My Gang of Swordsmen

——Gourd House... Why have I never heard of this business name...

Aoto sifted through all his memories since his crossing, along with the memories of "Original Tachibana Aoto".

After a thorough search, he found that there wasn’t even a mention of the business name "Gourd House", let alone any memory related to it.

Kiryu seemed to have guessed what Aoto was thinking, and he chuckled softly a few times before saying:

"Mr. Tachibana, if you haven’t heard of the name Gourd House, that’s quite normal."

"My lord prefers to act discreetly."

"From the inception of Gourd House to now, my lord has never made a grand announcement of its existence to the world."

"Mr. Tachibana, you can think of Gourd House as a business that likes to hide in the shadows, favoring activities in the ’underground world’.

"In the world under the sun, Gourd House isn’t well-known."

"But in the ’underground world’, where Yakuza, smugglers, and similar groups gather, many are aware of Gourd House."

A business favoring activities in the "underground world"... Upon hearing this, Aoto’s brow involuntarily twitched fiercely.

Underground world, business... These terms pieced together made Aoto instinctively think that Mukiwa’s grandmother might be engaging in some illicit trade.

Thinking of this, Aoto couldn’t help but turn his face to the side and glance at Mukiwa beside him.

——Could it be that Awu is some kind of underworld princess...?

Just as Aoto’s mind was spiraling out of control like a runaway horse, Kiryu once again discerned Aoto’s thoughts at that moment and promptly interrupted his wild imaginations.

"Our Gourd House has never engaged in any shady dealings."

"Strictly speaking, Gourd House is a very righteous organization."

"Anyway, let me continue."

"I’ve introduced the organization I rely on. Now... let me talk about myself."

"Mr. Tachibana, if you previously heard how Scythe Weasel addressed me, you might have realized—Kiryu Kazuma is not my real name."

"My real name is Mamiya Kurō."

Thump, thump, thump... Aoto felt his heartbeat quicken considerably at that moment.

Despite having mentally prepared himself beforehand, upon hearing Kiryu admit in person that he was the one whom Chiba Eijiro admitted, "If he were around, the title of ’Edo’s First Swordsman’ would not fall upon me", Aoto still couldn’t suppress his inner shock.

Kiryu watched Aoto’s changing expressions with interest.

"It seems... You’ve heard of the name ’Mamiya Kurō’ before."

Saying this, Kiryu silently sighed, a hint of helplessness crossing his face.

"If I’m not mistaken, you probably first heard the name ’Mamiya Kurō’ from the story ’Mamiya Kurō sliced through the armor of a Western Ironclad Ship with one swift slash’, right?"

"Let me state beforehand—this story is purely a rumor."

Aoto was taken aback: "You’ve never sliced through the armor of an Ironclad Ship?"

"I’ve never sliced through the armor of an Ironclad Ship." Kiryu smiled enigmatically, "The story is purely a baseless rumor."

It seemed Kiryu didn’t wish to linger too long on the topic of his "One-Slash Ship Cutting".

After briefly mentioning to Aoto that "the story is just a rumor", Kiryu cleared his throat and sat up straight again.

"Let’s spare the idle chatter and get back to business."

"’The boss of Job Introduction Office Thousand Affairs House, Kiryu Kazuma’—this is merely a cover I use to hide my true identity."

"Though I diligently manage this job introduction office daily."

"But my actual job is covertly tracing the movements of the Law Punishment Faction."

——Law Punishment Faction...? From the name, it seems like an organization...

Upon suddenly hearing an unfamiliar new term, a puzzled expression quickly arose on Aoto’s face.

Fortunately, Kiryu promptly provided a detailed explanation of this organization.

"Law Punishment Faction—an..."

Kiryu’s voice suddenly halted.

At the same moment, the faint smile that usually graced Kiryu’s lips faded quite a bit.

It seemed he was contemplating the right words to appropriately describe this organization.

After a long pause, Kiryu finally said quietly:

"A... deranged organization."

"The Law Punishment Faction has extremely superior methods of keeping information confidential."

"Our Gourd House has battled with the Law Punishment Faction for a long stretch of time, never letting up on collecting information on them, but until now, we know very little about the Law Punishment Faction."

"Their headquarters, the number of members, the ultimate goal of the organization... all remain a mystery."

"Currently, the only things we can be sure of are the names of some of their leaders, and the fact that they are undeniably insane."

"The leaders of the Law Punishment Faction, including all the cadre-level figures, give themselves code names."

"Their chosen code names are all those ferocious demons from mythological stories."

"While using fierce demonic creatures as their names, they also tattoo the mythical demon used as their code name onto their backs."

"Mr. Tachibana, the Scythe Weasel you faced before is one of the cadres of the Law Punishment Faction."

Aoto then recalled Scythe Weasel stripping off his upper garment, revealing a Scythe Weasel tattoo that spanned his entire back.

"The leader of the Law Punishment Faction is codenamed ’Orochi’."

"Under Orochi, there are three chief cadres: ’Ōtakemaru’, ’Yoshitsune’, and ’Yumizakae’."