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He barely batted an eyelid as he uttered that reply. It was more convenient for Morohira and him this way, as they would always be able to find the woman should they need her. He had suspected how she was living, but since she had said nothing, he did not bring it up himself, knowing that she would instantly deny it. Such was her nature.

She flinched at the rapidity of his response. Her whole body had been tensed, preparing itself for rejection, and when he agreed without hesitation, she was unsure how to react.

"...Really?"

"Yes. Shibata?"

He called out the young maid who had been attending to them, and remembered something as he did so.

"Yes, Master Miura?"

She said with a bow, holding the tray in which the drinks had been served on to her chest.

"Ah, she probably did not tell you, but Akiko will be away for a few days. She and Rin are training with the men."

"I see, thank you for letting me know."

Came her respectful response. Gengyo was well aware of her relationship with the lady of the house, and though it might not have been deemed appropriate for a samurai woman like her to be so close with someone of the lower class, he was not likely to protest such things, for he was a peasant himself.

"Anyway, what I wanted to ask, was how many of the servant buildings are currently free?"

"Three, Master Miura."

"Mm, good. Will you prepare one of those for Isabella, and have the bathhouse cleared for her? I expect she’ll be in need of one after the days spent in Toyokawa."

He was surprised to see Isabella blush as he mentioned that. He would have expected that she be less modest about such things, especially since when they had met she had been fully nude, and barely batted an eyelid.

"As you wish, Miura-sama. Will Isabella-san also be receiving meals?"

"I expect she well be, yes. Thank you, Shibata."

"It is my honour to serve you, my master."

She said with a bow. His eyebrow twitched at the magnitude of the respect she was showing toward him. He expected it was because they were in front of a guest that she wished to make a good impression.

Isabella was looking baffled at how quickly things were moving, and for the first time since she had sat down, she did not look to be in control.

Her new business partner on the other hand – Morohira – merely sat there with arms folded, stifling a yawn. He was a man of action, not of words. These were merely things he had to sit through in order to do what he wished to do later on.

"Well, it’s as you heard Isabella. Shibata will prepare one of the buildings for you later on. Use it as you please – though try not to burn it to the ground. You’ll receive meals, and will be able to freely use the bathhouse as you please."

She had difficulty expressing her thanks, and more than anything wished to simply play her usual card – that of false indifference, but she could not. Instead, she lowered her head, and did not make eye contact, as she announced her approval quietly.

"Thank you..."

He accepted her thanks with a mere nod. Allowing her a place to live was the smallest of gestures, as it was convenient for him, and she would make them far more coin than the building cost to build.

"Ahem. I recommend that you both rest today, as tomorrow, father, you will take Isabella to the cove with you. She will give you the information that you require, and it will give her an opportunity to see who she is working with. If she offers you advice, take it."

"Sure."

Morohira said with a shrug. He wasn’t bothered in the least, he just wanted to get out on the water and start slaughtering people.

"I see. Then I will make good use of this time."

The woman announced, apparently having managed to regain her composure.

"That is all then. If you go into the courtyard, Isabella, then you should find Shibata. And father... Well, I needn’t say anything... You know how best how to spend your time."

"That I do lad. Come and see your mother later on, if you fancy. I expect she’ll be excited to talk to about her brilliant husband."

He announced, standing up and stretching out his back.

"...Aye, I’ll come and see her soon."

He affirmed, attempting to erase the last part of that sentence from his memory. Isabella stood up alongside Morohira, and made her way to the door. She walked as though baffled, but he supposed that was understandable. New things were always to be met with some degree of anxiety.

And now, he sat there, alone, with a small smile on his face. For some odd reason, he had felt contented after the recent events at the cove. But it was not because he felt as though he’d been relieved of his workload. Quite the opposite. It was finally time for him to set a plan in motion – one that he’d pushed to the side for far too long.

Jikouji was there with the others in the cove. Rightly, he should have been the one to lead, with his experience and all. But Gengyo held other plans in store for that old man. His managerial skills when it came to taking care of the household affairs were irreplaceable, and he needed him to remain freed up for that.

That was because he himself planned to leave for a while. Imagawa – whilst not entirely competent – had his fair share of victories. In the course of his life, he had attained control of three provinces – Mikawa, Totomi and Suruga.

He planned to recruit troops who would go against their Daimyo. And he wanted their loyalty to be unquestionable. Whilst not entirely common, there were still people who held the belief that the nobility of their province were not people to be gone up against, and those people would be dangerous. They would leak his intentions to Imagawa before he had chance to prepare himself.

As such, he had not recruited any men from Mikawa. Nor would he recruit any from Totomi – south of Mikawa – or Suraga. Instead, he planned to go northeast, toward the South Shinano province.

This province was held by the Takeda clan, who had something of an alliance with the Imagawa. But it was not enough for the men he recruited from there to feel any loyalty toward the man. Besides, until recently, the South Shinano province had been held by the Kiso clan, so there would be those that wished to stand against Takeda as well.

Since the Takeda were not currently on campaign, he anticipated that there would be more battle-ready men in that location as well. Men that he could offer payment to.

But it was a rather long journey to South Shinano, and would take many days, which was part of the reason why he had put it off. They did not have a substantial enough amount of coin. Though, this journey of his would have to wait until after they had received the gold from their first attempt at piracy.

He could have involved himself in it, and left later, but he removed himself entirely, so that he would be confident of their competence whilst he was away, for he would not be there to help them.

The thought of which gave him a fair amount of nervousness. Perhaps it was too sudden? He should have gradually left them, so that he could be sure they would handle themselves. But they had spoken eloquently about his lack of trust, so he would leave their fate in their own hands and hope for the best.

Still, the lack of activity whilst he waited was unbecoming of him, and he made his way up to his office to find something that might occupy his time. On his desk, sat a map of his village. It had laid there since before he left, and he struggled to remember what he was thinking about as he looked at it.

’Possibility of fortification, was it?’

He recalled. The trees would have to be cut back, and they would have to have a wall a couple of kilometres long so that it might include the fields, else it was pointless, since that was the most valuable thing they had.

As such, he had abandoned that effort halfway through. He figured the best defence for their little villages was lack of presence, and left it there. The villagers were behind him in their cause, and their quality of life had improved considerably, so there was unlikely to be any unrest for a while.

There were certain plans he’d had – though they were more excuses for him to get involved in something a little more engineering-focused – but he found himself pushing them to one side, wondering whether it would be worth attracting attention them due to unusual contraptions that most had never seen.

’Though I suppose it does not matter, does it? As long as those whose attention we attract do not find about our other side of business, then things would be fine, would they not?’

He reasoned with himself. What really mattered was powerful men getting a glint in their eye upon seeing something unusual, and then assembling their forces in order to take it from them.

’Ha. But what am I doing worrying about that? If they choose to come to us in the hundreds, then we will feign weakness, and slaughter them.’

He decided. It was unlikely that more than a few hundred men would be summoned to show aggression towards a meagre village like theirs.

’Doing as I wish at this point should show no immediate drawbacks. If there is something that I can create to make our village more prosperous, then I should not hold back.’

An extremely useful addition to their village would be a blacksmith. The likes of grain and food, they were more than comfortable with. But if they could entice a talented smith amongst their ranks – or perhaps even several – then they would be far more comfortable in supplying their men with what they needed. Not only that, they could save more coin.

Take the musket, for example. It was not an incredibly complicated weapon, but they still had to pay a premium because of the foreign import. If they could deconstruct it, learn how it was made, and possibly even improve it, then they would hold a considerable advantage over any enemy that they were to face.

But the problem with that, of course, was finding skilled enough smiths. They had a river that could be beholden to several forges, but the rest was rather tricky.

He tapped his finger on the desk, puzzling over how he might make that work – anything to occupy himself whilst he waited for the results. He ran over various propositions he could make to them in his head, but none of them seemed to stick. Still, he was smiling. Puzzles of this kind were exactly the sort he enjoyed, and the pleasure was not to be found in selecting a solution immediately. The pleasure only came after one tussled with various ideas, and then they finally selected the right jigsaw piece.

"We’ll have to see."

He said aloud, smiling to himself, as he drummed his fingertips on the table.