Tajima returned back to the training ground where Ryusuke was supposed to be training. His expression twitched for a few seconds as he sensed that Ryusuke wasn’t at the Training Ground.

He knew that Ryusuke was most probably at the house. He starts walking towards the house with large strides.

From the expression on his face, it could be seen that he wasn’t pleased that Ryusuke was ditching the training at the first chance he got.

He enters the cabin. He looks towards Ryusuke and Ayumi. Ryusuke was running away from Ayumi, and Ayumi was cheerfully laughing as she chased after him.

He unconsciously swallowed the words he wanted to say. He stared at his children, who were happily laughing.

Ryusuke naturally noticed that Tajima had returned and momentarily stopped to greet him, “Father, you have returned. I am sorry, I remembered that Ayumi didn’t eat breakfast properly this morning, so I came here to feed her. And well… one thing led to another, and I started playing with her. Hehe…”

He didn’t notice anything different from his father’s face as Ryusuke looked down with a light blush. He thought his father would be mad at him and didn’t want to see his angry face.

Tajima realized where he was. He looked at Ryusuke and casually said, “Oh…”

His voice unconsciously turned cold as he continued, “You will naturally be punished for that. For now, go and train.”

Hearing that Ryusuke would have to leave again, Ayumi catches Ryusuke and tightly holds his leg. She says with a pleading look, “Stay. Brother.”

Ryusuke didn’t want to say no to those eyes. He looked up and was thinking of pleading Tajima to allow him to play with Ayumi more, but Tajima’s expression didn’t budge.

With a heavy sigh, Ryusuke calmed down his inner feelings. He put on a smile and bent down. He starts patting Ayumi’s head, “Let go, for now. I promise I will return quickly. In the meantime, why don’t you practice writing your name on the paper?”

Hearing his words, Ayumi cutely pouted and said, “Boring. Don’t want to.” Ryusuke laughed at her words and continued to pat her head, “Don’t you want to grow up quickly? When you learn how to write, you will grow up quickly.”

With stars in her eyes, Ayumi quickly let go of Ryusuke and said, “Really!”

“Yes, really! Now, go and study…”

Ayumi was convinced by Ryusuke and went to a corner where she had kept her notebook and pencil.

She started scribbling in the notebook and writing the words that Ryusuke had taught her.

Ryusuke looked at his father with a small smile and said, “Let’s go, father…”

He started walking outside the cabin. Tajima followed him with an indifferent look on his face.

As they both reached the training ground, Ryusuke started training in this Empty Training Ground.

Tajima remained with Ryusuke for an hour before he left the area. He was moving towards the Village Chief’s house.

With an indifferent and casual expression, he gave some orders to the Village Chief to prepare this Fight against the Tsurui Village Chief.

The preparations to make traps had started in the village. Almost all the village men had come out with a shovel in their hands.

They started digging in the directions where Tajima ordered them through the Village Chief. Naturally, it confused the Village Chief about why Tajima was not making him dig between the direct route of the Tusrui Village.

Tajima didn’t explain his orders which made the Village Chief a little anxious but looking at Tajima’s face, and his face seemed like he knew what he was doing. He decided to trust Tajima’s judgment and ordered all the men in the village.

It took around half a day for them to create the pits and cover them up with a thin layer of soil. The pit dug out by them was so large that it could hold around 100 men without any issue.

Tajima ordered them to bring out the barrels with Oil and keep them ready. Out of 300 men who could fight against the Tsurui Village Army. One hundred of them were Archers.

They were stationed at around 1 Mile left and right of the village. Every time Tajima had to give them orders now, he would send someone on the horse with orders.

As Tajima gazed in the direction of the approaching enemy, he thought in his head, ‘Now… the pieces are set. Come…’

He returned back to the house. He knew that Ryusuke must have returned by now. His training was supposed to end 2 hours ago.

He was proven right when he entered the cabin and noticed Ryusuke running around while carrying Ayumi on his back. Ayumi was cheering with a loud voice and beating his back with her small fists.

Taking a deep breath in, Tajima said to Ryusuke, “Son, go and sleep for now. I want you fully awake after 5 hours. This will be your second lesson.”

Ryusuke was confused by his words, but he decided to comply with his father’s orders. He laid down on the ground and closed his eyes.

Ayumi innocently gazed at Ryusuke as he was trying to sleep. She neared him by making small steps towards him.

It didn’t seem like she was planning on letting Ryusuke sleep peacefully at all. Right when Ayumi’s hand was about to touch Ryusuke, Tajima picked her up in his arms.

With a neutral tone, he said to her, “Don’t disturb your brother. He needs his sleep. He is tired from the training.”

“But… Big Brother. Play. Promise.” Ayumi fiercely replied and didn’t seem like she planned on making a compromise.

Naturally, Tajima understood what his daughter wanted to say. Ryusuke must have promised to play with her…

He raised her high in the air and said with a small smile, “I will play with you then…”

“Papa. Play!” This was probably the first time that Tajima had taken the initiative to play with her. Ayumi immediately cheered up but before she could make an uproar and wake up Ryusuke.

Tajima placed his finger near her lips, “Shhh… Don’t speak and wake up your brother. Let’s go outside… I will play with you.”

As they were walking outside, he added, “Keep it a secret from your brother, and he will be jealous if he finds out about this.”

“Mhm~! Yes! Father!” Ayumi was very excited right now. She had always wanted to play with her father but was mostly rejected.

After playing around with Ayumi for more than 2 hours, Ayumi was tired, and she was put to sleep by Tajima.

Tajima started walking out of the cabin. He continues to walk. He was standing near a tree right now.

His right hand’s muscles bulged twice or three times as he hit the tree in frustration. The entire tree experienced his power and was almost uprooted…

Tajima gritted his teeth as he held his head and thought, ‘I couldn’t endure! I can’t get any closer to them… I need… I need to maintain my distance with them.’

‘When… When will I be free from this suffering?’ Tajima seemed like he had broken down right now.

The strength he displayed a few seconds ago seemed to have left his body. He looked like a powerless, broken human who couldn’t do anything.

It took him some time to calm down his inner feelings. But he had an emotionless expression on his face again.

He starts moving towards the Village Chief’s gate. The time was near now.

All the men had been assembled in front of the village’s front gate. Their clothes were dirty from the work Tajima had made them do, but all of them were in high spirits.

Nobody took special note of Tajima’s presence. It worked in Tajima’s favor. The Village Chief divided them as Tajima had previously ordered him.

The melee fighters and the archers. There was no cavalry unit because only ten horses were available in their village. It was better for the men on the horses to be sources of information rather than taking part in the battle.

The 100 archers were further divided into three units. 2 units contained 30 archers each while the rest contained 40 archers. Their skill with a bow was unprofessional. However, it was enough to execute Tajima’s plan.

All the Archers held a Longbow and 50 arrows. By Tajima’s suggestion to the Village Chief, they also held a weapon. Most of them held Axe, while a few of them held swords.

The two Archer units with 30 men were stationed on the left and right sides of the village, respectively. They were ready for the incoming enemy.

The unit of 40 Archers was behind the 200+ melee fighters and was standing ahead of the front gate.

All of them waited now. Tajima went to the Village Chief and whispered something in his ears.

After half an hour or so, Tajima glanced at the Village Head and gave him a nod. Understand the meaning behind this signal, and the Village Chief glanced at the two men near him who were seated on their respective horses.

He walked towards them and whispered something in their ears. They were surprised by his words but nodded. The horses started moving towards the left and the right direction.

The signal from Tajima indicated that the Archers should start attacking. It was clear from where the Tsurui Village Men would be arriving. From the route to directly attack the Chosei Village through the front gate.

The Tsurui Village men were rather confident in themselves. They were confident that the Chosei Village wouldn’t be able to resist them.

The Archers received the order. They adjusted their directions and pulled the string of the longbow. And one unit of Archers released the string at the same time.

Immediately, 30 Arrows made their way towards the incoming Tsurui Village Forces. Most of the arrows had low accuracy, and out of 30, only three arrows managed to hit the men of incoming enemy forces.

The arrows were naturally a surprise for the enemy. They didn’t think that Chosei Village forces would know they had entered their range and immediately fire the arrows.

These enemy forces easily intercepted the other unit’s 30 Arrows, and this time, there was no causality.

These archer units continued to fire arrows. The chief of the Tsurui Village forces immediately ordered his men, “100 men, go towards the east side and kill those archers. They are becoming annoying and reducing our movement speed. One hundred men, go towards the west side from where these archers attacked us.”

Due to the arrows, the rough position of the unit of archers was easily revealed. Immediately, two units of swordsmen split themselves from the main army and moved towards the archers.

It didn’t take them long to go through the forest and find out the Archers' positions. One of them started speaking with a grin, “You were rather unlucky… You only managed to injure 3 of our men. No more…”

The archers looked incredibly nervous as they heard him talk. They nervously picked up their weapon to fight a melee battle.

With an excited look on his face, the Tsurui Village Units charged towards the Archer Units almost simultaneously.

They stepped upon a damp ground that was somewhat different from the ground around them. However, almost no one took notice of this damp ground and stepped forward to attack the Archer units.

The Archer units were even more nervous as more and more of these melee fighters were coming towards them.

One of them was unable to endure it any longer and swung his axe down at the ground with great strength and speed.

The position where he struck seemed to have been marked by someone with white chalk. As soon as that position was struck, the ground beneath the Tsurui Village Forces started to crumble. Out of 100, 90 of them were trapped within the pit.

The Tsurui Village forces screamed loudly, “AHHHHHHHHHHHH….” As they fell into the pit. However, they reached the ground quickly. They looked around and realized that the pit seemed to have been created in a rush. It wasn’t too shallow, nor was it too deep.

The rest remaining ten were surprised by this turn of events, and they almost couldn’t react when ten swords were on their throats. They had no choice but to surrender by releasing their hold over the weapon.

One of the archers came and tied their hands with a strong rope.

A lot of men who had been captured were looking forward to getting out of the pit by climbing. However, their hopes were instantly crushed as the archers started to pour down something from the barrels.

They looked like they were making sure that the liquid substance from the barrels was touching the pit's walls.

One of the enemy forces’ men couldn’t help but touch the liquid. It took some time before it clicked in his mind, and he loudly shouted, “OIL! This is Oil! Oi What are you planning by pouring down Oil!?”

Every person within the Archer unit remained silent. They continued to pour down the Oil as they were ordered. After the barrels were completely empty. One of the archers said with a cold look, “We were unlucky, so we are compensating for that. Bring the fire!”

A man holding the torch stepped forward. This time, the men within the pit were frightened as they pleaded, “No… No… Please… Nooo…”

Before their hearts could falter any further. The leader of the Archer Unit loudly ordered, “Set it on fire now!”

The man who was holding the torch pitifully gazed at the men in the pit and he set it on fire. Soon enough, the entire area was filled with loud screams with a lot of curses and pleading for life.

The hearts of each one of the archers was shaken as they heard those screams.

The other unit of archers were also able to accomplish the task. Originally, they had managed to capture 15 men but the 10 of them were being loud and annoying. After some time, they were thrown down in the pit and burnt to death.

These 5 men remained silent and didn’t dare to say anything as they saw the result of their fellow comrades.

As they were now tightly tied around a tree. A horse was sent to each of the two archer units.

These were the new orders for them. They now had to aim for the area which was in front of the Front Gate of the Village.

The order was somewhat strange since they were said to just make sure that the arrows reach a good height. There was no need to worry about the accuracy.

The order itself was strange but since it came from the Village Chief, they had no choice but to obey. They were further told that they needed to remain on standby and only fire the arrow when they get the signal.

The signal was…