My Gang of Swordsmen

Chapter 409: Chapter 151: Watch Closely, Aoto—This Is How It’s Done! [7500]

Shiwei Hall, Kitchen—

"Toshisuke, who are those three people?" Abi asked Chokata, who was helping her, while skillfully preparing tea.

Abi was feeling very bewildered.

Just now, she had been in the bedroom on the second floor organizing the accounts of Shiwei Hall, summarizing and calculating the Sword Dojo’s income and expenses for the past month.

As she was getting dizzy from the numbers, Chokata suddenly knocked on the door and told her: There were guests, and he asked her to help make tea.

Throughout Shiwei Hall, apart from Inoue Genzaburō, who was still back home for some matters and hadn’t returned, only Abi could prepare a good cup of tea.

With visitors being rare, why did they come all of a sudden? Abi wondered as she went downstairs, sneaking a glance into the hall—sure enough, there were three young men she didn’t recognize at all.

"Those three are Mr. Tachibana’s undercover informants." Chokata explained, handing over the washed teacups to Abi, "Nagakura Shinpachi, Harada Sazō, and Fujimura Heisuke."

"Undercover informants?" Abi furrowed her brows, "Why did Mr. Tachibana’s undercover informants suddenly come here?"

"Ah..." Chokata reached to the back of his head, playing with the tip of his short ponytail, "Oh right... I seemed to have forgotten to tell you about this."

"Ahem, so it’s like this—"

Chokata cleared his throat, then briefly told Abi about the plan they made at the celebratory feast last night to rely on the "celebrity effect" to further develop and expand Shiwei Hall.

As soon as Chokata finished speaking, Abi’s eyebrows shot up immediately, and she reflexively rebuked:

"What? Inviting guests? No way! I won’t allow it!"

"Shh..." Chokata quickly put his right index finger to his lips, "Aunt, keep your voice down..."

Chokata and Abi were now in the kitchen, not far from the room where Aoto, Kondo, and Nagakura were, still on the first floor of Shiwei Hall. If Abi’s voice was heard by Nagakura and the others, it would be awkward.

Realizing her voice might have been too loud, Abi pressed her lips, suppressing the urge to roar inside her, and asked Chokata in a lowered tone:

"What are you thinking? Why would you suddenly invite people we have no relation to, to stay here?"

"Aunt, listen to me." Chokata said patiently, "A Sword Dojo, if it has disciples or guests with considerable fame, it can generate a strong ’attraction’ to others..."

Chokata relayed to Abi the benefits of having famous people in the Sword Dojo, just as he heard from Hijikata last night.

Originally filled with anger and confusion, Abi’s face slowly turned better after hearing Chokata’s explanation.

But her brows were still furrowed.

"...No, I still can’t accept it." Abi’s mouth corners drooped, forming a large arc, "If they’re here to be apprentices, that would be one thing."

"But if they want to stay here as guests... I can’t accept it!"

"With Mr. Tachibana and them moving in, we already have enough guests."

"Letting more people in, aren’t you feeling crowded? Because I sure am!"

"Besides—where would we have so much space to house them at Shiwei Hall?"

"We do have space." Chokata continued playing with his ponytail, "Aunt, you forgot? The room where Mr. Tachibana and Mr. Saito are residing, the ’Dining Room,’ still has plenty of open spots."

Hearing Chokata’s response made Abi pause.

When Zhouzhu first constructed Shiwei Hall, he considered that it might attract some guests in the future, so he especially built a large room on the second floor meant for guests to stay.

Since the establishment of Shiwei Hall, as no guests were successfully attracted, the "Dining Room" had been sitting unused.

It wasn’t until over three months ago, when Aoto, Saito, and Kyūbē moved into Shiwei Hall, that the unused room was finally put to use, providing a place for Aoto and the others to stay.

The "Dining Room" is quite spacious, even accommodating ten people is not a problem. Subtracting the current three residents, Aoto, Saito, and Kyūbē, it can still house at least seven more guests.

Having forgotten that the "Dining Room" still had ample room, Abi’s face showed a trace of embarrassment, but she quickly suppressed it.

With her brows still tightly knitted, she opened her mouth as if wanting to say more.

But Chokata preemptively took the lead:

"...Aunt, let Brother Kondo give it a try."

Chokata put down his hands that were playing with his ponytail, his mouth corners slightly lifted, revealing a gentle smile.

"This is the first time Brother Kondo is using his own will and thoughts to manage the Sword Dojo."

"In the past, he always followed closely in the master’s footsteps."

"Whatever way the master managed the dojo, he would imitate the entire approach without alteration."

"I’m not saying that completely copying the elders’ experience is bad."

"But I believe... if you only know how to rigidly copy elders’ experiences, it’s ultimately not a good thing."

This is Brother Kondo’s first attempt to deviate from past experiences and try to improve the current operating methods of the Sword Dojo based on his own thoughts and ideas.