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Volume 4 Chapter 1 Part 6

By now, the retainers and soldiers protecting Nobuna had dwindled considerably. The ones remaining were the brave Shibata Katsuie and the young Maeda Inuchiyo, who was swinging her huge bamboo spear around at the enemies around them. Without these two loyal retainers protecting her, Nobuna’s head might have already fallen multiple times.

「N-Nobuna-sama! 」

「…Negotiate with Kuchiki Shinano! We must make him come to our side! It must be done at all costs! 」

Nobuna struggled to keep her eyes open, and her speech no longer had her usual air of superiority in it.

「…Where is Manchiyo and the rest? 」

「To allow the rearmost troops to retreat safely, Nagahide is opening up more paths of retreat into the mountains, and Mitsuhide and Motoyasu are helping her with it too. 」

「…Dearu ka. Although that is kinda unnecessary… 」

「Nobuna-sama! Unnecessary? Everyone is fighting for their lives to not let Monkey die! Please get your spirits up! Nobuna-sama! 」

「…That…is hypocritical. We abandoned Monkey and left him to die… What everyone is doing now is useless. 」

「Nobuna-sama!? W-What is happening to you!? This isn’t like you, Nobuna-sama! 」

「Oi, Riku… When my father became sick, didn’t he call many monks to do those rituals where they were praying for him? 」

「Huh? Y-Yes? There was such a thing, but… 」

「…Those monks were chanting those useless incantations, and in the end, father didn’t get better at all and died. They came to do those rituals because we were worried about father’s illness. What I want to say is this: those monks used his weakened psychology in order to earn money off of our personal tragedy… so I locked them up in the hall and burned all of them alive. I hate fraudsters and con artists. We knew full well that the rituals wouldn’t heal father, and yet we still invited them… That is hypocrisy. 」

「You… Y-you’re right, Nobuna-sama. W-When the hall was on fire, no one bothered to save them! At that time, you were totally furious… Just like the Demon Lord of the Sixth Heaven… 」

Katsuie said quietly.

「…Father’s funeral was totally unnecessary too. Dead people turn to ashes. Things like pain or suffering, such feelings will then be gone. We hold burials, letting those monks chant, everyone is crying on the floor, but in the end, those are all gestures for us… Showing a look of sadness… to a dead person, something like that is completely useless. So I, dressed like a fool, rushed into father’s funeral and made a big mess out of it… and Monkey’s retreat? I already know that he won’t be coming back… Ahhh. We thought that we let him protect our rear and cover our retreat, but honestly, we just ordered him to die for us… And now we go hypocritically create retreat paths for him and his men. Those are mere attempts to satisfy ourselves, just like a funeral. Really, so laughable… But… But, the one who ordered Monkey to die isn’t Manchiyo or anyone else, but myself… Uhh, waaaahh! 」

She thought that she had ran out of tears, but now they were still flowing from the depths of her eyes. The tears just flowed and flowed without showing any sign of stopping.

「Ahh, Nobuna-sama… you are becoming stranger and stranger! Nobuna-sama, just what is going on with you!? 」

The sobbing Katsuie felt just as terrible as Nobuna, even though she was constantly at her side.

But then…
*BLAM!*

「…Nobuna-sama, please cut this out and get yourself together right this instant! 」

Inuchiyo came to Nobuna and delivered a powerful punch straight to her stomach.

「…Crying is not going to help you now. If you end up dying, the sacrifice of Yoshiharu-san and his troops will become meaningless! 」

「Wh-wh-wh-wh-why, Inuchiyo!? Why did you do something like that?! 」

Katsuie howled.

「…Inuchiyo…? What..what am I doing…? Where…am I? 」

「…This is Kuchiki Valley. We must negotiate with Kuchiki Shinano now. 」

「Yeah… Right. 」

「…Nobuna-sama. Yoshiharu-san is alive. Right now, we must believe in him. It’s the same for Nagahide and the rest, we must believe in them. They are risking more than they should to open more retreat paths for Yoshiharu-san, even when they themselves should be retreating. And those who volunteered to protect us are with Yoshiharu-san, soldiers whose names we don’t even know! Nobuna-sama, what you said just now… it was simply too cruel! 」

「Ah! 」

Nobuna looked upon her retainers as her eyes began to open widely.

(Monkey… I can’t leave Monkey on the battlefield by himself without any help!)

The 500 soldiers who were moved by Yoshiharu’s loyalty had been pouring their spirits into performing their role to their fullest for Yoshiharu’s sake, and for Nobuna’s sake as well. Most of them were mercenaries hired with gold. People who could have simply escaped or switched sides when the tide of the battle had shifted into a direction that no longer favored them.

(I’ve only been worrying about Monkey… he decided to throw his life away for me, and yet I had forgotten all about others who did the same together with him! I’ve forgotten that their lives are important as well!)

Nobuna smiled and regained her composure, so that Inuchiyo and Katsuie could stop worrying about her.

「…Thanks, Inuchiyo. What…what have I been doing? Yes, Saru can’t just die so easily! I must… I must kick the soldiers in their butts, have them evade the Asakura clan’s troops, and have them hide in the mountains to escape! 」

Katsuie and Inuchiyo nodded their heads in agreement.

「As the commander, I can’t be weeping like this here! I’m sorry, Inuchiyo. Once we reach Kyoto, I will give all you guys as much Uiroumochi as you will be able to eat! 」

Inuchiyo nodded her head even more vigorously.

「Nobuna-sama has woken up! Inuchiyo! Thank you! For her and Monkey’s sake, I must make sure that she won’t have anything to worry about anymore until we’ll be back at Kyoto! 」

「…Inuchiyo too will take up her spear to attack anyone who comes after us until Yoshiharu-san returns. To cry and die while protecting our rear isn’t Yoshiharu-san’s style at all! 」

「Alright! It’s rare to see you muster so much resolve, Inuchiyo, so let’s capitalize on it as much as we can and let’s do our best for Monkey! 」

「…Destroy the enemy!! 」
Seeing that Katsuie and Inuchiyo had been encouraging her all this time, Nobuna held back her tears and let out a sigh.

「They did not cry even once ever since we escaped from Kanegasaki Castle…. even though Riku and Inuchiyo were frobably feeling so sad that they wanted to cry out loud just as much as I did, and yet they endured it for me to not let me become even sadder…. How can I be so weak…… 」

Another urge to cry threatened to overwhelm her heart, but Nobuna did her best to try and suppress it as much as she possibly could.

「I’ve decided. Before reaching Kyoto safely, I will not shed another tear! 」

An oath seared in her heart, and with her hand blocking the sunlight, she looked upon Kuchiki Castle.

「Kuchiki Valley…. is really like a ninja hiding by the side of Kyoto. I’m afraid it won’t be easy to pass through. Inuchiyo? 」

「…..I am afraid so as well. Kuchiki Valley was the evacuation area for the numerous Ashikaga Shoguns, so it is a very special place. No matter who, if they tried to pass through with force, the other side will launch an attack on them indiscriminately. 」

「Dearu ka. Now is really the time to buck up. 」

「But, who should we send to negotiate with Kuchiki Shinano? I don’t know him myself, so maybe Inuchiyo? 」

Katsuie said.

「… I am not letting Inuchiyo go there by herself. If Nagahide or Mitsuhide were here, I would suggest that they should be the ones to go. 」

「 Should we wait for them to return, then? 」

「No can do, Riku. Kuchiki Shinano belongs to the Azai clan, right? If so, we don’t know when they will attack us, but just sneaking in for now is too dangerous. Besides, we need to hurry back to Kyoto, and announce to the world that 「I, Oda Nobuna am still here! 」after which we will regroup my army….. not to mention that I have to hurry and send reinforcements for Monkey…. 」

Nobuna spoke her greatest motivation with some difficulty.

「Y-Yes! But if I’m the envoy, I will most likely mess things up…. I, am not comfortable in the situations that require negotiating. If I’m the one talking to Kuchiki Shinano, what will I do if I just killed him on impulse because of something that he’d say, Nobuna-sama? 」