I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

"You! Go to that spot!"

……

Komuro kept glancing in astonishment out of the corner of his eye at Aoden, who was constantly deploying troops behind him.

Hey! Is your deployment reliable?! Don't give orders randomly!

Komuro, who was completely unfamiliar with Aoto, couldn't help but ask himself this question loudly in his mind.

Not to mention Komuro, even Saito, who was more familiar with Aoto than Komuro, couldn't hide the astonishment on his face.

If he remembered correctly... the young man he was responsible for protecting was just a "three-times" officer who usually only handled cases and caught thieves, not an officer serving in the shogunate's standing army.

Saito was stunned as he listened to Aoto directing his troops.

Actually, what surprised Komuro more than Aoto's command and dispatch was the fact that his subordinates obediently followed Aoto's orders.

Why are you all following that person's orders?!

Komuro was quite puzzled.

His subordinates were clearly not familiar with Qing Deng at all; they probably didn't even know the name of the young man who was commanding them.

However, after Qingdeng issued his order, they obediently and quickly followed it without any objection or argument.

"Komuro-kun!" At this moment, after adjusting the positions of the six people in one go, Aoto called out loudly for Komuro, the only guard whose name he knew.

When he heard that it was his turn to be called, Komuro's ears perked up instinctively.

"You retreat too! Go east! Saito is enough to hold your position! The east needs your garrison!"

Komuro was taken aback by Aoto's orders.

Does this place not need my garrison? But the enemy's offensive here is clearly very fierce!

Komuro couldn't help but mutter to himself about Aoto's assignment.

However... Komuro now understands why his subordinates had been so obedient to Seido's orders.

Qing Deng's voice at this moment... does it have a strange infectious quality? In short, it's as if it has some kind of "magic".

After calming everyone down, it unleashed a new "magic".

Upon hearing Qingdeng's order, Mingming couldn't help but mutter to herself and feel a growing sense of dissent.

But he just couldn't muster the slightest motivation to argue with Qingdeng.

I just want to follow Qing Deng's orders properly.

This feeling... made Komuro feel like a "subject".

Faced with the "king's" orders, they dared not disobey at all!

Komuro hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth, picked up his sword, and followed Aoto's instructions, ran towards the eastern defensive line.

After instructing Komuro to change positions, Aoto did not issue any new orders.

He stood silently in place, scanning his surroundings...

His gaze seemed to be observing something.

Yamada could clearly hear the series of commands that Qing Deng had just issued.

At this moment, Yamada curled his lip in disdain.

"You only have this many people left, so no matter how you command, it's useless. Just adjust the positions of your personnel, and you think you can stop us?"

After muttering this dismissively, Yamada roared again to boost his team's morale:

"The enemy has begun their death throes!"

"Deliver the final blow to the barbarians and these scoundrels who serve them! Charge!"

Apart from Qing Deng suddenly stepping forward and micromanaging the positions of some people on the defensive line, everything on the battlefield remained the same.

The members of the Extermination Group, led by Yamada, remained confident that with their overwhelming numerical advantage, they could easily cause the dilapidated house to collapse with just one more kick.

However—just a moment later, Yamada's expression changed.

Komuro and the others also had their expressions change.

After once again engaging the surging "red ocean" with renewed vigor, the guards, led by Komuro, all looked astonished.

The battle situation... has changed!

No matter which direction the enemy attacks from, they are able to repel the enemy's attack and prevent the enemy from making any progress. The originally shaky and constantly retreating defensive line suddenly becomes solid.

Komuro initially thought that they had successfully stabilized the front line because their current situation had improved.

They were all fierce warriors capable of taking on ten men each; they were simply unable to unleash their full potential due to their chaotic state of mind.

Now, thanks to Qing Deng's words that calmed them down, they have regained their composure and are no longer flustered. As a result, they are finally able to unleash the fighting power they should have shown.

But soon—Komuro discovered that the reason they were able to stabilize the front line was not simply because their condition had returned to normal.

After killing another enemy in front of him, Komuro quickly checked the rest of the eye defense line.

He was stunned to realize that the defensive strength at every point along the line was just right.

It was just enough to block the enemy's attack from that direction.

For example, the eastern area that Komuro and his group are currently in charge of.

The enemy attacking from the east was numerous and quite powerful.

Komuro and his team didn't have an easy time—but their strength was just enough to hold the area firmly!

The same was true in other areas: everyone was fighting very hard.

But everyone was able to defend their assigned area and direction perfectly!

Komuro instinctively turned his head and looked at Aoto, who had just redeployed the defenses, with an incredulous gaze...

……

……

"Run! Run!"

"What's wrong with this old man?!"

“呃啊啊啊啊啊啊啊——！”

"Help me... Guh—!"

……

While Qing Deng and his men were engaged in battle with the enemy's main force in the southwest corner of the camp, a fierce battle was also taking place to the north of the camp.

No... it should be said that "a fierce battle was just taking place".

At this moment, the fierce battle has turned into a one-sided chase.

The four members of the anti-foreign group fled in panic.

Their faces were filled with intense fear.

One of them even threw away his knife in order to run faster.

They would occasionally turn their heads to look behind them, to see if they had successfully shaken off the "monster".

But each time they turned around, the fear on their faces intensified.

The creature that chased these four people to the point of utter terror was not some ferocious tiger or beast, nor a terrifyingly large enemy force.

Instead, he was an elderly man whose hair was already gray and who was at least 90 years old.

Kiryu, carrying a katana he had just picked up from the ground, lowered his center of gravity and stayed close behind the four men.

Kiryu was incredibly fast; these four young men, all very young and strong, couldn't outrun him!

The distance between the two sides closed rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In the blink of an eye, Kiryu caught up with the slowest, unlucky guy.

With a flash of the blade, the slowest-moving fellow immediately fell to the ground without a sound.

Immediately afterwards, Kiryu caught up with two more people and, without exception, killed them all with a single blow.

The last person left probably knew that he was no match for Kiryu in terms of speed and had no chance of escaping from Kiryu's grasp. He gritted his teeth, stopped, and turned around.

"Come on! You old bastard! I'll fight you to the death..."

puff.

Tong Shengli ignored this person completely.

With a horizontal swipe of the knife, he sliced ​​open the man's throat.

Kiryu's slash was exquisite.

The knife tip grazed the man's throat artery with just the slightest force, not too much and not too little.

With the slightest movement and the lightest force, he delivered a fatal blow that killed the person instantly.

"Mr. Kiryu!"

After Kiryu swiftly and decisively slaughtered the fleeing enemies, Kinoshita Mai's urgent shouts rang out from behind him.

Kinoshita Mai, carrying a long, thin object wrapped in a white cloth, quickly caught up.

"Finally, we've cleared away all those guys blocking our way." Kiryu raised his left hand and vigorously wiped away a few drops of enemy blood splattered on his cheek with the back of his left hand. "Young Master, stay close! We're going to find Anthony and the others!"

Kinoshita Mai nodded vigorously, then followed closely behind Kiryu, one in front of the other, following the sounds of battle, and hurried towards the southwest side of the camp.

Despite the increasingly loud shouts of battle, Kiryu remained relatively calm, while Kinoshita Mai's expression grew increasingly grim.

She was worried about Elodie's current situation.

Her inner worries made Kinoshita Mai quicken her pace slightly—but she still couldn't catch up with Kiryu and could only maintain a certain distance from him.

Just then, Kiryu, who was running ahead of Kinoshita Mai, suddenly tossed aside the katana he had casually picked up earlier, and then reached out his hand to Kinoshita Mai, who was running behind him:

"Young master, give me Zhāna."

"Mr. Kiryu, would you like some shroud?" Kinoshita Mai, her beautiful eyes slightly widened, tightened her grip on the long, narrow cloth bag in her arms.

"There are at least 200 enemies attacking," Kiryu said casually. "Dealing with this number of enemies using only these ordinary swords is still too much of a strain. We'll need at least 10 swords to successfully defeat them."