The underground dungeon was in a building at the edge of an enclosure on the west side of the manor. Even with her token, Tsubaki-san couldn’t bring people any further in — so Leen cast [Invisible] on her too, and all three of us, transparent (though Leen kept insisting it wasn’t transparency), slipped inside.
We passed through the guards’ room where a sentry waited and started down the stone-cut staircase to the basement.
What we found was a cell built of stone and wood — and inside, a single old man, eyes closed, sitting in seiza meditation. White-streaked beard, long; massive frame; face lined with deep creases.
“Who’s there.”
The voice came out of nowhere, still in his seated pose. We froze in surprise. Invisible — and yet, by presence alone, he caught us.
“Master Baba, it is Tsubaki. I have come at Lord Kōsaka’s orders to rescue you. Where are Master Naitō and Master Yamagata?”
“Kōsaka’s…? Hmph. So that rascal hadn’t truly fallen to Kansuke after all. Cannot be tied down, that one.”
The corner of his mouth turned up. One of the Takeda Four Heavenly Kings — Baba Nobuharu — grinned.
“Naitō and Yamagata are in the cells deeper inside. Now — quit hiding.”
Leen released the spell. Baba raised one eyebrow and looked us over now that we had appeared.
“And those two? I do not know them.”
“They are guests of Lord Tokugawa. Mochizuki Touya and Lady Leen. Lord Mochizuki single-handedly cut down the fifteen thousand masked soldiers who marched on the Tokugawa.”
“What!?”
The old man’s eyes went wide. Wait — there were fifteen thousand of them? No wonder the map was wall-to-wall pins.
The old man was looking at me as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing, but — first things first, this cell. I could blow it open with magic, but that would tip our hand. No way around it.
“[Modeling].”
I reshaped the timber bars of the cell, opening a passage just wide enough for one person. About a minute later it was done, and Baba stepped easily out.
“Some unusual things you can do, boy.”
Boy. Yes, I am considerably younger than you, granted. I won’t say it out loud, but the fairy beside me is much older than you, sir.
We took the foul-mouthed old man through the inner passage to the next cell block. There, cells were set on both sides.
In the right-hand cell, a gentle-faced man — somewhere between daytime drowsy and salaryman a year from retirement. In the left, an older man covered in scars who looked every bit the seasoned battlefield veteran, eyes sharp.
“Oh — Master Baba. Glad to see you in good health.”
The window-seat-salaryman type called over genially.
“Something interesting going on, eh, Baba? If there’s brawling involved, count me in.”
The scarred one wore a delighted smile, rising and coming to the bars. Baba looked at the two and let out an exasperated sigh.
“Naitō — bring some tension to it. Always slack-faced and smiling. And the opposite, Yamagata — think a little. Not every problem solves by fighting.”
Hmm. So the salaryman is Naitō Masatoyo, and the scar-covered one is Yamagata Masakage.
“Boy, sorry — let these two out, would you?”
“Fine, but — drop the boy?”
I asked for the correction with a sour face. Leen looked at the old man.
“For the record, that boy is a candidate to be Belfast’s next king — best mind your tongue.”
That left not just Baba but all three of them speechless. Look — Leen’s not wrong, technically, but the way she put it sticks in my craw. I haven’t accepted it, for the record.
“Oh? Hmm — too late to change now, looks a bit poor either way… eh, boy will do.”
Leen laughed and shrugged at Baba’s response. Lost cause. The type who doesn’t listen.
“I shall call you Lord Touya, then.”
“I’ll go with Touya, then.”
Naitō and Yamagata each said their own thing. The Takeda is full of free spirits, huh. I’d like to have met this Lord Shingen who kept these guys in line, frankly.
I used [Modeling] to free the other two same as Baba. Leen re-cast [Invisible] on us, and we slipped back up the stairs past the sentry and out of the dungeon.
“So — what’s the plan from here, Future-King-of-Belfast?”
Naitō, amused, called out smiling. Stop with that title. I laid out what I’d been thinking.
“After we get the three of you out of the manor, the rest of us will capture Yamamoto Kansuke.”
“Hey, hey, that’s not on. Take me with you, Touya. We’ve got plenty of accounts to settle with that bastard.”
Yamagata cracked the joints of his fingers, baring an unsettling grin. Done with that scarred face — terrifying in several different ways.
“Kansuke’s surrounded by masked soldiers, and the man himself uses strange magic. He’s not human. Can you beat him?”
Baba said something odd. Meaning? Naitō took the thread.
“Yamamoto Kansuke once served Lord Shingen as a strategist. Excellent man, sharp mind — strategist without equal. But at some point, he acquired a jewel imbued with the power of a devil. From then he changed, gradually. He began testing — cats, dogs — and it didn’t take long before that became humans. He created the demon-masks that operate the dead, and gained terrible power. We couldn’t stop him. The power of that jewel was beyond us…”
So Yamamoto Kansuke broke because of this jewel. Imbued with the power of a devil… maybe that’s the corpse-controlling artifact.
“What do you make of it, Leen?”
“Whatever the jewel is, it’s clearly what unraveled him. Sometimes artifacts that are too powerful develop a will of their own. The maker’s resentment, fixation — something like that — can take residence.”
Resentment… That’s basically a cursed item. But put that way, it tracks. The Takeda’s strategist Yamamoto Kansuke had his consciousness hijacked by the cursed jewel and lost himself. So — break the jewel, fix the problem?
I asked Tsubaki-san beside me.
“Where is Kansuke now?”
“Likely the middle-enclosure residence, I imagine, but…”
I pulled out the smartphone and searched Yamamoto Kansuke — no hit. Hm? Not here? No — wait. I searched Leen to test — also no hit.
Barrier. It’s blocking [Search] interference. Annoying.
“Tsubaki-san, the middle enclosure — which way?”
“Erm… that way.”
I sent my sight along the direction she pointed with [Long Sense]. Thought this might be blocked by the barrier too, but it’s fine. Self-cast — that’s the difference.
I scanned across the wide garden, then around the residence — just as a man stepped out of the residence into the garden.
Black kimono, black hakama, dark complexion, eyepatch on the left eye. This is Kansuke.
I pulled my sight back and asked Leen how to break the barrier. Already got the Four out; the moment we’re spotted I [Gate] straight to Kansuke. Hardly an issue.
“Probably four talismans set at the four corners of the manor, charged with magic. Destroy any one of them.”
“I know where they are. This way.”
We followed Yamagata’s lead. Thanks to [Invisible], we got there without anyone noticing.
At one corner of the wall, in a small reserved space, was a stone jizō. About Paula’s height.
“Yes — this. The jizō itself is one of the talismans.”
A talisman — I’d been picturing a paper ofuda, but I guess not. What they meant by talisman here was just a protective object; it could take any shape.
“Right — I’ll smash this, then we transfer to Kansuke immediately. Good?”
“Wait, boy. Unarmed, this’ll be tough for us. Got any weapons?”
Said like that, sure — but the only weapons I’m carrying are the New Model Army gun and the gun-sword Brünhild. Lending either of those is out.
“No help for it. I’ll make them.”
"""Make them??"""
Ignoring the what is this guy on looks from the Four, I pulled out leftover steel from the bicycle builds via [Storage].
“Spear all right? Anything specific you want?”
“Eh? Ah, that’s fine for me — Naitō wants two short blades, Yamagata a great sword, if you can manage…”
“On it.”
I shaped the steel with [Modeling]. Two simple short blades first. Then the greatsword. Then the spear.
Each of the three took the finished weapon and tested it — swinging, twirling.
“That you could craft these in a moment… astonishing, Lord Touya.”
“Figured the haft would be heavy if it was all steel, but… lighter than expected, this spear. Balance is a touch off, though.”
I hollowed out the haft to keep it light. It’s like a steel pipe with a spear-tip. Single solid mass either way, so durability’s there, but I can’t vouch for cutting edge.
“All right — ready?”
Everyone gave a small nod. I drew the New Model Army from my hip and reloaded with rounds enchanted with [Explosion] (small) from my waist pouch.
I leveled the gun at the jizō. Bit blasphemous, that, but — apologies. On that thought, I pulled the trigger — and the jizō burst into a fine spray of fragments.