Fujisawa-shuku, inside a certain teahouse—
"Coming through! Honored guests!" A shop assistant with an enthusiastically smiling face carried a tray holding 4 cups of hot tea and a plate of red bean paste stead buns, quickly walking over to a square table where 4 samurai were seated. "Your tea and snacks are here!"
While efficiently arranging the tea and snacks on the table, the assistant struck up a conversation with the samurai as if they were old acquaintances.
"Honored guests, judging by your accents, you're from Osaka, right?"
"Oh? You can tell we're from Osaka?"
"Of course!" The shop assistant grinned widely. "This is Fujisawa-shuku on the Tōkaidō route, you know! This place never lacks travelers from all over the country!"
"I've worked here for 8 years! I've seen all kinds of people raised by different lands! Over ti, I've learned to recognize dialects from every region!"
"Not only can I recognize them, I can even speak them!"
"How's my Osaka dialect?" The assistant switched to perfectly standard Osaka dialect for this sentence.
"Hahaha! Your Osaka dialect is quite authentic!"
"Hehe, thank you for the complint! Well then, honored guests, please enjoy yourselves! I'll get back to work now!"
The shop assistant hugged the now empty tray and hurried back to the kitchen.
The table of samurai began distributing the tea and stead buns among themselves.
"Master Komuro, your tea."
"Ah, good." Komuro accepted the tea from his attendant, took a large gulp, then pulled out a hand towel from his breast pocket that was already damp with his sweat, wiping the fresh beads of perspiration from his forehead.
Komuro hated physical activity more than anything.
Because he had the type of constitution that sweat easily—the kind where just walking a few steps would make sweat pour from every part of his body.
"Master Komuro, our escort mission is finally coming to an end..." The attendant who had just handed Komuro the tea sighed lightly, reflecting on their journey. "We'll reach Edo in another 3 or 4 days."
"Yes." Komuro set down his teacup and echoed the sentint. "The mission to escort that grandfather and granddaughter pair to Edo is finally ending. From Osaka to Edo... it's truly been exhausting..."
Having said this, Komuro took another large gulp of tea as if trying to wash away his fatigue with the delicious beverage.
"Master Komuro, I really don't understand. Why did those foreigners Anthony and Elodie insist on taking a carriage to Edo instead of just taking a ship? It's not like there aren't ships directly connecting Osaka to Edo."
"Who knows what they were thinking." Komuro rolled his eyes. "I don't understand foreigner logic."
"Ah... actually, when I think about it carefully, I'm going to miss this escort mission for Anthony and Elodie." Another one of Komuro's attendants chuckled. "I quite liked that Elodie girl."
"She's quite endearing."
"Wasn't it about 10 days ago when Oba accidentally sprained his ankle?"
"When Anthony's granddaughter found out about Oba's injury, she personally ca with her maid to check on him."
"We were all quite surprised when we saw Elodie bringing her maid to visit Oba."
After listening to this attendant's words, Komuro nodded gently.
"Hmm... that Elodie does have good character."
"It's just a sha that among foreign barbarians, people like Elodie are ultimately rare..." Komuro smiled self-deprecatingly before finishing the remaining tea in his cup.
"Alright, everyone has rested enough, right?"
Komuro grabbed the sword resting beside him and slowly stood up.
"Let's go, it's ti to return..."
"Master Komuro! Master Komuro! I finally found you!"
A young samurai around 16 years old, sweating profusely and looking extrely flustered, pushed aside the teahouse's curtain.
Upon spotting Komuro's sowhat portly figure inside the teahouse, the young samurai imdiately rushed toward him with an expression that looked like he was about to cry, as if he had found his pillar of support.
Before Komuro could even ask "What's wrong?
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