CHAPTER 149: CHAPTER 97: THE TOP 10 TRANSMIGRATOR DISGRACES OF THE 21ST CENTURY

When Harano slowly woke up, he just felt unbearably cold.

He forced himself to sit up and looked around, discovering that he was currently in a cave, with a nearly extinguished campfire nearby. It seemed to be daytime already, but as soon as he tried to prop himself up, a sharp pain shot through his waist and ribs, and there was still a sweet taste at the back of his throat.

"You... you’re awake!" At that moment, A Qing returned, hugging an armful of dry, yellow reeds and firewood. A look of relief flashed across her delicate face, as if seeing him awaken took a huge weight off her mind. She hurriedly dropped her things and rushed to help him.

Seeing her, Harano felt much more at ease. He lay back down and, suppressing the pain, asked, "Where are we right now?"

A Qing immediately retold what had happened last night in a soft voice, explaining how she had used hastily made grass rope and bundles of reeds to drag him along, hiding from place to place, taking most of the day just to escape from the wetlands. Because it was still too risky to show themselves, they continued deeper into the mountains, and finally ended up spending the night in this barely discovered cave.

Harano hadn’t expected he could be dragged around for most of a day without waking—even if he had, his consciousness must have been foggy because he remembered almost nothing. He also didn’t expect Ah Man, the wild kid... Ah Man, that guy, actually cared enough to sacrifice himself, going out of his way to lure away the pursuers.

Theoretically, she should have just thrown him into the lake with the door panel and let him make his last stand clinging to it—the rest left to fate.

A Qing finished her account, her eyes slightly reddened. She lowered her head, pretending the smoke stung her eyes as she wiped them, then softly asked, "How are your injuries...?"

Harano pressed his waist and ribs, bearing the pain as he quietly assessed his condition. Having been a Mongolian doctor for so long wasn’t for nothing. He replied in a low voice, "It’s not getting worse, but I’ll have to trouble you a bit longer. I need some tough grass ropes. Also... ground beetles and reed roots."

He needed to make himself an abdominal and thoracic wrap, to keep the ribs in place and prevent the broken ends from grinding against each other, leaving him unable to move from pain. As for the ground beetles and reed roots, they were the only medicinal options he could find now—the former helped reduce bruising and set broken bones, while the latter offered mild pain relief.

A Qing nodded and headed out again. Harano lay on the ground, staring blankly at the dark ceiling of the cave, until A Qing returned with a pile of reeds and twisted the grass rope together. Only then did he force himself to begin tending to his own wounds.

The whole ordeal lasted till nightfall. A Qing managed to catch a bird, roasted it for him, but he couldn’t eat much and urged A Qing to eat it herself. After she finished, she brought back more reeds, bundled them together, and buried him in them. She then crawled in herself, hugging the uninjured side of his body for warmth, silently keeping him company as they rested.

Harano didn’t speak, either. There had been too many accidents, too many losses—he was in terribly low spirits. He felt that if he could ever return to modern times and write a novel about his experiences for some website, he’d probably compete for the title of ’Greatest Disgrace among Twenty-First Century Transmigrators’—over a year of struggling, his loyal friends missing or dead, and here he was, sleeping in a cave.

He reflected on his failures for a long time and sighed silently. Turning his head, he glanced at A Qing. Her eyes were swollen and red, lost in thought and nothing like her usual cool calm. It was clear Ah Man’s uncertain fate hit her hard.

Seeing her like this, Harano actually rallied his spirits. After some hesitation, he reached out and pulled her closer, trying to keep her a bit warmer.

A Qing didn’t resist, but her eyes reddened even more. She buried her head in his shoulder and softly asked, "If Sister Ah Man really... will you do as she asked?"

"I will." Harano answered very simply, without any empty words of comfort. Over twenty people were being chased by hundreds on the open plains—Ah Man was also one of the main culprits who killed Lin Zhenzheng. Unless she suddenly turned into a ninja from modern-day anime and could fly and vanish into thin air, her chances of surviving were slim.

As for avenging her...

Ah Man traded her life for his. Avenging her had become his duty. He wouldn’t shirk it—not even a little. Even if he couldn’t slaughter every last chicken of the Lin family, not a single one from the Lord down to the household retainers would be allowed to escape.

A Qing nodded slightly, as if finally able to relax a little, her eyes slowly closing. She was exhausted, curling up inside the thick reed bundles, leaning against Harano as she fell asleep.

Harano didn’t disturb her, only gently pulling her closer again, to pass a bit more warmth to her, then slowly closed his eyes as well.

This wasn’t over yet. He’d always just tried to survive honestly, to live a bit better, doing many good deeds, never harming an innocent—and yet these people in this era still wouldn’t let him live. Fine, then!

If he couldn’t live, then no one else should expect to!

......

Night passed quickly. Since Harano still had trouble moving, and the situation outside was unclear, they ended up staying in the cave for the time being. A Qing, quite experienced in living independently, weaved several grass mats herself. She even snuck into a nearby village, stealing some clay pots, old clothes, grains, and set traps, occasionally catching some game. Within a couple of days, somehow, their little life grew cozy and peaceful.

If he planned on retreating into the mountains, settling down here with her really wouldn’t be bad at all.

Following Harano’s instructions, she had also made a trip to Hibi Village. She waited outside for quite a while but didn’t spot Yayoi or the others. Unsure and afraid of something happening, since if she got into trouble, Harano would be left to die alone in the cave, she came back empty-handed. Harano, unable to move for now, couldn’t help even if Yayoi’s group ran into trouble, so he put the search on hold.

He rested and focused on healing, eager to regain at least some mobility as soon as possible. Initially, he thought it would take over ten days, but after six or seven days, he noticed his ribs seemed to have started healing. As long as he moved slowly, the pain was no longer so intense—he was recovering nearly twice as fast as he’d expected.

This surprised him, and he wondered if it was a benefit of transmigration.

Thinking about it, since he’d transmigrated, his health had always been excellent. He never even got headaches or fevers, and his stamina and strength seemed a bit better than before. He hadn’t brought any modern germs to kill off half the locals, so maybe his body had truly been enhanced and purified through the transmigration process.

But after mulling it over, he doubted it again. After all, he’d always been afraid of getting beat up, ever since he was a kid, so he trained himself hard to be able to fight back against anyone who tried to bully him. He’d always been stronger than most—he only got the flu once at eighteen or nineteen. Going illness-free for an entire year at twenty wasn’t even unusual.

Besides, he was still young, so his recovery rate should be faster than average. It wasn’t exactly a miracle—he wasn’t instantly healing overnight, just able to shuffle around a little with much less pain.

If he could heal overnight, that’d really count as a transmigrator’s cheat. But truthfully, that kind of cheat was almost useless—not much of a difference with or without it.

He couldn’t figure it out now and decided to study it in detail later. For the moment, he had real business to handle: he took A Qing and began to slowly make their way back to Hibi Village, though they couldn’t risk the main roads and so kept weaving through the mountains. With A Qing alternately supporting and carrying him, they walked and rested, spending an entire day on what should have been a journey of three hours.

A Qing hid him in the woods nearby, then went alone to scout around Hibi Village. This time, she finally found someone, and soon fetched Yayoi’s father, Jiulang, back to the woods. Only then did they learn what had happened to Yayoi and the others. Jiulang, after hearing that Takeshige Manor had been attacked, instinctively realized this was serious. Not daring to predict what Maeda Toshimasa’s reaction would be, and fearing trouble, he hadn’t dared hide his daughter and her companions in the village. Instead, he prioritized placing them in a hidden mountain valley to wait and see what happened next.

This was an old and prudent move—Harano had no objections. With Jiulang’s help, they traveled to a small valley in the Ise Mountains, and finally reunited with their own people.

Though calling it a "force" was a bit much now—what he’d built up over a year was now almost totally destroyed, leaving only a bunch of noncombatant dependents and a little money. Most of the work would have to start over from scratch.

He wasn’t actually bothered much by this. Instead, he questioned Maeshima Shichiro and Jiulang about the current situation, only to find that Maeshima Shichiro knew nothing, and Jiulang only knew that the Hosokawa Family at Hosokawa Castle had, for once, fully mobilized, drafting many farmers from each village to form ashigaru and gathering them at Hosokawa Castle. But who they planned to fight, he wasn’t sure—no one would have told him anyway.

Harano had no solution but to ask A Qing to go out and check one more time, to see if she could work out what was happening. But A Qing was a bit slow at this sort of thing—not exactly a professional informant. She wandered around for a day, but failed to find out any of the subtle details or inner workings, and could only report back on the most widely known news:

Lin Xiuzhen really had rebelled. That night, he staged a coup at Nagano Castle, trying to drive out Oda Nobunaga and take over Nagano Castle himself—but he failed.

At the crucial moment, the Sawake family, who were the City Guardians of Nagano Castle, suddenly turned to side with Oda Nobunaga and launched a backstab. What had seemed just about settled for Lin Xiuzhen ended up being ruined. After a chaotic battle in the castle, he retreated back to his own territory, but not without results—three groups of Lin family forces that couldn’t get into Nagano Castle launched surprise attacks, seizing three important Oda Nobunaga strongholds, crippling or even absorbing nearly half of Nobunaga’s direct forces.

At Mosen Castle, Oda Shinsei also rebelled, officially changing his courtesy name to Dan Zhengzhong, making clear that he was the true heir to the Tiger of Owari, and calling on all the powerful families of the Lower Four Provinces of Owari to band together to take down his elder brother, Oda Nobunaga. For now, though, few had responded, and—to everyone’s shock—his own family elder, Sakuma Shigetaka, also rebelled, suddenly moving to try and control his Lord, aiming to force Shinsei to apologize to the Family Head. But Katsuyori Shibata defeated him, so Sakuma and his household retainers and lang faction had to retreat to their own lands as well.

As for Nobunaga and Shinsei, the Oda brothers...

The two sides had already fought once at Shinoki Castle a few days prior. No one was sure of the details or the troop numbers, but ultimately Shinsei failed to take Shinoki Castle and withdrew to the north bank of the Otai River to build fortifications, preparing to attack again. Nobunaga also ordered earthworks on the south bank to face off with his little brother, assigning Sakuma Shigetaka to command the defense.

Right now both sides were scrambling for allies, rushing around trying to persuade the neutral Oda Danjo Chonosuke family, chief retainers, and landowners to take a side. It looked like it wouldn’t be long before both sides fought another full-scale battle to settle things once and for all.

Harano listened in silence for a long time. He hadn’t expected coups to break out in both Nagano Castle and Mosen Castle one after the other, and for both to fail in the end, so the Oda brothers ended up swapping out their family elders. There were bound to be plenty of backroom schemes behind this—most likely, both sides planned to act against the other, but by a twist of fate, things turned out like this instead.

This day had finally come. With the lack of any external threats for the time being, and with the lubricating oil of Hirata Masahide of Oda Danjo Chonosuke’s house gone, Oda Nobunaga and his brother had at last reached the stage of civil strife.