I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

When he heard Kinoshita Mai call him "Aoto" in her soft, sweet voice... Aoto felt his heart beat slightly faster than usual.

The tingling sensation that had been lingering in my chest since earlier rapidly expanded.

At this moment, Kinoshita Mai's eyes and cheeks slowly filled with excitement.

"Heh, heh heh heh heh..."

The girl, who was thrilled and excited to have successfully called out Qingdeng's common name, suddenly let out this kind of laughter.

"Qingdeng!"

With a bright smile, she called out Qingdeng's common name once again in a sweet tone.

But at this moment—

"...What are you doing?"

Kiryu's voice rang out from outside the shop...

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The long-overdue 10,000-word update has finally been made up for (Leopard dead.jpg)

Only a small part of the plot of Volume 1 remains.

So the monthly ticket bounty continues! This book currently has 3035 monthly tickets. If we can reach 3150 tickets today, the author will continue to update 10,000 words tomorrow and finish the last part of Volume 1!

PS: After more than 5 months of serialization, Volume 1 is finally coming to an end... Let me give you a preview of the title of Volume 2.

The title of Volume 2 is "Soaring to the Heavens"!

Chapter 193 Tachibana-kun! Come learn the art of sword drawing with me! [9000]

Sorry, I'm too bad at this (leopard crying.jpg). Today's chapter is a very important one, revealing the world view of this book and laying the groundwork for a lot of plot later. It was quite difficult to write. I, the author, wrote until 3 a.m. and still couldn't reach 1 words (leopard dying.jpg).

The author misjudged the situation.

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wow...

The shop door was pushed open.

Aoto saw Kiryu's wrinkled old face with glasses perched on his nose.

Kiryu, whose right hand was still resting on the doorknob, was looking back and forth at Aoto, whose expression was strange, and Kinoshita Mai, whose pretty face was still flushed, with a very unfathomable look.

Even though he hadn't done anything shameful, for some reason, after hearing Kiryu's question, "...What are you doing?" and being looked at by Kiryu with that scrutinizing gaze, Aoto felt an inexplicable sense of tension...

"T-Mr. Kiryu...!"

Upon seeing Kiryu's sudden arrival, Kinoshita Mai's delicate body trembled violently twice. Then, her eyes darted around nervously, and her feet under her peach-shaped buttocks and her hands on her fleshy thighs twisted restlessly.

It was obvious—Kiryu must have heard Kinoshita Mai call out "Aoto" in a sweet tone just now.

Kinoshita Mai shouted very loudly, and Kiryu, who should have already reached the shop door at that time, had no reason not to hear it.

When others heard me call Tachibana-kun "Aoto," Kinoshita Mai, who wasn't used to calling Aoto by that name, felt a strong sense of shame.

Her face, which had just begun to fade, turned bright red again, as if it were about to bleed.

Wisps of steam seemed to rise from her face and the top of her head.

"We...we didn't do anything..."

Like Aoto, Kinoshita Mai felt a strange tension at this moment.

Not daring to look at Kiryu, she stared intently at the ground in front of her knees, muttering in a soft, incantation-like tone.

"We were just discussing what to call each other..."

"……call?"

Whether it was Qing Deng's own perception or not, he felt that Kiryu's gaze, hidden behind his glasses, seemed to have suddenly become sharper.

“I feel that since I’m already so familiar with Tachibana-kun and… and Aoto, it’s a bit too formal to keep calling each other ‘Tachibana-kun’ or ‘Ms. Kinoshita’, so we’ve decided to call each other ‘Mai’ and ‘Aoto’ from now on…”

Kinoshita Mai honestly told Kiryu everything.

After quietly listening to the whole story, Kiryu's eyelids drooped slightly, and he looked intently at the young man and woman sitting side by side in front of him... mainly at Aoto.

His gaze was meaningful.

Kiryu's gaze... made Aoto feel an intense sense of pressure...

It felt like the surrounding air was pressing down on him.

The tension in my heart intensified...

Aoto could understand why Kiryu was looking at him with that kind of gaze.

Although Kiryu addresses Kinoshita Mai as "Young Master," Aoto can clearly sense that the way Kiryu and Kinoshita Mai interact on a daily basis is more like "a very close grandfather and granddaughter relationship."

Kiryu's interactions with Kinoshita Mai are filled with his doting affection for this 15-year-old girl.

Kinoshita Mai also held Kiryu in high esteem.

So let's put ourselves in each other's shoes—you come home in a relaxed mood, only to find that the girl you treat like your own daughter is calling a boy by his name, whereas before, the girl had always addressed the boy as the very polite "Mr. XX".

If Qingdeng had encountered something like this, he felt he would have given the boy a very sharp look as well…

Aoto lowered his head and looked away awkwardly, as if he had done something wrong and dared not look at Kiryu.

But at this moment, an inexplicable feeling quietly emerged in Qingdeng's heart and grew rapidly.

In this era when gender etiquette was still very strict, a young girl... and such a shy girl at that, took the initiative to suggest that from now on they would address each other by their names—such an intimate way...

Even someone like Qing Deng, who had never had any intimate relationship with the opposite sex in his previous life and didn't understand women's hearts very well, vaguely realized something from Kinoshita Mai's courageous actions.

A tingling, itchy sensation, like being caressed by fine silk, returned to my chest.

This tingling sensation was strangely uncomfortable, yet it also brought a peculiar warmth to Qingdeng's body.

Qing Deng tilted his eyes slightly, secretly staring intently at Kinoshita Mai's pretty face with a complicated look.

Her gaze and entire focus were fixed on Kinoshita Mai on the ground in front of her, and she didn't notice Aoto secretly casting a glance at her.

But Kiryu noticed it.

Aoto thought his act of peeking at Kinoshita Mai was very subtle, but little did he know that he hadn't fooled Kiryu at all; Kiryu had seen through his little trick.

Suddenly, the wrinkles on Kiryu's face seemed to have increased even more...

Kiryu half-closed his eyes and let out a long sigh, releasing all the emotions in his heart.

"Has it really come to this...?"

After muttering this in a tone that even he could barely hear, Kiryu casually placed the termite-removing tools he was holding by the shop door. Then, he quickly walked towards the area in front of Aoto and Kinoshita Mai... behind the counter, and said softly in a tone that seemed to have a hidden meaning:

"It's good that you didn't do anything strange."

Just as he finished speaking, Kiryu had already settled down behind the counter.

"In short... Mr. Tachibana, congratulations on no longer having to live in the Renyi Hall."

Kiryu's expression returned to the refined smile that Aoto was familiar with.

How does it feel to regain your freedom?

"It feels great." Since Kiryu was no longer looking at him with that incredibly oppressive gaze, Aoto finally dared to look at Kiryu and meet his eyes. "Finally, I don't have to smell that pungent medicine anymore."

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Kiryu suddenly changed the subject.

"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. After waiting for so long, today has finally come."

Having understood Kiryu's implied meaning, Aoto smiled calmly:

"Yes. Finally, I was able to have a heart-to-heart talk with you, Mr. Kiryu, without being disturbed."

During Aoto's hospitalization, Kiryu and Kinoshita Mai visited him every day, but the crowded and noisy Jin-i-do was ultimately not a place where they could have a proper chat.

Therefore, Aoto could only keep all the mountain of questions he wanted to ask Kiryu to himself to himself.

After holding it in until now... Aoto has finally waited for this day, for this perfect opportunity to speak freely with Kiryu.

"Mr. Kiryu, Kinoshita Kou, Mai, and I have all kept the existence of that Kamaitachi a secret as you requested."

"Can you tell me... who you really are, and who that Kamaitachi is? Why do you seem to know that Kamaitachi?"

Without going through too much trouble, Qingdeng went straight to the point and said all the questions that had been weighing on his mind for the past few days.

Kiryu did not immediately begin to answer.

Instead, he first half-closed his eyes, and the refined smile on his face turned into a helpless, bitter smile...

“A-Wu… Hearing the name 'A-Wu' from your own mouth is a more complex feeling than I imagined…”

Kiryu's remark startled Aoto... and then, with an embarrassed expression, he subconsciously glanced at Kinoshita Mai beside him.

Looking over, I saw a faint, silly grin on Kinoshita Mai's cheeks.

That was the first time Qing Deng had personally called her "A-Mai"... This seemed to make Kinoshita Mai very happy. The corners of her mouth were turned up in a wild smile that she couldn't suppress.

Kiryu noticed Aoto's little gesture and the expression on Kinoshita Mai's face once again...

"Cough cough..."

To cover up his slightly confused expression, Kiryu coughed a few times and straightened his already ramrod-straight back even more.

"Hmm...which question should I answer first..."

Kiryu steered the conversation back to the main topic.

Faced with Aoto's barrage of questions, Kiryu smiled calmly.

"Let me explain to you one by one, following the order in which you asked these questions."

“I’ve told you before: before I came to Edo to open this ‘Thousand Things Shop,’ I worked for a medium-sized silk merchant in Osaka called Rinya. And the owner of Rinya is the young master’s godmother.”

"These words are not actually meant to deceive you."

“In a sense, I did work for Rinya before I came to Edo to open this ‘Thousand Things Shop’.”