Seeing that Chokata had finally regained his spirits, a joyful smile instinctively appeared on Aoto’s face: "Alright, let’s go. I can sll sothing really fragrant from that direction, let’s check it out."
Chokata, back to his usual cheerful self, hopped forward in front of Aoto and Saito.
"Mr. Tachibana, I never noticed before, but you’re really good at comforting others," Chokata suddenly turned his head and teased Aoto.
"Well..." Aoto smiled awkwardly, "I admit I’m quite eloquent."
"But only when dealing with n do I beco a bit more talkative."
"I rarely have close interactions with won, so I’m not good at getting along with them."
"If a woman were to complain to , I’d be at a complete loss."
"Oh~~ is that so..."
Chokata’s smile suddenly beca even brighter, his eyes turning into crescent moons.
"Hmm? Why are you laughing like that?" Aoto blinked at Chokata in confusion.
"It’s nothing." Chokata chuckled a bit before turning his head and gaze back to the front.
...
...
At this mont—
"... Brother, it seems I’m still not mature enough."
"Huh?" Chiba Shigetarou widened his mouth at Sazanoko beside him, "What’s wrong? What do you an?"
Sazanoko half-closed her eyes, lowering her gaze, and spoke to her petite toes:
"Earlier, when cousin made disrespectful remarks about Shiwei Hall, I should have imdiately spoken up to stop him."
"If I had spoken up swiftly and reprimanded him, these subsequent unpleasant incidents might not have happened..."
Seeing the hint of guilt on his sister’s cheeks, Chiba Shigetarou raised his hand to scratch his hair and then sighed heavily.
"Alright, feeling guilty here isn’t of much use, just make sure not to repeat the sa mistake in the future."
"Looking back, your brother here has made more mistakes than you, and my actions were even more immature than yours."
"After Aoto and the others appeared, I was just eager to smooth things over and quickly put the matter to rest... I too must be careful not to make such mistakes again..."
With that, Chiba Shigetarou sighed again.
Both he and his sister were sighing endlessly... which seed a bit unsightly.
So, to help himself and Sazanoko recover their spirits quickly, Chiba Shigetarou cleared his throat.
"Mr. Tachibana is truly impressive... In such a situation, daring to stop a samurai he didn’t know and make him retract his previous words and actions... not just anyone can do that..."
Chiba Shigetarou initially wanted to chat with Sazanoko about sothing light-hearted and interesting to ease the atmosphere between them.
Yet sohow, without knowing why, he ended up talking about topics related to Aoto...
Sazanoko didn’t imdiately respond to the topic Chiba Shigetarou had just brought up.
She remained silent for a while.
A mont later, she slowly nodded.
She responded with gentle movents to what Chiba Shigetarou had just said.
...
...
After having a simple lunch with Chokata and Saito, and strolling around various spots in Yudashima Tenman Temple, ti had unknowingly reached past 1 PM.
Less than an hour remained before the match with Little Chiba would begin...
Though Aoto still hadn’t had enough of the beautiful scene of plum blossoms fluttering down, he grudgingly had to end his outing as the match ti was approaching.
Just as Aoto, Chokata, and Saito returned to the competition venue, a gasp of astonishnt uncontrollably escaped from Aoto’s mouth.
"So many people...!"
Aoto exclaid, taken aback by the number of people in front of him.
Despite there still being over 40 minutes until the match started, the area around the venue was already surrounded by three deep layers of spectators ready to watch, numbering at least 200, and the number continued to rise...
Aoto had known that a rare event like "samurai fighting" would attract a lot of public interest, but the number of spectators now before him still exceeded his expectations.
Chokata and Saito were evidently also startled by the number of people, staring at the growing crowd along with Aoto in surprise...
Just then, Kondo’s voice suddenly erged from beside them:
"Oh, Mr. Tachibana, Toshisuke, Mr. Saito, you’ve returned."
"Brother Kondo." Chokata asked blankly as Kondo approached them quickly, "Aren’t the spectators too many...?"
"Ah, ah..." Kondo smiled wryly, "I heard from my father that the Divine Master of Yudashima Tenman Temple has been tirelessly promoting today’s match these past few days."
"Thanks to his vigorous promotions, the number of people who know about our match with Little Chiba Sword Dojo is particularly high."
"Alright, co along with now, it’s about ti to warm up."
The competition venue provided by Yudashima Tenman Temple for Shiwei Hall and Little Chiba Sword Dojo was quite large, about the size of three basketball courts.
Shiwei Hall’s "Main Array" was set up on the east side of the venue, while Little Chiba Sword Dojo’s "Main Array" was set up on the west side.
Once near the eastern side of the venue led by Kondo, Aoto saw the recently departed Chiba Shigetarou and Sazanoko at the western side of the field.
The people from Little Chiba Sword Dojo had yet to fully arrive.
On the west side of the field, with Chiba Shigetarou and Sazanoko in the lead, a few people were checking their bamboo swords.
Noticing that Aoto had arrived and was looking in their direction, both the Chiba siblings lifted their heads and nodded in acknowledgnt to Aoto.
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