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Volume 4 Chapter 4 Part 3

「Matsunaga-sama, the one who should shut up is you! I noticed just now what you have been feeding Nobuna-sama. Nobuna-sama isn’t your puppet! 」

「It’s just medicine to kill the pain… but this medicine alone cannot heal the pain in Nobuna-sama’s heart. If Nobuna-sama doesn’t kill off all of her enemies, her pain will never go away! 」

(Dearu ka… As expected, this is… a continuation of the nightmare too….)

Nobuna thought to herself dreamily.

「….When you served Miyoshi Nagayoshi-sama before, you fed your master huge amounts of drugs, then coerced the confused Nagayoshi-sama to kill off those retainers who were loyal to him! Maybe, you already have plans to kill Shibata-sama, Niwa-sama and the retainer Inuchiyo-sama as well, right? After finishing this battle and burning Mount Hiei down, you will continue to isolate Nobuna-sama from the rest of the world…. That is not an act of loyalty! 」

Matsunaga Hisahide snorted at Hanbei’s words, coldly replying:

「I’m confused by what you said just now. Isn’t it the responsibility of a servant to reduce the master’s pain as best as possible? 」

「Those are two different matters! We should bet our own lives to stop our master when she starts walking onto the wrong path! This is the responsibility of us retainers as well! And, though I don’t know if Akechi-sama is safe, Yoshiharu-sama wasn’t killed by the Shikigamis of Tsuchimikado Hisanaga at Mizusaka Ridge! 」

Nobuna-sama’s face changed to show the expression of shock.

(Is this the continuation of a dream…? Or… reality… Hanbei seems to be saying that Yoshiharu is still alive… If that’s true… I hope this is reality, but… )

But, Nobuna no longer held the courage to believe that what she was looking at right now was reality.

If once again she were to say 「I am really happy.」 and show her relief to live in such a world, only to have someone whisper into her ear 「It’s all but a dream. 」… She didn’t want to experience that kind of despair again.

(Scared, I’m so scared…)

「Monkey is still alive? What is going on…? 」

「I, Hanbei couldn’t go along with Yoshiharu-sama due to my illness, so I asked Zenki-sama to take care of him before he went out. And Goemon also went along with him to save Azai Nagamasa-sama. Hattori Hanzo himself was inside the back troops Yoshiharu-sama was leading in the 「Retreat at Kanegasaki」. After that, Matsudaira-sama and Akechi-sama went to rescue Yoshiharu-sama and witnessed Yoshiharu-sama’s death… With these clues, the mystery is now solved! 」

「…..Mystery? 」

「Yoshiharu-sama was born and lived in a peaceful era without any wars, and thus is a very kind and gentle person. He isn’t someone who could coldly watch his important companions die one by one without doing anything. But, he also isn’t one who would throw away his own life to protect his important companions, least of all his most precious Nobuna-sama. This person is someone who never gives up. An insatiable, greedy person; no matter what, if there is something that he wants, he will grab it with his hands without fail! So….. 」

Nobuna was confused. Hanbei’s words, were they spoken in reality, or…

(As expected, this is still a dream.)

Maybe, the wishes in her heart became the form of Hanbei, consoling her with a false sense of hope?

Or maybe, just maybe….

「Nobuna-sama, in the Koga ninja arts there was a trick named 「Finely Hidden」. Rumor has it that in this trick a substitute is used to replace the master, and that substitute is blown to pieces for his own master, which makes it an exceptionally cruel ninja art. Because the substitute is blown to pieces, there would be no way to see the real identity of the body. Tsuchimikado would never do such a thing like blowing up Yoshiharu-sama, who could be exchanged for a reward, so I think Hanzo-sama hid the fact of blowing up Yoshiharu-sama’s substitute. Of course, Yoshiharu-sama would never do a cruel thing like asking one of his companion die for him, but luckily there was someone very suitable for this task inside the back troops with him. And that someone was… 」

Hanbei took out a talisman and threw it into the air in front of Nobuna.

「Shikigami, summon! 」

Zenki with his fox face appeared in front of Nobuna.

「Oh, isn’t this the Oda clan’s princess? 」

Zenki knelt down onto the floor before Nobuna.

「Yes, it’s just as Hanbei-dono said. Even if I am blown to pieces, I won’t die at all. So I performed this 「Finely Hidden」 trick together with Hanzo to see if we could deceive that Tsuchimikado. Thanks to Akechi Mitsuhide’s sudden appearance, Tsuchimikado’s attention was drawn away for long enough, and the trick worked, it seems . 」

Nobuna still muttered:

「This is a dream, I’m deceiving myself with yet another dream… 」

… and didn’t seem to believe it at all.

「…..M-Monkey is still alive…? T-Then why didn’t someone report it to me immediately? 」

「Ohh, my master, Hanbei-dono had been unconscious all this while, and I can’t materialize here without being summoned, so we couldn’t report it even if we wanted to. 」

「If this isn’t a dream… then where is Hattori Hanzo….? And where is Takechiyo….? Why didn’t anyone tell me anything… those two….? 」

「I’m afraid Hattori Hanzo-sama hid the 「Finely Hidden」 trick while in the midst of the enemy territory. It’s likely he only revealed the truth once he had escorted his master safely back to Kyoto. 」

Hanbei said.

「….If that’s the case, where are they now… where is Takechiyo….? 」

「Yes, Matsudaira-dono is someone who cherishes her friends, so I’m afraid that she set out immediately to save Yoshiharu-sama hidden in the ground after hearing the truth. Now she must be leading quite an amount of troops in the mountains of western Omi province. 」

「….Really… Is that true….? 」

Matsunaga Hisahide scolded Hanbei once more.

「Aren’t all of these ideas merely your own deductions? 」

Before Hanbei could respond, a new voice cut through the discussion.

「Yes, yes, it’s like this~! Because we were in a hurry, we forgot to leave a letter to Kichi-nee-san in which the truth would be explained to her~ 」

「……Hattori Hanzo, present! It was quite a hassle, but because the back troops who had returned to Kyoto safely immediately volunteered to join us in our rescue mission, our mission has now been accomplished! 」

「I…I…I…I…I’m so sorry, Kichi-nee-san! So many things had happened. I had not even brought any troops from Kyoto over to Mizusaka Ridge previously! 」

The tanuki-eared Matsudaira Motoyasu and Hattori Hanzou clad in a dark ninja garb had returned to the camp. And right behind them…

「You’ve done it, commander! We had always believed in you! 」

「We knew that until the commander returns to Nobuna-sama, he is going to be invincible! 」

「We of the back troops, a total of 150 surviving soldiers, now vow t hereby become commander’s loyal retainers! 」

「From now on, our lives are tied to your will, commander Yoshiharu! 」

「Ohoho, you finally survived and returned back to Kyoto! 」

It’s these idiots who have miraculously survived through the 「Retreat at Kanegasaki」, yet returned to western Omi without rest just to save Yoshiharu.

These were his companions from the back troops. All of them had countless wounds on them, but their expressions were as bright as the sun.

「The mission with our lives on the line has finally been finished! 」

「We finally let Nobuna-sama and commander Yoshiharu survive and meet again in this world! 」

「Those companions of ours who died must be feeling elated too! 」

Each and every one of them, their faces were filled with cheerfulness and satisfaction.

But….

「It’s fake… This is a dream. I… had a very similar dream just recently, didn’t I? I know. This is a dream. This is just a dream… No words can describe it, it’s still all dark. So this is it, this is a dream that I wish for… A dream that would never happen… Hope that was lost, a future that will never come… This is just that…. 」

Nobuna still couldn’t wake up from the dream world by herself. And….

「Ah, as expected… This is a dream. 」

From among these sweaty men, a young man that was in even worse condition than the rest of them walked in front of Nobuna.

「Hurry and kiss Nobuna-sama, commander! 」

「It’s good to be young! It’s good to be young! 」

「I know I know! You guys, stop this plan of burning Mount Hiei right now! 」