I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

……

The reason for asking this person to recount the entire process of being grabbed by the cat monk was purely to check whether the old man in the questioning room had omitted or concealed anything.

After Qing Deng introduced himself as "Qing Deng, the young thief from the Hokuban-sho-cho-kai-doshin-tachi" (Edo Hokuban-sho-cho-kai-doshin-tachi), the thief immediately sat down, smiling ingratiatingly, and answered every question Qing Deng asked with utmost respect.

While answering Qing Deng's questions, the man repeatedly said, "My lord, I have told you everything I know. Please forgive my sins!"

The account of how they were captured by the cat thief was almost identical to the one reported by Wenwu.

According to the young thief, the cat monk was about 1.5 meters tall, dressed in all black, with a black face mask and a black headscarf on his head. Only his eyes were visible.

The voice is quite androgynous, neither male nor female.

He was extremely agile, moving with ease on the steep rooftop of the hotel.

The information regarding Nekozono currently held by the Edo Magistrate's Office matches perfectly...

When asked if they had ever had any conflict with Cat Monk, the young thief shook his head vigorously.

He said that they had only heard of the name "Cat Monk" before, but had never met him. He couldn't understand why this Cat Monk would be so cruel to them when they were all in the same industry.

After asking the young thief a few more questions, Qing Deng emerged from the makeshift cell with a dark expression on his face.

Just after leaving the cell, Saito, who had been silently following Qing Deng like a conjoined twin, asked softly:

"So... was our business trip a complete waste of time?"

"...I guess so." Qing Deng's lips twitched, and he sighed heavily.

Qingdeng now feels that this business trip... was truly a wasted trip!

After a three-day trek, they arrived at Fujisawa-juku, only to find that all the suspects had already been apprehended... Not only had one of the suspects confessed, but all the stolen goods had also been recovered...

Well, to put it bluntly... Aoto can now head back to Edo.

Qing Deng naturally did not need to personally escort the four suspects back to Edo.

All he needed to do was greet the people in the inquirer's office and ask them to help send the suspects back to Edo.

When it comes to transporting people and goods, the Wenwuchang (a type of transportation company) specializes in providing "personnel and horse relay" services for government officials.

“However…” Qing Deng raised his hand and scratched the back of his head, saying softly, “It’s not true that we gained nothing at all… At least we got the latest information about that cat monk, and bringing this information back to Edo would be a small achievement.”

Cat Monk is a notorious thief who has recently caused the Edo Magistrate's Office a great deal of trouble. In order to capture him, the Magistrate's Office has changed several of the highest-ranking officials in charge of his capture.

Around the day before yesterday, Qing Deng received the latest intelligence: the "Nekosō case" has now been handed over to Nishino of the "Tojo Group," the top detective in their Hokuban Police Station.

The fact that the Edo Magistrate's Office had already dispatched its "ace" to take full charge of the case shows just how much importance the "Neko-sō Case" was placed on it.

Cat Monk's jujitsu skills are amazing; he knocked down and knocked out four grown men with a single blow each.

Neko-sō's whereabouts are suspicious. He used to only operate in Edo, but this time he's come to Fujisawa-juku to perform chivalrous deeds and help the government capture a group of thieves...

Either of these two pieces of information is extremely important to the Magistrate's Office, as it will be helpful for them to capture Nekozo in the future.

If Qing Deng can bring these two pieces of information back to Edo, it will indeed be a small achievement.

“That’s really strange…” Aoto crossed his arms and tucked them into the sleeves of his haori. “That cat monk… how did he suddenly appear at Fujisawa-juku, and even suddenly start helping to catch thieves…”

Having very little information, and after pondering for a while without coming up with a solution, Qing Deng simply gave up on thinking about it any further.

Anyway, he wasn't in charge of the "Nekosō case," so these problems can be left to Nishino, who is now in charge of the case, to worry about slowly.

Aoto returned to the front of the questioning room, and after a brief discussion and instruction regarding the transportation of the suspects in the case, he led Saito out of the questioning room.

"...Should we go back to Edo now?" Saito asked.

Qingdeng shook his head: "It's late now. In another hour or so, it will be dark."

"There's only one hour left before nightfall—with so little time, no matter how fast we rush, we won't make it back to the previous camp."

"I don't want to walk at night or spend the night in the middle of nowhere."

"We can only wait until dawn tomorrow to set off back to Edo."

After saying that, Qing Deng turned his head and smiled slightly at Saito behind him.

"Now... let's just while away the time here at Fujisawa-suke's place, until tomorrow."

"Just consider it a half-day off to reward myself for the hard work of traveling for three days."

"Saito, is there anywhere you'd like to go?"

Saito shook his head: "There's nowhere I want to go."

After hearing the answer from Saito that was exactly what he expected, Aoto turned his gaze back to what was in front of him.

"It seems I still have to decide where to kill time..."

Aoto crossed his arms and slipped them into the sleeves of his haori, tilting his head slightly as he pondered how he and Saito should visit Fujisawa-juku before nightfall.

Suddenly, Aoto remembered the most famous tourist attraction in Fujisawa-juku...

Aoto's gaze slowly shifted to the direction of Ejima Shrine.

"...Saito, would you like to visit the shrine?"

*******

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Chapter 62 Qingdeng: It would be great if we could encounter something even more powerful.

Fujisawa-juku, inside a certain teahouse——

"Come, come! Ladies!" A servant with a warm smile carried a tea tray with four cups of hot tea and a plate of red bean paste buns, and strode to a square table where four samurai were sitting. "Your tea and snacks are here!"

While deftly setting the tea and snacks on the table, Teshiro struck up a conversation with the samurai at the table in a very familiar manner.

"Gentlemen, judging from your accents, you must be from Osaka?"

"Oh? You can tell we're from Osaka?"

"Of course!" Teshiro grinned. "This is Fujisawa-juku in the Tokaido. What this place has no shortage of is travelers from all over the country!"

"I've worked here for eight years! I've seen all sorts of people from different regions! Over time, I've come to recognize dialects from all over the country!"

"Not only can I recognize it, but I can also talk about it!"

"How do you think my Osaka dialect is?" Teshiro asked in perfect Osaka dialect.

"Haha! Your Osaka dialect is very fluent!"

"Hehe, thank you for the compliment! Come on, esteemed guests, please enjoy your meal! I'll get back to my work now!"

Holding the empty tea tray, Teshiro quickly returned to the kitchen.

Meanwhile, the samurai at the table began to share their tea and steamed buns.

"Lord Komuro, tea."

"Oh, okay." Komuro took the tea handed to him by his attendant, took a big gulp, and then pulled out the handkerchief that was already soaked with his sweat from his pocket to wipe the newly formed beads of sweat from his forehead.

Komuro hates moving the most.

Because he is the type of person who sweats very easily, the type of person who will start sweating profusely all over his body after walking just a few steps.

"Lord Komuro, our escort mission can finally be over..." The attendant who had just served Komuro tea sighed softly, "In another 3 or 4 days, we will arrive in Edo."

“Yes.” Komuro put down his teacup and sighed, “The mission to escort that grandfather and grandson to Edo can finally be over. From Osaka to Edo… it was exhausting…”

After saying that, Komuro, as if trying to relieve his fatigue with the delicious tea, took another big gulp of tea.

"Lord Komuro, I really don't understand why those two foreigners, Anthony and Elodie, would choose to come to Edo by carriage instead of taking a proper boat. It's not like there aren't ships that go directly from Osaka to Edo."

“Who knows about them?” Komuro rolled his eyes. “I don’t understand the thoughts of barbarians.”

"Oh dear... actually, thinking about it carefully, I'm quite reluctant to see this mission of escorting Anthony and Elodie come to an end." Another attendant in the room chuckled a few times. "I quite like that Elodie."

"This child is quite endearing."

"It seems like it was about 10 days ago, right? Didn't that guy Oba accidentally twist his ankle?"

"After learning that Oba had injured his foot, Anthony's granddaughter personally brought her maid to visit him."

"We were all quite surprised when we saw Elodie arrive with her maid to visit Ooha."

After hearing what the attendant said, Komuro nodded slightly.

"Hmm... that Elodie is indeed a good person."

"It's a pity that among the barbarians, people like Elodie are ultimately a minority..." Komuro chuckled self-deprecatingly and finished the rest of the tea in his cup.

"Alright, everyone's rested enough, right?"

Komuro picked up the sword lying beside him and slowly stood up.

"Let's go, it's time to go back..."

"Lord Komuro! Lord Komuro! I've finally found you!"

A young samurai, who looked to be only around 16 years old, hurriedly lifted the curtain of the teahouse, his face covered in sweat.

Upon seeing Komuro's slightly plump figure inside the teahouse, the young samurai immediately felt as if he had found his pillar of support, and ran towards Komuro with an expression that looked like he was about to cry.

Before Komuro could even ask "What's wrong?", the young samurai hurriedly pressed his lips to Komuro's ear and whispered something in a voice only Komuro could hear.

The young samurai uttered only one very simple sentence.

But this very simple sentence caused Komuro's expression to change drastically, making him feel as if he had fallen into an ice cave.

“Elodie and her maid are missing.” — These were the words the young samurai spoke to Komuro.

……

……

If you want to kill time in Fujisawa-juku... then the most famous tourist attraction in Fujisawa-juku, Eshima Shrine, is undoubtedly the best place to visit.

Aoto and Saito walked downstream along the river adjacent to Fujisawa-juku, one after the other.

Ancient Japan primarily practiced two religions: the indigenous Shintoism and Buddhism, which originated abroad.