After meeting with Lord Noguchi, Jiaguo’s army—now bolstered by Noguchi’s forces—used the former Urayama village as a staging ground. While they prepared to move out, Kaede found Luo Mingyu in a small cottage, working by himself to produce rejuvenation pills as quickly as he could.

“You’re a surprisingly hard worker, aren’t you?”

He glanced up at her and furrowed his brows, nodding in greeting without stopping his work.

“General Hayakawa. I’m not sure when I ever gave you the impression that I wasn’t. I made every effort to save Lee Jung—at great personal cost I might add—and if I hadn’t been cajoled by my master and my father into taking command here, I’d be back in Jiaguo toiling away on inventing a revolutionary new elixir which would have every sect master in the empire coming after my head. Again, for your benefit. Frankly, I’m a little insulted.”

Kaede pursed her lips.

“You’re right. I’m sorry.”

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“And now I’m telling off the head of state and direct commander of the army. By the emperor, I’ve been back with my family for less than a year and I’m already turning into my father.”

“It’s fine. I prefer honesty to sycophants. The elixir is actually what I came to talk to you about.”

Luo Mingyu finally stopped and gave her his full attention.

“Oh? I know my sister was getting ready to attempt her breakthrough. I’m not sure I can help with any problems from here, but I’ll listen.”

Kaede raised an eyebrow.

“Sister?”

He blushed and returned to his work.

“My parents took in and raised another child in my absence. What else should I call her?”

Kaede hadn’t realized they’d grown so close, but judging from his emotions it was a genuine familial connection. She elected not to pry—it was none of her business.

“In any case, it won’t be necessary. Her elixir was a success—better than we expected, even.”

“Was it? That’s good to hear—though I have to remind you that this doesn’t even get us halfway to a generalized solution.”

“I’m aware. Yi Lan had personal tutelage from you and Lin Xiulan, the same foundation that you used to craft your original elixir, and all of the resources we could supply. Still, it’s a remarkable breakthrough, and we wouldn’t have been able to do it without you.”

Luo Mingyu shrugged.

“I’m sure there are others who could have done it. Prime Minister Yan is quite adept at alchemy herself—as expected of Yan Hao’s former disciple. She made quite a few contributions. My personal awakening elixir just provided a base.”

“And it’s been invaluable. I know we got off to a rocky start, but I don’t want you to think that we take your work for granted.”

“Did we? It seems to me that before now we’ve hardly interacted.”

Kaede paused for a moment before realizing that he didn’t know she was Yoshika.

“I suppose not. Anyway, what I meant to tell you was that Yi Lan’s elixir not only worked, but that she broke through as a unified cultivator?”

His eyebrows rose incredulously.

“Really? I’d love to hear her account of it.”

Kaede produced a scroll from within her sleeve and passed it to him.

“You’ll have to make do with reading it. Feel free to bring me your response—along with any other correspondence you want to send back home. We’ll be staying in regular contact with Jiaguo.”

He accepted the scroll with a polite bow.

“Thank you, General Hayakawa. I didn’t realize Jiaguo had the means to do that.”

They didn’t, yet. The reflecting pool was still fairly limited, and creating new focuses was costly and time consuming. But as long as Kaede was with the army, she could communicate instantly with Yoshika’s other aspects.

But Luo Mingyu didn’t need to know all that.

“We have a few tricks available to us, and we’re learning more every day thanks to valued researchers like yourself. I’d say your talents are wasted toiling away on rejuvenation pills, but I’ve seen first hand just how invaluable they can be.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Are they? I don’t have any experience with this sort of thing. I don’t know why my master put me in charge of her cult members—I don’t think they even trust me much. I’m only making these because it’s what I used to spend my time on back in Lushan. Comfort in familiarity.”

Kaede frowned.

“If your people don’t trust you, then you should be working to build that trust. Don’t isolate yourself—get them involved. While you and the others in the support corps won’t be directly involved in the fighting, your role in the battle is no less crucial.”

He sighed.

“I know that. I suppose I shouldn’t sell myself short without even trying. Thank you for the encouragement—and for the letter from my sister.”

“Of course. Don’t hesitate to ask if you need anything else.”

----------------------------------------

As they approached Kurokawa’s lands, Kaede met in camp with Long Ruiling, Jin Hu, and Yang Qiu to discuss the upcoming battle.

“Kurokawa isn’t going to let us just march straight up to his castle. There will be fighting, and I want to try to keep it away from populated areas.”

She unfurled a map she’d borrowed from Lord Noguchi and drew a line with her finger from their current position to a lightly forested area not far from the castle.

“This is about as far as we can reasonably expect to get. The forest will hide our approach and serve as a staging ground, but the open field beyond it will be our battleground.”

Jin Hu stroked his chin as he examined it—as though he was used to having a much longer beard.

“That’s quite a bold approach. It would be better to capture a few villages along the way and fortify our position.”

“There are two reasons we’re not doing that. First, it’s slow. Noguchi is going to handle Fujiwara, so we can expect to be safe from western reinforcements, but if Kurokawa’s allies to the east have time to catch wind of our approach, the fighting will get much harder.”

Long Ruiling nodded.

“I’m guessing the second is that you want to minimize civilian casualties?”

“Right. Ideally, we want to depose Kurokawa swiftly and efficiently. I’m here to assert myself as the rightful ruler of the territory, not raze it to the ground. If we make a straight march for the castle, he’ll have to respond fast.”

Yang Qiu grinned, cracking her knuckles excitedly.

“Hit them hard and fast—I like it. What happens when we rout the vanguard?”

“That depends. If they hold us off for too long, then Kurokawa will have time to assemble greater forces and call his allies for support. In that case, we might end up in an even larger battle here—”

She indicated a hilly area just east of the castle.

“That’s the worst case. The terrain will be better for them, and they’ll have time to set up staging grounds on the best hills.”

Jin Hu frowned.

“And the best case?”

“We swiftly rout Kurokawa’s vanguard and force him to hole up in his castle. We won’t need to worry about a siege in that case. While our forces are engaged outside the walls, I’ll go in and directly take care of Kurokawa myself.”

With her lieutenants briefed, Kaede was ready to begin their first real assault, but Jin Hu pursed his lips, a deep frown creasing his brows.

“Forgive me for saying this, but as a Lady of Yamato you should know better than to assume you can force your way through with personal strength. If it was as simple as that, Yamato would have been crushed by the empire centuries ago.”

That was a bold claim, and in another life Kaede might have been insulted, but she understood what he was getting at.

The Qin Empire had learned the hard way that Yamato fortifications were not to be trifled with. They were designed to force invaders through complicated pathways and place them in disadvantageous positions. Invading xiantian fighters would find themselves swarmed with third stage martial artists, often armed with powerful enchanted weapons.

Of course, a powerful enough cultivator could just raze the castle from the outside—but Yamato had answers for that too. She hoped it wouldn’t come to that, but she’d been growing less certain of her father’s motives each day.

“I understand your concern, but I’m no foreign invader. Once I’ve made it to the castle, I’ll be able to issue a challenge. If he accepts, then we duel and the battle is as good as won. Declining would be seen as an act of cowardice, and I doubt his soldiers would have the morale to stand against me after that.”

“That’s still quite a gamble. Should any part of this strategy go awry, we’ll be in a very difficult position.”

“That’s true—but I’m thinking further ahead than just the battle with Kurokawa. A steady, cautious approach will favor my father, giving him time to prepare. We take a swift, bold, and risky approach now in order to secure a stronger position going forward.”

He sighed and shook his head.

“As always, then. I suppose some things never change.”

Kaede narrowed her eyes. That struck her as a rather odd thing to say. It was their first battle together, and they hadn’t been traveling together long enough to warrant such a comment.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that boldness and risk has ever been the hallmark of Jiaguo and its leaders—since its very inception and likely before. As your advisor, I feel compelled to warn you that such things tend to fall as meteorically as they rise.”

“I’ve been told that before, and believe me—I understand. I’d greatly prefer the slow and steady approach, if it were an option. Fate conspires to constantly set fires on our backs, pushing us forward more quickly than we’d like.”

He inclined his head and bowed.

“As you say. I have given my opinion—and I admit that I do not have a better alternative to offer.”

“Then if there are no further objections, we move on Kurokawa first thing tomorrow.”

The three of them bowed in sync and voiced their acknowledgement, leaving Kaede alone to think about what was to come. The first real battle of her first real war. She doubted it would all go to plan—one of the first things she’d been taught was that they never did.

She had a complicated mix of nerves and excitement. These were her own people she was fighting against, but in all likelihood her first war was always going to be.

She reminded herself that this wasn’t about conquest. Kaede wasn’t here to subdue or to grow her territory. Master Yumi needed her. She still didn’t know what her father was up to or why, but whatever it was, she was going to put a stop to it. She wasn’t sure what would happen to the nation after that, but any future was better than the path of wanton destruction her father promised.

Kaede spent the rest of the night meditating to calm herself in preparation for the battle. She knew that she was ready—she just had to prove it.