CHAPTER 253: CHAPTER 184: THE MONKEY DIED

A few days later, Harano, as usual, went to Oda Nobunaga’s residence as a guest. But the moment he dismounted, he sensed something was off—several grooms had unfamiliar faces and looked grim, everyone nearby was coming and going in a rush, and there was a tense undercurrent in the air.

Harano glanced back at Ah Man, then turned around as if nothing had happened, maintaining a calm demeanor as he headed to report to Oda Nobunaga like before. Yet the security near Nobunaga’s quarters was noticeably tighter, scheduled activities were put on hold, and Nobunaga had other urgent matters to attend to.

Of course, Harano wasn’t surprised, but he still found an opportunity to corner Maeda Toshie and quietly confirm the situation. "What’s happened?" he whispered.

Maeda Toshie saw it was him asking, so didn’t conceal anything, lowering his voice, "There was an incident at the stables. Several people were poisoned to death."

"The stables? Poisoned to death? Several people?" Harano stroked his chin, pondering. He’d only ordered the assassination of the monkey, how did a few more die?

Maeda Toshie looked very grave, and spoke softly, "It’s strange, but it looks like the target was Hoyoshimaru."

Harano’s eyelid twitched; he forced himself to keep his composure and asked, poker-faced, "Hoyoshimaru is dead? Who... who was targeting him? Why target him?"

Back then, Maeda Toshie and Monkey were only casual friends, not that close. He felt some regret at Monkey’s death, but not true sorrow; he just shook his head and said, "No idea for now, but..."

He paused, gave it some thought—Harano could always find out if he was really intent on it, and there was no way Harano was the killer—so he continued, "The Lord really admired Hoyoshimaru. Yesterday, he even had a private meeting with him, seemed to have given him a task, and promised that if he did well, he’d be promoted to samurai. But that very night, Hoyoshimaru was poisoned to death, along with several friends he’d dined with to celebrate."

The Lord now suspects there’s a leak in his camp. Lord Takigawa and Lord Ikeda are both hunting for the betrayer, and... the Lord lost his temper, thinking someone killed Hoyoshimaru specifically to provoke him."

Harano was silent for a while. This wasn’t what he expected. After some thought, he asked, "Does the Lord of Upper General have any suspects?"

Maeda Toshie opened his mouth, closed it, and shook his head gently, saying nothing.

Harano understood. Oda Nobunaga definitely planned to promote grassroots and outsider samurai as a way to counterbalance the Owari noble clans and achieve his "centralized rule" across Owari. The first person he chose for promotion was Monkey—and it just so happened that Ah Man had gotten someone to kill Monkey. So Nobunaga suspected the Owari clans, seeing it as their challenge and pushback—Maeda Toshie himself was from Owari aristocracy. Now, with tension rising between Lord and nobles, he must be in a tough spot.

It turning out this way was like a match made in heaven—unbelievable good luck.

Of course, this wasn’t a bad thing.

Harano shook his head slightly and didn’t ask further. Instead, he told Maeda Toshie, "Since there’s been an incident, could you please let His Lordship know I won’t be coming these few days? Tell him to send for me if there’s anything."

Maeda Toshie bowed, holding his sword, and gave the Lord’s apologies for the broken appointment.

Harano dipped his head in return, then left with Ah Man and Ah Qing the way they came. It wasn’t until he’d mounted his horse and exited the city that he finally relaxed, feeling a sense of unreality.

The monkey was dead. Died so swiftly, so pointlessly, and without any clarity. In a sense, he’d really changed history—at least, a future Toyotomi Hideyoshi would never exist.

But that degree of history change was likely not enough. Maybe the current of history was unstoppable and someone else would just fill Monkey’s shoes—another "Saruko" or "Inoshiko" or whatever—so to truly get his way, he’d have to keep pushing, find a way to root out the ideological source, and break Japan into several pieces.

After chewing over this a while, Harano gathered his thoughts, waved his hand, and realized the air was still there, time was still ticking forward, and this big event—changing history by killing the monkey—well, it counted as a big deal, didn’t it? Yet, even with that, the world didn’t seem different at all. Even his own sense of unreality faded away.

So he muddled through these thoughts all the way back to his villa, feeling remarkably upbeat, like a load had suddenly been lifted. He even found himself idly imagining how, if someday he could return to the modern world, he’d rewrite this Chapter—he really should have had a battle of wits with the monkey before taking him out. Doing it so simply and crudely made it feel like a disgrace to transmigrators everywhere—seriously embarrassing, secretly poisoning a guy to death, not fair at all, utterly shameless.

Ah Man’s mood was nothing like his. As soon as she entered, she kicked off her shoes, barged into the inner chamber, grabbed Ah Qian and Ah Yu by the ears, and scolded them furiously, "You two idiots, you trained under the old man for years, yet you’re so clumsy when you work? Tell me, how did you do it? How can you mess up such a simple job?"

Ah Qian and Ah Yu had already been in Wanjin for over a year, eating well, sleeping soundly, and shot up in height—a bit taller than Ah Man herself. But faced with the head of their faction and new direct supervisor, they didn’t dare resist in the slightest. Being yanked up by their ears, they grinned and grimaced, "What’s your problem, you old... why are you freaking out again? We just did what you planned, didn’t we? Don’t tell me the target’s not dead?"

"Dead is dead, but a few extra people died! This is your idea of doing a job properly? No discipline at all—should I send you back to the old man for retraining?" Ah Man had intended to lure Hoyoshimaru out of Oda Nobunaga’s residence and cut him down, but that seemed risky and easily traceable, so after thinking it through, she figured it’d be better to do it right at Nobunaga’s place. Still, even with good planning, Ah Qian and Ah Yu bungled the job—couldn’t even poison him properly.

Luckily, nothing worse happened. Had someone started eating at that dinner before the target, it might have blown the whole operation—not only failing to kill the right person but also tipping off the authorities!

The very thought that this could have happened made her fume even more!

Ah Qian was indignant, hands-off but mouth sharp, "Easy for you to say! Time was tight—we were lucky to find a spot to poison anything! How were we supposed to know where the other dead would come from?"

"Where did you apply the poison?" Ah Man wasn’t afraid to discuss it here; the inner chamber was specially soundproofed for confidential chat, and the outer perimeter guarded by Wanjin’s most reliable Internal Guard Team. They could yell their heads off and be fine.

Ah Qian was still defiant, not seeing her fault, and replied angrily, "We found a few bottles of wine and put it in there. Where else could we have done it? We searched that room—only the wine was feasible for poisoning."

"Why didn’t you report back afterward?"

"You didn’t ask!"

"You need my input for little things like poisoning? You’re supposed to handle these things yourselves, and guarantee a flawless job. Otherwise, what’s the point of even keeping you around?!"

Harano came in at that point, quickly intervening, "That’s enough, just a small mishap. This was their first job, no experience. You can teach them more next time."

Honestly, a first operation going sideways wasn’t a big deal, so long as it couldn’t be traced back to him. He had plenty of chances to organize a second or third assassination—so long as the target died, that was all that mattered. The details were less important.

Ah Man shot him a look, and only let go out of respect for him, but still grumbled, "Of course I need to drill them harder. These two idiots spent over a year with the old man—practically ruined them."

She didn’t really know why Harano would bother assassinating some groom leader who meant nothing, but given Harano’s intense seriousness and his firm orders, she carried it out with total commitment. To prevent leaks that could strain the relationship between Wanjin and Oda, she’d even rushed the most reliable agents—Ah Qian and Ah Yu, just graduated from training in the "Life-extending Flowing Yin Technique"—to carry out the job themselves, so that only five people knew the whole story from start to finish.

And yet, those two little rascals did have the skills—passing as attendants, following Harano into Oda Nobunaga’s household, then sneaking into Hoyoshimaru’s room from the Horse Hall during a break to poison him, and sneaking out again, all without anyone noticing. But the spot they poisoned was wrong—almost causing a huge screwup.

Luckily, disaster was avoided, or Ah Man wouldn’t have been able to lift her head in front of Harano for months. By then, it wouldn’t just be a matter of pulling their ears and kicking them—they’d be hanging up for a real beating.

Harano didn’t object to Ah Man drilling some discipline into Ah Qian and Ah Yu. Every day he’d read through history books, notes, travelogues, and his "assassination list" was already two and a half feet long. There’d be a lot more missions like this, so now was a good time to train an assassination team.

So he merely consoled Ah Qian and Ah Yu, commended their hard work on this mission, promised bonuses, and encouraged them to keep honing their craft—to strive for perfection in the next job, and ideally devise some way to make death look like an accident.

Ah Man lost patience after a few lines, feeling any real thinking would have to be done by her. She gave a decisive order, "All right, you two. Mission’s done. Get yourselves ready to board the next ship home!"

Ah Qian was irritated, even Ah Yu chimed in, saying in unison, "We just got here and already have to go back—why?"

Ah Man’s brows shot up and she was ready to lay down some law, but Harano had no interest in more squabbling and interrupted, "Enough, enough, everyone has to go back. We’ve got nothing left to do in Qingzhou City. Time to go home."

The eight counties of Owari were now unified, the spoils had been divided, the monkey was dead, and he felt there was little left for him in Qingzhou City. Once Oda Nobunaga held the next tea party in a couple of days, he’d say his farewells and leave.

Unless there was some unforeseen accident, the next thing would be the Battle of Okehazama. He needed to get home and prepare, so he could grab as much land as possible when the Imagawa family got wiped out.

Killing the monkey was only a small node in changing history. He had a lot more to do—no power, no chance. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be him slicing up Japan, but someone else chopping him to bits and swallowing him down.

In any case—keep pushing forward!