I became the Lord of the Eternal World in Tokyo.

Everyone in the Imperial Hall lowered their heads.

A silence.

A full minute later, Imagawa Yoshimoto finally grunted and looked at Okabe Motonobu: "Is the palanquin ready for this trip?"

"My lord, the new palanquin has been prepared in the army camp," Okabe Motonobu replied earnestly, bowing. "We are ready to depart at any time."

"That's good."

Imagawa Yoshimoto nodded slightly.

It was customary for Imagawa Yoshimoto to travel by sedan chair when going to war.

However, the fact that he brought it up again at this moment in the Mihiro-mae, with the presence of his retainers, was actually to reinforce the stereotype that "Imagawa Yoshimoto would ride in a sedan chair and travel with the army" in order to deepen the public's perception.

In reality, Imagawa Yoshimoto had already chosen a double, intending to have the double ride in a palanquin when he went to war.

She then followed Uesugi Tetsu ahead to Mikawa Province to investigate the situation and search for the Heavenly Craftsman.

The retainers present still had no objection to Imagawa Yoshimoto's statement about "going to war in a sedan chair".

After all, it was customary for Imagawa Yoshimoto to travel by palanquin when going on long journeys. Although people had some reservations at first, they had gotten used to it by now.

Moreover, traveling by sedan chair only slightly slowed down the marching speed—since her lord was so kind, it was perfectly fine to tolerate her small requests occasionally.

Rather, aside from his perpetually cold demeanor, his obsessive-compulsive disorder, and his arrogance that completely disregarded most people, Imagawa Yoshimoto was practically the perfect head of household and daimyo.

For the next half hour or so, Imagawa Yoshimoto discussed some details of the expedition with his retainers.

……

"Then, see you tomorrow morning."

With this as his closing remark, Imagawa Yoshimoto, now clad in armor, stood up, nodded to Taihara Sessai and Uesugi Tetsu respectively, and then left Mihiroma alone.

Seeing that none of her retainers said much, Uesugi Tetsuya knew that she probably had other things to do after the "meeting".

After Imagawa Yoshimoto, who had maintained a cold expression throughout, left, the atmosphere in the Mihiroma suddenly relaxed.

"I'll be counting on you from now on."

The sprightly Taiyuan Xuezhai spoke earnestly to Uesugi Tetsuya.

Uesugi Tetsu replied, "I will do my utmost to protect Yoshimoto Hirai's safety."

After quietly thanking him, Taiyuan Xuezhai also quickly left the Imperial Palace.

Not far away, Okabe Motonobu stood up with a smile, beckoning Uesugi Tetsuya over to say something, when another enthusiastic voice squeezed in.

"Mr. Che!"

Ii Naomori strode over and bowed deeply to him.

A standard 90 degrees.

"Whether in politics or martial arts, I look forward to your guidance in the future!"

In terms of politics?

Uesugi Tetsu raised an eyebrow upon hearing this.

Ii Naomori said this purely so that he would have an excuse to spar with him later.

After all, he was an Onmyoji himself, and he practiced breathing techniques. It was impossible for him to achieve anything in the so-called "politics".

—In fact, that's exactly what Ii Naomori thought.

Because when he returned to Sunpu Castle from outside two days ago, he also tried out the Zanzemaru once.

Despite their best efforts, they only managed to get the black Zanzemaru to announce the number "eight thousand kan," and it didn't even make it into the top fifty of the list.

Therefore, when facing Uesugi Tetsuya, whose slashing power reached 30,000 kan, Ii Naomori naturally greeted him with the idea of ​​"hoping to exchange blows".

With many retainers around, Uesugi Tetsu didn't expose the flawed lie, but simply nodded: "Okay."

Overjoyed, Ii Naomori exchanged a few pleasantries with the two men before leaving.

He knew that relationships take time to develop, and bringing this up now would be too abrupt.

Next to walk over was Matsudaira Motoyasu, who had been keeping his head down and hadn't said a word.

The boy, who was considerably shorter than the two of them, said sincerely,

"Yuan Kang lacks experience in this expedition to Sanhe, and I hope the two of you will take good care of him."

Uesugi Tetsu: "Okay."

Okabe Motonobu then said directly, "Sorry, sorry, I am the commander-in-chief, and Mr. Che has to focus on the great demon. Neither of us has the energy for that."

"Hasn't Hanzo always been by your side? Why don't you just have him take care of you then?"

Okabe Motonobu's blunt words immediately created an awkward atmosphere.

Uesugi Tetsu remained silent.

Even if he did want to build a good relationship with the future old turtle in the long run, there was no need to go against Okabe Motonobu in such a public place.

For a clever person like Matsudaira Motoyasu, what he does is always more important than what he says.

He just thought,

"I have a feeling that Motonobu-nee's attitude towards Matsudaira Motoyasu is not very good."

Matsudaira Motoyasu, instead of getting angry or stiffening his expression, bowed his head earnestly upon hearing this.

"Lord Okabe's words are a lesson—even if Motoyasu has no experience, it is not a reason to rely directly on others."

Matsudaira Motoyasu's words directly transformed Okabe Motonobu's words into "education".

After saying that, he didn't stay there to make things worse for himself. Instead, he respectfully said goodbye and turned to leave.

Uesugi Tetsu watched the boy's retreating figure and said, "Matsudaira, he's very cunning."

Okabe Motonobu shrugged noncommittally: "No matter how deep your scheming is, it's only half as deep as yours."

"The Matsudaira family's hostage... let him do whatever he wants."

She chuckled softly.

"Anyway, in the end, it's all for nothing when it comes to our lord."

She stretched out her finger, teasing the grime peeking out from the gaps in her armor, and laughed happily.

“Mr. Che, this little guy is really good. He can understand human speech and can even help me clean my weapons every day.”

It seems that Motonobu Okabe doesn't take the little turtle seriously at all.

But that's normal.

Matsudaira Motoyasu, who had just completed his coming-of-age ceremony, had nothing particularly noteworthy about him except for the enigmatic Hanzo by his side.

Uesugi Tetsu reminded her, "Yuanxin-nee, you'd better take him more seriously."

"well."

Judging from his tone, Motonobu Okabe remained completely unconcerned.

Therefore, Uesugi Tetsuya said no more.

"Ah, right."

After seeing that most of the people in Mihiroma had left, Okabe Motonobu casually said, "Also, let's turn back three days after we set off."

She pinched the scruff of the dog's neck with her fingers, made a face at it, and started talking as if it were something trivial.

"My lord wants me to take action with Hanzo on my way back."

But I don't trust Hanzo, and I don't trust those old fogies either.

“The military advisor of Taiyuan also knows about this, and he promised to maintain stability in the rear.” Okabe Motonobu condensed his qi into a thread and transmitted it to Uesugi Tetsu’s ear. “So all we need to do is act as the blade, and we don’t need to worry about anything else.”

"Just the two of us?"

"Aren't the two of us enough?"

After the question and answer, Uesugi Tetsu had a clear answer in his mind.

Since Sister Yuanxin has discussed this matter with Taiyuan Xuezhai, it means that it is quite reliable—otherwise, the latter would not have agreed.

"time?"

"Meet at the entrance of the Imagawa residence at four o'clock in the morning on the fourth day after the expedition." Okabe Motonobu said, "Mr. Tetsu... according to the lord, you are to go ahead with her. You should be able to make it in time, right?"

"easy."

"I can rest assured that."

……

The next day, outside Junpu Castle.

A military formation consisting of seven or eight thousand foot soldiers and samurai was lined up outside the city. Despite the uneven quality of the soldiers, the entire formation was unusually quiet.

Whether they were foot soldiers temporarily conscripted or samurai clad in fine equipment, they all lowered their heads and kept their mouths tightly shut.

Because of the figure in black armor riding a tall horse.

A moment later, Okabe Motonobu jumped off his horse, startling the boy who was leading it. The boy bowed and opened the door of the large palanquin.

"My lord, please."

Under the watchful eyes of the entire army and many residents of Sunpu Castle, Imagawa Yoshimoto, dressed in a magnificent twelve-layered kimono, gently responded and slipped into the palanquin.

"Get up the sedan."

Okabe Motonobu shouted, then mounted his horse again, letting his chilling voice echo in the air outside Sunpu Castle.

"Let's go!"

—On a small hill covered in dense forest in the distance, Uesugi Tetsuya, who had seen the dark army slowly moving, withdrew his gaze and looked at the black-haired girl in plain clothes beside him.

"Lord Yiyuan, let's go too."

At this time, Imagawa Yoshimoto was dressed in civilian clothes, with only two swords hanging at his waist like other samurai.

A sword nominally a tachi, but in reality only slightly longer than Kaga Kiyomitsu's "Sōsan Samonji".

The other one is the slightly shorter "Matsukura E".

When Uesugi Tetsu saw the two blades, he noticed that they were both emitting a purple light, clearly indicating that they were at least epic-level weapons.

As for the twelve-layered kimono that Imagawa Yoshimoto always wore when he went out as "Imagawa no Naka de," he wore the full-length kimono of the time when he went into battle.

The Japanese bow "Iwa," which was much longer than her, was also temporarily stored in Uesugi Tetsuya's storage backpack.

Imagawa Yoshimoto nodded, glancing at the stark shadow cast by a tree nearby: "It's all up to you."

"Hanzo, you go alone to gather current intelligence. I will go with Yoshimoto, but we have another objective. If we are not seen by the appointed time, you can return to the main camp and tell the commander what you have seen."

Uesugi Tetsuya didn't mince words, directly spreading his hands towards Hanzo: "Give me a wisp of your aura, just in case."

The next instant, a deep shadow was placed in Uesugi Tetsuya's palm, and a hoarse voice echoed: "You can sense my presence within a kilometer..."

After he finished speaking, the shadows on the trees and Hanzo's aura quickly disappeared into the distance.

In just over ten seconds, Hanzo's aura vanished from Uesugi Tetsu's perception.

"So, Che-kun, how can we get there faster than Hanzo?"

After Imagawa Yoshimoto saw him withdraw his gaze, he crossed his arms and asked curiously.

"Two feet."

As soon as he finished speaking, the two-foot-tall adult, who had been prepared, landed lightly, stretching out his palm towards the air in front of him with a serious expression.

po~

With a crisp sound, a square, semi-transparent panel with "railings" around it appeared in front of the three people.

After the semi-transparent panel appeared, the two-foot-tall lady's face immediately turned pale. Her small body swayed twice, and she was caught by Imagawa Yoshimoto before she almost fell.

At the same time, Imagawa Yoshimoto tilted his head in confusion.

She felt that apart from its semi-transparent texture, this thing was no different from a lid in essence.

Is a lid proof that they can be faster than Hanzo?

The two-foot-tall man pointed at the ethereal floating platform she conjured using her illusory weapon abilities: "Lord Yi... Lord Yiyuan, please sit down."