I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

His skin was covered with the marks of time, and the wrinkles on his face were so thick that they looked like they could trap a mosquito.

His hair wasn't shaved into a shaved head; it was covered in white frost. His chin was completely shaved, and he didn't grow a beard.

He has small, squinty eyes, so small that even his pupils are hard to see, making it difficult for people to tell whether his eyes are open or closed.

The fact that the old man was addressed as "Father" by Kondo Isami, the young master of the Shieikan, made his identity quite obvious—he was none other than Kondo Shusuke, the third head of the Tennen Rishin-ryu main family and the current head of the Shieikan!

As for the old woman standing behind Shusuke, she is naturally Kondo Isami's mother: Kondo Fumi.

Abi looks younger than Zhou Zhu, around 60 years old.

Its overall appearance... can only be described as "ordinary".

But she is quite tall.

As a woman of this era, she is a full 1.65 meters tall, 10 centimeters taller than her husband.

The only striking feature on her face... is probably her pair of almond-shaped eyes.

The reason her eyes are considered striking is not because they are particularly beautiful, but because her gaze is very sharp.

Her gaze was devoid of joy or sorrow, and coupled with her perpetually pursed lips, she exuded an aura of quiet authority.

Kondo greeted them warmly as he hurried toward his parents.

Shusuke responded warmly to Kondo's greeting with a big smile.

However, Abi remained silent, only giving Kondo a very awkward nod.

"Father, Mother, you must be tired from your long journey. Here, give me all the luggage."

"Yes, it was indeed extremely tiring." Zhou Zhu chuckled wryly and patted his lower back. "Traveling for so many days... it really wore out this old body of mine..."

"...What?" A deep female voice, reminiscent of ice, made Zhou Zhu's body tremble slightly. "Is it too much of a burden for you to come with me to my parents' home?"

"No, no!" Zhou Zhu quickly waved his hand and smiled apologetically to A Bi behind him, "How could I possibly feel wronged? I was just complaining that my old bones are no longer useful."

"Hmph." Abi snorted coldly through her nose.

"Eh... Oh, right, where's Souji? Why isn't he here?" Shusuke abruptly changed the subject.

"The commander has gone to buy ingredients for lunch and dinner today. He should be back in a little while."

"During the time your mother and I were away, nothing should have happened at the Shieikan, right?"

"Nothing's wrong, except that A-Sui got into a fight in Tama and got injured. He won't be able to come back to Shieikan for a while."

"Hijikata got into a fight and got injured? Is his injury serious?"

"It's just a minor injury. I went back to Tama the day before yesterday to visit him. The injury isn't serious, and he'll recover after a period of rest."

"Since nothing happened, why were you sighing so worriedly just now? Did something bother you?"

Zhou Zhu chuckled and patted his chest.

"If you encounter any troubles, just tell me, your father."

"I didn't encounter anything particularly troublesome." Kondo smiled helplessly.

Kondo raised his gaze and looked around the empty dojo.

"It's almost 10 a.m., and still no apprentices have come to practice their swordsmanship..."

"As a teacher training student, I have a lot of enthusiasm but nowhere to use it, and I'm just feeling a little depressed..."

"Since the deserted state of the sword hall is making you feel depressed, then you should hurry up and think of a way to liven up the test hall."

At this moment, Kondo's mother tilted her head slightly, looked down at Kondo, and coldly interrupted him.

"You are the heir of the Kondo family, the future fourth head of the Tennen Rishin-ryu main family, and the master of the Shieikan, aren't you?"

"It is your duty as the young master of this sword-fighting school to make it prosper."

"What's the use of sighing and complaining? We'd be better off using that time to think about how to recruit more apprentices and how to make this sword-fighting school thrive."

“We adopted you as the son of the Kondo family, not to let you sit here sighing.”

“Madam, what you’re saying is a bit too much…” Zhou Zhu hesitated as he reached out his hand to A Bi.

"What?" Abi glared at Zhou Zhu. "Am I wrong?"

“It’s nothing…” Zhou Zhu silently withdrew his hand that had been extended to A Bi…

Faced with his mother's reprimand, Kondo did not respond or refute, but simply lowered his head with a bitter expression and quietly accepted Abi's scolding.

But just then, after hearing what Abi had just said about "thinking about how to recruit more apprentices," Kondo seemed to remember something, and his brow twitched suddenly:

"Ah, right!"

Kondo adopted an excited tone.

"Father! The other day, we recruited an extremely talented newcomer!"

"Extremely impressive?" Zhou Zhu raised an eyebrow. "What? Is it because you have exceptional talent?"

“That person is more than just ‘exceptionally talented’.” Kondo’s smile widened. “In my judgment, that person’s swordsmanship talent is probably no less than Souji’s!”

At this moment, Zhou Zhu's narrow eyes opened slightly.

Two surprised gazes shot out from his open eyes.

Ah Bi, who had been wearing a sour face the whole time, suddenly changed his expression.

“…Yong, tell me more about this newcomer you’re talking about.”

……

……

Arima's office at the Hokuban-sho (Northern Frontier Office) —

"Lord Arima. I've already contacted Saito Hajime for you. He said he's free tonight."

“Okay.” Arima nodded to Inoya. “Could you please tell him to come to my house tonight? I’ll personally explain the details of the job to him.”

"Yes."

After respectfully replying with "Yes," Inugami smiled wryly and scratched his head.

"This Saito Hajime is the most expensive bodyguard I've ever seen... 3 taels of gold a month, that's 36 taels a year... We've really gone all out to protect Tachibana-kun..."

"It is a bit expensive," Arima smiled slightly, "but Saito is definitely worth the price."

"After all, he was a master who could transmit his teachings without permission."

"To gain his help is like gaining the strength of ten people."

"I'll have a good talk with him tonight about the specifics of his new job."

"Let's try to get him moving into Tachibana-kun's house by tomorrow night so he can be his personal bodyguard."

*******

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Chapter 45: Obtain the talent: [Lone Wolf]!

The seventh year of Anzheng (1860), March 1——

The Edo Magistrate's Office had a "two days on, one day off" holiday system.

That means working 2 days and resting 1 day.

While it may seem appealing, you can only enjoy such a humane vacation system if you're lucky.

For "three-time" samurai like Qing Deng, it's perfectly normal to encounter a major case and not take a break for ten days or even more than a month.

Fortunately, Qingdeng is currently very lucky.

On his second day at work, apart from encountering Kinoshita Mai's "meow meow meow meow" incident on his patrol route, he didn't encounter any other incidents.

The second day at work passed peacefully and calmly.

For Qingdeng, who is eager to improve his strength as soon as possible, what he is looking forward to most right now is undoubtedly the holiday.

Because this way, I can practice swordsmanship at the Shiwei Hall.

Having no cases or important matters to handle, Qing Deng, after working for two days and welcoming his long-awaited holiday, excitedly picked up the bento box prepared for him by Jiubei and headed straight for Shieikan at the crack of dawn.

Upon arriving at the gate of the Examination Hall, Qing Deng noticed that the hall seemed quite lively today. Standing outside the gate, he could already hear shouts and the sounds of bamboo swords clashing coming from inside.

Upon entering the dojo and looking around, Qingdeng spotted a familiar, tall figure.

"Kondo-kun." Aoto smiled and quickly approached the familiar, tall figure, who was instructing an apprentice on how to hold a sword.

"Oh, oh!" Kondo raised an eyebrow at Aoto and laughed, "Tachibana-kun, you're here to practice your sword? Ha, for some reason, it feels like I haven't seen you in a long time. Don't you need to go to the magistrate's office today?"

"I don't have any cases to handle right now, so I can enjoy my day off today." After saying that, Qing Deng looked around the dojo again. "There are quite a lot of people here today..."

There are currently about ten apprentices practicing swordsmanship in the dojo.

Qingdeng was somewhat surprised to see so many people practicing swordsmanship so early in the morning.

"Yes," Kondo remarked. "There are a few days when more people come to the kendo hall to practice."

"Ha... I wish it could be this lively every day."

"Huh? Where is Okita-kun?" Only then did Qing Deng realize that the handsome young man was nowhere to be seen in the dojo.

"Oh, Souji went to buy konpeito." Kondo smiled helplessly. "Souji is a big glutton, especially fond of konpeito."

"I eat konpeito more often than I eat rice."

"Last night he noticed that there wasn't much konpeito left in his home, so he went to his favorite confectionery shop early this morning to 'stock up'."

"He will probably be back in a little while."

Having said that, Kondo put his hands on his hips and sighed softly.

"It's amazing that he can eat so much konpeito every day and his teeth don't get rotten..."

Kondo turned his gaze back to Aoto.