Episode 6: Intertwining Fate

Side: Oda Nobunaga

These damned unchanging days.  I am already fed up with them. 

Even though I have come of age, nothing still went as I pleased.  Those old geezers have taken charge of everything, and they do not recognize my own will at all. 

Even the clan’s chief retainer, Hayashi Sado, was so hostile toward me that he continues to plot behind the scenes in order to make my younger brother Nobuyuki take my place as heir.  

Did he think I was not aware? 

He doesn’t even try to understand my thoughts in his capacity as the chief retainer and keeps trying to bend me to his will. 

The only one who truly cares about my matters in the clan is the old man. 

What did they think of my attire? What of my etiquette? Behaving the way I do does prove quite useful.   It is a way for me to discern who among those under me are truly loyal and who are not. 

「Young Lord, have you heard? It seems an unknown big black ship came to Tsushima.」

「Hou. When was this?」

「Err, I heard that it arrived yesterday. Ohashi-sama personally invited me to his abode.」

Katsusaburo has once again brought back an interesting story that he’d heard from other pages and friends he’d met along the way at the nearby riverbank after going out of the castle. 

Katsusaburo serves as my page, but he might be the one who understands me best. 

「What is there purpose for coming? Have you heard?」

「It appears that they came to visit Tsushima shrine and Atsuta shrine in addition to conducting business.  The ship is rumored to be from Nanban and caused quite the commotion.」

Katsusaburo occasionally picks up rumors on the streets and relays them to me, but today’s rumor sounded more interesting than usual. 

「Alright. Let us depart for Tsushima.」

「Young Lord!?」

I have heard that Nanban was to the far south.  However, that did not matter to me. 

I want to see it.  A place far across the sea. 

I want to see that Nanban ship that crossed the vast sea. 

***

Side: Kazuma

After successfully renting a house, I decided to sell all the trade goods we brought on the ship to Ohashi-san. 

Once we finish unloading the futons and foodstuffs from the ship, we can start living in the house right away.  However, it would take some time to unload all of them. 

Because this place was a river port, ships couldn’t get too close to land.  Hence, they first need to transfer the cargo onto small boats before bringing them over to land.  The people of Tsushima were also helping out with the unloading though, so I think the work would get finished relatively sooner than I expected.   Of course, it would still take some time. 

Meanwhile, Ohashi-san guided me, Elle, and the rest to Tsushima shrine. 

The Tsushima shrine was located in an island, or rather, a riverbank.  Moreover, it also had a splendid torii and main shrine building. 

「It is pretty crowded, as expected.」

「Indeed. This is my first time guiding people from Nanban to the shrine, but merchants who visit Tsushima often come here.」

The current shrine probably occupied a larger amount of land compared to the Tsushima shrine in the future.   I’ve never been here before though.  It was just that big and grand. 

You could feel just how amazing Tsushima was during this period just by looking at the splendid Tsushima shrine.  The port was honestly disappointing, but the shrine was quite amazing. 

The Ikko-shu was also from this time period.  This was an era where religion and the belief in gods and buddhas was flourishing. 

After our visit to the Tsushima shrine, we encountered a group that resembled delinquents on the way back.  I wasn’t really good with these types.  Delinquents, I mean.

「If it isn’t the Young Lord.  It has been a long time.」

「It looks like you are in good health.」

What’s surprising was that Ohashi-san bowed deeply to the one leading the delinquent group.  It seemed that Ohashi-san was a bit shaken though. 

The leader of the delinquents sported a loosely tied chasen-mage hairstyle, an untidily worn kimono, and a tachi and drawstring purse hanging from a rough-looking straw rope tied to his waist. Judging from his appearance, he must be in his mid-teens.  In my original world, he should be in high school. 

Hold on. Did Ohashi-san just say “Young Lord”? Ohashi-san was a vassal of the Oda clan. Don’t tell me……

Was this guy actually Nobunaga Oda? 

「Shigenaga, are these ones the nanban people?」

「Indeed. This one is Kazuma-dono, the owner of that Nanban ship. These are his wives.」

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Ohashi-san’s expression looked strange.  You could say he looked nervous, but he also looked a bit troubled. 

「Be at ease. I merely wish to talk with them. I will not interfere in your business.」

「Well then, please come to the mansion to rest.」

The guy who was probably Nobunaga looked at Ohashi-san’s expression and said a few words to reassure the latter. 

Um. What about our opinion? I only wanted to observe the guy from afar and didn’t really wanna interact with him directly though.  Somehow, I had a feeling that we might get caught up in something troublesome. 

「This man is Oda Saburo Nobunaga-sama, the eldest son of the lord who governs Tsushima, Oda Danjotada Nobuhide-sama.」

「Do not bother with such ceremonious introductions.   Are all of you really nanban people?」

When we arrived inside the mansion, Nobunaga-san immediately sat down on the seat of honor and started talking to us.  The atmosphere was neither good nor bad.  It was probably because of Nobunaga-san’s companions who were looking at me and Elle with curiosity. 

Although Nobunaga-san seemed to be filled with curiosity as well, he still looked at me calmly as he began to talk. 

「If you mean to ask if the land we were born in was Nanban, then that is not the case.  We were born on a small group of islands about ten days by ship from Owari.」

「Hou. Was there truly such an island?」

The talk feeling more like an interrogation can’t be helped.  This was an age where ones station in society was paramount after all.  I think this treatment was fine as long as they weren’t acting in an openly threatening manner.  

「This world is wide.  Outsiders who come from far away would actually take about a year before reaching Hinomoto.」

「That is quite something. By the way, it seems that you have five wives. Is this normal in Nanban?」

「I have heard that it varies depending from land to land. Our hometown is quite small, so those circumstances led to this custom.」

It’s said that historical Nobunaga had a progressive side to him, but was this sense of curiosity the driving force for that? He was asking me questions one after another. 

He reacted differently to Elle and the others, but he seemed more concerned about how tall some of them were instead of their beauty.  

Maybe it’s the difference of perceptions and values between eras.  Maybe he simply didn’t like tall women.  Does that mean Katie would be popular here? Of course, I wouldn’t hand her over no matter what though. 

「I see. Just because one possesses a Nanban ship does not mean one is from Nanban.」

「They died early due to disease, but their parents were indeed from Nanban.」

Elle and the others have never been to Europe, of course.  The plan was to pretend that their parent’s generation came to Japan, and that they were all born on the islands. 

「What do you plan on doing after this?」

「We will visit Atsuta shrine next and rest for a while in the house we rented here in Tsushima. We will probably head out to conduct our next trade once all our goods have been unloaded though.」

「Hou. I see.」

I couldn’t refuse to answer the questions, so I tried my best to give innocuous answers, but it was pretty nerve-wracking.   It would be troublesome to be labelled as an insolent fellow after all.

After this, I was asked about the products we brought over. Then I was asked a lot of other questions, including seemingly trivial ones. 

I was actually planning on experiencing life during the Sengoku period after this though. Should we just get out of here before we got involved any deeper? 

In any case, it wouldn’t be bad to live a leisurely island life with Elle and the others. 

***

Side: Elle

So, this person is Lord Nobunaga Oda. 

I feel like his sense of curiosity and his insight in understanding Commander’s story showed mere glimpses of his great potential. 

In historical records, it’s said that Lord Nobunaga Oda got known as a demon king due to the passages he wrote in a letter during his battles on Mt. Hiei while contending with the Ikko-shu.  However, daimyos who fought with the Ikko-shu weren’t particularly rare. 

It wasn’t uncommon for the temples or shrines during this period to use force or put pressure on the imperial court and the shogunate, and it’s also a fact that the actions of the Ikko-shu were particularly intolerable. 

You could even say that Lord Nobunaga’s historical response to their provocations was rather lenient. 

However, though the Lord Nobunaga in front of me showed promise, he was still a child.  He seemed to be preoccupied with rebelling against the adults surrounding him and society in general. 

However, even though I did somehow anticipate this to be the case, we really did end up getting involved with Lord Nobunaga. 

Was Commander aware that he was already interfering with history? I will have to ask him about this later. 

It is better for us to leave as early as possible if we didn’t want to get involved any further, and if not, then we had to be prepared for the consequences.  This wasn’t an era in which you can live while being idealistic. 

Of course, Commander and us should be able to live just fine. 

However, this was no longer a virtual space. We need to consider the possibility of both taking the lives of others and dying ourselves. 

Can this be said to be a trial? Or perhaps……

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