I Formed the Strongest Swordsman Group-Chapter 7: Kiryu Kazuma

"Learning swordsmanship?"
Kyūbei blinked a few times, his face filled with doubt.
"Young master, why did you suddenly want to learn swordsmanship? Weren't you never interested in sword techniques before?"
"The 'Expel the Barbarians' faction has been way too unreasonable and despicable, so I’ve decided to seriously practice swordsmanship starting today. Next time they try to ambush me, I’ll beat them to a pulp," Aoto said, half-joking and half-serious.
Hearing Aoto's words, Kyūbei was momentarily stunned, then his expression brightened with excitement.
"Young master, well said! That’s the spirit a warrior should have! Exactly! That’s how it should be! Please wait a moment; I’ll go get the account book and money."
Kyūbei turned and quickly strode toward the back room.
In no time, he returned to Aoto's side.
When he came back, he was carrying an account ledger, an abacus, and a bag of money.
Aoto looked at the bag of money in Kyūbei’s hands with a trace of bitterness—this bag wasn’t very full; it was all the savings the Tachibana family currently had...
The original Tachibana Aoto didn’t understand bookkeeping, so the family’s money and account ledger were usually managed entirely by Kyūbei.
Kyūbei moved a low table from the corner of the main room over, spread the account ledger on it, then placed the abacus next to the ledger, and quickly began calculating.
After a short moment, Kyūbei stopped using the abacus, then untied the money bag containing all the Tachibana family’s savings. He took out a few silver coins and a large string of copper coins.
"Young master..." Kyūbei gave an awkward dry laugh, "After deducting necessary expenses like food, clothing, and housing... the funds we can freely use now are only eleven silver monme and six thousand copper mon."
In Edo Period Japan, three currencies circulated in the market: gold, silver, and copper.
One ryō of gold ≈ 64 monme of silver ≈ 6,400 mon of copper.
Upon learning that the family’s available funds were only this little, Aoto’s jaw nearly dropped to the ground.
"Only this much money?"
"Young master..." Kyūbei sighed deeply, "Almost all the remaining family wealth has gone to paying off debts..."
Hearing Kyūbei’s words, Aoto’s mouth twitched involuntarily.
—Indeed, even a penny can bring down a hero...
After silently lamenting this in his heart, Aoto sighed heavily.
"Well... it’s fine. Even if there’s little money, there’s little. Kyūbei, which is the best sword school we can afford with our current funds?"
The original owner of this body was not interested in swordsmanship, so he had little knowledge about Edo’s sword schools. Thus, Aoto had to rely on Kyūbei.
"Ah..." Kyūbei looked troubled, "Young master, you really stumped me with that... I don’t know much about sword schools. I can count on one hand the ones I can name..."
"I thought so..." Aoto sighed softly, "No choice... I’ll ask some of my friends later..."
"Ah!" Kyūbei suddenly slapped his own forehead, "Young master, I just remembered, why not ask the Senjiya?"
"Senjiya?" Aoto raised an eyebrow, "What’s that?"
"It’s a job placement agency," Kyūbei said. "Young master, our family’s been short on money lately, right? So I was thinking of finding a job I can manage to help support the household. Through someone’s recommendation, I found out about this agency."
Aoto: "A job placement agency?"
As the political, economic, and ruling center of the Edo Shogunate, Edo was the largest city of the Edo Period.
Naturally, as the era’s biggest city, Edo attracted young people from all over the country, each dreaming of getting rich quick.
Many young people came to Edo to work, and since there were no newspapers or internet for easy information exchange, it was difficult to find jobs on one’s own in a city with over a million people.
Thus, job placement agencies specializing in introducing jobs emerged.
Most job placement agencies in the Edo Period were privately run. In Edo alone, there were more than twenty agencies, big and small.
"Kyūbei, I’m looking for a sword school, not a job."
"Young master, listen to me," Kyūbei shook his head, "That Senjiya not only introduces jobs, it also introduces sword schools. That’s one of its main highlights."
"Oh?" Aoto’s eyes immediately sparkled with interest, and his body instinctively leaned toward Kyūbei.
"Specifically, I’m not quite sure. I only know that besides helping job seekers find work, that Senjiya also helps those wanting to learn swordsmanship in Edo find suitable sword schools."
"Heh... Senjiya..." Aoto stroked his chin, "Can help people find sword schools? Sounds good."
"Alright, it’s decided!"
Aoto clenched his right hand into a fist and lightly tapped the palm of his left hand.
"I have a day off tomorrow! I’ll go to that Senjiya first thing in the morning."
Taking action without delay—that was one of Aoto’s proudest qualities.
As a reward for successfully suppressing the Righteous Crowd, the shogunate allowed everyone involved to have a day off tomorrow, which Aoto planned to use effectively.
"Kyūbei, do you know where the Senjiya is?"
Kyūbei nodded, "It’s quite close to here."
...
...
The next day (January 13), early morning—
After hastily eating the breakfast Kyūbei prepared, Aoto put on his clothes, strapped on the katana and wakizashi at his left waist—symbols of his samurai status—and hurriedly dashed out the door.
The front door of Aoto’s house faced a dirt road of moderate width.
It was just past 7 a.m., and when Aoto turned onto the dirt road facing his front door, he saw groups of samurai either loitering like him or with anxious expressions, presumably rushing to their "jobs."
In Edo Period Japan, samurai and commoners usually did not live together, partly to distinguish social status and partly to avoid conflicts.
Samurai clustered in "samurai residential districts," while commoners gathered in "commoner residential districts."
Hatchobori, where Aoto lived, was one of the samurai residential districts. Thus, samurai carrying swords could be seen everywhere in Hatchobori.
In terms of numbers, samurai were far fewer than commoners in Edo, but samurai residences occupied more than half of Edo’s land, and the land they held was the best in Edo, forcing the majority commoners into cramped areas with the worst geographic locations.
Such unfair resource allocation only made one mournfully sigh, "The evil ruling class."
Without time to appreciate the ancient Japanese streetscape, as soon as he stepped out the door, Aoto quickly followed the address Kyūbei had mentioned last night and headed to the Senjiya.
Kyūbei’s words were no exaggeration—the Senjiya was indeed not far from their home.
Aoto jogged along and took just over ten minutes before seeing a modest wooden house at the edge of his view.
At the top of the wooden house’s gate hung a signboard with the three big characters "Senjiya."
Ancient Japan, like ancient China, mostly built houses from wood.
Since 645 AD, when Japan launched the Taika Reform and fully learned from the advanced culture and system of the Sui and Tang dynasties, Japan directly adopted Chinese characters, as before then Japan had no written script of its own.
Since the Taika Reform, the use of Chinese characters in ancient Japan remained high. Official documents from the government could be written entirely in Chinese characters.
"So this is the Senjiya..." Aoto stood in front of the modest-looking agency, inspecting it carefully.
"Is it open now..."
Muttering to himself, Aoto quickly walked toward the door.
As he reached out to grasp the door handle and prepare to pull it open—
"Oh~ Kiryu Kazuma, you even know how to patch kimono!"
"Yeah, because I once studied how to make and repair kimono in the Muromachi region."
"Kiryu Kazuma! You really can do everything! Amazing!"
"You flatter me. Those are just minor skills not worth mentioning."
Two simple voices drifted out from behind the door.
Clatter—
Aoto pushed open the wooden shop door.
The first thing he saw was an elderly woman with somewhat thick lips.
She was kneeling in front of a low counter.
Behind the counter sat an elderly man who looked about eighty or ninety years old, wearing glasses perched on his nose and smiling warmly, exuding a very gentle and refined demeanor.
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