I Enslaved The Goddess Who Summoned Me

Nathan entered.

He had changed clothes since returning to the village, though the exhaustion was still visible in his face. His movements remained steady, but Genzo could see the strain beneath them. The poison in his neck had not fully left him. Even so, his eyes were clear and focused.

Yukihime followed a few steps behind him.

The room grew quieter as they approached the table.

”What have we learned?” Nathan asked.

Genzo pushed the latest reports toward him. ”Norihiro is gathering supplies inside Minami Kyoto. He has also sent men out to watch the roads and nearby towns. He suspects something.”

Nathan read the messages in silence.

Then he placed them back on the table.

”That is expected,” he said.

Genzo studied him. ”You do not seem concerned.”

”I am concerned,” Nathan replied. ”But Norihiro becoming cautious does not mean he knows the whole plan. It only means he is not stupid.”

Yukihime looked down at the marked map of the South.

”And Urakami?” she asked.

”One of our people near Kajiya Hara confirmed that his men are still waiting,” Genzo said. ”They have not begun moving yet.”

Nathan nodded once.

”Good. Then we still have time.”

Genzo leaned forward slightly. ”Time for what?”

Nathan’s gaze settled on Minami Kyoto’s position on the map.

”To make Norihiro believe he has already won.”

The words settled heavily over the room.

For a few moments, no one spoke.

Genzo looked at Nathan with narrowed eyes, trying to understand what he meant. He had spent years studying Norihiro’s movements, his allies, his habits, and the web of influence he had built across the South. He knew the Daimyo was careful. He knew he was dangerous. But Nathan had a way of looking at problems from perhaps a different and better angle.

”How?” Genzo finally asked.

Nathan placed one finger on the map, directly over Minami Kyoto.

”Norihiro is preparing for an attack from outside. He knows something is coming, even if he does not know exactly what. He will expect soldiers, a siege, or a direct assault on the city.”

”He will expect Urakami,” Yukihime said quietly.

”Yes.”

Nathan’s eyes remained on the map.

”The samurai will be the threat he sees. Urakami has an army, Sadamasa’s weapons, and enough pride to make himself impossible to ignore. Norihiro will focus on him. He will gather his troops, strengthen the city, and wait for them to come.”

Genzo slowly nodded, though his expression remained serious.

”And while he does that, we move?”

”Not immediately,” Nathan replied. ”If we move too soon, he will know the shinobi are involved. He already suspects us. He may even be hoping we make a mistake and step into whatever he has prepared inside Minami-Kyoto.”

The mention of a trap made the room grow colder.

Nathan had told them what Mitsuhide said before his death. Norihiro had a shrine of his own. No one knew what power waited there, or what kind of ritual Norihiro had been building in secret. But after what they had seen in Death God Valley, none of them treated the warning lightly.

Yukihime’s hand rested near the hilt of her weapon.

”So we let Urakami attack first,” she said.

”We let Norihiro think Urakami is attacking first,” Nathan corrected.

Genzo’s gaze sharpened.

Nathan looked toward him.

”Norihiro does not need to see ten thousand soldiers at his gates. He only needs to believe they are coming. If the reports reaching him are convincing enough, he will have to make a decision. He can remain in Minami Kyoto and prepare to defend it, or he can ride out with his army and crush Urakami before those soldiers gather near the city.”

”He would choose to strike first,” Genzo said after a moment. ”That is more like him. He hates waiting for danger to reach him.”

Nathan nodded.

”And if he leads his forces out, he loses the advantage of the city.”

One of the older shinobi leaned closer to the table.

”But if we spread false reports too openly, Norihiro may realize someone is feeding him lies.”

”Then the reports cannot come from us,” Nathan said.

He reached for one of the written messages and turned it over in his hand.

”They need to come from people he trusts.”

The room went silent again.

Genzo understood first.

”You want to use his own network.”

”Yes.”

Nathan’s voice was calm, but there was no uncertainty in it.

”Norihiro has merchants, informants, soldiers, officials, and men planted throughout the surrounding towns. Some serve him because they believe in him. Others serve him because they are afraid. Find the ones who fear him most. The ones who care more about surviving than being loyal.”

Genzo gave a slow nod.

”There are people like that.”

”Then give them something to be afraid of,” Nathan said. ”Let them hear that Sadamasa has armed Urakami’s men. Let them hear that scouts have seen soldiers gathering. Let them hear that the samurai intend to move before Norihiro has time to prepare.”

Yukihime looked at Nathan carefully.

”And when Norihiro leaves the city?”

Nathan’s eyes darkened.

”Then we take away every path he has to return.”

”This will be dangerous,” he said. ”If Norihiro realizes the truth before he moves, he will close the city and begin hunting everyone connected to us.”

”I know.”

”And Urakami may not follow the part of the plan he does not understand.”

”I know that too.”

Genzo held Nathan’s gaze for another moment.

Then he nodded.

”Then we begin today.”

Nathan looked once more at the map, at the roads leading toward Minami Kyoto, at the towns caught between the forest and the capital, and at the place where the last Daimyo still believed himself secure.

Everything was moving as planned.

But it was not enough simply to draw Norihiro out and kill him.

Nathan needed to corner him completely.

Norihiro had to leave Minami Kyoto with his army. Urakami had to move his samurai force toward the city. And when the two sides finally met, the battle could not look like some hidden operation carried out by the shinobi or an assassination ordered by Kaguya.

It had to look like war.

A war between Norihiro’s soldiers and the Samurais.

Nathan’s gaze remained fixed on the map, though his thoughts were already far beyond the ink lines and marked roads.

If Norihiro died in the middle of that battle, with Urakami’s men surrounding him and samurai steel filling the field, the story would spread on its own. No matter what truly happened in the final moments, people would believe the samurai had killed him.

That was all that mattered.

The South would not blame the shinobi.

They would not turn their anger toward Kaguya.

Instead, their rage would fall on the samurai clans, the very forces now gathering behind Prince Takehiko. And if enough people began to believe that Takehiko had supported the attack to remove Norihiro before he could threaten the throne, then the prince’s name would become tied to the bloodshed as well.

Norihiro had spent years making himself appear like the protector of the South. He had gathered loyalty, fear, and hope around himself until many believed he was the only man capable of standing against the North.

If he died by the hands of a samurai army sent from beyond the South, the wound would run deep.

People would not see it as the death of a greedy and ambitious Daimyo.

They would see it as the South being attacked.

And when the dust settled, when Norihiro’s banners had fallen and his soldiers were broken, the people would be left without a leader.

That was when they would need someone else to turn to.

Someone who could offer stability.

Someone who could promise protection.

Someone who had not sent an army into their lands.

Kaguya, the moon Princess of Amaterasu.

The Kastorian capital.

Nathan’s plan was not only to remove Norihiro.

It was to break the support beneath Prince Takehiko before it could become too strong. The samurai clans had long believed they could shape Kastoria however they wished, using their armies, their influence, and their control over ambitious nobles. They thought they could remove one Daimyo, take control of the South, arm themselves with Sadamasa’s weapons, and grow stronger from the conflict.

Nathan intended to make their victory poison them instead.