Harano didn't pay much attention to the matter of giving himself a makeshift name. Back in middle school, his English teacher had given him the name Kerry. He wasn't about to let a little girl like Yayoi take the lead in the conversation—he was far more concerned about his surroundings. He'd never heard of Hosokawa Castle; maybe it didn't even exist anymore in modern times. He needed to ask about other places.
He didn't even wait for Yayoi to sigh, "So you're Lord Nozawa," before he asked with concern, "What other towns or castles are near Hosokawa Castle?"
"Nearby…" Sure enough, Yayoi's train of thought was brought back on track. She thought for a moment and said, "If you follow the Otai River southeast, there's Koshimo Castle."
Harano pressed, "Who's the City Lord of Koshimo?"
"That's Lord Yu Shilang. Sometimes he passes through here when he travels far and will rest in the village." Yayoi answered first, then remembering Harano wasn't familiar with the area, immediately added, "That's Lord Maeda Yuichiro Shonari."
Maeda Shonari?
Another Maeda?
How are there so many Maedas? Which Maeda Family is Maeda Toshie's family? Not that it matters—Maeda Toshie is probably still peeing and playing in the mud at this point!
Harano really couldn't remember what year Maeda Toshie was born or where. Most of his limited knowledge of Japan's Warring States came from Taiko 2, that old DOS-era game that got ported to mobile, with a little from textbooks and random bits of Taiga dramas, plus odds and ends he'd picked up from recent trips to museums and archives.
In short, he knew some of the bigger picture, but ask him for details and he'd just stare blankly.
He asked again, "Anywhere else?"
"Uh, if you go east from Koshimo Castle, I heard there's East Rising City; heading south to the river mouth, I heard there's Okinoshima." Yayoi said hesitantly. She hadn't actually been to these places—they were just things she'd heard her parents talk about. Normally, she only went around Hibi Village and not even across to the other side of the Otai River.
Harano hadn't heard of any of these places in modern times either, but that wasn't surprising. In Japan's Middle Ages, most so-called castles were often just a wooden stockade, so it was normal there weren't any traces left today.
After all this questioning, he still couldn't figure out his own geographical location, so he reflexively started to ask, "How far is Nagoya from here…"
The reason he only got half the sentence out was because he realized—Nagoya didn't exist yet. That city wasn't built until after Tokugawa Ieyasu ended the Japan Warring States Period.
So he quickly switched gears: "What about bigger towns? Any larger castle towns or [market] towns?"
Yayoi thought for a bit, then said carefully: "I've heard that Nagano Castle and Gudu Castle both have big towns; they're both northeast of Hosokawa Castle, and it takes most of a day to walk there. Further north and west, I think there's also Qingzhou City and Shoban Castle; those have towns too, but I heard they're very, very far away. I don't know how long it would take to walk there."
Nagano Castle?
That's probably the old name for Nagoya—Tokugawa Ieyasu either expanded Nagano Castle or demolished it and built Nagoya Castle on the same site as the Tokugawa family's local stronghold in Owari Province and Central Japan.
Harano stroked his chin thoughtfully—now he could roughly place Nagoya Castle, and thinking back on the terrain he saw on the way here, he finally had a decent sense of where he was.
He seemed to be at the southern end of the Nongwei Plain; to the south was Ise Bay, northeast was what would become central Nagoya City, to the west were branches of the Ise Mountains, and far north was where modern-day Qingzhou City would be.
So, after wandering lost in foggy forests, he must have looped his way through the foothills of the Ise Mountain range before finally getting out. No wonder it almost broke his legs just to get out after not long in the mountains. The Ise range within Owari Province is shaped like a "人" character—he must have gone back and forth inside, climbing right from the central part all the way down to the bottom of one "leg" before running into people. He'd veered way off course and walked a whole lot of pointless miles.
Now that he had his bearings, Harano felt a little less mental stress. People only get truly scared when they don't know where they are—just knowing your location eases the mind.
At the very least, if danger came, he'd know which way to run.
He kept asking for details: "Who's the City Lord of Nagano Castle?"
Yayoi thought hard for a moment and answered nervously, "I'm sorry, Lord Nozawa, I don't know."
She could still talk about things near Hibi Village, but anything farther was beyond her. Still, Harano was already very satisfied—with this as a starting point, he could ask an adult next time without blowing his cover, so it was much safer.
He quickly comforted her: "It's fine, I'll find someone else to ask later. You go ahead and keep eating!"
"Yes, Lord Nozawa." Yayoi picked up her rice bowl again and tried to chew slowly and elegantly, and before long her face was showing happiness again.
Harano also picked up his bowl and kept drinking rice soup. Once she'd eaten a while, he asked, as if offhandedly: "Not much fighting happens around here, right?"
Owari Province was, after all, the home base where the Sixth Celestial Demon King Oda Nobunaga first rose up, and also the starting place for Monkey Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In his mind there hadn't seemed to be much chaos here. The most famous battlefield was the Battle of Okehazama, but he hadn't heard of other wars—Taiko 2 hadn't mentioned them either. It should be fairly peaceful, he thought.
Yayoi was about to set her bowl down and answer, but Harano motioned for her not to. She replied quietly while holding the bowl, "No, Lord Nozawa, they fight here all the time."
Ever since she could remember, every year people from the village would get conscripted as Ashigaru—sometimes three or four times in a year. Many people never came back, either dying on the battlefield or being dragged off to work fields somewhere else. The Ashigaru here were the traditional kind—the word means "those quick on their feet," and they mostly hauled grain, supplies, did fortifications and civil engineering, and were part of the musoku-shu, meaning those without armor (Japanese armor), just regular soldiers without armor or cuirasses.
Of course, if a battle was urgent, they'd just hand them bamboo spears and send them to the front lines, but casualties would be heavy and that could badly affect next year's harvest.
"They fight a lot?" Harano was disappointed not to hear what he'd expected. "Who are your enemies?"
Yayoi couldn't really say—she looked puzzled and said, "I'm sorry, Lord Nozawa. I'm not sure. There are lots of enemies. Sometimes they say they have to march very far, cross lots of rivers to go fight. One time, more than half the men who went never came back."
Hard to find peaceful places in troubled times…
Harano sighed inwardly and smiled at her. "No need to apologize. You're already very knowledgeable."
A ten-year-old peasant girl who knew this much—she'd already exceeded his expectations. He could even call her quite bright; he hadn't thought he'd eke out so much info.
Yayoi smiled shyly and said, embarrassed, "My mother used to work as a servant in Hosokawa Castle, and my father served there for a long time too. They told me most of this."
"I see. Well, that's still impressive."
Harano offered another encouraging smile—had to boost that favorability—then continued to make small talk over rice soup, asking about the lay of the land so he didn't accidentally fall into a pit if he had to escape in a hurry. When he finished eating, Yayoi also stopped, neatly tidied and took away the table, then cautiously asked, "Master, will you rest now?"
It couldn't even be past eight yet, but peasants in the Middle Ages probably didn't have much of a nightlife.
Harano actually wasn't that sleepy, but smiled and said, "Yes, I'll rest now."
Yayoi immediately went to fetch a wooden basin of hot water and brought a piece of cotton cloth that was almost like new, soft and fluffy. She helped him take off his trekking jacket and clean his face and hands, but when she was about to take the basin away, Harano stopped her and asked her to just leave it there for the night and get it in the morning.
She found this a little odd but didn't think much of it and gathered up the dishes to take her leave. Harano looked around, searching for the "nando."
He remembered seeing reconstructed diagrams in the museum recently—houses like this had something called a "nando," used for storing household or valuable items, eventually turning into the built-in closet where the robot cat sleeps in later generations. But as he glanced around the earthen floor, he couldn't spot it, so he just asked directly: "Wait a moment, Yayoi, where are the pillows and bedding kept?"
"What do you mean, Lord Nozawa?" Yayoi looked blank. Up to now, she'd understood most of what Harano said, but this time she didn't recognize a single word in the sentence.
Harano gestured with his hands: "I mean, the things you lay under and over yourself to keep warm when you sleep."
Yayoi got even more confused. Glancing at Harano's trekking jacket, she asked hesitantly, "Would you like me to bring you another piece of clothing?"
Harano was starting to get confused too. "You guys… when you sleep at night, what do you use to cover yourselves?"
Yayoi looked down at the clothes she was wearing and replied, hesitantly, "Just… our clothes, I guess."
Harano got it. Damn, in Japan's Middle Ages, they hadn't even invented pillows or bedding yet. Maybe the courtiers or Advanced Warriors had some primitive sleeping things, like fur clothes or padded garments, but for lower samurai or commoners, it was just sleeping on a straw mat and keeping warm with whatever extra clothing you had.
What a miserable era…
Harano didn't explain any further and kept a straight face: "Really? That's different from where I'm from—maybe it's a local custom! Anyway, thanks for your trouble tonight. You should get some rest, too!"
Yayoi didn't think much of it. By all standards—height, skin, teeth, hair, clothing—Harano was obviously someone used to a pampered life, maybe even a life of luxury, so it wasn't odd for him to have things she'd never even heard of.
She finished tidying up and left again, wanting to remind Harano to blow out the lamp later. Since she didn't know where he came from, they hadn't dared use soybean oil for the lamp for fear its smell would upset him and set him off, so they'd used expensive perilla oil, the kind they only brought out when hosting the lords' people. Still, she hesitated to say anything, and just quietly left.
She did her best to smooth out the straw curtain so no wind would leak in, then hurried off with the leftovers to the side room to find her mother.
Her mother was still waiting to hear the intelligence she'd gathered!