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Volume 2 Chapter 1 Part 3

「But if she saw your cute face, then maybe she could discover her girly side. 」

Judging by the rude conversation they were having amongst themselves, that young, black-haired samurai seems to have no interest in Nobuna as a man.

「Thanks to the charm of master, all of the monkeys of Owari will submit themselves to us without us even trying! 」

「To think that you have to marry such an idiotic princess, I feel so sorry for you, master. 」

「Political marriages are a common thing in this Sengoku era, so sometimes you need to let go of all the girls loving you for the greater good. 」

「Master, all the girls will cry if they learn that you are doing this. If you abandon so many of them, there might be some who might even consider ending their own lives because of it.

「Girls who think they can do anything in this Sengoku era are pathetic. They are all only chess pieces for us men to use however we see fit. 」

「Damn! Those guys really piss me off! 」

Yoshiharu couldn’t help but to scoff at those people.

「It’s okay if they want to treat Nobuna like a monkey, but I’ll absolutely not forgive anyone who treats beautiful girls as their personal playthings! It has nothing to do with treating Nobuna like an idiot! 」

Squinting her eyes while looking at the flag of these people who walk past, Inuchiyo lowered her voice and said:

「The pattern on the flags they’re holding, three flower petals on 3 tortoise shells, means they are not part of Nobuna-sama’s army. 」

「Don’t tell me they are the guests that Nobuna is entertaining? Arrogant assholes like these? 」

「No, I don’t think so. Since we are buying so much hatcho miso, the one who should be coming to visit her should be the bespectacled tanuki. 」

「Bespectacled tanuki? Ah, you mean her. 」

The bespectacled tanuki is referring to the leader of the Mikawa province, Matsudaira Motoyasu, based in Okazaki. The purpose of her visit, if Yoshiharu remembered correctly, was to sign a peace treaty with Nobuna. She is the one who will eventually change her name to Tokugawa Ieyasu, a tragic female daimyo who had to bury her own ambitions deep within her heart, since her province was trapped right in between the Owari province controlled by the Oda clan and Suruga province controlled by Imagawa Yoshimoto’s Imagawa clan. When she was young, she was once kidnapped by the Imagawa clan as a hostage, and was later taken to Owari by Oda Nobuhide, Nobuna’s father. In the end, she was used as a bargaining chip between these two clans and sold back to the Imagawa clan. Her early tragic life can be described as a ball being kicked around, or a hot potato passed around from one set of hands to the other.

After the Battle of Okehazama, when she who was once nothing more but her lackey received words that Imagawa Yoshimoto has been defeated made a hasty retreat along with her forces back to Okazaki, where she then proceeded to proclaim that Mikawa was now an independent province, free from the influence of Imagawa Yoshimoto and her clan.

Because of this, Imagawa’s army, which was defeated right in the middle of Owari and Mikawa was unable to retreat and has subsequently dispersed away. Imagawa Yoshimoto herself, who has lost both her status as the head of the clan and her army, was destroyed by Takeda Shingen who invaded the Suruga province soon after.

Matsudaira Motoyasu always wears head ornaments shaped like tanuki ears and tail accessories due to the belief that her family has a tradition of worshipping tanukis as their guardian deities, but from the looks of it, people can use that peculiar habit of hers to criticize her for being able to see through her and her characteristics just by her attire. Oh, and by the way, she is also extremely near-sighted, because of which she’s forced to always wear glasses which she had to import from overseas. In short, she’s one messed up female daimyo, there’s no doubts about it.
Later that day, at noon, at Aoshuu’s grand hall. The daimyo of the Mikawa province, Matsudaira Motoyasu sat across Owari’s daimyo Oda Nobuna, with Inuchiyo and Yoshiharu standing at either side of her. After defeating Imagawa Yoshimoto, Oda Nobuna seemed to be in a very good mood, and appeared stylishly with her yukata half opened, her gourd strapped at her waist and an Arquebus leaning against her shoulder.

After the meeting with Saito Dosan, it had been a long time since Yoshiharu had seen her in her beautiful daimyo attire, so he couldn’t help but feel a little bit let down when he realized that she was going to meet Matsudaira Motoyasu in her fool’s attire.

(A-Anyway… Whatever looks No….Nobuna may have chosen to present herself in, it has n-nothing to do with me at all! I-I don’t care about it one bit!)

That was the kind of tsundere line that Yoshiharu could only murmur to himself in his heart.

Acting like she did not see him acting strangely at all just now, Nobuna patted Motoyasu on the shoulder and said:

「it’s been quite some time, Takechiyo! 」

Matsudaira Motoyasu, whose childhood name is Takechiyo, has been friends with Nobuna since they were children.

As it was stated above, since Nobuna was currently in a very good mood, she also decided to greet Motoyasu while munching on one of her favorite snacks, specially made chicken wings. As a side note, Nobuna was once dissatisfied with the size of the chicken wings that have been served to her, so she ordered a change to the chicken variety. Now ,the chicken wing in her hand is as big as that of a turkey as a result.

「Rather than calling it a chicken wing, I will call it a cow’s hoof instead! 」

Yoshiharu couldn’t help but feel alarmed by that statement. If Nobuna’s advisor Niwa Nagahide were around, she would definitely say something along the lines of:

「Make sure to wear proper attire when signing a peace treaty with someone! This kind of sloppy attire is too easygoing even for you, 8 points! 」

「Yeah~Hehe~ It’s been a while, Kichi-nee-san~ 」

While eating Uiroumochi smothered heavily with hatcho miso, Motoyasu smiled and bowed her head to Nobuna. But for some reason, her voice seems to be trembling a bit, and the tanuki accessories on top of her head were vibrating too. It was a small, barely visible kind of movement, but even so, Yoshiharu’s eyes were still able to detect it on her.

「Inuchiyo, why is Motoyasu trembling like that? 」

「…When the bespectacled Tanuki was imprisoned in Owari, she was bullied *cough* *cough*… showered with love and affection everyday by the young Nobuna-sama . At that time, whenever Nobuna-sama would catch the bespectacled tanuki in her clutches, she would do so while saying: 「You have nowhere to run, tanuki demon!! Prepared to be turned into teppanyaki! 」and then she would tie the bespectacled tanuki on top of a tree and start a fire beneath her. 」

While saying that, Inuchiyo’s expression start to show a little bit of fear as well.

「Wow, that’s messed up even by her standards.Tthat would become a big issue if she did something like that in my world. 」

「Really? But giving animal names to her beloved subordinates, is the way in which Nobuna-sama shows her love towards her retainers. 」

Inuchiyo muttered quietly.

「So in conclusion, after being captured by the Oda clan, Motoyasu became Nobuna’s lackey. What a miserable and pitiful childhood she must’ve had. 」

「…Most likely her body still remembers the horrors it experienced at that time, so I think she’s going to try to do her best to not offend Nobuna-sama in any way. 」

After hearing all that, Yoshiharu pitied Motoyasu from the bottom of his heart.
「Takechiyo, let me introduce you to my trusted aide and my pet monkey. This cute little girl over there that looks like a puppy is Maeda Inuchiyo. The one who looks like a disgusting animal, has a perverted face, no manners and is always full of himself is a monkey who calls himself Sagara Yoshiharu. Though his brain seems to be damaged so badly that he always thinks of himself as a human, don’t be shy to call him Monkey, since that’s all that he really is! 」

「Oh really now? I’m Matsudaira Motoyasu, childhood name Takechiyo. Please take care of me. 」

Just for an instant, Motoyasu’s eyes seemed like they flickered with some strange light, almost as if she was trying to hide something from them. Yoshiharu did not really mind it though, and bowed his head to her after they exchanged greetings.