I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

Elodie's hands, which were clasped tightly on her thighs, increased their grip.

Although she expressed herself rather restrainedly, Elodie's emotions were truthfully and thoroughly conveyed to Qing Deng.

Without the slightest affectation, both his words and expressions brimmed with the genuine emotions unique to children of this age.

This genuine emotion, so unpretentious and unaffected, left Qing Deng speechless.

Sensing Elodie's sincerity and simplicity, Qingdeng pursed his lips, his eyelids drooping slightly as he focused on thinking.

What a mature and sensible child...

Qingdeng sighed with deep admiration in his heart.

Elodie's maturity and understanding made Qing Deng wonder once again, "Is this little girl really only 12 years old?"

After Elodie poured out her heart, the sound of everyone's breathing began to dominate the room.

There was no sound of wind blowing outside.

There was no noise from the corridor outside the room.

At this moment, in this spacious ward, Qingdeng became the focus of everyone's attention.

Qing Deng had completely recovered from the initial shock of being suddenly taken as Elodie's apprentice.

My heart is at peace, like the still surface of a mirror-like lake.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, Qingdeng calmly realized that he should give a serious response to the little girl who had bravely spoken out her wish and taken action to fulfill it.

Qingdeng had never thought about or planned to take on any apprentices.

In an instant, a question popped into Qingdeng's mind: Do I have a way to teach people well?

Although he often gives pointers and guidance to some of the new juniors at the Shieikan, Qing Deng does not believe that he, who is still very young, has the ability to formally take on apprentices and impart knowledge and resolve doubts.

Following the question, "Do I have a way to teach people well?", another new question immediately arose before Qing Deng: What benefits would it bring me to take Elodie as my apprentice?

Qingdeng has always considered himself a rational person, and he likes to carefully consider the gains and losses before doing anything.

Do things that are beneficial in a serious manner, and avoid doing things that are not beneficial if possible.

So at this moment, Qing Deng subconsciously began to calculate the gains and losses of taking Elodie as his apprentice.

One of the key criteria for judging whether you have thoroughly mastered a certain kind of knowledge is whether you can teach that knowledge to others.

While teaching others knowledge, you can enhance your own understanding of that knowledge, and you might even gain new insights from it.

Teaching, imparting knowledge, and resolving doubts... this in itself is an act that allows us to progress together with others.

Therefore, for Qing Deng, the greatest benefit of taking Elodie as his apprentice was that in the process of teaching Elodie the Natural Rinshū-ryū style, he could also improve along with her, thus indirectly enhancing his own swordsmanship.

However, compared to the "gains," the "losses" of taking Elodie as a disciple are also quite obvious.

The biggest loss is, of course, the cost of time.

Qingdeng was neither an unemployed vagrant nor a swordsmanship master who made a living by teaching swordsmanship; he had a formal job working in the Northern Frontier.

While the amount of free time that can be freely controlled is not small, it is certainly not much either.

Although being Elodie's teacher would be somewhat beneficial to his swordsmanship training... it seems that spending that much time teaching Elodie directly on practicing swordsmanship in the Shieikan would be more conducive to his swordsmanship improvement.

Can the gains I have made up for the losses I have suffered?

Reason churned within my mind...

Perhaps it was Qingdeng's prolonged silence that made Elodie nervous... Qingdeng heard Elodie's breathing become heavy.

Turning his head to look, Qingdeng saw that Elodie's body was now tense.

Neck, shoulders, arms, waist... every part of my body, from head to toe, is in a state of "tense tension".

With his eyes wide open, he still stared directly at Qingdeng.

Despite her efforts to control her emotions, Qing Deng's silence still caused unease and tension to creep into Elodie's eyes.

Her slightly trembling gaze conveyed the message that she "didn't want to be rejected by Qingdeng."

Qingdeng and Elodie stared at each other silently... and it was at this moment that a bizarre scene unfolded.

Another emotion, besides "rationality," emerged in Qing Deng's mind.

After this new emotion emerged, the feeling called "rationality" immediately hid away like snow exposed to sunlight or ice exposed to fire.

No.

They didn't hide.

It was defeated.

"Rationality" was overtaken and utterly defeated by that newly emerging emotion... by that emotion called "sensibility".

It seems that similar phenomena have occurred before.

Aoto quickly recalled that just a few months ago, when Kinoshita Mai revealed the true identity of "Nekozo" to him and asked Aoto to assist her "phantom thief operation," he had encountered a situation where "emotion overwhelmed reason."

At that time, he chose to help Kinoshita Mai out of pure emotion, and has been silently supporting Kinoshita Mai's "phantom thief career" under the hidden identity of "Fox Boy" ever since.

Was it out of affection for Elodie?

Was he moved by Elodie's determination to learn martial arts and protect her family?

Or was it because of the longing and admiration that Elodie conveyed that Qing Deng felt embarrassed to respond with negative emotions?

Qing Deng couldn't figure out what he was thinking either.

At that moment, all he knew was that he couldn't underestimate the enthusiasm of the young girl in front of him.

He only knew that some things didn't require any rational considerations or concern about gains and losses.

At that moment, Qingdeng made up his mind.

Although he couldn't explain why, when he came to his senses, Qingdeng only had one answer left in his mind.

If someone were to ask Qing Deng later: Why did you make this choice... Qing Deng would probably only answer: There's no reason why, I just really wanted to do it at that moment.

“...Mr. Ungulaim”.

Qing Deng raised his gaze and looked at Anthony with a serious expression.

"what do you say?"

Qing Deng's question, "What do you say?" obviously means, "Would you be willing to let me be Elodie's swordsmanship tutor?"

Anthony lowered his eyelids and looked at Elodie beside him.

"...If you, Mr. Tachibana, are willing to teach Elodie...then I have no objection."

Moved by Elodie's heartfelt words, Anthony no longer showed his tough side and nodded solemnly to Qingdeng.

Qing Deng smiled slightly, then turned his gaze to Zhou Zhu.

"...Master. Although I don't currently have the license to teach all disciples...could you make an exception and let me take on a disciple?"

Only those who have obtained the license to teach all sword techniques are allowed to open a school and take on students—this is the rule of the swordsmanship world in this era.

According to this rule, Qing Deng, who has not yet received the full transmission of the Natural Rishin-ryu school, is not qualified to take on disciples.

"Uh... well..." Shusuke raised his hand, habitually rubbing his smooth chin. Hesitation tugged at his brow.

Kondo and Okita, who were standing on either side of Shusuke, both turned to look at him.

"Father."

Kondo gently called out to Shusuke, then said nothing more, only smiling as he looked at Shusuke.

Kondo's thoughts were all conveyed in his eyes and that smile.

"master."

At this moment, Okita also looked at Shusuke with a smile on his lips. He also poured all the words he wanted to say into his eyes and smile.

Perhaps it was the look and smiles on Kondo and Okita's faces, or perhaps he had finally come to his senses. In any case, after hesitating for less than half a minute, Shusuke sighed with a helpless expression.

"Although it's against the rules... it's not a big deal if it happens once or twice."

Zhou Zhu subtly expressed his attitude.

"Thank you, Master."

Qingdeng lowered his head and thanked his master gratefully.

"Mr. Orange..."

Qing Deng turned his head and looked seriously at Elodie, who had suddenly called his name softly.

Anticipation and excitement... along with the innocent and romantic emotions unique to young girls, were evident on her face. Elodie's face was filled with excitement, and her two little hands twisted back and forth on her legs.

When she heard Qing Deng ask Anthony and Zhou Zhu those questions, Elodie already knew what Qing Deng's answer would be.

Although she had realized it... Elodie couldn't be completely at ease until she heard Qingdeng's definite answer with her own ears.

"I certainly can't come to your residence every day to teach you."

"I can only come here once every 7 days at most. What do you think?"

Elodie's already large eyes widened even more at this moment.

He blinked hard a few times... his gaze trembled slightly with the surge of emotion in his eyes.

She tried to suppress her emotions and stared at Qingdeng with a tense expression, but she couldn't hold on for long before succumbing to the overwhelming feelings in her heart, and her expression turned into a bright smile of joy and excitement.

"of course can!"

……

August 1, the first year of Wanyan (1860).

On this day, Tachibana Seiden had his first disciple.

……

……

If Qingdeng were to describe his experience of being hospitalized at Renyitang Hospital, it would be... incredibly boring.

Under Dr. Beifang Ren's semi-forceful demands, Qingdeng could only lie in bed and rest every day, and could not get out of bed and walk around frequently, as doing so would be detrimental to his muscle recovery.

During his waking hours, when he wasn't sleeping, Qing Deng could only pass the time by counting the patterns on the ceiling of the ward and reading some novels that Okita and the others had brought.