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Volume 1 Chapter 3 Part 4

「I-If I become the ruler, uhm, I’ll gather cute girls in Owari… 」

「What did you say? For you to have the same ambition as me, I can’t forgive you more and more! 」

「Y-You’re w-wrong! What I said just now was my personal desire! Um, once I get my hands on Owari, I will attack Imagawa Yoshimoto in the east and then attack Saito Dosan in the north, and will make the entire Tokaido region the property belonging to the Oda clan! 」

「Aren’t both of them great daimyo who are strong opponents to be going against in battle? Will you really fight both of them as enemies at the same time and manage to emerge victorious? Yeah, right, like that’s even possible, idiot! 」

「I-I think it’s poss…i-it’s possible for me! Since I have Owari’s fiercest commander, Shibata Katsuie with me! 」

「Hou? Okay then, let’s assume for now that you defeated both Imagawa Yoshimoto and Saito Dosan thanks to Katsuie. What will you do after that? 」

「Um…I-I haven’t thought about what I’m going to do after that……for the time being I will gather cute girls from Mino and Suruga provinces and bring them to Owari as well! 」

Yoshiharu was then ready to pass his judgement upon Nobukatsu.

「You’re no good after all! We may be similar in personal ambitions, but from the standpoint of general consideration, you’re no good through and through! If being a daimyo of the Sengoku era is a suitable job for you, then I should be more than enough for the task as well! 」

To think that Yoshiharu would actually defeat Oda Nobukatsu in a battle of words….

Nobukatsu’s and the group of his retainers’ faces turned pale and they swallowed their spitin anger and humiliation.
「Anyways, my elder sister is a big fool! The people of Owari are laughing at her! She’s the embarrassment of the Oda clan! That’s why our mother also hated her since childhood and didn’t even take notice of her! 」

「What did you say?! 」

「Ever since childhood, sister was a fool. Even when going to temples, she couldn’t stay still, she kept making a ruckus, and didn’t learn any manners. That’s why, for a long time, mother wanted me, who had good manners, to inherit the leadership of the clan. Only our late father pampered sister saying such nonsensical things as: 「Kichi, you’re a genius, so no matter what anyone says, do what you believe is right. 」 The result of that, is my elder sister as we all know her today. 」

「… Her own mother shunned Nobuna in the past….? 」

「Isn’t it obvious? That rude, selfish, barbarian-friendly girl talks nonsensical stuff about conquering all of Japan and how guns are going to be more important in warfare than swords, so it shouldn’t be surprising that she was shunned by mother since childhood. As proof of that, even now mother lives with me in my castle instead of hers. 」

Yoshiharu’s body became hot, and it felt like every inch of it was burning.

「Can’t you claim your superiority in ways other than that? 」

Nobukatsu’s weak-mindedness pissed him off, but then Nobuna’s sad looking sour face floated in his mind, and he wasn’t able to bear it. He then thought to himself:

(She had to deal with those feelings of resentment from her family since her childhood…)

Yoshiharu thinks that Nobuna is an uncute, selfish, ferocious girl, but probably, she’s also a genius whose thinking was way more advanced for the era she was born in.

If you hang the gourd on your waist, you can take anything out of it immediately, so it’s more convenient.
The words she spoke to Saito Dosan during their meeting sounded off in his mind again.

But even though she said that, the majority of the people living in the Sengoku era would just raise their eyebrows at her, thinking that she doesn’t have any dignity. Furthermore, there’s no way that they’d understand what she meant by 「All of Japan」and 「The World」. After all, there are only a handful of people from the Sengoku era who can probably say that they understand the way that Nobuna is thinking. And even among the people she knows, at most it would probably only be her late father and Saito Dosan, whom she met today and there is no helping her having bad relations with her mother or her younger brother.

(However, for her to act like a fool at her father’s funeral… if she keeps doing things like that, she will just get more and more misunderstood by everyone around her! She really was an idiot after all! She’s a stupid woman!)

「So, do you now understand it, Monkey-kun? The one who should inherit the Oda clan is not my foolish elder sister, but I… Gyafuuuuuuu? 」

By the time he realized it, Yoshiharu had punched Nobukatsu, who was chattering away, straight on his jawbone with a full-on uppercut.

(Oh damn, my body just moved on its own because I was so angry at him.)

He realized what he had done only after the fact as Nobukatsu fell onto the ground with a loud thud. While the onlookers and Nobukatsu’s retainers started making noise and screaming: an ordinary foot soldier hit Nobukatsu-sama!, Yoshiharu, while patting Nene who clung to his waist, made as cool of a voice he could and said:

「In light of you being the little brother of Nobuna, I’ll forgive you this one time. But if you say that again in my presence, I’ll smack you even harder. 」

「You have already smacked me pretty hard! In fact, haven’t you smacked me with all your
Might?! 」

「*Tsk!*. So I wasn’t able to fool him, huh? 」

「Aaaaah, my-my beautiful lips are bleeding! Blood, there’s blood coming out of them! Katsuie,
Katsuieeeeeeeee!! 」

「…You did something outrageous, Monkey. You shouldn’t have done that. 」

Letting out a sigh as if she was troubled by this whole thing, Katsuie came from between the observers. She’s already unsheathed the sword on her waist, and she seemed ready to behead Yoshiharu in one strike, and she was also emanating a terrifying killing intent.

Even for Yoshiharu who was good at running away, he didn’t think he could run away from a serious Katsuie. Leaving apart the plains during the battle, the place they were right now was just a small tenement area, and on top of that, he was surrounded by the rest of Nobukatsu’s retainers.

While patting Nene, who was trembling with tears, on the back he said…

「It’s fine, it’s going to be okay. 」

… but in his mind he was thinking:

(Oh great, now what should I do?!)

However, as if it had escaped somewhere, he felt like his sense of fear was being numbed, and he could only think of how he could potentially increase his odds of survival in this situation.

「I was ordered by Nobuna-sama not to behead you, but this time you have committed a crime against my master, so I cannot just let it slide. 」

「So you really were the chief retainer of Nobukatsu. Why is a general like you listening to this sort of guy? You know that only Nobuna can protect Owari, so instead of being with him, you should be helping Nobuna put order in the retainer faction of the Oda clan! 」

「… Uh…Uh. I-I don’t understand difficult things like politics! However, it remains a fact that Nobukatsu-sama is my master! No matter what happens, he’s the only one I can serve with absolute loyalty, right? 」

「It depends on the time and place! Just how much longer will you pamper this brat?! it’s your fault that Nobuna is not able to put the retainers in order, Katsuie! 」

「S-Shut up! Don’t deceive me by saying difficult stuff, idiot! M-My head will split! I-Is this some kind of attempt at a phychological attack?! 」

However, Nene was the one who gave Katsuie the final blow.

「Katsuie-dono, a question! 2+3×4 is…? 」

「Eeh? I-If I don’t replace it with groceries I can’t tell! U-Um, t-two carrots……t-three radishes…..what was multiplying again? Soy sauce fits radish…..so I have to multiply 4 tablespoons of soy sauce? S-so the completed dish is…..dish is…..? Uwaaaah, my head will definitely split from this!!!! 」

「You cannot answer the question anymore! Time’s up! 」

「Katsuie…..you really are nothing more but a battle-obsessed idiot, huh? 」

「Don’t call me without honorifics even though you’re just a monkey yourself!! A-A-Anyways, the punishment for a foot soldier for hitting Nobukatsu-sama is death, so prepare yourself! 」

(No good, I thought I could make it through with words alone, but I was naïve! Hey, Goemon, it seems like you’re away, but won’t you come in the tenements o the double, please?!)