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Volume 3 Chapter 7 Part 5

「Ahh, this is bad! 」

「Please forgive us for our rudeness, Oichi-hime! 」

「Forgive us! 」

(Is that it…? Is this the end of the line for me?)

Just when Nobusumi was about ready to give up.

「Hachisuka Goemon enters the fray! Nin nin! 」

*Boom!*

With a loud bang, a small ninja clothed in black and a young warrior grumbling 「Ow, I think I feel a little sick! 」 appeared.

「Ohh. Ninja-kun, Monkey-kun! What are you guys doing here?! 」

「Leave that for later! And more importantly, why did YOU come here? D-don’t tell me that things really turned out like we guessed? 」

「Now isn’t the time to talk about the reasons, hurry and give this to Nee-sama…! 」

Using the time Goemon bought him by delaying with the soldiers, Nobusumi took out a small bean sack that was tied at both ends and threw it to Yoshiharu.

This small bean sack… Yoshiharu couldn’t be more familiar with it.

This is the important event in the Sengoku era strategy game’s greatest work, 「The Ambition of Oda Nobunaga」, the famous small bean sack that appears in the event「Retreat at Kanegasaki」. Looks like things had really gone down the route leading to the worst case scenario then.

「I got it! Goemon, I leave it to you to handle the rest! I know it’s a bit hard, but please delay these soldiers for as long as you possibly can! 」

「It’s too dangerous to go there alone, Sagara-sama! 」

「I know, but what other choice do I have!? 」

Once again, the time for Yoshiharu to gallop on had come.

「Don’t forget that I’m here as well! 」

With a high-pitched laugh, a shadow dropped towards them from the sky. It had a long, pale face and was wearing a noble’s attire. This man was the manifestation of a fox yokai serving under Hanbei.

「It’s Zenki! Good to have you aboard! 」

Hanbei’s substitute, Zenki. Though he has a noble and suave face, he is in fact a Shikigami summoned by an Onmyodo talisman. In Kiyomizu-dera, he was the one that dug the way to the groundwater and extinguished the flames in the main hall and protected Hanbei from the attack of Matsunaga Hisahide’s puppets.

「Under the request of my master, I will look after you. 」

「I’m relieved to have someone like you, with such a game-breaking strength stat, here with me. 」

「No. Though I’m invincible in Kyoto, in Echizen my strength is greatly diminished. If I’m hit by a bullet, I will be down for the count, and once I’m down, I won’t be of help to you anymore. 」

「I see. And without Hanbei-chan around, there is going to be no way to summon you again. 」

「Your monkey language is hard to understand, but you seem to at least understand the situation you’re in, which is good. 」

「I feel complicated being called a monkey by a fox. 」

「If you’re talking about that tanuki, she should be at Echizen. 」

「And there is a dog with a tiger skin. I will not let anyone die! 」

「Monkey-kun, I leave Nee-sama in your hands! Ninja-kun, please save Nagamasa-chan with me! 」

After hearing the calls of Nobusumi behind them, Yoshiharu and Zenki rode on ahead, heading onwards to the fated place… Echizen.

* * *

After conquering Kanegasaki Castle at Echizen, the 30,000 strong Oda clan’s army was heading to Kinometōge like a flood. Once they pass through there, Echizen’s Asakura Yoshikage would have only his base camp, Ichijodani Castle, left.

One month had passed, and in one more week, Echizen would be conquered.

The reason Nobuna had launched a surprise attack on the northern area of Echizen was also to slow down the God of War of Echigo, Uesugi Kenshin. This was her real motive.

The two strongest clans of Japan, her rivals in the past, Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin had already declared a truce amongst themselves.

If that God of War, the one seemingly born for war, were to attack Echizen from Echigo, Nobuna would have to fight Kenshin’s troops at the plains of Omi. If that’s the case, even if she had the help of the Azai and Matsudaira troops, the chances of her admittedly weak Owari troops winning would be laughably small.

Due to this, conquering Echizen gained an even greater priority in her eyes.

Echizen’s Asakura clan is an old clan that held tradition and rules in high regards. Even the ordinary soldiers wore old and plain armor. Once they saw the colorful and special armor of the Owari troops, they were shocked and thought to themselves that Kyoto’s big shots were indeed different as they surrendered, not one of them noticing the fact that the Owari troops were the weakest.

As for the overall commander riding the black horse , 「 Chikaragantakuro」, Nobuna was wearing a glamorous western armor, and on her head sat the elegant western hat given to her by Frois. The retainer at her side, Inuchiyo, was carrying a huge grandfather clock and following behind Nobuna while panting .

This huge grandfather clock was originally given to Nobuna by Frois, but Nobuna said, 「No one knows how to use such a delicate thing even if I accept it.」 and was thinking of rejecting it, but Yoshiharu said 「Let me think of an idea」and so they kept it.

They had planned to keep this grandfather clock as a treasure, but even Inuchiyo did not expect that they will bring such a thing into the battlefield. But because the Asakura troops had been losing sleep and had never seen such a thing before, they were full of discussions, like 「 Strange, is that a new weapon from Sakai? 」, or 「For the Oda troops that had so many firearms to have such a thing, it might be a weapon of the western barbarians even stronger than cannons! 」 , and the clock proved an unexpected benefit.

Wherever the Oda clan’s troops marched into Echizen, they did not meet any resistance at all.

「Hehe. If I were Azai Nagamasa, I would definitely defect. With that, Oda clan would be trapped like a rat when the Echizen’s and the Azai clan’s troops wouldlaunch a pincer attack against us. 」

Only Matsunaga Hisashide was laughing to herself and saying such unlucky things. But since she had long since gotten so used to betrayals as to seeing them everywhere, the rest did not mind her too much.

But the Oda troops that had been going at a great speed stopped just before entering Kinometōge.

At a gathering of Nobuna’s generals, Sagara Yoshiharu and Takenaka Hanbei’s substitute Zenki suddenly rushed in.

「The Azai clan has defected! The Oda clan’s troops are now like this bean sack, and don’t have any way out! 」

Yoshiharu rushed over, sometimes stumbling and crawling, and passed the small bean sack over to Nobuna. But then Nobuna found it impossible to believe what she just heard with her ears. Actually, Nobuna did not even understand what Yoshiharu was talking about.

「Monkey, what sort of dumb things are you saying now? I can’t for the life of me figure out why, but Nagamasa and Kanjuuro are on good terms with each other. Even his personality has improved. I understand that he will be caught in a bind between the Asakura clan and the Oda clan, but for the dream of Tenka Fubu we had no choice but to stabilize the north. He must have understood this perfectly. Speaking logically, he should not care about this and let it go… 」

「No, it’s all my fault… 」 Yoshiharu said, lowering his head in shame.

「I should have known that this would definitely happen if you attacked Echizen, but I’m really…an incurable idiot! I totally thought you were really attacking Wakasa! This is all because of my mistake! Before you moved out, I should have checked whether you had any plans of attacking Echizen or not…! 」

(Monkey…is he crying…?)

「Sagara-dono does not seem to be playing around. 1 point. 」

The generals at Nobuna’s side were all silent.

「…But… There is no way for me to believe it. 」

「Nobusumi had run away from the castle wanting to pass this small bean sack to you, but he was met with soldiers on the way, so he passed it to me. Azai Hisamasa who was supposed to be retired stirred things up and imprisoned Nagamasa and retaking control of the Azai clan. It seems like he have rather strong negative feelings against us for keeping him in the dark about attacking the Asakura clan. 」

「Hisamasa might be dumb, but how can he do such a ridiculous thing? It’s impossible! 」