I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

This time, Qingdeng did not encounter Inoya or Ushiyama on his way to Arima's office.

After arriving alone before Arima and reporting his arrival, Aoto heard Arima say to him sternly:

"Tachibana-kun, you're here pretty early today."

"But it's fine this way."

"You have a new task, Tachibana-kun."

"Go home right away and get ready."

"Something happened in Fujisawa-juku on the Tokaido."

"You need to go on a business trip to Fujisawa-suke's place."

“Fujisawa Suku…?” Qing Deng’s eyebrows twitched slightly.

—Isn't this... the place where Kinoshita Mai is going to meet her friend...?

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After finishing this chapter, the author felt a kind of ecstatic pleasure, like ejaculating.

Because the plot of this book is finally about to unfold in a whirlwind-like manner, just like the previous work, "The Hundred-Man Slaughter of the Ogata-Hirose Domain".

[About Qingdeng's home]

You can imagine Qingdeng's house as Nobita's house in "Doraemon".

A two-story wooden house with a courtyard between the house and the wall.

However, Aoto's yard is much larger than Nobita's yard. Aoto's yard is 60 tsubo, which is nearly 200 square meters.

The courtyard of Qingdeng's family home is connected to the living room on the first floor. The courtyard and the living room are separated only by a few paper sliding doors.

Opening the paper sliding door facing the courtyard allows direct access to the courtyard, so the living room is well-lit, allowing plenty of sunlight to stream in.

Chapter 53 A Cute Loli from France

If Qing Deng remembers correctly... the day before yesterday, while patrolling the road, he ran into Kinoshita Mai, and the girl told him that she was going to Fujisawa-juku in the Tokaido to pick up her friend.

In 1603, after the establishment of the Edo Shogunate, in order to strengthen its rule over the country, the Edo Shogunate built five major roads, collectively known as the "Five Roads," connecting the major economic and military centers of the country, starting from Edo.

These five major roads are: Tokaido, Nakasendo, Nikkodo, Oshudo, and Koshudo.

To facilitate the movement of personnel and supplies, and to promote commercial development, the shogunate established numerous post stations and inns along these five main roads.

The Tokaido, which connects the two major cities of Edo and Kyoto, is the busiest and most populated of the five major roads.

There are 53 post stations in the Tokaido region. Fujisawa-juku, which Arima just mentioned and where Kinoshita Mai was going to pick up her friend, is one of the post stations in the Tokaido region.

Besides being used by the government for political and military purposes, ordinary travelers and merchants could also freely use the "Five Streets" and every post station along the way to travel to various places, which greatly increased the demand for accommodation, food and shopping.

As a result, large-scale settlements gradually gathered around most of the post stations along the "Five Roads", which eventually evolved into towns.

These towns that form around a post station are called "post station towns".

Fujisawa Suku is a typical example.

Fujisawa-juku is still nominally a post town, but in reality it has become a sizable town.

Teahouses, izakayas, brothels, casinos, bathhouses... Fujisawa-juku has everything a typical town would have.

"Lord Arima," Aoto asked, "has something happened to Fujisawa-suke?"

“A group of very skilled thieves has recently emerged in Fujisawa-juku,” Arima said. “They specialize in stealing money from travelers at the post stations.”

"The amount involved in the case has reached as high as 200 taels of gold."

"Faced with this group of thieves that they couldn't catch no matter what they did, the officials on Fujisawa-juku's side were completely at a loss, so they asked our Edo Magistrate's Office for help, requesting that we send a comrade to support them."

"Fujisawa-juku is one of the most important post stations on the Tokaido, and it is not far from Edo. After weighing the pros and cons, Lord Usui decided to accept Fujisawa-juku's request for assistance and personally requested that you, Tachibana-kun, be assigned to handle this case."

"Lord Usui personally called me out?" Qing Deng was taken aback.

"Your excellent performance in the case of Granny Ping seems to have greatly changed Lord Usui's opinion of you. The fact that he personally named you to take charge of this case shows that he is truly beginning to regard you as a member of the Sadamachi community."

"Anyway—do your best, Tachibana-kun."

"Let's try to deliver another impressive performance for Fujisawa Suku."

Qing Deng chuckled dryly a few times: "Theft case... Lord Arima, the way you put it puts a lot of pressure on me."

"I am no god, and it is impossible for me to solve every case so well."

"Just do your best."

After saying that, Arima pulled out a document stamped with the official seal of the Magistrate's Office from the table, and then took out two taels of gold from a lacquer box next to him.

"This is your pass. Keep it safe. If you lose it, you won't be able to eat, drink, and stay at the camp for free."

"This two taels of gold is your travel expenses. Don't squander it. The more carefree you are with your travel expenses, the more painful it will be when you report your expenses back. Last time, when Inugaya went on a business trip, he was severely criticized by Lord Usui because he spent most of his travel expenses on entanglements with women."

If someone comes to the post station on official business of the shogunate, the post station must provide the service of "personnel and horses being put up for service" free of charge.

Each encampment must have a certain number of support personnel and horses. The so-called "personnel and horse replacement" refers to the system in which the encampment assists the officials in changing personnel and horses, and provides the officials with accommodation and food free of charge.

Therefore, the travel document that Arima handed over to Aoto at this time was very important. Without this document that could prove that he was an official on duty, he would not be able to eat, drink and stay for free at the various post stations.

After accepting the documents and travel expenses handed to him by Arima, Qing Deng bowed respectfully to Arima and left Arima's office, preparing to go home for his business trip.

As soon as he turned onto the corridor leading away from the Magistrate's Office, Aoto suddenly saw one of his seniors, Inoya, walking towards him.

Pig Valley stood with one hand on his hip and the other holding a small piece of paper. He walked forward with a strange smile on his face, staring at the piece of paper in his hand with great interest.

"Mr. Inugani!" Qing Deng greeted Inugani proactively.

"Oh?" Upon hearing Qing Deng's voice, Inugaya finally looked away from the piece of paper in his hand. "Oh, it's Tachibana-kun."

"What are you looking at?" Qing Deng cast a bewildered glance at the piece of paper clutched in Zhu Gu's hand. "You were so engrossed in it that I was almost right in front of you, but you didn't even see me."

"Hehe..." Pig Valley let out a strange laugh and turned the piece of paper in his hand toward Qing Deng.

The piece of paper in Inugami's hand was actually a small drawing.

A portrait painted in the style of Ukiyo-e.

Qingdeng doesn't quite understand the paintings of this era.

After examining it closely, he vaguely discerned that the painting depicted what appeared to be a blonde, blue-eyed little girl.

“This is a good thing I got from an old friend yesterday when I went to Yoshiwara to visit friends… ah, no, to Yoshiwara to meet friends.”

"Hey, do you know Elodie de Angoulême?"

Qingdeng shook his head blankly.

“She is the granddaughter of a French merchant who currently resides in Osaka.” Inoya chuckled again. “I’ve heard of her for a long time.”

"Although they are barbarians, I've heard they have skin smoother than silk and an incredibly beautiful face that perfectly suits our Japanese tastes."

"The painting in my hand is said to be a portrait of Elodie painted by a painter who had seen her up close."

After saying that, Inugaya turned the painting in his hand back to himself with a look of emotion.

"It's so beautiful... If this painting really depicts Elodie's true appearance, then she's quite a beauty..."

"Hehe... I really want to see what she looks like in person... hehehe..."

If you don't wipe your mouth soon, drool might start dripping from the corners of Pig Valley's snout.

—How did you come to the conclusion that Elodie is beautiful from this painting...?

Aoto, who couldn't appreciate ukiyo-e at all, couldn't understand how Inoya could tell that the girl depicted in this painting was a beautiful young woman...

“If this painting is truly a portrait of Elodie… then Elodie looks so young.” Qing Deng frowned at the painting in Inugami’s hand. “She’s so tiny.”

"Yes, this Elodie is indeed very young. I heard she's only 12 years old this year."

"12?" Qing Deng's eyes widened, then he looked Inugaya up and down with a strange gaze. "...Mr. Inugaya, as a man who is already over 30, you can't... at least you shouldn't be lusting after a 12-year-old girl..."

"I'm not in heat," Inugami said seriously, his face stiff. "I'm just appreciating a beautiful woman."

"Does appreciating a beautiful woman depend on her age?"

Inugaya tucked the portrait of Elodie back into his pocket.

"Alright, it's best not to talk about this while we're at the Magistrate's Office."

"If Lord Arima finds out that I'm talking about women again during my official duties, he'll definitely scold me again."

"Tachibana-kun, why do you look so rushed? Is something urgent?"

Aoto pulled out the travel document he had just obtained from Arima from his pocket and beckoned to Inoya: "I'm going on a business trip to Fujisawa-suke."

Aoto succinctly explained to Inoya the detailed reasons why he was going to Fujisawa-juku on a business trip.

“Oh… Fujisawa-juku…” Inoya grinned. “Going on a business trip to that place is alright, it’s close to Edo, so it won’t be too tiring. When I went on a business trip to Kyoto last time, I was exhausted…”

"Do you need me to bring back some local specialties from Fujisawa-juku?" Aoto asked half-jokingly.

Inoya couldn't help but chuckle: "Fujisawa-juku is only a 3-day walk from Edo, what local specialties could you possibly have? You don't need to bring any souvenirs, just focus on investigating the case there."

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Chapter 54 Two Against Eight! The First Battle to the Death! (Part 1)

Qingdeng chatted with Zhu Gu for a while before saying goodbye.

Once outside the magistrate's office, Qing Deng began scanning the room, looking for his bodyguard.

Aoto quickly found Saito—under the three pigeons…