Vol. 1 Chapter 2.10 – Mid-November, 1566

Several weeks after the rice harvest had ended, an unseasonable typhoon struck the Japanese archipelago. The village where Shizuko lived was no exception, and day after day of dreary drizzle followed.

“…The mountain still hasn’t been fully tended to yet. Having this many rainy days in a row isn’t good.”

The area surrounding Nisaku’s village was covered with Japanese cedar, oak and cypress. Deep-rooted tree species were weak against lateral forces and when heavy rains brought by typhoons struck, the ground could fail to withstand the pressure, creating the risk of landslides and debris flows.

In regions with established forestry traditions, tree species such as beech and zelkova, whose roots spread out like a mesh, would be left standing and incorporated into reforestation. However, Nisaku and the others had not originally been mountain folk. They had once been villagers from the same settlement as Daiichi and the others.

They had likely cut down trees without thinking too deeply about it and replanted profitable species such as oak and cypress. As a result, they had ended up worsening the environment around their village.

‘The soil had already turned into sludge, so the drainage is probably poor. Long periods of heavy rain from a typhoon…I need to be prepared for the worst-case scenario.’

It had only been recently that Shizuko had begun restoring the surrounding forest together with Nisaku and the others. Because of that, Nisaku’s village still remained vulnerable to landslides.

With heavy rain from the typhoon continuing day after day under such conditions, Shizuko could not shake a terrible feeling about what might happen.

“Woof.”

With a bark, Wittmann and Kaiser pressed themselves against Shizuko. She crouched down and stroked both of their heads. Hearing them, König and the others gathered around as well, wagging their tails as they affectionately crowded around her.

“Fufu, sorry. Did I make you worried too?”

Realizing there was no point in worrying herself sick, Shizuko could only pray that the typhoon would pass quietly.

However, her prayers were in vain.

The heavy rains that continued for several days left deep scars upon Shizuko and the others.

The day after the typhoon passed, Shizuko went out to inspect the condition of the village. Fortunately, none of the buildings had collapsed but the rice paddies and fields had suffered extensive damage.

Leaves blown in by the fierce winds had piled up everywhere, while the animal-proof fences around the fields had collapsed, their posts brutally torn down from the base.

Fortunately, the rice and sweet potatoes had already been harvested, so the only crop that suffered damage was the soybean field scheduled for harvest in December. Even so, the plants had suffered problems such as dropped pods and lodging.

“Ahaha… looks like we’ll be doing reinforcement work for a while.”

Regardless of their condition, any fallen soybean plants would first be raised upright, then earthed up around the base to help restore their vigor. As for the damaged animal-proof fences, there was no choice but to rebuild them from scratch. Shizuko decided that the fallen leaves could be collected and used as material for leaf mold.

“Whoa, this is awful…”

Daiichi and Tagosaku, who arrived later to inspect the fields, lamented the devastated state of the farmland.

The fields they had worked so hard to build up had been wrecked by a single typhoon. It was only natural that they felt disheartened.

“Daiichi-san, please call everyone together.”

“Understood, Village Chief.”

Daiichi and Tagosaku hurried off to gather the villagers. Before long, they returned with everyone in tow.

The villagers reacted just as Daiichi and Tagosaku had, lamenting the disastrous state of the fields.

“Alright, as you can see, we’ve suffered damage from the typhoon. We’ll divide the work and focus on restoring everything. The fallen leaves will be gathered and used for leaf mold. The soybean plants will be raised back up and earthed up. The animal-proof fences will be rebuilt. We’ll split into three groups and handle those three tasks.”

Shizuko issued her instructions while looking over the villagers. Once she confirmed that no one objected, she worked together with Daiichi to divide everyone into groups.

The fields were fairly extensive, but with several dozen men available, the fallen leaves and soybean fields were dealt with in a day or two. Rebuilding the animal-proof fences would take somewhat longer, since they first had to gather the necessary materials.

“Village Chief, do you have a moment?”

On the second day of the restoration work, Daiichi approached Shizuko while she was making leaf mold from the fallen leaves.

Seeing the grave expression on his face, Shizuko immediately sensed that something bad had happened.

“The road leading to Nisaku’s village… it’s been blocked by a mountain of earth.”

A road buried under earth.

That could only mean the landslide Shizuko had feared most had finally occurred.

Though shaken inwardly, she calmly asked Daiichi for the details.

Fortunately, if one could call it that, the landslide had apparently not been transformed into a debris flow by the torrential rain, so the scale of the damage was not especially severe.

However, the large amount of earth had swept away trees lining the road, destroying it so badly that Nisaku and the others would be unable to descend the mountain unless restoration work was carried out.

In the Sengoku period, roads were poorly maintained and usable routes were few to begin with. In mountainous regions especially, the loss of a road could become a matter of life and death.

Animal trails concealed all sorts of dangers, sometimes to the point that using them meant risking one’s life.

“Hmm…but for now, restoring our own village has to come first. We can’t exactly abandon everything here and rush off to help Nisaku-san’s village…”

Nisaku’s village had not been the only place struck by the typhoon.

Shizuko’s village had suffered damage as well, as had many other villages in the surrounding area. At present, everyone had their hands full dealing with their own problems.

Helping others would only be possible after their own restoration work was complete.

“Yes, I understand that. That’s why I was wondering if something could be done once our repairs are finished.”

“…Then we’ll need a reason for restoring that road. No one can be expected to sacrifice themselves for complete strangers, after all.”

Shizuko’s agricultural reforms had allowed them to build up plentiful reserves but the villagers were still living day to day.

The newly added villagers in particular still lived in fear of famine caused by natural disasters.

If Shizuko asked them now to take part in rescue work for outsiders, they would probably not agree so readily.

“Yes… you’re right. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said something so unreasonable.”

“No, I understand how you feel. But if we force people into something reckless, it’ll only create discord. It’s not such a simple matter, is it?”

“Yes.”

“…Tomorrow, I’ll gather some people and have them inspect the surrounding areas. When they do, could you check on Nisaku-san and the others as well?”

Daiichi nodded at Shizuko’s words. There was a reason she intended to investigate the surrounding region.

She needed to determine whether any villages devastated by the natural disaster might arm themselves and attack her village.

During the Sengoku period, warfare was not limited to conflicts between provinces. Fighting between villages and towns was also treated as a form of battle.

If only one village fought another or one town clashed with another, the scale might remain small. However, the underlying cause of such conflicts was often chronic hunger.

Naturally, neither side could afford to lose, so they would often contact friendly villages and request reinforcements. Such assistance, of course, was not free; an appropriate amount of food or money had to be paid in return. If they lacked sufficient compensation, they would even take on debt.

Unlike modern times, however, such debts were not incurred by individual villagers but by the village or town as a whole.

At times, even after going into debt to wage battle, the two sides could end up deadlocked if their opponent had gathered a comparable force. When that happened, the matter would be settled through negotiations between the parties, or through adjudication.

If even that failed, they might seek military assistance from their lord.

From the perspective of provincial lords, warfare between villages and towns reduced overall productivity, so they had to take care to prevent such situations whenever possible. It was for that purpose that domain laws and the policies known as rakuichi-rakuza came into being.

Domain laws prohibited members of a lord’s household from taking sides in disputes between villages and towns within the territory and violators could be banished.

Rakuichi-rakuza can give the impression that provincial lords simply stripped temples, shrines and other local authorities of their privileges in order to monopolize profits. In reality, however, such measures were implemented through agreements between provincial lords, local authorities and villagers in order to minimize conflict.

Even Nobunaga’s rakuichi-rakuza ordinances were, for the most part, issued in response to requests from local residents and were intended in part to promote economic recovery.

As a result, the contents of rakuichi-rakuza ordinances differed from town to town. In Azuchi, for example, ordinances were issued to encourage the circulation of goods, while in Kanamori, measures were introduced to concentrate merchandise there.

“It’s not good to be overly accommodating but rejecting everyone outright isn’t good either.”

The simplest way to eliminate such conflicts between villages and towns was to establish a system capable of producing abundant food.

That was precisely why Shizuko had first cultivated high-yield sweet potatoes and only once they had gained some breathing room had she turned her attention to rice cultivation.

“I understand. But if possible, please come up with some good justification for helping them.”

“That depends on the situation. If Nisaku-san and the others say they’ll manage somehow on their own, forcing our help on them could become a problem too.”

“He’s stubborn. He’d probably insist everything was fine even while pushing himself beyond his limits.”

Perhaps remembering the old days as he spoke, Daiichi gave a wry smile.

Shizuko smiled wryly as well but soon composed herself.

“I know you’re anxious, but please hold out until tomorrow.”

“Yes, understood.”

Daiichi bowed to Shizuko one last time before returning to his work area.

Shizuko thought that the fact his steps seemed just a little lighter was probably not her imagination.

On the third day of the restoration work, Shizuko gathered forty men who could be spared and divided them into groups of ten, dispatching them to inspect the surrounding areas to the north, south, east and west.

At first, some of the villagers voiced complaints.

However, the moment Shizuko explained that the inspections were intended to prevent their village from being attacked, they accepted the decision without further objection.

Although Shizuko knew from historical documents that battles between villages had occurred, she still found herself slightly taken aback by just how ordinary such conflicts seemed to be, given how readily the villagers accepted the possibility.

Several hour later, the survey party that had been dispatched to the south returned first.

Not long afterward, the other survey parties returned as well, with the exception of Daiichi’s group, which had been sent in the direction of Nisaku’s village.

“There were no villages that suffered catastrophic damage but as expected, every place sustained some degree of damage.”

“In our area, there were a few deaths. But there wasn’t anywhere that had been completely devastated.”

“It was the same on our side.”

Summarizing their reports, there had indeed been several deaths and various losses but no village or town had suffered damage severe enough to escalate into open conflict.

At this rate, Shizuko thought that simply sending kuyomai (rice offered to temples or shrines for memorial rites) should be sufficient.

However, she still felt somewhat uneasy that Daiichi and the others had yet to return.

Half a hour after dismissing the other three survey parties, Daiichi’s group finally returned.

Aside from the fact that they had brought back someone who had not been with them when they set out, there was nothing particularly unusual about their appearance.

“…First, give me your report.”

“Yes, understood. First, about that mountain of earth. Damn thing buried the road at exactly the spot leading to Nisaku’s village. Since that route’s blocked, Nisaku and the others are trapped up in the mountain. This fellow is from Nisaku’s village. Looks like he came down here by running through an animal trail.”

“Hmm, I see…Just to confirm, this isn’t something you can manage on your own over there, is it?”

Shizuko directed the question toward the man who had descended the mountain despite the danger to himself.

He was trembling slightly and breathing in shallow breaths, but even so, he gave a firm nod.

After hearing about the condition of Nisaku’s village, Shizuko recalled what it was like.

With many elderly people and children but few young adults capable of heavy labor, it certainly would be difficult for them to restore the landslide damage on their own.

Even understanding that, however, she could not simply declare that they would launch a rescue effort.

The justification for mobilizing her villagers was too weak.

Shizuko’s village was not so prosperous that everyone could readily agree to unpaid labor without hesitation.

‘I know that, but this is difficult. Money…we have some but even if I give it to them, they don’t really have anywhere to spend it. As for food, the techniques I taught them have given them some breathing room. It can’t be some distant future benefit. I have to show my villagers an immediate gain that will motivate them, otherwise this will definitely turn into irresponsible work.’

Even if Shizuko simply ordered them to go, most of the villagers would have little motivation.

Providing compensation made workers responsible for the job they had accepted.

Unpaid labor, on the other hand, gave them no real reason to take responsibility for the quality of their work.

If she wanted them to assist in restoring Nisaku’s village, she needed to create a situation in which they would be made responsible for the work while also gaining some benefit from it themselves.

Shizuko folded her arms and considered what justification she could use, but nothing immediately came to mind.

“Hmm… hmm… Ah, that’s it.”

Shizuko had been thinking with her brows furrowed but eventually a bold smile appeared on her face.

It was not necessarily a perfect idea, but she had come up with a sufficiently convincing reason for the villagers to work.

“Village Chief, have you thought of something?”

“I do have an idea. But just to be safe, I need to confirm something with Nisaku-san first. Once that’s settled, we should be able to begin the relief effort.”

Daiichi and the others tilted their heads in confusion, but Shizuko picked up a sheet of paper and began writing a letter to Nisaku.

Once she finished, she handed the letter to the man who had descended by the animal trail and asked him to deliver it to Nisaku.

Daiichi and the others still had no idea what Shizuko was planning but they decided that for now, all they could do was follow her instructions.

On the fifth day of the restoration work, Shizuko received Nisaku’s agreement and gathered the villagers together.

“I’m sure most of you have already heard the rumors, but I’ll explain everything from the beginning. First, the road leading to Nisaku-dono’s village in the mountains has been buried by a landslide, leaving them isolated. At their request, our village will be sending several laborers to assist with their restoration work.”

In that instant, the villagers began to murmur amongst themselves. Shizuko could not make out exactly what they were saying but from the atmosphere, she sensed that many of their opinions were negative.

Of course, she had already expected them to be dissatisfied. Shizuko spread both arms somewhat theatrically, drawing everyone’s attention back to her.

“Please, there is no need to worry. I am not asking you to work without compensation. As for your reward, I have made an agreement with Nisaku-dono. Everything obtained during the restoration work will belong entirely to us. For example, any fallen trees swept down by the landslide may be cut apart and used by us as firewood. Naturally, this does not apply only to timber. Anything and everything unearthed during the work will become ours.”

“Village Head! Does that mean even if we happen to find gold, those people won’t say anything about it?”

One of the villagers raised his hand and asked the question. Apparently everyone wanted to know the answer, for they all held their breath as they waited for Shizuko’s reply.

“Indeed. Stones containing gold or silver, gemstones, and anything else whatsoever will belong to us. However, everyone, please keep one thing in mind. In a sense, this is a gamble, so there is also the possibility that you may gain nothing at all. Think it over carefully before deciding whether or not you wish to participate.”

The villagers began murmuring again but this time their voices carried a mixture of bewilderment, anticipation, and various other emotions. Satisfied that she had, for the moment, dispelled the negative mood, Shizuko clapped her hands several times to gather their attention once more.

“At the very least, there are plenty of fallen trees, so we should be able to obtain enough spare firewood to see us through the coming winter. Anything beyond that will depend entirely on each person’s luck. Now then, the restoration work begins today, so anyone who feels inclined to help may come to the site whenever they please. That is all. If there are no further questions, you are dismissed.”

After making the announcement, she waited for about five minutes, but none of the villagers came forward with any more questions. Even if they were allowed to keep everything they happened to find, the prospect was not profitable enough for them to agree on the spot.

Yet their reaction fell entirely within Shizuko’s expectations, so it did not trouble her in the slightest. Hoisting the tools she had prepared beforehand onto her shoulder, she addressed the villagers who were still wavering.

“Well then, since I was the one who proposed this, I can’t very well avoid helping out myself, so I’ll be off. If anything happens, please inform Aya, who will be at the house. All right then, let’s all do our best again today.”

After giving the villagers a salute, Shizuko set off toward Nisaku’s village with a light step.

Behind her came the Wittmann family, with luggage fastened to their backs, followed farther behind by Daiichi, Tagosaku, and the other villagers who had belonged to the original settlement.

The only ones who remained behind in the village were the people who had joined them that year. After discussing the matter amongst themselves, they ultimately decided that, for the time being, they would spend the day watching how things went.

“Whoa… this really is awful.”

The moment she arrived at the site, those were Shizuko’s first words upon seeing the devastation before her.

Fallen trees lay scattered everywhere, while earth mixed with stones completely buried the road.

At its shallowest, the earth reached roughly to Shizuko’s knees. At its deepest, it had piled into mounds that easily exceeded her height. Even at a glance, it was obvious that restoring the road would require an enormous amount of labor.

“Fufufu… but we have a secret weapon on our side.”

Wearing a fearless grin, Shizuko began unloading tools from the restoration work’s『secret weapon』—a one-wheeled handcart.

A one-wheeled handcart, also known as a neko-guruma, or『cat cart』was a hand-pushed transport cart fitted with a single wheel.

It was used for carrying crops through fields, or transporting materials along mountain paths and at construction sites. Its origins were said to trace back to China during the Three Kingdoms period, where Zhuge Kongming, Chancellor of Shu, supposedly invented a transport device known as the Wooden Ox.

Although it had poor stability when standing upright, its freedom of movement was excellent. In the hands of someone skilled at using it, it could prove far more convenient than a two-wheeled cart.

“Now then, first we’ll cut apart the trees. And for that, here comes Secret Weapon Number Two—an iron pull saw.”

The『pull saw』 which cut wood by drawing the blade toward oneself as modern Japanese saws do, emerged as a result of technological innovations during the Nanboku-cho period.

However, for a long time it remained a specialized tool used by carpenters (craftsmen), and ordinary villages generally had no pull saws of their own.

Because it was a woodworking blade intended specifically for sawing timber, there were relatively few situations in which ordinary villagers could make use of one. Moreover, every individual saw tooth had to be shaped separately and then painstakingly filed into form.

It was an extraordinarily labor-intensive tool to produce and certainly not something one could casually afford to buy.

Bamboo saws also existed but those were used for the punishment known as sawing, in which the neck of a heinous criminal was cut through with a saw.

The saws Shizuko had loaded onto the handcart were made of iron and there were no fewer than thirty of them. Naturally, they did not belong to her. She had asked Nobunaga for them and borrowed them from him.

“Let’s get this cleared up quickly. Women, load the soil onto the neko-guruma and dump it at the place I mentioned. Tagosaku-san, please make the path I explained to you the other day. Everyone else, take a pull saw and start cutting up the fallen trees. As for small branches and damaged pieces that are of no use, throw them into the forest around here.”

Fallen trees take an extremely long time to decompose. During that process, they become habitats and resources for various animals, fungi, and microorganisms, while also providing suitable places for certain plants to take root.

By remaining in the forest for long periods, they also form part of its carbon storage. In other words, fallen trees serve an important ecological function within a forest.

If every fallen tree were removed, there was a risk of weakening the ecological functions they supported. On the other hand, if they were simply left untouched, they could become breeding grounds for pests and diseases.

For that reason, Shizuko decided that anything which could not be used as firewood or timber would be broken down into smaller pieces and discarded back into the forest.

“Village Head! Is this path about right?”

Around ten minutes after the work began, Tagosaku called out to Shizuko with a rope in one hand. She turned toward him, looked at what lay behind him, and nodded.

“I think that’ll do just fine.”

“Right, then I’ll keep going like this.”

Tagosaku grinned and returned to work.

At regular intervals, he drove bamboo poles and sticks into the ground, then tied ropes between them to mark out a path. This was to prevent people from straying off the route while working, and also to keep them from getting lost even after the sun went down and darkness set in.

Shizuko gave a wry smile as Tagosaku continued working while humming to himself, then resumed cutting up the fallen trees with a pull saw in hand.

However, after two koku had passed since the start of the work, Daiichi and the others were almost completely exhausted.

“Haa… haa…I’ve been wondering this for a while now, Village Head, but where do you get that kind of strength…?”

“I-I can still keep going… ugh… I think I’m going to be sick.”

“Don’t push yourselves too hard. If it’s painful, take a short break. You’ll ruin your body if you force it.”

Shizuko continued cutting up the fallen trees while glancing sideways at the exhausted men. Daiichi was forcing himself to remain standing but his knees were trembling beneath him.

After looking over everyone, Shizuko stopped at a convenient point and sat down.

“Let’s take a break around now. We’ve only just started the work and we can’t afford to burn through all our strength this early.”

“Y-yes, that would be wise.”

After forcing a smile, Daiichi lowered himself onto one of the cut logs. He must have been utterly exhausted, because he let out a long, heavy breath.

Shizuko wet her throat with the bamboo water flask hanging from her waist, then leaned against a nearby fallen tree and relaxed her posture.

The Wittmann family soon came trotting over to her, wagging their tails, and began licking around her mouth. After petting them, Shizuko gave a long stretch.

‘We’ll start again after a ten-minute break.’

Ten minutes later, Shizuko stood up while brushing the dust from her clothes, then resumed cutting apart the fallen trees with a pull saw in hand.

After crosscutting a fallen tree into sections roughly forty centimeters long, she lowered herself onto one knee, pulled a log close to her body, and stood back up while keeping her back straight.

Taking care to keep the right and left hands holding the log positioned diagonally opposite one another, Shizuko carried it over to the place where the firewood was being split.

If the log already had a crack, she would hook the axe into it. If it did not, she used the pull saw to create a split along the grain of the wood.

After that, she simply used the weight of the axe to split the wood, loaded the pieces onto the neko-guruma, and hauled them back to the village. That was all there was to it.

Occasionally, there were logs that simply refused to split. Rather than forcing them apart those were carried back to the village whole.

“I think that’ll do for today.”

Looking over the road, which had become just a little cleaner, Shizuko nodded in satisfaction. After ordering everyone to pack up, she loaded the tools onto the neko-guruma and headed down the mountain.

The split firewood was left exposed to the rain to undergo『akunuki』. The logs that could not be split were likewise left out in the rain.

“All right, everyone. Good work today. We’ll be starting again tomorrow morning but if it’s too much for you, feel free to rest properly.”

After calling out to Daiichi and the others, who were utterly exhausted, Shizuko made her way home. She washed the grime from her body in the hot spring, ate the meal Aya had prepared, and then went to bed early in preparation for the following day.

Two weeks had passed since they began helping with the restoration work at Nisaku’s village. The villagers who had initially been reluctant had also started joining in, tempted by the prospect of securing firewood for the winter.

Thanks to that, the restoration work was progressing much faster than it had at first.

Even so, everything still had to be done entirely by hand and there was still no telling when the work would be completed.

“This one’s too hard. Let’s leave it for later.”

As Shizuko sorted the logs that had been brought in, Tagosaku suddenly came rushing into the firewood-splitting area.

Shizuko frowned at his dangerous behavior but Tagosaku failed to notice and came running straight toward her.

“V-Village Head! T-t-t-t-t-t-this is terrible!?”

“I don’t know what’s so terrible yet, but this is an area where we’re handling axes, so be careful. And first, breathe in, breathe out, and calm yourself down.”

Doing as he was told, Tagosaku repeatedly took deep breaths.

After about five breaths, he regained some measure of composure, though the sense of panic still had not left him.

“There’s this huge rock, and it went… A-anyway, please come see it for yourself!”

“…All right. Can you show me the way?”

Guided by Tagosaku, Shizuko arrived at the site.

The moment she saw what was there, she was rendered speechless.

A gigantic boulder sat squarely in the middle of the road.

At a glance, it appeared to be five to six meters wide, three to four meters tall, and, from what she could see by peering around it, nearly five meters deep.

Shizuko could not determine its exact weight, but estimated that it was somewhere between three hundred and five hundred tons.

“Uh… what… is this?”

Even Shizuko could only manage a strained smile before the sheer size of the boulder.

Looking around, she noticed a large hollow in the area where the earth had collapsed.

She was astonished that such an enormous rock had remained intact without changing shape, and equally astonished that it had not shattered during the landslide.

“Village Head… what are we supposed to do with this?”

Daiichi and the others, completely at a loss, looked to Shizuko as though clinging to their last hope.

But no matter how desperately they looked at her, there was nothing Shizuko could do.

There was no heavy machinery.

There was no dynamite with which to blast it apart.

And she knew no way of challenging a boulder of that size with nothing but bare human strength.

‘How are we supposed to deal with a boulder this huge… A-anyway, there’s no point worrying until I investigate it.’

After examining the massive rock, Shizuko determined that it was granite, something relatively rare in Owari.

Granite was used for castle stone walls but because of its equigranular structure, it was extremely hard.

If the boulder had been round, they might have been able to roll it aside but the rock was roughly rectangular.

Considering that such an enormous mass of stone had been buried beneath the earth, Shizuko concluded that the landslide must have occurred repeatedly over time.

“I can’t say what we can do about it right away. Sorry, but give me a little time to think.”

“Right, understood. Once we get this thing out of the way, there shouldn’t be any more obstacles… I heard Nisaku’s group should be able to join up with us by tomorrow as well.”

“Understood.”

Shizuko was inwardly growing anxious but she made a deliberate effort to appear calm. Panicking would not solve anything, and it would only dampen Daiichi and the others’ spirits.

With even the villagers who had joined more recently now helping with the work, there was a high chance they would simply give up on the massive boulder if Shizuko herself started voicing doubts.

That was precisely why she needed to maintain the appearance that somehow, one way or another, they would manage.

‘Oh dear…even if I’m supposed to come up with some idea… it’s not like I actually have one.’

After ordering everyone to clear away the area around the boulder, Shizuko returned to splitting firewood.

In the end, no brilliant solution came to her, and the day passed without progress on that front.

The next day, Shizuko was finally able to join up with Nisaku and his people and she checked on the condition of Nisaku’s village.

Fortunately, the village itself had suffered no damage from the landslide, though apparently the shed where they stored their firewood had been buried beneath the earth and debris.

“The damage on our side was comparatively light, so restoring the road didn’t take all that long. It looks like we’ll somehow manage with the firewood shed as well. The problem is, as expected… that enormous boulder.”

As he spoke, Nisaku cast a glance toward the boulder.

It still sat there blocking the road exactly as it had the day before, almost as though it possessed a will of its own and refused to let anyone pass.

At first, Nisaku had thought it would be faster simply to make a road around it.

However, they had been unable to find any suitable ground. The available routes twisted and turned, passed through land that was difficult to maintain, or crossed areas with severe changes in elevation.

They had also considered moving the boulder off to the side, but a rock weighing several hundred tons would not budge in the slightest under the strength of only a few dozen men.

Shizuko clutched her head inwardly.

Several days had already passed, yet she had still failed to come up with a good solution.

Worse still, her anxiety had begun narrowing her perspective rather than helping her think clearly.

Perhaps because of that inner restlessness, Shizuko crouched down in front of Wittmann beside her and began giving him a massage.

By the time she moved from a full-body massage to working on individual areas, Wittmann’s expression had gone completely slack and blissful.

Seeing that, Kaiser and the others began rubbing their bodies against Shizuko as if demanding the same treatment and at times even bit onto her clothes and tugged at them.

Shizuko gave a wry smile at the wolves’ behavior but nonetheless gave each of them a full-body massage in turn.

It was an endearing sight but when Nisaku watched Shizuko fussing over Wittmann and the others, he realized that even she had reached a situation she did not know how to resolve.

Shizuko herself was unaware of it but whenever she tried to hide her anxiety, she would unconsciously lavish excessive attention on Wittmann and the other wolves.

Daiichi and Tagosaku, who were watching from a short distance away, knew this as well.

That was exactly why they let out resigned sighs, realizing there truly seemed to be no way forward.

“Is there really nothing that can be done?”

Still looking at the massive boulder, Nisaku asked Shizuko in a flat voice.

There was no longer any pleading in his tone.

Only resignation remained.

Hearing that resignation in his voice struck Shizuko with a pain that seemed to pierce straight through her chest.

She glanced around at everyone.

Even before she said a word, every one of them had already concluded that dealing with the giant boulder before them was impossible.

And that was precisely why Shizuko felt anger well up inside her.

Not because they had given up from the very beginning.

But because she herself had done exactly that.

‘I let the sheer presence of that boulder overwhelm me, and I gave up before I even started. It’s still too soon to quit. I should keep going without giving up, push it as far as I can until I’m satisfied I’ve truly exhausted every possibility—and only then, if it still doesn’t work, should I admit defeat.’

Shizuko clenched her fist tightly and racked her brain.

There were any number of ways to break stone in the modern age, but most of them relied on heavy machinery.

In that case, she thought, the clue must lie in how people had turned stone into usable material in an age before such machinery existed.

‘Japanese stone walls, the pyramids of Egypt, European castle walls… There are countless places built with stone. It’s not as though conveniently shaped stones were just lying around everywhere. They must have had some way to shape them and haul them away.’

She remembered that when she had once researched stone walls, she had also looked into methods of transporting stone.

But she could not remember the crucial part—how they actually cut the stone.

“Shizuko-dono?”

Perhaps finding it strange that Shizuko had become completely lost in thought, Nisaku called out to her with a puzzled expression.

His voice snapped her back to her senses. Shizuko lightly shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts.

‘Ah, no, no. I’m panicking, so I can’t even remember something simple. At times like this, I need a change of pace.’

“My apologies. I was just thinking about something. For now, I’ll look into whether there’s any good method we can use.”

“I understand. But there is no need to push yourself too hard. For us humans, knowing when to give up is important too.”

Shizuko gave a wry smile at Nisaku’s words, bowed once and left the area.

Deciding that splitting firewood while her mind was elsewhere would be dangerous, Shizuko headed down the mountain in search of anything that might give her a clue.

Wittmann licked Shizuko’s hand, while Kaiser, König, and the others rubbed their bodies against her.

She understood that they were trying to comfort her in their own way but Shizuko had so little room to spare mentally that all she could manage was to stroke their heads.

‘Hmm…just how did people split stone? There has to be some method…’

She wandered aimlessly while thinking but the answer still refused to come to her.

Giving awkward smiles to the villagers who mistook her wandering for an inspection round, Shizuko continued pacing through the village.

“Hey! Someone give me a hand holding this!”

“Right, leave it to me!”

‘Hm? Ah, they’re repairing the beast fence.’

Shizuko instinctively reacted to the villagers’ voices and turned toward the sound.

There, several villagers were driving a post for the beast-proof fence into the ground.

“Damn, this is hard! This is gonna take some work.”

“Hold on. I heard that with things like this, it won’t go in properly if you just start hammering it straight away.”

One of the villagers moved the post aside and took out a wedge small enough to hold in one hand.

Using it, he first made a hole of a certain depth in the ground.

Then he pulled the wedge out and inserted the pointed end of the post into the hole instead.

“All right, this should work.”

“You sure…? Oh, hey, it actually does.”

Unlike before, the post went into the ground without much trouble and the villagers let out delighted cheers.

Shizuko had been watching the scene with a warm smile but the sight of the post being driven into the ground suddenly brought an image flashing back into her mind.

‘A-Ahhhhh! That’s it! Of course! There was that method! How could I have forgotten it!?’

Having finally hit upon a way to deal with the enormous boulder, Shizuko immediately broke into a run toward Kinzo’s house to gather the tools she would need.

She reached his house in short order and paused to catch her breath.

“Red-hot iron goes~— Wait, Village Head! W-what happened?”

Kinzo had just stepped out of his house while singing some inexplicable song.

The moment he saw Shizuko standing in front of his home trying to catch her breath, he stared at her in surprise.

At first, he was concerned that something had happened to her.

But when Shizuko suddenly raised her head and he saw the look in her eyes, the words slipped unconsciously from his mouth.

“We’re closed for the day.”

“Rejected. I need you to make me a certain tool.”

Kinzo made a futile attempt to resist but Shizuko brushed him off at once, leaving his shoulders slumped.

After two years of dealing with her, he had learned all too well that saying anything to Shizuko when she was in this state was pointless, and he let out a small sigh.

“Yeah, I figured as much. So then, what would you like me to make?”

At Kinzo’s words, Shizuko broke into a broad smile.

“Wedges.”

Once the idea came to her, Shizuko moved quickly.

She divided everyone into two groups: one centered around Kinzo to forge three iron wedges, and another centered around Daiichi and Nisaku to bore holes into the boulder. She then gave each group their instructions.

“Bore holes into the rock…? As usual, I’ve got no idea what goes through the Village Head’s mind.”

“Thinking about it is pointless. The Village Head’s head and ours are built differently. If we just do what we’re told, sooner or later she’ll have this rock dealt with somehow.”

“You really think so? Even for the Village Head, isn’t this thing a bit much?”

With no idea what Shizuko was planning, everyone, Daiichi included, tilted their heads in confusion.

Eventually, however, they grew tired of trying to figure it out and simply carried on with the work exactly as Shizuko had instructed.

“All right, everything’s ready.”

Four days later, Shizuko received word that both the holes in the boulder and the iron wedges had been completed.

With a large hammer in one hand, she headed toward the granite boulder.

By the time she arrived, the villagers had already gathered around.

Some among them had not taken part in the work at all, but Shizuko assumed they had simply come to watch.

After receiving the wedges from Kinzo, she climbed onto the granite.

“Now, where are those holes…? Oh, there they are.”

Into the holes that Daiichi and Nisaku had opened with chisels, Shizuko inserted three iron wedges—the kind that, in her own era, would be called seri-ya.

A few of the holes were somewhat too small and the wedges did not fit easily but she forced them in by striking them with a wooden mallet.

With everyone watching, Shizuko raised the hammer high overhead, her expression no different from usual.

“It might be better if everyone stands back. All right… seiya!”

With a battle cry so lackluster it almost drained the tension from the moment, Shizuko began hammering the seri-ya one after another, starting from the wedge at the end.

Slowly but with firm and powerful blows, she drove the wedges deeper.

The villagers from both Shizuko’s and Nisaku’s villages watched in breathless silence as she worked.

Ten minutes passed, but the only sound was Shizuko hammering the seri-ya and when the enormous granite boulder showed no sign of change, the villagers began to murmur uneasily.

By the time fifteen minutes had passed, they could no longer hide their disappointment.

However, around twenty minutes after Shizuko had begun hammering the seri-ya, a change finally came over the granite.

She had long since lost count of how many rounds she had gone through, but the instant she struck the seri-ya at the end, a crack suddenly raced across the side of the granite.

The villagers could hardly believe their eyes, but as they watched the fissure gradually widen, they realized that the granite truly was beginning to split.

Then, the moment Shizuko struck one of the seri-ya near the center—

the granite split cleanly in two along the line of holes they had opened.

“O-Ooooooh!!”

“It split! It split!”

The villagers erupted into cheers of joy.

Some threw both hands into the air.

Others embraced the people beside them and jumped up and down.

Some were so overwhelmed that tears streamed down their faces.

And there were even those who simply stood there dumbfounded, unable to comprehend what they had just witnessed.

While the villagers trembled with joy, Shizuko’s expression remained unchanged as she wiped the sweat from her brow.

Although she had kept up a calm appearance, inwardly she had been unsure whether she could actually reproduce the stone-splitting technique she had only learned from books. So when the granite finally split cleanly in two, she felt a deep sense of relief.

“Good, it split. All right, let’s break it down a little further before hauling it down to the village. It’ll depend on the quality of the stone but I’ve been told Oda-sama may be willing to buy it.”

Shizuko gave her instructions in the same matter-of-fact tone as always, but Daiichi and Tagosaku did not miss what she did after turning her back to them.

She bent her right arm at the elbow to a ninety-degree angle and raised her fist upward.

After two years of knowing her, Daiichi and Tagosaku understood that Shizuko was someone who expressed her emotions more through gestures than through words.

That restrained little victory pose she had just made was her way of showing how happy she was to have overcome the obstacle.

“Just like the Village Head to keep even that modest” 

Daiichi and Tagosaku thought with wry smiles, before imitating her and making small victory poses of their own.

“Understooood!”

People could be remarkably quick to change their mood. The villagers who had all but given up just moments ago were now so full of energy that they answered her in loud, cheerful voices.

Shizuko smiled wryly as she used charcoal to mark the next places where the wedges were to be driven.

After that, it was simply a matter of repeating the same process.

They bored holes along the line where they wanted the rock to split, drove the seri-ya into those holes and broke apart the granite.

Once the pieces had been reduced to a manageable size, several men worked together to carry them down to the village.

The day after a sample piece of the stone was brought into the village, men dispatched by Nobunaga arrived to inspect the granite.

Although Nobunaga himself would have to make the final decision, the craftsmen judged it to be high-quality granite and Shizuko received their assurance that it would fetch a high price.

This delighted Daiichi and the other villagers even further.

Originally, the agreement stipulated that Shizuko’s village would receive all of the profits. However, in recognition of the help Nisaku’s village had provided in splitting and transporting the granite, Shizuko firmly promised that they too would receive compensation.

And so, the enormous granite boulder weighing several hundred tons was gradually broken down into pieces small enough to transport and those pieces were carried to Nobunaga’s residence, Komaki Castle.

As luck would have it, part of the stone walls surrounding the main enclosure of Komaki Castle—from the northeast around toward the north—was undergoing repairs at the time, so the granite was immediately put to use as building material for the stonework.

After stonemasons dressed and shaped the granite for use in the walls, it was incorporated into the third tier of the koshimaki stonework built along the lower section of the earthen rampart.

As an aside, stonework constructed along the upper section of an earthen rampart is called hachimaki stonework.

When both the upper and lower portions of an earthen embankment are reinforced with stone walls in this fashion, supplementing a shortage of stone while achieving an effect similar to that of an entirely stone-faced fortification, the structure is known as hachimaki-koshimaki stonework.

When the stonemasons saw granite that had been split without following the stone’s natural grain—the direction of its joints—they let out voices of admiration.

The reason for their surprise lay in the difference between the tools that had been used.

The seri-ya Shizuko had used for splitting stone did not require one to examine the stone’s grain with particular care.

By contrast, the craftsmen used tools known simply as ya—wedges made of wood or iron.

Ya and seri-ya transmitted force in different ways.

A ya applied force as though pressing inward and penetrating into the stone, whereas a seri-ya exerted force outward, pushing the stone apart to the left and right.

Because of that subtle difference in how the force acted, using seri-ya was a method that anyone could perform regardless of the quality or hardness of the stone.

However, when using ya, one needed the ability to read the stone’s grain. The angle of the chisel used to make the holes for the wedges, as well as the angle of the wedge tips themselves, also had to be adjusted depending on the quality and hardness of the stone. Without a thorough understanding of stone, it was impossible to split it properly.

To the stonemasons, who knew only the latter method, their curiosity about how the stone had been split seemed endless.

Nobunaga was greatly pleased by the splendid granite and rewarded both Shizuko’s village and Nisaku’s village with two barrels of sake each.

Once payment for the granite was received, Shizuko first paid Nisaku and his people their promised compensation.

Next, she set aside the village’s share of the money and finally distributed whatever remained among the villagers.

At the same time that the distribution of the rewards was completed, the restoration work that Shizuko and the others had continued for an entire month finally came to an end.

“Uwahahaha! As expected of Oda-sama! Now this is some fine sake!”

With sake, food, and coin on hand, there was only one thing to do—

hold a feast to celebrate everyone’s hard work.

The banquet was held jointly with Nisaku’s village on a grand scale, and although the fare was simple, a great many dishes were laid out.

“Still, who would’ve thought a rock that huge could be split apart with wedges this small?”

“I knew from the very beginning that if it was the Village Head, she’d manage somehow.”

“Oi, oi, Tagosaku, don’t start saying things that suit you now. You were the one panicking more than anyone else!”

Everywhere one looked at the banquet, villagers from Shizuko’s village and Nisaku’s village were chatting and laughing together.

It was a feast that made it clear just how much stronger the bond between the two villages had become.

And it continued until every last person had drunk themselves into a stupor.

[Rakuichi-rakuza (楽市・楽座) refers to policies that loosened or abolished traditional market restrictions and guild-like privileges.]

[The Nanboku-chō period, or Northern and Southern Courts period, was a 60-year civil war in Japanese history lasting from 1336 to 1392]

[“Akunuki” (アク抜き) literally means “removing harshness/impurities.”

In this context with firewood, it means leaving the split wood exposed to rain so that water-soluble substances such as sap, tannins, and other compounds are gradually washed out before the wood is dried and used.]

[“Seri-ya” (セリ矢) is a traditional Japanese stone-splitting wedge.]

[Ya (矢), in this stoneworking context, means a wedge used for splitting stone, usually made of wood or iron.]

[“Hachimaki-koshimaki” (鉢巻腰巻) is a Japanese castle-fortification term.

In this context:

鉢巻石垣 (hachimaki ishigaki) = stonework built along the upper part of an earthen rampart

腰巻石垣 (koshimaki ishigaki) = stonework built along the lower part of an earthen rampart

鉢巻腰巻石垣 (hachimaki-koshimaki ishigaki) = a fortification where both the upper and lower sections of an earthen rampart are reinforced with stonework.]