I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

"And the master I serve, who is also the young master's godmother, is indeed the owner of Rinya... to be precise, the true owner of Rinya."

After deliberately emphasizing the words "the true master" as if to keep the audience in suspense, Kiryu tilted his head back, looked at the ceiling above him, and a gentle smile gradually appeared on his face as if he were recalling some beautiful memory.

"More than 70 years ago, there was a young girl named Kinoshita Rin who, through her own hard work and talent, built a rice merchant business called 'Gourd House' from scratch."

"After countless years of hard work and perseverance, Kinoshita Rin finally developed the Gourd House into a business with some money and connections, and its business was no longer limited to buying and selling rice."

"To this day, the Gourd House, led by Kinoshita Rin, has many subordinate shops."

"Rinya, which specializes in the silk business, is just one of the many shops under the Gourd House."

"Tachibana-kun, after hearing this, you should understand who Kinoshita Rin is, right?"

“This Kinoshita Rin is my lord; the young master’s godmother.”

"My godmother and I are not only master and servant, but also old friends and comrades-in-arms who have gone through countless storms together."

"I can be considered the lord's first subordinate. Before the lord established the gourd house, I followed the lord around to make a living and accompanied the lord through the ups and downs of the gourd house from scratch to its establishment and growth over the past 70 years."

Upon hearing this, Qingdeng couldn't help but secretly click his tongue in amazement.

I secretly said:

—She started doing business more than 70 years ago… So Ah Wu’s godmother must be quite old, at least 8 or 90 years old…

According to Kiryu, he's apparently worked under Mai's godmother for over 70 years... What an incredible length of service...

—An old woman who has served her grandmother for over 70 years… No wonder A-Mai always respects Mr. Kiryu so much.

After briefly reflecting on Kinoshita Mai's age and Kiryu's length of service, Aoto frowned slightly.

—Gourd House… I’ve never heard of this business before…

Qing Deng thoroughly reviewed all the memories he had gained since his transmigration, as well as the memories of "Yuanju Qing Deng".

After searching, it was discovered that not only were there no memories related to the Gourd House, but the business name "Gourd House" did not even exist.

Kiryu seemed to have guessed what Aoto was thinking, and he chuckled softly a few times before saying:

“If you haven’t heard of the Gourd House, that’s perfectly normal.”

"My lord prefers to keep a low profile."

"Since the creation of the Gourd House, the Lord has never publicly proclaimed its existence to the world."

"You can think of Calabash House as a business that likes to hide behind the scenes and is extremely fond of operating in the 'underworld'."

"In the world under the sun, the gourd house is not very famous."

"But in the 'underworld' where groups like the Yakuza and smugglers gather, quite a few people know about the existence of the Gourd House."

Merchants who prefer to operate in the "underground world"... Upon hearing this, Qing Deng's brow twitched involuntarily.

The underworld, businessmen... these words, when put together, made Qing Deng involuntarily think that Kinoshita Mai's grandmother might be running some shady business.

Thinking of this, Qing Deng couldn't help but turn his face to look at Kinoshita Mai beside him.

—Could Ah Wu be some kind of heiress from the underworld...?

Just as Aoto's thoughts were running wild and uncontrollably, Kiryu once again saw what Aoto was thinking and promptly interrupted his rambling thoughts.

"Our Gourd House has never done any shady business."

"Strictly speaking, our Calabash House is a very righteous organization."

"Anyway, let me continue."

"I've already introduced the organization I'm affiliated with. Now... let me tell you about myself."

“If you’ve heard Kamaitachi address me before, you might have realized that Kiryu Kazuma isn’t my real name.”

"My real name is Mamiya Kuro."

Thump, thump, thump... Qingdeng felt his heartbeat quicken considerably at that moment.

Despite having prepared himself mentally, Aoto still couldn't suppress his shock when he heard Kiryu admit that he was the same Mamiya Kuro who could convince Chiba Eijiro that "with him around, the title of 'Edo's greatest swordsman' would never have been his."

Kiryu observed Aoto's changing expressions with great interest.

"It seems... you've heard of the name 'Kuro Mamiya' before."

At this point, Kiryu sighed silently, a look of helplessness on his face.

"If I'm not mistaken, you probably first heard the name 'Mamiya Kuro' from the story of 'Mamiya Kuro cleaved the armor of a Western ironclad warship with a single sword strike,' right?"

"I want to state upfront that this story is a complete rumor."

Qing Deng was taken aback: "You've never cleaved through the armor of an ironclad warship?"

"I have never cleaved through the armor of an ironclad warship." Kiryu smiled knowingly. "That story is purely a fabricated rumor."

Kiryu didn't seem to want to dwell on his "one-hit kill" topic for too long.

After briefly mentioning to Aoto that "this story is just a rumor," Kiryu cleared his throat and sat up straight again.

"Enough of this small talk, let's get back to the main topic."

"'Kiryu Kazuma, the owner of the job placement agency Senjiya'—that was just a cover I used to hide my true identity."

"Although I have always been very serious about running this employment agency."

"But my actual job is to secretly investigate the movement of the party to be punished by law."

—The Party that Punishes the Law…? Judging from the name, it seems to be an organization…

Upon suddenly hearing a completely new term, a look of bewilderment quickly rose between Qing Deng's brows.

Fortunately, Kiryu quickly provided a detailed explanation of the organization.

"The law punishes the party—one..."

Kiryu suddenly stopped speaking.

At the same moment, the faint smile that had been lingering at the corner of Kiryu's mouth dissipated considerably.

He seemed to be thinking about what words to use to appropriately describe the organization.

After a long while, Kiryu finally spoke softly:

“A…a very ruthless organization.”

"The Party has exceptional intelligence secrecy measures."

"Our Gourd House has been fighting against the Law Extermination Party for a long time and has never stopped gathering intelligence on them, but even now, we know very little about the Law Extermination Party."

"Their headquarters location, the number of people in the organization, the organization's ultimate goal... everything remains a mystery."

"The only two things that can be confirmed at the moment are the names of some of their cadres and the fact that they are undoubtedly a bunch of madmen."

“The leaders and all cadres of the Party who are punished by law will give themselves a code name.”

"The code names they used were all those vicious demons and monsters from mythology."

"In addition to using fierce demons as their names, they would also tattoo the demons that they used as their code names on their backs."

"The Kamaitachi you faced earlier, Mr. Tachibana, is one of the executives of the Law Extermination Party."

At this moment, Qing Deng recalled the Kamaitachi tattoo that covered his entire back after the Kamaitachi tore off his shirt.

"The leader of the Law Extermination Party, codenamed 'Yamata no Orochi'."

"Below the Yamata no Orochi are the three top executives: 'Ōtakemaru', 'Shuten-dōji', and 'Tamamo-no-Mae'."

"Those ranked below the three top cadres are the middle-level cadres, led by 'Rakshasa' and 'Umibozu'."

"Next down are the lowest-ranking cadres like 'Kamaitachi' and 'Enenra'."

"Currently, only a handful of people, such as 'Shuten-dōji' and 'Kamaitachi', know their specific appearances."

"The others were known only by their names, but not by their appearance, age, or gender."

“Take their leader, ‘Yamata no Orochi,’ for example. We still don’t know the gender of ‘Yamata no Orochi’.”

"The intelligence we collected was all over the place."

"Some say that 'Yamata no Orochi' was a great swordsman whose swordsmanship had reached an unparalleled level."

"Some say that 'Yamata no Orochi' is a sharpshooter who can use both hands simultaneously, wielding two revolvers with perfect accuracy."

"Some say that the 'Yamata no Orochi' was a strategist who could reduce enemy ships to ashes with a mere laugh."

"Some more unusual accounts say that 'Yamata no Orochi' is a short, fat man who is unremarkable in appearance, weak, and doesn't even know how to hold a sword."

"It's obvious—the Law Punishment Party deliberately released a lot of misleading information to disrupt our intelligence gathering."

"The crackdown on the party began to take place about 10 years ago."

"They fund or carry out all sorts of activities that can disrupt the world."

"For example: deceiving the peasants into launching a reckless uprising that only leads to their deaths."

“They provided substantial financial assistance to Yakuza groups across the country, either by incorporating these Yakuza into the subordinate organizations of the Faju Party, or by directly sending these Yakuza to carry out various violent activities and disrupt the order of towns and villages.”

"Secretly release the terrible criminals imprisoned in jail, allowing these inhuman criminals who have regained their freedom to continue to wreak havoc on the world."

"Wait, wait, wait..."

"In short—the things that normal human beings should do, the Party never does. They have done every immoral thing imaginable."

"We still don't know why the Fa-Zhu Party is so tirelessly doing these things that harm others and themselves."

"As I just said, the Fazhu Party has extremely good intelligence secrecy measures."

"Even though they committed so many heinous acts, the existence of the Fazhi Party remained undiscovered by anyone or any organization, including the Edo Shogunate."

"They remained firmly hidden behind the scenes."

"Bringing bloodshed and carnage to the world in the darkness."

"It wasn't until six years ago that we in the Gourd House accidentally discovered the existence of the Fa-Zhu Party and the various atrocities they had committed."

"My lord is a kind-hearted person with a strong sense of justice."

Kiryu smiled as if he had recalled something funny.

"The lord always holds the attitude that 'we must exterminate' those who do inhumane things."

"Although our lord often uses the excuse that 'I just don't want these guys to disrupt the current stable business environment,' we all know that this is just an excuse to cover up what our lord really thinks."