I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

Amused by Saito's slightly melancholic murmur, Aoto, despite trying his best to control himself, couldn't help but cover his face and burst into joyful laughter.

……

……

After Kinoshita Mai returned to Aoto's side with a cup of freshly brewed tea, she chatted with Aoto for a while.

After drinking countless cups of tea at Qingdeng and chatting with Kinoshita Mai about how their conversation had unconsciously shifted from "Neko-sō" to "four ways to eat wagashi," a commotion finally broke out outside the Senjiya shop.

"Young Master, Tachibana-kun, I'm back." Kiryu opened the shop door. "Luckily—Nagakura-kun and the others are currently at their residence. We found them all in no time."

Looking up, one sees three young men following closely behind Kiryu, filing into the store with him.

Qing Deng immediately spotted Nagakura Shinpachi, whom he had met just last month, among the three young men.

As for the other two besides Nagakura... their appearances deserve to be described in detail.

One of the two men is of average height, around 1.6 meters, and has a very muscular build.

He was wearing a slightly worn kimono, without hakama, and the front of the kimono was open crookedly to both sides, revealing his very hard chest and abdominal muscles.

Qing Deng noticed a horizontal incision on the man's abdomen.

The more Qingdeng looked at it, the more he felt that the horizontal cut resembled a diaphragm incision...

He wore no wakizashi at his waist, only a katana, and a nearly 2-meter-long spear was held in his right hand and carried on his shoulder. Since he was carrying a spear, Aoto deduced that this person must be the spear master that Kiryu had mentioned: Harada Sanosuke.

As for the other one of the two, he was rather short.

This person was even shorter than Okita, only a little over 1.5 meters tall.

His clothes were neatly arranged, and a pair of long and short swords were properly worn at his left waist.

Since the man carrying the long spear is Harada Sanosuke, then this short man must be Toudou Heisuke.

Both Harada and Toudou have faces that would make many girls secretly admire them.

Upon entering the Senjiya and meeting Aoto, Nagakura, who had met Aoto once before, was the first to wave and greet him in a rather hearty tone:

"Yo! Tachibana-kun! We meet again!"

"Nagakura-kun, it's been a long time." Aoto smiled and nodded politely to Nagakura.

Upon hearing Nagakura address Aoto in this way, Harada and Todo immediately glanced at Aoto and scrutinized him.

Harada's gaze was the kind of calm, normal look between strangers.

The light in Toudou's eyes was slightly different. When he looked at Aoto, his eyes sparkled with a faint excitement and elation.

Harada, with his right hand gripping a gun and his left hand on his hip, grinned foolishly and asked Aoto in a tone devoid of honorifics, "Are you the one who wants to hire Okabiki, Tachibana Aoto?"

Aoto nodded and stood up: "Nice to meet you. I am Tachibana Aoto, from Kitaban-sho-cho."

As soon as Qing Deng finished his self-introduction, Toudou stood up straight with excitement and bowed 90 degrees to Qing Deng.

"N-Nice to meet you, Mr. Tachibana! I am Heisuke Todo from the Ito Dojo!"

The contrast between Todo's words and Harada's words was striking—the latter did not use any honorifics when speaking to Aoto, while the former used the most elaborate and superlative honorifics to talk to Aoto.

Based on their appearances and the brief exchange they had just had, Qing Deng had a basic understanding of what kind of people Harada and Toudou were.

Harada looked like the kind of unrestrained, unconventional, and somewhat naive and rough man.

As for Todo, he was much more honest and polite, and he was extremely meticulous in all manners.

"Alright, stop standing around in the entryway." Kiryu turned around and smiled calmly at Nagakura and the other two. "Come on in. Young Master, could you please go and get three more cushions?"

……

……

Everyone had been brought by Kiryu—Aoto first thanked Kiryu, then straightened his back slightly and addressed Nagakura, Harada, and Todo, who were sitting in various different postures in front of him, with a serious expression:

“I’ve already heard everything from Mr. Kiryu—he’s spoken with each of you individually beforehand, and all three of you are willing to join my team. So, I’ll get straight to the point.”

"You've probably all heard about the work that Okabiki needs to do."

"This job doesn't require much mental work. The main job is to help Tongxin with the odd jobs, tiring jobs, and hard jobs that only require physical strength."

"Therefore, I don't have many requirements for the Gang Yin under my command. They just need to be physically strong and willing to endure hardship."

"But since helping Tongxin arrest criminals is one of Gangbiki's main jobs, I also hope that my Gangbiki can be as good as possible. It would be even better if he is proficient in a certain martial art."

"According to Mr. Kiryu, all three of you possess exceptional martial arts skills that are outstanding among your peers."

“I met Nagakura once before, and I sparred with him. I know his strength very well.”

"As for Harada-kun and Toudou-kun..."

Aoto focused his gaze on Harada and Todo.

"I don't know much about the specifics of your abilities."

"Therefore, I would like to conduct a test to assess your abilities. What are your thoughts on this?"

"Oh?" Harada's eyelids twitched, and he grinned. "Testing our strength? Ah... that makes sense, after all, it's impossible to hire someone whose true strength is unknown as a subordinate. Alright, alright! Let's test it!"

Toudou nodded vigorously: "Okay! I'm willing to accept any test!"

"How do you want to test us?" Harada continued. "If you want to test our strength... then we'll have to have a proper fight with someone first. Are you looking for someone to spar with us? Or do you want to personally step into the ring and compete against us?"

“I’ll personally test your strength.” Qing Deng slowly revealed a meaningful smile, “but testing you one by one… would take too much time.”

"Let's just... play a two-on-two match, it'll save time and effort."

"Second team, second?" Harada and Todo muttered in unison.

At this moment, Qing Deng turned his head and looked at Saito, who was sitting to his side and behind him.

"Saito, can you help me?"

Saito paused for a moment, then nodded without hesitation.

He, who was not fond of talking, responded to Qingdeng with his actions.

*******

*******

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Given the generous update and abundant content today, please, please cast your guaranteed monthly votes for this book in July! QAQ

Chapter 115 Copying Talents: [Leading the Way] and [Insight]

While Aoto was discussing with Harada and Todo at the Senjiya that they should test their strength—

Edo, Gofuku Bridge, Hokuban-sho (Northern Frontier Office), outside the main gate—

In a dimly lit alleyway, located diagonally opposite the main gate of the North Guard Office, obscured by eaves, a young samurai cautiously peered at the North Guard Office not far away.

He kept raising his hand and wiping his forehead, but no matter how much he wiped, cold sweat kept seeping out.

He swallowed hard, took a step towards the sunlit alleyway, but immediately pulled his foot back, then took another step forward...

After repeating this several times, he gritted his teeth.

"There's no time to hesitate... We have to... find a way to stop that madman, Jinno, as soon as possible...!"

He raised his hands and slapped his cheeks a few times, then, head held high and chest puffed out, with the air of "The wind howls, the Yi River is cold, the hero departs, never to return," he strode out of the alley and headed towards the North Panju Institute...

……

……

About 10 minutes later, some of the officials in the Northern Barbarian Garrison witnessed a very strange scene.

All the staff members currently on duty at the institute, including the "three shifts" and the staff, rushed to Bo Jing's office with solemn expressions.

After the three members of the group gathered in Bo Jing's office, they did not come out for a long time.

Why did they suddenly gather in Bo Jing's office? Are they holding some kind of emergency meeting?

No one knows.

……

……

Edo, the Thousand Things Shop—

Aoto borrowed the yard of Kiryu's Senjiya, as well as three bamboo swords and one wooden spear.

It has to be said that the Senjiya's warehouse is really well-stocked. Qing Deng never expected that the Senjiya's warehouse would even have wooden guns.

Kiryu had just explained this to Aoto: because they often need to test the true skills of job seekers, the Senjiya's warehouse contains a considerable number of weapons.

Aoto and Saito stood side by side on the east side of the courtyard, while Harada and Todo stood on the west side.

As for Kiryu, Kinoshita Mai, and Nagakura, they stood on one side of the courtyard, serving as spectators for this assessment.

Aoto was quite eager to participate in this test targeting Harada and Todo.

After all, this is a great opportunity to test the strength of these two people, and if we're lucky, we might even be able to copy some talent from them – a win-win situation.

He had already fought against that Nagakura, who was extremely strong. If such a powerful person was willing to act as his guide, then Qing Deng would naturally welcome him with open arms.

There's no need to interview Nagakura anymore. As for Harada and Todo, we'll have to fight them to see how strong they are before we can make a decision.

This was the first time Qingdeng had recruited subordinates for himself, and he certainly didn't want to bring in any weak, useless mediocre people.

Qingdeng, who had no intention of being careless in this assessment, meticulously checked his bamboo sword and warmed up.

"Huh?" Harada, who was opposite him, suddenly noticed that Saito was holding the sword in his left hand. "Hey, why are you using an 'evil sword'?"

In the world of kendo during the Edo period, left-handed swords were considered "evil swords," and those who wielded left-handed swords were regarded as heretics. When left-handed people went to kendo schools to learn swordsmanship, they were often forced to switch to using their right hand to wield the sword.

Therefore, left-handed swordsmen like Saito are actually very rare.

Faced with Harada's questioning, Saito calmly replied:

"A good sword is one that can kill the enemy, whether it is a righteous sword or an evil sword."

Upon hearing Saito's reply, Harada raised his thick, dark eyebrows and then chuckled sheepishly, "You're right."