They all looked around at one another.

"What about you, Ii? And Honda, you should go too." Honda and Ii were just about to leave the room as representatives for the others when a messenger came in with specific information.

"Two envoys from Lord Nobuo have just arrived."

“What! Envoys from Nagashima?"

The news made the men's indignation boil up again.

As the envoys had already been taken into the large audience chamber, however, it was very likely that they were already face to face with Ieyasu. Calmly reassuring each other that their lord's intentions would now be made clear, the men decided to wait for the result of the meeting.

Nobuo's envoys were his uncle, Oda Nobuteru, and Ikoma Hachiemon. As might be imagined, it was extremely awkward for those men to face Ieyasu, let alone try to explain Nobuo’s thoughts, and they waited in the room, withering at the mere thought of the meeting.

Soon enough, Ieyasu appeared with a page. He was dressed in a kimono, without armor, and seemed to be in a good mood.

He sat down on a cushion and said, "I've heard that Lord Nobuo has made peace with Hideyoshi."

The two messengers responded in the affirmative as they prostrated themselves, unable even to raise their heads.

Nobuteru said, "The sudden peace talks with Lord Hideyoshi were surely both unexpected and mortifying to your clan, and we can only respectfully appreciate what your thoughts must be, but in fact, His Lordship put much deep thought into the situation before him, and—"

“I understand," Ieyasu replied. "You don't need to give me some long explanation."

“The details are fully explained in this letter, so, ah, if you would read it—"

“I’ll take a look at it later on."

“The only thing that pains His Lordship is the thought that you may be angry," Hachiemon said.

“Now, now. That's not worth his consideration. From the very beginning, these hostilities had nothing to do with my own desires or plans."

“We understand completely."

“That being so, the hope I entertain for Lord Nobuo's well-being is unchanged."

“His Lordship will be relieved to hear it."

“I’ve had a meal prepared for you in another room. That this war has been terminated so quickly is the greatest blessing of all. Have a leisurely lunch before you go."

Ieyasu went back into the interior of the castle. The messengers from Nagashima were entertained with food and drink in another room, but they ate hurriedly and soon left.

When Ieyasu's retainers heard about this, they were outraged.

“His Lordship must have some deeper thoughts. Otherwise, how could he so easily approve of this monstrous alliance of Lord Nobuo and Hideyoshi?"

During this time, Ii and Honda went off to the senior retainers to inform them of the young retainers' opinion.

“Secretary!" Ieyasu called out.

After meeting with Nobuo's envoys in the audience chamber he had returned to his own quarters and sat quietly alone for a while. Now his voice rang out.

The secretary brought out an inkstone and waited for his lord's dictation.

I want to sent congratulatory letters to both Lord Nobuo and Lord Hideyoshi."

As he dictated the letters, Ieyasu looked off obliquely and closed his eyes. Indeed, as he polished the sentences to be written down, he seemed first to absorb thoughts in his breast that must have been like draughts of molten iron.

When the two letters were finished, Ieyasu gave an order to a page to summon Ishikawa Kazumasa.

The secretary left the two letters in front of Ieyasu, bowed, and withdrew. As he left, a personal attendant came in carrying a candle and quietly lit two lamps.

At some point the sun had set. Looking at the lamps, Ieyasu felt that somehow the day had been a short one. He wondered if that was why—even with all the pressure of work—he was still feeling an emptiness in his heart.

As though from far away, he could hear the sound of the sliding door opening softly.

Kazumasa, dressed in civilian clothes like his lord, was bowing in the doorway. Almost none of the warriors of the clan had yet untied their armor. Nevertheless, Kazumasa realized that Ieyasu had been dressed in plain clothes since the morning and had quickly changed into a kimono.

"Ah, Kazumasa? You're too far away over there. Come a little closer."

The man who had not changed at all here was Ieyasu. As Kazumasa came before him, however, he seemed almost to have been disarmed.

"Kazumasa, I'd like you to be my envoy tomorrow morning to Lord Hideyoshi's camp and Lord Nobuo's headquarters at Kuwana."

"Certainly."

"Letters of congratulation are right here."

"Congratulations for the peace accords?"

"That's right."

"I think I understand what's in your mind, my lord. You won't be showing your dissatisfaction, but when he sees such magnanimity, even Lord Nobuo will probably be embarrassed."

"What are you saying, Kazumasa? It would be cowardly of me to embarrass Lord Nobuo, and a declaration to continue fighting from a sense of duty would look a little strange. Whether it's a false peace or whatever it is, I have no reason to voice dissatisfaction about peace. You are to explain earnestly and even happily that I think it is splendid from the bottom of my heart, and that I rejoice together with all the subjects of the Empire."

Kazumasa was someone who knew his lord's heart well, and now Ieyasu had given him careful instructions concerning his mission. But for Kazumasa, there was yet one more pain he had to bear. That was the misunderstanding the other retainers had had about him from the very beginning—that he and Hideyoshi had some intimate connection. The year before, after Hideyoshi's victory at Yanagase, Kazumasa had been selected as Ieyasu's envoy to Hideyoshi.

At that time Hideyoshi's joy had been extraordinary. He had invited the various lords to a tea ceremony at Osaka Castle, which was still under construction.

After that, whenever there was occasion for some communication with the Tokugawa clan, Hideyoshi would inevitably ask for news of Kazumasa, and would always talk about Kazumasa to the lords who had friendly relations with the Tokugawa clan.

That Kazumasa was quite popular with Lord Hideyoshi was deeply carved into the mindss of the Tokugawa warriors. During the standoff at Mount Komaki, and again during Niwa's attempt at reconciliation, the eyes of his allies would be scrutinizing Kazumasa’s actions, regardless of the situation.

As might be expected, Ieyasu was not affected by that at all.

“Well, it's pretty noisy out there, isn't it?"

Animated voices were coming from the hall, which was a number of rooms away from where Ieyasu and Kazumasa were sitting. It seemed that the retainers who were dissatisfied with the peace accords were expressing their doubts and indignation at Kazumasa's being called before their lord.

Ii and Honda, who were acting as representatives, and some of the others had surrounded Tadatsugu a while before.

Didn't you lead the vanguard and stay in the castle town of Kuwana? Aren't you abashed at not having known that Lord Nobuo and Hideyoshi were able to meet at Yadagawra? And what about the fact that Hideyoshi's messengers came right into Kuwana Castle? What's happened now that you've found out about their illicit peace treaty and have come running here?"

They grilled Tadatsugu. First of all, it was Hideyoshi, a man who was little likely to make a plan that would leak out ahead of time. For Tadatsugu, that was justification enough. In the face of the concentrated dissatisfaction, however, he could only receive indignation and abuse with resignation and apologize to them with the forbearance becoming an old general.

But it was the purpose of neither Ii nor Honda to persecute the old man. Rather, they wanted to deliver their own opinions to their lord and to repudiate the peace accords.  And they wanted to tell the world that the Tokugawa clan had nothing to do with Nobuo's peace talks.