Time-travelled To Japan's Sengoku Era Volume 1 Chapter 30

Chapter 30 A Sudden Change “What a fool you are! Who would like to quarrel with others without any reason? When Nene got married, you should have spoken directly to me. Why did you throw me a folding fan? I don’t understand your meaning of giving a fan to someone. Tell me now, what did you write on the fan?” “I forgot.” What? Could anyone forget the content of a love letter? Sakura felt it was a wrong decision to lay in his hold. “Do you really care about the fan? You already opened your heart to me. I don’t think the fan is still important. At least, you won’t easily leave me now. . . ” He kissed the back of her neck, and didn’t say a word. On the rough mountain road, she was walking on the steps covered by the falling gold-color leaves, to the temple where she had hid Yiu. It was about a ten-minute walk left before she arrived there. The temple was near Tsutsujigasaki, so that she could hide her there quickly, without being found. There was a Chinese saying that “The risky place was always safe.” She was confident that she could persuade Yiu before Harun.o.bu discovered this place. Thus she could let all the warring between the two families be avoided. But now her steps were heavier than before. Though the sweet-scented osmanthus smelled good, it didn’t make her feel better. Last night, Harun.o.bu didn’t ask her to be his sleep companion, nor did he mention that he needed her to accompany him in the future. He treated her politely, and that was what made her upset. Harun.o.bu was precious to her, she was sure. But to fall in love with an ancient j.a.panese man, especially the famous Takeda s.h.i.+ngen; she always felt this was unreal, like a dream or her own illusion, after the time-traveling. If she took Yiu back to Tsutsujigasaki, in which direction would history change? She couldn’t predict the future. If Yiu was sent back earlier, would Harun.o.bu marry her? It looked impossible. But if Yiu kept staying beside him, who could say that he wouldn’t have a change of heart? She was trying to figure out a perfect way to solve this problem. Hey, what are you thinking? she asked herself, and shook her head. Do you think the ancient j.a.panese would be focusing on the heart of one woman? Especially this daimyo. How naive! She was awakened by this sudden awareness. How could you be envious of Yiu, who hadn’t decided who should be his wife yet? She didn’t want to think more deeply on this issue. Yiu was her friend. “Master, I want to see the lady I sent here last time.” When she faced the abbot of the temple, she found his expression was a little strange. After a while, he answered her, “Female alms-giver, I can’t cover the truth from you. This morning, when my student went to give her breakfast, the woman was already missing.” “What? She was missing?” Sakura was shocked. But this was the truth. Last night, Yiu was still there, and she played a flute in the small garden of the temple. She went with the abbot to the small garden, checking it out, through and through. She didn’t find any trace of a fight. So, she was not taken by someone else. But she discovered her footprints in the earth. And another man’s steps beside hers. Did she willingly leave with someone? Was the man one of Suwa Yoris.h.i.+ge’s? Was she heading toward Suwa now? Sakura was trembling the whole way back to Tsutsujigasaki. It was possible that someone had found Yiu and brought her back to Suwa. Sakura sat on the stone chair in the garden of Tsutsujigasaki, lost in her thoughts. She had already known the ancient peoples’ brightness; if this was also an event in history, she didn’t understand what should be her proper reaction. Yiu had been here for some time. If it was a man from Suwa, why didn’t he take action earlier? She suddenly thought of other two daimyos—one was Murakami Yos.h.i.+kiyo of the north s.h.i.+noku, the other was Ogasawara Nagatoki of the middle s.h.i.+noku. Suwa was a field of s.h.i.+noku. Harun.o.bu had become the leader of Kai, and found a good relations.h.i.+p with Imagawa of Suruga. The other daimyos were all staring at his new movements. Maybe they were already cooperating with Suwa Yoris.h.i.+ge. Harun.o.bu didn’t send out his own people to search for Yiu, so maybe he was waiting on Itagaki n.o.bukata’s reply for the next decision. But now it seemed that a war was inevitable. Sakura ran up quickly, asking the maid Cao to find n.o.bus.h.i.+ge. After some time, n.o.bus.h.i.+ge ran to the inner compound with a stunning message, that Harun.o.bu had already been to the camp of the enemy. He wanted to take action earlier.  “What a horrible mess! n.o.bus.h.i.+ge, why didn’t he tell me that he planned to fight first?” “He didn’t want you to worry about him. So he just kept the plans from you. But I didn’t guess the reason why you asked me here. What you wanted to talk about was such an issue.” He felt so helpless when he heard her story. Sakura was trying to speak more when she heard a sneer from behind. It was Madam Sanjō. She was trying to warn them; they had kept this kind of secret appointment on many occasions. Sakura rushed back to her room to change into some outerwear. n.o.bus.h.i.+ge was quick to stop her, saying, “Hey, why are you, a woman, going to the camp with so many dangerous men?” “I can’t wait for Madam to make more trouble here in this urgent time. I should be staying beside him. Trust me, I have an offer on how to make sure this war has as few casualties as possible.”