ACT 5
“The sanctuary dedicated to Fjörgyn, in the village of Stórk?”
“That’s right.”
Yuuto nodded in response to Sigrún, who was thoughtfully mulling the situation over.
Stórk was a tiny village located about two days south of Gashina on foot.
The land there wasn’t fertile, and the village wasn’t on any trade routes, either, so the area had almost no strategic value.
The Flame Clan had chosen that place solely because it was exactly halfway between the current positions of the Steel Clan and Flame Clan army encampments.
As the two nations were not currently bound in alliance through the Oath of the Chalice, it would be a rather difficult and risky endeavor for either of the two rulers to enter into the other’s military camp.
And so a neutral location a small distance away from either army’s formation was chosen as the meeting spot.
“I’m trying to negotiate friendly relations with him, so if I take too many soldiers with me, it’ll end up looking like I’m trying to intimidate him. That said, we’re still pretty deep into enemy territory.”
“I see, so that is why you wanted a small number of elite fighters.” Sigrún nodded in understanding.
After taking control of Fort Gashina, the Steel Clan forces had driven off all of the Lightning Clan soldiers in the surrounding area, but it was still reasonably possible that there were some left in hiding.
However, if Yuuto were to take a large entourage of soldiers with him to the meeting place, then even though he was trying to establish an alliance with the Flame Clan, they could potentially see it as some kind of threat towards them.
“I understand the situation now,” said Sigrún. “It is true that it would be a bit worrisome with only Felicia as your personal guard. I shall also—”
“No, Rún, I want you to stay here and take command of the troops. I don’t expect any nasty surprises, but you never know what can happen in war.”
“Wha—?!” Sigrún’s eyes went wide with shock.
Apparently she’d simply assumed she would be going with Yuuto as well.
“Think about it—you’re the only one here right now that I can entrust that role to,” Yuuto said.
He wasn’t lying, either.
Because of the currently unfolding situation with the subjugation order and the alliance of enemies encircling the Steel Clan, Yuuto’s subsidiary clan patriarchs weren’t here with him. They’d sent representatives dressed as lookalikes; the actual patriarchs had returned to their respective territories to prepare their defenses.
Out of Yuuto’s subordinates traveling with this army, Sigrún was the highest ranked, and she also had a record of military accomplishments that meant no one could deny her qualifications for command.
“Erm, but...” Sigrún trailed off, searching for an argument.
She was still very overprotective when it came to Yuuto.
He could tell just looking at her how worried she was for him.
“Mother, please rest assured that I will protect the lord reginarch without fail!” Hildegard shouted, and thumped her fist against her chest with pride and confidence.
Sigrún’s brow furrowed. “You’re only making me even more worried for him.”
“Hey! You said just a moment ago that you had no doubts about my strength!”
“Yes, I said that, but that doesn’t mean I’m comfortable leaving Father in your hands...”
“Rrgh.” Hildegard’s expression tensed with irritation. “Mother, there is no one better suited for this escort mission than I am! In fact, I think I would be a better choice than even you!”
“What?” In response to Hildegard’s incredibly bold statement, Sigrún fixed her with a sharp glare.
The Múspell Special Forces were lauded as the strongest fighters in the Steel Clan, and many of its members were on the hot-headed side. Sigrún was used to dealing with such people, and she was usually willing to let a crude remark or a lapse in manners slide, but it seemed that having someone claim to be better than her right to her face was enough to raise her hackles a bit.
However, Hildegard did not flinch at Sigrún’s glare.
“As an Einherjar gifted with the powers of the wolf, my smell and hearing are far superior to those of the average person!” she exclaimed. “Detecting the location of enemies is among my greatest talents!”
“Oh?” Yuuto seemed to perk up with interest.
For an escort mission like this one, combat skill was of course important in the event of an ambush, but even more crucial was the ability to detect the presence and location of enemies.
Sigrún might be the strongest warrior in the Steel Clan, and a master with the sword, but if she were attacked by an ambush of a hundred soldiers, she would be hard-pressed to both defend herself and protect Yuuto at the same time.
On the other hand, if Hildegard had the superior powers of detection that she claimed to, she would be able to sense approaching hostile forces before they were close, giving Yuuto’s group a much greater chance to escape before any attack took place.
It was obvious which one of them would be the better pick for this mission.
“Hm.” Yuuto looked thoughtful for a second. “Wait, but just a minute ago, weren’t you surprised by the fact that I was here?”
“Th-That was because I was completely focused on my training with Mother!” Hildegard protested. “I could never attempt to fight her while sparing any attention for anything else.”
“I suppose that’s true,” Yuuto said with a nod, seemingly convinced.
“As your escort and guard, I would be able to devote my full attention solely towards our surroundings, keeping watch for threats.”
“Hm... Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m a little uncertain that I can just take your word for it when it comes to your senses of hearing and smell. I’d prefer some way of confirming just how good they are.”
“I understand. For one, I can tell that Aunt Kristina is over there.”
Hildegard pointed her finger in what seemed like a random direction.
“...”
There was no response, and a few moments of complete silence followed before Sigrún spoke up.
“I’m fairly sure she’s not there. At the very least, I can’t sense her.”
“I am afraid I do not sense her, either,” Felicia added.
The two other Einherjar had come together in agreeing that Hildegard was wrong.
“Wait! Please, come out here already and show them!” Hildegard shouted into the darkness. However, there was no sign of anyone out there, much less anyone approaching.
Yuuto grinned, and spoke in the direction Hildegard had pointed toward. “Kris, this is an order. If you’re really there, come out.”
Knowing how Kristina could be, he was certain that if she was there, she wouldn’t reveal herself, so he decided to help Hildegard out a little.
It was partly because he felt bad for her in this situation, but also because he honestly wanted to get an assessment of how good her detection abilities really were.
The twins Kristina and Albertina were masters at concealing their presence. There was no one who could compare to them in terms of stealth.
If Hildegard had been able to detect Kristina’s presence out in the darkness despite that, then she was without any doubt the perfect choice to take along with him to the upcoming meeting.
Yuuto waited to see the results...
Kristina did in fact appear, from the direction Hildegard had pointed. She had a slightly sullen expression—perhaps being discovered had nicked her pride somewhat.
“This is the first time I have ever been detected from that distance,” she remarked.
“Wow,” Yuuto said, raising his eyebrows. “If even you’re admitting that, her abilities really are quite impressive.” He was genuinely impressed.
He chose not to bring up the fact that Kristina had been eavesdropping on them.
That sort of thing was just part of who she was.
“All right then, that settles it.” Yuuto turned to Hildegard. “I’ll be taking you with me as part of my escort. I’ll be counting on you.”
“Yes, my lord! You can count on me!” Hildegard’s reply was loud and spirited.
Yuuto nodded, satisfied, and turned back to Kristina.
“Speaking of which, I’ll tell you since you’re here, Kris. You’ll be accompanying me too.”
“Well, yes, naturally.” Kristina’s response was almost aggravatingly nonchalant, as if she’d just heard something obvious.
One of Kristina’s special abilities allowed her to dampen the presence of another person and make them harder to detect, as long as she was holding their hand. It was another invaluable ability to have at the ready to assist in avoiding danger, and her reaction was likely because she was already fully aware of that.
“And also... I think I’ll take him with me, too.”
Yuuto turned around and pointed at the “him” in question, who was currently lying by a nearby campfire, relaxing.
Sigrún seemed surprised by this. “Him, Father? But, I suspect he might cause even more offense than Hilda.”
“Wha—Please don’t use me in that comparison! I should think at the very least I am better than that!”
“Don’t worry, it’ll be fine,” Yuuto said with complete confidence, the corners of his mouth curling up into a smile.
“If what I know about the Flame Clan patriarch is right, he’s gonna love it.”
“So this is Stórk, huh?” Yuuto whispered to himself.
He was looking up at a collection of houses surrounded by a wooden fence.
This setup was a common method of protection for smaller settlements in Yggdrasil: The area surrounding the houses would be fitted out with crude barriers—deep moats or tall fencing made from thick wooden posts.
Yuuto had heard that this area in particular was plagued by wandering brigands and gangs of bandits from the nearby mountains. As such, he’d readied himself for trouble, but in the end nothing had happened along the way, and they’d reached their destination without incident. It was a little anticlimactic, but it was better to think of it as a good sign for things to come.
Hildegard seemed pretty nonplussed about the situation, though.
“...D-Do I h-have the honor of addressing Lord Reginarch Yuuto, of the Steel Clan?”
They were met at the village entrance by a young man who trembled with fear as he spoke to Yuuto.
Yuuto was the lord and ruler of a large and powerful nation in the midst of rapid expansion, so it was only natural some people might have that sort of fearful reaction to him, but clearly with this man, that wasn’t the only thing he was afraid of.
His gaze kept darting from Yuuto down to what he was riding on. It seemed he couldn’t ignore it for even a second.
That was exactly what Yuuto had been hoping for, and inwardly he chuckled to himself. However, he made sure not to show that emotion on his face.
“Yes, that’s right.” Yuuto maintained a cool expression and gave a single, dignified nod.
Throwing aside part of his cape, he extended his right arm to display the iron knuckle-guard he wore on his right hand.
In Yggdrasil, iron was a precious metal more valuable than gold, and even though Yuuto had introduced iron-refining techniques and made it a bit less rare among his people, it still wasn’t the kind of thing any ordinary thief could get his hands on.
The emblem of the Steel Clan was engraved into it as well, making it definitive proof of Yuuto’s identity.
“Can you let me pass?” Yuuto asked.
“Y-Yes,” the man stammered. “I was told of your arrival. P-Please, come in. Lord Nobunaga is already waiting for you at the hörgr.”
“All right. Everyone, let’s move.” Yuuto turned his head and gestured to the group behind him, and they filed through the gate into the village.
As they made their way toward the hörgr, they crossed paths with local villagers, who each time froze up and began shaking with fear.
Yuuto was accompanied by a total of nine guards: Felicia, Kristina, Albertina, Hildegard, and five of the most skilled members of the Múspell Special Forces.
All of the girls were, of course, stunningly beautiful, and as for the men, they were not only well-built, but each of them was ruggedly handsome as well. It wasn’t a large retinue, but it was still quite showy.
However, in terms of showiness, there was one more member of Yuuto’s party to whom the rest all paled in comparison, and it was with his help that Yuuto stunned the residents of the village as he made his way through it.
“Bwah hah hah hah!”
Standing inside the hörgr, the sanctuary hall devoted to the goddess Fjörgyn, the man watched as the Steel Clan patriarch and his party made their approach up the entrance stairs, and he burst out in delighted laughter.
The man had black hair, an exceedingly rare trait in Yggdrasil.
He was already over the age of sixty, but both his body and his expression were filled with a vibrant energy that made him look like he was still in his early forties, or perhaps even his late thirties.
His name was Nobunaga. He was the patriarch of the Flame Clan, which ruled over the Helheim region—and which now controlled the southern half of Vanaheimr as well.
“Well, well, it seems he is just as curious a man as the rumors describe! What a truly dramatic entrance!”
First off, the bold act of bringing along only a scant nine attendants was magnificent and worthy of praise. And furthermore, half of those were women, and three of them were even children!
The men in his group were also all incredibly handsome, and ordinarily just the beauty displayed by this group as a whole would have been enough to demand his wide-eyed attention.
However, at this particular moment, Nobunaga did not pay them any mind at all.
“I’ve heard the empire of Ming has tigers, and that the land of India has a long-nosed, giant creature called an elephant, both beasts not found in my homeland. And I have heard of the distant land called Africa, where the people all have skin as black as a bull’s, just like my old retainer Yasuke. I’ve heard the intriguing claim that the world is round like a ball. But this—this creature is something the likes of which I have only heard of in tales of myth!”
Nobunaga’s gaze was fixed on one point: The white-furred creature atop which Yuuto was riding.
“I have never seen such a gigantic wolf before, either,” remarked his second-in-command Ran, who was staring wide-eyed in shock.
Indeed, in terms of its shape, it looked exactly like a giant wolf.
This creature was a garmr, a species of beast native to the Himinbjörg Mountains far to the north, where they were both feared as predators and revered as sacred creatures by the local residents.
As a powerful warlord and ruler, Nobunaga had received a great variety of rare animal trophies as tribute, but a wolf large enough to carry a grown man on its back was something even he had never laid eyes on.
Furthermore, there was the very fact that this creature had been tamed into serving as this man’s transport in the first place. That was surprising in its own right.
“Heh heh heh, when I first met my father-in-law at Shotokuji, I put on my own show and gave him a surprise, but I must admit this puts even that to shame!”
Nobunaga closed his eyes for a moment, replaying the memory of that long-past day.
It was back when he was but a man of barely twenty years of age.
He’d received a request for an in-person meeting from his father-in-law Saito Dosan, the ruling lord of Mino. Nobunaga had brought with him a retinue equipped with firearms, which were still quite rare at the time, and he’d done things like change into different outfits in between different parts of his visit. His actions had been unusual and served to baffle onlookers during the visit.
But this display by the Steel Clan patriarch now had left him feeling like the one on the receiving end of such mischief.
“Okay, we absolutely have to make these negotiations succeed.”
Sitting atop Hildólfr, Yuuto felt a chill grab hold of him.
When he reached the sanctuary, there were at least several hundred Flame Clan soldiers waiting there for him. It required a good deal of courage to keep moving forward when there were only less than ten on his side.
However, that wasn’t really the biggest issue at this point. He’d made the decision to show his peaceful intentions by bringing only a small number, and he had the resolve to follow through on that.
No, what sent chills down Yuuto’s spine were the weapons they had.
Their long, cylindrical barrels shone with a black, metallic luster, and they were all held ready against the shoulder, pointed up towards the sky.
He’d seen pictures of them in movies and in manga—they were Japanese-style matchlock guns.
“So he’s got more than a hundred of them...” Yuuto whispered to himself.
It was impossible that Nobunaga could have brought that many of them here with him directly from the Sengoku period, which meant he must have had them constructed here in Yggdrasil.
In other words, this couldn’t be the end of his supply, and he had the capacity to produce even more.
By contrast, even though Yuuto had access to knowledge and information from the modern era, he wasn’t going to be able to master the manufacturing of guns overnight.
Even in the example of the matchlock firearm first being introduced to Japan, they had actual models on hand to dissect and analyze, and it still took the ruler of Tanegashima two years before he could successfully produce his own.
Even with the famously talented blacksmith Ingrid working at his side, two or three years wouldn’t be enough. It would take many years of experimentation before he could produce enough guns to catch up to the Flame Clan. And during that time, Yggdrasil would sink into the ocean.
Up until this point, Yuuto had always fought his enemies while maintaining an overwhelming technological and strategic advantage over them. But now, if he were to make the Flame Clan his enemy, for the first time he’d be forced into war with an opponent who outclassed him in terms of weaponry.
Yuuto couldn’t keep himself from gulping nervously.
But in the very next moment, even the threat of the matchlock guns vanished completely from his mind, as if blown away by an explosion.
“I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Lord Patriarch of the Steel Clan. I am the patriarch of the Flame Clan, Oda Nobunaga.”
“?!” As the man’s eyes met Yuuto’s, Yuuto felt his heart pound loudly in his chest, like a hammer dropping on an anvil.
The force behind Nobunaga’s gaze was unbelievable.
It was clear the Flame Clan patriarch wasn’t glaring at him threateningly. In fact, his expression was actually rather welcoming and friendly.
And yet even still, Yuuto felt overpowered. It was as if he could see a vast ocean stretching out behind the man, and he was struggling not to be pulled into it.
This guy... There’s no mistaking it. It’s really him.
Previously, the person from whom Yuuto had felt the most overwhelming, threatening pressure had been Steinþórr, the former patriarch of the Lightning Clan. But compared to this man standing in front of him, that twin-rune monster now seemed like nothing more than a meek little kitten.
Yuuto dismounted Hildólfr and gave a light bow before introducing himself.
“I am pleased to make your acquaintance. I am the Steel Clan patriarch, Suoh Yuuto. It is an honor to meet face to face with the most famous hero in the history of my homeland.”
“Oho? Your homeland, is it?” Nobunaga narrowed his eyes and looked more closely at Yuuto’s face. “I had my suspicions when I received that katana as a gift from you. So, you are from Nippon as well, then?”
Nobunaga chuckled. He likely found a bit of pleasure in meeting one more of his fellow countrymen here in this strange land so far away from Japan.
For Yuuto himself, he’d learned that one of the greatest historical heroes from his homeland, someone whose example he respected greatly, had come to this world of Yggdrasil and risen to rule over one of its greatest nations. Even though that situation was now a potential threat to him, Yuuto couldn’t help but feel happy, too.
“Yes, that’s right. However, I came here from an era more than four hundred years in the future from yours.”
“Is that so? Then I suspect you will have quite a few interesting stories to tell me.”
And so, the first meeting between the two fellow Japanese men began on an amicable note.
“So, that little bald rat really defeated my enemies, did he?”
Nobunaga listened to Yuuto’s account with great interest, at times nodding to himself thoughtfully.
Since Yuuto came from Nobunaga’s future, Nobunaga had wanted to hear about what happened after his disappearance from Japan.
“Yes. In the span of only ten days, Hideyoshi left Takamatsu Castle and ran a forced march all the way back to Kyoto. He attacked Akechi’s army before they could properly prepare for him and ended up routing their forces.”
“In only ten days?!” Nobunaga slapped a hand on his thigh in amusement and laughed, a twinkle in his eyes. “Hah hah hah, I’d expect nothing less of the bald rat! He’s nothing if not quick at scurrying this way and that.”
The distance from Takamatsu Castle to the Japanese capital Kyoto was approximately two hundred kilometers. Getting a huge army to cross that distance in just ten days would have been a nearly impossible challenge.
Nobunaga surely had a much more personal understanding of that difficulty, since he was actually from that time period and familiar with the logistics involved.
“So, by defeating Akechi Mitsuhide, his late master’s enemy, Hideyoshi quickly expanded his power and established himself as one of the strongest players within the Oda Clan.”
“Did he, now? I imagine Gonroku wasn’t too thrilled with that.”
“Gonroku?” Yuuto repeated the name, confused.
As they were talking, Nobunaga would keep referring to people by odd or unfamiliar names, and Yuuto was having trouble keeping track of who was who.
“Hmǔ I’m talking about Shibata Shurinosuke,” Nobunaga responded.
Yuuto didn’t recognize the name Shurinosuke, but the Shibata family name rang a bell.
“Oh. You mean Shibata Katsuie. It’s as you said; he opposed Hideyoshi and, later on, fought and lost to him at the Battle of Shizugatake. And, erm, your younger sister, Oichi, also sadly died alongside him...”
“What? Why would Oichi have anything to do with it?”
“Oh, it’s because by that point, she had been married again, this time to Katsuie...”
“Ohoho, really, now? Well, now that I think about it, the two of them had been quite in love with each other, despite the difference in class between them.”
Nobunaga’s gaze drifted toward the ceiling of the hörgr as he recalled the memories, nodding absentmindedly.
This was a historical addendum from the man himself, something that couldn’t be found in any textbook.
It was so much more vivid and real.
“So then, did that bald rat go on to take my Oda Clan for himself?”
“Yes, he did. He took control of the main family line, and then set about suppressing the other factions that resisted him. By around ten years after your death, he had finally achieved the conquest and unification of Japan.”
“Is that so? Well, I suppose that is how it goes,” Nobunaga said with a wry grin, resting his chin on one hand.
Conquering all of the feuding provinces of Japan and uniting them under one rule was a dream that Nobunaga had spent pretty much his entire life pursuing.
Right when he was just a few short steps away from achieving it, he’d been betrayed by one of his allies, and he’d been unable to ensure that his descendants inherited control of his clan. In the end, his loyal subordinate ended up taking both his clan and the glory of achieving his lifelong goal.
Yuuto could easily guess just how disappointing that knowledge must be for him.
“That is all the knowledge I have from history, at least. But after supposedly dying in the incident at Honno-ji, how did you end up in this place?”
Talking about matters that were too somber and depressing for his counterpart would cause problems for Yuuto. He decided to bring them onto a different subject, even if it was a bit forceful of him.
At a glance, Nobunaga simply appeared to Yuuto as if he were a man in his late thirties or maybe early forties at the most. However, he knew about the incident at Honno-ji.
And if he knew about that, then that would mean...
“Hmph, it’s just as you say. I was ambushed at Honno-ji by that gold-headed fool, and along with Ran here, I was forced into the inner rooms of the temple. I survived Okehazama and Kanegasaki, and plenty of other dangerous moments, but right then, even I thought I must surely be done for. That was when it happened. An old mirror on one of the shelves suddenly shone with a bright light. When I came to, I was in this land.”
“Ah, I had a feeling it was something like that. It’s the same as what happened to me.”
The mirror in question must have been made with álfkipfer, the magical “elven copper” from Yggdrasil, and it must have been connected to some location in this world.
Álfkipfer could normally only be obtained in Yggdrasil, so it was still a mystery how a mirror made with the stuff ended up in the far away country of Japan, though.
“Oho, so you were also brought here by one of those strange mirrors.”
“I was. At first, I couldn’t even speak the language, and suffered quite a bit of hardship living here.”
“Keh heh heh. It was the same for me. Having to learn a foreign language at my age was quite the struggle!”
In contrast to Yuuto’s glum recounting of the experience, Nobunaga laughed it off as just one more event from the past.
Yuuto saw that as just one more way in which he was impressive.
“By the way, how old are you now?”
“I made it to sixty just this year.”
“Then I’ll wish you congratulations on that magnificent milestone.”
Yuuto remembered from his studies that Oda Nobunaga was forty-nine when he perished at Honno-ji. Nobunaga was famously fond of the Noh play Atsumori, and was said to have often quoted the line, “Human life lasts only fifty years.”
Nobunaga had died at almost exactly fifty years of age, just like in his favorite verse, and reading that had left a deep impression on Yuuto.
If he were to calculate based on that age...
“That’s impressive, just as I would have expected. Transported into this foreign land where you did not even know the language, in just over ten years you rose to power as the ruler of the Flame Clan, one of its most powerful nations.”
“You would do best not to misunderstand. I did not rise to leadership of a great nation. I took the Flame Clan and transformed it into a great nation.”
Nobunaga’s tone was very serious and matter-of-fact.
This incredible self-confidence of his, bordering on arrogance, was perhaps only fitting for a legendary hero out of history.
“So, how about you?” Nobunaga asked. “How old are you, then?”
“Erm, I just turned seventeen a little while back. Oh, but going by the way they counted age in your time, I would be considered eighteen.”
“So young! Oh, but more importantly, how many years has it been since you arrived here?”
“Just about an even three years.”
“Oho, just three years!” Sitting cross-legged across from Yuuto, Nobunaga slapped a hand on his thigh again. “Well, how about that. You are much more impressive than I am!”
“Not at all. I was just... I guess I should say blessed with good luck.”
“Don’t be overly humble. You cannot work your way up to a position of power and rule through luck alone. This world is not so kind as that.”
“It was in large part thanks to you, Lord Nobunaga. I studied your policies and methods, and learned a lot from their example.”
“Hmph, such obvious flattery. But it doesn’t hurt me to hear it. Still, you certainly make a habit of just tossing out a person’s true name in normal conversation, don’t you?”
“Huh? ...Oh, in the time period I came from, that’s become normal for everybody. I hope I didn’t offend you.”
By “true name,” Nobunaga was referring to the Japanese concept of imina, where calling people by their real names was taboo in certain situations. In this case in particular, he was likely referring to his own given name, Nobunaga.
During the Sengoku period, calling someone by their true first name was only permissible among close, immediate family members, and would be considered offensive from anyone else. Yuuto recalled all that thanks to Nobunaga’s comment, though it was already a bit late.
“It did not offend me in particular, but it did make me curious.”
“Um, so, then, how should I address you?”
“Hm. I think that will depend on how our discussion proceeds from this point forward.” Nobunaga’s lips curled into a grin.
The only ones allowed to call a man from his era by their true first name were immediate family.
In other words, what Yuuto called him going forward would depend on whether he agreed to swear the Oath of the Sibling Chalice or not.
“So, Sibling Chalice with an even split of power between us, was it?” Nobunaga asked. “But, from what I’ve seen of you thus far, I wonder if you are really worth that much?”
As Nobunaga said this, the intimidating aura that surrounded him seemed to expand outward with an almost explosive force.
Yuuto felt attacked, like an invisible hand had clenched his heart in its grip, and a massive weight was pushing down on him.
“Ngh?!”
“Kh...?!”
“Eek!”
“Ah!”
From behind him, Yuuto could hear the shrill, gasping cries of the girls who had accompanied him.
Each of them was an Einherjar who had survived numerous battles and brushes with death, and none of them were lacking when it came to strength of nerve. Even in spite of that, they were easily crushed by Nobunaga’s presence.
Indeed, this truly was the aura of the man who had brought the century-long era of warring states in Japan to its conclusion, and nearly taken the whole nation for himself.
And with a smirk, Yuuto brushed that incredible pressure aside.
“As a Japanese man, I look up to you with the utmost respect. But the power balance between our clans is another matter.”
Yuuto was also carrying the fate of the Steel Clan, the weight of tens of thousands of lives, on his shoulders.
As the one who bore that weight, he could not afford to let the pressure of another man’s intimidation bring him to his knees.
Yuuto took a long, deep breath, and mentally switched gears.
“We shake hands across the table, while kicking each other underneath.”
“Reach out to shake hands with your right, while holding a club in your left.”
As those sayings illustrated, diplomatic meetings, especially between the top leaders of respective nations, were never simply a friendly conversation. However peaceful things might seem on the surface, international diplomacy involved competing interests and potential gains and losses on a large scale.
Nobunaga had started applying pressure in order to draw out conditions that were even more favorable to him.
Yuuto couldn’t afford to let him win. He straightened his posture and assumed the face of the reginarch, lord of a powerful nation. He opened up his heart and let the aura of the conqueror within him pour out from it.
“As the patriarch of the Steel Clan, I will once again make this proposal to you, the patriarch of the Flame Clan. I want you to exchange the Oath of the Sibling Chalice with me, with the authority split evenly, fifty-fifty.”
The two of them locked eyes, and the air between them seemed to crackle and spark.
This time, there were sounds of gasps from the Flame Clan soldiers.
“So, you have a good amount of fight in you, too. Good, this would be rather uninteresting otherwise.”
A vicious smile crept across Nobunaga’s face, and the aura around him seemed to grow even more intense, the air even heavier.
The Demon King of the Sengoku period had acknowledged Yuuto and had finally become serious.
The time for exchanging pleasantries had ended. This was the real battle.
Uugh, just what in the world is going on here?
Teary-eyed, Hildegard couldn’t stop herself from whining, even if only in her thoughts.
The two clan patriarchs had just moments ago been cheerfully reminiscing about the shared homeland they came from.
She’d even heard them breaking out in laughter from time to time. Everything seemed like it was going really well, when all of a sudden, it was like air in the whole room changed, and now everyone was being pressed down on by the crushing weight of their menacing auras.
The source of that force was, of course, the two people in the middle of the room glaring at each other with smiles on their faces.
Hildegard’s whole body was shaking, right down to her core, and she couldn’t stop it.
All of the hairs on her body were standing on end, and the heavy air was so oppressive she had difficulty even breathing.
Looking over to the side, the veteran members of the Múspell Unit were frozen stiff, and just as pale as she was, if not even more so.
Felicia and the other high-ranking members of the Steel Clan were seated in front of her, so she couldn’t see their faces, but she could see the beads of sweat that had formed on their cheeks and arms.
If it weren’t for all that harsh training Mother put me through, I might have wet myself again here...
In that moment, Hildegard was perhaps more grateful to Sigrún than she’d ever been since joining her clan faction.
The pressure that she was feeling right now was so incredibly strong that it made Sigrún’s aura of killing intent feel like little more than a strong breeze by comparison, but the training she’d received under her sworn mother had still at least given her some level of resilience against it.
Thanks to that, so far, she’d gotten off with only wetting herself a tiny bit, for just a split second.
In Hildegard’s defense, she was hardly a girl lacking in courage or nerves.
As evidenced by how she had pushed aside Sigrún’s threatening aura during their sparring match, she was indeed quite suited for this sort of situation.
However, it just so happened that the two people in front of her now were simply on another order of magnitude in terms of power.
Uungh, I should never have come along on this mission!
It felt like minutes were being shaved off of her lifespan, at a faster and faster rate.
This was too much for her heart to handle.
Honestly, she wanted to get up and run out of there, with no regard for appearances or shame. She couldn’t move a muscle though; it felt like she was paralyzed.
This was like torture. She didn’t understand it.
Don’t have a battle between gods down here on the ground!
As Hildegard continued to complain internally, all she could do for now was continue to sit and watch the events in front of her unfold.
Oho! So young, and yet he can wield that much spirit!
Inwardly, Nobunaga was genuinely impressed that this young man had managed to push Nobunaga’s intimidating pressure back with his own.
He was a man who was fond of those with strength.
If those under him couldn’t produce results, he tossed them aside unceremoniously, as he did with Hayashi Hidesada and Sakuma Nobumori, important retainers to the Oda clan who had been serving since the days of his father. Conversely, as long as someone could display their strength and usefulness to him, he would take in those from undistinguished backgrounds, as he had with Hashiba Hideyoshi. He would even forgive betrayal, as he had with Matsunaga Hisahide.
This young man sitting in front of him had taken control of the tiny, weak Wolf Clan and grown it into a nation that controlled the majority of the Álfheimr region in just a scant two years.
The state of civilization in Yggdrasil was far behind the time he hailed from. It was easy to imagine that, like himself, this young man must have used an assortment of knowledge from the future that was novel to the people here in order to help his rise to power.
But even so, that didn’t change how incredible an accomplishment it was.
Nobunaga had decided he liked Yuuto. However, he was also the twisted type of man who enjoyed bullying the people he liked the most.
“Now then, how shall we approach this? I suspect I know why you want this alliance with me. It is because of the subjugation order issued by that so-called þjóðann, yes?”
“So, you already knew about that...” Yuuto said, with a bitter expression.
Nobunaga responded with an impish smile. “I would, seeing as I also received a message calling for my participation in the campaign against you.”
Nobunaga had no knowledge of the workings of gods or spirits, and he certainly wasn’t born and raised in the religious culture of Yggdrasil. He was also the sort of man who, despite not believing in the teachings of Buddhism, publicly referred to himself as the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven, stealing a title from the Buddhist pantheon.
Nobunaga had not an ounce of reverence or fear for the authority or symbolic power of the Divine Empress, nor any intention of ever obeying her imperial authority.
In fact, he was the sort of person who, if you told him, “Do this!” he’d be tempted to refuse even if it was something he’d originally been planning to do.
And so, he’d completely dismissed the subjugation order and forgotten about it until this point. But for the purposes of testing this young man’s character, it was the perfect weapon.
“I can see that, to you and the Steel Clan, my Chalice would become a key to rescuing you from this situation in which you are surrounded by enemies from all sides, and thus saving you from your doom. However, why is it that I fail to see anything especially appetizing about that arrangement for us in the Flame Clan? And I’d advise you not to respond by telling me that I won’t be threatened by a great power from the north, or something boring like that. After all, even without sharing an alliance with you, I know your situation very well, and I know you are in no position to mount any real threat against us—or prepare a defense against us.”
In one fell swoop, Nobunaga had laid out the Steel Clan’s situation and its goals for the alliance, and then shot down in advance the argument Yuuto might make.
If Yuuto could not reply effectively here, then that was fine; Nobunaga could claim this alliance was his clan doing a favor for theirs, and use that to gain more advantages and benefits from the arrangement. And if Yuuto managed to exceed his expectations with some clever response, then that would be entertaining.
No matter how this situation turned out, Nobunaga could enjoy the results.
Nobunaga examined Yuuto’s face, looking for his reaction. The young man didn’t seem particularly fazed.
“If you understand our situation that well, then there’s no point in glossing things over. In that case... How about this? During our invasion of the Lightning Clan so far, we have captured and taken control of the Gashina region. If you agree to swear the Oath of the Chalice with me, we shall hand over that entire territory to the Flame Clan.”
“What?!” Even Nobunaga could not help but be taken aback.
The ruler of a nation had a primary responsibility to protect the territory he or she controlled.
And what’s more, Gashina wasn’t just any old stretch of land.
It was next to the Körmt River, and the river basin soil was rich and perfect for farming. Nobunaga’s mind raced thinking of just how many soldiers could be fed by the wheat grown there.
That territory had extremely high strategic importance. Agreeing so easily to give that up was something only an utter fool would do.
Their negotiations had only just begun, so they should still be in the opening moves of this game. If this young man laid out such a valuable card on the table this early, it might leave him open for demands for even more at the end.
Had Nobunaga mistakenly given him too much credit? Had he misjudged himǔ
As he stared suspiciously at Yuuto, he soon realized that wasn’t true.
There wasn’t a trace of hesitation or doubt in Yuuto’s eyes. He didn’t show any hint of regret for what he would be giving up, either.
It wasn’t at all the face of the sort of weak man who made generous offers in order to win the other party’s favor. His was the face of someone who had quietly made his own shrewd calculations, and then resolved to engage himself against the great Oda Nobunaga, with every intent of coming out the winner. It was the face of a real man.
What is going on here?
Nobunaga furrowed his brow, unable to figure out the true purpose of Yuuto’s move.
Was there perhaps some problem with Gashina? He hadn’t received any information to that effect, though. According to his prior research, the area had seen a large, steady increase in productivity over the last several years.
He couldn’t guess what this young man was trying to do at all. And that mystery felt marvelous.
Heh heh, you’re quite the entertaining opponent!
In contrast to his age, Nobunaga’s heart was dancing with childlike excitement.
“What do you think?” Yuuto asked, putting more power into his tone. “I would say that arrangement is more than appetizing enough for the Flame Clan, wouldn’t you?”
Just now, he had definitely gotten the sense that his offer had knocked his opponent off balance, and he had to push harder here.
As ruler of his nation, Yuuto had a duty to retain and protect the territory he controlled. He was fully aware of that.
And what’s more, this was fertile land along the Körmt River.
If he applied the Norfolk crop rotation system, fertilizer, and other advanced agricultural techniques held by the Steel Clan, then within three years that area would without a doubt be producing more than double the output in its harvests, which would grow the Steel Clan even further.
Of course, that would only be true if he had three years to spare.
It wasn’t clear if Yggdrasil would even still exist three years from now.
At the very least, Yuuto was planning to have already completed the movement of his people to another continent by then.
In that sense, Gashina was land he was planning to abandon anyway.
Of course, he wasn’t about to offer up long-held territory from within the previous borders of the Steel Clan, as it would be too difficult to navigate the issues of national honor and his duty to his people. But lands he’d newly acquired from the Lightning Clan were fair game, and he would be able to justify it to his clan.
Additionally, by giving away territory that was soon going to be worthless to him anyway, he could eliminate the threat of invasion from his south, giving him the footing he needed to prepare to march towards the center of the empire without worrying about an attack from behind.
If it meant this negotiation succeeded, then he could ask for no better deal. Part of him did feel like he was cheating Nobunaga somewhat, given the land would soon be lost to the seas, but in this situation, he couldn’t let that niggling frustration stop him.
“Hm. True, that offer would make this alliance work to our benefit as well. However, I am also quite familiar with the fact that any offer that seems too good to be true has a hidden side to it,” Nobunaga said, and glared at Yuuto with eyes that seemed to be searching him for clues.
It was a perfectly natural reaction.
As a matter of fact, as stated above, there indeed was a hidden catch to Yuuto’s offer. Of course, he couldn’t exactly explain that.
Without showing any change in his expression, Yuuto continued, reciting the speech he’d memorized.
“Our success during this campaign would not have been possible if not for the Flame Clan. Your war with the Lightning Clan pulled their armies south, and you killed their former patriarch Steinþórr. You could say we reaped the benefits of your struggle with them. As I have every intention of becoming your sworn brother, greedily keeping those benefits for our clan now would only lead to a lingering sense of unfairness between us in the future. I simply concluded that if I wanted to forge a more solid, lasting fellowship with your clan, it would be better for me to be more generous with those spoils.”
“Is that so? You want to forge a solid, lasting fellowship with us, do you? Well, I have no reason to doubt those words. And getting my hands on a large amount of fertile land without having to fight for it is not a bad proposition, either.”
“Th-Then, does that mean...?”
Yuuto unconsciously leaned forward, thinking that he might have finally struck home.
But Nobunaga held up a hand, cutting him off.
“It’s not a bad proposition... but it is only through living in constant, desperate struggle that one’s life shines with the greatest light. And the man known as Nobunaga is not someone who would content himself with idly accepting that which is simply handed to him by others.”
“Wha...?!”
“If I can obtain something so valuable without any effort at all, then I will spare no effort and obtain even more with the strength of my ambition! That is who I am!”
The hand Nobunaga had held up to silence Yuuto was now clenched tightly into a fist.
Yuuto could see that the man’s arm was criss-crossed with numerous sword scars.
It was visual evidence that backed up his words. This was a man who lived his life taking what he wanted by force.
“The invitation to attack you arrived at my door, as it surely did for every other clan. You will be forced to occupy yourself in dealing with all of them, and for quite some time at that. I would need only to take advantage of that situation, and I might be able to snap up all of the lands adjacent to the Körmt River without much trouble, yes? If I were to settle only for Gashina and let the rest go, that would be a waste of such a great opportunity for my clan, don’t you think? Hmǔ”
Using his complete understanding of Yuuto’s situation to his advantage, he was now aiming to snatch away everything he could and obtain the maximum possible benefit for his own nation.
It was just what one would expect from the man who spent his life trying to conquer all of Japan. This wasn’t going to be easy at all.
“In that case, in addition to Gashina, I will give you Cozzene. So...”
“Not enough!” Nobunaga shouted, rejecting Yuuto’s offer before he could even finish speaking.
“It’s not enough? Cozzene is a very abundant region, you know.”
“Oh, it’s not nearly enough! I don’t want pieces, I want everything.”
“...This is going nowhere.” Yuuto sighed and shook his head.
In other words, Nobunaga was demanding all of Yuuto’s territory—demanding that Yuuto and his nation submit and become a subsidiary to the Flame Clan.
In negotiation, it was normal to hold off from laying all of one’s cards on the table at the outset. That was something the other party would naturally understand too, like an unspoken agreement between both sides.
And so, when Yuuto offered up Gashina as his first move, it was within the scope of his calculations that Nobunaga might then demand more. At worst, Yuuto was even prepared to give up all of the territory he captured from the Lightning Clan during this campaign.
This demand, however, was one he just couldn’t accept.
“Then would you rather make us your enemy? I would have no issue with that.” Nobunaga flashed a cruel smile as he piled on even more pressure.
This guy keeps forcing me into a corner every chance he gets, Yuuto couldn’t help but think to himself.
It was as if everything was transparent to this man—not just Yuuto’s current dilemma, but the outcome he was most trying to avoid. He was going to be stuck in this disadvantage if he couldn’t do something about that.
He decided he had no other choice, and reached for the object strapped at his waist.
“I wonder about that,” he said, pulling it out of its holster. “I think you might want to avoid making the Steel Clan your enemy.”
With a fearless smile, Yuuto gripped the object with both hands, abruptly turned his body ninety degrees to the side, and pulled back lightly with his index finger.
There was a loud BANG! But not only one. There was a second, a third, a fourth, as Yuuto pulled the trigger in quick succession.
The explosive sound of the shots resounded throughout the hörgr, and in the direction he’d fired, there were four new holes as wide as a person’s little finger, going all the way through the wall.
“What?! A tanegashima?! You have them, too?! And it can fire repeatedly?!”
Even Nobunaga was openly shocked by this.
In the era Nobunaga came from, the matchlock gun was the most advanced firearm available, and that weapon’s most fatal weakness was its inability to be fired in succession.
More than anyone else, Nobunaga would have spent a great many hours struggling with the dilemma posed by that weakness, and so he would certainly understand just how frightening a weapon that overcame that weakness would be.
“That’s right, and I can still keep firing. I did tell you, remember? I came from the world four hundred years into your future.”
With that, Yuuto made a show of blowing the smoke from the barrel of his gun, and returned it to the holster at his waist.
His hands and shoulder were throbbing painfully from the recoil, but this was a critical moment, and so he made sure not to let on in the slightest.
“Just as your clan has your tanegashimas, we have these. If you plan on making a move against us, we won’t let you off easy. I trust you understand?”
Yuuto said this with dramatic confidence, but in actuality, it was totally a bluff.
It was true that Yuuto’s pistol was incredibly advanced by the standards of weapons in this world. However, he’d only brought the one back with him from the modern era.
And what’s more, the modern bullets were also limited, and he couldn’t manufacture more of them.
He was speaking as if he actually had a large supply of them, in order to threaten the Flame Clan patriarch and make him back off. This was his trump card.
After all, Yuuto knew a lot about this man.
He knew that Nobunaga was bold and fearless, and moved as quick as lightning once he’d decided to take action... but that he was also cautious and prudent, willing to take his time and lay the foundations for his success before making his move.
Nobunaga was a man who engineered the conditions for his victories before he set out to fight, and who would not start a battle he couldn’t win.
That was what Yuuto was betting on with this provocation.
“Oho...” Nobunaga’s expression had changed.
Until a moment ago, it looked as if he were testing Yuuto, but also teasing him. Like this was all just a game to him. Now, that layer had been peeled away.
The Demon King of the Sengoku era looked at Yuuto seriously now, and Yuuto felt himself gulp as the man’s true aura seemed to radiate off of him.
The man’s intimidating presence was absolutely overpowering, and Yuuto was facing him down not with real power, but an empty threat. It demanded an incredible amount of nerve.
Yuuto was acting strong and confident on the outside, but his heart was pounding, and even by just meeting Nobunaga’s glare, he could feel his mental strength being worn down.
Silence stretched for a few seemingly-endless moments, and each second passing felt like an hour.
“Hm, it does seem like taking you all on would cause us a bit more pain than it’s worth.”
Nobunaga nodded once, assenting to Yuuto’s argument.
At last, Yuuto was negotiating from equal footing.
He knew it was still thin ice that could crack under him at any moment, though.
“In the first place, I honestly haven’t the time to waste out here fighting over these western lands anyway,” Nobunaga continued, suddenly talking in a very candid manner. “Even more so if my enemy stands to give me real trouble. I’m already this old, after all. I still have the dream I couldn’t accomplish back in Nippon—conquering the land and uniting it under my rule. If I wish to make that dream come true here, then once I’ve finished bringing the Lightning Clan under my heel, I would honestly prefer to eliminate any threat of attack from behind, so that I can hurry and march on the imperial capital Glaðsheimr.”
As Yuuto suspected, this man wasn’t going to be satisfied with ruling over just the Flame Clan and the Lighting Clan. It seemed that in this land, just as in the one he came from, he was striving for total conquest.
And he was going to move toward that goal head-on, as quickly as possible, without hiding his intentions. That was also very like him.
“At the risk of repeating myself, my clan is also quite busy with our own situation, and we would also like to eliminate any threat of attack from behind while we deal with it.”
“Yes, it would seem both you and I each have our own share of foes we need to focus on at the moment. I’d say that means it’s a bit too soon for us to be fighting with each other.”
All of Nobunaga’s troublesome taunting and pressure were gone, as if they’d never even existed.
If that’s how you feel, then you should have started with that! is what Yuuto thought to himself, but he also knew that Nobunaga had likely changed his tune after testing him and finding him worthy.
If Nobunaga had found Yuuto to be beneath his consideration, then he surely would have been content merely to wage war, conquer Yuuto’s clan, and add them to his own strength.
Perhaps this new attitude was an indication that the Oath of the Sibling Chalice was back up for discussion. But just as Yuuto was thinking that, Nobunaga’s next words sent those hopes plummeting again.
“Even so, this is a problem. I aim to be the undisputed conqueror of this realm, and so I have no desire to swear an equal oath with anyone. After all, there are not two suns in the sky.”
Nobunaga rested his chin on one arm, deep in thought.
It was the dream he’d spent his whole life trying to achieve, then dedicated himself to all over again after getting sent to this new world. That dedication wasn’t going to be something he could so easily compromise on.
But Yuuto wasn’t about to back down either.
“Won’t you reconsider that?” he asked.
“It’s not as simple as you make it sound,” Nobunaga replied.
Then, suddenly, he slapped a hand on his thigh, as if he’d just thought of a brilliant idea.
“...Oh, that’s it! How about this, boy? What do you think of becoming my child?”
Yuuto had only just moments earlier rejected the idea of becoming subservient to Nobunaga. It seemed impossible for this man, but for a moment Yuuto wondered if he might have simply forgotten, a lapse of memory in his old age.
Curious, Yuuto gave Nobunaga a questioning look, encouraging him to continue.
“Of course, I would not ask it of you unconditionally. If you accept my Chalice and become my sworn child, I would grant you the position of second-in-command, and the hand of my daughter Homura in marriage. As I said before, I’m already an old man. I’ve only got so much time left. Not only that, I have not fathered any other children in this land.”
“Wait, but that means...”
Yuuto was pretty sure he knew what that meant.
His mind still told him it couldn’t be true, that it was impossible.
But Nobunaga nodded decisively, and confirmed it.
“Marry my daughter, and inherit my family name.”
“How about it? I would be absorbing the Steel Clan into the Flame Clan initially, but eventually the entire Flame Clan would be yours. It’s not a bad deal, is it?”
Nobunaga stuck out his hand in a manner that practically demanded a handshake to seal the deal.
It was true that it wasn’t a bad deal at all.
In fact, Yuuto actually found it rather tempting.
Nobunaga—the Oda Nobunaga—was acknowledging him as worthy of becoming his son, and the successor of his family and clan.
There was no way that wouldn’t make him happy.
And still, Yuuto had no choice but to slowly shake his head.
“I’m sorry. I can’t accept that offer.”
If Yuuto were asked if he wanted to take Nobunaga’s hand then and there, he’d be lying if he said he didn’t.
In fact, if he were the Yuuto of just one year ago, he absolutely would have accepted the Oath of the Chalice under those terms. Well, okay, there was his relationship with Mitsuki to consider, so the whole business about marrying Nobunaga’s daughter would have been difficult to work out.
Fundamentally, Yuuto’s policies as patriarch in the past had all been geared towards providing safety and security for his people.
Future generations would look to historical examples of Oda Nobunaga’s ruthlessness in burning the temples at Mt. Hiei, or the harsh way he often acted towards his subordinates, and form an image of him in popular culture as a cruel, heartless person. However, Nobunaga was also generally a benevolent ruler over the territory he governed.
His famous “free markets and open guilds” policy greatly stimulated economic growth and reduced the prices of goods in his lands.
He instituted sweeping peasant tax reforms, doing away with the complex preexisting manorialist and feudalist public tax systems, and replacing them with a principal tax on the amount of rice grown on a farmer’s land.
It was said that Nobunaga’s territorial strongholds of Owari and Mino were so orderly and safe in most places that women could travel the roads alone.
Here in Yggdrasil, the fact that the Flame Clan could support tens of thousands of soldiers in its armies was also proof of how prosperous it was. He surely must have enacted a number of useful reforms and improvements here too.
There was no doubt that he would be a beneficial ruler for the peoples of the Steel Clan, one who guaranteed them a more prosperous future.
But Yuuto knew the truth about Yggdrasil’s fate now. Entrusting the Steel Clan to Nobunaga was not an option.
“Why not?” Nobunaga asked. “Is it because you cannot trust what amounts to no more than a spoken promise, one I might discard once I’ve acquired the Steel Clan for myself? Do you think Oda Nobunaga is a man who would go back on his word? I can only ask you to believe me when I say that I absolutely meant what I’m offering.”
“No,” Yuuto said, “I believe you. I know that, while you earned your reputation as the “Demon King,” you also honored your oaths and commitments to a degree that was incredible by the standards of the chaotic age you lived in.”
“Hm.”
“However, there is something I have to do, at any cost.” Yuuto looked Nobunaga square in the eyes. “And in order to accomplish it, I can’t agree to swear the Oath of the Chalice to someone if it places me beneath them.”
He was going to be tearing the people away from this land they’d always known, forcing them all to move across the sea to settle a new land. And he’d be undertaking this on an impossibly large scale.
It hardly took any thought to conclude that in order to pull that off, Yuuto was going to need absolute, unquestioned power and authority. This wasn’t something he could force on people if he was someone else’s subordinate.
Even if, after Nobunaga’s death, Yuuto ascended to the rank of patriarch once more, things would still be different. Since he would have willingly submitted himself under another person’s rule, he would no longer possess the same fervent support from his subjects, support that right now was akin to religious faith.
He didn’t know if Yggdrasil would even last that long in the first place.
He couldn’t afford to take his time.
Nobunaga stared at Yuuto carefully for a moment, then snorted. “Hmph. You’ve got a strong light in your eyes, boy. They’re burning with principle and conviction. It would be boorish to try and force a compromise from someone with those eyes, I suppose.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Let me ask you, then: Just what is it that would drive you to reject my offer? Just what are you so intent on achieving? Conquest of the realmǔ Do you mean to say that, as a man, you also wish to grab power with your own hands rather than inherit it from another?!”
As Nobunaga pelted Yuuto with these questions, the power of his warrior’s spirit roiled the air around them.
That presence, along with his words, drove home to Yuuto that he really was a natural-born ruler, every bit the hero that the legends had painted him as.
Yuuto slowly shook his head. “No, while I do want to conquer the capital and take control of the realm, it’s not because of my pride as a man or anything like that.”
“Oho?”
“I... have something I want to discuss with you, but only with you alone. Would that be all right?”
“Hm...” After thinking for a moment, Nobunaga nodded, and turned to face his second-in-command. “Ran.” Nobunaga gestured at him with his chin.
“Yes, my lord!” Ran responded, standing up immediately. Just as you would come to expect from a loyal retainer who had been serving his master since Honno-ji, Ran needed no more explanation. He quickly gathered the other Flame Clan soldiers and took them with him out of the ritual hall.
“Felicia.” Likewise, Yuuto called his adjutant’s name, and she nodded in response.
“I understand.”
Felicia stood up and took the Steel Clan retinue with her and left the hörgr, just as the Flame Clan soldiers had done.
Once Nobunaga could confirm that everyone was gone, he turned to Yuuto again.
“So, then, what is it you wish to talk about that would require going through all the trouble of sending the others away?” he asked, his tone deeply curious.
“It’s the truth about Yggdrasil.”
“Hm, the ‘truth,’ you say?”
“This land is going to sink into the ocean sometime in the very near future. The Steel Clan, the Flame Clan, the empire, all of it will be gone.”
Yuuto had chosen to deliberately reveal to Nobunaga what he had spoken of to no one else except Linnea.
Nobunaga was also the ruler of a huge nation, and he carried the responsibility of a great many lives on his shoulders, even more than Yuuto.
Yuuto figured he also had a right and a duty to know about this danger.
“Really, now? Not the funniest joke, but you certainly like to think on a grand scale.”
Nobunaga’s reaction was just what Yuuto had expected.
“Yes, I suppose that is the normal response,” he said, slumping his shoulders.
Indeed, if someone had said the exact same thing to Yuuto, he would have dismissed it as a delusion born of someone’s paranoia or apocalyptic fantasies.
And so, Yuuto started over, and explained everything from the beginning, piece by piece.
The fact that this world was Earth over three thousand years in the past compared to the era Nobunaga had lived in.
The fact that, despite that, in Yuuto’s time, no landmass with the same features as Yggdrasil existed anymore.
The many connections and similarities between Yggdrasil and the land called Atlantis found in ancient Greek texts.
The record of Atlantis having sunken into the ocean.
That while he couldn’t be sure of the exact date that Yggdrasil would sink, his research suggested that it was fairly imminent.
The conclusion that Yuuto had reached, which was that he should seize the authority of the imperial ruler, and use that authority to convince as many Yggdrasilian denizens as possible to migrate to a new land.
Yuuto explained all of this to Nobunaga earnestly.
All together, it took almost an hour to tell him the whole story, but he listened intently the whole time, without interrupting or laughing off the things Yuuto was saying.
“There are at least a few points in your story that make some sense. In particular, the part about this being three thousand years before my time.”
Nobunaga seemed somewhat receptive and understanding of the concepts Yuuto was explaining.
That was impressive, and also par for the course for him.
There was an anecdote about the time when Portuguese missionaries first showed him a globe and explained that the Earth was round. Supposedly, while Nobunaga’s retainers all dismissed the explanation as incomprehensible, Nobunaga alone said, “That makes logical sense.”
Now here he was, pushing past sixty, and still with a mind flexible enough to wrap itself around the strange forces at work here.
“However,” he went on, “I can’t simply accept everything you say on its face. There isn’t nearly enough evidence to back it up. And you don’t even have any idea when this will happen, right? Why, even Mt. Fuji might erupt any day without warning, but that hasn’t stopped the great number of people who choose to live right next to it. It would not be sane to ask me to abandon my nation and my ambitions for something so uncertain.”
Nobunaga’s mind might be flexible, but on the other hand, he was also a thorough realist who preferred logic backed up by ample evidence. That was what made him so fearsome.
He was flexible enough to accept any truth, as long as it coincided with sound logic.
Unfortunately, just as he himself had said, Yuuto’s claims weren’t backed up by nearly enough supporting evidence. And this was thirty-five hundred years before Yuuto’s era, so he couldn’t exactly get his hands on any solid evidence, either. Even if by some chance he did find something, some ancient record, he had no way of proving it was authentic.
Nobunaga could just claim that Yuuto had forged it, and he’d have no way of disproving that.
At this point, Yuuto didn’t have enough evidence to convince a realist like Nobunaga to alter his course.
“Even so, I am fully convinced it is the truth. And I am determined to relocate my people to a new land.”
“Is that so? So it goes, then. Well, they are your clan. You should do with them what you wish.” With a wry smile, Nobunaga waved one hand at Yuuto, as if shooing away a dog.
This was something Yuuto knew might happen.
The watershed moment had passed, and the two of them were now traveling along separate paths.
Nobunaga stood up, and looked down at Yuuto.
“I will tell you this one last thing. I really did mean it when I said that I have no interest in taking the Steel Clan’s lands. You have my word.”
Yuuto nodded. “Thank you.”
Nobunaga was the kind of person who did not break the promises he made.
His repeating his statement just now was likely his own small gift of encouragement to a young man about to traverse the difficult road lying ahead of him.
Yuuto was grateful to receive it.
“However!”
Nobunaga’s eyes suddenly gleamed fiercely.
He flashed a savage grin, and a violent, overpowering aura rose up from him.
Yuuto felt chills running down his spine, and he gulped nervously.
This pressure was far beyond anything he’d felt so far. Nobunaga was technically shorter in height than Yuuto, or should be, but right now he seemed like a giant more than twice Yuuto’s height.
This was likely the true aura of the conqueror of the Sengoku period, the man who struck fear into his enemies as the Demon King.
“Engrave these words on your heart. If anyone stands in the way of my conquest of the realm... I will show them no mercy.”
The Flame Clan second-in-command, Ran, waited for his liege inside a small detached building near the hörgr, which was serving as their sleeping quarters for the night. After some time, the patriarch entered.
“...Welcome back, my lord.”
“Mm.”
Ran’s greeting was just a bit slower than usual, because for a second he had been overpowered by the intense spirit billowing out from his master’s body.
The fact that it was only a second’s delay was likely because he had spent almost half of his life serving at his master’s side, and so was somewhat used to it.
Put another way, even Ran had been overpowered by Nobunaga’s aura. That was how unusually strong it was today.
“It would seem that my lord thinks quite fondly of the Steel Clan patriarch,” Ran remarked.
There was no one better than him when it came to perceiving what his patriarch was thinking and feeling.
It had now been ten whole years since the two of them were transported to Yggdrasil, and not once had he seen his master looking in such high spirits as he was now. He must have been satisfied to meet a worthy opponent for the first time in so long.
“Oh, yes! He faced me down without flinching back even a step. Quite the impressive young lad. Thanks to him, I had an enjoyable time. He is still a bit lacking in maturity, though.”
“Lacking, my lord? I would have said that he is quite seasoned for someone so young.”
Ran had been deeply impressed by Yuuto’s thoughtful judgment, rare in someone who was not even twenty. It was just the level of maturity one might expect from the young man who had transformed the tiny Wolf Clan into a large, powerful nation.
Ran had even found himself feeling envious of Yuuto, who was younger than him.
But according to his master’s assessment, even the Steel Clan patriarch was immature.
“In what way would you say he is lacking, for example?”
“There’s that tanegashima that could fire multiple shots in a row, for one. I would wager you nine-to-one odds that it was nothing more than a bluff.”
“Eh?!” Ran’s eyebrows shot up and he went wide-eyed with surprise.
It put heavy wrinkles on his forehead, creasing his pretty face.
“But, my lord, we saw it fire, did we not? Are you saying he used some sort of trick to merely make it appear so?”
“No, the weapon itself was real. However, I would say that’s the only one he has. At most, he might have up to two or three more. And only a couple of those guns wouldn’t make enough of a difference on the battlefield to truly threaten us.”
The Flame Clan had an army of over fifty thousand strong.
However powerful that tanegashima from the future might be, it was true that it wouldn’t be a real threat against such numbers.
“How were you able to discover the lie?”
“Because of what he said himself. He’s been here for just about three whole years. Think, even with a sample tanegashima to use as a design model, just how many years did it take us to get to the point where we could make this many?”
“Ah...” Ran realized his embarrassing mistake and winced. He’d been so distracted by the existence of a rapid-fire tanegashima that he’d overlooked that crucial information.
“Heh heh, the people in this land could not even make their own iron at first. Constructing such an advanced weapon from the bottom up in less than three years would simply be impossible, yes? In other words, he must have brought it with him from the future.”
“Now that you say that, it does make sense... However, if you realized he was bluffing, why did you not call him out on his lie?”
“Because I was not completely certain it was a lie.”
“Ah, I see...”
After almost fifteen years serving at his master’s side, Ran had a good understanding of the man’s personality.
When Nobunaga said “nine-to-one odds” in respect to the bluff, he was also acknowledging there was a one in ten chance Yuuto had been telling the truth.
Ran’s master had only one goal, and that was conquest and rule over this empire.
He had no interest in directly conquering the lands of the Steel Clan, which were far to the west of the imperial capital.
If he were to pour his military resources into a war with the Steel Clan and, against all odds, suffer a defeat or heavy casualties, that would cause a great deal of issues for his preparations towards his invasion of the imperial capital, which was planned to begin soon.
He wanted to avoid such unnecessary risk.
“That reminds me, why did you decide not to exchange the Oath of the Chalice with himǔ When you said that you had no intention of exchanging an evenly split Chalice, that was the first I had heard of it. Did you have a change of heart?”
Up until the meeting, Nobunaga had been saying that if the Steel Clan patriarch lived up to the stories about him, he would be more than willing to exchange the Oath of the Sibling Chalice with him.
And, by the look of things during the meeting, his master had been satisfied that the Steel Clan patriarch was indeed worthy.
So satisfied, in fact, that he had been willing to offer the young man Ran’s position as second-in-command and the rights to succeed him as the next patriarch.
“I realized that if I swore an evenly split oath with him, it would cause a good deal of trouble for me later.”
“Trouble, my lord? Why would that be? In this land, the Oath of the Chalice is absolutely binding. If you wanted to eliminate the risk of attack from him, would that not be the greatest assurance you could ask for?” Ran tilted his head quizzically.
Nobunaga laughed softly. It was a laugh that conveyed amusement, but it also seemed to hint at a newfound conviction.
“It would be trouble because the bond is absolute. Heh. He was more impressive than I had imagined, and I had a premonition during our negotiations. A feeling that, one day soon, he and I are going to meet again, in order to decide once and for all who will take control of this land.”
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