Love, Desire and Ambition.

"He who controls the economy, controls the heart of this nation."

These were the words of Ikehara Masuyo, my teacher whom I met when I was still a merchant with no significant influence.

No one knows who and where that strange, tall man came from. Amongst the poor, laboring and starving farmers and artisans of Old Hashidate, that man didn't end the day without feasting upon a table of delectable food. Within the streets of the town where travelers and locals alike wore drab and dusty clothing, that man walked clothed with an elegant black coat over a pure white undershirt as a clean red tie on his neck exuded a strange yet attractive figure that carried heavenlike elegance.

He was a man of culture, one obsessed with keeping a grandiose appearance and also a good taste in what food he partakes in.

"Sensei!"

"…"

I have always wanted to be like him.

"How can I become like you?! How can I amass riches and be worshipped by the people?!"

But… he didn't believe in me. Not even once.

"You will never become like me. Engrave it on your mind for all eternity. You will never be like me."

I believed in him. I entrusted my faith in him. I did everything that I can to be successful like him so I can attain every luxury and respect that I so much desired…

"W-What do you mean? Why can't I try to be like you?!"

"…"

Yet in the end… He didn't believe in me. Even for just a little.

40 long years has passed since we split ways. While I was away, amassing influence and wealth in the capital before the outbreak of skirmishes at the northern provinces, that man, my teacher whom I once looked up to, created a way for even the smallest streetside vendors to rise into great businessmen who can dominate this land blessed by the gods of wealth.

He created the Hashidate Stock Exchange and passed it on to his children to run this institution that made Hashidate a hub of commerce and trade.

"Don't shit with me! Even when you're already dead, you're still insulting me?!"

I hated it. I very sorely hated it.

"Every single second that I spent on my businesses! Every insult that I had to endure just to gain the support of other influential merchants! Every failure that I had to take just to rise up! And you're building a shortcut to there?! Don't shit with me!"

It was one thing to not believe in me. But when I learned that he believed that total strangers could do it, it was a worst insult than ever.

"You will curse the day when you said those words to me! You will roll in your grave as I get everything that should have been mine in the first place!"

I don't care how many lives that I have to trample over.

I don't care how many stores and farms I have to torch.

I don't care how many people I have to bury to unmarked graves.

"I will surpass you! I will not stop in Hashidate! I will prove that no army can stand against the one who controls the wealth and resources of this country!"

For 40 long years, I labored, lied, burned, killed and did all kinds of things just to amass more wealth and prestige in this country.

I pulled strings and choked the life out of the businesses of the commoners who wanted to climb up the ladder of power.

I burned stores, farms and homes to eliminate the threats to my agendas.

I killed people who will or is already making moves to get in my way.

I don't care what I must do for it. I will win. I will get what I want. I will do as I want.

"But that prick…"

There was just one problem that fell on my lap these last few months.

"There's no way that this is just a robbery… He orchestrated this. Hajime will never let himself be killed like this since he's one with a great deal of pride."

I spoke after throwing the morning newspaper onto the floor as my servants prepared by breakfast table.

"Yamada-sama. The invitations have all been sent to the invited people."

"Hrm. Very well. Prepare for the banquet soon."

"In three days' time, it is."

Miyazaki Hiro… Owner of Miyazaki conglomerate and the first ever person to hop above my name as the richest person in this province. I have done all kinds of moves with him.

I torched the stores that he holds, but he simply made a business surrounding that which he named as "Insurance and Security".

I sent bandits to attack and raze East Iwaki farmstead to the ground. But they ended up being slaughtered even before they can come to the farmland's gates.

I even went as far as sending my mercenaries to directly kill him.

But as if telling me that he is not afraid of me, he killed them, hung their corpses on a dead tree near my estate with each of the carcasses bearing signs that carried the same message.

["Come at me, I'll drag you to whichever hell you want to go."]

"That prick… he's like an annoying insect."

"I believe that there is nothing to be worried about, Yamada-sama."

Right next to me is my right-hand man and personal assistant, and what he said next reminded me that I shouldn't have anything to worry about anymore.

"I have already prepared the right tea leaves. I shall just wait for the right time to brew them."

Indeed, there is still a way to salvage this situation.

"Do as you wish. I shall reward you later once we have done as we have planned."

"You truly are generous, master."

Miyazaki Hiro… You challenged me to come to you, right?

Well then, don't blame me once I take you up to your offer!

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Well, this is quite a strange sight to see…Eimi-san."

"Ah… Oh, it's just you, Hiroshi-sama."

I stayed at the Yutaka estate after a late-night meeting with the old lady and her two adoptive grandchildren. I woke up and went to my thermos to brew some coffee when I saw a familiar young woman clothed in a kimono with pink cherry blossom designs.

Since I didn't have anything else to do this early in the morning, I decided to hit up a conversation and prepared another cup of coffee that has more milk and sugar for her.

"Here, I think I haven't told you that I can already drink this like it's not a rare drink."

"W-wha? C-coffee? Thanks…"

She muttered and gingerly took the cup from my hand.

"So, you're waiting for the last snowfall for this year?"

"Yes. It's been my hobby even before we got transported to this world. I… I feel at ease whenever I watch the heavy clouds pass by and the gentle sunbeams peering through them."

I took a sip from my coffee as she softly blew on hers and drank a little from it too.

"Let me guess, it's like a ray of hope to you?"

"Yeah. It's gentle, comforting… it reminds me about the moment when we opened our eyes and discovered a new hope in this world."

"New hope?"

As the snow fell on the rear courtyard of the estate, I looked at her and finally noticed something was amiss about her.

"Hiroshi-sama… No, can I call you Hiro-san even for just now?"

"Mm. Feel free."

After my reply, she put down her cup and immediately grabbed my arm as she sunk her face into it.

"Hik! Guh…"

She was sobbing. It was so sudden that I didn't even know how to respond to it other than to keep my silence and softly caress her head.

"…"

As her tears finally flowed and her stifled sobs echoed in the silent exterior hall of the mansion, I let her keep my arm as I tried to comfort her as much as I can.

"Why… Why do I still feel that it was all my fault?"

"…"

"Father… if only I wasn't so careless… I could've… I could've kept everything well. We could've stayed like a happy family…"

Her words were filled with guilt and conviction as her heavy tears bore extreme fear and sadness.

For once, I forgot that she is someone who would routinely tease me and instead, saw her as a normal girl with a fragile heart that she actually is.

"If it wouldn't be too tactless of me. Can you tell me about the reason why you are crying?"

It took a while before her sobbing and crying eased, and she became calm enough to tell me about it.

"Weeks… no, months before we were brought to this world by Kagutsuchi-sama, we were normal middle schoolers who just entered Tokyo General Highschool. We are like any other normal student, making friends, talking about hobbies, making after-school plans like parties or shopping trips… everything was normal for us two until we woke up one day with a terrible headache."

A headache? What could it be?

"Suddenly, I began hearing voices… Not just any voices. From across my bed, I can hear Aimi-nee groaning in pain even though she hasn't even opened her mouth yet."

"You mean… you can hear her-"

"Yes. All of a sudden, I can hear the thoughts of others. Thoughts that are supposed to just be in their minds are now actively being heard by me."

How- No… Why am I surprised about this? I can remember something like this when I was still at our past world. I just… can't remember the way they were called.

"Afraid that no one will believe me, I kept this thing a secret. I endured the almost unending sensory overload until slowly, I gained control over it and ended up being able to pinpoint it to read a specific person's thoughts."

"I see. Then… why did it remind you of your father?"

With a soft voice, I asked that question that she responded to with a heavy sigh and somber tone.

"…One day, out of a whim… I used our mother as a target of my daily practice to not let my control over my powers to become loose. And then… I discovered a horrible truth that almost made my stomach turn while we are having breakfast as a family."

Oh no… I think I know what it is…

"Behind her husband's back… behind her own children's backs… that woman who gave birth to us, gave us our names and raised us into fine young ladies… was herself, a horrible woman who is enslaved to her own carnal desires."

"…"

"Right in front of me as she ate and complimented our father's cooked food before she goes to work, I discovered through her exhilarated thoughts that today wasn't even a day where she has a shift. Instead, she can barely hold back her desire to meet up with a few co-workers of hers who would "please" her at a nearby motel."

After my thoughts was confirmed, a burning hatred picked up sparks in my heart.

"My mind can barely contain the depth and extremeness of the carnality that swirled like a violent storm in her mind. The obscene imaginations. The thirsting desire to be pleased. It almost made me lose my sanity."

The mention of it. The simple words that reminded me of the day when I committed my first lie against my people.

"But I can only keep it to myself and smile as if I didn't know that fact."

It reminded me of how I chose to slaughter hundreds of people like the one she described when I rose into power.

"As the days went by… My heart withered more and more. Our father, someone who gave up on his dream of protecting the innocent as a talented and highly decorated public prosecutor just to support his wife's career as a company department manager and raise his daughters, was never even aware of it. In his eyes, he has a happy and hardworking wife who loves him and caring and loving daughters who is always honest and loyal to him."

Hearing that line, I remembered that man. Professor Miyazaki Akihiro, the father of my progenitor and for a short time, became my father as well while I was still his son's cloned replicant. So great was his love for his family that he even went so far as play god and revive them as clones.

"The feeling of keeping the truth to myself. The truth that the woman he loves has never loved him and would rather whore herself to other men for the sake of her own disgusting and debauched desire… it crushed my heart to think that I am also betraying him by keeping it all to myself."

…What could a husband and father feel? That question went in my mind after her statement.

"One day, when I can't hold unto the guilt and pain no longer, I invited our father to shop for dinner ingredients. He thought I just wanted to have some bonding time as he happily walked with me to a part of the city where I pretended that a new shopping center was built… But as we approached that building that I knew she was staying at right now, my power went haywire, and I was connected to my father's thoughts right at the moment when he saw my mother being used like a simple meathole at an alleyway with a look of ecstatic joy at her face."

"That…"

"His thoughts almost made my head burst. Never in my life have I felt such a sudden surge of hatred, sadness and betrayal as he walked briskly out of area while I just stood there with tears on my eyes."

"…"

"Later that night, there was no dinner at the table. Aimi-nee, already hungry after her volleyball practice that afternoon, cooked some instant noodles for us and called me down to eat. But I didn't hear it… I was in our room just next to our parents' room. Listening to the wailing and sobbing of the man who was betrayed by the one he truly loved all this time."

She heaved deeply as she held my arm tighter.

"My power caught a new mind who just entered our home. It was her… that woman. I can hear her happily greeting Aimi-nee with a cheerful "I'm home!" but from her thoughts, I can hear the words: "I should've just said that I won't be home and go for an all-nighter with the boys.". That's when the unexpected happened."

"What… happened?"

Before saying the next line, her eyes watered again and her nails sank to my skin, she held it as if the next line brings her a lot of pain.

"My powers went haywire again, connecting me to my father's thoughts which made me jump out of the bed, run to the next room and forcibly open the locked door… but I was already too late."

"…"

"He placed a handgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger to-"

"Enough. Don't say it if it brings you pain."

"…"

As she sobbed into my arm yet again, I tried to make sense of that painful and horrible story of her past.

Now that I think about it… 2054 and 2072… almost 20 years of difference yet it both suffers from the same blight of human carnality. I… I am not a stranger to such a thing. I might have been a cloned human who only lived for a year, but from the memories of my progenitor, I knew this atrocious thing has never not existed in the world.

In the first place, why do people marry each other? Isn't it a form of a promise? A kind of agreement to stay with each other, help each other and never let go even with all the inconveniences and problems of life?

If so, why do people split up and file for divorce? It's not a misunderstanding. It's not a mismatch. It's not a sign that they were never able to make things work.

When you marry, you make yourself exclusive to your partner. You keep yourself honest, loyal and understanding to your partner. You understand their limits as a human and support them when they are in their lowest point. You don't push what you want to do, you talk and come to a compromise where both sides are happy. It's never about who wins and who loses.

"Marriage is an act of finding a way for both of you to always win together."

So… why do people end up like this?

Why do they lie to the one who is open to them?

Why do they push for what they want to do when even they know that it isn't the right thing to do?

Why do they let other people do the things that only one other person should do?

And in all of the self-reflection and meditation that I did whenever I had some empty time, I came to a single conclusion. For me, the answer has always been simple.

[They were too selfish to let go of the thing that they are not supposed to carry anymore.]

It was that. Selfishness.

"I can't commit to this. I want to be free. I want to meet all kinds of people. I can't stay here by your side."

"I don't want to close off myself to others. We… the two of us love each other, but I don't want to be stuck with only you doing "that" to me."

"I don't want to have kids. It's a headache, it's a problem for my pocket and it's not something that I am mature enough to partake in it. I'm seriously not making up reasons here, but kids are bad for the environment y'know?"

(T/N: Damn, Author Rai is spitting blazing bars out here and burning millennials. Has anyone seen a fire hose nearby?)

Hah… No wonder I was so happy to die back at that world when that girl has also died. For me, there was no more hope in there.

In any case, I have to comfort her to some extent.

"…I'm going to be honest. I cannot come to fully understand that pain that you are bearing, Eimi."

My reply was met with silence from her.

"But… I can understand why even after leaving that life, you are still carrying that guilt of not being able to save him from that sadness of being betrayed."

I softly patted her head as I took back my arm and let her rest her head on my chest.

"A parent is usually the one who carries the guilt of their child's misdemeanor. Yet sometimes, it is the children who has to carry that weight because their parents cannot let go of their own selfishness."

I know someone like that. It was my best friend from my past life.

He wasn't close to my sisters. He only met them once when I had to do something at school. Yet when I did the wrong thing and gave them to someone irresponsible and abusive, he was the first person to step up and beat me up for that mistake.

When some young man who looks unfriendly and scary is a better and more thoughtful person than an actual adult, what does that say about our past world?

It isn't about age.

It isn't about the virtues that they believe in.

It isn't even about their ability to take care of those younger than them.

It has always been about selflessness and the desire to never give up on what they believe is the right thing.

For me, that is what a true grown-up is like. A person who can set aside his own desires and instead, see his own goals as something that is not about him but about those that he cares for.

"Your father is a great man who was born in the wrong world. He is a virtuous man in a vile and corrupted world… I can understand why you felt so bad that all of it ended up like that. No man deserves that kind of betrayal, yet the world allowed it… no, it desired for it."

I spoke and patted her head softly like a parent easing their child's worries.

"Thank you… For some reason, the pain eased up a little."

"You're welcome. It's good that you tried to cry it out. That kind of pain is not something good to keep all inside yourself."

She took her cup and sipped the now lukewarm coffee as we continued to watch the fine snow that came from the late winter snowfall.

"For some reason... I feel like the snow looks purer than before."

"Hehe… I think so too."

After the snowfall ceased, Eimi thanked me again for the drink and counseling before proceeding to go inside and do some paperwork. After setting aside the used mugs, I walked to the main courtyard of the estate and saw Aimi, the older one of the twins, playing a Biwa at the garden.

She strummed the instrument's strings in such a quick yet precise manner. Notes and tone changes went here and there with not a single delay, making for a pleasing and exciting music that made me feel adventurous for some reason.

"Did my music please you, Hiroshi-sama?"

"It did. Except for the fact that the song you played is from an old anime. Am I right?"

"Ah. So, you noticed."

"Of course, I do."

I walked to the bench near the koi pond and sat beside her. It was late winter yet the pond in still frozen solid, but even that is nothing for the fishes that swam under the surface of the frozen water.

"…Let me guess, you saw Eimi watching the last snowfall, didn't you?"

"…I did."

"…"

Suddenly, her smile went away and turned into a frown.

"Do you also have something that weighs on your heart?"

She embraced her instrument before nodding lightly.

"I see… Do you want to talk about it?"

She was biting her lip as she looked away from me. But she soon sighed heavily before speaking.

"Why are people so swept by their emotions? Why can't they decide to do the right thing even though it may not make them happy?"

"…"

She began her monologue and I decided to be quiet.

"Eimi gained the ability to read minds. For me, it was the opposite. I gained the power to implant thoughts to other people… At first, I didn't understand why it was so. How can science explain this ability? Where did it come from? Why did I and my twin sister get them? I was filled with questions until I thought about an idea that I am still regretting to this day."

"And that is?"

"I'm a girl, Hiroshi. I am not immune to the emotion called Love. And what I thought would be a good way to entice the man I loved, turned out to be an idea that blurred the value of the feeling to me."

"…"

She positioned her hands on her stringed instrument and began strumming it slowly, seeming to aim for a tone filled with elegance.

"Even before Eimi discovered our mother's betrayal through her powers, I was already aware of it. It didn't even start in the company where she was a manager. As far as I know, it started with the neighbor we had at our previous house when we are still in elementary school."

Her strumming turned to the thicker strings, turning the music into a darker area.

"When I was sent home early because of a possible flu, I remembered that Dad is away to formally resign from his job as a prosecutor and said that I can just walk home by myself. Once I got back, I saw an unfamiliar pair of shoes for a man by the door but was too young and innocent to understand what it may mean. But all of it became apparent once I opened the door of the living room and saw her with our neighbor at the sofa… I could've gotten away if it was just an opening where one can peer, but because I opened it wide, they saw me and for the first time in my life, I felt fear as she said the following words: "Tell anyone about this and I will not think twice about leaving this house."."

"…"

"Those words… It haunted me. I was too young to understand what it may mean, but as a child, I don't want to imagine living without a mother. So, I kept it a secret for so long until I myself thought about something."

"What was it?"

"Mother keeps on saying that he loves our father. But if that is actually her honest feelings, then why does she desire the touch of other men?"

"…"

She stopped strumming her instrument as she looked at the pond where some of the fish swam around below the frozen water.

"What does love actually mean? Why did she keep on saying that she loved him but cannot keep herself tied to her promise of being loyal to him?"

She plucked the strings randomly, seeming to not be able to find the right way to start another tune.

"It was only after I became a middle schooler and saw a young man that stole my heart did I understand the rotting evil that lurks beneath that emotion called love."

She struck the deepest tone possible in the strings and kept on plucking it as she spoke.

"Love has an inherent selfishness. The feeling of wanting to own someone without being bound by the same rule. For me, that was the definition of love that even came to justify our mother's whore-like behavior."

She played a slow piece. From the tones that I can recognize, it was a classical piece called Hungarian Rhapsody No.2. I don't know how she transcribed it to a Biwa, but it amazed me a bit.

"When I received my power, I had a thought. I want to be loved by that boy. I want to own him, to fall heads-over-heels for me… I want him to desire me."

"And you used your powers in implant him with the thought of wanting you."

"Yes."

As she continued with her playing, the tones built up more and more.

"Only after being him, talking with him and sharing my thoughts with him, did I understand that I have made a grave mistake."

She strummed wildly as the piece reached its chorus.

"My idea of love was evil. I at least had enough sanity to understand that thing. The idea of keeping someone to yourself but not wanting to be under the same rule is pure evil."

*Pyingk!*

Her haphazard strumming ended as all the strings on the Biwa snapped and hit her fingers, leaving fine yet deep wounds on her hand and arm that began to bleed out.

"I deserved it. That moment when I let go of my control of him and he spewed all the bitter words that he can speak after realizing what he went through… How I robbed him of his dream after I made him quit the baseball club just to play around with me. How I shaped his personality to how I desired him to be like. How I made him act like a dog whose only desire is to please his master… I deserved all of it and maybe even more."

She raised her hands to look at her bleeding hand as tears fell on them and mingled with her blood.

"What kind of monster have I become? Why did I call that horrendous act as love? Why didn't he hurt me more when I deserved it?"

As she fell silent, I took a roll of bandage and some bottled antiseptic from my sleeve pocket and took her wounded hand.

"I loved back then and loved yet again…"

I started with those words.

"At first, I thought that I was just continuing something that has started long ago, but as I came to understand that girl more and more, I understood why he also longed for her. And with that, I went as far as to risk my life just to save her from harm."

I carefully applied the antiseptic on her wounds and blew on it lightly.

"But as we were about to leave that place, a bullet went through her chest, and she spoke her last words on my arms. Back then, I lost all hope and decided that there was no more point in continuing that life. I accepted my fate and took the next bullet with a smile on my face."

I wrapped the bandage around her hand and softly spoke.

"In this new world, I met a wonderful, cheerful and thoughtful woman who gave me her love and made me do the same for her. And to this day, I never forgot her warm embrace and gentle voice even though we are miles apart from each other."

"Do you love her?"

"Yes. Very much."

I spoke and tied the fastening knot for the bandage.

"Love is a two-way thing. No one is supposed to benefit more than the other. One cannot be truly dominant over the other. For me, true love is letting yourself be owned by the other as she does the same for you."

"That doesn't make any sense. How can one guarantee that the other person feels the same as you?"

"That's easy. Don't listen to what they are forced to say, listen to what they want to say."

I took her broken Biwa and made it an example.

"When you force something to stick together, it would most likely break or not perform as you intended it to be."

"…"

"I mostly heard this from an old friend of mine… "Children are too hasty when it comes to love. They desire to understand something that they are not yet capable to understand. They desire to feel something that they are not supposed to understand yet. They are in a rush, in a race to be something but all of it ends in a single way."."

"And that is?"

"Failure."

I placed the Biwa on my lap and spoke what that guy kept on telling me when I was going after that girl from my past life.

"When you love someone, you are swept by an emotion that is inherent in every human being. You are swept by the desire to care for someone's safety and feelings. That is how you can differentiate true love from a simple and fickle attraction. Love is the pinnacle form of selflessness and care. Attraction is innately possessive and lacking in pure attention."

"Then… was my decision actually right?"

"What decision?"

She paused for a moment before speaking.

"Shortly after our father's suicide, our mother slowly turned to alcohol as she regretted everything that she has done. She and all the other men she had an affair with was fired from the company."

"So, there was actually still a sliver of humanity left in her…"

"She would sometimes be found wailing in front of our father's grave, sometimes, she would be brought to an emergency room from some random bar after she drank to the point of it endangering her health… She didn't stopped on regretting what she has done until one day, her alcoholism claimed her life and she died at our dining table, surrounded by bottles and cans of alcohol."

"What did you feel after that?"

"…For the sake of filial piety, I at least let go of my anger towards her and laid her to rest. But now, there was a new problem that emerged… Eimi and I are now all alone. Left behind with a bad name due to our father's self-induced death and our mother's record of being a promiscuous woman."

"…"

"That's when I asked Eimi something that she gave some thought before agreeing to."

"What is that?"

"I asked her if she wants to end all of this together."

"…I see. So, the story you told me about before about Eimi and you chasing a coin is-"

"I didn't lie about that. The only thing that I didn't say is the fact that we rolled those coins by the highways and chased after it… It was a set-up, we at least wanted to make it look like an accident instead of a suicide."

"…"

I'm not gonna lie, that was something heavy to listen to and process in my mind.

"You two are amazing."

"Huh? How?"

"Having that kind of past, facing that kind of loss… I can't even imagine that."

She looked at her wounded hand and spoke the following words.

"You can say that we're simply enjoying this second chance that was given to us. This new world, this new life, this possibility to let go of our past disappointments and live a more fulfilling life."

For some reason, she inched closer to me and rested her head on my shoulder.

"Thank you for helping me and Eimi."

"It's nothing. We share the same past world. As someone who can relate to your circumstances, I have no reason to not help you out."

For a while, I let her borrow my shoulder as we watched the fishes on the pond swimming beneath the water. Before leaving with her broken instrument, she said something that actually touched me emotionally.

"I don't know if Eimi felt the same way when you comforted her, but you remind me a lot about our father."

It was noon when I decided to go to my office. At the lobby, the workers greeted me which I replied to accordingly.

"Good afternoon sir!"

"Good afternoon too."

I went to my office and sat on my chair, remembering the events that happened today.

"Haah… To think that those two actually had that kind of past…"

Finally, after holding it back for so long…

"Damn it… I'm surprised that I held it back this much…"

I cried. Alone in my office and with no one outside, I let my tears flow freely as all kinds of things swirled in my heart that I held back earlier in front of the two.

To think that those two found hope even after they gave up on living…

"It seems like the brightest smiles… does hide the greatest of pains."

With that, I had a newfound respect for the two. But that is not only it.

"I won't let the thing that happened to them to happen here. Once I unified this country under my rule, I will do everything that I can to not let the evil of our past world to fester here as well. Everything… I will do it."

I also gained another reason to strive more to unify this country swallowed by war.

Later that night, Minori came to my office while I was eating dinner.

"Iwasawa-sama… A letter."

"I see. Hand it here."

I took the letter from his hand and opened it.

"…What is he planning now?"

I read the letter to the last word and decided something that would be a great gamble.

"Minori."

"Yes, my lord?"

"…Prepare the team."

"…Which team specifically, sir?"

I looked at him while I stretched my arms and replied.

"The team that we made to deliver the killing blow to this man and his underlings."

With a wide smile that is rarely seen from his staunch face, Minori replied gleefully.

"As you wish, my lord!"

After so long… I can finally end this.

"Come at me, Yamada Youji. I will show you the reason why even simple knowledge can overcome years of experience."

In three days' time, The head of the Yamada Merchant clan and the Owner of the Miyazaki Conglomerate proved for the first time in Japan's history, that war can be waged without even drawing a blade.

For the first time, wealth and resources became the weapons that decided the victor from the loser.