My Gang of Swordsmen

Chapter 586: Chapter 187: Is Aoto Being Promoted to Arson and Theft Magistrate?

After applying the ointment and wrapping it in linen, having finished today’s dressing change, Beifang Ren led Rikka Saki quickly out of Aoto’s hospital room.

Before leaving, Beifang Ren didn’t forget to give some additional advice such as ”drink more water” and ”try to eat lightly”.

With the departure of the two doctors, the hospital room, now only housing Aoto and Chokata, was immediately enveloped in silence.

”Still have to stay for ten more days...”

Aoto let out a long sigh, leaned back, and lay down on his bed.

”Mr. Tachibana, you don’t like staying here?”

Chokata pulled out the gold flat sugar he never parted with, and started crunching it.

”Who would like living in a medical hall?” Aoto glanced helplessly at Chokata, ”Don’t you find the smell here quite unpleasant? If I could return to Shiwei Hall now, I would have rushed back long ago.”

The air in Ren Medical Hall always carried a strong scent of herbs. Even after nearly ten days here, Aoto still hadn’t gotten used to the smell.

Chokata sniffed: ”Hmm... the smell here is indeed not very pleasant. Just bear with it a little longer. Didn’t the doctors just say that you only need to stay for ten more days before you can leave?”

Clatter, clatter, clatter, clatter...

As Chokata finished speaking, footsteps were heard outside the hospital room. Familiar footsteps that Aoto couldn’t possibly mistake.

Aoto and Chokata reflexively looked towards the door.

Soon after, the sliding door of the hospital room opened.

The person who appeared was Aoto’s old servant, Kyūbē.

”Young Master, I’ve finished washing the clothes.” Kyūbē said as he quickly walked over to Aoto’s bedside, carrying a cloth bag.

Since Aoto’s hospitalization, Kyūbē has been in charge of taking care of Aoto’s daily needs. The reason he wasn’t here just now was because he went to wash Aoto’s clothes.

Ren Medical Hall had a ”laundry room” exclusively for the use of patients’ families, to facilitate washing and changing clothes for the hospitalized.

Kyūbē had just gone to the ”laundry room” to wash Aoto’s dirty clothes.

”Young Master, I just saw Mr. Beifang in the corridor, did he come to change your dressing? Did he mention how well your injury is recovering? Did he say when you can leave here?”

Kyūbē fired off a series of questions at Aoto like a machine gun.

Aoto patiently answered each of Kyūbē’s questions one by one.

Upon hearing from Beifang Ren himself that ”Aoto is recovering well,” Kyūbē showed a relieved expression.

”That’s good.” Kyūbē nodded lightly, ”If you have to stay for ten more days, then stay for ten more days. Staying a bit longer will be more reassuring.”

”Kyūbē, I’ll have to trouble you to suffer with me here for ten more days.” Aoto said half-jokingly.

Aoto knew that Kyūbē also couldn’t get used to the strong medicinal smell here.

”Young Master, not at all.” Kyūbē smiled simply.

Kyūbē was about to continue speaking, but he could only say this much. Footsteps were heard outside the hospital room again.

This time, the footsteps were quite numerous... three sets in total.

Listening to these three sudden sets of footsteps, Aoto raised an eyebrow and couldn’t help but smile.

These three footsteps, just like Kyūbē’s earlier, were ones Aoto was quite familiar with, not ones he could mistake.

Thump, thump, thump.

The sliding door of the hospital room was rhythmically knocked three times.

”Mr. Tachibana, are you there?”

”I’m here.” Already knowing who the visitors were, Aoto responded loudly, ”Lord Arima, please come in.”

With Aoto’s permission to enter, the sliding door of the hospital room ”whooshed” open, and three adult men of varying builds entered in a line.

”Lord Arima, you’re all here.” Aoto instinctively showed a relaxed smile.

The newcomers were the three seasoned bureaucrats familiar to Aoto: Arima, Inagawa, and Ushiyama.

”Rikka, good morning.” Inagawa, holding a large watermelon, smiled broadly at Aoto, ”Here’s a gift; share it with your friends later and enjoy.”

With that, Inagawa placed the large watermelon beside Aoto’s bedside.

Like a hamster, Chokata, who was crunching on gold flat sugar, now looked at the well-colored and well-shaped watermelon with shining eyes.

Sweet watermelon... one of Chokata’s favorite fruits, who loved sweets.

It was now summer, the peak season for watermelons.

In the Edo Era, watermelons weren’t considered an expensive luxury fruit. The average price for a watermelon ranged from 32 mon to 100 mon.

Once inside the hospital room, Arima and the two greeted Kyūbē and Chokata successively, then all sat down beside Aoto’s bed.

During Aoto’s hospital stay, these three veterans had frequently visited him; therefore, Aoto wasn’t surprised by their sudden visit.

”Mr. Tachibana.” The one who started the conversation was Arima, ”How’s the wound healing?”

Since they came to visit Aoto, Arima and the others’ main focus was naturally Aoto’s health condition.

”Mr. Beifang just examined my wound, he said my injuries are recovering quite well.” Aoto smiled slightly, then repeated to Arima and the others what Beifang Ren had said while changing his dressing.

Not wanting to dwell too long on the topic of his injury, Aoto, after summarizing his current physical condition, shifted the topic to something else proactively.

”Lord Arima, you came just at the right time.” Aoto said in a half-joking tone, ”At Ren Medical Hall, aside from lying down and sleeping, there’s nothing else to do. I’m quite bored now; is there any interesting news from the Magistrate’s Office recently?”

”There actually is.” As soon as Aoto’s words fell, Inagawa, grinning, picked up the conversation, ”We just received a bit of gossip today, but don’t know if it’s true.”

”Mr. Tachibana, it seems you might be transferred to the Arson and Theft Magistrate soon.”

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Your enthusiasm for voting yesterday was quite high... far exceeding my expected monthly vote target again.

To express my gratitude for everyone’s support, I, the author, have decided to set today’s monthly vote goal very low again. The current number of monthly votes is 2613; if we reach 2660 by the end of today, I will write an extra 10,000+ words tomorrow.

Requesting monthly votes! Requesting recommendation votes! (crying leopard head.jpg)

The author plans to officially launch the ”Second Character Popularity Poll” tomorrow, book friends who wish to participate in this event can join the book’s QQ group~