Need to buy wood, hire people, and after building a new house, purchase new furniture...

So many expenses necessary for rebuilding a home are not something Aoto can afford right now.

Moreover—and most crucially, Aoto also needs to help his father repay that gambling debt of 520 gold pieces.

In short, Aoto’s current savings can’t cover his financial shortfall.

But having a bit more in the wallet is always a good thing.

There’s no rush to rebuild the house since he can stay at the Shiwei Hall for now and gradually save enough money to build it.

As for his father’s gambling debt, there’s no urgency because he doesn’t need to repay the massive debt all at once; he can do it in installments.

As long as Aoto can pay a certain amount whenever the debt collectors from the Shimizu Clan come knocking, they won’t make things too difficult for him.

Aoto, holding this box of money, returned to the Dining Room where he was staying.

While climbing the stairs to the second floor, Aoto murmured to himself, "Ah... now I can try to recruit some undercover informants..."

Since Ii Naosuke was assassinated, and they, the Three Times samurai, became overwhelmingly busy due to the Shogunate’s orders for rigorous suppression of the Anti-foreigner Warriors, Aoto deeply felt the inconvenience of lacking manpower...

Other dōshin could assign their respective undercover informants to help with various errands, but since Aoto had no extra money to hire any, he had to do everything himself.

When it wasn’t very busy before, Aoto didn’t find the lack of subordinates too inconvenient.

But now... the situation has changed.

Faced with the current surge in workload, Aoto found himself a bit overwhelmed without any subordinates to dispatch.

Now that his wallet is plump, he can indeed consider hiring two or three undercover informants to work for him.

Aoto pondered seriously about hiring undercover informants while putting his box of money back into the Dining Room.

Upon exiting the Dining Room, Aoto happened to run into Chokata in the corridor, who was leaving his room simultaneously.

"Hmm? Mr. Tachibana, what’s the matter?" Chokata noticed the thoughtful look on Aoto’s face, "Why do you seem so preoccupied?"

"I’m not preoccupied." Aoto smiled, "I was just thinking about hiring some undercover informants to give me a hand."

Aoto explained his plan to hire undercover informants in detail to Chokata.

At the end, Aoto paused for a moment, then asked Chokata half-jokingly:

"Mr. Chokata, aren’t you quite interested in the work of the Three Times? Would you be interested in being my undercover informant?"

"Undercover informant?" Chokata’s eyes lit up.

But in just a moment, the gleam in Chokata’s eyes faded.

"I am interested in being your undercover informant..." Chokata reached out and smoothed his ponytail at the back of his head, showing a few traces of regret on his face, "But I probably don’t have much time..."

"At present, I still want to focus my energy on honing my swordsmanship and helping manage Shiwei Hall."

Chokata politely declined his invitation—yet Aoto wasn’t disheartened, as he was merely asking casually.

"Now I want to recruit undercover informants," Aoto said with a helpless smile, "but I don’t know where to find reliable candidates."

"Why don’t you ask your seniors?" Chokata suggested, "Your seniors should have the connections, right?"

Aoto raised his hand to rub the back of his neck, "Hmm, that’s the only way... Hmm?"

He suddenly stopped speaking.

The fingers that were rubbing the back of his neck also paused.

"Oh, right... How could I forget..." Aoto mumbled to himself in a volume only he could hear, "I do have a great channel for finding workers..."

"Mr. Chokata," Aoto put down the hand rubbing his neck, "can I ask you to help me with something tomorrow?"

"Hmm? What is it?"

"I want to ask you to visit Boss Kiryu’s Thousand Affairs House tomorrow..."

...

...

Edo, the leased land of overseas powers, the home of Anthony, Elodie, and their family—

Their new house in Edo was bought by Anthony from a friend at a relatively low price.

Although it was a "second-hand house," both the walls and furniture were quite new.

Elodie, who had just taken a comfortable hot bath, joyfully walked towards her bedroom, accompanied by her maid Leroy.

Due to just having bathed, a warm steam emanated from Elodie’s body, her curly, light blonde hair was casually draped behind her, dressed in a white French long dress, with her fair, rosy little feet in a pair of Middle-Eastern cotton slippers.

"Miss," Leroy, who was following closely behind Elodie, asked, "You seem really happy, did something good happen?"

"Hehe," Elodie turned her head, showing Leroy a broad smile, "Yes, something good indeed happened."

Elodie raised her right hand, placing her palm on top of her head.

"While I was bathing, I measured my height—I seem to have grown taller!"

Seeing Elodie’s pure, radiant smile from something like that, Leroy was momentarily stunned, then smiled with relief:

"That’s indeed something to be happy about."

The master and servant, chatting and laughing, passed by the brightly lit hall.

In the hall, Anthony was sitting alone on the soft sofa.