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Volume 1 Chapter 5 Part 4

「Like hell it’s cheap! I don’t want you to willingly turn yourself into something as frightening as a Demon Lord! I want you to stay the way you were when you were happily spinning the globe with your hands! 」

Instead of swinging the sword down, she punched Yoshiharu in the cheek with her free hand. Blood started running down from Yoshiharu’s nose.

「Shut up, shut up! Idiot, idiot, idiot! You are just a lowly monkey! If you’re so smart, then tell me, what do you want me to do?! 」

「Forget about conquering Japan for now! This is a problem of your family! It’s fine for you to become honest with yourself! Right now you need to ask yourself this: what do you want to do with Nobukatsu as you, as a person? 」

「Isn’t it obvious I don’t want to kill him!? There’s no way that there’s a girl in the world who’d honestly want to kill her own younger brother! Don’t make me say everything out loud, you idiot! 」

A single line of a transparent tear was finally trickling down Nobuna’s cheek.

「Sister! 」

Groveling at Nobuna’s feet, Nobukatsu let out a scream without thinking.

「Then, isn’t it fine if you say that! You are the lord of Owari! You are the most important person out of all of us here, right? If you had said that honestly, then everything would’ve ended with just that! You really are a simpleton if you didn’t realize something as simple as that! 」

「W-W-What did you say?! 」

She showed her tears in front of the retainers. And on top of that, she was being scolded by a monkey. Although Nobuna had decided to act like a Demon Lord in front of her retainers from now on, she became flustered, and got distracted from what her original intention was. And then, when she just couldn’t take it anymore, she shouted in a very blunt way:
「Mou! I get it, okay?! I forgive Nobukatsu! There, happy now?! 」

Nobuna then lowered herself to where Nobukatsu was still prostrating himself before her.

「H-Hmph! Kanjuurou….instead of a sword, I will give you an Uirou. 」

The servant handed the finely cut Uirou into Nobuna’s hands, and she presented it to Nobukatsu.

「Here, have this. It’s your favorite food, right? 」

「….Is it alright for me to have this, sister? 」

「Yes. Treat it as a sign of our reconciliation. 」

「….T-Thank you… T-Time to dig in then… 」

Nobukatsu took the Uirou from Nobuna’s hands and put it in his mouth. In the past, before the family was broken up over the battle for inheritance of the clan’s rule after the death of Nobuna’s father, Nobuhide, he was having Uiros which were given to him by Nobuna almost every single day.

Compared to the high class Youkan, the Nagoya made Uirou is a dish for the masses. It doesn’t have that much sugar in it, and it feels refreshing to eat. Even so, Nobukatsu in his younger days felt it was tastier than any feast when Nobuna was merrily giving him a portion of Uirou while saying :「Here, here, Kanjuurou, here’s some tasty food for you. 」. The reason Nobukatsu liked it in the first place was because his elder sister gave it to him from her own hands, as a sort of reward to him.

Even so, when he got older he has employed ambitious people and flatterers around him, and started treating his sister like a fool. And now, he made that elder sister of his, more proud than anyone else, cry in front of her retainers.

While chewing on the Uirou, Nobukatsu regretted from the bottom of his heart about how foolish he had been.
「How is it? Is it tasty? 」

「….It’s salty, just like Mentaiko, sister . 」

「Idiot. That’s the taste of your tears. 」

「No. It is porbably the taste of your tears. 」

「Hmph. The thing flowing down my cheeks is just water. 」

With this, the case of Nobuna killing Nobukatsu had been settled peacefully.

While narrowing her eyes, Nobuna stood up.

「Now then, insulting me with all your might in front of my retainers is a serious offense, monkey. I will cut you down for this! I will definitely cut you down! 」

Yoshiharu responded with a yell of his own.

「Alright, cut me, cut me down if you can! 」

「I will really cut you down without a warning this time! 」

She yelled back at him again.

「No, on second thought, please stop that! You will really go straight down the Demon Lord’s route if you cut me too….probably…..no, it’s not like killing me will have much of an impact on you, huh? 」

「I have no idea what you are saying! Don’t use monkey language to confuse me again! You sure keep mumbling on like a monkey despite saying that you’re human… anyways, I am going to cut you down for being disrespectful! Towards me! 」

「Wait, please wait! 」

The chase after his life had begun in front of the retainers.

Nobukatsu was crouched down shedding exaggerated tears while repeating: 「Big Sister, please forgive this foolish younger brother of yours! 」. However, he had no courage to try to step in and save Yoshiharu.

Even Katsuie was dumbfounded by Yoshiharu’s courage (or one could say stupidity) of having belittled Nobuna while she was trying to turn herself into a Demon Lord.

「Goemon, save me! Wait, could she be away? Is it her day off? Aren’t her holidays surprisingly often?! 」

「How dare you make me cry like a girl!?, You are too cheeky for a monkey! Die! 」

「Uhm, Nobuna-sama, and you too, Monkey-dono, please, you can stop now. 」

The retainer with enough courage to finally restrain the two’s endless chase was Nobuna’s military commander who rose to his current position from the rank of an ordinary servant, Niwa Nagahide.

During the Sengoku era, every daimyo had a lot of military commanders, and Nagahide, who had been a servant till just a while back was only 20 years old. She was like an elder sister to Nobuna. However, the air drifting about her was not that of an adult’s, but instead, her aura was more like that of a class monitor, or a student council president elder sister. She did have a very friendly smile, however.

Normally, Nagahide has a gentle personality where she rarely interferes in Nobuna’s affairs,but if things were to go on like this, there was a chance that Yoshiharu might really be cut down by Nobuna when she forgets herself. That’s why Nagahide decided that it was time for her to stand up.

「If Nobukatsu-dono swears his loyalty to you, then wouldn’t that be enough? 」

「No, Manchiyo (that was Nagahide’s nickname). If no one gets punished for making a fool out of me, the rest of my retainers will think that they can do the same without suffering the consequences! 」

While she was putting power into her sword as she swung it down, Nobuna’s expression became sour.

By the way, their battle was in a stalemate since the moment when Yoshiharu had managed to grab the sword that she was swinging at him above his head.

「That person is of a lowly status, not to mention he’s your pet monkey, so finishing things up with Nobukatsu-dono should be more important. That would be worth 80 points. 」

The elder sister-like Nagahide with an unreserved healing smile managed to suppress Nobuna’s anger. Yoshiharu was moved by how dependable of a person she was.

「Hmph. Then Manchiyo, how do you plan on finishing this case? 」

「Let’s see… 」

It was the first time in his life when he had seen that blunt, foul-mouthed and brutal elder sister of his shed tears for him, so Nobukatsu was deeply moved. He decided that from now on he would be reborn and would work to serve his elder sister to the best of his ability.

Having decided that, Nobukatsu prostrated himself at the two’s feet once more, and displayed an unusual side of him different from his normal high-and-mighty attitude.

「Sister. If you are going to forgive me, I won’t allow myself to be influenced by the retainers surrounding me ever again. I will even proudly throw away my Oda surname! From now on, I will take the surname of the branch family of the Oda clan, ‘Tsuda’! 」

「…..That’s a good idea, Nobukatsu-dono. 90 points. 」

「Furthermore, I will change my name as well! The reason I got so feverous over trying to win against you over and over again is because this name of mine, ‘Nobukatsu’ has so many bad vibes to it! From now on, I will serve my sister with a completely clear heart, like the flow of the Kiso river. That’s why I will take on the name of Nobusumi! 」