Chapter 70 - 42 Sir, this way!

Chapter 70: Chapter 42 Sir, this way!The injured one was Bald the very first person Harano encountered after he landed in the Middle Ages of Japan. This guy just had the worst luck—went up the mountain just to dig wild veggies, spotted a big bird with flashy feathers, and got all hyped, thinking he could make some easy cash. Sneaked over and shot the bird with an arrow, but the bird escaped wounded. Then he began a wild chase, three times, five times—never caught the bird, only to end up rolling down a steep slope, getting banged up all over, covered in blood and bruises. Thankfully, being old and sly, he instinctively curled up while tumbling down, so most of the blood and mangled flesh was just scrapes and bruises—the worst part was a broken leg. Of course, that’s if you were in modern times. In the old days, there were no antibiotics—heck, the word wasn’t even invented until 1940, forget about 1551. A wound infection could still totally kill him here. Bald was the real dad of one of Harano’s only two "employees," so Harano cared a lot. He immediately called everyone at home to action: some to brew herbs, some to boil water, some to get gauze, some to fetch a splint, all to start cleaning wounds carefully. Busy saving people, he didn’t notice the villagers were behaving a bit differently from usual. The folks of Hibi Village have pretty boring lives and usually love to spectate at any excitement. getting banged up and wailing in agony—by village standards, that’s a big deal. Normally everyone would crowd the doorway to gawk, maybe even start planning the funeral service. But this time, after dropping off, everyone instantly scattered like a flock of birds, keeping their distance. With the villagers gone, only a few Samurai with horses were left. The leader looked seventeen or eighteen, just over 1.7 meters tall—tack on that sky-high topknot and he was up to around 1.75 or 1.76. He wore a simple gray jacket, with an elegant silk belt at his waist, looked pretty dapper overall—until you noticed those random ragged cloth pouches hanging off his coat, making him look like some Beggar Gang member at first glance. That hairstyle and getup screamed "light-rogue, extravagantly quirky" style, and his whole vibe matched—rebellious, cold, like he held the world in contempt, but sometimes those dark brows would drop, and with his aquiline nose and slightly gloomy eyes, he looked even more brooding. Behind him trailed two more Samurai: one, eighteen or nineteen, a bit chubby with fair skin and gentle features, was always grinning like he’d just won the lottery; the other, about fifteen or sixteen, broad-shouldered, sturdy, with a chasen-topknot and bright eyes, a sword at his hip and a short-handled iron cannon in his hand—none other than Maeda Toshie. Maeda Toshie peeked inside from the doorway, pointed at Harano, and promptly reported to the "Beggar Gang disciple" looking guy: "Lord, that’s Master Saburō Harano!" Of course, his lord was none other than the "big fool of Owari"—Oda Nobunaga, but Nobunaga didn’t spare him so much as a glance. He wasn’t blind; Harano was impossible to miss—towering over everyone at 1.8 meters in wooden clogs, standing out like a crane in a chicken coop. As if he couldn’t tell? But just being tall didn’t impress him at all. He lazily turned to the others, giving casual orders: "Go ask around the village, see if what Inuken said is for real." He and Maeda Toshie hit it off right away—same hobbies, both a bit nuts by regular people’s standards. Lately, Toshie hadn’t shut up about finding some "hidden genius" in Hibi Village who was a master of Sinology, great at medicine, with an extraordinary vibe, someone you absolutely couldn’t let fall into someone else’s hands. He was pestered so much that he finally agreed to check it out while heading out to see Hashimoto Ichibashi for iron cannon training. Yeah, see, he’d been practicing with the iron cannon at the Nagano Castle residence, accidentally shot dead a Household Retainer and pissed everyone off. His teacher, Hirata Masahide, almost had a stroke, so now he was strictly forbidden from firing off at will in Nagano Castle—even just shooting birds was a no-go. He had no choice but to sneak out here for practice. With a single order, Nobunaga’s Returning Horse Group scattered to catch some villagers and find out if Toshie was just blowing smoke, while Nobunaga stood at the door for a while, couldn’t make out what Harano was up to, got bored, and started wandering around. First, he checked out Harano’s "medicine shed," eyeing all the strange herbs, then peeking at Harano’s handwritten Chinese labels. His curiosity wavered a little; maybe this guy really had some skills. Still, he’d have to see more before passing judgment, so he strolled out of the bamboo shed and into the house. Searᴄh the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Maeda Toshie and the other young retainer, Ikegami Keisuke, didn’t even bother trying to stop him. With Nobunaga’s quirky style, he didn’t bother with etiquette, so there was no point trying to advise him. Meanwhile, Ah Man was dozing off inside. She’d vaguely heard some noise outside in her sleep, but figured there were plenty of people to help—no shortage without her—plus the sleep was just too comfy, so she couldn’t be bothered to get up. She was enjoying her nap when suddenly someone barged in. Even half-asleep, her brain worked fast. Those footsteps were unfamiliar, something was off. She jolted awake, rolled over, and rushed right up to shield Meng Ziqi, only then opening her eyes wide—and instantly recognized Oda Nobunaga. She’d actually seen Oda Nobunaga before—heck, she’d even seen him cross-dressing on stage. She was so shocked she blurted out, "Ah, Oda Bi—" Luckily, she was quick and swallowed the word "Big Fool" just in time. Her gaze instantly snapped to Maeda Toshie—blink of an eye and she’d figured out who to blame. Had to be this guy with his "Sir, this way" that dragged this lunatic Nobunaga in; otherwise there’d be no way Nobunaga would show up here. Nobunaga was notorious—everyone’s scared of him. Even with her rough personality, she was a little afraid. No clue what this nutjob was up to. All she could do was shield Meng Ziqi and wait to see what happened—she knew Harano was super sentimental, and Meng Ziqi mattered a lot to him. She’d figured that out long ago, so whatever Nobunaga tried, as long as Meng Ziqi was safe, even if the house burned down and all the money got stolen, Harano would still give her credit afterward. She kept a wary eye out, but Nobunaga didn’t even register her existence—just assumed she was one of Harano’s concubines or maids. He strolled over to Harano’s desk, flipping through his books and papers at random. When he spotted the pinyin-penned Barefoot Doctor’s Manual, his eyes lit up; looked like he was genuinely interested. Too bad he couldn’t read a word of it. Flipped through for a bit, tossed it aside, then noticed Harano’s homemade pulley bows stacked in a corner, looking even more intrigued. He walked over, fiddled with the pulleys, and started to study them—when not in use, the pulley bows didn’t have strings, and the parts were all disassembled to prolong the life of the bow and prevent deformation. With everything lying around in pieces, Nobunaga thought these were some sort of mechanical tools. It never even crossed his mind that this pile of stuff could be used for archery—he just thought Harano might be an engineering genius, a rare talent in craftsmanship. Ah Man watched from the side for a while and finally couldn’t help it, shouting, "Hey, what are you guys doing? That stuff belongs to him, you can’t just take it!" Nobunaga gave her a glance, but didn’t bother to scold her. Maeda Toshie, on the other hand, grabbed his sword handle and barked, "Don’t be rude in front of the Lord!" Ah Man stared daggers at him, but what could she do? She sulked. If it was just one-on-one, she’d be confident she could floor this guy—or at worst, escape, hide until he squatted at the outhouse, then barrel in and axe him right into the cesspit—but with three of them and A-Qing not around, she was out of options. All she could do was start plotting rumors in her head—if she was going to roast Maeda Toshie, might as well roast the big fool Nobunaga as well. She’d say they were gay, snuggling at night, poking each other’s butts and all that! No way she’d just eat dirt—if she couldn’t take them head-on, she’d roast their reputations into the ground! While she was secretly stewing evil ideas, Nobunaga waved his hand, signaling Toshie to go easy on the wild commoner girl, tossed aside all the gizmo parts, and left. Main thing was, Harano hadn’t been here long, all his modern gear was hidden in the mountains, so there wasn’t any real novelty to keep Nobunaga’s attention for long. Once he was out, the Returning Horse Group members he’d sent for info returned and quietly reported what they’d heard. Not a single villager in Hibi Village said a bad word about Harano. Everyone swore he was the reincarnation of a Divine Doctor, with great compassion and medical ethics, always treating the sick cheap, and they were all deeply grateful to him. If you listened to the villagers, tomorrow Harano would sprout a holy aura, smell like incense, have a merit halo behind his head, and ascend to heaven on the spot—nothing was impossible. Nobunaga listened quietly, a lot of the gloom fading from his eyes and brow. After pondering a bit, he turned and patted Maeda Toshie on the shoulder, offering a rare bit of praise: "Inuken, I blamed you for nothing before. You did well this time." Maeda Toshie couldn’t hide his joy, fondling the sword at his side, and blurted, "Well, of course, Lord! He even saved A-Matsu! I told you to come sooner, but you just wouldn’t listen!" Nobunaga nodded, thinking he really was a bit careless before—Harano was worth meeting, probably a man of talent. ...... Ah Man hid behind the straw curtain, eavesdropping on Nobunaga and the others chatting in the courtyard. After listening for a bit, she quickly slipped out and circled halfway around toward the "Black Clinic." When she got inside, Harano was still busy. Bald was covered in little wounds—cleaning and disinfecting was a nightmare. When they set his bones, he howled so loud you’d think someone was butchering a pig. A-Qing, Yayoi, the Momoi brothers—everyone working together could barely hold him down. They were all sweating buckets and had zero energy to spare for anything else. Seeing Harano looking calm, still fiddling with stinky leg, she grabbed him by the collar, yanked his head down, and urgently whispered into his ear, "It’s over! It’s all over! That Maeda family dung ball sold you out—he dragged that nutcase Oda Nobunaga here!" In her eyes, Harano was a bit of an idiot, refusing to serve as anyone’s retainer, as if bowing his head would kill him—dumb to the extreme. But Oda Nobunaga seemed to have taken a shine to him, thinking he was some sort of talented genius, and looked ready to drag him back to be a page. If the two of them couldn’t reach a deal, and Nobunaga lost his mind and blasted Harano with an iron cannon, where was she going to get her stewed chicken in the future?! That’s it. Her happy days were doomed. She hated Maeda Toshie’s guts right now!