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Volume 4 Chapter 1 Part 7

「Hmph… Are you dumb, Riku? We’re in this very situation now because we’re running straight ahead all the time. If we keep saying such things, then we will never be able to escape. It’s as if we are strangling ourselves! 」

「Ah, I understand! I’m really sorry about what I Sid just now…. My brain must have short circuited without me even realizing it… 」

「Your brain must have… short circuited? 」

「That is what Monkey would surely say, Nobuna-sama. I don’t really understand the meaning of those words, but it’s a thing he says whenever I’m being stupid. It seems to mean that I’m behaving stupidly, or that electric currents are unable to flow through… through my skull… and I’m getting furious just talking about this! It’s all that bastard Monkey’s fault! 」

「Yes, that does sound like something that Monkey would say, doesn’t it? 」

Inuchiyo was tilting her head left to right, looking at both Katsuie and Nobuna in confusion, but it wasn’t because she couldn’t follow the situation. Rather, she seemed to be trying to express that it’s useless to send out an envoy, in her own introverted way.

「If it requires such great linguistic skills, then let me go. I will directly negotiate with Kuchiki Shinano! 」

Nobuna had decided and was about to gallop away on her horse….

「No, no, no, no, no, no, no, Nobuna-sama! If you do that, things will get even worse! You are like a moth flying towards a candle’s flame, and you won’t return! 」

「….Definitely not. Hime-sama might have good linguistic skills, but your words are often harsh and self-centered. If you provoke the other party here, things will become much worse, just like Katsuie said. 」

Katsuie and Inuchiyo rushed forward to stop Nobuna.
「But, just who will go and negotiate then? 」

「…..Hmmm, then let me go. 」

From the direction of the deep bushes off the side of the road, a tanned woman wearing a Chinese outfit was approaching them while puffing her chest out pridefully.

「Hisahide? 」

「… Yes, it is I, Matsunaga Danjo Hisahide. 」

Matsunaga Danjo Hisahide, also known as 「Venomous Scorpion」. A repeated offender on revolting against her masters that had plunged Kyoto into a state of chaos before. Responsible for burning the great statue of the Great Buddha of Nara, poisoning her master and the rest of the Miyoshi clan, attacking Ashikaga Yoshiteru and destroying the Ashikaga Shogunate… and those were but a few of the dark legends about her that were circulating amongst the people. She was like a poisonous flower which was blooming in the blood-soaked soil of the Sengoku era. Biting a long tobacco pipe, her face revealed an alluring smile as she returned the surprised stares of Nobuna and the rest.

「Where had you been for such a long time? Didn’t you already flee towards Kyoto? 」

「It is suspicious that she has chosen now of all times to make her appearance here! Be careful, Nobuna-sama! She might be planning to betray you! 」

「Hehe. Yes, if I betray Nobuna-sama today, then I will be able to easily regain control of Kyoto. What do you think, Nobuna-sama? What if I agreed to help you negotiate with Kuchiki Shinano… and then defected to the Azai and Asakura clans? 」

「You bastard! 」
Katsuie glared at her, while her hands gripped the hilt of her sword tightly.At this moment, Nobuna stopped Katsuie.

「Danjo! If you say that you’re capable of doing it, then I’ll be leaving this matter to you. No matter what happens, I must live and go back to Kyoto, so you must hurry! I’m relying on you! 」

「Nobuna-sama! How can you trust someone like her!? Someone like her……! 」

Once again, Katsuie was stopped while Nobuna and Hisahide looked at each other and nodded. Oda Nobuna who 「Viper of Mino」 Saito Dosan was said to dote on, seems very interested in this evil girl for some reason. To Nobuna, Dosan, who captured the Mino province from its previous Daimyo and was fighting to unify the world by using trade, was like a teacher and a second father to Nobuna, who aimed for Tenka Fubu: uniting the nation by force.

She who had broken traditions again and again, who had been disliked by her mother due to her not following traditions… to Matsunaga Danjo Hisahide, Nobuna was almost the same…. One can even say that Nobuna had finally met a 「mother-like」 figure for the first time in her life.

「Nobuna-sama? Now you are the Danjo who controls Kyoto, Oda Danjo Nobuna-sama. Right now, I’m just a shadow working under you. 」

「Enough. Danjo is Danjo. You should just call me ‘ Nobuna’. 」

「Alright. I know it’s the position that was given to you by the Imperial Palace, sorry. But I actually like those guys. 」

After a short pause, she narrowed her eyes to a slit and straightened her back. With a laugh, Hisahide started to gallop away towards Kuchiki Castle.

「We are lucky that the other party is still immature. We will be able to contact Kuchiki Shinano quickly. 」

Using her own long and red tongue to lick her lips, Hisahide, who was known as the evil woman to surpass all other evil women revealed her trademark dark smile. Until now, this evil woman’s smile had poisoned away only God knows how many people, and many more probably met their ultimate ruin because of it…

…. Katsuie shivered at the thought.

With a face that came from the blood of the far western areas of the world, she was inhumanly beautiful, and at the same time this same face could only be described as terrifying.

「Ahhh…. Oi, Inuchiyo! it’s not that I don’t mind it, but why is Nobuna-sama allying herself with such a demon? 」

「….Ah….I don’t think there’s an easy answer to that. 」

「To use its own stomach as bait for the venomous scorpion and viper… The world really has no good animals in it. 」

「…..Dogs are good animals. 」

「Oi, oi, were you listening to everything we were talking about, Riku? 」

「I’m….I’m sorry! 」

「Right now, all we can do is to entrust our fate to Danjo, Danjo will definitely not betray me. 」

Nobuna nodded her head heavily while stating that with absolute certainty.

* * *

「Ah, Ahh, isn’t this Matsunaga Danjo Hisahide!? Such tanned skin, as expected from a well-seasoned warrior! 」

At Kuchiki castle, Kuchiki Shinano had come to meet Matsunaga Hisahide himself. For a castle owner, he was extremely young.

This Kuchiki Shinano who was born in Kuchiki, a place where distinguished people chose to retire, for a Sengoku era warrior, had a very thinly build body.

「Hehe. I was born with this skin color. I have not taken any injuries on the battlefield, so I maintained my young looks. 」

That alluring smile and the huge bosom that was revealed from her clothes had all made Shinano very flustered. While revealing a slightly scared smile, Shinano kept on opening and closing the fan that he was holding in his hand.

「…Oh, I’ve heard of Matsunaga Danjo Hisahide being the most evil of people who destroyed the Ashikaga Shogunate and burned down Nara’s Great Buddha statue, but right now you don’t look like a person capable of something like that to me at all. 」

「I’m just an ordinary citizen in Kyoto now, so there isn’t much to talk about. 」

「Even so, I can’t agree to your request. 」

「Oh? Even though I haven’t even said anything yet? 」

「I have already received reports saying that Oda Nobuna has run here from Echizen, correct? Don’t think that you can just pass Kuchiki Valley like this. 」

‘That is going to be impossible’, Kuchiki Shinano’s face seemed to be saying.

「I don’t want to let Oda Nobuna think that I’m hers to do as she pleases. After being betrayed by the Azai clan and gradually sinking into oblivion, if I allowed her to return to Kyoto, Azai and Asakura clans will attack Kyoto together, and she won’t last a minute. 」

「You are wrong. 」

「Matsunaga Danjo Hisahide…. Don’t tell me you think that Azai clan is a despicable traitor and Oda Nobuna is in the right here? You destroyed the Ashikaga Shogunate! With an evil woman like you saying such hypocritical words, I find it only more difficult to trust Oda Nobuna! 」

「I believe that Oda Nobuna is strong. Don’t tell me you think otherwise? 」

「I think that Oda Nobuna has already lost. 」

「No, winning and losing are common matters to warriors. As long as one lives on, he or she can once again rise up. What the one who is victorious in the end needs is determination to never give up in the face of overwhelming adversity. 」