Warring States Survival Guide
Chapter 65 - 38: He Is Him

Chapter 65: Chapter 38: He Is Him

Nozawa sat on the donkey cart, Tao Liulang led the donkey, Jing Qilang had his bow and arrows slung on his back, and A Qing, with the little macaque, guarded them with a stick. Just like when they came, they headed all the way back to Hibi Village.

This westward trip didn’t bring back any true scriptures—Japanese monks absolutely have no real scriptures, Nozawa could bet his head on it—but the gains weren’t bad at all: he built up a friendly diplomatic relationship with the Hosokawa Family in Hosokawa Castle, figured out the true weight of Japanese monks in Japan’s Middle Ages, and even got a whole box of books free of charge. Not too shabby, right?

Nozawa was quite pleased with all that, but having learned his lesson from last time, he didn’t dare relax too much on the way home. He kept an eye out for any trouble, just in case someone caught a wild idea and actually tried to rob him.

That was because, thinking back, he vaguely remembered Oda Hideyoshi once just riding idly along a road and, bam, got shot dead out of nowhere. That guy was "Tiger of Owari" Oda Nobuhide’s legitimate son, and the Sixth Celestial Demon King Oda Nobunaga’s full brother! Got offed for no reason right in his own territory—how unlucky is that?

Sure, Oda Hideyoshi was probably still alive at this point, but this only went to show—living in chaotic times, especially when you’re out traveling, there’s no room for carelessness. Status means nothing; even a transmigrator like you can get axed just the same.

This time, at least, he’d learned from experience and was alert to his surroundings. But A Qing, on the other hand, seemed to have let her guard down, still preoccupied with what happened before—Okumura Iefuku had clearly tried to recruit Nozawa, and the offer was tempting. But Nozawa barely hesitated before very politely turning him down.

That left A Qing feeling a bit sorry for him. If only he’d said yes, Nozawa would no longer be a "wandering samurai," but an official Samurai instead. He’d have land, a proper home, and stable income for life.

Even though she didn’t like samurai—heck, maybe even hated them all—she still thought this wouldn’t be a bad thing for him. With Nozawa’s kind, righteous, and generous nature, even if he went into managing a small village, he probably wouldn’t enforce "extra land dues," "military rations," or "horse taxes." He just wasn’t the type to squeeze peasants dry.

At the very least, she was sure he wouldn’t go tracking down villagers who couldn’t pay their annual taxes, let alone hunt down their families and kill everyone, including kids and pregnant women, just for running away.

She couldn’t figure out what Nozawa was thinking. She held it in for quite a while. Even as cool and reserved as she was, she finally couldn’t help herself and softly asked, "Why?"

"Why what?" Nozawa blinked, not getting her seemingly random question.

"That thing that happened earlier."

"You mean the Hosokawa Family’s plan to ’recruit’ me?" Nozawa caught on, thought about it, and decided it was hard to explain to A Qing, so he just smiled and said, "I didn’t like it, so I turned it down."

The Hosokawa Family’s intention to recruit him hadn’t surprised him at all. Even in Taiko 2, if he found a general with five-star medical skills, he’d run across half the map trying to hire the guy, just so a ninja wouldn’t suddenly jump in and announce: "My lord, Samurai General XX died of illness."

Last month’s new recruit with maxed-out loyalty might die the next month, and take a pile of treasure with him too—not something anyone could stand. That’s why you needed a high-medical-skill household retainer.

So the Hosokawa Family wanting to add him to their team made perfect sense. He’d thought about it a lot, but no matter how much he mulled it over, he just couldn’t accept it.

The main issue? The whole "寄亲寄子制度"—translating, just think of it as the "Godfather-Godson system." Makes more sense now, right?

Like in Romance of the Three Kingdoms—Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei all had adopted sons, right?

Or Lv Bu, who supposedly switched godfathers like T-shirts; "I wish to become your godson" practically became a catchphrase.

And then there’s Mao Wenlong, hero against the Qing, who was rumored to have a thousand godsons to fill out the ranks of the East Jiang army. That’s obviously exaggerated, probably not true, but even as a wild rumor, odds are he had a good seven or eight godsons for real.

If you throw these godsons into the context of Japan’s Middle Ages, they basically become household retainers—it’s a "father orders, son obeys" relationship, absolute loyalty. But it doesn’t mean inheritance rights—adopted sons can inherit, but godsons, even if the adopted son takes over, godsons still have to treat him as their lord-father. Status never changes.

So, no matter how the "Godfather-Godson system" gets defined in the dictionary, how they say it’s just a way of taking in non-blood-related outsiders, the reality is: once you sign up as a household retainer, your lord is your dad. No matter how unreasonable—if the lord tells you to commit seppuku, under the rules, he’s always right, and even running away is the worst crime.

The ruler wants the subject to die; the subject must die. The father demands the son’s life; the son can’t refuse.

Back in the day, this wasn’t just a joke—and for household retainers, both sayings applied.

Nozawa’s own dad might’ve been an asshole, but he’d never thought about picking up another. He didn’t want his fate hanging on someone else’s whim, much less do a bunch of kowtowing—in this era, the first thing you do to become a household retainer is kneel and slam your head into the ground, shouting "Please take care of me from now on!" to establish the relationship. What a pain.

As for the whole "blending into the era" thing after transmigrating...

He just couldn’t. He was fine with being hired, doing business with the locals, or treating patients. None of that touched his bottom line—modern society’s full of similar stuff. But the thought of bowing and scraping to someone on holidays, or every time there’s a meeting, and being yelled at like a kid with zero dignity, worrying about farting in the wrong direction—that was a hard no.

He’s a person, a person with dignity. It flew in the face of everything his twenty years of modern education taught him. No matter how good Okumura Iefuku’s offer was—the big house near the river in Hosokawa Castle, a few chō of the best paddy fields, and even a few households as retainers, with the men working like oxen and the women free for the taking...

Okumura even hinted he wouldn’t be expected to actually fight. When war broke out, all he had to do was shout a bit from the rear; other household retainers would go charge and hack one another to death—no need to get his hands dirty.

But even so, Nozawa still wouldn’t do it.

Of course, maybe that’s dumb. In most novels, you’d take the job, use your smarts and modern knowledge to reinvent a family from the inside, blow the lord’s mind—what’s a couple of bows every now and then, right? But he really just didn’t want to kowtow to anyone or become someone’s "godson."

If someone really tried to force him, he’d rather take Dumb Son and run off into the hills to live like a wild man. If not for Dumb Son being so fragile, living outside would be too dangerous; otherwise, he’d probably be up there already, wandering around the mountains, seeing if he could stumble back into the modern world.

Call it his personal hang-up. If someone else ended up stranded in Japan and wanted to be a household retainer, hey, good for them—everyone’s got their own ambitions.

But these were tough things to explain to A Qing, raised in feudal times. So all he could do was be vague and say he just didn’t like it and had no plans of "coming out."

A Qing still didn’t really get it, but with her personality, even asking once was pretty good. She just looked down and dropped the subject.

The group meandered like that all the way back to Hibi Village without a hitch.

First thing Nozawa did at home was check up on Dumb Son, while Ah Man stopped A Qing at the door, eyed her up and down, and whispered, "Did he do anything bad to you?"

Left at home, Ah Man had been thinking more and more after Nozawa and the others didn’t come back that night—what if Nozawa, with that slick tongue, took advantage of A Qing? She’d be at a loss! She’d only promised out A Qing’s head, not the rest of her body!

A Qing shook her head slightly, "No, sis, he’s a good guy."

"Good guys have dirty minds too! The nicer they look, the more they bottle it up and the worse it gets! The ones buying raunchy art books in town are usually these types. You don’t get it, but I do!" Ah Man circled around A Qing but couldn’t find anything out of place. She muttered, "He didn’t even touch you? Touching is extra, you know! Can’t let him get that for free!"

A Qing looked at her coolly for a moment, at a loss. She turned her head slightly and said softly, "No, sis. He’s a good person."

"Well, maybe he really is a good guy. Hard to believe there are any of those these days..." Ah Man looked disappointed but quickly perked up and ran to find Yayoi. "You all had a tough trip, I’ll get Yayoi to make some chicken and a big dinner for everyone to enjoy tonight!"

"Wait, sis!" A Qing hesitated and tugged Ah Man’s sleeve, quietly explaining about Nozawa turning down the job in hopes her fast-talking sister could persuade him. After all, Nozawa was a good man and she wanted him to have a better life, as long as he didn’t push the villagers too hard.

Ah Man was shocked, "What? You got offered a sweet deal like that and said no? He’s nuts!"

She dropped A Qing and rushed inside to find Nozawa, not caring that Nozawa was in the middle of checking Meng Ziqi’s pulse. She shoved over and asked, "Why wouldn’t you take the job? Wouldn’t being a proper samurai be way better? Wandering samurai aren’t worth a dime, you know that?"

Nozawa, facing this streetwise girl who felt like a modern friend, was willing to say a few real words. He just shook his head, "I don’t want to bow and scrape to anyone, don’t want anyone bossing me around. I’m good the way things are, honestly!"

"All that fuss for this? What’s a few bows—dung beetles have to bow every day for a bite of poop, you think you’ve got gold on your kneecaps or something?" Ah Man was incredulous and held out her hand. "Bowing’s nothing! Give me a string of coins and I’ll kowtow ten times for you right here! For the next month, every time I see you I’ll throw in another, cross my heart!"

"Get lost, I’m not you!"

"But you’re really being an idiot! What are you going to eat later? Haven’t you blown through half your cash already?" Ah Man pressed on with her lecture, "You waste all your money buying medicine for poor folks, end up trading for beans and buckwheat and radishes—stuff nobody will buy, can’t sell, you’ll run out quickly! It’s not every day someone is willing to take you in—go ask if they’ll reconsider!"

If Nozawa went broke for lack of a steady job, there’d be no more chicken stew for her, and worst case, she’d go back to begging and wandering the roads. So she couldn’t stay calm! Plus, with Nozawa being such a softie, if he refused to become a Samurai, well, she could do it herself! She could guide him to bully villagers, boss people around—live way better than now!

It’d be such a shame to pass this up!

"All right, enough already! I know what I’m doing. No need to worry yourself hoarse!" Nozawa finished Meng Ziqi’s pulse, saw he was stable, and went off to read his books, not wanting to deal with her anymore. "When I’m running low on cash, I’ll figure out a way to earn it. When the day comes, I’ll stew ten chickens a day and stuff you till you burst!"

That’s just the way he was—easygoing about small stuff, but stubborn as a mule about the big things. Took beatings as a kid, but the more he got hit, the tougher he got. In the end, at a young age, he broke his drunken, abusive father’s head in turn and became the local "unfilial son." But even after all that, he never bowed his head for anyone.

So forget about Maeda Toshimasa, even Oda Nobunaga himself could show up with promises of riches, but don’t expect him to kneel and grovel as a household retainer, much less lick boots for anyone.

Let them think what they want—he is who he is, and this life, he’s just going to be like this!