Translator: Flowingcloud Editor: Arocks141
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TERMS/THINGS TO NOTE:
This chapter has many heavy cultural literary references that are explained in the footnotes.
If you eat persimmons.
October, 24th Year of the Tembun era (1555), Kitsuki-no-Oyashiro, Izumo
If you are reading from a pirate or aggregator site, please read from the translator’s site: yado-inn (dot) com I have to put the link like this or else the bots will remove it, sorry 🙁
Step step step step—
“Those light footsteps are Haru-nee’s. Still, don’t run in the hallway.”
As I sat on the veranda, basking in the autumn sunshine and chewing on a persimmon, sure enough, Haru-nee came running in, and the first thing she said was, “Princess, it’s a disaster!”
“Hmm, what happened to make you this flustered? Does Haru-nee also want to eat persimmons? They’re sweet and delicious.”
I handed Haru-nee a persimmon as I said that. It’s not bitter, okay?
“Ah, I will have one. Ah, it’s delicious!”
“Biting into a persimmon~ A bell resounds~ Horyu-ji~” 1
“Sanbe’s peak is dyed red.”
Haru-nee, you’ve done a good job replying back right away!
“‘Of Fuji all aglow, through falling flakes of snow’ was it?” 2
“Yes. I memorized it because it was in both Hyakunin Isshu and Manyoushu.” 3
“Yamabe no Akahito, was it? It is a famous poem after all.”
“Yes. Wait, that’s not the point! Aki, Aki!”
“That’s right. We’re currently in the height of autumn (aki) right now.”
“Not that ‘aki’ (autumn)! At Aki’s Miyajima, at Itsukushima!” 4
*Clatter!*
“Who won!?”
“It’s the Murakami Navy and Mori’s win! It seems like Sue Harukata died in battle or committed suicide and it’s the Ouchi’s and Sue’s crushing defeat!”
“Yus (ushi)!”
I couldn’t help but clench my fists.
Now, Ouchi’s bonds that I had shorted would crash and I could just collect it and return the margin to the lender and make clear gains.
I continued to observe Sue and Mori, and the Battle of Itsukushima will probably break out sometime this fall. Then, according to history, Mori will win.
With that in mind, I asked Tsubouchi-san, a low-ranking priest part of Kitsuki-no-Oyashiro, to pay a merchant in Nagato rent something similar to backwardation and had him stock up a month in advance. Incidentally, Tsubouchi-chan was also a merchant for the Amago family. A low-ranking priest is a person who assists the people who visit the Grand Shrine. 5
Well, the amount of money that I can move freely with my authority is so small that even if I make a profit, it will be no more than 2,000 or 3,000-kan. In addition, I’m currently casting my Yongle Tongbao, so I don’t feel like doing anything meaningless.
However, a certain Kyushu miko-sama, thank you very much. When the world is at peace, I will pay a visit to Usa Jingu. 6
However, speculation is just gambling, isn’t it? Mori will probably win. Even though I know that in my head, it’s bad for the heart. Maybe it’s not so different from taking a risk even if you’re cheating.
No one knows the real outcome until the results are out. That is unless you’re God.
Thus, honestly speaking, I wanted Mori to lose. If I had to take someone on, I’d still rather face Sue than some cheat old man, right?
Well, for some reason, my father reconciled with Ouchi last year and formed an alliance with them, but I guess this alliance will go down the drain with the death of Sue Harukata.
“A cow (ushi)?” 7
“No, well, I did say ‘ushi’, but…”
“Rather, did Princess know this war was going to occur?”
“After all, I am a miko that serves the Taisha-sama, aren’t I? I can at least use that much of my divine power.”
If I could really use divine powers, I would go through fewer troubles though. I think I’ll pray a little more seriously from now on. Then, maybe I’ll be able to use divine powers!
Impossible, isn’t it…
“The only miko I know who can use divine powers is Princess, though.”
Hm? I can’t really use divine powers, you know? What is Haru-nee talking about? Could it be that Haru-nee has contracted 8th grade syndrome a little early! In this era, there is no yellow ambulance yet, so what should I do… 8
“Well, all joking aside, Ouchi and, in this case, Sue as well? Since Sue and Mori have been continuing their skirmishes, anyone could have predicted that there would soon be a large-scale battle sooner or later, right?”
However, now I am finally sure. If this world is following the same course of history as I know and the history is roughly the same, then in all probability, this is the year 1555 in the Western calendar. That means there are only five years left until the Battle of Okehazama. Well, the Battle of Okehazama has nothing to do with me though. 9 However, even if I identified the current period’s Western calendar year, it wouldn’t be of much use to me.
It would be easier to understand if I assumed that I am a foreign substance, like a stone thrown into a pond. When a stone is thrown into the pond, ripples are generated. Every time I move, the ripples spread wider. It gives birth to a divergence from the history that I know.
The larger the divergence, the less useful my knowledge of history becomes—even if I know the Western calendar equivalent—because the history knowledge I have memorized would lose its meaning.
If a butterfly flutters its wings in Beijing, a storm will break out in New York a month later. The butterfly effect, was it?
In other words, what I’m trying to say is history is just something I know! I’d like to decline to fall into ruin! I’ll even sell my soul to the devil to survive! That’s what I’m saying.
“If you put it like that, then that may be true.”
“Ouchi will decline and Mori will take its place. Haru-nee, send a letter to Shigemori-dono asking him to keep an eye on Mori’s movements.”
“To my father at Shiga-Iwayama Castle? But, can we do this as we please without Master’s permission?” 10
My father went “Hyachaaa!” and went off to Bizen, didn’t he!? Men of this era really love to fight, don’t they… Are they fools? Idiots? Are they going off to die? I think so. 11
“I’m just giving him a heads up, so it’ll be fine to do that much at our discretion. Besides, what’s the district next to Ano District in Iwami where Shiga-Iwayama Castle is located? 12
“It’s here, the Kando District, right?”
No matter how much of a young girl Haru-nee is, she did have this much of the local geography in her head. Well, my appearance is even more of a young girl than Haru-nee though.
“Yup. As the Gundai of the Kando District, I have a duty to ensure the safety of the people. Therefore, it is within my discretion to warn the neighboring Ano District.”
“I see, I understand.”
“Also, since Father departed to the front, Bizen, even if we sent a messenger to ask for permission, a round trip would take at least ten days to around half a month. If we wait for permission, we’ll lose time.”
That’s right, in this age, time loss during information transfer can become a fatal wound.
“It is definitely as Princess says.”
“Though we have heard of stupid haste in war, as fast as the wind.” 13
Speed, for sure, is important.
“Those words are from Princess’s favorite The Art of War.”
“Yup. If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. That’s what it says.”
What I need right now is information about Mori.
“Oh ho, The Art of War? You’re still as intelligent as ever, Princess.”
No, it’s embarrassing to be praised like that.
“Ojii-sama, you’ve returned?”
“Tako-jii, perfect timing. Please request for Shigemori-dono to keep an eye on Mori’s movements.”
With this, I think we’ll be safe for now.
“Those who remain in ignorance of the enemy’s condition simply because one grudges the outlay of a hundred ounces of silver in honors and emoluments, is the height of inhumanity. Well, I can see why the princess is so fond of the low-ranking priest, traveling mikos, and the ‘hachiyashu’.” 14
“Information is important after all.”
“Nevertheless, you’re just a little late, aren’t you?”
“Did something happen?”
For some reason, I have a bad feeling…
“Yamabuki Joudai’s Sasuka Naganobu let the Mori through and betrayed us.” 15
*Pfttt!*
“Princess, that’s filthy!”
Iwami Silver Mines has—!!
If you are reading from a pirate or aggregator site, please read from the translator’s site: yado-inn (dot) com I have to put the link like this or else the bots will remove it, sorry 🙁
- A famous haiku about persimmons by Masaoka Shiki.
Masaoka: https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Masaoka_Shiki
Horyu-ji: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C5%8Dry%C5%AB-ji - Cloud: Famous poem from Hyakunin Isshu. Some of you might know Hyakunin Isshu from Chihayafuru (the karuta anime/manga), but to put it short, it’s an anthology of one hundred Japanese poems by one hundred different poets. This is the last two lines of the fourth poem by Yamabe no Akahito. The previous line by Haru is using the same format as this poem, thus she was imitating it and Tama caught on quickly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogura_Hyakunin_Isshu
http://www.wakapoetry.net/poets/manyo-poets/yamabe-no-akahito/
Translation of the poem from ‘A Hundred Verses from Old Japan: Being a Translation of the Hyaku-nin-isshiu’, free on Google Books. https://bit.ly/3cnWTOV - Cloud: Manyoshu is another famous poem anthology. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27y%C5%8Dsh%C5%AB
- Cloud: A famous tourist spot that I’ve been to myself. It’s called Itsukushima, but it’s more popularly known as Miyajima.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itsukushima - Cloud: Backwardation is a situation when the futures price of a commodity is lower than the spot price today (via WallstreetMojo).
- Cloud: I’m not sure what miko she’s referring to so please comment if you do know.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usa_Jing%C5%AB - Cloud: Refer to the previous dialogue line if you don’t get the pun.
- Cloud: I don’t need to explain what Chuunibyou is, right? A “yellow ambulances” is basically a meme since they are “used for mental health emergencies”.
- Cloud: If you’ve forgotten, the Japanese use their fancy calendar system. For example, this chapter is currently at Tembun 24, or the 24th Year of the Tembun era. When Japanese people learn stuff in school, such as history, they use the Western calendar since we’re in the modern era. The Western calendar does not exist in Japan at that time, thus she is just making rough estimates to guess what year she’s in. Now, with major events happening, she can accurately pinpoint the correct year she’s living in.
- Cloud: There’s no link, but Haru’s grandfather is Tako Tokitaka if you remember. Thus, Tako Shigemori is his son and Haru’s dad.
- Cloud: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bizen_Province
- Ano District: https://bit.ly/3uBm4DO (JP Wikipedia)
- Cloud: Two separate quotes Tama made from the Art of War. Furinkazan, which popularized the latter quote, was a battle flag used by Takeda Shingen that quotes from the Art of War: “As fast as the wind, as quiet as the forest, as daring as fire, as hard to know as dark, as immovable as the mountain, and the movement is like pealing thunder.”
https://www.japanese-wiki-corpus.org/history/Fu-Rin-Ka-Zan.html
https://www.japanese-wiki-corpus.org/person/Shingen%20TAKEDA.html - Cloud: Another line from The Art of War. Traveling mikos were those who were not affiliated with a shrine. They tended to be traveling entertainers or a prostitute. ‘Hachiyashu’ was a performing troops that was also a military force. Amago Haruhisa eventually won them over and they joined Amago’s side.
- Cloud: In history, Sasuka Naganobu was a huge flip-flopper. Currently, he was supposed to be under Ouchi, but in this timeline, he betrayed them and returned back to Mori. He did swap over to Mori in history but due to other reasons.
Yamabuki Castle: https://bit.ly/3d48Yc9 (JP Wikipedia)
Sasuka Naganobu: https://bit.ly/3209NwD (JP Wikipedia)
Pls continue this series…
I would love to do so, but that would be in the future. Unforunately, I am currently trying to catch up with my other series, and this series takes exceptionally longer than other series that I translate due to the amount of research I have to do, as well as the amount of effort I put into the footnotes and glossary to make it easily understandable for the readers. There’s a chance I pick this back up later in the future but not right now unfortunately.