——It’s both an employment relationship and a master-servant relationship... What kind of messy relationship is this...
Although he found the relationship between Kiryu and the girl named Mukiwa strange, since it was a private matter, Aoto felt it wasn’t appropriate to ask further questions.
"I’m sorry, the topic was interrupted just now. Let’s return to the previous topic." Kiryu cleared his throat, "There are three reasons why I recommend the Shiwei Hall of the Natural Reasoning Heart Stream to you."
"1: The Natural Reasoning Heart Stream is not a mere ornamental style without practical use. It meets your condition of hoping to learn swordsmanship with strong practicality."
Kiryu raised his first finger.
"This school was founded 70 years ago during the Kansei Era by a swordsman named Kondo Naizosuke."
"Initially, Kondo Naizosuke was a swordsman of the Katori Shinto-ryu, and after mastering his swordsmanship, he incorporated his understanding into Katori Shinto-ryu, eventually creating a new school, the Natural Reasoning Heart Stream."
Katori Shinto-ryu—a famous swordsmanship school in the Japanese swordsmanship world. It has a long history, having been established 400 years ago. In Japan, everyone who studies sword knows Katori Shinto-ryu."
"The doctrine pursued by the Natural Reasoning Heart Stream is ’one strike, one kill’," Kiryu continued, "It aims to defeat opponents in the shortest time possible, being a rather fierce style of swordsmanship."
"And the Shiwei Hall is the main family of the Natural Reasoning Heart Stream, with the current hall master being the third generation leader of the Natural Reasoning Heart Stream: Kondo Shuuzo."
"Oh..." Aoto listened attentively, nodding lightly from time to time.
"2: Although the Natural Reasoning Heart Stream is an extremely practical school, due to bad luck and various other reasons, it hasn’t gained much fame even now."
"Therefore, even now the Shiwei Hall remains small in scale, not considered a great sword dojo, and hence its tuition is not expensive. The monthly tuition is only 3 monme of silver, which your current finances can fully support you to study at Shiwei Hall."
"As for the third reason, it is the main reason I recommend you to go to the Shiwei Hall."
Kiryu raised his third finger.
"At Shiwei Hall, your wish to spar with as many masters as possible will be fulfilled to the greatest extent."
"Hmm?" Aoto furrowed his brow slightly, "Mr. Kiryu, didn’t you just say that the Shiwei Hall is a small sword dojo? Wouldn’t that mean the number of disciples at Shiwei Hall should be very few?"
Kiryu nodded lightly.
"That’s right, the number of disciples at the Shiwei Hall is indeed very small."
"But once you enter Shiwei Hall, you will be able to spar with people from the Xuanwu Hall and the Little Chiba Sword Dojo."
"Xuanwu Hall and Little Chiba Sword Dojo?" Aoto’s eyes immediately widened in astonishment.
Even the "Original Tachibana Aoto" who had no interest in swordsmanship or sword dojos had related information about Xuanwu Hall and Little Chiba Sword Dojo in his mind.
In today’s Edo, there are three renowned sword dojos, they are—
The Training Hall teaching the Shindo Mononoke Stream.
The Shixue Hall teaching the Mirror Heart Mingzhi School.
The Xuanwu Hall teaching the Beichen One-Sword Style.
These three sword dojos are collectively known as "Edo’s Three Great Sword Dojos," their names resounding throughout Japan.
The schools taught by these three sword dojos are undoubtedly the most popular and famous schools in Japan currently.
These swordsmanship schools are actually like the martial arts sects in Chinese martial arts novels, with different sects having different martial arts characteristics.
And in the current era, the status of the Training Hall, Shixue Hall, and Xuanwu Hall in the Japanese swordsmanship world is akin to the status of the Shaolin Sect, Wudang Sect, and Emei Sect in the martial arts world.
The Beichen One-Sword Style is quite a young school, it was founded just over 30 years ago by a sword master named Chiba Shusaku.
After founding the Beichen One-Sword Style, Chiba Shusaku established a sword dojo in Edo to teach his new school — the Xuanwu Hall.
The Chiba family has an exceptionally good genetic aptitude for swordsmanship.
Chiba Shusaku’s brother—Chiba Dingji, also a sword master with great swordsmanship talent, mastered the Beichen One-Sword Style at an extremely fast pace under his brother’s guidance.
After his brother Chiba Shusaku established the Xuanwu Hall in Edo, Chiba Dingji also opened a sword dojo in Edo to teach the Beichen One-Sword Style.
To distinguish this from Chiba Shusaku’s Xuanwu Hall, the sword dojo opened by Chiba Dingji is commonly known as the "Little Chiba Sword Dojo."
Due to factors like luck and other reasons, the Beichen One-Sword Style has produced many talents since its creation, and in just a short span of more than 30 years, sword dojos for the Beichen One-Sword Style have been established throughout Japan, with it now gradually having the presence of the "number one swordsmanship school in Japan."
And among all the sword dojos in Japan teaching the Beichen One-Sword Style, there is no doubt that the Xuanwu Hall and Little Chiba Sword Dojo are revered.
After all, one is the sword dojo established by the school’s founder, and the other by the founder’s brother. Both are undoubtedly the main family of the Beichen One-Sword Style, with a transcendent status in the Japanese swordsmanship world.
Because of this, it is extremely difficult to study at these two sword dojos, not to mention the tuition; there are certain requirements for the abilities of the incoming disciples, and it’s not just anyone who can study swordsmanship at Xuanwu Hall and Little Chiba Sword Dojo.
The fact that one can spar with disciples from Xuanwu Hall and Little Chiba Sword Dojo at Shiwei Hall... What Kiryu just said was akin to telling him: "At some college ranked third or below, you can have academic exchanges with students from Qingbei (Peking and Tsinghua Universities)..."
Kiryu had already anticipated that Aoto would have such a reaction. After a slight smile, he said:
"This matter must be explained starting from 70 years ago, during the Kansei Era."
"Seventy years ago, the founder of the Natural Reasoning Heart Stream, Kondo Naizosuke, and the father of Chiba Shusaku, the founder of the Beichen One-Sword Style: Chiba Kiyonobu, were friends."
"They even worked together in Edo."
"This friendship between the two families has been passed down to this day."
"About 30 years ago, when Chiba Kiyonobu’s son, Chiba Shusaku, was founding the Beichen One-Sword Style and the Xuanwu Hall, Kondo Shuuzo, the third-generation leader of the main family of the Natural Reasoning Heart Stream, also established the Shiwei Hall in Edo around the same time."
"This friendship, which has lasted for 70 years, has resulted in a very good relationship between the Shiwei Hall, the Xuanwu Hall, and the Little Chiba Sword Dojo, with people from these three sword dojos often gathering together for swordsmanship exchanges."
"This means that—if you enter the Shiwei Hall, you’ll have the opportunity to spar with people from Shiwei Hall, Xuanwu Hall, and Little Chiba Sword Dojo at the same time."
"Truthfully?" Aoto couldn’t help but let out a low gasp of astonishment.
Kiryu nodded with a smile: "Every word I’ve said is absolutely true."
"You even know things like the founders of the Natural Reasoning Heart Stream and the Beichen One-Sword Style’s founder’s father once working together in Edo..."
"After all, this is my livelihood. Without knowing some information that ordinary people don’t, my Thousand Affairs House, which relies on providing job and sword dojo recommendations, wouldn’t be able to continue."
Aoto pursed his lips at this moment, his mind racing with thoughts.
According to the memory of "Original Tachibana Aoto," both Xuanwu Hall and Little Chiba Sword Dojo were Great Sword Dojos with hundreds of apprentices, ranking top in Edo in terms of apprentice numbers.
If what Mr. Kiryu just said was indeed true word by word... then this Shiwei Hall is undoubtedly the best place for Aoto, who is now eager to spar with as many people as possible, to maximize the system’s efficacy.
Mr. Kiryu, who had been carefully observing Aoto’s expression, reached into the drawer beneath and pulled out a piece of white paper.
"It seems you are quite interested in Shiwei Hall now."
With that, Mr. Kiryu picked up the brush resting at the corner of the counter, soaked the brush tip in ink, and wrote a line of dragon-like, phoenix-tail calligraphy on the white paper.
"This is the address of that Shiwei Hall."
"If you’re interested in that Shiwei Hall, you can go there now and see this Sword Dojo for yourself."
Aoto accepted the paper with both hands, the address of Shiwei Hall written on it.
Upon seeing the words on this paper, Aoto couldn’t help but exclaim:
"Wow, your handwriting is beautiful."
"Thank you for the compliment." Mr. Kiryu gave a modest smile, "I once studied calligraphy in the Echizen Region. It’s just a trivial little skill."
"At this level, you could even teach people how to write with a brush..."
"You’re too kind." After giving Aoto another modest smile, Mr. Kiryu picked up the brush again, "As a new guest to our shop, to welcome your first visit to our establishment, I’ll give you another gift."
"I have quite a deep relationship with Shiwei Hall."
"If you’ve decided to join Shiwei Hall, you can hand this to the people at Shiwei Hall and say that you were referred by Kiryu Kazuma."
"This way, Shiwei Hall might offer you some conveniences when accepting you."
Having said that, Mr. Kiryu handed Aoto a piece of paper with the large characters "Kiryu Kazuma" written on it.
Aoto solemnly accepted the note from Mr. Kiryu, folded it along with the paper with the Shiwei Hall address, and put them in his pocket, then respectfully bowed to Mr. Kiryu in front of him.
"Thank you for your recommendation.!"
"You’re welcome." Mr. Kiryu bowed in return.
"May I ask how much is the referral fee?" Aoto, now full of interest in Shiwei Hall, asked Mr. Kiryu directly about the referral fee.
"30 mon." Mr. Kiryu stated the amount without hesitation.
"Here." Aoto cheerfully counted out 30 copper coins from his purse, stood up, and once again bowed respectfully to Mr. Kiryu, "Thank you so much for the recommendation, it was a great help!"
"You’re welcome." Mr. Kiryu gave a faint smile, "If you have any other questions later, feel free to come find me."
Aoto, who had learned what he wanted to know, eagerly prepared to leave this profession establishment—
Creak, creak...
From the inside of the shop, the sound of a wooden hallway being gently stepped on suddenly came.
Aoto looked and saw—it was that little girl named Mukiwa.
The girl who called herself Mukiwa no longer looked as she did just now, with a disheveled appearance as if she just got out of bed.
At this moment, she was neatly dressed, wearing a primarily red kimono, with white cloth socks on her feet, holding a tray in her hands, with a cup of steaming tea on it.
Bowing her head low, she took small steps and brought the tea to Aoto’s presence.
In addition to the sound of footsteps, Aoto also heard a "clatter" sound—this was the sound of Mukiwa’s hands trembling slightly while holding the tray, causing the teacup to keep bumping against the tray.
"Tha... that... that... please, please have some tea..." Mukiwa gently extended the tray in Aoto’s direction.
Her voice was as thin as a wisp, and Aoto almost couldn’t hear what she was saying.
Though the girl had her head down, making it hard to see her face, Aoto could vaguely sense that this child had a blush of shyness and nervousness on her cheeks throughout.
—This child is really shy... Just serving tea to a guest makes her so nervous that she can barely hold the tray.
After silently lamenting this in his heart, Aoto smiled at Mukiwa as gently as possible.
"Hmm, thank you for the tea."
Aoto picked up the teacup, drank it in one gulp, and then carefully put the teacup back on the tray.
"Thanks for the hospitality! Boss, I’ll take my leave first, and if there’s a chance, I’ll definitely come again!"
"Alright." Mr. Kiryu bowed to see Aoto off, "Take care."
After bidding farewell to the boss, Aoto walked out of the Thousand Affairs House with large strides.
After watching Aoto leave, Mr. Kiryu turned his head and smiled at Mukiwa.
"Young Master, you’ve progressed, now you dare to serve tea to guests."
"Hehe..." Mukiwa giggled silly, Mr. Kiryu’s compliment seemed to make her very happy.
"But there’s still a lot to pay attention to." The smile on Mr. Kiryu’s face suddenly disappeared, "When handing someone tea, don’t extend the cup and tray toward their face; it’s quite impolite."
"Ye-yes! I’ll be more careful next time!"
New book launch! Seeking monthly tickets! Seeking recommendations! Seeking favorites!
Other people’s new books are 4000 words daily before going live, while I have 6,000 to 7,000 words daily, very conscientious! So in light of the author’s sincerity, please cast more monthly tickets, recommendation tickets for this book! QAQ

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