The injured one was Bald the very first person Harano encountered after he landed in the Middle Ages of Japan.
This guy just had the worst luck—went up the mountain just to dig wild veggies, spotted a big bird with flashy feathers, and got all hyped, thinking he could make so easy cash. Sneaked over and shot the bird with an arrow, but the bird escaped wounded. Then he began a wild chase, three tis, five tis—never caught the bird, only to end up rolling down a steep slope, getting banged up all over, covered in blood and bruises.
Thankfully, being old and sly, he instinctively curled up while tumbling down, so most of the blood and mangled flesh was just scrapes and bruises—the worst part was a broken leg.
Of course, that’s if you were in modern tis. In the old days, there were no antibiotics—heck, the word wasn’t even invented until 1940, forget about 1551. A wound infection could still totally kill him here.
Bald was the real dad of one of Harano’s only two "employees," so Harano cared a lot. He imdiately called everyone at ho to action: so to brew herbs, so to boil water, so to get gauze, so to fetch a splint, all to start cleaning wounds carefully.
Busy saving people, he didn’t notice the villagers were behaving a bit differently from usual.
The folks of Hibi Village have pretty boring lives and usually love to spectate at any excitent. getting banged up and wailing in agony—by village standards, that’s a big deal. Normally everyone would crowd the doorway to gawk, maybe even start planning the funeral service. But this ti, after dropping off, everyone instantly scattered like a flock of birds, keeping their distance.
With the villagers gone, only a few Samurai with horses were left. The leader looked seventeen or eighteen, just over 1.7 ters tall—tack on that sky-high topknot and he was up to around 1.75 or 1.76. He wore a simple gray jacket, with an elegant silk belt at his waist, looked pretty dapper overall—until you noticed those random ragged cloth pouches hanging off his coat, making him look like so Beggar Gang mber at first glance.
That hairstyle and getup scread "light-rogue, extravagantly quirky" style, and his whole vibe matched—rebellious, cold, like he held the world in contempt, but sotis those dark brows would drop, and with his aquiline nose and slightly gloomy eyes, he looked even more brooding.
Behind him trailed two more Samurai: one, eighteen or nineteen, a bit chubby with fair skin and gentle features, was always grinning like he’d just won the lottery; the other, about fifteen or sixteen, broad-shouldered, sturdy, with a chasen-topknot and bright eyes, a sword at his hip and a short-handled iron cannon in his hand—none other than Maeda Toshie.
Maeda Toshie peeked inside from the doorway, pointed at Harano, and promptly reported to the "Beggar Gang disciple" looking guy: "Lord, that’s Master Saburō Harano!"
Of course, his lord was none other than the "big fool of Owari"—Oda Nobunaga, but Nobunaga didn’t spare him so much as a glance. He wasn’t blind; Harano was impossible to miss—towering over everyone at 1.8 ters in wooden clogs, standing out like a crane in a chicken coop. As if he couldn’t tell?
But just being tall didn’t impress him at all. He lazily turned to the others, giving casual orders: "Go ask around the village, see if what Inuken said is for real."
He and Maeda Toshie hit it off right away—sa hobbies, both a bit nuts by regular people’s standards. Lately, Toshie hadn’t shut up about finding so "hidden genius" in Hibi Village who was a master of Sinology, great at dicine, with an extraordinary vibe, soone you absolutely couldn’t let fall into soone else’s hands. He was pestered so much that he finally agreed to check it out while heading out to see Hashimoto Ichibashi for iron cannon training.
Yeah, see, he’d been practicing with the iron cannon at the Nagano Castle residence, accidentally shot dead a Household Retainer and pissed everyone off. His teacher, Hirata Masahide, almost had a stroke, so now he was strictly forbidden from firing off at will in Nagano Castle—even just shooting birds was a no-go. He had no choice but to sneak out here for practice.
With a single order, Nobunaga’s Returning Horse Group scattered to catch so villagers and find out if Toshie was just blowing smoke, while Nobunaga stood at the door for a while, couldn’t make out what Harano was up to, got bored, and started wandering around.
First, he checked out Harano’s "dicine shed," eyeing all the strange herbs, then peeking at Harano’s handwritten Chinese labels. His curiosity wavered a little; maybe this guy really had so skills. Still, he’d have to see more before passing judgnt, so he strolled out of the bamboo shed and into the house.
Maeda Toshie and the other young retainer, Ikegami Keisuke, didn’t even bother trying to stop him. With Nobunaga’s quirky style, he didn’t bother with etiquette, so there was no point trying to advise him.
anwhile, Ah Man was dozing off inside. She’d vaguely heard so noise outside in her sleep, but figured there were plenty of people to help—no shortage without her—plus the sleep was just too comfy, so she couldn’t be bothered to get up. She was enjoying her nap when suddenly soone barged in.
Even half-asleep, her brain worked fast. Those footsteps were unfamiliar, sothing was off. She jolted awake, rolled over, and rushed right up to shield ng Ziqi, only then opening her eyes wide—and instantly recognized Oda Nobunaga. She’d actually seen Oda Nobunaga before—heck, she’d even seen him cross-dressing on stage.
She was so shocked she blurted out, "Ah, Oda Bi—"
Luckily, she was quick and swallowed the word "Big Fool" just in ti. Her gaze instantly snapped to Maeda Toshie—blink of an eye and she’d figured out who to bla. Had to be this guy with his "Sir, this way" that dragged this lunatic Nobunaga in; otherwise there’d be no way Nobunaga would show up here.
Nobunaga was notorious—everyone’s scared of him. Even with her rough personality, she was a little afraid. No clue what this nutjob was up to. All she could do was shield ng Ziqi and wait to see what happened—she knew Harano was super sentintal, and ng Ziqi mattered a lot to him. She’d figured that out long ago, so whatever Nobunaga tried, as long as ng Ziqi was safe, even if the house burned down and all the money got stolen, Harano would still give her credit afterward.
She kept a wary eye out, but Nobunaga didn’t even register her existence—just assud she was one of Harano’s concubines or maids. He strolled over to Harano’s desk, flipping through his books and papers at random. When he spotted the pinyin-penned Barefoot Doctor’s Manual, his eyes lit up; looked like he was genuinely interested.
Too bad he couldn’t read a word of it. Flipped through for a bit, tossed it aside, then noticed Harano’s homade pulley bows stacked in a corner, looking even more intrigued. He walked over, fiddled with the pulleys, and started to study them—when not in use, the pulley bows didn’t have strings, and the parts were all disassembled to prolong the life of the bow and prevent deformation.
With everything lying around in pieces, Nobunaga thought these were so sort of chanical tools. It never even crossed his mind that this pile of stuff could be used for archery—he just thought Harano might be an engineering genius, a rare talent in craftsmanship.
Ah Man watched from the side for a while and finally couldn’t help it, shouting, "Hey, what are you guys doing? That stuff belongs to him, you can’t just take it!"
Nobunaga gave her a glance, but didn’t bother to scold her. Maeda Toshie, on the other hand, grabbed his sword handle and barked, "Don’t be rude in front of the Lord!"
Ah Man stared daggers at him, but what could she do? She sulked. If it was just one-on-one, she’d be confident she could floor this guy—or at worst, escape, hide until he squatted at the outhouse, then barrel in and axe him right into the cesspit—but with three of them and A-Qing not around, she was out of options. All she could do was start plotting rumors in her head—if she was going to roast Maeda Toshie, might as well roast the big fool Nobunaga as well. She’d say they were gay, snuggling at night, poking each other’s butts and all that!
No way she’d just eat dirt—if she couldn’t take them head-on, she’d roast their reputations into the ground!
While she was secretly stewing evil ideas, Nobunaga waved his hand, signaling Toshie to go easy on the wild commoner girl, tossed aside all the gizmo parts, and left. Main thing was, Harano hadn’t been here long, all his modern gear was hidden in the mountains, so there wasn’t any real novelty to keep Nobunaga’s attention for long.
Once he was out, the Returning Horse Group mbers he’d sent for info returned and quietly reported what they’d heard. Not a single villager in Hibi Village said a bad word about Harano. Everyone swore he was the reincarnation of a Divine Doctor, with great compassion and dical ethics, always treating the sick cheap, and they were all deeply grateful to him.
If you listened to the villagers, tomorrow Harano would sprout a holy aura, sll like incense, have a rit halo behind his head, and ascend to heaven on the spot—nothing was impossible.
Nobunaga listened quietly, a lot of the gloom fading from his eyes and brow. After pondering a bit, he turned and patted Maeda Toshie on the shoulder, offering a rare bit of praise: "Inuken, I blad you for nothing before. You did well this ti."
Maeda Toshie couldn’t hide his joy, fondling the sword at his side, and blurted, "Well, of course, Lord! He even saved A-Matsu! I told you to co sooner, but you just wouldn’t listen!"
Nobunaga nodded, thinking he really was a bit careless before—Harano was worth eting, probably a man of talent.
......
Ah Man hid behind the straw curtain, eavesdropping on Nobunaga and the others chatting in the courtyard. After listening for a bit, she quickly slipped out and circled halfway around toward the "Black Clinic."
When she got inside, Harano was still busy. Bald was covered in little wounds—cleaning and disinfecting was a nightmare. When they set his bones, he howled so loud you’d think soone was butchering a pig. A-Qing, Yayoi, the Momoi brothers—everyone working together could barely hold him down. They were all sweating buckets and had zero energy to spare for anything else.
Seeing Harano looking calm, still fiddling with stinky leg, she grabbed him by the collar, yanked his head down, and urgently whispered into his ear, "It’s over! It’s all over! That Maeda family dung ball sold you out—he dragged that nutcase Oda Nobunaga here!"
In her eyes, Harano was a bit of an idiot, refusing to serve as anyone’s retainer, as if bowing his head would kill him—dumb to the extre. But Oda Nobunaga seed to have taken a shine to him, thinking he was so sort of talented genius, and looked ready to drag him back to be a page.
If the two of them couldn’t reach a deal, and Nobunaga lost his mind and blasted Harano with an iron cannon, where was she going to get her stewed chicken in the future?!
That’s it. Her happy days were dood. She hated Maeda Toshie’s guts right now!
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