I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

"Yo, young master, it's been a long time!"

Standing in front of Kiryu, Makimura Yahachi adjusted his straw hat and smiled slightly.

"I am back."

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In terms of order of appearance, Kinoshita Mai is indeed the first female protagonist of this book.

Aoto first meets Kinoshita Mai, and then encounters Souji, Elodie, Sanako, and Tenshōin.

Chapter 454 The workshop for crafting Illusionary Dew has been found! [4500]

"Mr. Makimura, welcome back!"

After a brief moment of surprise, Kinoshita Mai's pretty face instantly lit up with excitement.

She and Makimura Yahachi were very close.

Makimura treated her like his own daughter.

She also really liked this kind and amiable old man.

Among her many elders, the one who loved her the most was Makimura.

Her grandmother, Kinoshita Rin, was a stern person. Although she would occasionally show a gentle side in front of Kinoshita Mai, she usually presented a strict image.

As for Kiryu, the owner... he is a kind and gentle man. But besides that, he has another identity: the tutor assigned by Kinoshita Rin to Kinoshita Mai.

In other words, Kiryu-sensei bears the heavy responsibility of teaching Kinoshita Mai.

Therefore, he cannot do whatever Kinoshita Mai wants.

When necessary, he would still present a solemn and unyielding demeanor to Kinoshita Mai.

Only Makimura, without the pressure of "educating Kinoshita Mai" and due to his personality, can indulge in Kinoshita Mai's doting affections without any scruples.

Ultimately, Kinoshita Mai is just a girl who isn't even 16 years old yet.

The childlike mentality of "I'll be nice to whoever is nice to me" still lingers in his consciousness.

Kinoshita Mai kicked off her red-buttoned wooden clogs, and her cute little feet, clad in clean white socks, slid onto the wooden walkway with a "pat-pat" sound, gliding quickly to Makimura's side.

"Mr. Makimura, have you finished your business in Yokohama?"

Makimura is nearly 1.9 meters tall, almost 40 centimeters taller than Kinoshita Mai.

As a result, whenever she stands next to Makimura to speak, she always unconsciously stands on her tiptoes.

"Ah."

Makimura smiled slightly.

“I was lucky. It took much less time than expected to get everything done. I just got back to Edo, and I just said goodbye to Kiryu when you came back.”

Makimura just said "It's been a long time"... but that's not entirely accurate.

After all, it had only been about two weeks since he last met Kinoshita Mai.

At the beginning of this year, Makimura traveled all the way from Osaka to Edo.

On January 6th, he met with Qingdeng, and the two even had a friendly sparring session.

After a brief stay in Edo, he set off for Yokohama, saying he was going to handle a task assigned to him by Kinoshita Rin.

As for what kind of job it was... when Kinoshita Mai asked, both Kiryu and Makimura remained tight-lipped.

Seeing this, Kinoshita Mai wisely refrained from asking any further questions—as the young mistress of the gourd house, who was under strict protection, she was already used to the feeling that "everyone around me seems to have secrets" and "no one around me is willing to tell me anything."

Yokohama is a port city adjacent to Edo, located in the southern part of the Kanto region, bordering Tokyo Bay to the east. It was originally just a small fishing village with fewer than 100 households.

The year after the "Black Ships Incident," in 1854 (the first year of the Ansei era), U.S. Navy Commodore Matthew Perry led his fleet to anchor forcibly in Koshiba Village, Rokuura Domain. The shogunate sent envoys to negotiate, and the two sides held peace talks in Yokohama Village.

Subsequently, the two sides signed the Treaty of Kanagawa.

Four years later, the Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Japan and the United States was signed, which opened the port of Kanagawa. This marked the beginning of the development of Yokohama.

In 1859, Yokohama Port was officially opened to the public and quickly became a port for raw silk trade, commerce, tourism, and industry.

With its superior location, Yokohama quickly found its own differentiated path and realized value transformation. By leveraging its unique strengths, it found its niche in a vertical field and became a gateway to the outside world.

The legations of Western countries were mostly concentrated in Yokohama, which made Yokohama a city where Westerners lived.

South of the customs house is a foreign residential area, and north of the customs house is a Japanese residential area.

Although it has only been a few years since it was officially developed, Yokohama has now become a thriving and vibrant new coastal city.

Makimura has returned to Edo... This certainly thrilled Kinoshita Mai.

However, she had a rather urgent matter to report to Mr. Kiryu immediately.

So, regaining her senses, she quickly turned her head and said urgently to the bespectacled old man beside her:

"Mr. Kiryu, something terrible has happened! Aoto, he..."

Before Kinoshita Mai could speak, Kiryu calmly said:

"I am fully aware of what happened last night."

Kinoshita Mai paused for a moment.

"Mr. Kiryu, you already know?"

Kiryu nodded slightly.

“Young Master, there is no need to worry. Tachibana-kun is currently safe. Even for a powerful clan like the Shimizu, finding his current hiding place will not be an easy task.”

Upon hearing this, Kinoshita Mai unconsciously bit her lower lip.

Qing Deng appeared last night... He is still alive and full of energy.

For Kinoshita Mai, this was such a wonderful thing that she almost cried with joy.

For the past two weeks since the sudden fire in Kodenma-cho and Aoto's mysterious disappearance, she has been working with Kondo Isami, Chiba Jutaro, Katsura Rintaro, and others to search for Aoto throughout Edo.

As the notorious "Phantom Thief Cat Boy" who was famous throughout Edo, Kinoshita Mai not only possessed exceptional mobility and agility, but also had a thorough understanding of the complex urban situation in Edo.

She knew every hidden path, even those unknown to the locals.

The combined strength of the Shieikan and the Hokushin-affiliated sword clubs, the connections of Katsura Rintaro and Anthony Angoulême, and Kinoshita Mai's expertise in finding people and objects... the power of the "Support Tachibana Alliance" should not be underestimated.

However... given the severe lack of information, they were still unable to find a living person in the vast Edo area.

After all, Edo was a metropolis with a population of one million.

Finding someone in a city of this size... while not quite impossible, is certainly like finding a needle in a haystack.

Despite Kinoshita Mai and the others working tirelessly day and night, they haven't found Aoto, let alone collected a single clue.

The "Support Orange Alliance" was already short-handed, and just a few days ago, Okita Souji and Chiba Sanako also disappeared without a trace.

However, compared to Qing Deng, who disappeared without a trace, the "disappearance" of the two women was not so alarming.

Before they left, they each left a farewell letter in their bedroom, saying that they were going away from home for a while, without mentioning where they were going or what they were going to do.

The two of them "ran away from home" at the same time... For some reason, when she first heard the news, Kinoshita Mai suddenly had this thought in her mind—

Okita and Chiba Sanako found Aoto, but because Aoto was busy with a very urgent matter, he ordered them not to reveal his whereabouts. Okita and Chiba Sanako both wanted to help Aoto, so they both "left home and became monks" to follow Aoto to deal with that "important matter".

Kinoshita Mai had long considered and speculated about why the Qing Deng Association had been missing for so long.

Based on her understanding of Qingdeng, she was 100% certain that if Qingdeng were still alive, he would return to the Shiwei Hall immediately to let his relatives and friends know he was safe.

Qingdeng is a man of great loyalty and affection; he would never do something like "letting his relatives and friends worry" without a good reason.

After much thought, Kinoshita Mai could only come up with two reasons why he had remained missing.

Either he has lost his personal freedom, such as being locked up somewhere.

Or... he's currently embroiled in some troublesome situation! To avoid implicating innocent people, he's consciously cut off contact with others!

Although this conjecture arose inexplicably, without any readily available evidence to support it, strangely enough, Kinoshita Mai felt that the truth might very well unfold as she suspected…

Ironically, the "Support Orange Alliance" went to great lengths to find Qing Deng, only to have him show up on his own last night.

However, the way he returned was... truly shocking.

Although Kinoshita Mai already knew that Seito was a very restless troublemaker, she was still dumbfounded and wondered if she had misheard when she learned that he had actually kicked out 13 of the Shimizu clan's venues in just one night, offending the largest Yakuza group in Kanto to the death.

As far as Kinoshita Mai knows, Aoto and the Shimizu clan should not have any conflict.

If I had to pinpoint it... it would probably be that Qingdeng's deceased father owed the other party several hundred taels of gold in gambling debts.

Let's set aside the fact that the Shimizu clan has already written off this gambling debt in order to win over Qingdeng.

Given Qingdeng's current status and wealth, he could easily pay off a debt of a few hundred taels of gold without batting an eye. How could such a minor grudge possibly lead to a fierce conflict between the two sides?

In conclusion, regardless of the circumstances, it is an indisputable fact that Qingdeng and the Shimizu clan have formed an irreconcilable feud.

Given the vengeful nature of the Qingshui clan... they will definitely not let Qingdeng off easily!

The Shimizu clan is not like the anti-foreign group.

The latter is merely a mob with fighting spirit but no real ability.

Looking at the entire Extermination Group, only their leader, Kanno, could be considered a decent person.

Therefore, after Qingdeng killed Jinye, the Extermination Group, which lacked both an outstanding leader and a mature organizational system, collapsed instantly.

In contrast, the Shimizu clan, who have been deeply rooted in the Kanto region for many years, do not have these problems.

At first glance, Qing Deng's battle last night was a very impressive victory.

The Yakuza of the Shimizu clan, who were usually so arrogant, were crushed like clay chickens and earthen dogs.

Such results can only fool ordinary people with limited vision.

Anyone with even a slight understanding of the Shimizu clan's background knows that Qingdeng's ability to win so easily in last night's battle was largely due to his "unexpected" advantage.

Their unshakeable dominant position had long made the Yakuza of the Shimizu clan accustomed to a peaceful life where no one dared to cause trouble, and they all became complacent in their defenses.

Therefore, when Qingdeng attacked, they were immediately thrown into chaos.

Although Rasetsu, Shimizu Eiichi, and others later took remedial measures and urgently dispatched reinforcements to various important locations, the timing was still a bit too late.