CHAPTER 157: CHAPTER 104: CHIYODA OF EAST OMI

Earlier, Ah Man had narrowly escaped death and appeared suddenly in front of Nozawa, which took up most of his attention. Now that the girl was gently asking questions, Nozawa finally had the leisure to look at her closely.

She wore a deep blue, slightly worn kosode, with a black head scarf (a kind of windproof scarf that ties tight around hair and neck, also called a Gotego Scarf). Several strands of her jet-black hair mischievously peeked out from under the scarf onto her smooth forehead, making her oval face look even more delicate and refined.

Her features were delicate, with fine brows like painted with indigo, curved almond eyes, a straight and pretty nose. Now she was looking up and smiling, with a playfulness but also a touch of a young maiden’s charm—a little beauty, not losing out to A Qing at all.

Nozawa glanced at her for a moment before withdrawing his gaze and smiled at her, "You’re right, saving someone’s life shouldn’t be used as leverage to demand rewards, but a promise is a different matter."

The kosode girl was slightly taken aback, not quite understanding what he meant.

She wasn’t stupid—how could she really believe Ah Man was worth a thousand kan? But she was very short on money right now. Plus, Ah Man had been bragging nonstop that Nozawa was some sort of rich tycoon, so whether true or not, she had to try, even if it meant some risk. Before, she’d let Hutaro run his mouth and had scolded him as a bargaining tactic—all just to negotiate down; after all, if not a thousand, at least three or five kan should be possible, right?

Yet from Nozawa’s words, it sounded like he was ready to pay. That was a bit strange.

Her suspicion suddenly flared, and she looked Nozawa up and down, feeling uncertain. She thought a moment, then gave a sweet smile and probed, "My lord, you misunderstood, that was just a joke—not a real promise. You... at first in the river, only shouted fifty kan. Even that fifty—I thought it sounded like a joke, don’t you think?"

If he really gave her a thousand kan, she wouldn’t dare take it. But she really needed the money. Now, she and Hutaro only had a pile of junk, pretty much penniless and couldn’t even afford food—they had to get some money out of this.

If fifty kan wouldn’t work, even five kan would be negotiable.

Nozawa neither agreed nor refused, instead asking, "May I ask how I should address you?"

"Forgive my rudeness, my lord, you can just call me Chiyoda." The kosode girl smiled and apologized instantly, unbothered by Nozawa’s sudden change in topic and showing great patience.

Nozawa waited a moment but didn’t hear her mention her father or brother’s name, which surprised him slightly, but it wasn’t his place to ask, so he politely continued, "So it’s Miss Chiyoda—if you don’t mind, please come in and rest for a bit. Although conditions here are limited at the moment, so I may not be able to host you properly; please forgive me."

Hutaro at her side immediately gripped his sword hilt, growing more alert. But Chiyoda glanced around and, after eyeing Nozawa again, didn’t hesitate long before smiling, "Thank you for having us then, Lord Nozawa."

"Not at all, bringing Ah Man back is more than enough for me to be grateful," Nozawa spoke courteously and sincerely.

With that, he led everyone toward the camp’s center. It was presentable enough, but still just shelters—a bit bigger and tidier at most.

He first had Yayoi and a few young maids prepare hot tea and food for the two guests, then went to check Ah Man’s wounds himself—Hutaro was a brash youth and still wanted to keep Ah Man as a hostage, reluctant to let her out of his sight, but Chiyoda quietly stopped him.

Nozawa didn’t mind and went to another hut to inspect Ah Man’s wounds—he didn’t care much about feeling the pulse; the wounds were looked at by A Qing, who would then report back to him—one had to pay attention to these things in ancient times.

When the exam was done, Ah Man’s situation wasn’t optimistic. Although she had been laughing and seemed high-spirited before, that was just her nature—plus, she’d finally found them and was excited. In reality, she had at least seven wounds, four of them on her chest and abdomen, plus massive blood loss. She was now in a state of severe deficiency of both qi and blood; one misstep and she could end up with lasting problems, maybe even severely shortening her lifespan.

Nozawa looked serious, starting to think about how to nurse her back. But Ah Man herself didn’t care—her outlook was to live happily day by day. She felt that surviving at all was already a stroke of outrageous luck; nothing else mattered. At the moment, she was sprawled on a thick cotton mattress, cozy under a warm quilt, boasting loudly to A Qing about her escape: "...Right then, a flash of inspiration hit me—I quickly cut off the tassets from my plank armor (they protect the waist and are somewhat separate plates) and stuffed them inside my armor, then threw that poor wretch into the river, and then went at Lin Shengzhen like this..."

As she spoke, she stretched out her middle finger—actually two of them—waving at Nozawa and A Qing, "Of course he got mad and instantly ordered his men to shoot at me. My armor got shot through, but the tasset only got pierced a bit. I took the chance to roll into the river. I cut off everything—armor, whatever—and tossed it all, then drifted downstream. Halfway along, I even blew up a bladder, hugged it, and just kept floating. I was about to fall asleep and drift off when I bumped into them."

A Qing was feeding her porridge and gently bantered, "And then?"

"Then I took one look and saw they were both poor as hell!" Ah Man slurped the freshly cooked porridge, speaking with her mouth full, "So I started yelling at them—save my life and I’ll give you fifty kan... Uh, I was about to die, so after screaming fifty kan and seeing them not move, I was about to float off again, so I shouted five hundred kan. After that, I can’t remember."

"When I woke up again, I was already with them. I couldn’t move, so I had them help me find herbs..." Hanging around Nozawa, the "Blood-handed Butcher Divine Doctor," for so long, she knew better than to drink horse dung soup these days. She turned to Nozawa and said, "It was all that tree bark, roots, weeds and ashes you always mixed together to feed people—I just ate whatever. Then I asked them for food, but Hutaro didn’t want to give me any and complained about foraging for this and that. So I bumped the price up to a thousand kan, and that’s how I convinced them to search all over for you, finally getting us here."

The journey here was a hassle too. Her wounds were so bad at first, she couldn’t move much and often slept one or two days at a time. They ended up staying in one place for nearly ten days. Then the Oda Nobunaga brothers started fighting again and things got chaotic outside—the defeated soldiers turned into bandits. Chiyoda wouldn’t move until the fighting had stopped for a week or so, and the road was totally safe. Only then did she bring Ah Man here to find Nozawa. She figured there was no need to go into the nitty-gritty here—she’d made the trip lying down the whole way, not exactly suffering too much.

Having finished reporting her month-long ordeal, Ah Man let out a long breath. Finally, she cocked her dot-shaped eyebrows and bragged, "So you see, only I could have made it—either of you would’ve been dead for sure!"

Nozawa didn’t deny her words. She made it sound easy, but holding on and not passing out with all those wounds, managing to self-rescue and survive till she found help, then enduring fever and infection—most people could never do it.

Besides, all her years spent perfecting her "life-saving techniques" actually paid off—at least, jumping into the river and drifting did. It wasn’t a waste always carrying a dried bladder, or training so hard at swimming.

This was probably the best example of "heaven helps those who help themselves." Her stubborn will to survive moved heaven to grant her a second chance, letting her escape death and maybe earn a few more decades of life.

Nozawa looked at her bright but pale face and didn’t think she was boasting. He spoke from the heart: "This time... you went through a lot. Thank you."

Ah Man waved her little hand with great flourish, saying, "Why so polite? In the end, it’s no big deal!"

Her bravado done, she glanced at her bowl, quickly adding, "Of course, it may not be a big deal but these wounds were for you—so you’ll have to let me recover properly. Tonight, have Yayoi stew me a chicken, make it nice and tender, and I..."—here she gulped hungrily, complaining—"those two are stingy, they wouldn’t even spare extra taro; I’m this badly hurt and still had to go two days out of three hungry. I really suffered during that time."

"They’re already boiling you chicken soup. Whatever you want to eat, just let Yayoi know and she’ll make it for you. These days, just rest well and eat up—don’t worry about the money," Nozawa didn’t hesitate. Ah Man had risked her neck drawing the pursuers and saving his life—he couldn’t say no to her now. From now on, as long as he had a bite to eat himself, he’d never let her eat just broth!

Ah Man was content—Nozawa’s place really was better, her struggles weren’t for nothing. She took the bowl and downed the porridge in one shot, then licked it clean before finally giving Nozawa a searching look, surprised: "Your wounds are healed? Didn’t you break a bone back then?"

Their injuries hadn’t been far apart, yet now she couldn’t even sit up while Nozawa was walking around as he pleased—it was a little strange.

Nozawa also glanced down at himself. A broken rib, according to the book, took over two months to heal, but after just over a month, he felt pretty much fine. He still hurt a bit when running or jumping, but for daily movements, he was basically back to normal. He really did seem to have recovered unusually fast.

He’d thought about this for a while in private but had no answers—he could only suspect it had something to do with his transmigration.

"I guess I was just born sturdy?" Not wanting to talk about it, he resolved to look into it later, maybe by comparing notes with his "dumb son." For now, he could only brush it off—after all, his "dumb son" was odd too: bedridden for over a year, yet only thin, not at all frail, still with a strong pulse, which was bizarre too. But he had no clues—none at all.

After this perfunctory answer, he changed the subject and asked Ah Man, "What’s the story with that Chiyoda girl and Hutaro?"

Ah Man was an "elite Original Ninja," the Koka Life-saving Style’s "Young Master." Even wounded, sitting up would hurt like hell, but her mind was sharp. After hanging out with Chiyoda and Hutaro for over a month, she’d have their details down—might even know if Chiyoda had a birthmark on her butt.

Sure enough, Ah Man instantly said, "They’re both from East Omi—Chiyoda is a samurai daughter, her family should be near Lake Biwa, but her father’s rank isn’t high, probably just an Earth Warrior. Hutaro is likely a retainer of their family, one of those serving for two or three generations—very loyal, but his martial arts are average, just brute strength."

"Why did they come to Owari?"

"Probably to find relatives after their family fell. She didn’t bring much clothing, barely any money, couldn’t afford food, had to live rough—looked like they’d escaped in a real hurry." Ah Man thought for a moment, then added, "She seems to be searching for a woman from the Owari Family, probably a distant relative who married into some family here in Owari. She wants to throw in her lot with this person, but so far can’t find where she is."

East Omi? Lake Biwa? Owari? Chiyoda?

So Chiyoda wasn’t a fake name... she really was called Chiyoda...

Nozawa pondered for a moment, rifling through memories of period dramas he’d watched—he was pretty sure it was her.