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Volume 3 Chapter 1 Part 2

Since the Matsudaira clan has believed that cats were their ancestors for generations, she was giving off an indescribable aura of bad intentions just like that of a cat, but whenever she was talking to Nobuna, she was always making sure to maintain a respectable tone with her

Other than these people, there were also The Mino Three: a group of muscular old geezers, the petite loli ninja Hachisuka Goemon, who had the habit of lisping whenever she was saying long sentences, the Kawanami Group: a band of thieves and irredeemable lolicons who worshipped Goemon as their personal idol, and the genius strategist who served Saito Yoshitatsu, Takenaka Hanbei. She was wearing an Ichi-no-Tani kabuto while riding a small pony, and overall she was just tagging along with everyone else while trying not to gather any attention onto herself.

Finally, there was the old geezer who passed on his dream of conquest to his ‘daughter’ Nobuna: Saito Dosan, The Viper of Mino, who was now riding a cart.

Such a band of colorful characters has been united under Nobuna, all of them determined to help her take over Kyoto.

Behind them is a black wave of well-dressed soldiers of the Owari’s army, who all speak various dialects. Mixed in among them are also the newly added, tough-looking troops from the former Mino province, now renamed to Gifu. Not only that, there are also some reinforcements from the Mikawa province among them. Those are the troops sent by Nobuna’s ‘little sister’— Matsudaira Motoyasu.

With these impressive forces gathered under her command, the total fighting strength of Nobuna’s army has exceeded 40,000 men.

There are exactly two routes that make it possible to get from the location of Nobuna’s current base of operations to Kyoto. The first route is to depart from Kiyosu, then go across the Ise province of Tokaido and then proceed through the southern part of the Omi province, and the other route is to depart from Gifu, go through the northern part of the Omi province and then proceed through the Nakasendo trail, slong which southern part of Omi and Toukaido region meet.

For this expedition, Nobuna chose to attack from the Nakasendo route. On this route, she can meet up with the 10,000 allied troops of Azai Nagamasa in northern Omi. Even though the marriage between Nobuna and Azai Nagamasa fell through, the alliance of the Oda clan and the Azai clan was still possible because Nobuna sent her little sister, Oichi, to become Azai Nagamasa’s wife in her place, but the truth is that very little people knew that Nobuna’s ‘little sister’ Oichi was not her little sister at all… but that it was actually her little brother, Tsuda Nobusumi, in disguise.
Although Katsuie had already suggested that Oichi’s real identity may have been discovered, so going to see Azai Nagamasa right now may not be a good idea and tried to stop Nobuna from going through with it, her worries all disappeared when she saw Nagamasa dressed in green and black coming out from the city to greet them. When he approached Nobuna and her entourage, the despicable aura that he previously had around him was all but gone. He even had a respectable look on his face, and when he got off his horse and addressed Nobuna as 「Nee-sama」while bowing his head to her, he shocked everyone present speechless.

Also, the handsome face of Nagamasa that attracts lots of girls had already lost its former cunning look. What had been his only negative point had been replaced by an expression of… gentleness.

「Nee-sama, please let me follow you into battle, and charge together towards the conquest of the world with you. 」

This turn of events made even Nobuna feel uncomfortable. She called Yoshiharu to her, and started whispering into his ear:

「Hey, Monkey. Is it possible that Azai Nagamasa… likes men? 」

「N-No way… that shouldn’t be the case… 」

「Then how come these two look like a happy couple together, huh? 」

「How would a single girl like you know what a happy couple looks like? 」

「Sh-shut up! Me being single has nothing to do with it! 」

「But, he does look as if he changed into a totally different person. Did he and Nobusumi really…(gulp!) 」

「I thought that it was strange when I heard that he apparently started using different kind of perfume recently… Argh, this is so annoying! That’s it! Let’s just pretend that it never happened and move on! 」
「Your own little brother’s virginity is in danger, in more ways than one! You should think of something to save him before…! 」

「I! Don’t! Care! 」

Actually, the reason that Azai Nagamasa’s personality completely changed is because of a certain event that took place recently.

* * *

Location: northern part of the Omi province. The time was the second day after Oichi came to Azai Nagamasa’s home city of Odani and was married to him.

From this city build 500 meters high in the mountains, the entire Lake Biwa can be viewed. The entire moat from north to south is about 1 kilometer long, making it an impressive city which could be potentially difficult to conquer in the event of a siege.

Odani was built by Nagamasa’s grandfather, Azai Sukemasa. It was also Sukemasa who led the Azai clan to rise up as a Sengoku Daimyo in northern Omi. He could really be called a true hero of the Sengoku era. However, Sukemasa’s son Hisamasa wasn’t as good at battling as his father was. Hisamasa lost to Rokkaku Yoshitaka in several skirmishes, and finally became a retainer of the Rokkaku clan. Even his own wife and eldest son Nagamasa were captured and held hostage by them.

Perhaps this was their fate in the Sengoku era.

However, Saruyasamaru, who would later become Nagamasa, was different from his father. He was a young and brave warrior, and was talented at leading infantry in battle. As an added bonus, he was born with a handsome face that dazzled all the girls around him, and all of his qualities have gathered him quite a large group of supporters.

One night, Nagamasa made a decision. He secretly returned to Odani, and with the support from his father’s retainers, he forced his cowardly father Hisamasa to step down from the position of Omi’s Daimyo, and proudly announced that from now on they have nothing to do with the Rokkaku clan and become independent from them.

Rokkaku Shotei was furious when he heard that the Azai clan had rebelled against them, and immediately gathered all their troops to march to the north, intending to take down Nagamasa and suppress his little insurrection, but Nagamasa, who was well-prepared for that, defeated Rokkaku Shotei and his forces even though the Omi clan was severely outnumbered, and from that moment onward the names of two young Sengoku era Daimyos: The Fool of Owari, Oda Nobuna and Azai Nagamasa of the Omi province were the ones that were shaking the Sengoku era Japan down to its very foundation.

Although his father Hisamasa had already given him the position of clan leader, he was always complaining about Nagamasa’s political actions, and since Nagamasa was famous for his filial piety, he did not say much about this.

Hisamasa’s old retainers suggested that they should just exile the old geezer to Chibuku Island in Lake Biwa for good, but Nagamasa replied that he will not be doing that to his own father as he shook his head. Once the fighting ended, he escorted Hisamasa back from Chibuku Island to Odani himself.

This is the kind of person that Azai Nagamasa was.

Recently, Nagamasa thought long and hard on a plan to both make Oda Nobuna, who was recently gaining a lot of fame to her name his wife and facilitate the Azai moving into Owari, planning afterwards to eventually take over the entirety of Japan. Who would have thought that in the end his own ambition would be extinguished by Oda Nobuna and her retainers?

When Nobuna suggested to send the Oda clan’s princess to marry Nagamasa to create an equal marriage alliance between the two clans, Nagamasa had no choice but to accept that offer of hers unwillingly.

However, the quiet flame of Nagamasa’s ambition has not been put out yet.

Oda Nobuna was also a person of ambition much like himself, but in the end she was too benevolent, and sometimes too soft on others. Although she appeared as a cold-hearted Sengoku Daimyo, she was still a spoiled princess at heart. Compared to himself, perhaps it was because she had never been held hostage that enabled her to act so nonchalantly.

If so, angering the Oda clan which had taken Mino for themselves and was growing in power with each passing day would not be a wise decision. Thus, he pretended to act like an ally of Nobuna, but once he would gain her trust and get her to let her guard down around him…