Chapter 13
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: Mori Yoshinari (1)
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The forces that set out for the night raid following Oda Nobutomo numbered a whopping 2,000, but over half of them—1,000 men—were merely conscripts pulled from the able-bodied inside the castle.
Because of that, Il-yeong had Mori Yoshinari order them all disarmed and sent back to their daily labors. And so they began "cleaning" the interior of Kiyosu Castle.
"Kyaaak!"
"P-Please, spare me!"
"Kuaaack!"
The castle's main forces and retainers had already been slain on the plains or disarmed, so these folk couldn't even mount a proper resistance. They could only spill their red blood and die.
"Kill them all without mercy!"
Of course, neither Il-yeong nor Yoshinari were mad with bloodlust. The blades they directed targeted only the retainers who had served the Oda Main Branch and their families.
After rounding up and slaughtering even those who tried to flee, Yoshinari brought the roughly 300 captured samurai from the plains—along with the senior retainers too awkward to execute immediately—and forced them to kneel in Kiyosu Castle's training yard.
Thud.
"Decide."
Mori Yoshinari first made a dozen or so senior retainers kneel, then sat before them and planted her gleaming blue spear demonstratively as she spoke.
"Will you uphold the honor of being Main Branch retainers? Or will you accept the Main Branch's destruction and follow Lady Nobunaga?"
Il-yeong stood behind her, gazing at Mori Yoshinari. For some reason, her proud silhouette struck him as strangely bittersweet.
'...Am I worrying needlessly? Hah.'
A chuckle escaped him unbidden. Who was worrying about whom, exactly?
Il-yeong raised a trembling hand—without realizing it—and touched the mask still covering his face. A deep gash remained on it, as if to remind him of that dawn.
At that moment, one of the older senior retainers—who had been glancing back and forth between Il-yeong and Yoshinari—opened his mouth in quiet resignation.
"...I will commit seppuku."
And with that as the cue, every captured senior retainer chose seppuku.
'They must have seen it coming.'
That even if they surrendered, survival would be unlikely. The Oda Main Branch was an enemy that Oda Nobunaga would one day have to erase completely.
"As you wish."
Mori Yoshinari's face was icy, stripped of her earlier innocence, as she nodded to the samurai. They gripped their swords without the slightest hesitation, as if they'd expected this.
Shring—.
Swords still wet with blood were drawn with a chilling ring, and the retainers picked up the short blades before them with hands full of resignation and fear, slowly bringing them to their bellies. And—
Stab!
"Guhk!"
"Kk... guk...!"
Precisely piercing the left abdomen, they suppressed the surging survival instinct and dragged the blade to the right. And in that instant.
"Hup!"
Slash—thunk.
The samurai behind them swiftly severed their heads, granting relief from the pain and preserving their honor.
For death was how one upheld honor.
That was seppuku, after all.
And so the Yamatonokami Oda family—the true Main Branch of the Oda Clan—met its end.
Now only the 300-odd samurai remained. Mori Yoshinari looked at them as if to say something, but the highest-ranking one among them slammed his forehead to the ground and cried out.
"W-We pledge loyalty to Lady Nobunaga! Please, spare our lives...!"
They hadn't even urged these men to surrender, but it wasn't strange for them to think submission meant survival. If it were any other time, that is.
"Tch."
Did they see the senior retainers as fools? Or were they thrashing about, grasping at even a speck of hope against the fear of death?
"...Not a shred of honor among them."
Either way, to Mori Yoshinari, they were nothing but pathetic idiots. Why couldn't they see there was no escaping death?
"Kill them all."
"W-Wait...!"
"This isn't what you promised! Please, please!!"
They screamed madly at Mori Yoshinari in the grip of death's terror, but she turned away without a glance and entered the castle.
Meanwhile, Il-yeong watched the bound men shrieking like madmen before withdrawing his gaze and following her inside.
Their screams would soon fill the air anyway. No need to watch.
As he entered the castle, Mori Clan samurai bowed their heads.
"The family head is waiting on the top floor."
"Understood."
Of course, it wasn't normal for them to show such deference to Il-yeong, who held no official post. But considering it another way, it made sense.
He was close enough to meet Chief Advisor Hirate in the dead of night(?), and hadn't he devised the strategy for the plains battle? This era of upheaval had its perks.
Ability made one more valuable than ever. With such thoughts, he ascended the palace halls and soon reached the upper floor Yoshinari had summoned him to.
For some reason, the top floor and the one below were deserted, but given the situation, Il-yeong paid it no mind and headed toward the faint presence he sensed.
Soon, he spotted Mori Yoshinari sitting before a grand window with a clear view of Kiyosu Castle.
"Mm."
Truth be told, there hadn't been much conversation or incident on the way to Kiyosu Castle, so he knew little about Mori Yoshinari. At best, that she smiled while beheading an assassin and was surprisingly innocent despite her immense prowess?
'Plus those overwhelming breasts as a bonus.'
At that moment, her ponytail swayed faintly as she sensed his presence. She turned, flashing an awkward smile.
"You're here?"
"Yes."
He could tell. Unlike on the battlefield, she was feeling some complicated emotions now.
So Il-yeong stepped up beside her and quietly asked,
"What's wrong? We won the battle, and you've carried out the lord's orders perfectly."
His words were spot on.
She had executed her commands flawlessly. There was no reason for any lingering unease. So what exactly was bothering her?
"Mm... Baek Il-yeong, right?"
"Yes."
Yoshinari mulled over his unfamiliar name, then smiled faintly.
"Hey, wanna have a drink?"
At her sudden suggestion, Il-yeong eyed her for a moment before chuckling softly.
"Sure. Why not."
**
Setting up the drinks didn't take long.
The upper floor they were on had been Oda Nobutomo's quarters, offering a full view of Kiyosu Castle. At Yoshinari's order, samurai instructed the maids, and soon the room was filled with sake and appealing side dishes.
Thanks to that, Il-yeong—who hadn't touched sake or even his beloved tobacco in two months—finally savored a pleasant buzz.
But there was one unexpected detail.
"Ugh..."
"Uh, Lady Mori?"
"Eh? Me?"
Mori Yoshinari's tolerance was pathetically low.
"...Hot."
Il-yeong couldn't help but lift his cup, watching her cheeks flush before she'd even finished a bottle as she fanned herself with her hand.
"Uuu..."
Perhaps it really was hot, for Yoshinari roughly shed her armor and tugged loose the cloth covering her chest.
"Pfft!"
Her already ample breasts stood out even more, tinged with a strange reddish hue, forcing Il-yeong to devote all his focus to suppressing the third leg trying to rise.
'Still, just drinking in silence like this feels awkward...'
He sipped his sake, stealing glances at the fanning Yoshinari as he thought.
There had to be a reason she'd suggested drinks in the first place. But with her already drunk before getting to the point, he had no choice but to broach it himself.
"You don't seem in good spirits. Is there a reason?"
"Hey."
"Yes?"
He turned at her gruff tone—which didn't sound pleased at all—and her dissatisfied face came into view.
'Did I mess up somehow?'
—he wondered, but nothing in what he'd just said should have offended her.
"You."
But her response was one that left Il-yeong considerably flustered.
"You. How old are you?"
"Pardon?"
"...You look older than me, but why do you keep using formal speech?!"