In-person weddings are basically held at the groom's home.

The groom takes the bride to his home, then holds a three-part ceremony and reads out the oaths in the presence of relatives and friends. After the oaths are recited, the wedding can be declared over.

If you find it too troublesome, you can even omit the three-presentation ceremony. After you take the bride to your home, you can read out the oath in the presence of your relatives and friends, and then have a banquet and end it all.

Because there are so few links, if you move quickly, it usually only takes 10-15 minutes to hold a wedding in front of people.

After the wedding, the bridegroom and the bride had a lively dinner with their relatives and friends from afar.

The Kondo family is not a wealthy family, so the wedding ceremony used is the most common, ordinary and down-to-earth wedding in front of people.

It was just after 8 o'clock in the morning, and relatives and friends of the Kondo and Matsui families arrived at the test hall in a steady stream.

Zhousuke sent Genzaburo Inoue, who knew etiquette but was also very mature due to his age and understood "adult social etiquette", to be responsible for "guarding" the gate of the Trial Guard Hall and entertaining all arriving guests.

Today's weather is really beautiful for the Kondo family.

Since the beginning of summer, sunny days have been quite rare. The blazing light, like a nailed whip, continues to torture everything exposed to the sun.

Only today, the sun's "temper" has become quite mild.

The sunlight has changed from a "nailed whip" to a "smooth satin". Although you will still feel the heat, you will no longer have that burning stinging sensation.

The warm sunshine enveloped the Trial Guard Hall, making it look like a golden screen had been erected for the Trial Guard Hall.

It seems that even God is blessing this marriage today.

In terms of status, Qingnobo, Nagakura, and Saito are all guests of the Imperial Guard Hall today.

Therefore, as a guest, Qingdeng did not have to do anything today. He only had to sit and wait for the wedding to start, and then sit and wait for the banquet.

When attending other people's weddings, it is basic etiquette to dress appropriately and formally.

In order not to be rude to others, Qingden put on his most formal and gorgeous clothes early this morning: white clothes and black hakama, and a burgundy haori on his upper body. Both the haori and the clothes on his upper body were embroidered

There is the family crest of their Tachibana family: gentian leaf.

There is still nearly half an hour before the wedding officially starts.

Less than a third of the guests have just arrived.

Qingteng, who was currently very idle, and the boss, who was also very bored because he had nothing to do, were sitting side by side in a corner of the banquet hall, chatting at random.

"Tachibana-kun, that physically very strong man is Kondo-san's biological brother: Miyagawa Otongoro."

The general manager, who was introducing Qingden to who each guest was, raised his hand and pointed to a young man in the distance.

Qingden looked in the direction pointed by the director's finger.

I saw that the facial features of the young man Souji was referring to were very similar to Kondo's...especially his big mouth. This young man had a mouth as big as Kondo's that felt like it could fit an entire adult's fist.

"Although Brother Kondo was adopted by his master as the adopted son of the Kondo family, Brother Kondo still maintains close contact with his original family and some people in his hometown... Ah, Miss Ashin and the others are also here. Mr. Tachibana, see

Is that the couple over there? That couple is Mr. Hijikata’s sister and brother-in-law: Ms. Oshin and Mr. Hikoro Sato.”

"Hijikata's relatives are here too?" Qingteng blinked in surprise.

"of course."

The director-general smiled "hehe".

"Mr. Hikoro Sato is an old acquaintance of ours at the Imperial Guard House. He is Tama...that is, brother Kondo and Mr. Hijikata, a big landowner in their hometown."

"In order to guard against bandits and bandits, rural areas in many places often hire samurai to teach them martial arts during their off-farm periods... Tama is no exception."

"Tama has a strong spirit of martial arts, and the people of Tama are all proud of practicing martial arts."

"The unpretentious but powerful natural Rishin-ryu is very popular among the people of Tama."

"So when the master was young, he was often hired by the people of Tama to teach them Nian Rishin-ryu."

"This is why Natural Rishin-ryu is so popular in Tama."

"That's also why natural-risin-ryu was often called 'peasant swordsmanship' by good-hearted people in the past, because the main practitioners of natural-risin-ryu in the past were the farmers of Tama."

"It was when Tama was teaching swordsmanship that the master met Brother Kondo...and Mr. Hikoro Sato."

"Mr. Hikoro Sato once became a disciple of his master and practiced Natural Rishin-ryu for a period of time, so he can be regarded as our senior brother."

"Probably more than ten years ago, Mr. Hikoro Sato built a Natural Rishin-ryu dojo in Tama: the 'Sato Dojo', and he often invited the master and Brother Kondo to come and give guidance."

"It was through this dojo built by his brother-in-law that Mr. Hijikata got to know Natural Rishin-ryu and Brother Kondo, who often showed up in the dojo."

"Afterwards, Hijikata-san developed a strong interest in Natural Rishin-ryu and intended to further improve his sword skills. Last year, he officially became his master and transferred from the Sato Dojo to the Shoeikan."

"So Kondo-san and I met Mr. Hijikata and became close friends with Mr. Hijikata, all thanks to Mr. Hikoro Sato."

"Thanks to the relationship between Mr. Hikoro Sato and Mr. Hijikata, the relationship between the Kondo family and the Hijikata family is as good as one family."

"So when Kondo-san gets married, it's impossible for Mr. Hijikata's relatives not to come over to celebrate."

After listening carefully to the brief "History of Kondo Hijikata" from the Director-General, Aoto nodded lightly.

"I see...it turns out that Kondo-kun and Hijikata-kun still have such a bond..."

Japan is a mountainous island country, with nearly three-quarters of its land covered in hills and mountains.

The terrain of this country is simply the best breeding ground for bandits and bandits.

Farmers have always been troubled by bandits and bandits, so many rural areas will spontaneously raise wooden knives and other weapons to form a garrison force.

Although the Edo shogunate did not allow people to carry swords, this rule was flawed - it did not prohibit people from practicing martial arts or using swords.

Moreover, the Edo shogunate only prohibited common people from wearing swords, and did not control wakizashi at all. Therefore, many civilians would carry wakizashi for self-defense when they went out.

The general manager moved his finger in the next direction, preparing to tell Qingto Dai about the identity and origin of the next guest.

But at this moment, Tufang’s voice suddenly floated from the distance:

"Hey! Souji!"

I usually dress casually, but today I rarely dressed up.

The hem of his ornate clothes, embroidered with their Hijikata family crest, swayed slightly as Hijikata walked quickly.

Hijifang's footsteps are very fast.

As soon as Seito and Souji raised their eyes following the sound, Hijikata had already arrived in front of them.

"What's the matter?" asked the Director-General.

"There are more and more guests coming, and Uncle Yuan is a little overwhelmed, so the master wants to invite the two of us to help Uncle Yuan."

"Uncle Yuan? Okay, I understand." Souji nodded vigorously without thinking, and then stood up neatly with a carp roll, "Tachibana-kun, I have to go do some work, and we can chat slowly later.

Right. Remember to reserve my seat and don’t let others take my seat!”

Hijikata, Souji and Kondo are as close as brothers and are basically a family. Therefore, they are no different from Kondo's step-brother and step-sister. They don't have to do anything like Aoto and Saito.

After the general manager left these words, he and Hijikata hurriedly rushed to the gate of the trial defense hall.

Without Souji as his chat partner, Qingden suddenly became bored.

Nagakura, Saito and the others don't know where they are now.

He was surrounded by people he didn't know.

Occasionally, some people would recognize Qingteng as the now famous "Renou" and come over to say hello to Qingteng.

But a wedding banquet is always a place not suitable for socializing with others.

Therefore, these people who came to get close to Qingdeng were not in a position to talk to Qingdeng. They basically exchanged a few words with Qingdeng and then left.

Qingdeng, who was so idle, opened the pocket watch he carried with him, checked the current time, and then looked up at the window in front of him, passing the time by counting the patterns of clouds in the sky outside the window.

Suddenly, a gentle male voice came into Qingdeng's ears.

"Excuse me, is there anyone sitting here?"

The sound came from Qingdeng's rear.

Qingdeng reflexively turned his head and glanced behind him - a middle-aged couple looking down at him with kind smiles.

The middle-aged man is dressed as a samurai, wearing dark blue clothes and black hakama, and a light green haori.

Although he was dressed as a samurai, his waist was empty - this was natural. How could anyone bring a sword to someone else's wedding? All the samurai attending today's banquet had their sabers, including wakizashi's, collected before entering.

The middle-aged woman standing shoulder to shoulder with this middle-aged man is a very beautiful mature woman.

She has not turned old and yellow due to the passage of time, but has a beautiful face with a different kind of charm.

The exquisite kimono with a red background and a white sash perfectly outlines the beautiful woman's attractive and concave figure.

The clothes of this middle-aged man and woman are both embroidered with the same family crest...the "Platycodon flower" which belongs to the same "floral family" as Qingdeng's "gentian leaf" family crest.

They had the same family pattern on their clothes...the intimate position of shoulders touching each other...Qingdeng guessed that the middle-aged man and woman were a couple.

Except for the seats closest to the place where the groom and bride came forward to read the wedding vows, all seats were allocated to immediate family members of the two families, and no detailed arrangements were made for the rest of the seats at the banquet.

In other words, guests other than the immediate family members of the groom and bride can sit wherever they want.

Since the wedding banquet will officially begin in a short time, the banquet venue is already full of distinguished guests, and more than 80% of the seats at the banquet are occupied.

The area around Qingdeng is one of the few places where there are still many empty seats at this moment.
To be continued...