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Volume 3 Chapter 5 Part 1

Chapter 5: Akechi Mitsuhide, the defender of Kyoto!

Nobuna rode off alone from Sakai at a gallop in order to catch up with Yoshiharu, but there was no sight of him at all along the way leading towards the capital.

「Don’t tell me he already returned to Mino! 」

Passing by Kyoto and venturing into Omi’s territory, Nobuna drank from her gourd as she rode alongside Lake Biwa.

During the trip, even though the sun was already down, she didn’t have the time to spent the night at a commoner’s house.

Mitsuhide, who understood important traditions and had a very good upbringing, and Yoshiharu, who had supposedly come to this world from the future; if the two of them didn’t cooperate with each other, there would be no meaning in having both of them serve as her retainers at all. If anything, in terms of personalities, these two should be able to help each other out. Though Mitsuhide was perhaps too serious for her own good, she was easily distracted by the work in front of her to the point of being blind to her surroundings. On the othe hand, Yoshiharu, who was a lecher by nature and was always playing around, could look at things from a different, objective angle, and thus often discovered problems and solutions that others around him would miss altogether.

But compared to this, if Yoshiharu couldn’t accomplish more, things would be even more worrying for Nobuna.

(I must let him accomplish more meaningful feats, and finally promote him to the position of a Chief Advisor of the Oda clan, and then I will let him become the ruler of his own province. After finally starting the final stages of Tenka Fubu, I must give him all the commanding authority of the troops and let him become the biggest contributor of the Oda-clan to unify the country. Then, I must let the officials give Monkey a position that no one else can match, let his status rise far above what normal people could ever hope to reach….. If that’s not enough, if that can’t change this country by then, I should just build a large boat and leave this country with him and tour the world, going to the other side of it if necessary…leaving the small Japan and entering the wide world named ‘Earth’… not a single person in this country could object it or tell us what to do anymore, and then Monkey and I could… Wait! What the hell am I thinking about? Am I sick or something?!)

Nobuna shook off these thoughts while riding on along the road.

Even though her attire was still that of her incognito persona, Kichi the daughter of an Uiromochi merchant, she was more than lucky that because of the rush she was in there was no one who could notice that this girl – blushing fiercely and mumbling 「Why must I be so worried about that Monkey? 」 in anguish – was actually Oda-clan’s Daimyo, Oda Nobuna.

However, there was one person who had seen through Nobuna’s identity, and right now, he was sitting quietly in ambush on the side of a mountain.
This man was none other than the head of the mercenaries who had scared Frois while trespassing on the Namban-ji together with Mitsuhide before: an assassin garbed in a monk’s attire, with a tanegashima held across his shoulder.

This man’s name was Sugitani Zenjubo.

Sugitani Zenjubo was currently hiding in one of the torn down houses, waiting for Nobuna’s arrival. At the corner of the house, Yoshiharu was laying on the floor with his whole body tied up with ropes like a piece of smoked ham.

「Damn, you are the one who wanted to do all those despicable things at the Namban-ji, right? Who the hell are you? 」

Yoshiharu’s face was heavily bruised, most likely due to the violent struggle that he had with Sugitani Zenjubo when the man was capturing him, and when he later taught him a thorough lesson on how to behave.

「Since you won’t be living much longer, I suppose I don’t need to hide it. I am Sugitani Zenjubo, one of the Koga ninjas. 」

「Y-You’re a ninja?! Like hell I’d believe that! 」

「Though I am a ninja, it is true that the weapon I am most proficient with is the tanegashima. 」

Zenjubou said, wiping the oil off the tanegashima in his hands.

「Koga ninjas do not care about anything but money. Right now, the mission I have been given by a certain someone is to kill Oda Nobuna. But, as expected, it was hard for me to act in Sakai, so I laid an ambush in order to kill her here, where no one will be able to interfere. 」

「A certain someone? Who is that ‘certain someone’? 」

「Who knows? 」

Zenjubo emitted a sinister laugh below his bamboo hat.

「Even if there is no great fight to decide the winner, as long as the enemy general is dead, it is a victory to us. 」

「Stop that! Terrorist attacks will never change the course of history! 」

「Temples and monks will not change the course of history either… probably. But if one can go to heaven by just burning incenses and praying to god, humans would not need to go through such hard times as we are going through now. 」

Zenjubo said.

「But why are you waiting in Omi? Nobuna should have headed to the capital by now! 」

「According to the information forced out from one of the servants of the Imai clan, she should be heading towards Mino even as we speak.

「Huh? Heading towards Mino instead of the capital? Why is that? Don’t tell me Takeda Shingen had started to march toward the capital as well?! 」

「No. Takeda Shingen has made no such movements whatsoever. The princess seems to be chasing after specifically after you, Saru… or rather, Sagara Yoshiharu. 」

「She’s coming here… for me? 」

「Hehe. Since she came on this incognito trip with you, then maybe she is showing you more affection than you were giving her credit for? 」

「You bastard! 」

Yoshiharu was so angry that he wanted to aim a kick at Zenjubo, but because the ropes were tied too tightly, he couldn’t move an inch.

「Use Oda Nobuna’s pet monkey to lure Nobuna herself out… simple, but an incredibly effective strategy. As soon as she sees you here all battered and beaten up, she will definitely go into a panic and rush towards you without thinking, and then all that I will need to do is a simple *BANG!*, and that’s going to be it for her. 」

「What can you possibly stand to gain by doing something so stupid?! Just what kind of deep hatred do you have against Nobuna……! 」

「Deep hatred? I have none whatsoever for her. 」

「Is it about money then? If it is, I can give you 3 times the amount that your boss promised you, so stop it right this instant! 」

「Hmph. My wish is to let my gun skills be known throughout the world. If I kill that famous Oda Nobuna, the name of Sugitani Zenjubo will definitely spread across not only the Koga, but even through all the ninjas across Japan. With that, everyone will know that when I, Sugitani Zenjubo take aim, I will never miss. 」

「What the hell…..! You want to mess this country up for such a messed up reason? 」

「Funny you should say that. This country was messed up to begin with, and if it is unified now, it would only cause people like me more trouble. This Sengoku era where I can just kill as many people as I wish and rob as much as I wish off of them, is the best place ever. Hahahahaha! 」

An opinion of a pure-blooded assassin, a man who looks at the whole country suffering under the tides of war, yet he soaks it all in and enjoys himself. To think that such a man like him actually exists!

No matter how skillful Yoshiharu was at persuading people, he had a depressingly low chance of convincing such a person of anything.

「The princess of the Oda clan who is chasing her little monkey will soon be here. Look carefully, because the enjoyable assassination show will begin shortly. 」

At the bushes outside of the destroyed house and at the side of the road, there was a pole that Sugitani Zenjubo erected there beforehand. Then, he dragged Yoshiharu out of the house, made sure that none of the ropes he was tied with were loose, and fixed him onto the pole before he himself hid in the house.

Yoshiharu had totally and literally become a bait for Nobuna.