Necessary Corruption 6 (Patreon)

Necessary Corruption

Chapter 6

-VB-

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I stared down at the quality sword that my newest blacksmiths made to arm my foot soldiers and retinue. The sword in my hands shined with even the slightest ray of life striking against its polished blade, and the wave pattern rippled the light like it truly was underwater.

The likes of this sword would not be handed to the mere peasant foot soldiers. It would be given to the commanders, the retinue, and perhaps as a reward for those who performed above and beyond their command and duty.

All around me, nine craftsmen toiled away, hammering into the red hot and sometimes glaringly white and red ingots with their hammers.

Crrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Others, apprentices to these masters, sharpened finished blades on pedal propelled grindstones and fit them into handles.

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It was a scene that told me that one of several parts of my preparations was coming smoothly for the upcoming war.

Yes, war. I wouldn’t dare call it anything else.

What I proposed was unsightly in the eyes of the nobles, but there was a purpose in this. While there were rules and decorum expected of nobles like myself, there were many unstated and unwritten rules that were part of the social caste. Killing nobility was one of them.

It was weird. Due to how the Land of Rivers grew up between the powerhouses of the east and the west, its people and leaders learned to adapt. One such adaptation was what other land nobilities outside of the Land of Rivers called “dishonor.” Nobility were expected to hold their ground and fight in the honor of their daimyo. At the same time, it was never followed through; most nobles fled the brutal battles that grew closer and closer to their clans and houses. Everyone ran, so it was understood within the Land of Rivers that if compensation was offered for the lives of the nobles, then you were to take it because you never knew when others might demand the same of you.

What I intended was to break that rule.

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I sheathed the sword into its scabbard and returned it to the hands that birthed it. The grey bushy bearded blacksmith bowed before returning to work, and I left the place, consciously forgoing to cover my nose and lips in this hot, humid, dusty, and smelly workshop. To do so was to call their work dishonorable, and I would not do that to the craftsmen that I spent hundreds of thousands of ryo to call to my land.

As I left the workshop back to my castle, I thought again about how it would go.

The Fukuhami Clan was wealthy, but they had grown so fat with their wealth and lack of competition in their immediate area that they laxed incompetently when it came to warfare and security. After all, why did they even need to securely and diligently patrol their borders when honest soldiers and rugged bandits were all in their employ? After all, wasn’t it so very awesome that merchants have to pay the toll twice? And have their families torn, tortured, raped, looted, and butchered in a ditch somewhere?

Those were the kinds of things I was trying to put to a stop on the side, even if it would be secondary to my own revenge.

No one ever said I couldn’t help others on my path of vengeance.

“Milord.”

I paused in my rumination and turned to look at my kneeling retinue, who had approached in my silence.

“Speak.”

“Ginzunobu-dono’s response, milord,” he stated as he reached into his sleeves and pulled out a letter as wide and tall as his chest folded up to be handful.

I took the letter and opened it.

I read its contents, and my eyes slowly widened.

Snapping the letter close, my lips slit into a smirk.

“It seems that the Fukuhami Clan made more enemies than friends, Gyuhana-san,” I chortled with my retinue. “Others are joining us on the eve of our assault against the Fukuhami.”

“Surely, this is a sign from the heavens that your path is righteous!”

I hummed. Gyuhana was not one of my blessed, but he saw my ability to “bless” others as a sign of my divinity. After all, not even ninjas could simply touch someone and impart an everlasting ability. Also having been raised at a temple even if he didn’t join its priestly ranks, he was a devout man.

… Pardon me, Gyuhana was a zealous man. He saw my preparation as a prelude to a holy crusade that would end with the removal of the ninjas and their destructive ways of life.

He wasn’t wrong. As soon as I found out which hidden ninja village accepted the hit contract on my father, I would burn them, their people, and their lands to ashes.

Back to the letter, it was from Ginzunobu-dono. He felt too weak to take on the rich Fukuhami Clan by ourselves, so he enlisted the help of many other similarly disaffected nobles and clans to our cause.

The letter ended with a note stating that their troop count neared eight thousand, far more than the two thousand the Fukuhami Clan supposedly had, according to my spies, and six thousand more than I expected.

“This is wonderful news. Very wonderful…” I said as I made my way to my castle with Gyuhana quickly following behind me.

In the coming days, I met the nobles and clans that Ginzunobu-dono enlisted.

They all made their part clear: battle and only battle. They would leave me to do finish the dirty deed.

I was fine with that. In fact, I used my willingness to “clean up” as a leverage to not add my own troops to the battle effort. I would instead strike from the back.

They agreed.

And a month since I received that letter, I stood with four other head nobles: Ginzunobu, Danchino, Watabuku, and Hirojisha. Our combined might of ten thousand troops marched towards the Fukuhami Clan territory.

Unlike the other three nobles who had donned on battle armor, I opted to bring more of my trusted bodyguards. The elderly Hirojisha clan head sneered at my “cowardice,” the young Watabuku head noble understood what I did, and Ginzunobu-dono and Danchino remained ambivalent.

“There’s the castle.”

The Fukuhami Clan castle was grand, but for its size, it was vastly under-garrisoned. Even from here, I could see a distinct lack of flags and men manning the walls.

This was going to be easy.

“Should we lay a siege or assault the castle directly?” I asked.

The thing about castles was that their corridors were narrow for a reason in the lower levels to prevent the enemy from using overwhelming manpower to simply take it over easily. We could assault the castle, and we would take it, but due to the homeground advantage, we would lose a lot of soldiers.

“Our soldiers will form a circle, and your people will do what needs to be done,” Ginzunobu-dono hummed. “You did say that you would take the credit for the act, right?”

So that’s how it’s going to be.

While I did believe that these four people wanted Fukuhami dead and gone, they weren’t about to take the blame for an act of war. No, no, no. They needed a scapegoat. Allowing only my men to set fire to the castle?

They wanted to make me that scapegoat, and if they got to divide up both Fukuhami and my lands while they were at it, then all the better.

“Sure. Let it rip.”

And just like that, the newest of my most trusted retinues pulled his arms up and let it glow.

But he didn’t aim his hands at the castle in the distance. He aimed it at the nobles and their guards.

“Wha-?!” Hirojisha shouted before he and everyone but me and my retinue became quiet and dull eyed.

My backup plan had to be implemented, unfortunately. How droll. How expected.

This was the nature of the Land of Rivers. It was a land of backstabbing nobles, clans, and ninjas. There was no such thing as a “true” alliance even those formed by marriage. Just as men were expected to pump information from their wives, so were wives expected to do so with their husbands for the sake of their maternal family.

In this world, I could only trust my retinue and myself.

“Have their armies set fire to the castle, and then conveniently have their commanders become stupid and reckless when we come to rescue the Fukuhami.”

I turned to look at Ginzunobu. I had hoped to find a friend, but it had been a backstabber I had come to meet that day. How unfortunate.

Just don’t complain in the afterlife that your plan didn’t work while mine did~.

-VB-

End of Prologue Arc: The Hungering Lord

Next Arc: Expansionism Ahoy!