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"Heheh! Look at all this lad, we’ll be rich!"

He announced. It was not an exaggeration. The amount of ore that lay there was more than enough to get one rich. Yet they sought to be something beyond being rich, they sought to be powerful, so they would need far more than just this. But he did not let that fact taint his joy.

"Aye, we certainly will."

Gengyo replied, eying up the pile of sacks. Amongst the crowd stood Akiko and Rin, waving to him. But they did not call out yet – it seemed they were waiting for him to conclude business first.

He jumped from the cart lightly, and glanced round, noting the destruction that the oxen had caused amongst the fields of grass.

"Three carts will be enough, won’t it?"

He asked. There had already been a cart brought there by Kitajo, and now the lad and he brought another two between them.

"I’d say so. If we get the oxen to pull them, they’ll manage."

Morohira responded, tossing a bag onto his shoulder as he hefted the first one onto the cart. The rest of the men were looking up at Gengyo, eager to speak to him, but like Rin and Akiko, they did not wish to get in the way of business.

Pleased by their maturity, he called out to Isabella.

"Your information was solid – good work Isabella. I’ll have you return to Toyone with me, then you can head to Toyokawa and spot some more targets, eh?"

She nodded. He took note of her mannerisms. She was tamer than normal. She was not forecasting that overly domineering aura that had become so typical of her. It seemed she had ceased the pretentiousness. And from the behaviour of those around her – though he had not been present for long – he reckoned that she was fitting in just fine.

She nodded, though she did not forget to mention something important.

"What about payment?"

He smiled at that.

"I expect we’re all wondering the same thing, eh?"

The men nodded. It was the second most important part of business – apart from the heist itself.

"Jikouji, I will leave the selling of the ore to you. And then we will split it up. Isabella, you will get your promised payment. We’ll also give you a couple of hundred, Morojo, so you can continue with the repairs on the ship, and upgrade our cove a little, eh? And the rest of you... Well, I know what you’ve said in the past, but you deserve some gold for yourselves – take care of your families, aye? I need 2,000 gold left for me to play with, and then you can split the rest up as you please."

"Aye, that’s fair lad! We’ll turn this into the perfect little hide out, eh? Some little houses to sleep in? That’d be alright."

Morojo was already rattling off the ideas. He was only getting a couple of hundred this time around, but his task was much easier before, and the way things were looking, he be getting a consistent payment of that amount. It was far better than anything he had worked for in the years prior.

"Glad you approve."

He said, pleased by his reaction. He noted that Morojo stood by Morohira and Rokkaku – he too seemed to be fitting in quite well. And his lads were not stood hidden behind their father, they were standing beside different people, looking comfortable.

"What about you, Jikouji? Are you up to this task?"

Selling three carts full of ore was no quick or easy task, but he could not carry it out himself. He needed Jikouji to take it up, so that when he was away, he would not have to worry about their loot mounting up. But he held no worries, Jikouji had demonstrated more than once that he had a vast network of knowledge and was capable of finding the right people in the right places.

"Of course lad, leave it to me."

He said with a nod. He enjoyed battle, but was not quite as bloodthirsty as the rest. He did not mind taking time off for managerial tasks.

"And what about the rest of you? Happy with the gold you’re getting?"

It was a question that did not bear asking. They had not received a single copper from their last haul, and this time they would be receiving enough money to set them up for several lifetimes. Of course they were not dissatisified.

"Sounds good!"

Ii said cheerfully – he cared more about the coin than the others. They would quite willingly give their full amount for the cause.

"Yeah, it’s good and all lad, but we don’t really need it."

Morohira reminded him, just in case he was doing it out of fear of upsetting them.

"That may be the case, but we can spare it. There will be plenty of raids to come, and you can take a percentage of those too. At this rate, in a couple of weeks, you could afford a mansion in Toyokawa."

As he put it into perspective for them like that, their eyes lit up. Though they lived an extraordinary lifestyle, their families still lived in the same houses they always had. If they could improve their living circ.u.mstances somewhat, then that was certainly something to look forward to.

"I’d rather get a big house built in Toyone."

Togashi mused. He enjoyed living in the Niwa mansion, but with each day that he stayed there, he felt as though he was imposing. It was irrational, and no one sought to make him feel that way, but he still felt it. His family had long since perished in Tobishima, but, in time, he hoped he could make a new one, in this peaceful little village of theirs.

Gengyo nodded in agreement.

"If any of you ever want to do that, you have my permission to do it wherever you please. It’s your village as much as mine, and you may do in it what you wish. We will care for our people as well, of course."

’Perhaps, it might be an idea to rebuild all the houses in Toyone at some point?’

There were many things he could do to improve the quality of living for the people at home. But what they truly needed was a purpose – something that they could work at, so they could be paid a suitable reward. But with the majority of them being women, the jobs were limited. He supposed at some point he might have need of their services in a military capacity, but he put such thoughts at the back of his mind for now.

"Anyway, let’s get these carts loaded, shall we?"

He ordered, and they sprang forth, their minds awhirl with thoughts of the future. They were lucky, in some respect. They knew exactly what they wished, and they would be rich enough to live comfortably as they pursued it.

"How are you both, then?"

He asked the two ladies, as they lifted a sack together.

"I’m feeling good! Kitajo can’t beat me so easily anymore."

Rin replied, grinning. She was rather proud of her progress.

"Hoh? Perhaps we should have you spar against father soon?"

"Nope! He’s busy training Isabella."

She rebuked him. The last person she wished to spar against was Morohira. He was far too strong for the likes of her.

"Isabella? For real? Isabella, is that true?"

He questioned Rin, before turning to shout over to the woman in question.

"...A little, but only in the dagger."

She replied, suddenly self-conscious. He was surprised by her less-than-confident reaction, but made not effort to pursue it, and instead turned to Akiko.

"How was the fighting?"

He asked, in a softer voice, trying to provoke her into sharing her true feelings.

"It was okay."

He turned to look at her sternly.

"Really. It was okay. I was much less scared when I fought than I was leading up to the fight."

He smiled understandingly. That was often the case. There were always so many things that could happen in battle, and nothing felt truly right until the blade was in your hand, and you swinging at an enemy.

"I was pleased to hear that neither of you got hurt. Surprising though, since you encountered the city guard."

He mused, hefting a bag to his shoulder with ease. He’d never stopped to think about it, but his strength had increased by a terrifying amount ever since he began his vigorous training, all that time ago.

"Yup... Now that I think about it, that was pretty crazy, wasn’t it Akiko? There were so many more of them than us, but we cut straight through them. It was weird."

Rin mused, pondering over it. Such a thing went against the common logic of military thought, which was that more men would defeat less men. Gengyo was well aware of such a feeling. In nearly all his battles, they had been outnumbered.

"It’s what happens when you are trained better than the enemy. Quality can easily overwhelm quantity, as long as the odds are not stacked too highly against it."

"Hehe. I thought it was something like that. They really couldn’t catch us with their fighting style – they were so slow!"

It was understandable. To become a guard, one did not have to be highly trained. Their true merit was in deterrence, rather than actual action.

He stepped away from them both for a second, leaving them to their loading. He had not yet seen what improvements the Morojo’s had added to the cove.

He peered down, and was pleased by what he saw. There was no longer the same treacherous slope at the bottom, instead, there were a solid-looking set of wooden stairs that came just after the gentle sloping ended. And there, in the bay, he saw the black-flagged vessel, that had become so famed in a mere day.

Morojo had managed to achieve it, despite all the doubts that he had. There were now two masts on it, and they looked good and strong. Had he been closer, he might have noticed the repairs that were being done to the hull, but he had already guessed that they were underway.

They’d done well – extremely well. They were a small amount of people, but each was highly skilled, and competent. Even their shipwright. He only hoped that he himself would be capable of what Jikouji had achieved, and be able to bring back an equally skilled smith, so that they could make some improvements in other regards as well.