It was noon, and the sunlight was bright yet cool.
Following Okabe Motonobu, Uesugi Tetsu soon arrived at the great hall with the two little ones, returning to the place after a long absence.
The last time he had come here was for Matsudaira Motoyasu's coming-of-age ceremony.
"Mr. Tetsu, please come in. The lord is waiting inside."
Okabe Motonobu stepped aside at the doorway, revealing the great hall, which was as quiet as the entire Imagawa Residence.
Uesugi Tetsu instinctively looked toward the seat of honor, and his foot, which was just about to cross the threshold, froze.
He stood there, stunned.
Because the black-haired girl seated at the head, clad in dark armor and wearing an icy, indifferent expression—
was exactly identical to the black-haired warrior he had seen amid the Imagawa Clan's standard-bearer formation during the "Okehazama Trial," and personally killed!
Within the curtain of rain in his memories, the blurry figure from that time and the clear figure before him gradually overlapped, ultimately becoming one and the same.
Only then did Uesugi Tetsu understand.
No wonder he had not seen that "very conspicuous, slow-running, short-legged, fat man," Imagawa Yoshimoto, back then.
It was not that he had failed to see her.
He had met her long ago, but simply had not recognized her.
It turned out that Imagawa Yoshimoto had not fled in panic and humiliation as history recorded, only to be caught and killed by two members of the Oda Clan.
Instead, she had fought fearlessly alongside her retainers until the very last moment, right up until everything ended...
She had backbone.
Imagawa Yoshimoto had never lacked that.
At the head of the room, Imagawa Yoshimoto blinked in confusion, her face as cold as ice.
Why is Tetsu standing at the entrance instead of coming in?