My Gang of Swordsmen-Chapter 38 - 25: Chance Encounter with

Under the command of each Town Lord, there are several to a dozen Patriarchs.

The task of the Patriarchs is to manage the various towns under the jurisdiction of the Town Lord.

Some Patriarchs are appointed by the Town Lord, but some are also hereditary.

Though the Town Elders, Town Leaders, and Patriarchs shoulder the heavy responsibility of assisting the Magistrate’s Office in managing Edo, they are not officials.

The reason is simple: they are civilians without swords at their waist, not Samurai.

"Non-Samurai cannot hold official positions"—this was an iron law of Edo-period Japan.

Although they perform the functions of "officials," they do not have the title of "officials."

From the Town Elders down to the Patriarchs, their official title is "Town Official," not an official, just a bunch of people who do odd jobs for the Samurai lords, at best a group of "servants."

The "Town Autonomous Organization," responsible for helping manage Edo, naturally also assists the "Three Times" in handling cases.

If a case arises, it is first handled by the Town Lord and Patriarch responsible for managing that town.

If they really can’t resolve it, it is handed over to the "Three Times" of the Magistrate’s Office to handle.

Therefore—the "Three Times" generally do not deal with ordinary civil cases.

Whose cat is lost, whose wife got involved with the plumber coming to repair pipes at home, whose lady was told, "Madam, don’t you want your husband to keep his job? So, please." ... These trivial civil cases are generally handled independently by the "Town Autonomous Organization."

Only when there are major criminal cases that the "Town Autonomous Organization" cannot handle on their own, such as murder or theft, will the case be handed over to the "Three Times" of the Magistrate’s Office.

If a major criminal case requiring the intervention of the "Three Times" occurs within a town, the Town Lord and Patriarch managing that town must wholeheartedly assist the "Three Times" Samurai responsible for the case.

The usual workplace of the Patriarchs is the "Jishinban."

The Jishinban can be understood as a facility combining the functions of a modern police station and fire department.

Besides arrest tools like the thrusting rod and trident, the garrison also contains fire equipment such as flags, fire hooks, and hand-operated fire pumps.

The Patriarchs managing the town generally work inside the town’s Jishinban.

Besides the Patriarch, there are also junior clerks like the "Book Officer" hired by the Patriarch to help with odd jobs.

The patrol routine of the Fixed Town Patrol Dōshin is to visit each Jishinban within their jurisdiction, inquire whether anything major has happened in the town, handle any incidents, and if nothing occurs, proceed to the next Castle Town’s Jishinban.

...

...

Edo, Hyuga-cho, Jishinban—

Having just stepped through the door, a Patriarch working in this Jishinban quickly put on a formal smile, rubbing his hands, and approached Aoto.

"Ah! Lord Tachibana, you’ve arrived!"

"Good day." Aoto greeted this Patriarch briefly before hastily asking, "Has anything major happened in Hyuga-cho recently?"

"Nothing significant. Just a fight incident." The Patriarch replied, "Yesterday afternoon, the owner of Kiku House got into a street fight with a passerby over a trivial matter."

"But since both were pulled apart in time, neither suffered any harm. I promptly led a team to mediate yesterday afternoon, and now both parties have successfully reconciled."

"Hmm." Aoto nodded slightly, "As long as nothing major happened."

"Lord Tachibana! It’s cold today; would you like to come in for a cup of hot tea?"

"No need." Aoto politely smiled at the Patriarch, "This morning, because Lord Governor convened an emergency meeting, it already delayed the patrol quite a bit."

"I still have many places to inspect; I cannot afford to delay any longer."

"I’ll take my leave first. If anything major happens in Hyuga-cho, remember to report to the Magistrate’s Office immediately."

"Yes!"

Preparing to inspect the next Jishinban, Aoto left with the Patriarch’s bowing farewell, turned right, and entered a bustling commercial street.

"Gofuku! Come quickly and see! New stock of Gofuku!"

"Father! I want to buy that!"

"Make way, make way! The cart’s coming through with cargo! If you don’t want to get hit, move aside!"

...

Merchants busy opening shops, laborers pushing carts loaded with goods, vendors loudly hawking their wares early in the morning...

Although Aoto had seen such scenes countless times in "Original Tachibana Aoto’s" memory, he couldn’t stop the curiosity from flashing in his eyes.

After inspecting his jurisdiction for most of the morning and admiring the ancient and lively street scenes, Aoto felt his mood, which had turned gloomy due to successive hurdles, eased somewhat.

How should he approach the "Tairō Assessment" in one and a half months?

The only way to make his dreadful political performance shine in such a short time... is to solve some highly valuable major cases.

The "Tairō Assessment" is very different from the other two crises pressing on Aoto: the life-threatening threat from the "Anti-foreigner Faction" and the financial threat from the "Shimizu Clan."

Facing the threats from the "Anti-foreigner Faction" and the "Shimizu Clan," Aoto can at least take the initiative to learn Swordsmanship and rely on the system to copy strong talents to protect himself from harm.

But the "Tairō Assessment" is not like that...

Whether those high-value major cases that can instantly improve his performance will appear, and whether he has the opportunity and ability to handle them, all depends on fate.

If those high-value major cases do not appear, or he never gets the chance to handle them... then Aoto is out of luck.

Faced with this, Aoto could only gaze somberly, sighing: take one step at a time, and focus on accomplishing the daily tasks first.

After inspecting two more Jishinbans with no major incidents, noon arrived silently.

Aoto looked up at the sun, nearly reaching its zenith, and silently took out the lunchbox Kyūbē handed him this morning—three rice balls wrapped in lotus leaves.

—Find a place to have lunch then...

Aoto glanced around and immediately saw a tea house not far away.

Tea houses in the Edo Era were somewhat akin to modern coffee shops, serving as important social venues in Edo.

In a tea house, ordering a cup of tea means easily spending a long time idly—making it the perfect spot for a break.

Therefore, upon spotting the tea house, Aoto nearly instinctively quickly walked towards it.

Upon entering the tea house, the bustling noises, slightly murky heat, and the enticing aroma of tea and snacks rushed at Aoto like a tidal wave.

Seeing the thronging crowd in the tea house, Aoto couldn’t help but worry about finding a vacant seat.

As Aoto scanned around, searching for an available table, a familiar lovely voice suddenly reached his ears:

"Hmm? Mr. Tachibana?"

Aoto quickly turned towards the sound, looking surprised: "Mr. Chokata?"

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Thanks to readers [Very Naive Magician] and [L5??] for being the Alliance Leader!!!

According to the author’s usual practice, having an Alliance Leader usually means a burst update of 12,000 words the next day, but because it is currently a new book period, writing too much at once is not feasible, so the burst update will have to wait until after it’s released!

The author will make a note; the outstanding burst update count: 2