Chapter 2 The Course of Family Governance

  " Splash!" A huge water flower bloomed on the distant Yagawa River, as if some giant fish was slowly swimming over from the Yagawa River.

  "Huh? What is this thing? A dolphin? Can dolphins swim in river water?" He patted the old man, who was still dozing off, and pointed at the big guy in the Yazu River, actually he had never seen a real dolphin before, but this thing really looked like those swimming in the sea.

  "Huh? Ah! This is a white whale! Is this the first time you've seen one, Master of the Inn? You can't mess with this fish, just ignore it and it'll swim away in a bit." Yamamoto Kan no Suketake glanced at the creature in the water and started snoring again. Kira Yoshinaka had also heard of white whales, which seemed to be another name for finless porpoises.

  "I'm going! Why doesn't it leave, hey, don't bite my fishing hook! Hey! This can't be eaten! Wipe! Return my fishing rod!" The creature that looked very much like a dolphin swam back and forth, finally staring at his fishing hook, swallowing it in one gulp, as if afraid he would come after it, and with a flip of its body, the fishing rod was pulled into the river water and disappeared.

  "Ah la! My fishing rod is gone, what's the point of fishing now... Ah, I get it! The fish ate my rod, and not being able to catch any fish is a good excuse too!" Kiryu Manzoumaru, who was just sulking in anger, seemed to have come to a realization and immediately regained his composure, picking up a reed stick and starting to draw randomly on the muddy ground.

  "What to draw... just draw the king of a hundred beasts, the tiger!" After some thought, he decided to start by drawing a tiger's head, then gradually sketch out its body, and finally add a "king" character on its forehead. A cat with a crown on its head was thus completed. Before he could even take a closer look at his own work, a foot came over and stomped several times on the ground, trampling his drawing into pieces.

  "Give me back my painting! Bastard!"

  "I, your subordinate, believe that the purpose of bringing the honorable master to fish is to cultivate his emotions, not to let him sleep and scribble randomly. If the honorable master finds it boring, then perhaps he should think about the problems at home!" Yamamoto Kanbei spoke with great tact, only allowing Kira Yoshinaka to think about family matters when bored.

  "Hmph! Don't look down on people!" He decided to give this old man a show, throwing his bamboo stick and saying loudly: "The Honke family day and night thinks only of the family business! Alas, the Tokugawa shogunate's power has declined, and now the Honke family is again harassed by the Matsudaira, Imagawa, and Oda clans, causing our domain to lose its authority and our vassals to waver. The Honke family's business is like a leaf blown about in the wind, always on the verge of collapse! For now, we should prepare our military and cultivate virtue within while defending against external enemies. Only by doing so can we revive the family business and achieve success in this chaotic world!"

  "Hmm! Is this the master's own insight? It seems that the master has finally grown up! From now on, our family's internal affairs should also listen to the master's opinions more!" No matter how he listened to these words, they sounded awkward, especially with the old man's relieved expression, Kirishima Matsujiro felt as if he had fallen into a pit.

  "It's getting late, I'll go back and tell the good news to ōuchi Yoshitaka. The lord should attend to government affairs diligently from now on, it's time to return!" Yamamoto Kansuke quickly gathered his belongings and whistled to summon his men, then turned around and dragged away a still-dazed Kikkawa Motoyasu.

  "What does this have to do with the weather?" He looked up at the sun, which was still before noon, but Yamamoto Kanbee's words were useless. He could only be led back to the city in a gloomy mood, surrounded by Ma Chao's troops. After a while, he suddenly remembered something and shouted: "Yamamoto Kanbee! You tricked me!"

  ……

  According to Kiryū Mantsumaru's calculation, he was still under eight years old this year. The age calculation method of the Warring States period is different from his, and there is no concept of "week-old" only virtual age measurement, so his external age has always been nine years old. At the age of nine, Kiryū Mantsumaru was not a fool, he knew that Yamamoto Kanetsugu was an old guy who was immune to swords and guns, even if he made small calculations, he could still use his one-eyed ugly face to smile at himself without a care, just like the great demon king who destroyed peace in conversation.

  He didn't want to see Yamamoto Kanetsugu's hateful face again, so he galloped his horse and quickly left the crowd behind, entering the town below the castle. The townspeople who saw Kiryu Manmaru riding alone hastily retreated to the side and knelt down respectfully. Some bolder townspeople even discussed how Lord Kiryu was wise and brave in battle, and how skilled he was in horsemanship at such a young age.

  Since he was two years old, when his father from Suruga Province brought back the then-masterless Yamamoto Kansuke, he was destined to take a path of no return. His already tight curriculum was further packed with basic martial training, from the bow and horseback riding techniques passed down through the Kira family to the military tactics that Yamamoto Kansuke excelled at - everything he could teach was crammed into Kira Yoshichika.

  This was the biggest mistake he had made in nine years, which must have been to bring Yamamoto Kansuke into the house, and last year he even coaxed him out for a wild outing. At that time, Kira Yoshinaka still naively thought that Yamamoto Kansuke had finally found his conscience, but instead brought him to the mountain outside Okazaki Castle to watch the second Battle of Mikatagahara from a distance, looking at the scene of tens of thousands of people killing each other in the distance, and shamelessly told him that this was an opportunity to train the bravery of warriors, that the way of military strategy lay within, and that the fate of warriors should be to fight on the battlefield.

  "I'd rather be a small lord, not a warrior! Has something gone wrong?!" Kirishima Mantarō was taken aback. He had never said he wanted to go to the battlefield and kill people. How could such a dangerous thing be allowed for someone who cherished life? The way of the warrior didn't exist anymore.

  "Since the peaceful era, the warrior class has been notorious for its lack of integrity. The twisted idea of sacrificing oneself for the greater good hasn't emerged yet, and it's not surprising that the lower classes are overthrowing their superiors. The bloodline of the Minamoto clan has always flowed with brutal genes, where sons kill fathers and brothers kill each other - it's a family tradition. Someone like me, who only aspires to be a small lord, can be considered a good Samaritan in this Warring States era. So why is everyone forcing me to do things I don't want to do?"

  If Yamamoto Kansuke's troubles were still painful and enjoyable, then the troubles of ōkōchi Nobusada would truly take the life of Kiryū Mansaburōmaru. As soon as he returned to Honmaru, he was intercepted by a small surname who had been waiting for him, informing him that he must report to the school immediately. Kiryū Mansaburōmaru really wanted to cry out: "Not even giving me a chance to catch my breath! Is there no humanity?!"

  "Master of the mansion! I, Kiryū, as a vassal family of the Ashikaga shoguns, was promoted by Yoshimasa to become the chief of the Gokenin, and is honored as a Jōrō. And you, Master of the mansion, as the 9th generation head of the Nishijō Kiryū family, holding the name of our family's leader, should cherish this moment, day and night thinking only of reviving the family business, and the great undertaking of restoring the shogunate!"

  In the main citadel of Nishi-jō Castle, facing the relentless bombardment of fatigue from ōkawa Hachirō's lectures, Yoshida Umanosuke's expressionless face and empty eyes were a daily sight. The same words would be repeated countless times every day, with each retainer having to recite them one or two times when they met him, the higher their rank, the more times they had to repeat it. For example, as ōkawa Hachirō was Yoshida Umanosuke's mentor, responsible for teaching this young lord etiquette and learning, he would have to repeat it ten times more than ordinary retainers, essentially becoming a human tape recorder.