Chapter 191: Chapter 98: Oh! Miss Kinoshita, Are You Blushing?

Even though the lineup they sent today was not their strongest, on paper, the overall strength of their lineup today was still far superior to the Shiwei Hall, and they should not have lost to Shiwei Hall.

Our lineup today was not the strongest—this should not be an excuse for losing to Shiwei Hall.

"One more match! One more match!" Another person shouted, "Just now, it was only by luck that Shiwei Hall won. If we have one more match..."

Before the person’s words were finished—

"Enough, stop saying such embarrassing things. A loss is a loss, why so many reasons and excuses? When you are in a life-and-death duel with someone and lose because your skills are inferior, can you tell them: Today’s defeat was carelessness on my part, please spare my life, and let’s fight another day?"

An aged voice interrupted the person’s words.

"Master!"

"Master..."

"It’s Master! Master has come!" 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

...

With hands clasped behind him, Chiba Dingji led Chiba Domon Shiro as they slowly walked through the arena.

The swordsmen of the Little Chiba Sword Dojo gathered around Chiba Dingji.

"Father..." Chiba Shigetarou hung his head, slowly walking towards Chiba Dingji.

Sazanoko followed her brother towards Chiba Dingji, slightly bowing her head, lightly biting her rosy lower lip. In the depths of her eyes, a strong sense of reluctance flickered.

"Father... I’m sorry..." When he came before Chiba Dingji, with an apologetic and regretful face, the first thing Chiba Shigetarou said was an apology, "We played today’s match so terribly..."

"We’ll talk about all this later." Chiba Dingji smiled, raised his hand, and patted Chiba Shigetarou’s shoulder, "Lift your head."

That said, Chiba Dingji continued to move slowly forward amidst the crowd, heading towards the Shiwei Hall members who were still huddled together, celebrating their victory.

Tachibana Aoto and the others noticed Chiba Dingji approaching them, so they stopped cheering and turned to Chiba Dingji with puzzled looks.

Zhouzhu, Abi, Kiryu, Mukiwa, and Saito arrived just then too.

The five of them came quickly from another direction towards Tachibana Aoto and the others on the field, reaching them before Chiba Dingji.

"It was truly a splendid match." Upon reaching Tachibana Aoto and the others, Chiba Dingji said with a warm smile, "A wonderful formation and personnel setup offset the strength advantage of our Little Chiba Sword Dojo. I wonder which hero thought up this strategy?"

Hearing Chiba Dingji’s inquiry, the Shiwei Hall members instinctively parted, allowing Tachibana Aoto to stand out from the crowd.

Chiba Dingji raised a curious gaze at Aoto, who was now in the center of the Shiwei Hall group: "Was it you who devised the strategy?"

Aoto nodded.

"Who might you be?"

"I am Tachibana Aoto."

Chiba Dingji’s eyes widened slightly in surprise.

It turned out that Aoto devised the strategy—upon learning this truth, whether it was Chiba Shigetarou, Sazanoko, Yamanaka behind Chiba Dingji now or Kiryu, Mukiwa, Zhouzhu, Abi, Saito, they all cast shocked glances at Tachibana Aoto.

"Oh... so you are the Tachibana Aoto who has been quite famous recently."

The smile on Chiba Dingji’s face became even more pronounced.

"Mr. Tachibana, I wonder how you devised a strategy that defeated our Little Chiba Sword Dojo? Could you share a bit with me... ah, no, with us?"

Chiba Dingji’s question seemed to reach the heart of everyone present.

Kiryu, Mukiwa, Zhouzhu, the Chiba siblings, Yamanaka... they focused their curious gazes on Aoto.

Telling them how he came up with this strategy... isn’t impossible, after all, it’s nothing that needs to be hidden.

So, Aoto cleared his throat—

...

...

Time reversed back to before the beginning of the match—

"Our overall strength is much weaker than Little Chiba Sword Dojo."

"With Inoue Genzaburō and Hijikata Toshizo, our two main forces absent, if we want to win, we must use surprise troops and tactics!"

"I have divided the strategy I devised into two steps."

"Step one: Defend. Set up a defensive line to block and hold back the main force of Little Chiba Sword Dojo."

"Step two: Counterattack. When Little Chiba Sword Dojo’s main force is held by our defense line, send surprise troops directly to the undefended ’Main Array’ of Little Chiba Sword Dojo, break their Grand General’s porcelain bowl, and win the match."

"As for the line of defense that holds the main force of Little Chiba Sword Dojo, I plan to design it like this—arranging 6 people each on the left and right routes."

"And then..."

Aoto looked up and cast a serious gaze at Kondo.

"Mr. Kondo will hold the center route by himself."

"The surprise troops to attack Little Chiba Sword Dojo will be myself and Mr. Chokata."

"Mr. Chokata and I will stay in the ’Main Array’, awaiting the best moment for a counterattack."

"Because Mr. Chokata is too strong, Little Chiba Sword Dojo always has to send their strongest Chiba siblings to effectively defend against Mr. Chokata."

"Therefore, when they see that we’ve surprisingly placed Mr. Chokata at the back, to guard against him, their Chiba siblings will dare not make any reckless moves. They’ll only send others besides the Chiba siblings to attack."

"They will undoubtedly concentrate as much force as possible to launch a fierce attack on the center route, guarded solely by Mr. Kondo."