Chapter 794: Daimyo Sadamasa’s submission
After Urakami and his men had finally left the throne room, Sadamasa slowly lowered himself back into his seat.
For several moments, no one spoke.
Then the silence broke.
“How dare he speak to the Daimyo in such a manner?”
“These samurai have always been arrogant.”
“The capital has given them far too much power,” another retainer said bitterly. “I have said it for years. They are no longer merely servants of the realm. They have bee a threat to everyone beneath them.”
The anger in the hall rose quickly. Knights and nobles alike spoke with restrained fury, their pride wounded by the way Urakami had walked through their castle and insulted their lord without fear of consequence.
Sadamasa listened without reacting.
Then he raised one hand.
“Leave me.”
The mand was quiet, but it cut through the room at once.
Every voice fell silent.
The retainers bowed quickly and began filing out, though many looked reluctant to leave their lord alone after what had happened. Yasumasa remained behind for a moment, standing near the steps of the throne with his damaged arm held stiffly at his side.
He looked at his father.
Sadamasa did not return the look.
“You too.”
Yasumasa’s expression tightened. For an instant, it seemed he wanted to say something, perhaps ask why his father had allowed such humiliation to pass unanswered.
But he only nodded.
“Yes, Father.”
Then he turned and walked away.
The large doors closed behind him, leaving the throne room empty.
Or so it seemed.
A faint sound came from the darkness near the far wall.
Footsteps.
Slow, measured, and quiet against the polished floor.
Sadamasa did not look up immediately. His fingers tightened around the armrest of his throne as a figure emerged from the shadows behind one of the wooden pillars.
Nathan.
He walked forward without urgency, his dark clothes blending easily with the dimness of the hall. His gaze moved briefly over the empty room before settling on Sadamasa.
“You did well,” he said.
Sadamasa’s jaw tightened.
“I did what you demanded,” he replied. “Now, as promised, you will spare my life and my domain.”
Nathan stopped several steps away from the throne.
A few days earlier, the sight of him standing in this very castle would have seemed impossible to Sadamasa. After Nathan defeated him and left the Kajiya Hara Domain, Sadamasa had hoped he would never hear that name again.
Then the news began to spread.
Daimyo Yorimasa had been killed.
Morosuke had fallen, and the town of Minato had been taken.
Rumors followed rumors, each one worse than the last. A black ronin had appeared in the South, a man who moved through domains and left powerful men broken behind him. Some called him a monster. Others called him an omen. Sadamasa had not known what to believe until Nathan returned to his domain in person.
That was when he understood.
Nathan was not simply dangerous.
He was the kind of man who could change the fate of a country if no one stopped him.
And yet, when he returned, he had not e to kill Sadamasa.
He had e with an offer.
Sadamasa would obey him. He would send the letter to Homura, head of the Akamine Clan. He would help create an alliance with the samurai and set the necessary pieces into motion against Norihiro.
In return, Nathan had promised that Sadamasa and his domain would be spared once the matter was over.
Nathan’s expression remained unreadable.
“Not yet,” he said coldly.
Sadamasa’s grip tightened.
Nathan took another step closer.
“You understand what will happen when Norihiro is removed,” he continued. “The shinobi will ask for the last Daimyo’s head. They will want to finish what they started.”
The threat did not need to be explained further.
Sadamasa rose suddenly from his throne.
“That is why I agreed to cooperate with you,” he snapped. “I am helping you deal with Norihiro.”
“You are helping,” Nathan said. “But Norihiro is still alive. He still controls Minami Kyoto. Until he disappears, nothing has been settled.”
His eyes hardened.
“Once he is gone, I will speak in your favor. You may keep your domain, but there will be a price. You will provide weapons for the capital.”
Sadamasa said nothing.
The demand settled heavily in his chest.
His life. His domain. His authority over Kajiya Hara.
All of it would remain his, but only if he accepted a chain that could never truly be removed. He would be allowed to continue ruling, yet much of the strength his domain produced would now serve another power.
It was a humiliating price.
But humiliation was easier to survive than death.
And even if he had to bend his pride, he would still have his lands. He would still have his son. He would still have a future.
At last, Sadamasa lowered his gaze.
“I have no particular loyalty to Norihiro,” he said. “He threatened me as well. But you killed Yorimasa and Morosuke.”
He hesitated, almost afraid to ask the final question.
“And Mitsuhide?”
Nathan did not look away.
“I killed him too.”
For a moment, Sadamasa could only stare.
The room seemed colder.
Two Daimyos had stood against Nathan in one way or another. Yorimasa was dead. Mitsuhide was dead.
And Nathan stood before him alive.
Sadamasa felt a chill move through him despite the heat that always clung to the forge domain.
He had been the first Daimyo Nathan had confronted.
Perhaps he should have been grateful.
Perhaps being defeated and spared had been the best fate he could have hoped for.
Sadamasa swallowed.
“If you are strong enough to kill all of them,” he asked carefully, “then why not simply kill Norihiro yourself?”
Nathan’s face remained calm, but something dark passed through his eyes.
“Because it is too obvious,” he said. “Norihiro is waiting for me to try. It’s a trap.”
Sadamasa frowned.
“A trap?”
“Yes.”
Nathan turned slightly, his gaze shifting toward the distant windows where smoke from the forge town drifted beneath the evening sky.
“I need to get him out of Minami Kyoto,” he continued. “Out of his castle, away from whatever protection he has gathered around himself. If I attack him there, I walk into his ground, his people, and whatever he has been preparing.”
He looked back at Sadamasa.
“But if he es out believing he is marching toward victory, then the situation changes.”
Sadamasa’s eyes narrowed as he slowly understood.
Urakami.
The samurai army.
The promise of weapons.
The attack on Minami Kyoto.
It had never only been an alliance meant to kill Norihiro.
It was bait.
And Norihiro was supposed to take it.
However, something still felt wrong to Sadamasa.
He stood in the middle of the throne room, watching Nathan in silence as the pieces of the plan slowly settled in his mind. Urakami, the Akamine Clan, the promised weapons, and the army waiting close enough to move on Minami Kyoto within days.
It was all meant to force Norihiro into action.
But bringing the samurai into this conflict felt excessive.
Sadamasa understood the logic behind it. An army marching under the authority of a samurai clan was not a threat Norihiro could simply ignore. It would pressure him to leave the safety of Minami Kyoto or reveal whatever strength he had been hiding. And the offer of ten thousand weapons had been enough to secure Urakami’s interest without much difficulty.
Nathan had proven once again that he was not merely a man who solved every problem with violence.
He could plan.
He could manipulate powerful people into moving exactly where he wanted them, all while allowing them to believe the decision had been their own.
Still, Sadamasa could not shake the feeling that there was more to it.
“Was bringing the samurai into this truly the only way to draw Norihiro out and make him lower his guard?” he asked.
Nathan stopped near the doors.
The question lingered in the quiet hall.
Sadamasa watched him carefully, hoping for some sign, a pause too long, a shift in expression, anything that might reveal the deeper purpose behind this arrangement. But Nathan gave him nothing.
Perhaps it was necessary. Perhaps Norihiro would never leave Minami Kyoto without the threat of a full army pressing against him.
Or perhaps Nathan wanted something else.
The samurai would gain weapons. Urakami would march south. Norihiro would be forced to react. And once the fighting began, the balance of power across Kastoria could change in ways no one would be able to control.
Sadamasa could see the beginning of the plan.
He could not see where it truly ended.
Nathan finally glanced back at him.
“Stay alert,” he said.
His tone was simple, but the warning beneath it was not.
“Norihiro will fall soon enough.”
Then he turned away again.
“The South will follow.”
Sadamasa remained still as Nathan walked out of the throne room, his footsteps fading into the long corridors until the hall was silent once more.
For a while, Sadamasa did not move.
He stared at the closed doors with an uneasy feeling growing inside his chest.
Nathan was frighteningly young. Yet he carried himself like someone who had already seen too much and decided that the world could only be changed by tearing apart the people who ruled it.
He had killed Daimyos.
He had taken towns.
He had pushed Sadamasa into serving him.
And now he was using proud samurai, ambitious lords, and the fear surrounding Norihiro as pieces in a game far larger than any of them seemed to understand.
Sadamasa slowly sank back into his throne.
“By Amaterasu,” he murmured.
His voice was barely more than a whisper.
“Who in the world is he?”
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