Chapter 104
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 104
Chapter Title: A Moment's Rest (13)
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The relationship that began at dusk didn't reach its end until dawn began to break. Naturally, the state of the two was nothing short of spectacular.
"Haa... Haa..."
"Nngh..."
Especially this time, Baek Il-yeong had no choice but to be more exhausted. Hadn't he spent the previous night without rest alongside Mori Yoshinari? Yet Oda Nobunaga, knowing this full well, could only be all the more shocked.
"...What on earth did they feed you growing up in Joseon... You beast..."
Nobunaga muttered those words from within Baek Il-yeong's broad embrace, but there was no way her affectionate grumbling could spark any anger.
"Yeah, tell me about it."
So Baek Il-yeong just vaguely agreed as he gently wrapped his arms around her sweat-soaked, now-cooling naked body. Her slender shoulders settled into his arms, and she closed her eyes against the warmth of Il-yeong—the same warmth she'd indulged in and craved all through the night—letting out a faint breath.
"Haa... Sigh, whoo."
Il-yeong's scent was like a drug.
Nobunaga found herself thinking that unconsciously as she turned her gaze toward his back.
"The sun's rising."
"Yeah."
At her words, Il-yeong turned his head slightly to gaze at the light slowly brightening beyond the window.
—Swoosh.
A breeze blew in just then, wrapping around the two who shared a single thin blanket, and they warded off the chill with each other's warmth, breathing softly in tender unison.
"Hng..."
Il-yeong looked down at Nobunaga, who had propped her chin on his chest and was gazing up at him.
Lustrous black hair flowing with sheen.
Snow-white skin and sparkling golden eyes.
Red lips and quivering eyelashes.
He met the eyes of the endlessly lovable woman before him and thought that, in this moment, he envied no one. How long did they linger like that, confirming each other's warmth?
He kneaded her softly embraced shoulder and rested his chin on the crown of her head as he asked,
"What do you plan to do about Nobuyuki?"
"...Mm. Well."
At his question, Nobunaga didn't answer right away and just pursed her lips. Then, mirroring how he rested his chin on her head, she brought her lips to the nape of his neck and whispered her reply.
"I can't kill them all, but I still need to weed out those who deserve death. Probably dozens will go."
It was the natural order of things.
To rein in hunting dogs that had once bared their fangs at their master, examples had to be made. She was resolute on that front, but there was just one thing weighing on her mind.
"...You'll be okay with that?"
It was only fear that he might see her as heartless. Of course, that didn't mean she intended to bend her stance.
But contrary to her worry, what Il-yeong was asking wasn't how she'd handle the retainers who'd sided with Nobuyuki.
—Squeeze.
"Not that."
Il-yeong whispered softly to her, who was glancing at him cautiously for no reason, and lightly gripped her hip.
"H-Hngh?!"
A cute moan escaped Nobunaga's lips, and Il-yeong spoke to her as she looked up at him with whiny eyes.
"I mean your family relations."
"Ah..."
Only then did Nobunaga realize what Il-yeong was truly getting at, and she gave a wry smile. He brushed the hair stuck to her slightly furrowed cheek and waited for her answer. At that thoughtful gesture, her cheeks flushed for no reason, and she couldn't reply right away.
It was only natural, really.
If it had been something she could answer so easily, things wouldn't have dragged on like this.
How could Il-yeong not know that?
So as Nobunaga pulled her hand deeper against his back, she said,
"Honestly, I don't know."
Ever since she'd been called the fool of Owari, Nobuyuki had garnered quite a bit of support from the clan's heavyweights.
Even so, the reason Nobunaga could become head of the Oda Clan was thanks to the previous daimyo—who had pacified Owari Province—Oda Nobuhide, and his chief advisor, Hirate Masahide.
A lack of legitimacy, not trust.
The retainers doubted her talent as a lord, and her mother doubted her capacity.
How could Nobuyuki be any different?
Her own head must be a whirlwind of confusion.
"Mother and Nobuyuki are probably the same."
The only one who could laugh it off was probably Oichi. Nobunaga murmured that and let out a wry chuckle.
"Mm..."
Was it the languor after their intimacy?
Or had she come to fully trust the man she would soon take as her husband?
Il-yeong listened quietly to her candid words, then gently stroked and patted her back.
Politics would have been so much simpler.
He hadn't witnessed it firsthand, so he couldn't fully grasp the conflict between this mother and daughters, leaving him to offer only plain advice.
"Here's what I think."
He'd snuck into Suemori before and spoken with Nobuyuki, hearing the rough details. His impression from that conversation had been succinct.
"Isn't it a lack of communication?"
"...Lack of communication?"
Nobunaga's eyelashes fluttered as if asking what that meant.
She nodded slightly, urging him to go on, and finding her adorable, Il-yeong planted a light kiss on her forehead before whispering,
"In the end, didn't the Oda sisters' problems stem from never having an honest conversation with each other?"
"...Conversation."
It was something he'd said offhand, but Nobunaga nodded as if struck on the head with a hammer. Come to think of it, how much time had the sisters ever spent in honest talk, as he said?
'None.'
When Nobuyuki was studying under the clan's scholars, she was wandering the markets or spending days in villages around Owari. She'd ride horses, sling stones, and even join street brawls.
And as they grew, they began avoiding each other.
Oda Nobunaga, backed by her father and some powerful retainers, and Oda Nobuyuki, supported by many vassals and their mother—they drew enough gossip just by being together.
"Conversation... Yeah."
She didn't expect it to resolve all their grudges in one go. But it might at least help them understand each other a little.
"Right. I need to meet her."
Nobunaga murmured that and flashed a bright smile at Il-yeong, who gazed down at her fondly.
"Thank you, my husband."
The shadow over her beaming face slowly faded. So Il-yeong caressed her cheek with the hand resting there and whispered back,
"No need. My lord."
—Creak.
Just then, so faintly it wouldn't reach them, came the quiet sound of something closing.
*
The Matsudaira family.
A daimyo house in Mikawa Province, bordering Owari, Mino, Shinano, and Totomi Provinces. But after the Moriyama Incident—where the family head was assassinated by retainer Abe Yashichiro Masatoyo in Moriyama of Owari—their power had rapidly declined, leaving them reliant on the Imagawa of Suruga Province.
The Matsudaira were finished.
At least, that was the common sentiment among many retainers.
"It's frustrating, isn't it, Hanzo?"
"Yes, milady."
As the girl quietly muttered, the ninja hidden in the rafters replied in a low voice.
But the warehouse—a dilapidated, filthy place unfit for a girl destined to become lord of a province—carried an odd undercurrent of displeasure, even from the ninja who hid his emotions.
Perhaps sensing the ninja's feelings,
the girl chuckled and said,
"I thought ninjas were supposed to hide their emotions."
"My apologies. I shall atone with my death."
"Hey now."
It was a musing that bespoke the qualities of a true ruler, hard to believe from a girl just turned fifteen.
"You're the only one on my side in this land. What am I supposed to do if you die? Hattori Hanzo."
So as she leaned against the cramped space in the rafters and drew a dagger, she shivered unconsciously, unable to hide her pity.
The Matsudaira had been shaken by the death of the previous head, and the full price had fallen on the girl who would become the next—her lord.
'She possesses the qualities of a ruler.'
And she wasn't the only one who felt that. Even those greedy Imagawa vermin had their eyes on her.
'If only she had even half the support base of Owari's fool...!'
Having seen that fool woman herself, she felt it.
Oda Nobunaga had far too much for her abilities. If her own lord had that, reaching the capital wouldn't be a dream.
"Oh, right. I heard an interesting rumor lately."
It was then. The girl, lying amid the straw piles, asked Hattori Hanzo in the rafters, and the ninja answered immediately.
"Yes. There's a warrior from Joseon said to be an extraordinary samurai."
"A samurai from Joseon..."
"Shall I look into the details?"
Though their current power was meager, it was right to investigate anyone who might aid her lord. She awaited orders, ready to act at once if commanded...
"No, it's fine."
For some reason, the girl said that, rose from her seat, and brushed the straw from her hips.
"I'll probably meet him soon anyway."
At that moment, Hattori Hanzo felt it.
The girl's small mutter—her hair closer to blonde than brown—would surely prove true in the near future.
So she murmured softly, too quiet for the girl to hear as she exited the warehouse with slow, graceful steps that betrayed nothing of her thoughts,
"The future of the Hattori family to you."