Summary by
Jeeswag from
TKC
Kanki HQ:
Marron is freaking out while making sense of what it means for the King to bring his army there rather than calling Kanki back to Kanyou. He thinks if it was about a victory then there would be no need for this so it's for sure about the surrendered soldiers. He asks the messenger how many are with the king and he reports tens of thousands. Marron knows the king is going to kill them. The messenger then says the king's messenger is waiting for a reply and asks what he should tell them. Marron says to tell them that they will come out to meet them so they can slow their march and that it'll take a while to get the spot ready since they just finished the battle. He then tells another soldier to get the boss, Kokuou and Ringyoku as well as the Zenou and Shuma clans along with anyone who's good at fighting.
Sei's Army:
Sei receives a report saying Kanki will come out to meet them instead and SBK says it's an easy place for Kanki's troops to set up and Sei says he figured this would happen and tells his army to be prepared. They get into formations. The narration says the Shiji records indicates that after Kanki's victory over Kochou the Qin King has personally set forth all the way there.
Meeting Place:
As the King's entourage approaches the table Kanki is sitting with his feet on the table. SBH gets furious asking Kanki what's with his posture. Marron tries to tell Kanki he shouldn't do that then after another outburst from SBH Sei tells him to stop since he knows Kanki is not one to show respect to anyone. After sitting Sei asks Kanki if he knows why he's here. He then says he'll get straight to the point and asks what happened that Kanki executed the surrendered soldiers. Kanki replies it's simply because he wanted to. Sei says killing without a reason is something that is banned in military law so whether he's a general or not that's not a good enough reason. If he answers unsatisfyingly again then following his explanation Kanki will be beheaded right on the spot. Sei then says he's different from Kanki so his words are not a joke and tells him to reply. Kanki says he forgot.
Sei says he got it then tells Hyoushiga to kill Kanki. As he approaches Kanki Kokuou interferes and says they won't be getting out of this alive either. Sei says that kind of threat cannot prevent this and Kokuou tells Kanki to run as she blocks the attack with her life. Marron jumps in asking to wait and Hyoushiga stops his sword before killing Kokuou. Sei asks why and Marron says there's a reasonable explanation for this. He quickly introduces himself as Kanki's entourage then switches it to his soldier and says he can explain. SBK tells him to hurry up and that they should've done that from the beginning.
Marron explains that it's because they believed there was a chance that the Kochou army would win despite surrendering. After the miracle of their victory that they achieved by spreading false rumors of reinforcements coming in from Ousen's and Yotanwa's armies they knew that if word spread that there were no actual reinforcements and the number advantage was overwhelmingly in Kochou's army's favor then they would have lost despite their runaway troops returning. That's why they couldn't help taking down the Zhao's numbers even if he didn't want to. Sei then asks if that was the only way they could have handled it and if complete annihilation was really necessary. He then says that if that were really the case then they could have thinned down the Zhao to a number they could handle rather than a complete massacre.
Marron says that's right and Sei says the Kanki army has killed too many people who didn't have to die. Kanki starts chuckling and asks Sei if he's upset with the number of people Kanki has killed. He then says the one who started the war was Sei and that right now the one who has killed the most people in this world is him, the Qin King.
No break next week!