Translator: Flowingcloud Editor: Arocks141
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TERMS/THINGS TO NOTE:
Only one real thing to note this chapter. The rest have footnotes.
Hokoshu – Military power belonging directly to the shogun.
Shingu Force
November, 23rd year of the Tembun era (1554), Gassantoda Castle, Izumo; Amago Haruhisa
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 🙁
“Son-in-law, what is the situation?”
“Uncle, I have been in your care with various things at court. With various things you see. However recently, your somewhat arrogant behavior has been intolerable and our vassals have many complaints.”
“That’s slandering the Hokoshu!” 1
“Is that so? Slander? Hmm…… Then, it would be good for you to try putting your hand over your heart and recalling uncle’s and the Shingu Force’s actions so far.”
“No way, are you planning to purge me!?”
“The Amago do not need two leaders! Kill him off!”
“You! You ungrateful—!”
Slash.
“Phew, I finally got the thorn on my side out of the way.”
“I sympathise with your feelings.”
“Jubei, Bizen! Don’t leave out the remainder of Sanehisa’s group!” 2
““At your will!””
If I seize the Shingu Force’s territory and include it into my area of control, then my Amago’s power will become further stronger.
With this, Izumo’s underfoot should become firm.
“Forgive me, uncle…… also forgive me Sanehisa. This is also for the sake of the Amagos.”
Well then, the whole area of the Kando District will be under direct control, but who should be the one that executes it? 3
“Hmm, either way, let’s leave the Kando District to Tama. If I assign Tokitaka as her guardian, it should be fine.”
While she may be my girl, that lass is not a normal one. Of course she has her oracles, but I feel like the contents in her head are made of something different from ours.
If it’s Tama, she’ll surely do various things eventually, so I should enjoy it starting now.
The next day, Kitsuki-no-Oyashiro.
Step step step step.
“Those light footsteps are Haru-chan, aren’t they? But, you should not run down the corridor.”
While I was sitting on the veranda, basking in the warm and weak late-autumn sunlight, I was stuffing my cheeks with a persimmon.
Haru rushed in and the first thing she said was,
“Princess, there is an urgent matter!”
“Hmm, seeing you that flustered, what’s wrong? Does Haru want to eat a persimmon too? It’s sweet and delicious, you know?”
Having said that, I handed over a persimmon to Haru. It’s not an astringent persimmon, you know?
“Ah, allow me to have one. Ah, it’s delicious!”
“Right!? Right!?”
“That’s not it! At Toda’s, at Toda!”
“Did something happen to my father!?”
“N-No, not the lord, but the lord purged the Shingu Force!”
“Ptoo!”
“Princess, that’s filthy, you know?”
I F-O-R-G-O-T!
I forgot that the Shingu Force would be purged!
I did not fully know when it would be, but I should have known about it from my historical knowledge though. I was so preoccupied with the Moris that I completely forgot about it.
However, was it this period?
“The Shingu Force was also Haru’s relatives, weren’t they?”
“Yes. My great-aunt (Tako Tokitaka’s older sister) married Kii-kami (Amago Kunihisa).” 4
“That means that Shigemori-dono and Shikibu Shousuke-dono (Amago Sanehisa) would be your cousins.” 5
“That would be so. Magoshiro Ujihisa-dono and them would be my “second cousin”.” 6
“So, will Haru be fine?”
“I am very grateful for your concern. However, there is no need to worry about me since I am fine. Also, even if they may be my relatives, isn’t Princess my relative as well?”
“Now that you mention it, that is so. As for me, Magoshiro-dono and the others are my “second cousin”, huh? But, they do not actually feel like family.”
For me, the Shingu Force relatives occasionally greeted me, and I had no particular emotional attachment towards them. Over half of them felt like strangers.
I did not approach them thinking, “These guys are going to be purged by Father before long anyways.”
“That is so, is it not? They are my relatives more or less, but it does not really feel like it.”
In the Sengoku world, where parents and children, siblings, and cousins compete against their own flesh and blood and kill each other, it may be natural that even relatives do not come to mind.
Due to political marriages of convenience, the connection between house and house become intricately intertwined so that ○○ House is cousins with △△ House, the △△ House and ×× House would produce a son-in-law, and the ×× House would receive a daughter from the ○○ House, etc.
In that kind of manner.
If you investigate thoroughly, in this small rural samurai society, it’ll get to the point that everyone would become your relative. 7
Coincidentally, the Amagos and the Moris are related by blood through the Yoshikawa.
“Retribution for the Shingu force that was growing arrogant, huh……”
“The people belonging to the Shingu Force were arrogant and haughty, and their reputation was bad, wasn’t it?”
According to what I have heard, it must have been pitiful for Suetsugu-dono.”
That’s right. Those guys were swaggering like they owned the place, so Father was certainly tough.
I sympathize.
“But, are you all right?”
“Hm? Is there something?
“It is time of war. The Shingu Force was the core of the Amago force after all.”
Well, I admit that they were the most powerful of the Amago though. However, I did not see it with my own eyes, so I don’t know whether the Shingu Force was broken up or weakened, but I believe Father thought about it, judged it was all right, then purged them.
In fact, even if the main military commander of the Shingu Force that was purged are not here, historically, they should have been destroyed by the Mori twice in a few years.
That’s right, not to speak of the Amago not being destroyed in my father, Haruhisa’s era, Ishoto was not even snatched away by the Mori. 8
When thinking like that, the Amago are quite strong. I can’t actually feel it, but the melancholy was hanging in the air due to the fate of my ruined house.
It was only after the death of my father and my older brother Yoshihisa became the head did we become ruined. (T/N: Mentioned in chapter 2. See glossary.)
Well, if this world follows the same path of history I know, there is no guarantee that we could win against the Mori.
In my personal opinion, I believe that reincarnation into the past means that the moment I reincarnated, it’s become an alternative reality. In other words, this is a parallel world that is not connected to the world before my reincarnation.
If I think about it and probe into it too deeply, my thoughts become mixed up, so I try not to think about it normally, but the point is, I was born on another planet similar to Earth’s history. Or so I think. 9
My thoughts have deviated.
That was not the point, I remembered that my father’s life span had only around five years left.
Mainly thanks to my brother Yoshihisa.
This is unpleasant. Yoshihisa was supposed to have allied with the Mori during the Peace Negotiation of Izumo and Aki. However, the Mori violated the peace conference and the Amago fell down the hill road from there. 10
How do I prolong my father, Haruhisa’s life? I was exhausted by this one point.
If I remember correctly, it should have been a cerebral stroke, so having a moderate amount of alcohol and salt in his diet should more or less have some effect.
Ths meals of this age were—to the 21th century me—honestly speaking, lame.
First, the flavoring isn’t developed, so it’s excessively salty. It’s no wonder that so many people had strokes.
Then, if I said that I had an oracle and put it into practice, he’ll probably improve his diet.
Probably……
“Princess?”
“Hm? Ahh, the Shingu Force’s successor, right?”
“Yes.”
“It’s okay. With this, Father can push for centralization, so the Amago should become stronger all the more.”
“Centralization? Princess, what is that?”
“Umm, if you write the characters…”
I wrote the characters on the ground with a stick.
““Centralization”, I see. If the characters are written, even I could slightly understand the meaning.” 11
“With this, the chain of command would be unified under Father and it becomes easier to understand where the responsibilities are.”
“I see. It has become more difficult to understand due to Princess’s words.”
“Oops…”
In modern times, Haru would still be in her fifth year of primary. It seems like the unification of the line of command and the whereabouts of responsibilities was still too hard for her.
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 Japanese government post in the Muromachi and Edo period. https://japanese-wiki-corpus.github.io/title/Hokoshu.html
- Amago Sanehisa: https://sengokujidai.org/characters-and-clans%e3%80%8c%e4%ba%ba%e7%89%a9%e3%83%bb%e6%b0%8f%e3%80%8d/characters/amago-sanehisa%e3%80%8c%e5%b0%bc%e5%ad%90%e8%aa%a0%e4%b9%85%e3%80%8d/
- Kando District: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%A5%9E%E9%96%80%E9%83%A1
- ”Kami” is a position in the government, thus Kii-kami meant something like Director of the Kii Province.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kii_Province - Shikibu Shousuke is Amago Sanehisa’s government name. People in government would have another name that people would refer to them by.
- Magoshirou is the alias of Amago Ujihisa.
https://sengokujidai.org/characters-and-clans%E3%80%8C%E4%BA%BA%E7%89%A9%E3%83%BB%E6%B0%8F%E3%80%8D/characters/amago-ujihisa%E3%80%8C%E5%B0%BC%E5%AD%90%E6%B0%8F%E4%B9%85%E3%80%8D/ - Arocks141: Incidentally, if we went back a few generations (about 28-29 generations, if my math is correct), we’ll find that everyone on Earth is related to each other in some remote way or the other. Which makes us all incestuous, technically. And now, you can never forget that, you’re welcome.
- Ishito is the alias referring to the eastern portion of the Iwami Province. Also, if you’re confused, the fall of Gassantoda Castle did not happen during Haruhisa’s time, but after he died.
- Arocks141: I hate to say this, but this is actually a very smart take on things in my opinion. Why do I hate to say this? Because this means I have to like the character and by relation the story, which means I can’t shit-talk it as much. Le sigh.
- Peace Negotiation of Izumo and Aki: https://sengokujidai.org/incidents-and-events/terms/unkei-wagi%E3%80%8C%E9%9B%B2%E8%8A%B8%E5%92%8C%E8%AD%B0%E3%80%8D/
- Just a Japanese thing. From the breakdown of the characters ‘中央集権化’, one can easily guess the meaning of the phrase altogether. Previously, Haru had never heard of the word, thus confused.
Indeed just because one is reincarnated into ‘the past’, it’s not one’s responsibility to stick to the known history.
And being trucked to isekai doesn’t mean it’s one’s responsibility to defeat a demon king.
One should just moderately do whatever one likes. It’s better for one’s mental health that way imo.