"Tatsumi, how could you do something like this?"
"Ieyasu's money and mine were both with you!"
"Did it never occur to you that Ieyasu and I had no money on us at all?!"
Looking at Tatsumi, who was kneeling obediently in front of her, Sayo wore an expression of utter frustration.
The memory of having to spend the night on the street yesterday because they had no money was still fresh in her mind.
The instant she saw Tatsumi using their money to flirt with a woman, she had been furious.
If they hadn't happened to run into the kind Aria family, she and Ieyasu really would have had no choice but to sleep out on the street.
And sitting on the pavement all night with absolutely nothing was not comfortable in the slightest.
"Exactly, exactly!"
"Tatsumi, you really went too far!"
"If you wanted to treat this beautiful big sister to a meal, you could've at least met up with us first!"
After hearing Sayo scold Tatsumi, Ieyasu immediately chimed in with righteous indignation.
But while he was backing her up, his eyes kept drifting toward the blonde, busty older woman sitting across from Tatsumi. Just looking at her alluring figure was enough to make him feel life was worth living.
Grinning at the blonde woman, he asked, "So, what's your name, miss?"
The moment the words left his mouth, a sharp pain shot through his ear.
"Ieyasu!"
"You need to rein yourself in too!"
Using her now-free hand, Sayo grabbed Ieyasu by the ear and twisted hard.
"I haven't even scolded you yet for how rude you were at that other house yesterday, and now you're acting rude all over again."
"Do you still want your ears or not?!"
Although Sayo always seemed gentle and sweet when she was with Yoriichi, if one of her close companions really annoyed her, her rougher side would come out.
Just like now, one hand gripping Tatsumi, the other Ieyasu, while she lectured both of them for being so hopeless.
"So the little guy wants to know my name?"
"When you ask a lady's name, you should introduce yourself first."
"But since you're a friend of Tatsumi's, I suppose that's fine. You can call me Leone."
Leone smiled faintly as she watched the three of them bickering.
"Of course, if you want to call me something like 'blonde busty big sister,' that's fine too."
"But Tatsumi came here with me because we have something important to discuss."
"He originally wanted to go look for his companions first."
Even though her impression of Tatsumi and the others wasn't bad, Leone had no intention of letting her prey go so easily.
She was still very interested in that huge sack of copper and silver coins Tatsumi was carrying.
Meanwhile, Yoriichi stood to the side without saying much.
He wasn't very good at this sort of lively back-and-forth. The kind of life he preferred was simply spending a lifetime together with the one he loved most.
Thinking that, Yoriichi stopped paying attention to the commotion between Sayo, Ieyasu, and Tatsumi, and instead turned and walked toward the inn's counter.
That slightly solitary behavior caught Leone's attention for a moment, but she only glanced his way once before focusing back on the money bag.
Yoriichi's control over his own power had reached an almost perfect level.
Not to mention that Leone hadn't even activated her Teigu, Lionelle: King of Beasts, yet.
Even if she had activated it, greatly enhancing her physical abilities and sharpening all five senses, if Yoriichi did not wish it, she still would not be able to sense anything unusual about him.
"Leone's telling the truth. I really did mean to go look for Sayo and Ieyasu first."
"But she told me that if I spent just a little money, I could skip starting out as an ordinary soldier and enter the army directly as a captain."
"That's why I came here with Leone to talk things over."
At this point, Tatsumi hurriedly explained himself.
It was more or less the same as in the original story. After arriving in the Imperial Capital, Tatsumi had first gone to the recruitment office to ask about enlistment requirements, only to be kicked out because he was too full of himself.
After that, he naturally ran into Leone, who had already been eyeing him for quite some time.
With just a few words, Leone easily led Tatsumi around by the nose, causing him to temporarily set aside the idea of reuniting with Sayo and Ieyasu as quickly as possible and instead come over here to listen to her pitch.
However, because of Yoriichi's unexpected appearance, the plot had already changed significantly.
Originally, Sayo and Ieyasu might have already been imprisoned by this point. But because of Yoriichi, Aria's family had not made a move against them and had genuinely helped them secure work.
Then, while looking for a place to stay, they just so happened to run into Tatsumi and Leone at this small inn.
"The army?"
"Hahaha, Tatsumi, you can just be jealous."
"You'd never guess how lucky we got yesterday."
After hearing Tatsumi out, Ieyasu immediately burst into smug laughter.
That left Tatsumi looking utterly confused.
"Sayo, Teacher, and I are already members of the Imperial Capital Guard now."
"With the salary we'll get there, it should be enough to ease a large part of the burden on our hometown."
Sayo smiled as she explained things to the bewildered Tatsumi.
"It's really a pity. If you'd found us earlier, you might've been able to join the Imperial Capital Guard with us."
"But it's not a big deal."
"Teacher probably wouldn't mind taking you in as a student too."
Sayo's words made Leone, who had seemed rather casual until now, turn her head slightly.
As one of the core members of Night Raid, even she hadn't expected that with such a casual swindle, she'd end up targeting the companion of Imperial Capital Guard members.
After all, their identities stood on opposite sides. No matter how one looked at it, Sayo and Ieyasu now counted as people with official positions.
Still, as a seasoned operator who had been getting by in the Capital for years, Leone was well aware of how things worked here.
She found herself curious, how exactly had two obvious outsiders like Sayo and Ieyasu, who clearly looked no different from Tatsumi, managed to join the Imperial Capital Guard?
Without connections, outsiders getting into the Imperial Capital Guard was something so impossible it wasn't even worth thinking about.
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