My Gang of Swordsmen

Chapter 71: Chapter 53: The Cute Loli from France

If Aoto remembered correctly...the other day while patrolling the road, after unexpectedly meeting Mukiwa, this kid told him: she was going to Fujisawa Inn on the Tokaido to welcome her friend.

In 1603, after the establishment of the Edo Shogunate, in order to strengthen the country’s governance, the Edo Shogunate built five major roads connecting the nation’s major economic and military hubs, collectively known as the ”Five Roads,” with Edo as the starting point.

These five roads are: the Tokaido, Central Mountain Road, Nikko Road, Aozhou Road, Koshu Road.

To facilitate the movement of personnel and goods and to promote business development, the Shogunate set up numerous post stations and relay stations along these five roads.

Connecting the two major cities of Edo and Kyoto, the Tokaido is the busiest of the ”Five Roads,” with the largest traffic flow.

The Tokaido has a total of 53 post stations, including Fujisawa Inn, which Lord Arima just mentioned and where Mukiwa is going to welcome her friend, one of the post stations on the Tokaido.

In addition to being used by the government for political and military purposes, ordinary travelers and merchants can also freely use the ”Five Roads” and each post station along the way to travel everywhere, thus greatly increasing demand for accommodation, dining, and shopping.

As a result, large-scale settlements gradually gathered around most of the post stations on the ”Five Roads,” eventually evolving into castle towns.

Such castle towns formed around post stations are called ”post station towns.”

Fujisawa Inn is a typical example of this.

Fujisawa Inn still bears the name of a post station, but in essence, it has already become a sizable castle town.

Tea houses, izakayas, brothels, casinos, bathhouses... everything a typical castle town has, Fujisawa Inn has them all.

”Lord Arima.” Aoto asked, ”Has something happened in Fujisawa Inn?”

”Recently, there have been a group of very skilled thieves in Fujisawa Inn,” Arima replied, ”They specialize in stealing travelers’ money at the post stations.”

”The amount involved has already reached 200 ryō of gold.”

”Facing these thieves who can’t be caught, the clerks over there have completely run out of ideas, so they’ve asked our Edo Magistrate’s Office for help, requesting us to send Dōshin to support them.”

”Fujisawa Inn is one of the most important post stations on the Tokaido, and it’s not very far from Edo either. After weighing the pros and cons, Lord Hosoi decided to accept Fujisawa Inn’s request for help and personally named Mr. Tachibana to take charge of the case.”

”Lord Hosoi personally named me?” Aoto was stunned.

”Your excellent performance in Granny Ping’s case previously seems to have markedly changed Lord Hosoi’s view of you. For him to personally name you to take charge of this case is a clear sign that he’s truly beginning to see you as a part of the Fixed Town Patrol.”

”In any case—work hard, Mr. Tachibana.”

”Strive to put on another eye-catching performance at Fujisawa Inn that amazes everyone.”

Aoto laughed dryly a few times: ”A theft case... Lord Arima, your words really stress me out.”

”I am not a divine being; there’s no way I can solve every case brilliantly and luckily.”

”Just do your best.”

Having said that, Arima pulled out a document stamped with the Magistrate’s Office seal from the table, and then took 2 ryō of gold from a lacquer box beside him.

”This is your travel document, keep it well. If you lose it, you won’t be able to eat, drink, and stay for free in the post stations.”

”These 2 ryō are your travel expenses; spend them wisely. The more enjoyably you spend on travel expenses, the more painful it will be when you report the expense details upon your return. Last time, when Mr. Inagawa went on a business trip, he spent most of his travel expenses indulging with women and got severely scolded by Lord Hosoi.”

If someone arrives at a post station due to Shogunate business, the post station must provide free ”Man-And-Horse Relay Formation” service.

Each post station must have a certain amount of support personnel and horses ready. The so-called ”Man-And-Horse Relay Formation” is the system where post stations assist officials in exchanging personnel and horses and provide accommodation and meals for officials for free.

That’s why the travel document Arima is handing to Aoto is quite important. Without this document proving his official duties, he wouldn’t be able to eat, drink, and stay for free at each post station.

After carefully putting away the document and travel expenses given by Arima and respectfully saluting Arima goodbye, Aoto briskly left Arima’s office, ready to go home and prepare for the trip.

Just as he turned onto the corridor leaving the Magistrate’s Office, Aoto suddenly saw one of his seniors: Mr. Inagawa walking towards him.

Mr. Inagawa, with one hand on his waist and holding a palm-sized piece of paper in the other, walked forward with a peculiar smile, gazing happily at the paper in his hand.

”Mr. Inagawa!” Aoto took the initiative to greet Mr. Inagawa.

”Oh?” Hearing Aoto’s voice, Mr. Inagawa finally moved his gaze away from the piece of paper, ”Oh, it’s Mr. Tachibana.”

”What are you looking at?” Aoto cast a puzzled glance at the piece of paper clutched in Inagawa’s hand, ”You were so engrossed I almost walked right up to you without you noticing.”

”Hehe...” Letting out a strange laugh, Mr. Inagawa turned the piece of paper towards Aoto.

The piece of paper in Inagawa’s hand turned out to be a small painting.

A portrait painted using the ukiyo-e style.

Aoto couldn’t really understand the paintings of this era.

After closely inspecting it, he barely made out...it seemed to depict a little golden-haired, blue-eyed girl.

”I got this wonderful item yesterday when I was visiting Yoshiwara to conduct... Oh no, to meet friends,” Inagawa explained.

”Mr. Tachibana, have you heard of Elodie de Angoulême?”

Aoto shook his head in confusion.

”She’s currently residing in Osaka, the granddaughter of a certain French merchant,” Mr. Inagawa chuckled again, ”I’ve heard about her for a long time.”

She’s a barbarian, but it’s said she has skin smoother than silk and a face so beautiful it’s unbelievably attractive to us Japanese.”

”This painting in my hand is said to be a portrait of her, drawn by an artist who had seen her up close.”

Having said that, Inagawa contemplated the painting in his hand once more.

”So beautiful... If this painting truly portrays Elodie, then she’s indeed a little beauty...”

”Hehehe... I really wish I could see how she looks in person... hehe...”

If he doesn’t wipe his mouth soon, drool might spill from the corners of Mr. Inagawa’s mouth.

—How can you tell from this painting that Elodie is so beautiful...? Aoto, who couldn’t appreciate ukiyo-e, couldn’t understand how Inagawa saw a little beauty in the girl depicted in the painting...

”If this painting really is an accurate portrait of Elodie... she looks so young.” Aoto furrows his brow at the painting in Mr. Inagawa’s hand, ”She looks so small.”

”Indeed, Elodie is quite young; apparently, she’s only 12 years old this year.”

”12?” Aoto’s eyes widened, then he looked Mr. Inagawa up and down with a peculiar gaze, ”...Mr. Inagawa, being a man in his 30s, you can’t... or at least shouldn’t lust after a 12-year-old girl...”

”I’m not lusting.” Mr. Inagawa straightened his face and said earnestly, ”I’m simply appreciating beauty normally.”

”Does appreciating beauty require taking age into account?”

Mr. Inagawa tucked the portrait of Elodie back into his chest.

”Alright, it’s better to not talk about this much inside the Magistrate’s Office.”

”If Lord Arima knew I was talking about women during work hours again, he’d definitely scold me.”

”Mr. Tachibana, why do you look like you’re in such a hurry? Is there something urgent?”

Aoto retrieved the travel document he had just received from Arima and gestured it to Mr. Inagawa: ”I need to go on a business trip to Fujisawa Inn.”

Aoto succinctly explained the details of his business trip to Fujisawa Inn to Mr. Inagawa.

”Oh... Fujisawa Inn...” Mr. Inagawa grinned, ”Going on a business trip to that place is alright, it’s very close to Edo, it won’t be exhausting. When I went on a business trip to Kyoto, that really wore me out...”

”Do you need me to bring back some local specialty from Fujisawa Inn?” Aoto joked half-seriously.

Mr. Inagawa chuckled: ”Fujisawa Inn is only a three-day walk from Edo, they have no local specialty worth mentioning. No need to bring back any specialty, just focus on your investigation there.”

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