I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

The shopkeeper was stunned for a moment, then quickly stuffed the pile of snacks in his hand into Kinoshita Mai's arms.

"Miss! I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! I was out of my mind just now! You didn't shortchange me a single penny! I was bewitched!"

Please forgive me this time!

Kinoshita Mai, the masked girl, and the woman standing behind them all looked at the pile of snacks the shopkeeper had handed them, then exchanged bewildered glances.

At this moment, Kinoshita Mai had her mouth slightly open, looking dazed and confused.

"Well?" Qing Deng asked Kinoshita Mai and the others, "Are you willing to forgive this person?"

Kinoshita Mai and the others looked at each other for a while.

Finally—after staring intently at the pile of snacks the boss had given them as an apology, they all nodded.

“…Since the victims have chosen to forgive you, I will forgive you this time as well,” Qing Deng said to the boss in a deep voice. “There will be no next time.”

“If I see you extorting money from people again, I’ll send you to jail in Edo.”

"Yes, yes, yes!" The boss nodded vigorously. "Master Tongxin! I promise you, I will never do it again!"

Seeing that there was no more excitement to be had, the onlookers began to disperse.

Meanwhile, Qing Deng led Kinoshita Mai and the others away from this place of trouble.

Just as he left the snack stand, Qing Deng heard Kinoshita Mai, who was walking behind him, say to him in a weak but still barely audible voice:

"Um... Tachibana-kun, thank you..."

Perhaps because she hadn't fully recovered from the "extortion incident" just now, Kinoshita Mai lowered her head slightly and pursed her lips.

However, at this moment, Kinoshita Mai was pursing her lips, and a slightly grateful smile was on her face as she looked at Aoto, who was walking in front of her.

"You're welcome." Qing Deng turned his head and smiled slightly at Kinoshita Mai. "It was just a small favor."

Qingdeng stopped walking only after he had walked far away from the snack stall.

“Ms. Kinoshita, what a coincidence that we meet again on the street.” Aoto turned around with a smile. “I never expected to run into you again on the street like this…”

After saying that, Qing Deng turned his gaze to the masked girl who was being led by Kinoshita Mai, and the "pale yellow woman" who was following closely behind the two girls.

"Ms. Kinoshita, who are these two gentlemen?"

At that moment, Qingdeng suddenly noticed something strange.

The masked girl and the woman in pale yellow kept their heads bowed low.

He looked completely unable to meet Qing Deng's eyes...

"Uh...the two of them...the two of them are..."

Faced with the question posed by Qing Deng, Kinoshita Mai glanced at the masked girl she was holding hands with, then at the pale yellow woman behind her, and stammered.

Seeing Kinoshita Mai's reaction, Aoto raised an eyebrow, thinking to himself:

—Hmm…Is it inconvenient for you to tell me information about these two people?

Just as... Aoto was pondering whether or not to help Kinoshita Mai, who seemed unwilling to tell him about the two women—

"Heaven will punish you!"

"Heaven will punish us! Charge!"

"Kill! Kill! Heaven will punish you! Heaven will punish you!"

……

One after another, samurai wielding katana raised high, shouting "Heavenly Punishment!" as they charged out from Qing Deng's right, heading straight towards Qing Deng and his group...

*******

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Chapter 65: Drawing the Sword! Then Hugging the Three Girls (Part 3)

"Aaaaaah—!"

"What's wrong? What's wrong?"

"Hurry, hurry! They're the 'Expel the Barbarians' faction!"

……

Upon hearing the increasingly loud shouts of "Heavenly Punishment!" and seeing the warriors drawing their swords and rushing towards Qing Deng and his group, many of the surrounding crowd screamed and scattered in all directions.

Some nearby vendors also abandoned their stalls and fled temporarily, fearing that they would be affected or implicated.

—Damn it, here we go again?!

After being stunned for a moment by the sudden cries of "Heaven's Punishment," Qing Deng quickly regained his senses and gritted his teeth.

Suddenly, a group of warriors appeared, shouting "Heaven's punishment!" and charging towards them—Qing Deng instinctively assumed that these people must be the "radical anti-foreign faction" who had come to kill him.

Qingdeng is not a person who likes to swear.

But at this moment, he couldn't help but curse under his breath.

The "radical anti-foreign faction" had only been around for a few days, yet they were already attacking him again with such frequency. The fact that they could still chase after Qing Deng even though he had come all the way to Fujisawa Suku made Qing Deng feel somewhat annoyed and disgusted.

—Were they following me all along...? Or were they planning to ambush me here at Fujisawa-juku all along...?

"Ahhh—!"

Qing Deng, who was staring at the attacking enemy, turned his head slightly and glanced at the three women, Kinoshita Mai, standing next to him.

The scream just now came from the masked girl.

Kinoshita Mai's face paled, and she quickly shielded the masked girl behind her.

Also protecting the masked girl behind her was the "Pale Yellow Woman," who remained silent throughout, dressed in a pale yellow kimono. Like a mother bird protecting her chicks, she spread her arms wide, joining Kinoshita Mai in shielding the masked girl behind her.

Qingdeng couldn't help but feel a little guilty towards the three women.

The three women stood beside Qingdeng.

From the perspective of these three women, it was as if these "radical anti-foreigners" were coming for them, so it was only natural that they were frightened.

The guilt of having one's own affairs implicate others quickly turned into anger.

With a stern expression, Qing Deng drew his sword with a "whoosh".

"Saito!"

With a whoosh, Saito, who was standing to the side and behind, also drew his sword.

Whether they followed him all the way here or learned through some other channel that Aoto would be coming to Fujisawa-juku and thus set up an ambush here in advance, it didn't matter to Aoto—he would just draw his sword and kill them!

Without needing any further verbal communication, Qing and Zhai simultaneously "activated" their attack, like two arrows released from a bow, charging side by side toward this group of "radical anti-foreigners"!

The attack was carried out by four "radical anti-foreigners," half the number of those in the previous attack.

Among these four "radical anti-foreigners," the one leading the charge was a short man who was probably only 1.45 meters tall.

In the blink of an eye, Qingdeng had reached a point where his blade could strike the short, stocky man.

puff.

Without hesitation, Qing Deng raised his knife and slashed, splitting the short man's forehead open with a single stroke.

If he could, Qingdeng wouldn't want to chop off that short, ugly man's forehead.

The skull is one of the hardest parts of the human body. Although Qing Deng's sword is a top-notch blade in terms of sharpness and toughness, constantly using it to chop hard skulls will greatly shorten the lifespan of the sword.

But there was no way around it—Qingdeng and this shorty were too far apart in height, with a difference of nearly 30 centimeters.

Being so much taller than this short guy, it would be easiest to memorize "Splitting Mount Hua" by pointing directly at his forehead.

Qing Deng's swordsmanship is not yet refined enough to allow him to use more skillful means to take the short man's life.

In a life-or-death struggle, one doesn't care about the lifespan of a knife; the priority is to defeat the enemy. If the knife breaks, it can be repaired or replaced; but if the person is gone, nothing else matters.

The sensation of his forehead shattering traveled continuously along the blade to Qing Deng's palms.

Successfully killing an enemy should be a cause for celebration.

But at this moment, a hint of doubt appeared between Qing Deng's brows.

Qingdeng felt a sense of unease that was hard to describe...

The first thing that feels off is their attire.

In the past, the "radical anti-foreign faction" who attacked Qingdeng would wear straw hats with deep brims to hide their faces.

Qing Deng was only thinking about quickly getting rid of these crazy people who were causing him trouble again, so he only noticed now that none of the four people who attacked this time were wearing bamboo hats to cover their faces.

Everyone showed their faces without any hesitation.

At the same time, Qing Deng also noticed that these people all looked like poor, slovenly vagrants.

The so-called ronin are samurai who have lost their lord to serve.

Losing a lord to serve means losing one's official position and being unable to serve as an official like Qingdeng; one can only find another way out on one's own.

These four men were the epitome of ronin – their bodies were filthy, covered in a thick layer of dirt that looked like fist-sized mud balls could be rubbed off, their clothes were so dirty that their original color was unrecognizable, their cheeks were deeply sunken, their eyes were cloudy, and they looked like they hadn't eaten a meal in a long time and were extremely malnourished.

If it weren't for the knives hanging from their waists, it would be difficult to distinguish them from beggars.

The second incongruity was the expression the short, stocky man had just made.

Although he only saw it for a moment, when he cleaved the short man's forehead with his sword, Qing Deng felt that he vaguely saw the short man's expression of shock... as if he had never expected Qing Deng and Saito to attack them...

Saito, unlike Aoto, was not as perceptive and keenly noticed the sense of unease.

After drawing his sword and attacking the four men from the left and right with Aoto, Saito became extremely focused.

Concentrate on killing people.

He truly deserves the reputation of being the bodyguard that Arima and others spent a fortune to find for Aoto.

The exquisite skill of his swordsmanship is far beyond what Qing Deng, who can only swing his sword in a straight line and with wide, sweeping motions, can match.

The group that Qing Deng and his group encountered this time was even weaker than the "radical anti-foreign faction" they had met three days earlier.