Waving her hand as she walked into the dojo, and just like that, Mitsuba's new day began once more.
Rising early every day before dawn to go out, helping neighbors along the way to the dojo, then teaching those little ones swordsmanship until evening, and finally returning home after dark.
Day after day, this routine repeated.
If asked whether Mitsuba found such a life boring, her answer would be—
Not at the moment, at least.
The people in town were not only enthusiastic and pleasant to talk to, but each possessed their own skills. She quite liked it here.
Of course, the more important thing was actually that if Mitsuba ever truly grew weary of life here, she could leave at any time.
This was her agreement with the Centenarian Elder.
During her stay in the town, although she needed to help the Centenarian Elder watch over the dojo every day, when she truly wished to leave, the Centenarian Elder would not stop her.
If she wanted to go, she could go anytime.
"Mitsuba! Something happened on the next street! Hurry and take a look!"
At noon, Mitsuba had just finished the morning lessons and was preparing to cook some food for the children, when the uncle who had asked her to hold the ladder to fix the roof that morning rushed into the dojo.
"Uncle Kudo? What's going on? What happened on the next street?"
"There's a kid... a kid is about to be beaten to death! Mitsuba, hurry and help!"
"What? I'm going right now!"
Hearing this, Mitsuba didn't hesitate and immediately prepared to go see.
But after running two steps, she suddenly seemed to remember something, slapped her forehead, and quickly turned back to grab the black umbrella placed in the corner.
"Big Sis Mitsuba! Bamboo sword!"
Two children behind her also hurriedly handed her a bamboo sword.
"Thanks. Stay in the dojo and don't run around, understand?"
"Got it! But Big Sis Mitsuba has to tell us what happened when you get back!"
"You little brats really love to join in the excitement..."
With a helpless complaint, Mitsuba immediately opened her umbrella and followed Uncle Kudo out of the dojo.
She certainly understood why this uncle had come running to find her.
As a female swordsmanship instructor of some renown in town, Mitsuba's skill was quite recognized by the townspeople.
Coupled with her consistently warm heart, whenever there were conflicts in town that were inconvenient to take to the magistrate's office, the townspeople would basically come to her to preside over justice.
And Mitsuba herself was quite happy to get involved in these matters—after all, she was born loving to watch excitement.
The local saying that circulated in town, "If you encounter trouble, hurry and find Master Mitsuba, or else Master Mitsuba will come find you," originated from this...
This time was naturally no different.
But what Mitsuba hadn't expected was that when she hurriedly arrived at the neighboring street, she discovered the conflict had already been stopped by someone ahead of her.
It was Keizo.
On the street, seven adults lay sprawled on the ground groaning.
Keizo, who had just finished delivering a package and happened to be passing by, was now standing nearby with his usual smiling face, looking at the bruised and swollen youth in the crowd.
It was a very delicate-looking child, with short black hair, slender eyebrows, blue pupils and pink eyelashes, appearing to be only fourteen or fifteen years old.
But at such a young age, both arms bore three deep blue tattoos each, representing theft convictions.
This indicated that this child was not only a habitual thief with a long history of stealing, but had also been caught by the magistrate's office more than once.
"What an admirable child!"
Not noticing Mitsuba's arrival behind him, Keizo looked at the youth before him and loudly praised:
"Winning against these adults without using weapons—your talent is quite remarkable!
Little one! I'm the instructor of the Soryu Dojo in town! How about it? Interested in becoming my disciple?"
"Shut up, old geezer! Go to hell!"
However, faced with Keizo's enthusiastic invitation, the youth showed no appreciation at all. He practically cursed as he charged forward, swinging a fierce punch at Keizo.
"Hahaha! Young man, don't be so angry! Listen to this uncle's advice! It's not too late to turn back and start anew!"
Regarding the youth's terrible attitude, Keizo simply laughed it off, then quickly assumed his stance and delivered several consecutive heavy punches squarely to the charging youth's face, knocking him unconscious on the spot.
The movements flowed like water, clean and decisive.
Only then did Mitsuba, who had been observing from the side, finally speak up to disperse the surrounding townspeople.
"Alright everyone~ disperse~ Uncle Kudo, please go notify the magistrate's office about the situation here and ask them to send officers quickly, thank you..."
"Got it!"
Watching the uncle leave, Mitsuba had just turned back when she saw Keizo had already stepped forward and lifted the unconscious youth onto his back.
"Ahaha..."
Their eyes met, and Keizo immediately smiled somewhat embarrassedly.
"If I'd known Miss Mitsuba was coming, I shouldn't have stolen the spotlight..."
"Mr. Keizo jests. There's no such thing as stealing the spotlight when helping others..."
As she spoke, Mitsuba first activated the Transparent World to glance at those still groaning on the ground, confirming they had only suffered superficial wounds, before turning her gaze to the unconscious youth on Keizo's back.
"His name is Hakuji. When I was helping at the general store before, I heard some stories about this child. Would Miss Mitsuba like to hear them?"
Seeming to perceive the curiosity in Mitsuba's eyes, Keizo proactively asked.
"I wouldn't mind."
And so, on the way back, Keizo slowly recounted the story of this youth named Hakuji.
According to him, Hakuji hadn't originally lived in this town. He was born in Edo City in the Kanto region and was exiled here by the magistrate's office after committing multiple crimes there.
Hakuji's mother had abandoned him and run away from home when he was very young, leaving only his seriously ill father to depend on each other with him.
Thus from a very young age, Hakuji had fallen into the bad habit of pickpocketing, stealing things everywhere.
But he did this not for himself, but for his father.
The medicine his father needed for his illness was expensive—money that couldn't possibly be saved through normal work.
And so, unwilling to simply watch his father die of illness, Hakuji had no choice but to rely on stealing to earn money for medicine.
But as a child, there were always times when he would be caught by officers.
And each time he was caught, he would be sent to the magistrate's office to be punished, tattooed, then go steal again, then be caught again, then punished again, then tattooed again, then steal again...
Repeating this cycle over and over, until this morning, when Hakuji—who had once again been caught and punished at the magistrate's office—returned home to learn that his father had finally chosen to hang himself after hearing that his son had been caught by the magistrate's office once more...
Hakuji's father believed he was a burden to his son. To prevent his child from continuing this behavior that people despised.
To prevent him from being caught and punished by the magistrate's office again, he had chosen to end his own life in this manner...
And Hakuji, seeing this scene upon returning home, finally lost his mind in grief and despair, rushing to the streets to indiscriminately attack those well-dressed wealthy people.
Until Keizo, who happened to be nearby, came to stop him...
"That's how it was..."
On the way back, having finished telling everything he knew about Hakuji's story, that honest face of Keizo's once again showed an embarrassed smile.
He looked at Mitsuba beside him, who had been silently looking down for quite some time, and said with a smile:
"Hahaha! Miss Mitsuba must also find this child particularly annoying, right? Violent and thieving and such, definitely a bad child..."
"No, quite the opposite."
However, Mitsuba shook her head.
She turned to look at Hakuji, still unconscious on Keizo's back, and said in an extremely serious tone:
"I believe this child lives with his head held high.
He simply didn't have a good family to let him grow up in, didn't have good parents to guide him—nothing more."
Mitsuba spoke from the heart.
As a demon, she had long since lost the moral compass of her human days.
In her view, for this child to go to such lengths for his father, to struggle and resist the tragic fate that befell him with such desperate effort—this was already the conduct of a true man standing tall.
Keizo, hearing this, was stunned for a moment, seemingly not expecting Mitsuba to say such a thing.
Only after quite some time did he react, smiling once more:
"Miss Mitsuba sometimes says things that truly shock people..."
"I simply say what comes to mind."
"But let me say this first—I won't hand this child over to you, Miss Mitsuba."
Suddenly shifting his tone, Keizo said with a serious face:
"Our friendship is one thing, but this child's talent is truly remarkable in my eyes. It's perfect that my Soryu Dojo doesn't have a single disciple yet—I absolutely won't let go!"
"Yes, yes, yes..."
Rather helpless at Keizo's behavior like a mother hen protecting her chick, Mitsuba simply smiled and shook her head.
"Then please trouble Mr. Keizo to hurry back to your dojo with your good disciple. I'll stop by the clinic to bring some medicine for you. Will that do?"
"Haha! Then many thanks to Miss Mitsuba! Put the medicine cost on my tab!"
"With Mr. Keizo being so poor you're almost selling the dojo, forget it. I'll keep a tab for you first, and you can pay me back after you've recruited more disciples..."
Waving her hand, Mitsuba turned and walked straight toward the clinic in town.
There were two clinics in this town, located in the east and west respectively.
The clinic in the east was one Mitsuba wasn't very familiar with, and she basically never went there.
But the clinic in the west, due to its proximity, she would often pass by, and her relationship with the female doctor there was fairly familiar.
Oh right, the name of the clinic in the west was "Butterfly Clinic."
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