I kinda expected it. I mean, there were some fake outs before but in previous chapter it was already being prepared. When they said he'd go as her bodyguard, with a sword, but Azumi wouldn't carry one I suspected something like that would happen.
@ahrilover123 the manga will ends at chapter 350. And there are 150 chapters for the sequel, and transplant the setting from the 17th to the 19th century, during Meiji Restoration.