“Young master, what’s wrong?”
Aoto’s sudden action of slapping his own face startled Kyūbei.
“…Nothing…” After rubbing his cheek hard, Aoto turned and walked back to the main room. “Kyūbei, is there any water? I want a glass of water.”
“Ah?”
“Is there water?! I want a glass of water!”
“Oh, oh…” Kyūbei, who was a bit hard of hearing, finally understood Aoto’s words and nodded. “Yes, yes, I’ll bring it right away.”
Aoto returned to the living room and casually sat cross-legged in a corner of the hall.
At this ti in Japan, there was still no habit of sitting on chairs or sleeping on beds.
For sitting, people simply sat on the floor.
For sleeping, they spread bedding on the floor and just slept there.
Just as Aoto’s butt touched the floor, Kyūbei swiftly brought over a cup of water.
Taking the cup from Kyūbei, Aoto downed it in one gulp and let out a long sigh.
Then, very abruptly, he started to take off his clothes.
“Yo-young master?” Kyūbei was dumbfounded and stamred, “What are you doing?”
Aoto ignored Kyūbei.
After stripping off his upper clothes, Aoto lay face down and supported himself on his hands, starting a very classic exercise from his previous life.
“Young master, what exactly are you doing?”
“Doing push-ups. This is… a thod recomnded by a friend today to effectively train the body. Alright, stop talking. I need to focus now.”
The exercise Aoto was doing now was push-ups.
This was a habit from his previous life.
In his previous life, Aoto was so obsessed with fitness that he had a peculiar habit: when he was thinking or wanted to calm his mood, he liked to do push-ups.
Whenever his thoughts were chaotic, doing push-ups gradually cleared his mind and made his thinking sharper.
When negative emotions like nervousness or panic appeared, doing push-ups gradually cald him down.
So in his previous life, when chatting and joking with friends, his favorite boast was: if the college entrance exam allowed him to answer questions while doing push-ups, it would be hard to score 750, but scoring above 700 wouldn’t be a problem.
Although Kyūbei didn’t understand why his young master was suddenly doing push-ups, since Aoto had just ordered him to stay silent, Kyūbei could only swallow his doubts and silently carried the empty cup back to the kitchen.
After doing five push-ups in a row, Aoto gradually felt his emotions stabilize, and his thoughts beca clearer.
—Think of a solution! I need to figure sothing out quickly! Otherwise, I might die on the roadside tomorrow!
Being targeted simultaneously by the radical Expel the Barbarians faction and the Yakuza—just imagining such a hellish start made Aoto’s heart pound uncontrollably.
In the mories of the “original Tachibana Aoto,” there was plenty of information related to the Shimizu Family.
Due to the lack of a sound legal system and imperfect judicial and security forces, the Yakuza in this era were much more dangerous and lawless than the modern gangs of his previous life.
Groups like the Shimizu Family, a large Yakuza faction, had very professional and thorough strategies for dealing with debtors who couldn’t pay.
First, they would use every possible ans to squeeze out every penny from the debtor’s household.
The first to be targeted, naturally, were all the things in the debtor’s ho that could be sold for money.
During the process of forcing the debtor to hand over all their money, they would send many henchn to harass the debtor relentlessly to ensure every penny was extracted.
For example: gathering a large crowd every day to block the debtor’s door, shouting “Pay up!” and “Pay quickly!”
Even if you cried and begged, saying “I really have no money,” they wouldn’t relent.
Once they confird you truly didn’t have a penny but still couldn’t pay, the Yakuza’s thods would beco cruel.
If there were won in the household, they would be taken away and sold.
The n in the household would be forced to do all kinds of strange work.
Such audacious behavior would be unimaginable in modern tis, but in Aoto’s current Edo Period, it was extrely common.
The inadequate legal system allowed the Yakuza to brazenly use debtors’ dignity as collateral, while the governnt was powerless against this chaos.
The Shimizu Family’s disgusting ways to pressure him to repay the debt—just thinking about it made Aoto’s stomach churn.
But Aoto wasn’t particularly afraid of the Shimizu Family.
After all, these Yakuza only wanted money, not his life. They probably hoped Aoto would live well because only if he lived well could they keep collecting money.
So as long as Aoto could keep repaying, the Shimizu Family shouldn’t harm him.
As for the money, that was manageable.
Aoto had so valuable items at ho; in extre ergencies, he could pawn them to repay the debt.
If that wasn’t enough, he could borrow from friends. The “original Tachibana Aoto” had a fairly wide social network, and owing friends was better than owing the Yakuza.
Compared to the Yakuza, the radical Expel the Barbarians faction was Aoto’s real and greatest threat now.
The Shimizu Family only wanted his money, but the Expel the Barbarians faction wanted his life!
That was the most urgent crisis, one that directly concerned Aoto’s survival.
The scenes of the three assassins attacking him just now flashed uncontrollably in Aoto’s mind.
Cold sweat dripped from his forehead and back.
In his previous life, Aoto lived in a peaceful era and was just a young man who had just graduated from the police academy and not yet joined the force. He had never faced a life-or-death crisis…
Tonight was the first ti he was hunted, the first ti he truly felt death closing in.
That feeling… was not pleasant.
Every ti he recalled the assassination attempt, cold sweat uncontrollably dripped from his forehead.
He didn’t want to die just because of a ridiculous reason like “having worked at the Arican embassy for a few days.”
He was lucky tonight; bystanders ca in ti and forced the assassins to retreat.
But what about next ti?
Would he be so lucky again next ti?
The radical Expel the Barbarians faction were all lunatics; reasoning with them was useless. Their next attack could co in seven days or even… tomorrow.
Anxious, Aoto unconsciously sped up his push-ups.
—At least I need the ability to protect myself so the Expel the Barbarians faction can’t kill …
His thoughts scattered along the line of “acquiring self-defense ability.”
How could he gain the ability to not be casually killed as quickly as possible?
One word popped up in Aoto’s mind: cheat.
If you want to get powerful quickly for self-defense, nothing was more reliable than “relying on cheats.”
If he could successfully copy so extrely powerful talent as soon as possible, his self-defense ability would skyrocket.
Aoto’s thoughts drifted deeper.
His Talent Replication System only activated when competing with others.
So where in Edo-period Japan could he openly compete with many people?
A certain type of building, ubiquitous in Edo, seed to co alive in his mind, popping up automatically.
The sword school!
Since the Genji samurai group successfully overthrew the emperor in 1192 and established the first military governnt, the Kamakura Shogunate, the samurai class had been the ruling class in Japan for over 600 years.
For more than 600 years, Japanese society was divided into four classes—warriors, farrs, artisans, and rchants—similar to China’s social classes.
In China, the scholar-officials were the shi class.
In Japan, the shi were the samurai.
Though different, both shi classes held the sa status—they were the ruling and privileged class above farrs, artisans, and rchants.
China had the saying, “All are low, only study is high.”
Japan had the saying, “All are low, only samurai are high.”
When Tokugawa Ieyasu established Japan’s third military governnt, the Edo Shogunate, in 1603, to highlight the nobility of the samurai, laws were made granting privileges only samurai could enjoy.
One of the important privileges samurai had was the right to bear swords.
“Martial” was one of the samurai’s most important attributes.
To emphasize the samurai’s nobility and their martial nature, the Edo Shogunate decreed that only samurai could carry swords, and samurai had to carry swords whenever they went out.
Samurai usually wore two swords at their waist: a long one and a short one.
The longer sword was called the “katana,” the main weapon in combat.
The shorter sword was called the “wakizashi,” a secondary weapon for sword fights.
The samurai’s right to bear swords made swords their symbol and promoted the flourishing of swordsmanship.
The Edo period was an era of booming swordsmanship in Japan.
Famous schools such as Hokushin Itto-ryu, Shinto Munen-ryu, and Kyo Shin Akechi-ryu all erged during this ti.
The flourishing of swordsmanship naturally led to sword schools opening everywhere.
In Edo city alone, there were dozens of sword schools.
If he wanted to fight openly with others, there was no better way than joining a crowded sword school.
Going to a sword school to learn swordsmanship had two big advantages, killing two birds with one stone:
1: Maximizing the effectiveness of his cheat system.
2: Learning swordsmanship to enhance his self-defense ability.
One major reason Aoto nearly got cut down tonight was because his current swordsmanship level was just too poor…
The “original Tachibana Aoto” was not interested in swordsmanship.
In his 18 years, he had never been to any sword school to learn; he only learned the “Tachibana style” from his father.
The so-called “Tachibana style” was a few practical sword techniques his father developed for real combat.
Though few, these techniques were indeed very useful in fights.
However, “Tachibana style” was not a formal school. It was enough against ordinary people who knew nothing about martial arts, but when facing genuine practitioners, it was useless.
So currently, knowing only this “Tachibana style” wild school, Aoto’s combat strength basically counted as “can’t beat anyone except ordinary people.”
Though Aoto inherited strong unard combat skills from his past life, no matter how good unard combat is, it’s hard to win against enemies ard with blades.
The best way to deal with ard enemies is to also be ard.
If he had strong swordsmanship, he wouldn’t have ended up almost getting cut down tonight.
After deciding to go to a sword school to learn swordsmanship, Aoto originally thought of a second way to utilize his cheat system—challenging schools!
He could challenge one sword school after another and compete with their mbers.
However, this idea was quickly dismissed.
He would have to be crazy to go around challenging schools.
In any era, challenging schools is a very thankless and exhausting task.
Among ten sword schools, maybe fewer than one would accept challengers. Because accepting challengers brought more harm than benefit to sword schools.
Winning against challengers gave very limited prestige boost.
But losing would cause a huge loss of face, negatively impacting future recruitnt of apprentices.
No sensible sword school master would ruin their own reputation like that.
Even if he found so schools willing to accept challenges, Aoto might not be able to spar with many people.
Because in this era, there were many rules for challenging schools.
One rule was that if you lost, you imdiately lost the challenge and were kicked out.
With Aoto’s current swordsmanship level, if he went to challenge schools, the likely scene would be—he wouldn’t even be able to beat the first apprentice sent, then get kicked out, having only sparred with one person.
Therefore, challenging schools would be inefficient, offend people easily, and be thankless.
After sorting out his thoughts, Aoto ford a clear goal in his mind: go learn swordsmanship at a sword school!
Having set the goal, Aoto jumped up from the floor and, panting from doing over fifty push-ups, shouted toward Kyūbei who was still in the kitchen:
“Kyūbei! Co here!”
“Eh, coming.”
Kyūbei quickly walked out of the kitchen and approached Aoto.
“After deducting necessary expenses like food, clothing, and housing, how much savings do we have left? I want to learn swordsmanship at a sword school! With our current savings, which sword school can I afford to study at?” Aoto said succinctly to Kyūbei.
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