the lady of the castle (2)

There was still so much to do that Harumi had the feeling that there weren't enough hours in the day. Last night she dozed off for a little while at her desk but in the last 48 hours she didn't have more than a few hours of sleep. Still, she was filled with adrenaline, stess and anxiety so she didn't really notice how tired she was. Right now it was still early in the morning but there were already townspeople coming to the castle. Due to the short notice they couldn't provide a proper explanation as to why everybody should come to the castle. Once everybody had arrived Harumi had to give a speech, explaining everything. She already had made countless of drafts and already had sweaty palms. She hated public speaking. Even for school projects she hated it and tried to avoid it at all costs. She also was just very bad at it. When everybody looked at her she would tumble over her words and forget her lines. But now she knew she had to do it. This time she couldn't brush it off or let someone else do it for her. At this moment, now Nobunaga was absent, she was the leader of all these people, everybody was looking at her to find answers. Something that terrified her. Half of the time she had no clue about what she should do or say. Everything she had done the last couple of days where unknown territory for her.

"Nohime?" Two of her maids asked quietly while they walked into Nobunaga's study. Harumi looked up from her paper to look at the concerned faces of the two girls.

"Almost everybody is present, may we suggest that you go change and then welcome the townspeople?" Lin-chan asked.

"Change? Isn't this fine?" Harumi asked absent minded.

"Nohime, you are wearing that kimono for tree days straight... It would be best if you freshen up and put some clean clothes on...." Rike-chan said carefully. Harumi was so busy she didn't have a spare moment to think about her appearance. She hadn't freshen up in a few days and she could only guess at the smell she was producing right now.

"You're right. I want to make a good impression." She sighted. She stood from the desk and stretched her sore muscles before following her two maids to the bathroom. They already filled the bath with water. When she just arrived in this time it was very weird and uncomfortable for her to take a bath while her maids were in the room with her. She didn't like it one bit. But, like a lot of other things in this era, Harumi got used to it. Without batting an eye she undid the kimono that already wasn't tucked in very neatly since she had been wearing it for so long, and dropped it on the ground. She walked to the tub and went in. The water was still warm while she emerged herself in the sweet smelling liquid. She suspected that her maids had put lavender in the bathwater to calm her a bit. Lin-chan began with washing her hair while Rike-chan put her dirty clothes away.

Once she was done she checked herself one final time in a mirror before going to the main hall were everybody was waiting for her. Before she stepped into the big room she tried to calm herself one last time, to no avail. Her hands were trembling while she entered the room. Hundreds of eyes looked at her while the noice in the great hall slowly died down. She went to the small stage at one end of the room. Normally Nobunaga would sit here, but he wasn't here at the moment so she would take his place. The advisors and warlords were already present and stood by her side while she greeted the townspeople. She tried to explain everything as clearly as possible. She wanted to be as transparent as possible in the hope that the people would put their trust in her.

"At this moment we don't know for sure how long it will take for the enemy to reach the castle, but I'm sure that we can properly defend ourselves if we all work together." She said. "To do that we all have to do something. We figured that we would need people in different areas. I'll explain them in a bit and I ask of you that every healthy men and women between the ages of 15 and 50 help out. We need men and women for the battle itself. I'm not going to send you out to fight directly to the enemy. But we will need people who can defend the castle. We will also need people that can help in making the castle impenetrable before the enemy strikes. We need people who are willing to work in the kitchens and people who are familiar with medicine to work at the infirmary." Harumi explained while pointing at the people in charge of those things. She went on to explain everything like the sleeping arrangement and such. To her surprise everybody listened to her and for some bizarre reason she managed to even give the people hope. At the end of her monologe everybody was shouting for her and yelling that nobody would invade the castle.