With the conclusion of battle, Gengyo emerged from the gates of his battered castle successful. In the distance, he saw a detachment of hors.e.m.e.n wheel their stallions around and gallop away into the distance.
"The Imagawa stain still breaths," he muttered, somehow dissatisfied by that. Like father like son, he supposed, the coward did not even draw his sword to fight his own battles.
"Our work is done here," he said to his generals as they stood beside him. "There are dead to be burned and buried, but the initiative is ours, for now. More enemies will crawl out of the woodwork soon enough, but before then, we must claim what we have won."
"More land," Morohira smiled, "I can feel my pockets growing fatter by the second. War is a good business."
"Aye," Gengyo nodded, "each of you will have your fair share of it. An estate, at least, in each province. More than enough to keep your families set for generations when we retire from this business."
"I don"t want to retire," Morohira said. "Keep conquering, I say, until the whole world is ours."
"I wouldn"t mind that," Rokkaku agreed, a thoughtful look on his face.
"Haha, one step at a time. Let"s get this dealt with. Owari needs claiming, as do the old Imagawa provinces. We will have the strength to put an end to the Hojo whilst we are down there as well," Gengyo said.
"Owari…" Jikouji mumbled, "one step closer to Kyoto. The shogun will begin to notice our movements soon enough… Aren"t we causing quite a stir?"
"It matters not," Matsudaira spoke up on behalf of Gengyo, "we"ll deal with them all the same, just like we dealt with the rest of them. Our army is sure to grow even more as we pluck these fruits that we"ve earned, and then, our strength will be unquestionable."
"My thoughts exactly," Gengyo agreed, "we can only hope that our Takeda friends are succeeding in their governing, and then they will have more power to send our way. For now though, let us call together all our men and march back from the palace. It"s time to meet up with Morojo, I would think."
"The messages have already been sent," Matsudaira told him. "Upon the conclusion of battle, I had a scout sent to each fortress. I do not doubt that they will be here shortly," he paused a moment to look around their wreck of a castle, "I wonder, is it worth rebuilding this?"
"If we have the resources and men to spare, perhaps, but our borders will soon be stretched several provinces down and that is where we will meet our enemies, rather than here. Even if we were to build them, they would likely see no use," Gengyo said.
"Unless our enemy arrive by sea," Jikouji reminded them.
"A fair point…" Gengyo agreed, "we will have to make preparations to avoid such attacks, else it could ruin us entirely."
He turned back to glance at the mess of a fortress. "Regardless, we need not stay here much longer. Soft beds and silken sheets for the next few days at least… Our battle is over, for now. What we have achieved in such a short amount of time is nothing short of a miracle. We must celebrate duely."
There were cheers at that, especially from the girls. "I can"t wait," Akiko put in, "after so long travelling, and then sleeping outside for two nights in a row – it"s going to be a real treat."
"A good sleep… I do look forward to that," old Jikouji said, stretching out his back. "When you get to my age, pulling these all-nighters like you"re having me do, it grows more difficult on the body."
"We couldn"t have done it without you, old man," Gengyo said truthfully, a hand on his shoulder, "shall we leave this rabble to the captains and go on ahead? A swift horse and we"ll be in luxury in a matter of hours."
"That"s the best thing you"ve said all day," Rokkaku said without hesitation.
"Bold, leaving the captains without a general… But I suppose after today, we have nothing left to worry about," Togas.h.i.+ said. When even he was in agreement, it was all but decided. They wandered back inside of the castle together, towards the remnants of the stables and they nabbed themselves a horse each.
Glancing up at the sky, they noted that the sun had only just pa.s.sed its highest point. There was still a few hours of daylight left. It felt like they had been fighting much longer than they truly had.
The servants looked at them in surprise as they all demanded a horse to be saddled, still clad in their bloodied armour from battle, but nevertheless, their demands were met, and within minutes, they were all mounted, barrelling out of the battered castle gates with the giddiness of children.
The men cheered their leaving, not seeming to mind that they would be left behind. The euphoria of victory still had yet to wear off, and they smiled at everything as though intoxicated. No one could do any wrong.
Winter was coming, that much was clear as they raced across the open plains. Patches of thin white frost clung to the green gra.s.s, hiding in the shadows where the sun had yet to reach.
Their laughter hung freely in the air as they rode. There was a sense of freedom in their hearts as they proceeded unenc.u.mbered, reminding them of a time when they had nothing – no men to follow them, nor grand army to fight their battles. It had been a difficult time, for sure, but they looked back on it fondly now, from their position near the top of the mountain.
"They would be proud of you, lad," Jikouji said quietly as they rode, looking up towards the sky. Gengyo did not need to ask who he was referring to.
"Proud of us, Jikouji," Gengyo said back. "This was not my doing. It was the doing of us all."