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Volume 2 Chapter 5 Part 8

Shibata Katsuie and Niwa Nagahide had their own armies spread out to battle with enemy countries for the sake of the world as one. So in the end, no help arrived….

Putting aside the Nobunaga who had transformed into a Demon Lord of the Sixth Heaven, the Nobuna in front of him was cute, even though she had a sharp tongue. To let her meet such a pitiful end when she was still chasing her dream… that is something that Yoshiharu will not accept it even if it were to kill him.

In Yoshiharu’s heart, he had realized that he was probably sent here to this world to help Nobuna avoid the fate of death in「The Honno-ji Incident 」. But his own brain seems to have been avoiding the topic of Honno-ji until now. This is because Nobunaga, who had almost fulfilled his ambition was swallowed by the sea of flames, and not even a hair was left after him. Such a pathetic way of departing from this world was truly pathethic for someone as grand and famous as Nobunaga, and Yoshiharu didn’t even want to think about the same happening to Nobuna.

But what if he won’t be able to be by her side when the time comes? Or what if help won’t be able to reach her in time? Whenever he thought about it, he felt pain in his chest so great that it could be enough to tear him apart.

(And now the fated traitor, Akechi Juubei Mitsuhide, has also shown herself. If now is not the right time to work towards avoiding the incident at Honno-ji, then I don’t know when the right time will be.)

Yoshiharu thought to himself.

「… But no matter how I look at her, this serious, diligent and pure Juubei-chan will never revolt. Maybe I am overthinking things? 」

Nobuna, who was sitting high up, was staring at Yoshiharu and Mitsuhide as they looked at each other.

「I must say, what are you guys doing by being so lovely-dovey with one another? Juubei, that Monkey is being fed by me personally. If you dare to ‘feed’ him yourself, I won’t show you any mercy. 」

「I understand. 」
Suddenly, the peaceful atmosphere between Nobuna and Mitsuhide became tense, but Yoshiharu did not notice this at all. In fact, even Nobuna and Mitsuhide herself didn’t seem to notice it.

It’s like the fate of these three was something that no one in this world could predict.

「Let’s start the feast then! Tonight, no one is allowed to go home sober! 」

Having come up in the middle of the reward ceremony, the Imagawa Yoshimoto matter was solved after a long debate. And then, before anyone noticed, it was already the middle of the night.

* * *

Saito Dosan, whose opinion totally differed from Nobuna’s, was sitting quietly at the top of Kinkazan. Initially, he built this shed on the mountaintop to have a place where he could sip his tea quietly, but it had been many years since his last visit here.

Dosan now sat outside of the shed while looking down at the night view of the town below him. He spent half of his lifetime pursuing dreams like capturing Mino, going to the capital, and conquering the world, and now, these dreams of his that were once shattered were fulfilled by Nobuna. Her marriage with Azai Nagamasa was canceled too, and Nobuna’s small dream as a girl was protected after much difficulty.

But letting Yoshitatsu go was, too naïve of her.

「There will definitely be troubles ahead for this overly sympathetic brat, but I’m afraid my mission here is almost done. Maybe I should find a faraway country and disappear there without a trace? 」

If he himself were absent, then Nobuna would definitely have decided to execute Yoshitatsu. His own existence might be that brat’s sole weakness. That, he had mysteriously begun to cough more and more recently.

Dosan couldn’t even count exactly how many years he lived on this earth.

「You will rot if you stay in a place like this alone, geezer. Hurry and show your face at the feast. 」

「That’s right! Everyone is waiting for the previous Daimyo of the Mino province to appear! 」

Letting Nene ride on top of his shoulders, Yoshiharu sat down beside Dosan while panting, after climbing the mountain all the way to the top.

「There’s no need for. I will just stay here. 」

「Geezer, don’t tell me you are throwing a tantrum? That isn’t good… 」

「It’s because I feel very uneasy over Nobuna-dono’s naïvety. 」

Dosan revealed his thoughts to Yoshiharu without reserve.

(Sagara Yoshiharu… Though he is a lad with unknown origins, there is no one better suited to watch over Nobuna.)

Dousan understood this clearly.

「Geezer, Yoshitatsu might be your adopted son, but he is still someone you had raised like your own kin. Nobuna would not kill Yoshitatsu herself. As someone who had chased away the country’s previous Daimyo but kept his son around, you must have been thinking of giving Mino back to Yoshitatsu after you have conquered the world, right? This should be another dream hidden in that heart of yours. So how could she bear to order his execution? 」

「This is exactly why she is naïve. 」

「It’s a bit early to think in such a muddle-headed way, even for you 」

Yoshiharu laughed.

「Of course, Nobuna isn’t so naïve that she would help Yoshitatsu without getting something in return for it. If you had said ‘Don’t kill Yoshitatsu’, Nobuna might have executed Yoshitatsu without hesitation. If she did, you wouldn’t have to bear the sin of killing your own son. 」

「I will never let that brat bear such a sin, and she knew about this too. From the start, Nobuna-dono probably had no wish to kill Yoshitatsu at all. 」

Dosan thought.

「That idiot. I’ve got one leg in the grave already, so as a Viper of Mino, one or two more sins wouldn’t make that big of a difference to me. 」

「You are no longer the Viper. Aren’t you the same as her, geezer? If you really wished to kill Yoshitatsu, you wouldn’t have left him alive till today. From the moment you named Nobuna as your successor, didn’t you try your best to convince Yoshitatsu to accept it? 」

「….Ugh, it’s just as you say. But you know what? The thought of finishing off Yoshitatsu silently had never crossed my mind. After entrusting my dream to Nobuna-dono, all I could think of was to ask for forgiveness from my own adopted son. 」

The one who was truly naïve here was Saito Dosan himself.

「I wanna pee! 」

Nene started to struggle on top of Yoshiharu.

「Bear with it, please bear with it for a while longer, okay?! 」

Yoshiharu calmed Nene while walking off.

「Place yourself in front of a mirror and look at it. After meeting with Nobuna at Masanori Temple, you had totally become ‘Buddha Dosan’ already. Nobuna does not want to add to your sins anymore. 」

「I banished my own lord and stole Inabayama Castle and the surrounding town from him. Even now, it looks like Nobuna-dono does hate the sins I committed from the bottom of her heart. 」

「Huh? What dumb stuff are you saying, geezer? Don’t tell me you’ve really become senile in the head so fast? This fortress and town have a new name, so read about them yourself. 」

Leaving these words, Yoshiharu brought Nene down from Kinkazan, leaving Dosan by himself to gaze upon the scenery.

In the darkness of the night, uncountable lights from the town starts to appear. At the start it was still a mess of lights, but slowly, they formed a picture, which took the form of a snake.

Different from the scary Viper, it looked like a funny and cute snake that appears in children folktales.

This was Nobuna’s order. She went and asked the people in the town to light up the lanterns and form the shape of the snake. If he had not been at the top of Kinkazan, he would not have been able to see such a spectacular sight.

Dosan almost choked on the feelings gushing from his heart, and in a shaking voice, spoke the new name of the fortress and the town.

Gifu Castle and Gifu province.

At this deserted shed in the mountains, Dosan took out the paper fan from his robes with trembling hands, and quietly covered his own face….

Because he didn’t want the bright moon in the sky, which was still quietly looking at him, to see the tears of happiness he was shedding.