CHAPTER 140: CHAPTER 90: THIS IS WHAT IT MEANS TO HAVE JUST LOST A FATHER!_2

To be honest, he treated him way better than he did his own dad. When his real father died, he made a huge scene at the funeral, even stuck the incense upside down—didn’t leave a shred of dignity for his own old man.

And as he was mulling things over, he suddenly heard someone next door faintly mention "Lord of Upper General," and they were sighing over Hirata Masahide’s loyalty, saying he’d chosen death to admonish his Lord, actually wrote the piece "Five Admonitions" to persuade him to return to the right path—a true role model among Samurai...

The ones speaking seemed to be a few old-school Earth Warriors; they’d had some drinks, their voices weren’t at all quiet, and they didn’t bother to avoid certain topics.

Though, there wasn’t much that needed hiding—they were just praising Hirata Masahide after all, ordinary small talk—but as Maeda Toshie caught wind of it, his face darkened immediately. He stood up as if he was about to storm over with fists flying, only to be yanked back by his brother, Sawaki Ryoji, who tugged hard on his sleeve. Toshie sat down again, still fuming with barely contained anger.

Nozawa glanced at him, then tilted his head to better catch the discussion from next door, before asking him, "So this ’Five Admonitions’ is...?"

Sawaki Ryoji sighed and answered for his brother, "It’s a new rumor. They say Old Lord Hirata did it to admonish his Lord, left behind a written admonition before dying with five earnest pieces of advice. The content..."

He left the rest unsaid. Now that he was also a household retainer to Oda Nobunaga, it’d be inappropriate to voice any dissent against his Lord, but even without saying it, Nozawa could pretty much guess; it was likely all about persuading Oda Nobunaga to stop his nonsense, stop acting out and being so willful, to show more respect for the household retainers, respect his mother, care for his brothers, that sort of thing.

Nozawa asked, "So, Lord Hirata didn’t leave behind any such admonition?"

"Of course not!" Maeda Toshie broke in, and not quietly either, but Sawaki Ryoji quickly tugged his sleeve, so his voice softened. "Old Lord Hirata absolutely wasn’t trying to die admonishing. No way did he leave some letter!"

"Not die admonishing? Then why did Lord Hirata..." Nozawa hadn’t expected there was more to this, since aside from dying in protest, he really couldn’t think of a reason for Hirata Masahide to kill himself out of the blue.

"It was because..."

Maeda Toshie opened his mouth to answer, but was stopped at once by Sawaki Ryoji. Ryoji apologized to Nozawa, a bit sheepishly: "Sorry, Lord Nozawa. The Lord has given a gag order—no leaks allowed."

But Maeda Toshie shook his head. "It’s fine for Lord Nozawa, he doesn’t count as an outsider."

Sawaki Ryoji hesitated a little, recalling how Oda Nobunaga seemed especially interested in Nozawa’s affairs, asking about him from time to time, and that in every campaign, Nozawa had taken part and saved more than a few lives. Even though he hadn’t formally joined Oda Danjo Chonosuke’s house yet, he really did feel like one of them.

At least a half-member, and frankly, even if Nozawa knew, it wouldn’t harm their Lord. Their Lord kept the truth secret mostly for selfish reasons, which Ryoji didn’t agree with, but none of the household boys could go against Oda Nobunaga’s will.

He didn’t stop Maeda again, reasoning that it might do some good to dispel the rumor for at least a half-insider. Maeda Toshie, for his part, didn’t care what his brother thought and went right ahead: "The real reason Old Lord Hirata killed himself had nothing to do with the Lord at all—this was all Hirata Nagamasa’s fault! Didn’t you notice that bastard didn’t show up today? He’s already been locked up!"

Hirata Nagamasa?

Nozawa knew that was Hirata Masahide’s eldest son and heir. In the past, Oda Nobunaga’s men had bagged him in Town and beat the hell out of him; but Nozawa himself had never met him in person. He hadn’t noticed him at the wake, but that hardly mattered. What he found odd was: "What does this have to do with him?"

"Everything! He was collaborating with the Imagawa family. That ambush at Bai Chuan Pass by the detached force? It was his leak. Otherwise, over five hundred of us slipped onto the battlefield as planned and launched a surprise attack—even if the Imagawa had superior numbers, the outcome of the Harano battle would’ve been a toss-up. But that bastard not only got four or five hundred of us killed, he also made us lose a whole district—he ought to be hacked to pieces!"

"So it was him?" Nozawa was finally starting to get it. No wonder Oda Nobunaga’s last battle was such a disaster. "Who found out he was the spy? Was it..."

Maeda Toshie sighed. "It was Old Lord Hirata himself. He realized something was wrong and had Hirata Nagamasa—damn bastard—bound up and delivered to the Lord, with an official letter of apology. The Lord knew things were bad then and rushed us to the old man’s house, but it was already too late. In the tearoom, Old Lord Hirata had already..."

He paused, then added in a low voice, "So you shouldn’t misunderstand the Lord. Old Lord Hirata could get mad at him, sure, but he was never disappointed in him. The rumors are mostly... mostly from some guys over at Mosen Castle using the situation to stir things up. They’ve always wanted to smear the Lord’s name behind his back. Also, keep this to yourself—the Lord doesn’t want the old man’s reputation to be sullied after a lifetime of honor. ’The old man,’ he says, ’has no fault—only merit!’"

Nozawa wasn’t the type to gossip, so he didn’t mind, and nodded lightly: "Understood. I won’t mention any of this to anyone."

Maeda Toshie nodded too, showing he believed him, then took another swig, sighing somewhat dazedly, "With Old Lord Hirata gone, I really don’t know what things will be like from now on..."

While Hirata Masahide was alive, Oda Nobunaga at least had some kind of leash—no matter what the household boys said, it rarely changed anything, only Hirata could really say a thing or two. And even if Nobunaga insisted on his ways, so long as Hirata was around, a lot of matters had some buffer. Now, with Hirata gone all of a sudden, even someone as straightforward as Maeda found his head spinning. He actually started to worry that Nobunaga would let himself go entirely, letting the horse have free rein, really going off the rails this time.

Nozawa shook his head. Living inside history for real, he realized just how complicated some things really were—no chance a couple throwaway lines by some later scholar could ever do justice to it. Now even he felt unsure about the future—behind every incident there was an inside story, half the things folk said later on didn’t line up at all, and the so-called "historical sources" he had were starting to look useless.

He didn’t take up Maeda Toshie’s gloomy topic, and instead changed the subject to ask about Mosen Castle. Turned out, aside from some minor shenanigans, things were still pretty stable over there. Then he asked about Niwa Nagahide—found out Niwa had left for Kaido Town to buy iron cannons, still hadn’t returned. Apparently, their production was miserable, and trying to gather three hundred cannons, all up to standard, was no easy task—highly likely they wouldn’t even make it back this year.

Once they’d chatted idly for a while, he made his farewells and headed off towards the Asano Family’s place with Ah Man and Ah Qing. Even so, his mind kept returning to the matter of Hirata Masahide—so that’s why he committed seppuku: to atone for the Hirate family causing Dan Zhengzhong’s house to lose an entire district. And even in his youth, Oda Nobunaga was surprisingly sentimental, choosing to shoulder the blame rather than let his teacher take the fall and the whole family be wiped out.

Maybe for him, Hirata Masahide and Nurse Ikeda, companions since he was two, were even more like real parents than Oda Nobuhide and Lady Tsuchida!

So, by that logic, this is when Oda Nobunaga really lost his father!