My Gang of Swordsmen

can be used to apply violence to criminals and suspects. If the criminal or suspect resists and is difficult to subdue, they can be directly killed.

To distinguish from the “Three Times” samurai, the Jitte used by the Eight States Directors is tied with a purple sakura tassel.

As for the Arson and Theft Magistrate, it is a “Special Police Team.”

The entire team of the Arson and Theft Magistrate is mainly composed of soldiers from the Advanced Bow Squad and the Advanced Cannon Squad.

Therefore, the Arson and Theft Magistrate is colloquially known as the “Added Role.”

The highest officer of the Arson and Theft Magistrate is concurrently held by the First-hand Bow Leader or First-hand Iron Cannon Leader (highest commander of the Advanced Bow Squad or Advanced Cannon Squad).

For convenience in office work, the officer’s residence serves as the magistrate’s office, making the office location of the Arson and Theft Magistrate unfixed.

Except for certain special cases, the term of the highest officer of the Arson and Theft Magistrate is generally about 1 year, so the office location changes every year.

Like the Eight States Directors, the Arson and Theft Magistrate can freely enter and exit all areas such as Samurai Land, Town Resident Land, and Temple and Shrine Grounds.

However, compared to the Eight States Directors, the Arson and Theft Magistrate possesses extremely strong differences—it is not only an independent security force but also an independent judicial body.

After the Magistrate’s Office captures a criminal, they need to report up the chain and handle a large number of complicated procedures before they can interrogate the criminal.

The Arson and Theft Magistrate does not need to perform such complicated interrogation procedures at all.

Rather, they don’t even have so-called interrogation procedures to speak of.

After capturing a criminal, they can directly take them back to the office and subject them to severe torture without notifying anyone or handling any procedures.

This power to freely use private punishment is somewhat similar to the Embroidered Uniform Guard of the Tang and Ming Dynasties.

Due to almost no restrictions on torturing and interrogating suspects, the interrogation of the Arson and Theft Magistrate is extremely harsh.

Thus, there is a common saying among the people: “If you’re arrested by the Arson and Theft Magistrate, don’t think you’ll return alive.”

The ability to freely enter and exit any territory and the privilege of freely using private punishment is not what makes the Arson and Theft Magistrate the most daunting for criminals. Their most terrifying aspect is still their combat power.

All members are concurrently soldiers from the Advanced Bow Squad and Advanced Cannon Squad, able to freely use heavy weapons like bows and firearms… Their combat power is completely unparalleled by other security organizations such as the “Three Times” and Eight States Directors.

Although with the Shogunate’s declining state, the quality of these standing armies inevitably has weakened, a dead camel is still larger than a horse.

Currently, the Arson and Theft Magistrate has a total of 8 squads. Each squad is concurrently run by one of the Advanced Bow Squad or Advanced Cannon Squad.

The Third Squad of the Arson and Theft Magistrate is concurrently run by the Seventh Squad of the Advanced Bow Squad.

Upon becoming the captain of the Third Squad, Aoto naturally also became the leader of the Seventh Squad.

From a Fixed Town Patrol Dōshin with only a few undercover informant subordinates, Aoto was suddenly promoted to a sub-leader commanding dozens of archers… This speed and range of promotion is truly a “rocket-like soar.”

——Too strange…

The more Aoto thought about it, the more he felt his promotion speed was a bit odd.

Although he did indeed accomplish great feats in the decisive battle with the Anti-foreigner Group over two months ago… Aoto felt that his achievements were not enough for such a high promotion.

Being promoted is as difficult as ascending to the heavens, being demoted is as easy as flipping over your palm—this is a common saying among the military families.

The Edo Shogunate is notoriously stingy in the promotion of officials! It is extremely generous and straightforward when demoting someone.

Since the first General of the Edo Shogunate, Tokugawa Ieyasu, ended the chaotic times of the Warring States and heralded a long-overdue era of peace, the stable era caused a population explosion, and the number of samurai increased accordingly.

Non-productive samurai are all supported by the salary rice and salary gold of the Shogunate and Fiefdom Mansions.

Therefore, to ease financial pressure as much as possible, the Shogunate and the Fiefdom Mansions greatly control the number of promotions each year and the range of promotions for each promoted official, often finding trivial faults to punish and demote working samurai.

There are countless people in the military families who were stripped of their official positions for making minor mistakes, even having their samurai status revoked and being demoted to ordinary civilians.

The Edo Shogunate, reluctant to give even a slightly worn official seal to their subordinates, yet promotes him, a member of the Imperial Family without earth-shattering achievements, like a rocket… No matter how you think, it feels strange!

There must be something fishy about abnormal events.

Therefore, Aoto couldn’t help but voice to Arima opposite him:

“…Lord Arima, this promotion speed of mine… isn’t it a bit too fast? Do you know any confidential information about it?”

Arima showed a helpless expression and chuckled bitterly a few times.

“When I heard about the rewards you received from Lord Hosoi today, I was also shocked for quite a while.”

“To be fair, I directly asked Lord Hosoi if he knew why your promotion speed was so exaggerated.”

“However, unfortunately, Lord Hosoi also isn’t very clear about the inside story.”

“But I guess… Perhaps it’s the handiwork of Duke Dashu.”

“Duke Dashu?” Aoto raised an eyebrow.

“‘Duke Dashu requires you to ascend to the castle on August 28th.’”

Arima repeated the words he had just spoken.