I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

However, the three of them do indeed have a certain reputation in Edo due to the "Battle of the Foreign Documents Dispatch Office".

So, last night, Qing Deng made an agreement with Kondo and the others—to bring all three of his subordinates over today!

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Chapter 152 Watch closely, this is how Qing Deng was trained! [7500]

Test Health Hall, Kitchen —

"Sōji, who are those three people?" Abi asked Okita, who was helping her out beside her, as she skillfully prepared tea.

Abi is feeling very lost right now.

Just now, she had been in her bedroom on the second floor organizing the Shiwei Hall's accounts, summarizing and calculating the hall's income and expenses for the past month.

Just as she was getting dizzy from calculating, Okita suddenly knocked on the door and said to her: "We have a guest. Please help me make tea."

Of all the staff at Shieikan, only Inoue Genzaburo, who is still at his hometown due to other matters and has not returned to Shieikan, is able to brew a good cup of tea.

There are rarely any guests usually, so why are there suddenly? Puzzled, Abi went downstairs and secretly peeked into the room—and sure enough, there were three young people he didn't recognize at all.

“Those three are Tachibana-kun’s friends,” Okita explained as he handed the washed teacup to Abi. “Nagakura Shinpachi, Harada Sanosuke, and Todo Heisuke.”

"Okabiki?" Abi frowned slightly. "Why would Tachibana-kun's Okabikiki suddenly come here?"

“Ah…” Okita reached behind her head and played with the delicate end of her short ponytail. “Oh right… I think I forgot to tell you about this, Auntie.”

"Ahem, it's like this—"

Okita cleared his throat and then succinctly told Abi about the plan they had devised at the celebration banquet the night before to leverage the "celebrity effect" to further develop and expand Shieikan.

No sooner had Okita finished speaking than Abi's eyebrows shot up sharply, and she retorted as if by conditioned reflex:

"What? Inviting guests? No way! I won't allow it!"

"Shh..." Okita quickly raised his right index finger to his lips, "Auntie, please keep your voice down..."

The kitchen where Okita and Abi are currently in is on the same floor of the Shieikan building as the main hall where Aoto, Kondo, and Nagakura are. The two rooms are not far apart, and it would be embarrassing if Nagakura and the others heard Abi's voice.

Abi realized that she might have been too loud, so she pursed her lips, suppressed the urge to roar, and lowered her voice to rebuke Okita:

"What are you thinking? Why would you invite a bunch of people who are not related to us to stay here for no reason?"

“Auntie, listen to me,” Okita said patiently. “A sword-fighting school with famous disciples or patrons can have a strong ‘attraction’ to others…”

Okita relayed exactly what he had heard from Hijikata the night before about the benefits of recruiting famous swordsmen into the sword-making school to Abi.

Abi, who was initially furious and puzzled, gradually softened after hearing Okita's explanation.

But her eyebrows were still furrowed.

“…No, I still can’t accept it.” Abi’s two corners of her mouth drooped down, her mouth curving into a wide arc. “If you’re here to be an apprentice, then so be it.”

"But if you want to stay here as a diner... I can't accept that!"

"With Tachibana and the others moving in, we already have enough guests here."

"If we let even more people move in, you won't find it crowded, but I will!"

"Besides—where would we find enough places for people to live in our testing facility?"

“There’s room to stay.” Okita was still playing with his ponytail. “Auntie, have you forgotten? There are still plenty of empty seats in the ‘Diner’s Room’ where Tachibana-kun and Saito-kun are staying now.”

Upon hearing Okita's response, Abi choked.

When Zhou Zhu was building the Shiwei Hall, he considered that the Shiwei Hall might attract some diners in the future, so he specially built a large room on the second floor of the Shiwei Hall to be used as a place for diners to stay.

However, since the establishment of Shieikan, it has never been able to attract any diners, so this "diners' room" has been abandoned.

It wasn't until more than three months ago, after Aoto, Saito, and Kyubei moved into the Shieikan, that this large room, which had been abandoned for a long time, was finally put into use and made available for Aoto and the others to live in.

The "diners' room" is quite spacious, more than enough to accommodate 10 people. After deducting the current three guests, Aoto, Saito, and Kyubei, it can still accommodate at least 7 more guests.

Forgot that there were still quite a few empty seats in the "diners' area," and a hint of embarrassment appeared on Abi's face, but she quickly suppressed it.

Her eyebrows were still furrowed and hadn't relaxed. She opened her mouth, as if she wanted to say something more.

But Okita preempted him and started the conversation:

“…Aunt, let Kondo give it a try.”

Okita put down his hand that was playing with the ponytail, and the corners of his mouth turned up slightly, revealing a peaceful smile.

"This is the first time that Brother Kondo has run a sword-making school with his own will and his own ideas."

“In the past, he always followed his master closely.”

"He completely copied his master's management style of running the sword school."

"I'm not saying that this approach of completely copying the experience of elders is bad."

"But I think... it's not a good thing to just rigidly copy the experience of our elders."

"This is the first time that Brother Kondo has tried to improve the existing management of the sword shop according to his own ideas, based on his own experience, which is quite different from that of his elders."

"Whether this move succeeds or fails in the end, I think we should encourage Kondo."

“I guess Master thinks so too, which is why he let Kondo go ahead and do it.”

After speaking, Okita said nothing more.

She simply smiled and quietly watched Abi in front of her, waiting for Abi's response.

Abi's facial expressions changed rapidly.

The wrinkles on his face would sometimes gather and sometimes relax. His lips would also open and close constantly, as if he wanted to say something but couldn't.

After a long while, Ah Biben's furrowed brows finally relaxed.

“…Hmph!” Abi, whose lips were still drooping, snorted heavily through her nose, then turned her head to look at the kettle on the stove, no longer looking at Okita. “You young people… ever since you got older, you’ve become more and more fond of going against us old folks, and you’ve become more and more sharp-tongued.”

"Do whatever you want with this sword-fighting arena! I don't care what you do with it!"

Knowing Abi's temperament well, Okita was not angry or embarrassed by Abi's sarcastic remarks.

"Thank you, Auntie!" Okita smiled so much that his eyes turned into crescent moons.

Whoosh—the kettle on the stove just happened to emit the sound of steam boiling.

Abi grabbed the boiling kettle and skillfully brewed tea, then poured the scalding hot tea into the teacups that Okita had just washed.

The kitchen was instantly filled with the aroma of tea.

Okita sniffed hard, took several deep breaths of the enticing aroma of tea, and then put his hands on his hips.

"It smells so good... Why does the tea you brew smell so much better than the tea we brew?"

"Practice makes perfect." Abi put the empty kettle back in its place, then placed the teacups filled with tea on the tea tray. "Let's go, let's serve them tea."

Even with so many teacups on the tray she was holding, Abi's steps remained quite steady.

No matter what, Nagakura and the others were guests visiting the Shieikan.

As the mistress of this house and sword-making school, it would be impolite of Abi not to meet and greet the guests, including Yongcang.

We must still fulfill our duties as hosts and show the proper courtesy.

Together with Okita, they quickly arrived at the front door of the hall. After opening the door, Abi and Okita saw Aoto, Kondo, Nagakura, and others sitting opposite each other.

Nagakura, Harada, and Todo sat in a row, while Kondo and Hijikata sat side by side opposite them. Hijikata happened to be at the Shieikan today, and after Aoto brought Nagakura and the others, Hijikata, as a core member of the Shieikan, also came to join in the fun.

As for Aoto and Saito, they sat one in front of Nagakura and the others, facing Kondo and Hijikata.

Shusuke is currently out on business and not at the Shieikan. Therefore, Kondo will represent Shieikan in this meeting with Nagakura and the others.

As soon as Abi opened the hall door with a tea tray, everyone in the hall immediately focused their attention on her.

"Ah, allow me to introduce you." Kondo immediately spread his palms towards Abi, "This is my mother: Kondo Abi."

“Mother, these are Tachibana-kun’s guides: Nagakura Shinpachi, Harada Sanosuke, and Todo Heisuke.”

"Nice to meet you." The highly educated and very polite Todo bowed to Abhi first. "I am Todo Heisuke. Please forgive my intrusion!"

Nagakura and Harada, these two simple-minded guys with little education, only belatedly realized what Todo had done after he had finished bowing and imitated him, bowing and greeting Abhi in the same manner.

Perhaps it was because Yongcang and the others were much more polite than she had imagined, Abi raised an eyebrow in surprise.

After forcing a smile and responding to Nagakura and the others' greetings, Abi took the teacups off the tea tray one by one, handing out just the right number of teacups to everyone in the room. Then, carrying the tea tray, she quickly left the room, leaving Aoto, Kondo, and the others plenty of space to talk.

Okita stayed behind and sat in the empty seat to Kondo's right.

After watching his mother, Abi, leave, Kondo turned his gaze back to the three people in front of him, including Nagakura.

"Sorry, the conversation was interrupted just now."

Let's continue.

Kondo picked up the tea that Abi had just handed him, took a small sip of the still-hot tea to moisten his slightly dry throat, straightened his back, and continued in a serious tone.

"What I just said is the whole reason why I want you to join Shieikan."

"What do you think? Are you interested in joining my Shige-kan?"

After saying that, Kondo looked at Nagakura and the other two with sincere and open eyes.

Just now, while Abi was still preparing tea in the kitchen, Kondo, Hijikata, and the three others, whom they had never had the chance to meet before, had already introduced themselves to each other.

Last night, after learning about the situation of Nagakura and his two companions from Aoto, Kondo became very interested in them, as they perfectly met his requirement of being "somewhat famous in Edo".

Therefore, after both sides had introduced themselves, Kondo took the initiative and got straight to the point—explaining without any deception his purpose and reasons for wanting Nagakura and others to join the Shieikan.

By the time Abi brought in the tea, he had already said almost everything he needed to say to Yongcang and the others.

Now, all that's left is to wait for the reply from the three of them, including Nagakura.

The first to reply was Todo.

With an embarrassed expression, he reached out his right index finger and scratched the hair at his right temple before bowing apologetically to Kondo.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Kondo, but I'm still studying at the Ito Dojo. Master Ito doesn't allow us to become disciples or patrons of other kendo schools while our names are still on the dojo's student register..."

Todo politely declined Kondo's invitation.