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Volume 2 Chapter 2 Part 4

Nobuna asked.

From the Muromachi period, retainers that have been protecting the daimyos have been using the onmyoujis to decide on which day to launch an attack against their enemies, and were using them to cast spells and curses on the leaders of the rival clans was not uncommon either. But, as new and rising Sengoku era daimyos, Saito Dosan and Oda Nobuna did not care about things that could not be proven with logic and reason. They would rather order their troops to move and attack freely or to initiate lightning fast battles than rely on old fortune telling techniques that would slow down their troop’s movements. Because of this. Nobuna was shocked to hear that this genius strategist Takenaka Hanbei was an onmyouji, since to her the practitioners of that profession were old and mysterious entities.

「Now in this era of western science, such an advisor is not going to be an opponent worthy of fighting against me at all! I bet that at most she’s going to be capable of nothing more but cheap tricks! 」

「Seeing is believing. You will understand once you face her in battle, but let me warn you in advance: if you choose to underestimate her, you might end up losing your life.

「You won’t know what will happen unless you try! Everyone, move out to Mino now! Let me see what is so great about this Takenaka Hanbei with my own eyes! 」

Nobuna stood up gallantly, and rushed out of the meeting room alone. Everyone has already gotten used to her behavior, so no one was really alarmed by this.

「Oi, wait! What are you gonna do if you rush out alone!? 」

Yoshiharu shouted, but she wasn’t listening to him anymore, so he and Inuchiyo rushed out and chased after her. But at the same time, Yoshiharu’s brain was already working on full throttle.

(A plan like the one we used at the battle of Okehezama will most likely not work a second time…)

He thought to himself as he was beginning to have a bad feeling about this. However, before he and Inuchiyo could even leave the room to properly go after Nobuna, Dosan stopped Yoshiharu and gave him an idea.
「Brat, Nobuna-dono will most likely be heading towards defeat at this point. Can you keep this a secret from Nobuna-dono and lend me 50 of your soldiers? 」

After listening to him, Yoshiharu agreed and nodded his head instantly.

* * *

「We’re going to conquer and claim my godfather Dosan’s Mino province with our own hands! 」

Nobuna personally lead thousands of the Owari army’s soldiers to battle, and headed towards the lands of Mino with such a rallying cry propelling her forward. Though they had met with some resistance of the soldiers from Mino’s army, they managed to defeat every single one of them one by one. At this point, it seemed like Owari’s army would be unstoppable.

Owari’s army had always been rated as one of the weakest armies of the Sengoku period, mostly because people thought that Oda Nobuna, 「The fool of Owari」, was actually unfit to command her own army, and up until recently, that nickname of hers was still being spoken in a derogative way, but after attaining the miraculous victory in the battle of Okehazama, not only did Nobuna’s fame started to rise rapidly, the Owari soldiers who had always had low morale had been seen saying such things amongst themselves:

「Nobuna-sama might be a fool, but she sure has a backbone of a damn hero! 」

「Yeah, I’ve also seen it! on the eve of the battle of Okehazama, Nobuna-sama was prepared to die, and with her resolve she danced to the tune of that popular song! That scene was so beautiful that I cried! No, I’m not even kidding, I genuinely cried! 」

「We will follow Nobuna-sama until the end, even if she leads us t the depths of hell itself! 」

The soldiers became lively like this, which was a stark contrast to how they never shown any motivation to fight before. Looks like no matter the era, guys will always fall for beautiful women.

At the front of the troops and holding the job of vanguard is obviously the fiercest general of the Owari army, Shibata Katsuie, and in the middle of it were Nobuna’s personal bodyguards along with Nagahide and Inuchiyo, and at the back of the army was Nobusumi, since he was rated as the weakest out of all of Nobuna’s retainers. That was to be expected, since Nobuna herself commented that he and his troops would be totally useless when fighting against the strong army of the Mino province, since Nobusumi was not much of a fighter himself and was always relying on Katsuie to do everything for him while she was still his retainer. It is in the middle of Nobusumi’s army where Yoshiharu was placed as well, since he was deeped just as useless in combat as Nobusumi himself. As he sucked at horse riding, he could only continue to ride atop of it while sitting behind Goemon.

「Why did she throw me at the back !? I wanna make some big achievements in this battle! This is so disappointing! How can I prove myself from all the way out here?! 」

「It can’t be helped. It’s vious people will wurry about you iv ju can’t get uzed to horse riding, Sagara-sama. 」

「Really? And here I thought that as long as you get a promotion and your rank increases, things such as being able or unable to ride horses doesn’t matter anymore. 」

「Alright, we have peacefully passed the Sakai river, and the enemies are nowhere to be seen. How I wish we could just rest here for the whole day without anything unexpected happening. 」

Nobusumi said with a refreshing smile on his face.

「You’re too naive, Nobusumi. Didn’t your father, Nobuhide, get defeated when he camped in the middle of the enemies’ controlled turf? We can’t let them ambush us here, so we should just rush all the way in. 」

「Otou-sama was defeated because of Saito Dosan and his devious scheming. Now that Saito Dosan is guarding Aoshuu for us, defeating Saito Yoshitatsu should be a piece of cake. No matter what, that big brute is just someone without a brain in his head. He is nothing compared to me, as expected of the most gentlemanly man of Owari, hahahahaha! 」

(There should be a limit to how optimistic you can be.)

Yoshiharu thought to himself.
「Oh, there mist is rising. And it’s getting thicker, Monkey-kun. 」

「It’s so weird to have mist at such a time at night. W with this, it seems like advancing any further will be impossible, or at best incredibly difficult. 」

It would also seem like Nobuna, who was in the middle of the army was also considering stopping for now. Shibata Katsuie’s vanguard army had also stopped moving. With this, the whole army had stopped in the forest called 「Nagamori」. The town at the tip of it was just in front of them, and the distance between the Owari army and Inabayama castle was just that of a short 4 km.

(Hmm, come to think of it, during the time when we were saving Dosan, it seemed like there was mist gathering in the area as well.)

Sagara thought while his heart was filled with a weird sense of restlessness. At that time, it’s because of the mist that they could get near Dosan’s base without getting spotted by any of the forces of Saito Yoshitatsu. Back then he thought that it was a stroke of luck for them that the weather turned out to be like that, but what if it was not a natural occurrence at all, but instead a trick that was supposed to disrupt Saito Dosan’s chain of command…

(Impossible. A magician who can control mist should not exist in this time. Maybe during the Heian period which was full of demons and ghosts, but this is the Sengoku era, for crying out loud! Even in the most esteemed game 「The Ambition of Oda Nobunaga」there is no magic commands like those in RPG games. A battle’s outcome is decided on the amount of soldiers, equipment, and the general leading them, just as it should be in real life.)

Yoshiharu muttered to himself.

At that moment… suddenly, there were shouts sounding out all around them. Mino soldiers started coming out from the forest, the dam, and villages to ambush the Owari’s army.

「Damn, an ambush! 」

Following the sound of battle drums, soldiers started rushing out in waves. It was almost like the strategy of the genius strategist from 「Romance of the Three Kingdoms」, Zhuge Liang.

「Wh…Wh…Wh…What is going on, Monkey-kun?! 」