All of this was your fault, Tanihara Danjo.
I had been ready to settle down as your retainer and protect Tanihara Castle for you.
But... you were the one who betrayed me first.
Takekawa Yukuma's face darkened as he thought...
"Tanihara Danjo is truly a fool. He has a powerhouse like the Shogun at his side, yet he makes the Shogun guard the castle, and now the war is lost. If the Shogun had been on the battlefield, how could we have lost?"
"Exactly. Tanihara Danjo seems to grow more senile by the day. Sooner or later, his foolishness will bring about Tanihara Castle's ruin. It's only right that you rule it, Lord Takekawa Yukuma."
The officials and samurai preparing to pledge their allegiance to Takekawa Yukuma kept showering him with flattery. They knew it was only a matter of time before his strength allowed him to seize Tanihara Castle.
Lately, Tanihara Danjo seemed to have started pushing Takekawa Yukuma away. It was practically suicide.
But only Takekawa Yukuma knew that he was rebelling not because Tanihara Danjo no longer trusted him, but because of a woman.
Tanihara Danjo's daughter, Tanihara Natsu.
A few months ago, perhaps because Tanihara Danjo had realized Takekawa Yukuma was dissatisfied with him, he had begun to gradually reclaim the power in Takekawa Yukuma's hands.
Takekawa Yukuma hadn't been brought along for the previous battle, which involved several hundred men. Tanihara Danjo had overestimated his own strength. Without Takekawa Yukuma's formidable might, the Tanihara Army, which had always been victorious, suffered a crushing defeat.
After the defeat, Tanihara Danjo retreated to Tanihara Castle. Around then, an envoy came from a lord in Kyoto, saying that he was very interested in his daughter, Tanihara Natsu.
He wanted to marry her.
It wasn't the same noble Xia Ji had met in Kyoto last time, but another one. This noble was even more powerful.
After losing the war, Tanihara Danjo desperately needed a powerful ally, so he quickly agreed to the envoy's proposal.
He would marry Xia Ji off to him.
When Takekawa Yukuma learned of this, he immediately decided to rebel. He would seize control of Tanihara Castle and claim Xia Ji for himself.
Takekawa Yukuma believed Xia Ji must hate political marriages like this.
Besides, he and Xia Ji had practically been childhood sweethearts.
Surely Xia Ji liked him too.
But that wasn't enough. Takekawa Yukuma had another plan.
He had no trouble seizing Tanihara Castle with his strength, but he still wasn't strong enough to face the surrounding powers, let alone Kyoto.
So... he had to grow stronger.
When the secret meeting ended, Takekawa Yukuma went to Xia Ji's room, but the samurai guarding it quickly stopped him.
"Move aside. Let me see Xia Ji!"
Staring at the samurai serving the Tanihara daimyo, Takekawa Yukuma spoke with a dark expression.
"Sorry, Lord Takekawa. The daimyo has ordered that, with girls disappearing so often lately, and Princess Xia Ji engaged to a great noble from Kyoto, nothing can happen to her before she's married. She's not to see any men, either."
"Not even me?"
"That's right. Not even you, Lord Takekawa!"
"Baka!" Takekawa Yukuma roared in fury.
"Lord Takekawa, please don't make this difficult for us!" The samurai immediately drew their weapons.
"..."
Takekawa Yukuma's face turned ashen. He swept his sleeve and turned away.
Tanihara Danjo, you forced me into this...
After leaving Xia Ji's room, Takekawa Yukuma went straight out of the city and headed to a dark cave nearby.
"Takekawa Yukuma, you've come again..."
Once he entered the cave, a hoarse, sinister voice rang out.
A grotesque tree with a human face wore a look of delight. Beneath it... lay the corpses of girls, one after another. Without exception, their hearts were missing.
"Tree Demon... how long until your wood heart matures?" Takekawa Yukuma looked at the tree monster before him. It was his hope of reclaiming Xia Ji and unifying the land.
It was a demon tree that grew on battlefields strewn with corpses. After absorbing vast amounts of human blood and resentment, it became a creature known as a "Tree Demon."
It was highly aggressive. Almost no living thing that passed near it survived.
But some time ago, a powerful shrine maiden had gravely wounded this Tree Demon. After fleeing, it had unexpectedly encountered Takekawa Yukuma.
Somehow, Takekawa Yukuma had learned that if a human used a Tree Demon's wood heart in place of their own, they would become far stronger.
As one of the finest samurai among humans, Takekawa Yukuma understood one thing very well.
Human strength had its limits.
So... the only way to become stronger was to cast aside his human body. For Xia Ji and this land, Takekawa Yukuma was prepared to stop being human.
And so Takekawa Yukuma struck a deal with the Tree Demon. He would help it recover from its injuries, and in return, the Tree Demon would give him its wood heart, turning him into a monster.
To heal the Tree Demon and mature its wood heart, Takekawa Yukuma sent his trusted men to capture girls.
For some reason, the demons of the Eastern Island were especially fond of girls' hearts...
The heart of one girl was worth more than devouring an entire village of men.
The high-level demons only preyed on girls. Only low-level demons ate other people.
"These girls aren't enough. I need many more." The Tree Demon looked at Takekawa Yukuma, its desire plain in its voice.
"The Tanihara forces are already on high alert. I'm not the ruler of Tanihara Castle yet, so I can't take too many risks.
"But I've already sent men to raid other territories and capture people."
"I don't care about any of that. Bring me food... and I'll give you my wood heart. By then... you'll have greater strength and rule all of Musashi, even the entire Eastern Island. And... you'll get the woman you long for, ahahaha..."
"Remember your promise..."
Takekawa Yukuma couldn't help feeling excited, but he didn't let it show on his face.
It wasn't the first time human nobles and demons had worked together in the Eastern Island.
Once, a daimyo had offered everything belonging to his unborn son to a demon in exchange for more than a decade of favorable weather... and an invincible army, all to conquer the land.
In a short time, he became one of the most powerful lords of his era...
Though he still ended up failing!