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Volume 4 Chapter 1 Part 2

「…Haa…Haa…Haaa… A dream, it was just a dream… Good, good…. 」

This was Kyoto’s Myōkaku-dera, a place where Sagara Yoshiharu and his allies had been staying. In the room next door, Takenaka Hanbei was also lying on a tatami mat, and as for Hachisuka Goemon and Sagara Yoshiharu… have yet to return from their mission in the Omi province.

The Oda Nobuna’s army had moved out to assault Echizen’s Asakura clan. But one day, Yoshiharu and Goemon who were tasked to protect Kyoto rushed out to Omi, frantically saying that「The Asakura and Azai clans are in very close relationship with one another. If Azai Nagamasa of Northern Omi betrays Nobuna because of the Asakura clan, then the Oda clan’s troops will have no way out of there and will be mercilessly exterminated! 」

「Weird… That dream just now, I know it was a dream, but it was just… so realistic. To the point that it was scary. 」

The young Nene had yet to see a real battlefield, but the vision matched the very real battlefield that was many miles away from here, so what Nene saw in the dream must have been at least somewhat real.

It was still deep in the night. The prescription that Takenaka Hanbei got from doctor Manase had taken effect and she was sleeping soundly. Nene did not want to wake her up just to discuss her dream.

「That Onii-sama is like a cockroach who can’t die no matter what is done to him, but don’t tell me… no! Though Onii-sama’s skills with the spear, bow, and riding are all ridiculously low, he has always lived on somehow! 」

Until now, Yoshiharu always managed to return home with a brilliant smile on his every time when Nene was promising that she will wait for him, and he was always bringing local delicacies with him as a gift for her.

During the time at Okehazama, or when he went and pulled off the 「Sunomata’s One Night Castle」, or at Kiyomizu-dera… during all those incidents, Yoshiharu would somehow always win against all odds at the most desperate of times.

(That’s why he will be safe this time as well. Yes, he has to be!)

Nene repeated this to herself, but her body wouldn’t stop shivering for some reason. Once again, she slipped back into her bed and hugged her legs, forcing her eyes to close, but the unease in her heart lingered still, making it difficult for her to fall asleep again.

* * *

「These are the front troops of Echizen’s Asakura Yoshikage!? There are so many of them! 」

「Uwahhhh, run, commander~! 」

「No matter the amount of enemies~! We must face them straight on! 」

「We must let the commander return alive to Nobuna-sama’s side! 」

After escaping from Echizen’s Kanegasaki Castle, Sagara Yoshiharu and these 500 seemingly invincible people who volunteered to stay behind with him were running in the mountains as arrows rained down at them. There was not a soldier among them who remained uninjured.

The Asakura clan’s army was attacking them like a flood.

Oda Nobuna, who had helped Imagawa Yoshimoto to attain the position of a new Shogun, successfully persuaded Himiko to allow her to launch an attack at Echizen’s Asakura Yoshikage after he refused to submit himself to the Imagawa Shogunate. The warriors who had joined in the battle, other than Nobuna herself, were her two chief retainers Shibata Katsuie and Niwa Nagahide, the talented genius, a new girl in Nobuna’s retinue, Akechi Mitsuhide, Nobuna’s longtime retainer and Yoshiharu’s neighbor, Maeda Inuchiyo, and finally, Oda clan’s ally and Nobuna’s childhood friend, Matsudaira Motoyasu.

With all personnel’s counted, the total army strength consisted of 30,000 men.

The Echizen clan’s total strength was just 20,000. Because of the sudden assault, the Echizen army was defeated in an instant, their lack of preparation proving disastrous for them. Nobuna’s troops pressed their victory and conquered Kanegasaki Castle before they started their advance on Konome Ridge.
The distance from Echizen’s main castle to Ichijodani Castle seemed simply a step away.

But at this time, the god-brother (who was actually a girl) of Nobuna in charge of Northern Omi, Azai Nagamasa defected to the side of the Asakura clan. Her fathe,r Azai Hisamasa, who heavily favored the Azai clan’s long term alliance with the Asakura clan over the newer alliance with the Oda clan, imprisoned Nagamasa and took the position of clan head back for himself. With this, the retreat route of Nobuna’s army was cut off, leaving them stranded deep in Echizen territory.

20,000 Asakura troops in front. 15,000 Asai troops at the back. The Nobuna troops were trapped like a rat. In face of that, Nobuna decided to give the difficult order to retreat back to Kyoto. The one who insisted on stopping the attacks of the Asakura troops and protecting their back was Sagara Yoshiharu, a high school student who adored Sengoku era strategy games, but somehow came to this era from modern Japan .

Finding an Oda Nobuna instead of an Oda Nobunaga, he made it his mission to help her obtain the rule over the world. Whether quarreling non-stop with her or helping her, he continued to stay at her side under the nickname she gave him when they first met: Monkey.

But even though he was in such a precarious situation, he could still wear a refreshing smile on his face.

「From my gaming knowledge, this event is the ‘Retreat of Kanegasaki’. If I’m really the guy who replaced old man Tokichiro and came to this world to act in his place, then I will definitely live and reach Kyoto to reunite with Nobuna… Ohohoh?! 」

Suddenly, Yoshiharu’s headband was hit by a bullet shot from an arquebus.

「Not good! If that was on target, I would be dead!! Uwahhh! 」

「Hohoho, what a careless guy, to be shot dead in the head by a bullet, how boring! 」

The shikigami Zenki, who was summoned by Takenaka Hanbei, was just an idiot who could only float in the sky right now because his power has greatly diminished.

Though he doesn’t look quite like a noble, he possessed elegant looks. But he wasn’t a human, and a casual look at his head would reveal fox ears occasionally.
(Shikigamis are such a strange beings.)

Yoshiharu thought to himself.

「Such a careless human can still win, Zenki. Look, is my face auspicious or what? 」

「No, Sagara, your face looks like the one belonging to someone who only has trouble with women. And even if you do manage to make it back to Kyoto alive, there will be more trouble still waiting for you in the future. 」

「Eh? What’s that about? There isn’t really someone decent in this troop, is there? 」

The Matsudaira ninja clothed in black, Hattori Hanzo jumped between trees, his eyes never leaving Yoshiharu.

「Sagara Yoshiharu. Didn’t you say that you will survive this ‘Retreat at Kanegasaki’ no matter what? If we end up being defeated here, the Oda clan’s army won’t be able to run back to Kyoto! The enemy knows this, and they will attack us as if their lives depended on it. 」

「You’re right Hanzo, we can’t stay here because now the main force of the Oda clan’s troops has successfully retreated! Letting them reach Kyoto safely is our responsibility! 」

「There are just 500 of us. If we meet the enemy’s main troops head-on, we will be eliminated in an instant. 」

「Actually, I have 50 arquebuses borrowed from Juubei. If the Asakura troops chase us, we can teach them a lesson even if we end up defeated in the end. 」

「There are just 50 of them, and we have to concentrate on running, so there will be no time to reload them. 」

The foot soldiers that came from Kyushu’s Satsuma Province besides Yoshiharu were all suggesting available strategies to him even as they blocked arrows aiming at Yoshiharu’s back. They really were elites.

「In Satsuma’s Shimazu clan, there is a technique called ‘Sutegamari’. 」

Even as the entire squad ran, they left small arquebus squads behind to ambush their pursuers, but because reloading required more time than they could spare, rapid firing was impossible. After firing them once, the soldiers who had finished shooting would stab their arquebuses at the enemy lines and hope for a swift death. Of course, soldiers without an arquebus would just take spears and rush into enemy lines instead.

If they followed this plan, 500 people would in essence commit suicide against the enemy on this mountain path, though the enemy army’s pursuit would be greatly delayed and Yoshiharu chances of escaping and coming back to Nobuna would definitely increase.

「To protect our commander, we heroes will not hesitate to commit suicide against the enemy. A single coward would be enough to foil the entire plan, but we Satsuma heroes are united in the Sagara Corps, so there is no need for worry. This is the tradition of the Shimazu clan, the ultimate technique, ‘Sutegamari’! 」