Episode 7: The Beginning of Life on Tsushima

SIDE, Ohashi Shigenaga

The young master of Nakono is also known in the world as a hooligan.

It is true that he walks around in clothes and mannerisms that are inappropriate for his position, so it is not hard to see why he is called a hooligan.

But the others probably don't know this. The young master is more interested in Tsushima's economy and business than anyone else, and visits the island himself to ask about this and that. He even learns about the flow of money and goods, and even the way of doing business.

It is normal for even the Oda family not to know about this, and the Lord, because of his position, knows about it to some extent.

And even now, young master often visits Tsushima, asking for information about the territory outside Owari.

I hear that there are people in the family who want his younger brother Nobuyuki to succeed the family instead of him, but I think that young master is a better choice for successor than Nobuyuki-sama, who never even comes to Tsushima.

At least among the Tsushima people, there is no one who disrespects our young master.

Even the merchants of Tsushima are astonished by his good memory and intuition.

Sometimes they laugh about how he could become a merchant at any time should he so please.

Nobuyuki-sama is a child who has not yet even reached the age of full military age, so it is pitiful to try to compare him with the other children, but his good behaviour probably makes him easier to deal with by the vassals.

The young master seems to have taken an interest in Kazuma-dono. He will visit Kazuma-dono himself and ask him about many things.

He is not really a bad person.

He hunts hawks and wild game and freely shares the results with everyone. If he finds valuable wine or tea, he will even bring it to you as a souvenir.

The Tsushima people are probably more familiar with him than the faceless Nobuyuki-sama.

We see things differently from other vassals, so it can't be helped.

There is not much to worry about, but it might be better to watch Kazuma-dono for a while.

It might be a problem if the young master asks for too much in an unfamiliar place.

side - Nobunaga Oda

They are a strange people. Perhaps it is because they are Nambans, but they are somehow different from other merchants.

(In short, "Namban/Nanban" originally referred to Southern Barbarians, particularly Europeans, during a period of historical contact and cultural exchange. Today, it can still be used in various contexts to denote foreign or exotic influences.)

The way they talk, the way they look at things, the way they react when they see me, everything is so different.

I always wanted to know.

What is on the other side of that wide sea? I wanted to know what kind of country produced the guns we now use.

Owari and Hinomoto are full of contradictions.

I don't know if this country, where people pretend to revere authority but ignore and betray it with impunity, is right.

Therefore, I wanted to know. I wanted to know what is outside this country.

What does this country look like to them?

How do they see this country that has been at war with itself for nearly a hundred years?

Doesn't this country need someone who can truly unite it?

If neither the Shogunate nor the Taiki can do it, then someone has to do it, don't you think?

If you don't know, just learn.

I'm a fool anyway. It won't matter if I meet with the Nambans now.

「All right, let's go hunting.」

「Boar hunting?　Aren't you going to Tsushima?」

「I've heard that the Nanbans eat meat. You can probably get fish in Tsushima, but not meat.」

Boar or deer would be a good souvenir.

Seibei told me that the Nanbans who come to Sakai prefer meat to fish.

side/Kazuma

Let's put aside the issue of night life for the time being. As for the Tsushima mansion, we decided to make serious renovations with the intention of living there for the time being.

When I talked to Elle and the others about extending the bathroom and reconstructing the toilet, there were more and more things I wanted. A fridge and a freezer. All sorts of things.

Therefore, we decided to build a basement and put all the over-technological things there, out of sight.

They also wanted a communication room with the space fortress and the Ogasawara Islands base, and a place to store small shuttles for any emergency travel.

They also want to build an extra bathroom and toilet in the ground house, as well as a small kitchen. They also want to put some tatami mats in the rooms.

The basement will be built in the middle of the night with robot soldiers and heavy machinery, using a barrier on the house site to prevent sound leakage. The above-ground part of the house will be done by a local carpenter. 'We've made a lot of money, so we have to spend some of it on Tsushima.

「This garden. Can't we turn it into a vegetable garden?」

「That's fine. There's no need to make it look pretty.」

Also, the large garden is overgrown with weeds, so I'm thinking of pulling them out and turning it into a vegetable garden. It's quite a big place, so maybe we can grow some vegetables for us to eat.

「Lets do it!」　Once that's decided, let's start weeding. We're going to unload five disguised robot soldiers from the ship and use them to do menial work in the mansion, so the robot soldiers and I will do the weeding together.

It would be faster if we used a weedwhacker or something.

「What are you doing?」

「We're weeding. I'm trying to turn this place into a field - is that you, young master?」

　I've been weeding with a grass sickle in my hand for a few minutes. I noticed that it wasn't Yankee ..., but Nobunaga-san and his attendants were coming into the garden.

「If you need me, I'll come if you call me.」

「No problem. I don't feel at home in the castle. Oh, yes, the souvenir.」

「Oh, thank you.」

And a big deer as a souvenir. It looks like the four of you brought it with you. So they've come back again after yesterday.

The deer we received was carried to the kitchen by the mimic robot soldiers, and Nobunaga and the others will guide it to our house.

「Barley tea, huh? Quite cold. Do you drink it even in Nanban lands?」

「It was cooled in the well. I've never heard of drinking it in Nanban.」

I thought that now that I had come, I would have to serve something, so Elle served me barley tea.

I don't understand, but barley tea has been around since this time? Nobunaga-san says it's called barley tea.

「Young man!　This rice cake is sweet!」

「Wow!　Really sweet!」

「It sure is sweet. Is it azuki beans inside?　Why is it sweet?」

「Well, that's because there's sugar in it.」

The attendants are surprised to eat the daifuku I served with barley tea. Elle must have made them as a snack.

「Bufo!」

「Sssh-, sugar!」

「Young man!　I don't have any money!」

「No, I'm not taking any money.」

In the Warring States period, sugar was a precious commodity that could only be imported. In the future, sugar is cheap.

「... is it okay?"」

「Go ahead. Besides the sugar we sold to Ohashi-sama, we also have sugar for our own use.」

As expected, I thought Nobunaga-san had eaten sugar before, but he is surprisingly normal. I think there were sweet buns and things like that in this period.

「The rice cakes are soft too!」

「Oh, that's because they put some sugar in the rice cakes too.」

I don't know what they're doing here, but they're all happy like kids, eating barley tea and sweet daifuku. Or is it children?

「Um, so what can I do for you today?」

「Yeah?　Yeah, I thought I'd ask you about Nanban and the sea.」

The most important thing is that you should be able to see the person you are talking to, and not just the person who is talking to you. It wasn't a big deal.

I was told it was a talk about the Nanban.

「Why didn't you go to Sakai in the first place?」

「Because you can't make money doing the same thing as other people.」

Nobunaga-san asked me why I didn't go to Sakai, but I'm sorry, it's a lie. The truth is that I came to see you. I can't say that, can I?

「I see. Merchants compete with each other, too?」

「Simply put, merchants make more money when they don't have people in between them. If you sell in Sakai, you have to pay transport costs, tolls and taxes at the barrier before the goods reach Owari. But if you sell directly to Owari, the difference doesn't go to anyone else.」

「Mm. That's true.」

It's not good if you ask me too many questions about Namban, so let's talk about business. This is the future and I can talk about it with my common knowledge of the future.

The price I actually sold to Mr Ohashi was much higher than the market price in Sakai because he bought it at a higher price than the market price in Owari.

It's hard to say in general because there was a shortage of money in this period to begin with, but things were expensive because they were taxed here and there as they pleased.

Well, the quality of the goods was also good, I suppose.

Next time I sell them, I should probably sell them at a lower price than the market price in Owari. They're made in massive automated factories anyway, so the original price is not that much.