Chapter 5.1 - From a Private Talks, to Fishing

From a Private Talks, to Fishing

Tenbun 24 (1555 A.D) 3rd  month. Wakasa Province, Kumakawa Castle

I’m on horseback with Denza to Kumakawa, Numata Kouzukenosuke’s territory.

Kumakawa is located southeast of the Obama Port. I want to talk more about my request to Kouzukenosuke. That’s why we’re on our way there.

Of course, I’ve bought a proper present. The present is inside the basket I’m carefully carrying. It should be able to gain the Numata clan’s goodwill.

The scenery is filled with nature. The air feels fresh, but there are barely any people. It’s kind of creepy. To brush off my fear, I talked with Denzaemon.

“Denza. It’s a good place, isn’t it?”

“I have to agree. The air here feels soo fresh.”

The closer we get to Kumakawa, the less I see people. The road becomes smaller and smaller. It would be good if I developed this area in the future. After all, the road from Obama to Kumakawa is an important road connected directly to Biwa Lake ^[1] . In the future, I can consider building an inn town in this area.

Ah, right. In this period, it was not Biwa Lake but Chikatsu Awaumi ^[2] , the opposite of Hamana Lake ^[3] , Touhotsu Afumi ^[4]

We finally arrived at Kumakawa residence. Kouzukenosuke greeted us with a bright look. I feel embarrassed being greeted like that.

The state of Kumakawa residence is quite something. It looks more like a big dilapidated house rather than a residence.

So Numata clan is poor. The poor have no time to rest. That’s why Kouzukenosuke’s complexion didn’t look good.

He must have worked tirelessly without being able to eat properly. My heart stung.

“Welcome. I am the current head of Numata clan, Numata Kouzukenosuke Mitsukane.”

A man in his late forty who’s standing beside Kouzukenosuke greeted us. He must be the owner of the Kumakawa residence and Kouzukenosuke’s father, Numata Mitsukane.

“To think there come a time where I see my son who spent all his time playing around serving young master, I cannot believe it. My good-for-nothing son that spent all his time reading rather than working…”

And so on and so on. I don’t think this guy is going to stop talking soon. This is a problem. I want to talk privately with Kouzukenosuke. I need to find a way for Kouzukenosuke’s father to leave us, but it’s not going to be easy as I can see Mitsukane wanted to build a good impression in front of me.

“Father. Please take care of the house. I want to play on the riverbank with the young master.”

“Huh?”

Kouzukenosuke seems to notice what I want. Great. Now I only have to went along with him.

“T…That’s right! I’ve heard there is a good river near Kumakawa,, so I’m here. Let’s go immediately!”

I, Kouzukenosuke, and Denza left the Kumakawa residence together. We walked to the forest while talking.

There are two things that I want to talk about with Kouzukenosuke. First is the way to earn money. Second is to use the earned money to hire soldiers, these two things.

“What I’m going to tell you next might be a bit difficult to understand. Is that fine?”

“Please do not worry. I have learned omyoudo ^[5] , divination, and astronomy so I believe it is not going to be difficult for me to understand your word, young master.”

He said and laughed. I see. So one of the reasons for his pale face must be the result of his greed for knowledge. My first impression of him is the worst, but strangely, I don’t think he’s a bad person. My unpleasant feeling toward him started to melt away.

“Alright then. I want to ask you to cultivate this.”

I handed the basket I’d been carrying around preciously to Kouzukenosuke. After seeing the basket’s content, Kouzukenozuke froze in place, and his eyes widened.

The content of the basket is raw Shiitake mushroom. In this era, the Shiitake mushrooms can be used to create good stocks, so Their price is quite high.

The content of the basket is raw Shiitake mushrooms. As one of the ingredients that can be made into delicious stocks, the Shiitake mushrooms of this era are quite expensive.

“T…This is…”

“Why are you fidgeting like a chicken. Calm down.”

Kouzukenosuke is trembling. That’s natural. If he sold this many Shiitake mushrooms, he would be able to get more money than he ever dreamed of. But I’ve no plan to give the mushrooms to him. I planned just to let him borrow it.

“Have you calmed down?”

“Ah…um…Yes.”

Denza succeeded in calming Kouzukenosuke by patting his neck like a horse… How did that even work…Is Kouzukenosuke secretly a horse?

“Kouzukenosuke, will you laugh at me? I am a warrior and the heir of the province lord yet I tried to make money?”

“Kouzukenosuke, will you laught at me? I am warrior and the heir of the clan, yet I’m planning to sold things for money?”

“Of course not!”

“Tell me the truth. I don’t mind.”

I said with a smile. In this era, a warrior earning money by selling goods is considered unhonorable. It’s something that will make others feel contempt toward me. I know that fact. But Kouzukenosuke desperately denies my word.

“What kind of nonsense are you talking about!!? No one knows better than me the fact that nothing can be done without money! Young master, are you perhaps meaning to mock me after seeing my dilapidated family house?”

“I have no intention to do so. My apologize”

Toward Kouzukenosuke’s accusation, I can only apologize. Kousukenousuke replied, ‘I also apologize for raising my voice’ and bowed. With this, I judged Kouzukenosuke as someone that could be trusted. I gathered my thought and continued my explanation about Shiitake mushrooms.

What I explained to Kouzukenosuke is only the basic principle of how fungus breeds. The things taught by school’s biology. Stuff like how fungi breed using their hyphae. I told him that he could just stick the Shiitake to a log, and they would breed on their own since fungus didn’t have gender. As for the detail, I also don’t know.

Other than that, I also told him that the shiitake needed a cool and humid place to grow. I left researching the specific temperature and humidity to Kouzukenosuke. Based on my little understanding of his character, Kouzukenosuke probably preferred me to do so as he enjoys researching by trial and error.

After I finished my explanation, he bombarded me with questions What is fungus? What is humidity? What is photosynthesis? and many others. I feel like I’m going mad trying to answer all of them. I wonder if I gave him a satisfactory answer.

“I see. So humidity is how much moisture is present in a place. This is new knowledge. Do I also need to factor in the amount of sunlight the shiitake received?”

“Yes, because the amount of sunlight the shiitake received is directly connected to its humidity. To cultivate, no, to create a shiitake culture I want you to put the shiitake in a container and Investigate how to increase the number of white hyphae.”

“A shiitake culture…culture… I like the name. Understood. I will risk my life to successfully create the shiitake culture.”

“Don’t risk your life for success. This is a challenge and you are allowed to fail. If you fail, think about why you failed and fix it. After all, failure is the mother of success.”

“Understood!”

“Well, that’s all for the serious talk. Let’s go fishing now. You need to teach me alright? Kouzukenosuke.”

T/N: Our Mc has started his money-making scheme!

[1] The largest freshwater lake in Japan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Biwa ↵

[2]lit. Freshwater sea near (from the capital) ↵

[3] The tenth largest lake in Japan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Hamana ↵

[4] lit. Freshwater sea far (from the capital) ↵

[5] You can think of it as Japanese-style magic that can ward off evil spirits, disasters, divine the future, etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onmy%C5%8Dd%C5%8D ↵