Chapter 34: Gonroku’s Suspicion and Strong Intuition

Kiyosu Castle – Oda Nobunaga

1561. Fall.

“I’m back, Kichō.”

“Welcome home.”

After meeting Isshiki Masataka, I took my horse and went back to Kiyosu with Monkey.

The surprised faces the people of the castle made as I passed through were amusing to look at.

“How was your journey? How was that Isshiki-sama?”

“He was an interesting guy. His retainer was also remarkable.”

“For you to praise him as such, my lord, he must be a very fine gentleman.”

Kichō laughed with a “Hohoho”, but admittedly, even I was surprised that I cared so much about him. I had no lack of capable retainers. All of them could be of help to me.

But Masataka was different. He wasn’t the kind of person who should be stuck as a retainer. In him was an ability to rule.

“Mm, he was a fine man. I even ended up inviting him to become my retainer. Had he nodded his head back then, Motoyasu would have lost his place immediately. It was a mistake of mine, but he didn’t accept my invitation. The words ‘loyal retainer’ really suited him.”

“Is that so? Such a man, I wish to meet him too, if I’m able…”

“Don’t look so disheartened. I don’t know for sure, but I have a feeling that we’ll meet again one day.”

As a friend or a foe, it was still up in the air—no, he couldn’t be a friend. The day when Ujizane and I came to understand each other would never come. And Isshiki had declared that he would stay by his side, even though it was a sinking ship.

The next time we meet would probably be on the battlefield.

Such a shame. Losing half of Mikawa, Imagawa had no chance against me and Motoyasu. Not only that, Kai had also been making suspicious movements. Had Ujizane even realized that?

Trusting something as uncertain as an alliance too much would only bring regret. Did he know that?

“Is something the matter, my lord?”

“No. You look like you have something to say to me. What is it?”

“The day after you left for Okazaki, Goroza and Gonroku¹This is Shibata Katsuie, a loyal retainer of Nobunaga who had served him since his youth. He is one of the more well-known general under Nobunaga, and his exploits are too many to be told, but one of his more well-known exploit was when he was stationed at Choko Temple and the temple was besieged by the Rokkaku clan. Normally, when you’re besieged, it’s normal to wait and defend until the enemy is out of resources and fall back, but Katsuie led his men to attack the Rokkaku clan instead and broke off the siege. This was what ultimately earned him the nickname ‘Oni Shibata’ or ‘Demon Shibata’. came to see me.”

If there were anyone who’d do that, it’d be those two, as I had expected. Considering I brought Monkey with me, it’d be strange if Gonroku didn’t sense that something was amiss.

“What for?”

“You already know the answer to that, aren’t you, my lord? Gonroku in particular, was so furious when he came to me, demanding me to tell him where had you gone.”

“So it really happened. You’re the only one who knows each and every one of my movements, after all, it’s only natural. In fact, I expected him to come the very day I left, not the next day.”

“That wouldn’t be possible. You left the castle at night, my lord. Anyone would assume that you were spending the night with me, and no one would dare to come looking for you. Even if they do, I wouldn’t even bother entertaining them.”

“And due to that, everything went smoothly. Thank you, Kichō.”

“As long as my actions pleased you, my lord.”

I really had to give my thanks to Father-in-law more for bestowing me with such a wonderful wife—one that was so compatible with me.

The fact that I was different from the normal people was something that I was aware of.

Yet, Kichō still respected me who was like that and treated me like a normal person.

“It’s time, my lord. You have to apologize to everyone for all the trouble you caused.”

I could hear footsteps coming from outside the room. Multiple of them.

They were all heading here. Which meant, my alone time with Kichō was over.

“I’ll come again.”

“And I will be waiting.”

As soon as I left the room, a burly man grabbed me.

“My lord, where have you been in the past few days?! We—the retainers—have been worried sick about you!”

“Kichō had told you where I had been, hadn’t she? That isn’t important. Call everyone to gather in the main hall.”

“If I may ask, what are you planning to do, my lord?”

The one who asked that was Goroza, who came here with Gonroku, the burly man.

“I’m starting a war council. We won’t need to worry about Mikawa anymore with Motoyasu there, so from now on, we’ll move to unify Owari. Then, we’ll take down Mino.”

“Are we finally going to attack Inuyama Castle²Remember that around this time, Oda still hasn’t unified Owari yet. His cousin, Nobukiyo, is his biggest hindrance in the unification, and Inuyama Castle is his base.?”

“Mm. All the doubts in my mind have been cleared. Now, I feel like I can do anything.”

“Then, I will gather all the retainers.”

Goroza quickly got out of the way, but Gonroku stayed.

“Is something the matter, Gonroku?”

“Yes. I heard from the Madam that you went to Okazaki Castle, my lord. But she said she didn’t know why you went there… so, may I ask why you went, my lord?”

“Has it ever crossed your mind that I went there to talk about a marriage alliance between us?”

“Yes, but I believe there is no way that can be it, my lord. I am well aware that Motoyasu-dono has declared his independence, but he is in no way on an equal footing to you, my lord. When it comes to the discussion about marriage alliance, he would be the one who comes here, not the reverse.”

Hm, observant. If he could guess this far, that meant Goroza had pretty much guessed the truth. That man was quite the schemer, after all.

“Indeed, I had another goal. But since it was a goal that came to me on a whim, I decided not to make a big fuss about it. The day when I will tell you what it is will come, Gonroku. And I believe that it won’t be too far off in the future either.”

He seemed to be eager to hear more, but like I had stated, it wasn’t the time yet. Right now, we had to focus on taking down Inuyama before anything else and get rid of that hindrance once and for all.

It still wasn’t certain that Isshiki would bare their fangs toward us, so until then, it would be best for my retainers to not mind their existence too much.