Emperor's Armed Forces in the Warring States

Interlude - Kazuko's Marriage Proposal

This will be an interlude.

The main focus will be on Kazuko Kamisato, the first biological child of the protagonist, Shoichi Kamisato.

- Yamaga

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1

On a summer day in the year 1556, Shoichi Kamisato returned from Edo to Osaka Port using a regular ship. This was due to Shoichi becoming the chief responsible for establishing a naval base for the Japanese Navy on the North American continent, with cooperation from the India Company.

For the Japanese Navy that came to this world, Yokosuka was one of the important main ports. In this world, Yokosuka Arsenal had been constructed, capable of building steam-powered warships. They also gathered engineers and other personnel capable of constructing and maintaining warships. A part of them was sent to North America to make it operational as a naval base for the Japanese Navy.

They will be heading to the location of our world's San Diego, where the base of the United States Pacific Fleet was located. However, in this world, it became the largest naval base of the Japanese Navy in the Northeast Pacific, and officials related to the Imperial forces, including Shoichi, keenly realized that history had changed significantly.

Nevertheless, if they were to establish a naval base, it would not be enough to simply send people. In order to use it as a naval base, various materials needed to be sent from Japan, and facilities capable of local production to some extent needed to be prepared. That is why the India Company was asked for full cooperation from the government. Furthermore, Shoichi himself would listen to the requests of the engineers and others who were going to North America. That's why he ended up going to Yokosuka. For that reason, he took a regular ship that connected Osaka and Edo and traveled between Edo and Yokosuka by riding a horse, making a round trip between Osaka and Yokosuka.

In 1556, the railways in Japan were only operating between Kyoto and Osaka, and the railway between Osaka and Kobe was under construction, aligning with the full-scale opening of Kobe Port. Domestic travel routes mainly used coastal shipping routes connecting major ports due to the increasing number of steamships. Shoichi's journey followed such a pattern. However, Shoichi couldn't help but sigh. Since Yokosuka was a military port, the entry of civilian ships was generally prohibited, which led to this situation. He wanted to go to Yokosuka by ship.

While thinking about such things, when he returned home, he received a letter from Eikenni stating that she wanted to discuss something about their eldest daughter Kazuko tomorrow, so he would visit. Shoichi had a bad feeling about it.

For Shoichi, Kazuko, his first biological child, would turn 14 this year. In this Japan of the Sengoku period, which still retained its customs, some officials of the Imperial forces did not look kindly upon it, but once both boys and girls reached the age of 14, with the consent of the legal guardian, they could marry. Furthermore, it could be said that the majority of women got married by the age of 17, and men by the age of 20.

That was why his wife Aiko had tried to kick 16-years-old Yoshiko out of the house four years earlier, and 17-year-old Katsutoshi was now old enough to consider a marriage partner (Shoichi was still unaware that Naoie Ukita was plotting to marry his sister to Katsutoshi). Given these circumstances, it would not be strange for a marriage proposal to be brought up for Kazuko, who would turn 14 this year. Without a doubt, what Eikenni wanted to discuss about Kazuko in this house was most likely a marriage proposal.

It had been over 10 years since he came to this world, but Shoichi still couldn't get used to marriages in their teens. One could argue that it was hypocritical of him since he himself had become engaged to Aiko when she was 12 and married her at 18, but there were things he just couldn't adapt to.