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Volume 3 Chapter 2 Part 6

「Sokyu, from what you are saying, it seems like the arquebuses of your clan will be sold to other people than the Oda clan. You sure are a cunning old man, I’ll give you that. 」

「That’s just the way of doing business. As long as someone offers a higher price, I will sell my products to them before my older customers too. 」

After listening to Sokyu, Nobuna snorted, and looked at the scenery of the courtyard with a smile while drinking the tea that Sokyu had prepared for her.

「It’s nothing much, but what do you think of the tea? 」

「Dearu ka. It is delectable. 」

「And this is my unique takoyaki, 「Nabayashi」. Please try one if you’d like. 」

「Nabayashi」must be a brand developed by Imai Soukyu himself.

「Currently this takoyaki has become a special product in Osaka, but it can only be found in my Nabayashi. 」

Sokyu said.

「This is delicious. Saru, Juubei, why aren’t you eating? 」

At first, they wanted to eat the snacks and drink the tea prepared by Imai Sokyu, but as soon as they remembered that the one who would lose the contest between them would be sent back to Gifu to manage the kitchens of the Gifu Castle, Yoshiharu and Mitsuhide were no longer in the mood to eat anything.

「Nobuna-sama. The matter of managing the kitchens, please reconsider it… The final result of this challenge is already obvious, but even if he is the one who touched my breasts, then punishing Gorilla… *Ekhem!* punishing Sagara-senpai so severely is going to be too cruel. I already feel pitiful towards him. 」

「Hey, Nobuna. I don’t really care about what this boasting forehead girl is saying, but if you really continue to abuse your authority to perform such a ridiculous manpower arrangement, then someone might just revolt against you one day, you know? 」

「No, I already made up my mind, and I won’t be changing it. In the Oda clan, the quality that matters the most is strength. We may not care about family status, but when we engage in rivalry, even the friendly one, we always make sure that this rivalry is going to be fierce. With that said, both of you should work hard from now on in order to not deliver a disappointing spectacle. 」

That was one of Nobuna’s many bad habits: forcing her own retainers into a corner without considering how they themselves would feel about it. But now that their attempt at persuading her to not go through with it has failed, Yoshiharu sighed and thought to himself:

(Nobuna’s first love is somewhere in this city… Just what kind of a guy is he? Damn!)

But aside from that, he was also anxious about how to achieve better results than Mitsuhide to prove to Nobuna that he was innocent.

Of course, the very same thing applied to Mitsuhide herself.

(I wasn’t expecting that I will have to compete against this gorilla, but if I win, I’ll be able to chase him away from Nobuna-sama’s side for good! And then, I, Akechi Mitsuhide will be able to monopolize Nobuna-sama’s loveall to myself!)

As soon as she started thinking about it, her big, sharp eyes started to shine with an immense amount of excitement.

The atmosphere between Yoshiharu and Akechi Mitsuhide was incredibly tense, but Imai Sokyu did not seem fazed by that in the slightest.

「Oh, yes, that reminds me. There was another guest here today. Would you like me to introduce him to you? 」
「Another guest? And who might that be? 」

「Tennojiya’s Tsuda Sogyu. He is a merchant that is comparable to me in terms of money and fame. 」

「Even your names are alike, old man. 」

「Actually, he is my rival in business. 」

Tennojiya’s master, Tsuda Sogyu. In total contrast to Imai Sokyu, he was a neat and clean man.

「It is a pleasure to make your aquaintance. I am Tsuda Sogyu. I am already familiar with Akechi-sama from before. 」

「Dearu ka. 」

Sizing up the clean and neat Tsuda Sogyu, Nobuna didn’t seem to like him very much.

(I can understand why. Now matter how you look at him, this guy is totally not merchant-like at all.)

Yoshiharu’s thoughts were exactly the same as Nobuna’s when he voiced them in his mind.

Tsuda Sogyu was familiar only with Mitsuhide, and after the two of them greeted each other with a 「It’s been a long time 」

, they immediately started talking about the possible methods of acquisition of the 120,000 kan and the competition between Mitsuhide and Yoshiharu, and the fact that the one who is going to lose it will be demoted to management of the kitchens at Gifu Castle.

「Oi, oi, is it ok to say everything out loud like that…? 」
Yoshiharu was sweating nervously as he asked that.

「I see… so this is the situation. Thank you for telling me about it. I think that I now possess a vague understanding of what needs to be done. 」

「Tsuda-dono, what brilliant plan do you have? 」

「Sakai is a city governed by 36 members of the Kaigi Gunshū. If every one of them comes up with 3334 kan , you will be able to obtain a total of 120,000 kan. 」

At this moment, Nobuna opened her mouth and said:

「But of course you Sakai merchants won’t give us such a large amount of money for nothing, right? 」

「Exactly. So, you can just bring us a product worth 120,000 kan, and we will buy it off of you. 」

「I understand. But, what do you guys want to buy? 」

「A new product, something that hasn’t been seen here I Sakai before. 」

「Products, products… like tea sets? Yeah? Well damn, I do not have such valuable stuff. 」

「No, what I am talking about is food. I was hoping that you guys could research and come up with a takoyaki that can be compared to Nabayashi’s takoyaki, and then allow Sakai’s Kaigi Gunshū to sell it. To come up with a different takoyaki than Nabayashi’s takoyaki, and to let everyone sell it… This is what we Kaigi Gunshū want the most in this situation where Nabayashi has pretty much monopolized the takoyaki trade. 」

「In 3 days, the Kaigi Gunshū will organize a gathering. There, both of you will just sell the takoyakis that you have come up with. 」
Tsuda Sougyu said lightly.

「But… in the end, this must have the permission of Nayabashi to do this. Right now, the famous product of Sakai can only be Nayabashi’s takoyaki. We do have lots of profit from it too. 」

「I have no objections. All famous foods can be propelled to greater fame and popularity under fair competition. 」

Imai Sokyu said in a matter-of-factly tone.

「It’s a good plan… But Juubei and Saru, are you guys familiar with cooking…? 」

「We do not need two recipes. We will only buy the one that gets more than half of the votes out of the 36 members of the Kaigi Gunshu. 」

「That’s a strict condition. 」

「With this, it will be easy to see which of the two from the Oda clan will win. 」

Tsuda Sougyu said.

「And in case that it turns out that the products of both sides won’t be worth buying, we will simply abandon our votes. That way, if the result is going to be that both of you won’t be able to get more than half of the votes, then we will not buy either of your products. With this condition, we will not have to worry that we are going to be wasting our money for something that won’t sell in the end. I believe that the other members of the Kaigi Gunshū will agree with my opinion as well. 」

「If they end up that unpopular, the merchants will not buy them. 」

Imai Soukyu nodded and agreed with Tsuda’s words.
For Nobuna and her gang, this condition was indeed very strict, but at this time they have no choice but to accept it, since it was the best shot they could have at getting the necessary amount of money.

「I got it. Juubei! Saru! Do you hear that? Now, think of some new types of Takoyaki right now! 」

「Understood! Against Gorilla… No, no, I will not lose against Sagara-senpai! Now I know that my days spent as a ronin were not in vain, for I have gained some knowledge in the art of cooking! 」

「Wait a minute there! I have totally no knowledge of how to cook! Can we change the way the competition is to be had so that it would be fair to the both of us?! 」