavor.”

They were like that to begin with, actually.

But this was a big step forward.

…Now we know Suden isn’t the type to only be satisfied if she wins every single round, whether or not it actually matters to her overall goal.

If Masazumi had a proper understanding of the article and could make sure there were no flaws or deficiencies when it was issued, then Suden would accept her view.

Masazumi’s relief must have shown on her face because Suden smiled bitterly.

“You sure look pleased.”

“Only because I don’t know the difficulties awaiting us. Feel free to smile with me.”

Now it was time to move on. If those three were accepted…

…The next safest category would be these.

3. Do not harbor those who violate the Shohatto.

Report anyone who disobeys these laws, mkay?

9. Each daimyo must periodically visit Edo to serve the shogunate.

Come visit us from time to time, mkay?

“I would like to provide my view of articles 3 and 9.”

●

“Takarazuka Honda-kun is testing her this time.”

Naito responded to Neshinbara’s comment.

“What do you mean, Bara-yan?”

“Judge. The two articles she just presented are fairly risky when it comes to checking them. Article 3 is similar to those Stuart-kun was worried about. It deals with the treatment of criminals who break the laws. And then article 9 relates to visits to Edo. Do you know what those visits mean? The daimyo of each domain must visit Edo to complete the government matters Matsudaira prepares for them. That rule will mean visiting Musashi as their ruler. She has to tread carefully here.”

“First he asks the question and then he answers it.”

Naruze’s comment made Mary “pft” with laughter, forcing her to look away.

…Easy laughers are valuable.

Naito felt like the rest of them were so well trained it took too much to make them laugh, but that was fine, she supposed.

“But what is she testing?” asked Naito with a tilt of the head.

Just then, Masazumi spoke from beyond the tent.

“Article 3 concerns harboring violators of the Shohatto. Depending on the severity of their crime, violators will be subjected to a Shinto divine punishment in which fruit is jammed up their butt, luminescent ink periodically comes from their urethra, an ‘I violated the Shohatto’ alarm blares around them, and any accomplices receive a bamboo shoot up the butt for a minimum of three years.”

And…

“For article 9, anyone who does not visit the Musashi at their set time will – using our Chancellor as a basis – be forced to visit us in the nude with ‘loser’ written on their gut. If they attempt to put on any clothing, a Shinto divine punishment will cause the clothing to explode and they will receive an electrified lightning rod up the butt for three years.”

“Wait!” Suden shouted in response to Masazumi’s “test”. “No one ever said to take it that far!”

●

Masazumi glared at Suden.

“Oh, c’mon. Yesterday you wouldn’t shut up about how we couldn’t take the world so lightly.”

“The original Shohatto says nothing about fruit from the butt or an electrified rod!”

Asama cleared her throat behind Masazumi.

“Excuse me, but that is an electrified lightning rod, not just an electrified rod. Because it is a Takemikazuchi punishment.”

Oh, the nitpicking begins, thought Masazumi as Asama continued, glaring at Suden.

“Listen. When it comes to gods, you must be precise in your language. Also, Shinto punishments for failing to visit also include sinking a bamboo leaf to the bottom of a hot bath and having them perch naked atop the bath to see how long they can last before falling in, but that one was rejected for taking too much time.”

“Tomo? What’s the point of the bamboo leaf in the bath?”

“Well, as a nudity-based punishment, the original version had them perch atop the bath with all four limbs and see if they could collect the bamboo leaf with their ‘hand of god’, but someone inevitably shoved them in from behind and it was decided that went too far. The bamboo leaf is a relic of that time, so you can really see the depth of divine punishment history. …But anyway, please continue.”

“Riiight,” said Suden, with a nod and a breath. Then she opened a sign frame with hooded eyes, navigated to the main Shinto site, and searched for punishment information.

“It’s real!? What the hell!? How do you people live here!?”

“Word of warning: protesting my personal opinion is fine, but I wouldn’t defy Shinto if I were you. It’s a rare example of an underground religion that was opened up to the public. It’s a bit much for amateurs.”

“Hm,” groaned Suden as she bookmarked a few reference pages. And, “So you’re turning these articles into a show?”

“What makes you say that?”

“Well.” Suden smiled bitterly and tapped the table once. “The original text for article 3 creates an unworkable loop.”

●

Masazumi considered Suden’s words.

…So she’ll even take issue with what amounts to wordplay!?

Well, she is the one who trying to make use of all this.

Then Suden pointed at article 3 on the sign frame.

“Do not harbor those who violate the Shohatto. The original text says, ‘those who violate the Shohatto, must not be hidden in the domains.’ But if harboring violators is banned, than the ones doing the harboring are violators themselves. You see what happens to them at that point, don’t you?”

“Judge,” replied Masazumi. “If the ones being harbored don’t report on the violation of the ones harboring them, then they too are harboring violators.”

So if that law was applied as written, something unusual happened.

“The positions of harboring and being harbored swaps places endlessly, creating an infinite loop.”

“Ha ha,” laughed Suden. “I’ve shown this to a few people before, but – while it admittedly isn’t a huge sample size – the only ones who’ve been able to identify that on sight were Galileo and Innocen. Well done.”

●

While laughing, Suden decided to deal with article 9 as well.

“The visiting requirement is also no more than a show because it’s either voluntary or it requires you to demand a visit before it holds any real power. So what would you say if I demanded you request a visit?”

“Judge. I would refuse, saying you don’t have the authority.”

“Why not?”

The Musashi Vice President opened a sign frame.

“These are the Buke Shohatto. But not yours. This is the second version issued in 1635.”

The second Buke Shohatto established a certain rule.

“Article 2 says that both daimyo and minor lords must alternate between living in their home domain and Edo. It also requires a visit during the fourth month of each year.”

What did that mean? The Musashi Vice President gestured toward Suden’s Buke Shohatto.

“Your Buke Shohatto did not specify a time for the visits and not even the additions established the number of people required. The actual system was only established in 1635. Thus, the visits in your Buke Shohatto were not an alternating system. They could be done voluntarily or on request, but whether or not they would happen at all was beyond the scope of those Buke Shohatto. That leaves it up to our discretion.”

Meaning…

“It would be a shame to get rid of article 9, so it should be used to make a show.”

●

Gin sighed.

…Systematizing the visits would be a bigger problem for the western nations.

Tres España had just lost the Armada Battle and were in the process of recovering. If a law were established requiring systematic visits, that future debt would weight them down even if it would only happen after Musashi’s rule began.

“But when creating the 1635 system, the Buke Shohatto warn that the visits should not be made too extravagant. I imagine the shogunate wasn’t interested in being a huge burden on the other domains – they only wanted to test those domains’ allegiance and to centralize their regional thoughts.”

The Secretary began explaining even though no one had asked, but…

…They’ve asked to have my inherited name revoked, yet I am still worried about my homeland.

Still, this was a time for battle. The Musashi Vice President, who would be her and Muneshige’s representative from now on, and the rest of Musashi were taking on the world using their speech. And…

“Now, let’s move on,” began the Musashi Vice President.

●

Masazumi decided to end this all at once.

…I have momentum on my side.

She doubted momentum was enough for an opponent like this, but she wanted every advantage she could get. So…

5. People of other domains must not be employed.

No hiring people from other domains, mkay?

10. Follow the rules for clothing based on status.

We’ll choose the fashions for different kinds of people, mkay?

13. Domain leaders must choose capable people for government roles.

Domain leaders need to focus on skill and capability when filling government jobs, mkay?

“I would like to do these three articles together. Is that alright?”

●

“So she’s doing those three at once.”

Mary checked those articles on the Shinto sign frame Asama had lent her. Next to her, Tenzou nodded and drew three red circles around article 1 and the other five articles they had covered.

“Completing them at once will be easier.”

“Won’t that complicate things?”

“No, because she has categorized them. First, article 1. Then articles 2, 11, and 12. And then articles 3 and 9. Each of those categories can be resolved with a single argument. Article 1 with a curriculum. Articles 2, 11, and 12 with religious guidance. And articles 3 and 9 as a show. And Suden-dono treated each article in a category the same way, which is convenient for us since it makes it easier for us to get them through.”

In that case, thought Mary.

“The next three articles can be treated as a group in the same way?”

“Judge. Once those three are through, our total will be up to 9. That brings us past the halfway mark. We can only hope Masazumi-dono keeps up the good work.”

●

…Suden has to have noticed our ‘Cram It All Through’ strategy (named by Horizey).

Masazumi decided to be as cautious as possible.

…Just like the meetings in England.

The idiot had left her in charge of the meetings at Mikawa and England.

And now the idiot was in the tent behind her, but he hadn’t done anything.

That meant everything was fine for now.

“I’ll get right to the point. For articles 5, 10, and 13, I say…”

A breath.

“They are all already established by the academy rules, or do not need to be established to that extent. That means these three articles have already been resolved by each nations’ academies. So issuing them will not cause any form of restriction.”

“Oh?”

Suden leaned back a bit.

Just as Masazumi felt a “here it comes” of anticipation, it did indeed come.

“What are you, a fool!?”

And there it came.

●

Suden raised her voice and slammed down on the table.

“Article 5 bans the hiring of foreigners and you’re trying to claim the academy rules already do that!?”

“Judge! The academies hire their Chancellor’s Officers and Student Council. Since those are selected from that nation’s students, they are automatically people of that nation and not foreigners!”

Without a “so”, the Musashi Vice President waved a hand.

“It goes without saying! There’s no need to write up a rule for something that happens automatically!”

“Then what if circumstances lead an academy to hire a student from another nation!? If no one suitable is found among an academy’s personnel, they could call in someone foreign! What then!? If you allow that, someone is bound to take advantage of it to bolster their strength!”

“If it is part of the history recreation, then it is based on the Testament and can be allowed. If not, they can be considered an aide with someone else designated as their supervisor!”

“You fool!”

Suden raised her voice.

…Why would you give the world nations a way to gather strength!?

But before she could say that out loud, the Musashi Vice President spoke up with the intensity of an interruption.

“The history recreation must take priority above all else! You can apply restrictions using the Buke Shohatto, but you can’t restrict the history recreation! Or are you trying to say you stand above even the Testament!?”

“My Buke Shohatto are a history recreation!”

“Then your Buke Shohatto only need to complete a history recreation of ‘preventing the hiring of foreigners’!”

●

…This girl!

The Musashi Vice President is different from yesterday, thought Suden. She’s switching between arguments a lot faster.

This was the Catholic-style pitting of arguments against each other. Suden’s arguments were based on an imagined future, not on the past, which gave her little in the way of precedent to work with.

But during their debate yesterday, she had overwhelmed the Musashi Vice President. Yet today…

…How is she suddenly capable of dealing with me!?

She looked to the Musashi Vice President and the light in her hand.

That was a sign frame. But not just one. And none of them stayed there long.

As soon as they appeared, they would shatter and vanish, only to be replaced by a new one moments later. The process repeated with dizzying speed, so it looked to Suden like a single, vibrating sign frame.

“Is that…?”

She knew the answer. That was for use against her.

Several different countermeasures for Suden’s arguments were being displayed.

“Hah! So you made sure you were good and prepared, did you!?”

After a slow start to lower Suden’s guard, the Musashi Vice President was pushing to finish this. These three articles would bring them well past the halfway mark. So the Musashi Vice President had decided now was the time.

“You have good instincts!”

●

Mitotsudaira saw Asama’s hand racing along a sign frame.

…Wow, she’s fast!

She was only using her right hand, but she wasn’t extending that arm and she had her left hand reaching around from behind to steady the arm by holding it just above the elbow. At a glance, she only appeared to be standing with her chest sticking out. And…

…They’re enormous…

Mitotsudaira couldn’t help but notice that, but steadying the elbow gave Asama more stability when operating the sign frame.

The others knew what she was doing. She was sending Masazumi a condensed version of the information Neshinbara and the others had written up last night.

This was Proxy Speech, an anti-Suden response spell. It had been hurriedly thrown together, meaning it was mostly reliant on Hanami and manually controlled, but the program always supplied an appropriate response to whatever Suden said. It wasn’t perfect and it only provided suggestions. And since the number of responses was limited, it was only useful for a short-term debate, but…

“Masazumi!”

As Mitotsudaira quietly called her name, Masazumi opened a sign frame by her hand and responded to her opponent.

The debate had begun.

●

Masazumi heard Suden raise her voice.

“Article 10 restricts clothing based on status. You say the academy rules accomplish that!?”

“Judge! The academy uniforms are made by corporations in each nation and the officers and students in different clubs wear whichever version suits their needs! Thus, I say article 10 is already satisfied by those rules!”

“Then what about your nudist!? Are you telling me that’s a uniform!?”

“His nudity violates the academy rules, so that is a matter for the teachers!”

“Are you sure!? You’d damn well better be!”

“Come visit our school if you don’t believe me! That guy is a nuisance! Not even the guards know what to do about him!”

As soon Masazumi said that, the nudist stepped up behind Suden after having left the tent and circled around the shrine.

…What are you doing!?

●

Asama saw the nudist dance by behind Suden.

“My-”

Asama shushed Mitotsudaira before she could speak and kept her eyes on the two continuing their discussion in front of them. But on the inside, she was rapidly dealing with the situation.

Asama: “What are you doing, Toori-kun!?”

Me: “Huh, she isn’t noticing me at all. Maybe I should try this with a major figure sometime.”

After completing his dance, the nudist left. Meanwhile, Suden spoke to Masazumi who was clenching her fists.

“If you don’t restrict their clothing, the other nations could always designate combat gear as their uniform! Did you not consider that!?”

“Um…Tres España, Hexagone Française, K.P.A. Italia, M.H.R.R., and Sviet Rus all use uniforms designed for physical and spell-based combat! Yet the Far East gets by with a mid-weight uniform not designed for physical combat, but we’re still winning battles!”

…Huh?

Something bothered Asama about what Masazumi had said. She had omitted a few words from the original response on her sign frame.

…Am I mistaken, or did she simply overlook it?

But Masazumi continued before Asama could check.

She swept her left arm around horizontally to indicate the Musashi as a whole.

“Battles are not decided by uniforms! They are decided by how those uniforms are used! And that usage is influenced by national strength and religion, which is beyond the purview of the 13 articles!”

Masazumi raised her voice and snapped her fingers.

“Now for article 13!”

“That isn’t your decision to make, Far East Representative!”

“Then are you going to dig back up an issue I have already resolved!?”

“Hah!” sharply barked Suden. “If you’re that confident, then out with it!”

●

“Very well then.”

This is the final group, thought Masazumi as she spoke.

“Article 13 says the domain leaders must choose capable people for government roles. Now, the selection of Chancellor’s Officers and Student Council members are sometimes done by vote, but a test to ensure they have the necessary abilities will be needed. That will require excellent capabilities from the academy staff and not just government roles!”

“Including your Chancellor?”

“Judge!”

Asama and Mitotsudaira gave me a cheat sheet for this part, she thought as she read it off.

“Listen! Listen carefully! Our Musashi Ariadust Academy’s Chancellor and Student Council President Aoi Toori is plenty ca-cap-capa-capab-b-b-b-b-”

10ZO: “Masazumi-dono! You need to try and get the word out even if you don’t believe it! You can do it!”

Gold Mar: “Oh? You mean like you managed to confess your love without tripping over your words, Tenzou?”

10ZO: “I was simply nervous about doing something as personally unthinkable as confessing my love for Mary-dono.”

…Is this really the time get lovey-dovey!?

It also didn’t seem like the time for tripping over her words. But she had her momentum already.

“Well, you get the point!”

“Liar!”

It took a lot to suppress the urge to honestly confirm that accusation.

●

“I am not lying!”

Probably, she added silently.

“Whenever I negotiate, I do so with our Chancellor and President’s support! That means my words are his words!”

“So you accept the idea of a puppet government!?”

“If the history recreation demands it, I will go along with it. But at Mikawa, our Chancellor and President supported me – supported us – and everything we were doing! I! We! All of this is his will!”

“Nonsense!” Suden slammed her hands down on the table. “You’ve just been lucky so far! If the conditions are wrong and you have the wrong Chancellor and President, then it all goes wrong! You could end up creating a permanent puppet state! And…do you really think you can apply your nonsense to the other nations as well!?”

●

Adele heard Mary gasp.

The 1st Special Duty Officer looked her way.

“Mary-dono? Did something occur to you?”

“Um, yes. …I noticed a pattern to Lady Suden’s words.”

Mary took a breath and shut her eyes before continuing.

“This might be my last time relying on Tsirhc, but I must still thank god.”

●

Masazumi realized Suden was building momentum.

…She’s making her move here on article 13!

Did she think of this as a turning point? Suden leaned forward with her hands on the table.

“Things are going well for you now! But what about before all this!? The other nations forced you to choose incompetent leaders, preventing you from holding any real international negotiations or raising your national strength! If you don’t restrict and correct that now, your later generations and the rest of the nations will be at risk!”

“Sorry, Ishin Suden, but our current Chancellor and President was chosen in that same way.”

That had happened through a Student Council election she could only describe as a wild party, but…

“We were required to select the puppet from among ourselves. But it’s going well. Yet you see our leader as incompetent, don’t you?”

So she said it.

“You’re contradicting yourself, Ishin Suden. You can’t seem to decide if we’re capable or not, so you can’t define the terms in this case!”

Suden grimaced, but Masazumi didn’t care. She kept talking as if shoving her away.

“It’s the same for any other nation. Even if they create a puppet out of an incompetent leader, even if that leader is surrounded by people hoping to take advantage of that incompetence, and even if the history recreation demands submission, those who will stand up will stand up. And those who will not stand up won’t stand up. We stood up.”

“That is a luxury only afforded to the capable, Musashi Representative!”

“Then we will use that luxury to save the incapable! Maybe you were unaware and maybe you’ve forgotten, but Musashi didn’t need the Buke Shohatto to go save those in other nations who had death or injustice forced upon them by the history recreation!”

Masazumi thought she saw a change in response to that. It looked like Suden’s expression had changed.

…What was that?

She smiled. But not a daring or intimidating smile – just a smile.

“Do you really think you can do that!?”

The next thing Masazumi knew, Suden’s critical expression was back, so Masazumi took a breath.

“The entire point of our path to world domination is meant to show that we can! At Mikawa, England, and everywhere we go from here on, we will never lose sight of that!”

●

She got the words out. And immediately afterwards…

“–––––”

Suden loudly kicked up at the table.

Her body was small, but she used her chair for support, allowing her to kick the table diagonally over onto its side.

And Suden stood up, her feet audibly sinking into the gravel.

“The chair and table are only in the way. …They give the appearance of respect for me, but seating me restricted my movements with the table. Was that your plan?”

Smoking Girl: “Oh, damn. Was it a mistake to shorten the chair legs to make it hard to get up out of?”

You took it that far? Masazumi wasn’t sure if she should be thankful or disturbed. But…

“Finally ready for the real debate, Ishin Suden?”

“No, not yet.”

She rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck before opening a cadena firma.

They had already dealt with 9 of the 13 articles. That left 4, but the next group would be…

4. Rebels and killers must not be employed and must be expelled.

No hiring terrorists or murderers, mkay?

7. Report any in neighboring domains who are plotting rebellion.

Report any rebels you notice, even if they’re with your neighbors, mkay?

“These two? They do both deal with crime.”

Novice: “Kh! She saw right through my groupings!? How good is she!? But now she must argue against the criminally good arguments I put into these two articles!”

Suden crossed her arms as she viewed the two articles.

“These ones look challenging, but you plan to reuse one of your earlier conclusions, don’t you? You’re going to claim the history recreation takes precedence.”

“Judge. Article 4 could be violated by someone with a double inherited name. And, Ishin Suden, you yourself took on consecutive inherited names. You’ve been in situations like that before, haven’t you?”

“Testament. Which is why your past names are ignored and the one fitting the current history recreation takes precedence. And of course, there’s no problem with following the Buke Shohatto when that isn’t the case.”

“But…what if one of the non-name inheritor criminals happens to be one of the aforementioned ‘capable people’?”

“Once they have completed their prison sentence or reformed, then hiring them can be seen as purifying their sin. Tsirhc also accepts this thinking through the process of confession.”

…She’s being a lot more lenient now.

Suden seemed like a different person, but that probably wasn’t true.

…She’s probably already focusing on the later debate.

“Then that is good enough for that one. Let’s keep it simple, Ishin Suden.”

Novice: “Waiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit! Are you really going to skip past my criminally good arguments!?”

Silver Wolf: “No, my list of my king’s good qualities comes first!”

Laborer: “Both of those sound like hell.”

…The point isn’t to use every argument we prepared.

Asama was already making the eye contact that signaled preparations for the next one. So…

“Article 7 requires reporting anyone plotting rebellion. This is meant to discourage crime, but a requirement to report doesn’t mean much when there’s no way for an outsider to know what you do or do not know.”

“But when a domain rebels, the requirement allows you to reward the surrounding domains that did report it.”

“Yes. But if the rebellion is a history recreation, then any reports would also be part of the history recreation. Anything else would be a violation of the history recreation, so the Testament Union would caution them and it would be beyond the purview of the Buke Shohatto. And if anyone tries to use the history recreation to gain more than they should, then it will generally be our job to deal with it.”

“Because you would move in to stop any unjust deaths?”

“Judge,” replied Masazumi. That completed articles 4 and 7.

She regulated her breathing and checked what to say next.

“We have now gathered our thoughts on 11 of the articles, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Even if your thoughts are often questionable at best.”

“Thank you for your kind words.”

They both raised their sign frames.

6. Building new castles and repairing old castles without advance notice is forbidden.

No building or fixing castles without letting us know, mkay?

8. Marriage without permission is forbidden.

The buke can’t get married without our permission, mkay?

Only those remained. It was time to debate the two articles that had concerned Mary.

Back to Chapter 13

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