My Gang of Swordsmen

Chapter 304: Chapter 126: The Marquis of Aizu’s Swordsmanship Tournament [5800 Words]

Aoto himself did not expect that the reward he received this time would be so substantial, directly increasing his family salary by 400-koku!

In the strictly hierarchical Edo Era, it was very easy for one’s status to fall, but extremely difficult to rise.

If a samurai committed a significant error, at best their family salary would be reduced, at worst they would be stripped of their samurai status and demoted to commoners.

To increase one’s family salary, one had to achieve extraordinary accomplishments.

However, since the establishment of the Edo Shogunate, Japan had maintained peace for almost three hundred years, leaving samurai with virtually no opportunities to achieve merit.

The lack of opportunities to gain merit has directly resulted in little to no change in most samurai families’ salaries.

Three hundred years ago, when the Edo Shogunate was first established, whatever the family salary was, it remained the same to this day—a common phenomenon.

So Aoto’s increase in family salary... and by 400-koku no less, is indeed an enviably rare occurrence.

Counting the original 100-koku family salary, Aoto’s family salary now totals 500-koku.

500-koku is a threshold; Hatamoto and Imperial Family members with family salaries below 500-koku are collectively termed ”Lower-Level Hatamoto” and ”Subordinate Imperial Family Members.”

Therefore, in terms of rank, Aoto has now escaped the category of ”Subordinate Imperial Family Members.”

As long as he doesn’t squander it, a family salary of 500-koku is enough not to worry about food.

This substantial reward indirectly made Aoto a well-known figure in the present Shogunate.

Under the Shogunate’s intentional guidance, Aoto’s story of ”increased salary by 400-koku” was promoted as a model, encouraging everyone to emulate Aoto, assuring that if significant merit is accomplished, the Shogunate would not hesitate to grant rewards!

Aoto... it should be said that most people didn’t know—his being used as a model for promotion was actually ordered by the Shogunate’s General, Tokugawa Iemochi.

This promotion was highly effective, motivating many who were spurred by this example to serve more diligently, hoping that one day they too could achieve a leap in status like Aoto.

The enhancement of family salary, allowing future generations to benefit... the temptation was just too great.

Incidentally—Saito, Nagakura, and the others also received rewards, but theirs were in no way comparable to Aoto’s.

After all, Aoto is a bona fide official, an insider within the system, whereas Saito and others are just Aoto’s bodyguards and undercover informants... to put it plainly, they are a bunch of workers for Aoto, outside the system, so naturally, they wouldn’t receive a generous reward like Aoto’s.

Saito and the others each received 10 ryo of gold as a reward, with nothing else... but Saito and the others held no grievances about this, especially Nagakura and Harada.

Upon seeing the reward of 10 ryo of gold, these two grinned ear to ear, exclaiming, ”Wow! That’s quite a lot of money!”

Aoto now has an extended vacation, so naturally, his subordinates are also enjoying a break with him.

Thinking carefully, Nagakura and others’ job entry experience is quite peculiar.

Not even half a day into the job, they participated in a large-scale capture operation, and afterward directly received rewards and a vacation for their efforts...

Ambitious people would think Nagakura and the others were really lucky for such an opportunity right after joining.

Those looking to slack would think Nagakura and the others were really unlucky, facing such dangerous tasks right upon entering.

But whether they once thought Nagakura and the others were fortunate or unfortunate, now basically everyone envies them—10 ryo of gold is certainly not a small amount; an ordinary person might struggle for years to save that much money.

...

After wiping the sweat off his face with his sleeve and taking a simple rest, Aoto put back the bamboo sword in the sword barrel and picked up the sword placed at the edge of the dojo.

Although Aoto’s Ghost-Slaying was an excellent sword, a hundred miles one-of-a-kind, it still inevitably suffered some damage after such fierce competition with Shinno and others—the blade of Ghost-Slaying had three small chips.

On the first day of his vacation, Aoto immediately sent Ghost-Slaying to the Swordsmith Shop to be polished, and it would take another day or two for Ghost-Slaying to be completely repaired.

Recently, Aoto had been using his old sword... the family heirloom sword of the Tachibana Family, passed down for several generations, as a temporary substitute.

Aoto’s family heirloom tachi sword had always been without a name... Aoto didn’t consider it an issue before until recently, he gradually realized it had been causing him some inconvenience.

For instance: When he told Kyūbē to ”bring me my tachi,” Kyūbē would not mistakenly bring the wrong sword, as there was only that tachi before.

But now with Ghost-Slaying in addition, when telling Kyūbē ”bring me my tachi,” Kyūbē wouldn’t know which sword Aoto was referring to.

So, for convenience, Aoto gave his family’s heirloom sword a name a few days ago.

This Tachibana Family sword, with the wavy pattern on its blade... Aoto named it a simple, straightforward, yet somewhat poetic name based on these distinctive features: ”Orange Water.”

Aoto unsheathed Orange Water, returning to the center of the dojo, preparing to start ”Virtual Combat” once more, when Chokata’s voice unexpectedly sounded behind him: