Chapter 171: Chapter 94: Aoto Flirting with Three People at Once

"At that time, weren’t you afraid that Brother Tadomaru might scoff at your request or do something humiliating to you?"

"To be honest—I was worried." Aoto smiled wryly, "But in front of so many people, he slandered the Shiwei Hall, which has been kind to me. No matter what, I could not pretend not to hear his words."

Putting aside the ’teacher-student bond’ for teaching him Swordsmanship diligently, just the kindness of Kondo and others, who offered them shelter at Shiwei Hall when he and Saito had nowhere to go, was enough for Aoto to defend the honor of Shiwei Hall without hesitation.

"When I spoke up and told him to ’wait a moment,’ I was actually prepared for an unpleasant confrontation... even ready to draw my sword against him."

"But fortunately—that person wasn’t entirely unyielding."

Aoto attributed the main reason Chiba Domon Shiro softened to the fact that he was a sensible person, not someone who couldn’t be reasoned with.

Convincing Chiba Domon Shiro was unexpectedly smooth.

Aoto had prepared for the worst, but being able to persuade Chiba Domon Shiro to admit his mistake so smoothly was an unexpected pleasure.

After hearing Aoto’s words about being unable to turn a blind eye to the slandering of Shiwei Hall, Chiba Shigetarou was momentarily stunned, then slowly, a hint of admiration appeared in his eyes as he looked at Aoto.

Another person, upon hearing Aoto’s words, had a change in expression—Chokata, who was silently drinking sugar water with both hands while sitting behind Aoto, his expression darkened...

"...Mr. Tachibana, Toshisuke, I am truly sorry for earlier."

At this moment, Sazanoko suddenly stood up, bowed slightly to Aoto, with a faint blush of embarrassment on her cheeks.

"When Cousin made disrespectful remarks about Shiwei Hall, my brother and I should have immediately stopped him and made him retract his rude statement."

"I’m really quite sorry that you had an unpleasant experience."

Seeing Sazanoko suddenly stand up to apologize to Aoto and the others, Chiba Shigetarou, who was sitting beside her, was stunned for a moment. He then belatedly put down the sugar water in his hand, stood up, and followed Sazanoko by bowing in apology to Aoto and the others.

Watching the siblings standing shoulder to shoulder in front of him, apologizing to him and Chokata, Aoto smiled helplessly: "Come on, sit down quickly."

"That Chiba Domon Shiro has already retracted his statement and apologized to us."

"The matter is considered settled, so let’s not keep apologizing here."

Under Aoto’s strong persuasion, Chiba Shigetarou and Sazanoko finally sat back down on the bench.

Due to the previous conversation about Chiba Domon Shiro, the atmosphere lingering around the group was heavy with a somber air.

Wanting to dispel the heavy atmosphere that made everyone uncomfortable, Aoto proactively brought up a new topic:

"Miss Sazanoko." Aoto looked at the convenient kendo uniform Sazanoko was wearing, "Are you also participating in this afternoon’s competition?"

"Hahaha." Chiba Shigetarou laughed, "Mr. Tachibana, don’t you know? Sazanoko really likes ’Battle Game.’"

"She never misses a ’Battle Game’ she can participate in."

"Since she was young, she used to pull me and some cousins to play ’Battle Game’ with the neighborhood children in the backyard."

"Sazanoko is very competitive."

"If she loses a game, she will cry and insist on playing again until she wins."

"Brother." Sazanoko suddenly gave Chiba Shigetarou a sharp look, glaring fiercely with her piercing eyes.

She used her actions and gaze to warn Chiba Shigetarou: stop recounting her past embarrassments.

Receiving Sazanoko’s silent warning, Chiba Shigetarou’s mouth twitched instinctively, then while laughing awkwardly, he stiffly attempted to change the topic...

...

...

Sitting on the bench beside the "Sugar Water Stall," after chatting idly with Chiba Shigetarou and Sazanoko for a while, Aoto courteously extended an invitation to the siblings—

"Mr. Shigetarou, Miss Sazanoko, there’s still more than an hour before the competition starts. It’s still early; would you like to stroll around the ’Plum Blossom Festival’ with us?"

The siblings promptly responded to Aoto’s invitation: Sorry, we won’t continue to go play with you. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

The reason Chiba Shigetarou and Sazanoko declined Aoto’s invitation was simple—they had already walked around the Yudashima Tenman Temple for a long time before encountering Chiba Domon Shiro, visiting all the places and seeing the beautiful sights.

Neither of them was interested in continuing to stroll around; they just wanted to return to the competition venue to rest quietly and wait for the afternoon competition to begin.

Since the siblings had no interest in further play, Aoto did not press them.

So after chatting for a while more, Aoto and his companions parted ways with Sazanoko and the others.

Chiba Shigetarou and Sazanoko returned to the competition venue.

Aoto, Chokata, and Saito moved straight ahead to the areas they hadn’t yet visited.

It was now around 11 o’clock in the morning.

The number of tourists coming to Yudashima Tenman Temple to attend the ’Plum Blossom Festival’ and admire the blossoming white plum flowers was increasing.

After struggling to push through the dense crowd, Aoto looked up at the sun, which was almost at its peak, and turned to Chokata and Saito behind him, asking: