My Gang of Swordsmen

Chapter 503: Chapter 174: Sazanoko Kidnapped, Sazanoko’s Purity Crisis [7600]

As the ”Glaive Master” of the Little Chiba Sword Dojo, Sazanoko is likely the person most frequently dealing with the female disciples like Nakamura Tsuki, who are studying the glaive technique at the dojo.

To Sazanoko, the 14-year-old girl currently clinging closely to her is the most unique among the many female disciples of the Little Chiba Sword Dojo. Her uniqueness is mainly in two areas - her personality and her family background.

Nakamura Tsuki is an extraordinarily cheerful girl.

Having known this child for so long, Sazanoko has never seen her show a depressed or unhappy expression. She is always cheerful and smiling every day, as if she knows not of sorrow.

Although Sazanoko prefers tranquility, she does not dislike this kind of extremely cheerful and lively personality, so her relationship with Nakamura Tsuki is quite good.

However, some of the child’s behaviors often leave Sazanoko, who is both her mentor and friend, feeling quite helpless.

This child’s frequently spoken phrase is, ”I really like Miss Sazanoko!”, often rushing over to hug Sazanoko uninvited.

Just like at this very moment, right now, she is hugging Sazanoko tightly, not letting go.

Judging from her expression and actions... it seems unlikely that she’ll release Sazanoko anytime soon.

Sazanoko can sense that the ”like” Nakamura Tsuki speaks of is purely a liking of friendship.

The ”like” she mentions... to describe it more accurately, is an admiration for Sazanoko’s beauty and strength, rather than any special sentiment towards Sazanoko.

Therefore, Sazanoko simply lets this admiring young girl frequently act warmly towards her.

As for why Nakamura Tsuki is unique aside from her personality, it is because of her family background, and this does not refer to her coming from an exceptionally powerful family.

Among all the disciples of the Little Chiba Sword Dojo, there are countless others with much more illustrious family backgrounds than Nakamura Tsuki.

Nakamura Tsuki’s unique family background lies in her being the daughter of a merchant.

Nakamura Tsuki’s father is a major sake merchant who has experienced significant business growth in Edo in recent years - Nakamura Chouhachirou.

Riding the tailwind of the times, soaring upward - this phrase perfectly describes the rise of Nakamura Chouhachirou.

As Japan’s national gates were forcibly opened by the might of foreign powers, with numerous foreign merchants stepping onto this country’s soil; while other merchants were too cautious or disdainful of Westerners to interact with these blond, blue-eyed foreigners, Nakamura Chouhachirou boldly stepped forward to do business with them.

Nakamura Chouhachirou was very fortunate, as he found several Western merchants interested in Japanese sake, successfully establishing connections with several wealthy and stable business partners.

By leveraging mutual exchanges with these Western merchants interested in Japanese sake, the once small merchant Nakamura Chouhachirou rapidly expanded his financial power. Within just a few years, the Nakamura family had become one of Edo’s most famous sake merchants.

Generally speaking, there are very few merchants who would send their children to learn martial arts... because they generally believe that teaching their children to use an abacus is far more practical than learning martial arts, which they consider useless.

Though during the Edo Era, there were four class distinctions - Scholars, Farmers, Artisans, and Merchants - with samurai at the top and merchants at the bottom, these so-called distinctions have long become merely nominal.

As early as one or two hundred years ago, with various systemic loopholes, numerous merchants amassed wealth at an astonishing pace, and many extraordinarily wealthy merchants emerged like mushrooms after the rain.

Due to its favorable trading conditions at the junction of Eastern and Western Japan, Osaka, known as the ”city of commerce,” was teeming with such wealthy merchants that even the Edo Shogunate would tremble if they so much as coughed a few times.

The rapid expansion of merchant power contrasts sharply with the continual shrinkage of samurai power.

Many lower-ranking samurai were so impoverished that they couldn’t find wives or have enough to eat.

Not only samurai, but even some powerful domains, were so poor that they had to borrow money from merchants to get by.

For instance, the Satsuma Domain, with its military strength sufficient to intimidate the Edo Shogunate and its second-highest total koku nationwide, once owed over 5 million ryo in debts to merchants within its domain, with annual interest payments alone amounting to 250,000 ryo.

The Dukes most frequently borrowed money from those Osaka merchants whose wealth was comparable to nations.

If, one day, the Osaka merchants stopped lending money to these Dukes, many vassal states would collapse overnight due to broken financial chains.

This is why there is a saying among the people: ”When Osaka merchants are angry, all the Dukes tremble.”

The rise of merchant power and the decline of samurai power has led more and more merchants to develop a sense of disdain towards samurai.

Therefore, rather than swords and bows, merchants prefer to equip their children with abacuses to learn how to do business.

Currently, among the top-ranking Little Chiba Sword Dojo in Edo by number of apprentices, there is only one female disciple with a merchant background... and that is Nakamura Tsuki.

”Ayue.” Sazanoko lowered her chin, which was without an ounce of extra flesh, to meet the gaze of Nakamura Tsuki, who was a head shorter, ”What are you doing here?”

”Hehe, I sneaked out to have some good food. What about you, Miss Sazanoko? What brings you here?”