I assembled the strongest swordsman group.

"Tachibana-kun!"

"Lord Arima?"

Looking in the direction of the sound, Arima, whom they hadn't seen for more than ten days, was riding a chestnut horse and quickly approaching Qingdeng. The "spear holder" who was responsible for helping Arima with his spear, and the "box holder" who was responsible for helping Arima with his luggage, and others hurriedly followed.

Even when riding a horse, the horse's back still forms a perfect 90-degree angle with the ground.

Seeing the arrival of familiar faces, Qingdeng felt a surge of warmth and quickly went to greet them.

"Lord Arima, so you're the one leading this group?"

"Yes. Upon receiving the order from the Enforcer, I immediately mustered my men and came to meet you."

Having said that, Youma dismounted and stood in front of Qingdeng.

"Tachibana-kun..." Arima looked Aoto up and down several times with an expression that mixed with relief and joy, and asked urgently, "Are you alright?"

"If I were seriously injured, I wouldn't be able to stand in front of you and talk to you like this," Qingdeng joked.

Arima chuckled softly a few times, then raised his hand and patted Aoto's shoulder with a light touch: "It's good that you weren't seriously injured, it's good that you weren't seriously injured..."

A thousand words have been conveyed through this gentle pat on the shoulder.

……

……

Edo, a spacious mansion, a certain room—

This is a room with extremely simple furnishings.

There was almost no furniture; the empty room contained only a huge decorative screen.

The screen is painted with an extremely ferocious picture: a parade of one hundred demons at night.

In the picture, there are hideous demons with bared fangs and claws.

With a faint smile on his face, the Rakshasa sat down in front of the screen in a very casual manner.

A red-scabbard and red-handled katana lay quietly to the left of the Rakshasa.

A middle-aged man with a huge burn scar on his left cheek sat upright to the right rear of the Rakshasa.

If someone who knows enough about the "underworld" of Edo were here, they would be very surprised to see this middle-aged man.

This person was none other than Shimizu Eiichi, the leader of the Shimizu clan, the most powerful Yakuza group in Edo, to whom Aoto owed money.

In Edo's "underworld," Shimizu Yoichi, who possessed absolute power to influence events, sat respectfully behind Rasetsu, who was only in her early twenties, like a "good boy to his parents."

wow...

At that moment, a sliding door on the east side of the tea room was suddenly pulled open.

"Oh...Kano-kun." Rasetsu turned her head at the sound of the voice, revealing a bright smile to the open door. "You came pretty fast. Come on, have a seat."

Rakshasa pointed in front of him.

Standing outside the opened sliding door was Jinno, whose face was extremely ashen.

After glancing at Rasetsu, who was sitting in the main seat in the tea room, and Shimizu Eiichi, who was sitting behind Rasetsu, Jinno quickly walked through the sliding door into the tea room and stood in front of the two of them.

"Lord Rakshasa, Lord Shimizu."

Jinno did not sit down immediately. Instead, he bowed respectfully to the two of them at a 90-degree angle before sitting down in the place that Rasetsu had just pointed to.

"Lord Rakshasa," Kamino asked Rakshasa in a soft voice, using the most respectful tone imaginable, "what brings you here?"

"Nothing much." Rakshasa extended the pinky of his right hand and picked at his right ear. "I just wanted to see how you are doing."

“I’ve already heard about it—your mission to take the heads of Anthony and Elodie, grandfather and grandson, failed.”

"Not only did we fail to kill anyone, we also lost the lives of more than 60 people, including Suehiro and Yamada."

As soon as Rakshasa finished speaking, Shenye's already unpleasant expression turned even more gloomy, and his hands, which were resting on his lap, clenched unconsciously.

"...Lord Rakshasa, I am truly ashamed to face you."

Kamino closed his eyes.

"You leaked information about the whereabouts of Anthony and his gang of traitors to me, and you also sold us a batch of matchlock guns."

"As a result, our anti-barbarian group turned what should have been a sure thing into a crushing defeat..."

"Hahaha, there's no need to feel guilty or not." Rakshasa laughed heartily. "Losing is no big deal. In the 70 years since our Fazhu Party was founded, we have lost countless battles."

"There were even several times when our entire organization almost disappeared into the annals of history."

"Failure is not terrible; what is terrible is not knowing why you failed and not knowing how to avoid repeating the same mistakes."

After saying that, Rakshasa changed to a more comfortable sitting position.

"Kano, regarding your operation, how exactly did it fail? Have you found any clues?"

“I have questioned those who escaped back in detail,” Jinno replied. “The investigation is complete. The reason our Extermination Group suffered such a crushing defeat was entirely due to the appearance of one person.”

"Alone?" Rakshasa raised an eyebrow slightly.

“A samurai named Tachibana Aoto.”

"Tachibana Aoto...? The Tachibana Aoto from the town of Hokuban-sho-sada in Edo?"

"Lord Rakshasa, do you know him?" Kamino looked at Rakshasa in surprise, who had a strange expression on his face.

"...Let's say I know this person." The strange expression on Rakshasa's face faded, and she returned to her usual faint smile. "Kano, tell me in detail, how did this Tachibana Aoto cause your operation to suffer such a crushing defeat?"

Jinno nodded vigorously a few times, and then systematically explained to Rasetsu the "battle's beginning and end" as he had heard from his men who had escaped.

Qing Deng had been on their "assassination list" for a long time, so many people in their group recognized his face.

When Qingdeng stepped forward and began leading Komuro and others in a counterattack, many people immediately recognized him as the "traitor" whose assassination attempt by their Exile Group had failed to kill in three attempts.

It was through the testimonies of these survivors who recognized Aoto that Jinno learned what had happened that night.

Shenye's story was not long; he only took about half an hour to tell Rasetsu everything he knew.

"Oh..." Rakshasa, who had been quietly listening, let out a cryptic laugh after Shinno finished his story. "I see... So the guards who led that Anthony defeated you..."

"...That Tachibana Seiden has quite a knack for commanding and his personal combat skills."

"First, try to hold the line and wear down your morale."

"When your morale begins to wane due to the prolonged siege of the defensive line, I will personally step in, launch a thunderous attack, and strike directly at your main camp, taking the head of that Yamada and crushing your morale in one fell swoop."

"When Suehiro arrived with reinforcements, he was defeated again, leaving you utterly powerless to turn the tide."

"Your defeat in this battle... was not unjust."

Hearing Rakshasa praise Qing Deng, who had caused their anti-barbarian group such a great loss, Jin Ye felt extremely uncomfortable.

But he didn't dare to lash out, and could only silently suppress his frustration.

At this moment, Rasetsu, who had straightened up a bit, suddenly asked Shinno:

"Kano-kun, now that we've identified who caused your Extermination Group to suffer such a great loss, what are your plans for dealing with that Tachibana Aoto?"

"Of course!!" Upon hearing Rakshasa's new question, Kamino gritted his teeth without hesitation, "Of course I won't let this go so easily!"

Because of his extreme indignation, Shinno's tone unconsciously rose a few decibels.

"I will make that damned traitor suffer a terrible death... Ugh...!"

Kamino's roar suddenly stopped.

The words that were not yet uttered turned into astonished exclamations.

He mechanically lowered his head and looked down at his throat.

A glint of cold light stopped in front of his throat.

Rakshasa gripped a red-handled katana, pointing the tip at Shinno's throat.

The tip of the knife was only about half a finger's width away from Jinno's throat.

With just a gentle push of her sword forward, Rakshasa could take Kamino's life.

"Kamino-kun."

At this moment, the faint smile on Rakshasa's face was gone.

He half-closed his eyes and cast a cold, expressionless glance at Jinno.

Please don't shout.

"You know I hate noise the most."

"Your constant noise is really annoying me."

"Calm down."

The once aggressive Jinye suddenly became dejected, his face turned pale, and even his originally straight back bent slightly.

"I'm so sorry..."

Seeing that Jinno had apologized to him, Rasetsu's expression returned to its usual faint smile.

"Be more careful next time." Rakshasa grabbed the scabbard on his left side with his left hand, pressed the tip of the sword back against the scabbard opening, and sheathed the katana. "Don't make a fuss in front of me anymore."

After Rasetsu sheathed his sword, Kamino suddenly realized—his back was already soaked with cold sweat…

When did he draw his sword?

Jinno had no idea when Rasetsu had drawn the red-handled katana that had been sitting on his left side.

He didn't even hear the sound of a sword being drawn...

"I was worried that you might be too discouraged after such a big defeat, Jinno-kun."

"Looks like I was overthinking it."

Rakshasa smiled and placed the red-handled katana back on her left side.

"Since you're still so motivated, Kanna-kun, keep up the good work!"

"I'm really looking forward to it!"

Rakshasa's smile deepened, her eyes narrowing as she laughed.

"We look forward to seeing how far you and your anti-barbarian group can go in your 'great cause of expelling barbarians'."