I formed the strongest swordsman group

This courtyard is not ordinary. It is the secret stronghold of the Ninth Division and an important contact point.

Whenever Qingteng has a task to distribute to the Ninth Division, he will come to this courtyard and clap his hands twice.

Immediately afterwards, the members of the Ninth Division who have been waiting here will come forward to listen to the order.

This system was modeled after the shogunate's imperial ban.

Yutingfan - As the name suggests, just by looking at the name, you know that it is related to the "courtyard".

When the general wants to issue a mission to the imperial court, he will come to a specific courtyard.

Seeing the general's arrival, the royal gardener dressed as a gardener in the courtyard would kneel down under the verandah with a broom in hand, waiting for instructions.

Qingden stood there, watching Tonosuke's back.

After his figure disappeared from his eyes, Qingdeng turned his back to the sky and let out a long breath with a complicated expression.

If possible, he didn't want to conflict with Elodie's father, let alone do such an excessive thing to him.

However... Qingdeng has many identities.

He is not only Elodie's swordsman, but also the lord of Qin Jin Clan, the general of the Shinsengumi, and the guardian of Gyeonggi!

If the truth is as Elodie said, and Maher came to Japan for other things, then Qingteng will have to be vigilant.

Although this is just an unfounded conjecture, it is necessary to keep an eye on it.

Therefore, in order to verify the correctness of this conjecture, Qingto decided to send the elite ninjas of Division 9 to closely monitor Maher.

——I hope we are worrying too much...

After thinking this secretly, Qingdeng turned around and returned to the house.

…

…

After Maher left the Orange Mansion, he did not go to the hotel or anywhere else, but strode out of the town.

In order to hide his face and figure, he wore a windproof cloak, a low-brimmed hat on his head, and a thick scarf on his face. Only a pair of eyes were exposed. At first glance, he seemed to be just an ordinary traveler.

He didn't know that as soon as he left Ojin with his front legs, a thin figure followed him closely behind him, following him like a shadow.

It was Tonosuke, a member of Division 9 sent by Seito to track and monitor Maher.

His full name is "Nitta Tonosuke".

Because of his agility and quick thinking, he shone brightly after joining the ninth team and became one of the elite ninjas most trusted by Aintō.

The reason why he was able to accurately find Maher in such a huge city was all thanks to the "Thousand Mile Incense" that Qingteng sprinkled on him in advance.

The so-called "Thousand Mile Incense" is a special kind of fragrant powder.

Humans cannot smell its scent, but professionally trained "ninja dogs" can.

"Ninja Dog" can capture its scent in the air and then track it.

Even a target ten miles away cannot escape the nose of the "ninja dog", hence the name "Ten Miles of Fragrance".

The person who taught this method to the Shinsengumi was naturally the almighty Gourd House.

It is reported that this tracking method is a unique skill of a certain ninja village during the Warring States Period.

As for how this unique skill fell into the hands of Calabash House, Qingdeng has no idea.

Although this unique skill is great, it is too difficult to cultivate a "ninja dog".

To this day, there are only four "ninja dogs" that have successfully "graduated".

When Maher suddenly left, Qingden was deeply shocked and at the same time subconsciously alert.

So, on the occasion of saying goodbye, he secretly sprinkled a handful of the "Ten Mile Incense" he carried with him while the other party was not paying attention.

In terms of scheming and means, Qingto, who had been working hard in the shogunate officialdom for many years, could not lose to anyone.

In this way, relying on the "ten-mile incense" sprinkled by Qingto in advance and the precise tracking of the "ninja dog", Nitta Tonosuke successfully caught up with Maher in the suburbs.

After discovering the target, Nitta Tonosuke first asked his precious "ninja dog" to go back first, and then lurked secretly in the shadows, relying on his best agility skills to carefully control the distance between them, and stick firmly to each other. behind the other party.

Maher didn't notice that there was an extra person behind him at all, so he just kept walking forward.

After a while, he arrived at the suburbs south of Dajin.

There is no village in front, no store in back, and because it is far away from the city, there is not even a pedestrian on the road.

There are dense trees on both sides of the road, and the ground is covered with thick fallen leaves - this gives Nitta Tonosuke great convenience.

Sometimes he jumped up the tree trunk, sometimes he hid behind the tree, constantly changing his patterns, so that his body always blended with the shadow of the trees.

Just as he was walking silently, following Maher diligently——

"?!"

Suddenly, he felt a chill coming from the back of his neck!

Like a conditioned reflex, he immediately turned back, pressed his hand on his waist, and looked around with a vigilant expression.

Flowers, grass, trees, mud... As you look around, you will see a very ordinary forest scene, nothing special.

Even with all his eyesight, he couldn't find anything unusual, let alone anyone else.

——Is it my imagination...

After checking a few more times to confirm that there were indeed no other living people around him, Nitta Tonosuke closed his eyes and prepared to continue monitoring Maher.

However... the moment he turned back, he suddenly felt his throat tightening - a hemp rope flew out from behind him and strangled his neck tightly!

The perpetrator's strength was so great that Nitta Tonosuke was unable to resist.

He watched helplessly as he was being lifted up inch by inch, his dangling feet kicking in vain.

My throat was under severe pressure, as if it would be crushed at any time, and I couldn't breathe at all.

Even if he wanted to shout, he could only moan like "ho" and "ho" without any specific meaning.

Suddenly, he heard a gentle female voice coming from behind:

"It's passed~ It's passed~"

"Where is the trail? This is the trail of gods~"

It's singing.

Nitta Tonosuke immediately recognized that this was the classic folk song "Tongxing Ue".

During the Edo period, it was a popular custom for children to go to shrines to make vows until they were seven years old so that their children could grow up healthily.

However, in 1639, due to the expansion project of Kawagoe Castle, Miyoshino Shrine was included in the plan and became heavily guarded.

Commoners are not allowed to visit the shrine at will, and gradually become separated from the lives of common people. This is why this game song is created to pray for children to be released.

It is said to be a folk song, but its lyrics reveal a strong sense of grotesqueness.

The woman behind her sang softly:

"Please accept the money and keep me safe~"

“Travel smoothly~hard to come back~”

"This is the path to Hades~"

"This is the path of ghosts and gods~"

"If you don't have an offering, you can't go there~"

"It's okay to be alive~ but it's terrible to survive after death~"

"Although it feels scary~"

"It's passed~ It's passed~"

The enchanting singing and the deep and painful moans... On one side is the singer singing leisurely and lightly, on the other side is the poor man on the verge of death. The strong contrast creates a strange scene.

Soon, Nitta Tonosuke felt that his consciousness was gradually blurring, and the singing and everything around him were rapidly moving away from him.

Within a moment... his feet stopped moving, his body stopped struggling, and his whole body hung on the hemp rope.

At the same time, a foul and unpleasant smell wafted away.

This is the classic death pattern of a person who suffocates: loss of muscle control and incontinence of urine and feces.

I'm afraid Nitta Tonosuke never thought of it - there were suddenly two people behind him who were empty just now: a man and a woman.

The former was a tall, thick man with long hair. It was he who strangled Nitta Tonosuke's neck with a hemp rope and strangled him to death.

As for the latter, he was the singer who gave Tonosuke Nitta a lift with his singing when he was struggling.

This woman is very beautiful, with fair skin and beautiful features.

She is around 20 years old, with glossy black hair tied into a neat high ponytail.

It is worth mentioning that her clothing is very distinctive.

It is not difficult to see that she is wearing a dark black kimono, but her dress has been cut beyond recognition.

First, the two sleeves were cut off, exposing all the arms below the shoulders.

Her belt is not the common wide style that covers the entire belly, but a very delicate Western-style belt that outlines a slender waist that cannot be grasped.

Probably to improve mobility, her hem was cut very short, all the way to the middle of her thigh, making her look extra cool.

The two little feet were not wearing shoes or socks, but were covered with thick black foot bags.

Foot bags and socks are two different things.

Socks are socks, and foot bags are more like a combination of shoes and socks.

Some high-quality foot bags can be worn directly as shoes, and your feet will not feel irritated or worn out even when walking in the wild.

"Is he dead?"

the woman asked. "Um."

The man responded with a precious word, and then slowly put down Tonosuke Nitta's body and laid it flat on the ground.

Immediately afterwards, he was seen clasping his hands together and whispering piously:

"Reveal the truth, reveal the truth, Polo reveals the truth, Pāloṇṭhāna reveals the truth, Bodhisattva reveals the truth!"

…

…

Maher's footsteps were the only sound on the long and narrow country road.

Suddenly, two people appeared from the trees on the roadside in front of him, blocking his way.

After seeing the face of the visitor clearly, Maher suddenly frowned.

"Niugui? Runu? What are you doing?"

As he asked, he looked down at the cow ghost...that is, the hemp rope in the man's hand.

The beautiful woman called "Ru Nu" smiled slightly:

"Mr. Orleans, although we don't know what you just talked about in the Orange Mansion, judging from the results, you are not popular."

"Just now, there was a guy following you."

"This person is very skilled and has very sophisticated tracking techniques."

"If I guess correctly, he should be a ninja from the Shinsengumi Division 9."

"But you can rest assured now."

"We've wiped your ass."

As soon as Runu finished speaking, Niu Gui raised the hemp rope in his hand.

When Maher heard this, his face suddenly darkened.

"...Niu Gui, Runu, thank you for your hard work."

The moist girl smiled.

"You're welcome, this is our business."

"He actually sent someone to follow me..."

As Maher spoke, he turned his head and looked into the distance... to be precise, he looked at Judi in the distance.

"Mr. Orléans, please forgive my daughter for talking too much: Is your wife willing to come back to you?"

Maher replied coldly:

"Do you still need to ask this kind of question? You know the answer just by looking at my expression, right?"

Ru Nu spread her hands, pretending to be innocent.

"Please forgive me, I didn't ask knowingly, nor did I mean to mock, I just wanted to confirm."

"Hmph! We haven't seen each other for a few years. Alice...has changed a lot."

"If it were her before, no matter how much courage I gave her, she would never dare to disobey my order."

"And now... this is the first time I've heard Alice talk to me in this tone."

"What a careless heir...!"

"That's fine!"

"Let her be willful for a while longer."

"It's a pity, but I really don't have the ability to steal people from Niou right now."

"I can only bear with it for now."

"Heirs are of course important."

"But the 'Amanuma Spear' is the most important thing right now."

“Everything other than this can be postponed for a while.”

After Ru Nu heard this, she immediately cast an excited look at the other party.

"Well said, Mr. Orleans!"

"You and I have been preparing for the 'Amanuma Spear' for a long time."

"The long wait, just for the moment of throwing!"

"When we throw the 'Amanuma Spear', the shogunate and the Qinjin Domain will definitely suffer heavy losses!"

"At that time, it will not be too late to try to get your beloved back!"

Maher smiled and nodded in agreement.

"Let's go back to Changzhou."

After saying that, Maher took the lead in raising his feet forward.

Niu Gui and Ru Nu followed closely behind, one on the left and the other on the right.

After walking two steps, Maher turned his head again and cast a deep look in the direction of Ju Di...

…

…

Elodie's father came to ask for someone - there was no way to hide such a big thing.

Now that things have happened, Elodie no longer intends to hide her life experience.

So, she told Ah Wu, Souji and other people close to her in detail about her past.

"Huh?! Elodie, you turn out to be from Orleans!" - Ah Wu said.

As expected, Ah Wu didn't know anything... Qingdeng was already used to Ah Wu's ignorance.

From the specific business of Calabash House to the true identity of Kiryu's boss, to Elodie's life experience, A Wu is always confused and doesn't know anything.

However, this time she was different from before.

In fact, A Wu, like Qing Deng, had long realized that Elodie's life experience was unusual.

However, she had a vague feeling that Elodie didn't want to talk more about her past, so she never inquired further.

After learning that Elodie had such a tortuous experience, the girls headed by Sanako became more maternal.

Ever since, in recent days, Elodie has simply become the favorite of the Judi family.

Whenever she has free time, she always receives invitations from Sanako and others.

Or enjoy the scenery together, or drink tea together.

After going back and forth, their relationship became much deeper.

For example, today, the Chief Secretary invited Elodie to eat Jinping Candy again.

"Come on, Iroh...ah, no, Alice, try it quickly! This is the Jinping candy I just bought! Because it is freshly baked, it is very crispy!"

Souji said as he opened the paper bag in his hand, revealing the colorful candies inside.

Since learning Elodie's real name, Souji and others have recently been trying to change their names and call her by her real name "Alice".

Elodie thanked her first, and then said helplessly:

"Sister Souji, you don't have to force yourself."

"Although 'Elody Angoulême' is my pseudonym, after using it for so many years, it is no different from my real name."

"I am both Alice and Elodie."

"You can call me by whatever name you want, I won't mind."

After that, Elodie threw a few Jinping candies into her mouth and tasted them happily.

The two girls just nibbled on the candies and chatted about one thing or another.

Unknowingly, their conversation turned to Qingdeng.

"Miss Souji, I always feel that Master has been looking bad lately. Did something happen?"

The Director-General shrugged:

"Hmm...I'm not sure either."

"The 'Changzhou Expedition' is about to begin. Perhaps he is feeling tired due to the busy schedule and the unprecedentedly heavy burden on his shoulders."

"It is also possible that he was depressed because he had not been able to find the 'Wanshan Steel' that could be used to recast Vairocana."

Elodie blinked:

"'Wan Liangang'?"

Vairocana was seriously injured in the Summer Formation in Kyoto, and Qingden decided to find "Wanliang Steel" to recast his sword. Elodie, who was the director of the Finance Office, naturally heard about this matter.

However, because this is not her business, and she doesn't know how to forge swords at all, Elodie only knows about this and has no idea what "Wan Steel" is, let alone why Qingden is obsessed with it.

Taking advantage of her free time and opportunity today, she asked the director:

"Miss Souji, I'm very curious, what exactly is 'Wanliangang'?"

The director-general tilted his head:

"Hmm...I'm not sure either."

“I only know that ‘Wan Lian Steel’ is a very rare steel.”

"Weapons made from 'Ten Thousand Refined Steel' will have a jet-black luster."

As soon as these words came out, Elodie's eyes widened instantly, and her expression was dominated by strong astonishment.

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