I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

Qing Deng casually suggested.

"Listen to the shouts of these people trying to attract customers... This Shibaju-sha will be running 'Ittosai' until August 20th."

"Hmm...we'll see." Okita grinned. "If I have time later, I'll slowly consider whether or not to watch the show. Ah, Tachibana-kun, look! It's daifuku mochi!"

Okita, his eyes sparkling, pointed at an uncle not far away who was carrying two large wooden boxes on a shoulder pole and calling out, "Daifuku mochi~ 4 mon each~".

Before Aoto could respond, the gluttonous Okita scurried off to the old man selling daifuku mochi.

Aoto felt from the bottom of his heart that today's outing... was very suitable to be named "Okita's Eating Trip".

Okita, who has a big appetite and is very greedy, will go up to any food stall that interests him and enjoy the food with gusto, his mouth almost never stopping.

Watching Okita's retreating figure as he hurried towards the Daifuku mochi merchant, Aoto smiled helplessly and quickly caught up.

"Hey, Okita-kun, don't run too fast!"

……

……

After leisurely strolling along the streets of Ryogoku Hiroko, it was exactly noon.

As noon approached, the temperature suddenly rose sharply.

The already hot weather has now become even more unbearable, like being trapped in a hellish, scorching heat.

Neither Aoto nor Okita could withstand the high temperature, so after strolling along Ryogoku Hirokoji Street, the two hurriedly turned back and embarked on their journey back to Shieikan.

As soon as he returned to the Shiwei Hall, which was now no different from home to Qingdeng, he heard a cacophony of shouts and the clanging of bamboo swords.

Upon entering the dojo, a chorus of greetings, each louder than the last, surged toward Qingdeng.

"Good afternoon, Tachibana-senpai!"

"Ju-kun, so you went out. I was wondering why I hadn't seen you all day."

"Ju, have you had lunch?"

……

Aoto currently enjoys immense popularity in Edo and is undoubtedly a major celebrity of the time.

It's only natural that Aoto is now a star at the Shieikan.

After Qingdeng made new great contributions such as "rescuing the settlement", the number of people who wanted to become apprentices at the Shiwei Hall increased significantly.

Many people come to the Shiekan to study the Natural Rinshū style because they admire Qing Deng's great reputation.

Nowadays, whether they are senior or junior brothers, they all have great respect for Qingdeng, who is no longer the unknown junior brother he once was... at least on the surface.

After spending the entire morning strolling around outdoors with Okita, Aoto felt a little tired and wanted to return to the "Diner's Room" to rest for a while.

After briefly greeting his fellow disciples at the dojo, Qing Deng went straight back to the Kondo residence located at the back of the dojo.

As he stepped through the entrance hall and skillfully traversed the corridor connecting the entrance hall to the heart of the mansion, Qing Deng suddenly saw Nagakura and Harada, who were currently living as guests at Shieikan, crouching outside the tightly closed hall door.

Both of them had rather strange expressions, looking like they were trying not to laugh.

What are you doing?

Aoto walked slowly towards Nagakura and Harada.

Neither of them responded.

He simply pointed to the tightly closed sliding door of the hall in front of them.

"Yong, listen carefully! You must remember these etiquette rules I'm teaching you! Don't embarrass yourself at your wedding in a month!"

The voice of the teacher's wife, Ah Bi, came from inside the hall.

"I don't want the Matsui family to look down on the Kondo family."

"Come on, now read this wedding vows again. Make sure you know them by heart! If you can't even recite the vows smoothly, people will laugh at you!"

"Yes……"

The speaker became Kondo.

"We have chosen this auspicious day to hold our wedding."

"From this day forward, we will love and respect one another, form a family, share joys and sorrows, and remain so forever."

"May we both be happy forever, with this in mind... with... with..."

"Yong! Why are you stuttering again!" Abi's sharp voice made Qingdeng and the others, who were eavesdropping outside the hall, shrink back.

"Mother, this oath is way too difficult to read... Is what's written here really in Japanese?"

"The wedding vows are all written in classical Japanese, didn't you know that? Enough talk, keep practicing! If you don't memorize this wedding vow today, you can forget about having dinner!"

……

Nagakura slowly raised his head, gave a bitter smile to Aoto and Harada, who were eavesdropping with him in the hall, and sighed softly:

"Getting married is really tough... Kondo-kun's experience has suddenly made me a little afraid of getting married..."

“Kondo-kun has been practicing wedding etiquette in this room for almost an hour.” Harada yawned widely, then chuckled. “Did you hear the tone of Kondo-kun’s voice just now? I can feel how much pain he is in right now from his tone.”

Aoto responded to Nagakura and Harada's teasing of Kondo with a wry smile.

In the next month, the Shiweiguan will host two major events.

The first thing: to engage in a "Red and White Battle" with the Xuanwu Hall.

The second thing: Kondo Isami's wedding ceremony.

*******

*******

The long chapter with the letter W, which was promised in the monthly ticket reward offer two days ago, has been successfully completed!

Double monthly pass time at the end of the month is here!

Thanks to the strong support of all readers, this book has achieved an unprecedentedly high monthly ticket ranking this month, which has fueled the author's ambitions!

This month, the author aims to break into the top 100 of the monthly ticket rankings! So, the author is about to enter "Seal Rising" mode!

At the time of this chapter's publication, the book had 4233 monthly votes. If we can reach 5200 votes today, the author will release a 1+ word update tomorrow! This goal seems like a lot, but it's still quite easy to achieve during the "double monthly votes" period.

The author's credibility is still guaranteed.

So please be sure to vote for this book! (Like a leopard crying.jpg)

Please vote with monthly tickets! Please vote with recommendation tickets! (Leopard crying.jpg)

Please vote with monthly tickets! Please vote with recommendation tickets!

The "Second Annual Character Popularity Vote" is still in full swing in the QQ group!

Sanako has now narrowly defeated Kinoshita Mai by one vote and reclaimed first place!

********

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The author occasionally appears in the group chat.

Chapter 196 Okita Souji, pressured to get married

Ever since Shieikan, under the leadership of Aoto, achieved a great victory over Chibakenkan in the red and white battle at the "Plum Blossom Festival" more than five months ago, Genbukan has been sending "challenge invitations" to Shieikan.

Qing Deng had only met Chiba Michizaburo, the current head of the Genbukan, a few times and had hardly had any interaction with him.

The deepest impression Chiba Michizaburo left on Aoto was that he was very taciturn.

His personality is somewhat similar to Saito's.

They are all not very talkative and often have a blank expression.

But beneath Dozaburo's stoic exterior lies a fiercely passionate martial artist's heart!

If you want to improve your swordsmanship, you can't do it without sparring with masters! Not sparring with others or only sparring with those whose skills still need improvement will only make your skills worse. Only by sparring with masters regularly can you continuously improve your skills. Chiba Dozaburo was a fervent believer in this teaching philosophy.

Thus, under the leadership of Chiba Michizaburo, the atmosphere of the Genbukan was... quite "simple and honest".

It's a perfectly qualified camp for battle maniacs!

Influenced by Chiba Michizaburo, the apprentices there were all fiercely competitive and took pride in sparring with masters.

In the Red and White Battle, which pitted the Genbukan and the Chiba Kenkan against each other, the Shieikan, which had a history of losing more than winning, surprisingly defeated the Chiba Kenkan. Masters such as Chiba Jutaro, Sanako, and Yamanami were all defeated... This aroused Chiba Dosaburo's intense curiosity!

Chiba Dozaburo, wanting to personally experience why Shieikan had suddenly become so powerful, extended an invitation to Shieikan to "have a red and white battle" not long after Kochiba Kenkan was defeated by Shieikan.

The Shieikan, which has greatly defeated the Chiba Kenkan, is in a "prosperous period" due to its increasing fame.

Shusuke and Kondo both wanted to focus their energy on developing the sword-making school for the time being, so they declined Chiba Michizaburo's challenge.

Chiba Michizaburo, who was eager to see how Shieikan had become so strong, was not discouraged by this small setback.

For the past few months, Chiba Michizaburo has been relentlessly issuing challenges to Shieikan every so often.

The Shie-e-gwan (Test Guard Hall) has consistently declined.

Last month, at the end of July, Chiba Michizaburo once again extended an invitation to Shieikan to "hold a red and white battle together".

This time... the Shieikan (Testi Hall) did not refuse without hesitation!

Shusuke and his son Kondo both agreed that after such a long period of development, it was time for a fierce competition to test how much the Shieikan's strength had improved.

The formidable Xuanwu Hall... is a worthy opponent to challenge!

Only by fighting against powerful opponents can one unleash their full potential.

Therefore, this time, Shiwei Hall accepted the challenge from Genbu Hall!

After a brief discussion, the people from the two sword clubs finally decided to hold the Red and White Battle on August 20th.

After it was confirmed that a long-awaited red-and-white battle would be fought with the Xuanwu Hall, the atmosphere at the Shiwei Hall has been exceptionally serious and tense these days.

The list of players participating in this red-white battle has not yet been finalized.

The apprentices, eager to be selected to fight against the Xuanwu Hall, have been training even harder lately.