Chapter 154: Chapter 90: The Man Who Made Edo’s First Beauty Pine for Him [6,200 Words]

Abi’s words made Aoto involuntarily startled.

Aoto quickly tilted his head, lowered his voice, and asked Chokata beside him, "Have we never won against Little Chiba Sword Dojo in the ’Red and White Battle’ before?"

"Nope," Chokata replied without hesitation, "Aunt exaggerated too much."

"Our Shiwei Hall’s overall strength is indeed not as strong as Xuanwu Hall and Little Chiba Sword Dojo, but not so weak as to have never won in the ’Red and White Battle’."

"We..."

At this point, Chokata began to stutter. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"We... have won a few matches against them..."

Seeing Chokata’s hesitant look, Aoto couldn’t help but frown, "How many matches have we won against them in total?"

"Um..." Chokata raised his right hand and began playing with his slender ponytail at the back of his head, "We... we have won 1 match against Xuanwu Hall, and 2 matches against Little Chiba Sword Dojo..."

"Then... how many matches have we played against them in total?" Aoto asked without hesitation.

"Um..."

Chokata seemed to dare not look at Aoto anymore, his head slightly lowered, no longer showing the indignant look from just now when criticizing Abi for "exaggerating too much."

While awkwardly chuckling, he looked at his kneecap and said:

"In the past 2 years, we’ve played about 20 matches against Xuanwu Hall, and roughly 40 matches against Little Chiba Sword Dojo..."

Aoto’s mouth couldn’t help but twitch.

Played over 20 matches with Xuanwu Hall, only won 1; and played 40 matches with Little Chiba Sword Dojo, only won 2... That means Shiwei Hall’s chances in swordsmanship competitions against these two sword dojos are only five percent...

Five percent chance... Aoto felt that this seemed hardly different from "defeated a hundred times in a hundred battles"...

The gap in strength between Shiwei Hall and Xuanwu Hall, Little Chiba Sword Dojo, was actually within Aoto’s expectations.

After all, the opponents are the "prestigious schools among prestigious schools," renowned nationwide, while Shiwei Hall... to put it bluntly, is a second-rate dojo with a name few know.

Just in terms of the number of apprentices and sources, Xuanwu Hall and Little Chiba Sword Dojo far outstrip Shiwei Hall, it’s quite normal for Shiwei Hall to lose against them in swordsmanship competitions.

However—while Aoto expected Shiwei Hall’s overall strength to be far less than Xuanwu Hall and Little Chiba Sword Dojo, he didn’t anticipate the gap to be this vast, only managing to win 1 or 2 matches out of 20...

"Madam..." Just then, having recovered from Abi’s "sonic attack," Zhouzhu sighed deeply, "I’ve explained it to you many times... How come you can’t understand?"

"The reason I agreed to hold the ’Red and White Battle’ together with Little Chiba Sword Dojo at the Yudashima Tenman Temple on the day of the ’Plum Blossom Festival’ was to use this opportunity to promote our Natural Reasoning Heart Stream, to promote Shiwei Hall."

"To let more people know there’s such a school, such a sword dojo."

"Indeed, our Shiwei Hall’s overall strength pales compared to Little Chiba Sword Dojo, their disciples’ comprehensive qualities are so much higher than ours."

"Unless something extraordinarily unexpected or miraculous happens, we should be losing to Little Chiba Sword Dojo on the day of the ’Plum Blossom Festival’."

"But—"

Zhouzhu lengthened his tone and earnestly continued:

"As long as we display the strength of our Natural Reasoning Heart Stream in the match against Little Chiba Sword Dojo, even if we lose to them, our school can still gain remarkably good publicity."

"Madam, do you know the greatest advantage we have in attracting apprentices compared to Xuanwu Hall, Little Chiba Sword Dojo, and these Great Sword Dojos?"

"It’s that our tuition is much cheaper than these Great Sword Dojos, and our admission threshold is quite low, as long as you have healthy limbs and normal mind, you can enter Shiwei Hall."

"There are plenty of people in Edo who wish to learn powerful swordsmanship but are helplessly short on money."

"Madam, just think—if Yong and the others bravely fought against Little Chiba Sword Dojo, though they ultimately lost, they still ’injured’ quite a few from Little Chiba Sword Dojo, allowing spectators to see the practical and impressive aspects of our Natural Reasoning Heart Stream, what would happen then?"

"Surely many would discover: though Shiwei Hall didn’t defeat Little Chiba Sword Dojo, their swordsmanship is quite remarkable."

"See, didn’t we just successfully promote our Natural Reasoning Heart Stream?"

"In doing so, naturally we can attract a batch of people eager to learn powerful swordsmanship but lacking the funds to go to Great Sword Dojos like Little Chiba Sword Dojo!"

"So, Madam, the benefits of this far outweigh its drawbacks, it’s a great opportunity immensely beneficial to Shiwei Hall’s future development."

Zhouzhu’s words were sincere and heartfelt.

However... he seemingly didn’t persuade Abi.

She remained visibly upset, with a tinge of blue on her face.

"... Zhouzhu, I understand everything you’re saying."

"But I just feel uncomfortable inside!"

Abi raised her hand and forcefully slapped the tatami beside her.

"I don’t want to see Shiwei Hall defeated under the scrutiny of so many people!"

"Nor do I want to see our defeat at the hands of that Little Chiba Sword Dojo!"

Kondo, who had been silent all along, lifted his gaze to look at Abi angrily slapping the tatami.

After hesitating for an instant, he took a deep breath: "Mother, it’s a bit too early to definitively conclude that Shiwei Hall will surely lose to Little Chiba Sword Dojo on the day of the ’Plum Blossom Festival’!"