Hyakuren no Haou to Seiyaku no Valkyria - Volume 19 - Chapter Pr

PROLOGUE

“It would appear the quake is over,” Nobunaga said as he stood up and let out a sigh of relief. The great earthquake that had struck a year prior had itself been quite impressive, but this last one was far more intense. Were his territories, namely the capital of Blíkjanda-Böl, still intact? Earthquakes were especially dangerous in that they had the potential of causing further damage from secondary disasters such as tsunamis and fires. He couldn’t help but worry about the state of his realm. But before he pondered that too deeply, he called out to his most trusted retainer. “Ran, are you alive?!”

“Yes, I’m fine. Are you unharmed, My Great Lord?!”

“All good here. However, what’s most important right now is information. Find out everything you can about the damage inflicted by this quake.”

“Yes, My Lord!” Ran nodded then called over to a group of nearby soldiers and sent them off to gather information. Although he was dealing with a completely unexpected event, Ran’s expression remained calm, and there was no sign of panic in his voice; his orders were concise and unwavering. That extraordinary calmness was a big part of the reason he served as Nobunaga’s right-hand man.

For the moment, Nobunaga decided to leave Ran to handle the situation and pondered about what he would do next. Try as he might, he wasn’t able to shake the nagging concerns lingering in his mind about Yggdrasil sinking into the sea—the matter that Suoh Yuuto had informed him of at their first meeting.

“It seems that the lad’s prediction may well be coming to pass...”

He had been able to determine early on in their conversation that Suoh Yuuto was an honorable man, and that he had not lied to him. It was also clear that he was from further in the future than Nobunaga was. By all accounts, it appeared that Yuuto was right; Yggdrasil was going to sink into the sea. Of course, Nobunaga had already half-suspected that would be the case.

With that in mind, the most reasonable path would be to abandon this destructive war, cooperate with Suoh Yuuto, and plan the evacuation of the continent’s entire populace. However, as he reached that point in his thought process, a sharp pain suddenly pierced his breast, and he coughed violently. The hand he had held up to his mouth was stained with blood. “Hrmph. Seems I’ll be going to Valhalla sooner rather than later,” Nobunaga muttered dryly and chuckled self-deprecatingly.

Two years ago, during the summer months, he had started to feel a pain in his chest, near his heart. He hadn’t paid much attention to it at the time, but the symptoms had slowly, but steadily, gotten worse as the days had passed.

“Daddy! Are you okay?! Hold on, daddy, I’ll heal you right now!” The girl who had come running to check on him suddenly went pale the moment she saw the blood, and she held her hands out to him. In an instant, Nobunaga felt a gentle warmth flow into his body, and the pain in his chest began to fade.

The girl who was currently healing him was none other than Homura. She was the one child born to Nobunaga since his arrival in Yggdrasil. She was also one of just three or four individuals in Yggdrasil who possessed twin runes—a trait that granted her extraordinary supernatural powers.

“I feel much better, Homura. Thank you, as always.” Nobunaga curled the corners of his lips into a smile and gently patted his beloved daughter’s head.

One of Homura’s abilities was the power to control and strengthen living creatures. While her ability to control animals was limited to smaller creatures—things like birds, rodents, or insects—she was capable of strengthening humans, and currently, she was using that portion of her power to hold back Nobunaga’s illness.

“You sure? Don’t push yourself too hard, daddy.” She beamed one of her usual smiles when Nobunaga praised her, but there was still a look of concern present. It was understandable, given that her beloved father was suffering from an illness. There was no way she wouldn’t be worried. “Hey, daddy, why don’t we go back home to Blíkjanda-Böl and rest a little? You can leave all the work to Ran, and I can cast seiðrs on you every day. If we do that, then...”

“You’re such a thoughtful child, Homura. But that wouldn’t matter in the end...” Nobunaga understood his own body better than anyone else could. He was already over sixty years of age by now. At this point in his life, it was possible that he could die at any moment. Even with Homura’s twin-runed powers, the most she could do was slow his disease’s progression. The intervals between his coughing fits were steadily growing shorter, meaning that he was nearing the end of his natural life span.

Nobunaga pondered the issue in a very detached manner, almost as though he were dealing with someone else’s health issues. He had already watched numerous relatives and retainers die, ordered his subordinates to slay countless people, and had himself killed many people by his own hand. He had no illusions that he alone would somehow escape death.

“I will not choose to die quietly and peacefully! I would rather seek glory on the battlefield and do everything I can to become the conqueror I am destined to be!” Nobunaga shouted and gripped his hand into a tight fist. Given that he had been born into the world, he wanted to leave behind undeniable proof that he had lived. In his mind, if he left no legacy in his wake, then he might as well have never been born.

“Sniff... But, but...”

“Do not cry, Homura. The act of a child outliving their parents is a natural and normal thing. For a parent, knowing that they will be survived by their children is the greatest pleasure they can possibly experience.”

In this age of war, it was common for children to die before their parents. It also wasn’t unusual for parents to kill their own children to maintain power. On top of that, it wasn’t rare for illnesses to take the young and the weak. In fact, Nobunaga had already lost several children in his lifetime. The stark contrast of perhaps finally being able to experience the natural order of things left Nobunaga feeling unusually pleased.

“Sniff...”

That said, getting a girl barely ten years of age to accept that logic was another matter entirely, especially when considering how much Homura loved her father.

“Well then, let me dance for you, to help settle your feelings. Carve the memory of me into your mind.” With that, Nobunaga took his fan from his sash and opened it. Soon after, he began to dance.

“A man’s life of fifty years under the sky is nothing compared to the age of this world. Life is but a fleeting dream, an illusion—is there anything that lasts forever?”

What he had recited was an excerpt from the Noh play Atsumori, and this passage, in particular, was one that Nobunaga had loved since his youth. He had often performed it at key moments throughout his life.

He particularly liked the view of life and death that Atsumori expressed. People die eventually. It is unavoidable. When viewed from the perspective of the heavens above, humans are fragile, fleeting creatures. However, that was exactly why Nobunaga wanted to live every moment to the fullest, so that he could leave the mortal world with no regrets.

“My Great Lord!” The moment he had finished his dance, a Flame Clan soldier dashed in looking for him. Though he was still young, he had the makings of a general, and Nobunaga had placed him in command of the front lines.

“What news do you bring?!”

“I bring word that the Steel Clan’s fortress has collapsed from the earthquake! Now is the time to attack!”

“Is that so?”

Nobunaga’s eyes shone with the predatory gleam of a falcon that had found its prey. He had been struggling to find a way to breach the fortress walls; the new province destroyers had done little damage to the all-but-impenetrable barrier that had, until now, been impeding his advance. To have gained an opportunity of this magnitude as a result of a completely unexpected event was something that even Nobunaga, with his uncanny ability to read the battlefield, could not have foreseen. That being said, it showed the true extent of his abilities as a general for him to be able to find opportunities born of coincidences like these and then proceed to exploit them to their fullest.

“Perhaps this is indeed the will of the heavens. Reminds me of Okehazama. Heh, it seems the gods above want me to conquer, after all.”

Nobunaga didn’t believe in the divine. At the very least, he was willing to state without hesitation that the gods pushed by religions—beings of vast power that offered aid in exchange for prayers—simply didn’t exist.

At the same time, there were moments when he felt there was a greater will that existed in the world. While Nobunaga believed that his conquests were due to his own abilities and efforts, he was also well aware that he had been blessed with a great deal of luck along the way. The rain at Okehazama, his sister’s message at Kanegasaki, the sudden passing of his great enemy Takeda Shingen during the Encirclement—Nobunaga had found himself saved by numerous twists of fate. Had there been even the slightest change in his fortunes, Nobunaga would have long ago been reduced to another corpse on the battlefield. However, even when he was faced with his imminent death at Honno-ji, the supernatural had intervened; the heavens had chosen to save Nobunaga’s life and had guided him to the land of Yggdrasil. With all that had happened, Nobunaga believed with a great amount of conviction that he had been sent by the heavens to the world of men to restore order, and that he had been born to become the conqueror of all that existed beneath the heavens.

“Send word to all forces. Prepare immediately for battle! We will begin an all-out assault at once. The heavens are on our side! We shall take this opportunity to destroy the Steel Clan!”