I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

"But now, there is absolutely no need for that."

“Unlike Niizuma Hiroshi, who is a commoner, recruiting someone like Tachibana Seiden, who has both a reputation and an official position, requires a step-by-step approach.”

"Start by winning his favor. Once you've developed a good relationship with Tachibana Aoto, then proceed gradually."

"So let's not collect that insignificant gambling debt anymore; it's just a small amount of money anyway."

"It would be a real loss to jeopardize our recruitment of Tachibana Seido for such a small amount of money."

As he finished speaking, Rakshasa suddenly seemed to remember something, his expression paused, and his voice also faltered.

After a sudden moment of silence, Rakshasa pursed her lips and let out a soft, low laugh.

"Thinking about it carefully... I really do have a special connection with the Orange family..."

As Rakshasa muttered to herself, she raised her right hand and parted the collar of her kimono, revealing her collarbone.

Below Rakshasa's right collarbone, there was a shallow, three-inch-long scar.

Rakshasa gently stroked the scar with her fingers, a look of reminiscence and a faint hint of sadness appearing on her face.

"Takayuki Tachibana... If only you had joined us back then..."

"Even now, I still regret having to kill you back then..."

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These chapters, which lay the groundwork for later plot developments, are really hard to write! (Slams keyboard)

Chapter 151 The Examination Hall is thriving! [6600]

That evening—

Edo, a certain restaurant—

To celebrate Qing Deng's victory in the swordsmanship tournament, following the "Red and White Battle" of the "Plum Blossom Festival," Shusuke once again generously donated money to book a room in a restaurant and hold a lively celebration banquet.

Since Zhou was paying for everything, everyone ate and drank to their heart's content, letting go of all their inhibitions and having a great time together.

The atmosphere was lively and bustling, with toasts and laughter filling the air.

Qingdeng has been very busy lately. The crackdown on the "radical anti-foreign faction" is still in full swing, so it seems like there's never enough official business to handle. One official matter is resolved and another comes up. It's been quite a long time since he's had a proper chance to relax.

Therefore, Aoto temporarily put down all his burdens tonight, completely cleared his mind, and fooled around with his brothers Kondo and Hijikata.

Hijikata had an excellent alcohol tolerance; after a few cups of sake, apart from his cheeks turning slightly red, everything else remained normal.

When the celebratory banquet reached its most joyous and lively point, Hijikata suggested inviting some geisha to join in the fun.

Geisha are female performers who sell their art but not their bodies.

Of course—their claim of "selling their art, not their bodies" is just a nice-sounding phrase.

In the beginning, geisha did indeed sell their art, not their bodies.

But no industry can stop its practitioners from making money!

The geisha, constantly entangled with each other, eventually had one of them cross that line—while performing their talents for their clients, they also began to display other talents that could not be discussed in detail.

Once someone crossed this line, naturally more and more geisha followed suit in order to make a living.

Finally, in this constant interplay within the industry, those geisha who "sell their art but not their bodies" find it increasingly difficult to compete with their counterparts who "sell both their art and their bodies," and their space for survival is being squeezed more and more severely.

Thus, in order to survive, many geisha were forced to abandon the last bit of pride and dignity they had as entertainers, and began to play the koto with their left hand and undress their clients with their right.

Even today, those geisha who still manage to "sell their art but not their bodies" are almost all big-name celebrities who, even if they have money, might not be able to hire them to perform.

After all, only those superstars who are either extremely talented or extremely beautiful have the confidence to insist on the bottom line of "never selling themselves".

Because geisha now mostly operate on a model of "selling both their art and their bodies," the overall cost of hiring them has increased significantly.

Sitting in the main seat, Zhou Zhu carefully took out the money pouch from his pocket, glanced at the savings inside, and then solemnly put the pouch back into his pocket with a righteous expression.

"Hijikata, a martial artist, should not be too indulgent in beautiful women."

"Those who indulge in beauty often suffer from lethargy and depletion of vital energy, which is extremely detrimental to the cultivation of martial arts."

……

Zhou Zhu launched into a long, rambling explanation about Tu Fang.

He rambled on and on, but the main point was just one sentence—let's just have dinner and drinks tonight, and leave the geisha for another time.

“Hmm… why is there no more wine…” Okita, sitting next to Aoto, grabbed the wine bottle on his table and shook the empty bottle vigorously.

"Okita-kun, you can't drink anymore." Aoto, who was also slightly tipsy, snatched the bottle from Okita's hand and the glass from the table. "You've gotten this drunk before I knew it... Hey, are you even thinking straight?"

Qing Deng waved his hand forcefully in front of Okita.

Okita, who has a very low alcohol tolerance, had a face so red that it looked as if dark red blood was about to drip from it at any moment. His eyes were half-closed and his gaze was hazy.

He glanced at Qingdeng, who was waving vigorously in front of his face, then smiled broadly, revealing a bright smile with his eyes curving into crescents.

"Tachibana-kun...you've been really cool these past two days in the competition...you've been unstoppable, defeating everyone along the way..."

Hmm, he can still speak normally, so he's not too drunk... After confirming that Okita wasn't so drunk that he couldn't even speak clearly, Aoto nodded in relief.

Since Aoto had forbidden him from drinking alcohol, Okita simply substituted soup for alcohol.

"Hehehe..." Okita picked up the miso soup on the table with both hands, took a small sip, and said happily, "Tachibana-kun won the competition... I think we'll have even more students coming to our Shieikan to study in the future..."

Their resounding victory in the "Red and White Battle" at the "Plum Blossom Festival" had successfully boosted the reputation of their Shieikan Academy. From that day on, the number of students coming to study under their academy, having heard of their fame, surged dramatically.

Today, Qing Deng's successful victory in this highly anticipated and grand swordsmanship competition will undoubtedly further enhance the reputation of their Shiwei Hall.

It's not hard to imagine that the number of apprentices coming to the Shie-e-kan to study will definitely increase further in the future!

Just as Okita finished uttering these words, he heard Zhou Zhuzhang, who was seated at the head of the table, sigh and then echo:

"Hehehe, the Shiwei Hall has been established for so long, and now we've finally turned our luck around."

Hijikata, who was sitting side by side with Kondo, suddenly paused as he brought his sake cup to his lips after hearing Okita and Shusuke's two remarks.

He raised his gaze, glanced at Shusuke, then at Kondo beside him, and silently placed the wine glass back on the table.

"...Since we've brought up the Test Guard Hall...this is a rare opportunity. Master, Asheng, I have some opinions I'd like to share regarding the current operation of the Test Guard Hall. Are you interested in hearing them?"

"Hmm?" Kondo glanced sideways at Hijikata. "Opinion? What opinion?"

Hijikata cleared his throat as he put the chopsticks he was holding in his right hand back on the table: "Regarding how to further expand our Shieikan... I suddenly came up with a new idea recently."

"Oh?" Shusuke's eyes lit up with interest. He looked directly at Hijikata and gestured for him to continue.

The rest of the people at the banquet, including Qing Deng, also stopped what they were doing and focused their curious and puzzled gazes on Hijikata.

Everyone was watching him, but Hijikata wasn't intimidated at all. After popping a peanut into his mouth, he calmly began to speak:

"I'll just get straight to the point."

"We will try to recruit some well-known samurai as disciples or guests of the Shieikan."

Upon hearing this, everyone at the banquet immediately looked puzzled.

"Ashi." Kondo put down his bowl and chopsticks, turned around to face Hijikata, his face full of doubt. "What do you mean by this? Why are you trying to recruit samurai with a certain reputation as our disciples or guests?"

Hijikata seemed to have anticipated Kondo's question, and crossed his arms in front of his chest, displaying a confident demeanor.

"This is an inspiration I recently had by chance."

"Just a few days ago, I chatted with some newcomers in the venue because I was bored."

"While chatting with these newcomers, I learned from them that they were all attracted by the name of Ju, which is why they chose to come here to learn swordsmanship."

Having said that, Hijikata turned his gaze to Aoto.

“Tachibana is a celebrity in Edo now, and I have a feeling that some people come to Shieikan because they are attracted by Aoto’s reputation.”

"But after chatting with those newcomers, I suddenly realized that the number of people in this group seemed to be much larger than I had previously expected."

"So, out of a sense of fun, I launched a serious investigation to find out how many people entered the Shieikan because of Aoto."

"The survey results surprised me quite a bit: a considerable number of people decided to come to the Shie-e-kan to learn swordsmanship after hearing that the recently renowned and accomplished 'Little Tengu of the Northern Frontier' had come from this place."

"After ascertaining this fact, a brand new idea emerged in my mind."

“A sword-fighting school with famous disciples or diners can exert a strong ‘attraction’ to others.”

"People can't help but wonder: what is it about this sword school that makes it able to recruit so many famous scholars? This sparks their interest in the sword school."

"This is similar to how, when a Yoshiwara courtesan used accessories or cosmetics from a particular merchant, it would often trigger a frenzy among women to buy those accessories and cosmetics."

"Therefore, I believe that if we can find a way to recruit those famous samurai as disciples or guests of our dojo, it will definitely be of great benefit to the future development and growth of our Shieikan!"

Hijikata was quite eloquent; with just these simple words, he made everyone understand his point.

Before Hijikata had even finished explaining half of it, Aoto already understood what Hijikata meant—simply put, it was about using the "celebrity effect" to expand the reputation of the Shieikan, so as to attract more people to learn swordsmanship at the Shieikan.

Shusuke raised his hand, smacked his lips, and rubbed his smooth chin: "Hmm... Hijikata, I understand what you're saying."

"But ah..."

As Zhou Zhu changed the subject, a bitter smile appeared on his face.

"Trying to recruit famous samurai as apprentices or retainers... is easier said than done."

"What makes those famous scholars worthy of being disciples or guests of our Shiwei Academy?"

"To put it bluntly and unpleasantly... our Shieikan has not yet completely shaken off the stigma of being called 'Taro Dojo'."

“Currently, there are more sword-making halls in Edo than our Shieikan, so many that you can’t count them on two hands.”

"Moreover, disciples are fine, but as for diners... our current financial resources are not strong enough to support many diners."

"Maintaining customers is very expensive. The cost of a single customer's meals over a month is not a small amount..."

Although it was common practice in Edo-period sword-making halls to employ guests who stayed at the hall to help out, the high cost of supporting these guests meant that only a minority of sword-making halls had such guests.

Hijikata then interjected, asking, "Approximately how many diners can our Shieikan currently support?"

“Hmm…” Zhou Zhu looked thoughtful, rubbing his chin a little harder. “Compared to before, our income has been much better recently, but at most, we can only support 2 or 3 people at the moment.”

"Two or three people..." Hijikata frowned, it seemed that the number was slightly different from what he had expected.