An atmosphere of suffocating awkwardness brewed and rapidly expanded between the two.
Aoto racked his brains to think of a way to escape the current awkward atmosphere.
However, with his brain only just recovering basic function, he felt an emptiness...unable to come up with any good strategy to escape the current predicament.
Toshisuke’s silence and inaction made it even more difficult for Aoto, leaving him at a loss as to what to do.
At this moment, both good and bad news simultaneously descended upon Aoto and Toshisuke.
Harada: "Come on, come on! Let’s go have a comfortable bath together!"
Outside the Pomegranate Gate, Harada’s loud voice echoed and the sound of chaotic footsteps approached the bath.
The good news was that Kondo and the others were going to enter the bath.
Their voices awakened Aoto and Toshisuke as if from a dream, and their footsteps dispersed the awkward atmosphere between the two like the wind.
But the bad news was that Kondo and the others were going to enter the bath...
"Oh no, oh no, oh no." With a face instantly filled with panic and fear, Toshisuke stomped in place anxiously, "I can’t let Mr. Nagakura, Mr. Saito, Mr. Harada discover my daughter’s body...!"
Toshisuke looked like a poor little puppy abandoned by its owner, helplessly looking around for a hiding place.
But in the bath, with nothing but water and steam, where could Toshisuke, a living person, hide?
Although Aoto didn’t know why Toshisuke wanted to hide his true gender, disguising as a man until now...the helpless expression that Toshisuke currently showed told Aoto: she had a deep-seated reason for not wanting her female body to be publicly known.
Seeing this, Aoto gritted his teeth.
In that moment, he made a reflexive decision—he raised his hand and grabbed Toshisuke’s slender right arm.
"Mr. Chokata... ah, no, Miss Chokata, come with me."
"Eh? Go, where?"
Aoto ignored Toshisuke’s bewilderment and pulled Toshisuke to the side of the bath, then turned his back to Toshisuke, pushing him into the corner of the bath with his back.
"Lower your body and scrunch tightly."
Aoto lowered his voice, speaking softly to Toshisuke behind him.
"I will block you with my body, just hide behind me."
Upon hearing this, Toshisuke immediately understood what Aoto intended to do, and immediately complied, curling up her arms and legs tightly like a fetus, compressing her delicate body to the maximum.
Toshisuke’s body was originally very petite, and after squeezing her arms and legs tightly, Aoto’s strong body could just barely block her entire delicate frame.
Under Aoto’s cover, Toshisuke hid in the narrow gap between Aoto’s body and the corner of the bath.
As soon as Toshisuke was safely hidden behind Aoto, familiar figures to Aoto and Toshisuke swaggered through the Pomegranate Gate and stepped into the bath.
"Hmm? Isn’t that Mr. Tachibana?"
As soon as he entered the bath, Harada first noticed Aoto, shading his eyes with his hands, looking at Aoto who was sitting alone at the corner of the bath.
At this moment... the talent of the "Deceiver" played a great role!
"Hmm? Why are you here?"
Aoto greeted Kondo and the others with a normal expression.
"We were just catching mice..." Kondo succinctly explained the process of their recent extermination of stray mice in the hall.
"I see..." Aoto nodded, then smiled lightly, "You all came just in time, a little later and Qianxun House would have closed."
"Mr. Tachibana, why did you come so late to bathe tonight?"
As Nagakura dipped his foot into the pool, he cast a puzzled glance at Aoto.
"I’ve been sitting on the veranda thinking about swordsmanship tonight, and lost track of time, only realizing I haven’t bathed just now."
The lie Aoto told was flawless.
To leave Shiwei Hall, a certain corridor adjacent to the courtyard is a must pass.
So, to be the first to hear the sound of Toshisuke heading to the bathhouse tonight, Aoto had been waiting on the veranda of the courtyard.
He claimed that he had been there all night contemplating swordsmanship, leaving Kondo and the others unable to refute it.
Indeed—after hearing Aoto’s explanation, Kondo and his group no longer wondered why Aoto, who usually bathes early, was visiting the bathhouse uncharacteristically late tonight.
Like penguins diving into water, they each jumped into the pool’s comfortable water temperature, then gathered together in a circle.
"Mr. Tachibana." Hijikata beckoned to Aoto, "Why sit so far away? Come closer, let’s chat together."
Sitting alone in the corner, Aoto seemed so out of place compared to Kondo and the group sitting in a circle.
"I’m fine sitting here."
Aoto replied without hesitation.
"Hijikata, you know I love sitting in the corner while bathing, it’s indescribably comfortable sitting in the corner formed by two walls."
Aoto’s words were... half true.
He indeed loved sitting in the corner while bathing.
When he had previously visited the Qianxun House with Kondo and the others for a bath, he would always go to the corner with space.
In the eyes of Kondo and his companions, Aoto was simply doing what he usually did.

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