I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

"According to my friends in the Tosa Domain... this 'Tosa Loyalist Party' is an organization that adheres to rather radical anti-foreign policies... with the goal of eliminating all foreigners in the country."

"I feel like something's not right with Ryoma... he actually joined such a radical organization..."

"Zana, I think you'd better stop having any expectations of Ryoma."

"Ryoma may no longer be the carefree Ryoma we used to know, the one who only knew how to practice swordsmanship every day..."

“……兄长！”

Sana interrupted Chiba Jutaro once again.

This time, Zona's voice was a bit higher.

"Can we leave the topic of Ryoma-kun here?"

“…Alright, alright.” Chiba Jutaro smacked his lips lightly. “If you don’t want to hear it, then I won’t say it.”

After saying this, the brother and sister remained silent.

Until—the aroma of grilled eel wafted into Chiba Jutaro's nostrils.

"Oh...!" Chiba Jutaro sniffed a few times, then turned his neck urgently, searching for the source of the scent.

"There are still eel stalls at this hour..." Chiba Jutaro looked at an eel stall that was still open not far ahead and swallowed hard. "...Sana, do you want to eat eel now?"

Zona shook her head.

"You don't want to eat it? Okay then, I'll go buy one myself." Chiba sucked hard to clear the saliva from his mouth, then quickened his pace and ran towards the eel stand.

"Brother!" Sana called out to Chiba Jutaro's retreating figure, "We still have to rush to the Shieikan, we don't have time to eat and drink here."

"It's nothing, it's nothing." Chiba Jutaro waved to Sana behind him without turning his head. "I eat very fast! Boss! A skewer of grilled eel, please!"

"Alright, 8 coins."

……

……

Edo, Koishikawa Kohinata Yanagi Town, Test Guard Hall——

Inside the hall, Okita, who was kneeling in a corner, intently studying an arithmetic book, turned his head and winked a few times at Aoto, who was standing beside him.

"bath?"

"Hmm." Aoto nodded. "Kondo, Saito, and I are planning to go to Chihiro's place to take a bath now. Okita, would you like to come along?"

Aoto, who had been training with Kondo at the dojo for more than an hour, was now covered in sweat, his face flushed with the unique flush of intense exercise.

Qingdeng is the kind of person who has a habit of taking a shower immediately after strenuous exercise when he is covered in sweat.

His body was covered in sweat from his nighttime practice with Kondo, and all he wanted to do was get to the bathhouse near the Shieikan, Chihiro-ya, for a quick bath.

Kondo's family doesn't have a bathroom; they have to go to a nearby public bathhouse to take a shower.

This type of home structure without a bathroom was actually quite common throughout ancient Japan. The vast majority of urban residents, including samurai, did not have bathrooms in their homes.

This is mainly due to two reasons.

First, the land was cramped and the population was dense. Take Edo as an example. The average living space per person in Edo was less than 10 square meters. With such a cramped living space, there wasn't enough room for people to live in, let alone build a bathroom.

Let alone bathrooms, most families don't even have a toilet and have to share a public toilet with several or even a dozen neighboring households.

Second: Fire safety. Taking a bath always requires boiling water, right? This greatly increases the risk of fire hazards, so the government discourages residents from building bathrooms in their homes.

For these two reasons combined, in ancient Japan, only a very few people had the means to have a private bathroom in their own homes, and the vast majority of people had to go to a nearby bathhouse to take a bath.

Because most people could only bathe at public bathhouses, Japan's unique "bathing culture" emerged.

Incidentally, Qingdeng is one of these "very few individuals".

In Qingdeng, who was in charge of his official duties, he received nearly 330 square meters of land from the government. The area was enough, so he built a small bathroom in his house... Actually, calling it a bathroom was just a small room used to put the bath tub.

Aoto had already extended invitations to Kondo and the others one by one, and both Kondo and Saito had agreed to the invitation to "go to the bathhouse together now." Only Okita had not yet been invited.

"I won't go take a bath yet." As soon as Qing Deng's invitation fell, Okita gave Qing Deng a bright smile and shook the arithmetic book in his hand without thinking. "I want to concentrate on reading for a while now. I want to go to the bathhouse later."

Aoto glanced at the book in Okita's hand... The arithmetic book that Okita was looking at was, according to Okita, an "arithmetic textbook" specially written for Okita by Hijikata Toshizo, whom Aoto had never met until now.

Aoto borrowed it and quickly flipped through it—the content of this textbook was indeed quite suitable for Okita, whose basic arithmetic was a complete mess and who could only do addition and subtraction within 10.

It seems that Hijikata Toshizo intended to teach Okita arithmetic in a "step-by-step" manner. This thin textbook only taught addition and subtraction, nothing else.

The book uses very concise language to introduce Okita to "addition and subtraction", teaches him how to master addition and subtraction of two-digit numbers and above, and lists a large number of arithmetic problems that are very suitable for Okita's current level.

According to Aoto's observations during the time since he moved into Shieikan, Okita is a person with a very regular daily routine.

During the day, he practiced swordsmanship at the dojo, and at night he studied arithmetic.

Overall, he's a very homebody.

I only go out for a stroll occasionally when I've finished the konpeito (Japanese candy) at home, or when I'm craving something tasty and want to eat some snacks outside.

Since Okita said he wanted to take a shower later, Aoto didn't insist on it.

After briefly telling Okita, "Kondo, Saito, and I will be back soon," he left the living room and headed to the entrance.

Kondo and Saito had already prepared the bathtub, towels, and other items, and were waiting for Aoto at the entrance.

"Tachibana-kun, where did you just go?" Kondo asked.

“I went to ask Okita-kun if he wanted to go take a bath with us,” Aoto said to the two of them. “Okita-kun said he wanted to wait until later to take a bath.”

"Haha, that's Souji's habit." Kondo chuckled. "Souji always likes to go to the bathhouse late at night."

"Since the commander isn't coming, let's go to the bathhouse together."

Qingdeng nodded: "Okay, let's go."

……

……

Chihiro-ya is the closest bathhouse to Shieikan. It's a 2-3 minute walk from Shieikan, after turning two corners, and you'll reach this bathhouse. The Kondo family usually comes to Chihiro-ya to bathe.

Chihiro-ya has the most common and classic structure of bathhouses of this era.

A bow and arrow hangs on the eaves because the Japanese words for "bathing" and "archery" are pronounced the same. Therefore, many bathhouses like to hang a bow and arrow in front of the gate for the sake of the homophony.

There are two large doors. The left door has a blue cloth hanging on it that reads "Men's Bath," while the right door has a red cloth hanging on it that reads "Women's Bath."

Throughout ancient Japan, until the mid-Edo period, bathhouses were generally unisex and mostly mixed-gender bathing.

Of course, during mixed bathing, neither men nor women would undress completely. Women would wear yukata and yumonogatari (close-fitting skirts), while men would wear loincloths.

Until 70 years ago, during the Kansei era, a man named Matsudaira Sadanobu, who was then the head of the senior council, felt that mixed bathing was indecent and immoral. So he made a decree that mixed bathing was no longer allowed in bathhouses and that men and women must be separated.

From then on, except for a very few areas, bathhouses in Japan have been separated for men and women.

It is said that when Matsudaira Sadanobu issued the order to prohibit mixed bathing, many men hated Matsudaira Sadanobu to the bone and wished they could tear him apart.

Like most public bathhouses, Chihiro-ya has two floors. The first floor is for bathing, and the second floor is a rest area where guests can relax and play after bathing.

Women are not allowed to go to the second-floor rest area. After taking a bath, women can only leave the bathhouse. Unlike men, they cannot go up to the second floor to rest, chat, and gossip with their friends after taking a bath.

Most townspeople could only bathe at bathhouses, which naturally became one of the important social venues for the people of ancient Japan.

People would come to the bathhouse in groups, chatting as they bathed, and then continue chatting over tea in the lounge on the second floor after their bath—this was a fairly common sight in this era.

The owner of Chihiro-ya is an elderly woman who is around 70 years old.

The old woman's name is "A-Qian", but people who frequent this bathhouse usually call her "Grandma Tang".

Aoto has been living at Shieikan for some time and has visited Chihiro's house many times. He is quite familiar with Yubaba, and Yubaba has also recognized Aoto as a new guest.

When Granny Yu, who was sitting behind the counter next to the entrance of the men's bath, saw Qing Deng and the others arrive, she immediately greeted them warmly.

After greeting Granny Tang sitting at the counter and paying for their baths (two copper coins each), Qing Deng and the other two filed in and went into the changing room.

The first floor of Chihiro-ya consists of three parts: a "changing room" for taking off clothes and storing luggage, a "shower room" for taking a shower, and a "bathtub" for soaking in the bath.

This is the rule at all bathhouses: you must wash your body thoroughly before entering the bath.

Once you're in the bathhouse, you can only soak; you can't swim or take a bath. Otherwise, you'll be considered impolite and might be kicked out.

This is the busiest time of day at the bathhouse.

After Aoto, Kondo, and Saito finished showering in the shower room, they entered the steamy bath and found that nearly 70% of the spacious bath was already occupied by people.

Bodies of various sizes and ages swayed around in the pool... It was quite an eyesore.

Qingdeng and the other two found a less crowded corner in the bathhouse where they could lean against a wall and sit down.

Qingdeng deliberately sat lower so that the water could reach his neck.

Feeling the perfectly warm pool water enveloping his body, Qing Deng felt a significant reduction in the fatigue throughout his body.

Qingdeng was just thinking about enjoying a relaxing bath when the sound of several voices nearby drew his attention away.

"Hey, have you guys heard the story of that Tachibana Aoto?"

"I've heard about it before. I heard about Tachibana Aoto several days ago. You only found out now?"

"Oh dear, I haven't left the house much these past few days. That Tachibana Seito is really something else. He managed to defeat those 200-odd 'anti-foreign' lunatics with just a small group of people. I never expected the Magistrate's Office to produce such a capable official."

"I think this story might be made up..."

"Whether it's made up or not, even if it is, this story is still quite enjoyable to listen to. I've long disliked those people who keep talking about 'expelling the barbarians'."

"Me too. I'm so annoyed by those people. They always claim to be 'patriots who resist foreign invaders,' but in the end, they do nothing right."

“Last month, Amei’s grocery store was extorted by a few scoundrels who called themselves ‘anti-foreign patriots.’ Those scoundrels demanded that Amei give them a sum of money to support their ‘anti-foreign cause,’ saying that if you don’t give us money, you are not supporting our ‘anti-foreign cause,’ and you are a traitor who does not love this country.”

"And then? Did Amei give him the money?"

“At first, Amei didn’t want to pay, but those bastards threatened her: if she didn’t pay, they would keep harassing and punishing her, this traitor to the country. Amei got scared and had no choice but to swallow her anger and obediently pay.”

"Damn it, these guys who call themselves heroes are a bunch of animals."

"I really wish there were more people like that Tachibana Aoto, who could teach those beasts a lesson."

……

Kondo, who was sitting next to Aoto, also heard this conversation.

"Hahaha." Kondo chuckled, then lowered his voice and teased Aoto beside him, "Tachibana-kun, you're a true celebrity in Edo now..."

Faced with Kondo's teasing, Aoto gave a wry smile.