My Gang of Swordsmen

Chapter 239: Chapter 109: Watch Closely, Aoto. This Is What a Humanoid Cannon Really Is! [8600]

What is this?

Aoto involuntarily widened his eyes, casting a look of astonishment at the masked man he was controlling.

Whether in scholarship or martial arts, he has an extraordinarily high understanding ability—Aoto clearly heard this system prompt that just sounded in his mind.

Anyone should be able to see how abnormal this talent is.

This masked man... actually possesses a divine-level talent that maybe one in ten thousand people might have...

Aoto couldn’t help but take another few glances at this masked man.

After being subdued by Aoto, the masked man seemed unwilling to accept it and twisted his body desperately, trying to break free from Aoto’s control.

The confrontation between Aoto and the masked man was already decided, and the servants of Takaracho no longer needed to follow Aoto’s previous instructions, so they gathered around to watch.

They surged forward and held down the masked man together.

”Don’t move! Don’t move!”

”Quick! Bring out the rope! Tie him up!”

...

The servants fumbled around and pulled out the hemp rope used for arresting criminals, tying up the masked man.

At this moment, one of the servants raised his hand and removed the fox mask from the masked man’s face.

The instant the fox mask was removed from this person’s face, low exclamations immediately erupted from the surrounding crowd... and from the servants who were arresting him.

Under the mask was an extremely handsome face.

This masked man turned out to be a remarkably good-looking young man.

His fair skin was full of youthful vitality.

His eyebrows were slender and long.

His nose was straight and high.

His lips formed a graceful line.

His features were attractive—but that was not the most prominent aspect of this masked man’s appearance.

The most striking feature of his appearance was the calm and heroic aura concentrated between his brows.

This aura directly enhanced his external charm significantly.

The masked man’s outstanding appearance made Aoto only feel that in terms of handsomeness alone, this person was in no way inferior to the top male stars and models of his previous life’s entertainment circle.

”Eh?” At this moment, a gasp emerged from the crowd beside them, ”Mr. Hijikata?”

The owner of this voice was a young girl who seemed to be under 20 years old.

The girl’s appearance was quite delicate, with a pair of beautiful peach blossom eyes full of sentiment, wearing slightly rustic clothes, a white sweatband wrapped around her forehead, looking like a common townsman’s daughter.

”Ajing?” The masked man raised an eyebrow at this girl, ”Why are you here?”

The girl squeezed through the crowd, trying to get to the masked man’s side, but was duly stopped by the servants of Takaracho.

”Mr. Hijikata, what happened? Why were you caught by the officials?” The girl looked like she was about to cry.

”It’s nothing.” The masked man also seemed to realize that he couldn’t escape, so he gave up struggling and said to the girl in a calm tone, ”This is not a place for you, you should go back first.”

”Hijikata...?” As the masked man was advising the girl to leave, Aoto stared at the masked man in shock, softly repeating the name the girl had just called him.

Hijikata... just like Aoto’s ”Tachibana”, it’s not a very common surname.

In Aoto’s memory, there happened to be one person with the surname Hijikata...

”...Hey. Are you Hijikata Toshizo of Shiwei Hall, Little Ishikawa Hoshimura Willow Street?”

”Huh?” The masked man’s expression froze, he turned his gaze, frowned, and looked Aoto up and down, ”You... know me?”

...

...

About two hours later—

Aoto led the anxious Kondo and Chokata to the Prison Compound located in Little Chuanma Town.

The Prison Compound is Edo’s jail, where all prisoners from Edo and the surrounding areas are held.

Upon arriving at the Prison Compound, after greeting a Prison Dōshin, the Prison Dōshin led Aoto and his companions deeper into the compound.

During the Edo Era, social hierarchy was strict, and the jails for people of different ranks were different.

Prisoners with ”Imperial Eye” status would be held in the highest-grade jail: the ”Age-zashiki”.

So-called ”Imperial Eye” refers to those who possess the qualification to meet the General directly. The late Ii Naosuke belonged to the ”Imperial Eye” rank.

The Age-zashiki, as the top-level jail, had an unimaginably luxurious setup inside, with private single rooms, tatami-covered floors, and air that wasn’t damp or foul, with good meals.

Samurai below the ”Imperial Eye” status were confined to the ”Yang House”.

Townsmen living in the city were confined to the ”Jail”.

Farmers were confined to the ”Commoners’ Prison”.

The living conditions in the Jail and Commoners’ Prison were terrible, generally squeezing over ten... even twenty or thirty people into one cell, with damp and foul air and poor food.

Aoto had heard bits and pieces from Kondo and Chokata about the well-known tales of Hijikata Toshizo.

Although Hijikata Toshizo had a surname, he was not a Samurai.

It is commonly said: Samurai have the two major privileges of ”bearing a surname” and ”wearing a sword”.

But ”bearing a surname” is actually not an exclusive privilege of the Samurai; an extremely small number of powerful local families have their own surnames—Hijikata Toshizo belonged to this category.

As Kondo and Chokata have said: Hijikata Toshizo was the son of wealthy farmers in the Tama region north of Edo.

The Hijikata family was a ”local bully” level great landlord in the area, so they also had the right to ”bear a surname”.

Therefore, Hijikata Toshizo, whose status was a farmer, should have been thrown into the harshest Commoners’ Prison.

However, Aoto utilized some of his functions as a Fixed Town Patrol Dōshin to allow his brother-in-arms to stay in a certain single cell with a relatively decent environment.