Chapter 88 - 54: The Death of Oda Nobuhide

Chapter 88: Chapter 54: The Death of Oda NobuhideEnemy attack?! Nozawa was still fretting over how to avoid being fleeced by those shameless monks at Hosokawa Guanyin Temple, when suddenly the alarm bell of Takeshige Manor rang out. He was completely startled and suspicious—he’d only moved here a little over ten days ago, hadn’t even begun to renovate his house, and now the enemy was here already? Isn’t this the heartland of the Oda Danjo Chonosuke’s domain? How could there suddenly be an enemy coming to attack? While he was still in shock, wondering what on earth had happened and who the enemy might be, Ah Man and Ah Qing had already darted toward the iron cannon, short-handled axe, and copper ring stick. They always carried weapons on them daily—shuriken and such never left their bodies. There was always this vigilant readiness to instantly fight back should any sudden danger arise, and their main weapons were never kept far away, always within easy reach, and now that paid off. Seeing their movements, Nozawa immediately snapped out of it as well, his eyes sharpening as he went to fetch his bow. He was quite alert too, though having grown up in peaceful times, his reaction was a bit slower than those like Ah Man and Ah Qing, who lived every day never knowing if tomorrow would come. But before he could rush out the door, Ah Man yelled again, "Wait, no, that’s not the alarm bell, the alarm wouldn’t drag out this slowly..." He tuned her out, grabbing his bow before returning, and by then the bell sounded a few more times, groaning and low. Now came the sound of the dharma conch as well. Whoever was blowing it must have been specially trained, as their breath was extraordinarily long—the whimpering, wailing sound going on and on, and the timbre was bleak and desolate. "What’s going on?" Nozawa muttered as he fussed with assembling his bow—which he’d done so hastily that it was giving him some trouble—and asked Ah Man at the same time. Ah Man was already fully geared up, holding the iron cannon with a stern look. "It’s probably not an enemy attack—it’s that the Oda Danjo Chonosuke house is summoning their household retainers and the Lang Faction... No, hang on, this manor is part of Oda the Big Fool’s direct domain—he’s the one calling a muster!" She hesitated for a moment after speaking, then looked up and asked Nozawa, "Should we go out and see what’s going on?" They weren’t part of Oda Nobunaga’s retainers or Lang Faction; gathering orders wouldn’t fall on them. But clearly, something big was happening, and sitting at home like idiots—if something happened, they would have no chance to react and might just end up sitting ducks. Nozawa thought the same thing—they had to figure out what had happened. If it looked bad, they could still run early. He nodded, "Yeah, we better go have a look. If anything doesn’t feel right, we’ll fall back!" He quickly assigned tasks. The Momoi brothers and Yayoi were to guard his dumb son and get ready—if the situation went south, they’d have to be ready to carry him and run. Nozawa himself led Ah Man and Ah Qing out to take a look around. The village street was already in total chaos. What had been a peaceful night was now frantic: Oda Family Lang Faction members in groups of three or five, armored up and gripping their tachi, were running from every direction toward the home of Okurakiyebi, the center of Takeshige Manor, and that place was now ablaze with torches as bright as day. There was shouting, horses whinnying—a tense, pre-battle atmosphere hung in the air. "What the hell madness is Oda the Big Fool up to this time? Who’s he off to attack?" Ah Man guessed this was Oda Nobunaga preparing an offensive, and she was quite bold too—grumbling, she grabbed one of the Oda Family’s Lang Faction as he ran past, asking, "What’s happened? Who are you going to attack?" "No idea, you’d better go too, or you’ll be punished for being late!" The member, just sixteen or seventeen, glanced at Ah Man, saw she was hefting an iron cannon and had a tall "samurai" behind her, so he didn’t dare get angry—just threw out a line, shook her off, and dashed on. Looked like muster had a time limit. Ah Man glanced back at Nozawa, and he thought for a second before saying, "Let’s follow and take a look!" The three of them blended in with the crowd and hurried over to Okurakiyebi’s residence. It was even more chaotic there. Two or three hundred young, fully armed Lang Faction were crowded in, lining up, while some older Lang Faction were distributing long spears, slender rice bags, and back banners—a white marker with blue strips at the top and the Oda Nobunaga Five Melon Pattern in the middle, worn on the back of your armor. Okurakiyebi and several magistrates were busy marking up a register, counting heads, and now and then barking out verbal orders, urging people to finish organizing the squads faster. Nozawa and his two companions watched from the shadows for a while. These Lang Faction looked pretty elite, must have trained often—they’d all arrived on time at the sound of bells and dharma conch, and geared up quickly. Only when they stuck so many banners onto their backs did it look a bit ominous—so many flags, that many FLAGs, could anyone possibly survive the mission? Okurakiyebi finished up his tasks, figured everyone who should show had shown, distributed soldiers’ rations and other stuff, and was about to get moving. Then, sweeping his gaze around, he spotted Nozawa and his group, and it took him a second to remember who they were—Nozawa had moved into Takeshige Manor and promptly shut himself away at home, not leaving for over ten days, and Okurakiyebi had nearly forgotten about him. He looked down, flipped his register to the front, checked up and down, and didn’t see "Nohara Saburo Ieto" listed in the household retainer section—so he figured Nozawa wasn’t under his command. Seeing that Nozawa was glancing around, looking a bit lost, Okurakiyebi hesitated for a moment and walked over to ask, "Master Nohara, why are you still here? Didn’t you get a message?" "No, what’s going on?" Nozawa had wanted to ask from the start, just hadn’t because he saw Okurakiyebi busy. Okurakiyebi was silent for a moment, then looked down and sighed, "Lord Oda Danjo Chonosuke passed on to the Pure Land earlier this afternoon." "What? Just like that..." Nozawa blinked, for a split-second doubting his own ears. The de facto ruler of the eight counties of Owari Province, mighty daimyo Oda Nobuhide—dead? That sudden? Okurakiyebi seemed to have genuine affection for the old lord; his eyes reddened a bit and he sighed softly, "Yes, Lord Oda Danjo Chonosuke has passed away." "That... My condolences." Nozawa had no idea what to say for a moment; the news was just too sudden. He paused, then asked, "May I... ask how he died?" "Passed away from illness." Okurakiyebi sighed again. Seeing that he’d delivered the message, he didn’t have the energy for chit-chat, so he reminded Nozawa, "Master Nohara, you should get to Nagano Castle as soon as possible; the Lord is sure to have many things for you to do now!" It seemed Okurakiyebi had mistaken Nozawa for one of Oda Nobunaga’s minor retainers, and Nozawa didn’t bother to explain for now. He just glanced around and asked, "So, Lord Okurakiyebi, you’re about to..." Okurakiyebi made no secret of it—their mission had to be in the open, so he replied directly, "By order of Lord Hayashi Shingoro, we’re heading to Mukawa Stronghold to reinforce defenses." Nozawa nodded. He didn’t know exactly where Mukawa Stronghold was, but he could guess it was an important checkpoint. After all, with the "Tiger of Owari," Oda Nobuhide, suddenly dying, Lin Xiuzhen—being Oda Nobunaga’s head family elder—had to make a move in case someone tried to take advantage of the chaos. That was to be expected. Nozawa said his farewells to Okurakiyebi: "In that case, I won’t disturb you any further." Okurakiyebi nodded, said no more, placed his hand on his sword and left, leading his men away with their torches. Nozawa led Ah Man and Ah Qing home, and as soon as they returned, Ah Man blurted out in awe, "Oda Nobuhide is actually dead!" That wasn’t emphatic enough for her, apparently, so she exclaimed again, "The Tiger of Owari just died like that!" Even though she’d heard from her grandpa before coming to Owari that Oda Nobuhide had been beaten so many times he’d become a whipped dog—utterly defeated, drunk all day, so it was only a year or two before he’d croak—now, after just three months in Owari, Oda Nobuhide really did die, and so suddenly, without a stir. That was still beyond what she expected—she couldn’t help being amazed. Nozawa was deep in thought, but hearing this, he looked up, eyes glinting, and asked, "He’s dead, all right, that’s obvious. But don’t you think...how do you think he died?" Ah Man was sharp, and picked up on what he was hinting at, but after hesitating, said, "He probably did just die of illness. The Big Fool had no reason to kill his own dad. His position as heir is pretty secure—he’s Saito Dosan’s son-in-law, has his own land and household retainers, and if Oda Nobuhide tried to depose him, the whole Dan Zhengzhong house would’ve erupted into chaos—maybe even destroyed the family. Oda Nobuhide wasn’t that reckless, not even when he’s drunk." "Is that so?" Nozawa muttered, thinking it seemed reasonable. Maybe he was just being paranoid. "That should be it!" Ah Man really couldn’t think of a good reason for Oda Nobunaga to kill his father for the throne. She looked at Nozawa, curious: "Did you notice something off?" "No one came looking for me," Nozawa said softly after a pause. "If he died of illness, no matter how sudden, they should have sent for a doctor to try and save him! Even if I couldn’t make it in time, at least someone should’ve come to fetch me. Oda Nobunaga knows I’m a good doctor; there’s no reason not to send someone." "Yeah, that is a bit weird." Ah Man realized, but quickly brushed it off, "Sounds a bit fishy, but what does it have to do with us? Who knows what was really going on at the time." Nozawa shook his head, dropped the conspiracy talk, and asked instead, "So, what do you think will happen next in Owari?" His being transmigrated was pure happenstance—he’d done zero historical homework. Damn Taiko 2 started after the Battle of Okehazama, when Monkey officially became a samurai, so he had no idea what had happened before. Now he was on edge—the "Tiger of Owari" who had dominated Owari for more than twenty years was dead. Even a blind guess would tell you there was bound to be unrest, right? "Sigh, chaos for sure—just don’t know if it’ll be a big mess or a small one!" Ah Man said immediately, not even thinking. She’d barely had a few good days herself before it all hit the fan, so she was in a foul mood, muttering, "Saito Dosan of Minoh’s been eyeing this fat piece of Owari for ages, and the Matsudaira family and Imagawa family certainly won’t pass up the chance—they’ll try to gnaw off some territory for themselves. There’s no way things stay stable now!" Just as he expected, Nozawa sighed, mentally blaming Oda Nobunaga for being so thoughtless—if your dad was sick, why didn’t you send word? If you had, I could’ve gone and done my best to save him, at the very least keep Oda Nobuhide alive until I set up my soy sauce workshop and sold all my stock! Sёarch* The nôvelFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. And now, just great—most of his cash was tied up in soy sauce fermenting out in jars behind the house, but now Oda Nobuhide was dead and chaos loomed. How would he sell his soy sauce now? How was he supposed to renovate or redecorate his house? But there was nothing he could do—such matters were beyond his control. Oda Nobuhide was cold in his grave, and Nozawa couldn’t raise the dead, so he could only accept it. Back home, he shut the door tight, keeping a careful eye on the winds of Owari. The impact of Oda Nobuhide—the "Tiger of Owari"—dying was massive. Once word got out, the whole Lower Four Provinces of Owari seemed frozen; everyone was cautious, afraid to so much as make a sound, lest the Oda Danjo Chonosuke house came down on them. The tension didn’t break until the third day, when everyone was notified and invited to attend Oda Nobuhide’s funeral. Especially the local gentry and earth warriors; even the messengers made it clear—none of them could remain on their home estate—all had to go to the funeral. Only after Oda Nobunaga, the heir, consented could anyone return. Skip it, and you’d suffer the consequences! Even Nozawa, a fake samurai, didn’t escape—Oda Danjo Chonosuke’s house hadn’t left him out. Someone still came to invite him, albeit a bit more politely and without taking him too seriously, but he still had to go—no excuses!