(Note: Due to the focus on the internal conspiracy, this chapter shifts into the perspective of Hayashi Hidesada.)
The flickering candles inside the secluded villa near the edge of Nagoya Castle did little to pierce the heavy gloom. Outside, the steady, rhythmic tolling of the death bell continued to echo through the dark, mourning for the late Oda Nobuhide. But inside this room, there was no grief—only cold, sharp ambition.
Hayashi Hidesada sat perfectly straight, his fingers tracing the lacquer edge of his fan. Above his head, his unseen system numbers reflected the weight of his calculated gamble:
Hayashi Hidesada
INT: 70 | POL: 76
Current Mood: Calculating, Intense, Anxious.
Across from him sat a handsome, sharply dressed young man of barely fifteen years. His posture was elegant, his robes meticulously clean, and his hair neatly bound in a traditional style that perfectly befitted a samurai lord. This was Oda Nobuyuki, Nobunaga's younger brother.
Oda Nobuyuki (Age: 15)
LEAD: 60 | ATK: 52 | DEF: 58 | INT: 68 | POL: 72
Current Status: Second Son of the Oda Clan / Rival Heir
Current Mood: Ambitious, Nervous.
"The time has come, Lord Nobuyuki," Hidesada spoke, his voice dropping to a low, gravelly whisper that barely carried past the paper screens. "The Lord Patriarch has passed. The grand pillar is gone. If we do not strike now, your brother's madness will drag Owari into the jaws of the Imagawa."
Nobuyuki tightened his grip on his silk sleeves, his youthful face pale under the candlelight. "But Hidesada... my brother is still the legal heir. The law of succession—"
"The law of succession belongs to the living, not the incompetent!" Hidesada interrupted sharply, his eyes flashing with irritation. "Look at him! He rides through the mud with commoners. He hoards foreign thundersticks. The other elders—Shibata, Hayashi, even the branches in Kiyosu—they look at him and see an embarrassment. If he takes the seat of power, the Oda clan will destroy itself from within. You are polite, traditional, and backed by the true strength of the council. You are the lord Owari needs."
Nobuyuki looked down, but the slow, ambitious rise and fall of his chest told Hidesada everything he needed to know. The boy wanted the seat. He just needed the courage to take it.
"We have thirty hidden troops already placed within the outer barracks," Hidesada continued, leaning closer, his POL: 76 working to map out the coup. "At the funeral at Bansho-ji, your brother will undoubtedly perform some act of utter idiocy. The moment he disgraces your father's memory in front of the entire clan, we will declare him unfit. We will isolate his few loyalists and force him into exile—or an early grave."
Nobuyuki nodded slowly. "And what of Hirate Masahide? My tutor loves my brother like a son. He will not stand by."
"The old man is withered by stress. He has no army, only tears," Hidesada sneered. But then, his face darkened, his mind recalling a jarring anomaly from the previous morning. "However... there is another variable."
Nobuyuki raised an eyebrow. "A variable?"
"A man appeared by Nobunaga's side yesterday. A vagrant who calls himself Subaru Ryu," Hidesada muttered, his teeth clicking together in frustration. "He wears no topknot, his clothes are rags, yet he stands before the council without flinching. Worse... he speaks with an unnerving precision."
"A beggar?" Nobuyuki let out a soft, dismissive laugh. "What can a stray dog do against the Hayashi clan?"
"That 'stray dog' openly lectured the council about the Imagawa's border logistics," Hidesada said, his voice tightening with a sudden spike of anxiety. "He knew things a commoner shouldn't. He looked at me, Lord Nobuyuki, and it felt as though he wasn't looking at a man... but rather reading a scroll that detailed my entire life. And last night, my spies reported that Hirate Masahide visited the vagrant's quarters in secret. They spoke for over an hour."
Nobuyuki's smile vanished. "Masahide went to see a stranger? Why?"
"That is what terrifies me," Hidesada confessed, the candle casting a harsh, distorted shadow of his face onto the wall. "Nobunaga is a wild beast, but he acts on raw instinct. This Subaru Ryu... he acts on calculated thought. If that peasant is organizing Nobunaga's chaotic thoughts into actual strategy, then we are not just dealing with a fool anymore. We are dealing with a monster guided by a hidden mind."
Hidesada stood up smoothly, sliding his hand down to the hilt of his short sword. The air in the room grew suffocatingly tense as the weight of the incoming coup pressed down on both men.
"I will have my eyes on this Ryu during the funeral," Hidesada whispered, his expression hardening into a murderous glare. "If he steps out of line, or if he attempts to interfere with our mobilization, I will have his throat slit before he can utter another word. This realm belongs to you, Lord Nobuyuki. And no faceless ghost will stand in our way."