Emperor's Armed Forces in the Warring States

Prologue (Part 5)

This is the beginning of Part 5.

Time has moved further, and the setting of this part takes place in January 1568.

- Yamaga

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1

In early January of the year 1568, shortly after the start of the new year, Shoichi Kamisato visited the Honganji temple in Kyoto. He had received word from the Honganji temple that his former local wife (in fact, his formal first wife), Eikenni, who had been a resident of Ayutthaya in the past, had fallen ill early in the new year and her condition seemed to be deteriorating rapidly. He decided to make use of the weekend to visit her himself.

Eikenni had a total of five children who shared her blood, consisting of two sons and three daughters. However, neither her eldest son, Katsutoshi Kamisato, nor her second son, Dōhei (Masamichi) Kobayakawa, were in Japan due to work-related reasons. Her third daughter, Kazuko Takeda (Kamisato), and her fourth daughter, Tomoko Date (Kamisato), both lived on the other side of the Earth, making it nearly impossible for them to visit their mother.

Her eldest daughter, Yoshiko Oda (Kamisato), was in Osaka and could visit either. However, she had given birth to a significant number of children and even Shoichi himself, as the foster grandfather, had a slightly hazy memory of them. Recently, she had given birth to her thirteenth child, and her life was consumed by childcare. Moreover, there was still some tension between Eikenni and Yoshiko. Considering these circumstances, Shoichi ended up being the one to visit Eikenni first.

"I apologize for the trouble of coming to visit me."

"Just stay as you are."

When Shoichi visited Eikenni's room, she was lying in bed, but upon realizing his visit, she tried to get up from her futon immediately. Shoichi hurriedly stopped her. From what he could see, Eikenni's complexion was quite poor. Her skin appeared pale, while her lips had an unusually reddish hue. This is definitely pulmonary tuberculosis. Eikenni seemed to have also recognized Shoichi's diagnosis without him asking, as she began to explain her condition.

"My cough had been persistent, and I thought it was just a worsened cold. However, I was recently formally diagnosed with lung disease by a doctor. Thank you for visiting me in this state."

"I see."

Pulmonary disease was infectious. Given this fact, ideally, he should have refrained from visiting her.

However, despite their separation due to circumstances, they had three children together, and he had also taken responsibility for her two stepchildren. As these thoughts resurfaced, Shoichi felt that he had no choice but to visit. Furthermore, considering the severity of her illness, even though her eldest daughter, Yoshiko, could visit, the risk of infection for her young grandchildren was a concern, making it difficult to allow her to visit.

Carefully choosing his words, Shoichi spoke, "Let's try to contact both of your sons to return home as soon as possible. We'll arrange for replacements at work."

"It might be quite challenging."

"Considering your condition, we can't just say that."

Though he said it aloud, this was also a headache for Shoichi.

Katsutoshi Kamisato was involved in the construction of the Suez Canal, so he returned with his family to the Alexandria branch, working alongside the Azai couple, who could be considered as relatives. They were jointly contributing not only to the Suez Canal project but also to the development of Egypt.