Disclaimer: All credit goes to Shingo Nanami and フクロウ. Here's the final part of this story. There are some minor spoilers in this chapter so proceed with caution... Well I'm assuming everyone who's read up this point wouldn't really care huh... But well I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

願わくば

If He Wished

Kasane x Nobunaga

Part Four

"...～ "

Humming a small tune next to the furnace, Kasane dandled the sleeping baby in the futon.

With a soft smile, she lovingly glanced down at the child.

Nobunaga observed Kasane silently.

Today she wasn't wearing her strange clothes, she was now donned in a normal woman's garb; it highlighted the soft curves of her body.

With her motherly expression and the tap, tap of her hand softly patting the sleeping child, he could picture her as a normal woman.

"..."

"Fugya…"

"Ah, ah~, did I wake you up? I'm sorry."

Saying this, she picked up the baby and began to rock it gently back and forth.

It was the usual sight of a young girl.

Cradling a child, dangling it lovingly; an illusion, as if Kasane was holding his child, came over him.

Of course he didn't have any children, yet.

The woman, Onou, who became his wife was only 16 when she politically wed into his family.

His relationship with Onou was too distant to be husband and wife and they never slept in the same room.

By just observing Kasane's form, he felt some sort of throb coming from the depths within him, something that he could not fully name yet.

With this mocking intuition, he searched for the true form of the unknown feeling from the spectacle before him.

As if Kasane was his wife and she had given birth to his child; the phantom of her lovingly cradling their child came to him.

Unconsciously, he approached to her side.

"Hm? Tono-sama also wants to hold the child?"

It seems that Kasane got the idea that he wanted to hold the child since he suddenly approached her; she smiled at him.

"Tono-sama doesn't have enough compassion! I think you should hold the baby and learn a bit of human consolidation!"

"Oi…!"

"Listen well okay? Make sure you firmly support his neck and head, and please don't drop him! You mustn't tighten your grip either! Then gently, but firmly, hold the body!"

Kasane then passed the child into his arms.

At first he recoiled, but was pushed by her strange spirit and cradled the child, following her instructions.

"..."

"How about it? Isn't he cute~."

She joyfully grinned next to him while his expression remained bitter.

He couldn't wrap his head that this strange creature in his arms was the same species as him.

"Looks like a monkey."

"Everyone was like this after they were just born! I'm certain Tono-sama was like that too!"

"I never made this strange face."

"What are you thinking, picking a bit with a baby!? Right after this, he will grow up and gain his individualism! Geez!"

Seeing her puffing out her cheeks, he felt a strange feeling arising within him.

Whether she noticed his fixed stare or not, she returned her attention to the baby, cooing at it's unbearable cuteness.

Separating his gaze from her form, he glanced down to the small creature in his arms.

He cradled it in one of his hands without any difficulty, and picked the child's cheek with his free hand.

It was the sensation of touching mochi*.

He did touch Kasane's cheeks before, so it had a similar feel.

No matter how much he touched it, he couldn't get tired of it; it was that kind of sensation.

It was a totally different texture.

"...What's this."

Lifting up the child's hand, he softly opened its palm.

It was such an amazingly small hand.

It would take up all of its hand just to grasp his finger.

Though it took shape of a human hand, it was dreadfully tiny, but it still had the same shape as his.

Even this tiny hand still had nails and bones on each little finger.

"Aren't they tiny~? This li-ttle child will one day grow to be big like Tono-sama, you know? Isn't that mysterious~."

"..."

Without saying anything else, he returned back to squishing the baby's cheek.

As if its hand demanded something, it wandered into the air and grabbed onto one of Nobunaga's hair and pulled.

"Oi, what are you doing!"

Though the strength from the baby wasn't much, it still hurt to to be pulled by the hair.

Hearing Nobunaga's scathing voice, the baby's thin eyes popped open; he began to fret.

"Ahh, geez, please don't yell at the baby! So pitiful, now, come to mommy~."

"Mu…."

In a snatching motion, Kasane collected the baby from Nobunaga and sweetly cooed to him.

When she did, the baby stopped crying and nestled into her chest.

"Oi, you're not the mother. Don't deceive the child like that."

"He doesn't know what I said, so it's fine… Yosh, yosh, right~, you dun wanna be with scary father right~."

"Wha-..."

He became utterly speechless at her remark; once he understood what she said, he face instantly became red to the ears.

Kasane didn't expect this reaction from Nobunaga so she stared at him in surprise.

"W-wha… I-I was just joking, just a jo-ke!" D-don't get angry okay!?"

Because she said something weird, and received an unexpected reaction from him, she then thought he would become mad.

"I know already! I'm not angry anyway!"

"Aren't you angry now-!?"

As she point out his unreasonableness of becoming angry, Kasane calmed down as she saw he wasn't enraged for real.

Tono-sama wasn't used to these kinds of jokes it seems.

He already has a wife, so of course she was just joking.

Thinking this, she then devoted herself fawning over the infant.

Probably because the baby felt comfortable in her arms, he began to sleep soundly once more.

"Here, it's okay to touch him now."

She pressed up to him; Nobunaga fearfully ruffled the baby's head.

The soft hair faintly tickled under his fingertips, it felt nice.

He hated kids.

Yet, how could he touch this child this way?

When he kept stroking the baby's head, he could see Kasane's happy smile entering his view.

That smile had him oddly embarrassed, making him turn unnaturally away from her gaze.

….His mother hated him.

He didn't know the reason why.

However, he understood that his mother favored Nobuyuki more than him.

Even when he inherited the family, she raised against him with several vassals, claiming that Nobuyuki deserved the position more.

In the end, by the will of his father, he inherited the family.

She looked at him with utter loathing contempt in her eye and spat out, "If only you haven't been born."

In that regard, he thought nothing of it.

Since long ago, he was aware that woman hated him.

He never thought of that as his mother.

Even when she spat out those words, none of it disturbed his heart.

...Long ago, when he was still very little, he somehow wasn't aware why his mother hated him.

He visited her numerous times.

He picked some rare flowers that bloomed in the mountain behind the castle and brought it to her, thinking how much he wanted to make her delighted.

He could still remember what happened.

It was a memory he didn't want to remember, but it was still clear as day.

That accepted the flowers.

Howeverーー...

Remembering what happened long ago left an unpleasantly deep crease in the middle of his forehead.

Realizing how meaningless it was to remember the past, he abandoned his effort look through his memory.

His gaze returned to the girl in front of him.

The figure of Kasane lovingly cradling the baby.

This easily scared, yet strong-minded and ever so gentle girl.

This woman thought of others before herself.

If this woman…. if she were to become impregnated with his child and give birth to it, surely she would pour out her deep, warm unbiased love towards to her children. She would then forever remain by his side and keep showing his flower-like smile to him, he vacantly thought.

"..."

If he reached out his arms, he could immediately touch her.

Nobunaga unconsciously raised his hand towards Kasane.

"My lord, excuse me."

The door suddenly slid open, Kawajiri entered the room.

Nobunaga pulled back the hand that was about to touch Kasane and glanced over to Kawajiri.

"...Um… since when did you give birth to my lord's child?"

Kawajiri hesitantly asked as his eyes widened.

Most likely because Kasane was craddling a baby.

"I-I-I-I didn't give birth! ! I'm only looking after this child! !"

Kasane answered to Kawajiri's question as she blushed.

"However where did the child…"

"I got him from a maid!"

"Ahh, then I met the maid just moments before. She's been looking for you, Kasane-dono."

"Really!? Then I must return this child to her… I shall take my leave, Tono-sama!"

Saying this, Kasane took off as if flying out of his room.

Kawajiri and Nobunaga send her off.

"...However I'm shocked to know that you've allowed a kid into your room even though you hate them."

"...There's no profound meaning behind it. I only thought the child was more suited to my room that has a warm furnace than her cold room."

"When Kasane was carrying the child will sitting next to my lord, I thought you two looked like a well-matched couple."

Hahaha, Kawajiri jokingly laughed.

Those words made him flush full red.

Catching the sight of a mute Nobunaga glancing down, Kawajiri's eyes widened.

It was a reaction well-suited for a normal man of his age, Kawajiri thought.

Even for Kawajiri, who's been with Nobunaga since the boy's childhood, this was the first time he's ever seen this reaction.

When Nouhime-sama married into the family, the boy only replied with a simple, 'I see.' He didn't remember any kind of reaction back then.

Yet what was the Nobunaga in front of him?

Wasn't this the pure hearted reaction coming from a young man of his age.

He plays it off lightly, scoffing that there isn't a deeper meaning to it.

The girl… Since Kasane-dono arrived, this castle has changed.

Calmly, yet steadily the air of the castle and the master changed.

This lord himself, may have not yet noticed his special feelings for the girl yet, but even then Nobunaga has changed before his eyes.

Before she appeared he was stretched at both ends; even when they, his trusted advisors, were at his side the young boy was forced to deal from the pains and sufferings and loneliness of his position.

Indeed, thanks to Kasane their lord is beginning to change.

Kawajiri faced the area in which Kasane left in.

Kawajiri recalled the discussion he had with Mori,

That the man suffered all alone in his loneliness, that he had to keep on fighting.

In place of someone who couldn't move freely, someone who was unchained by this world, even if it's just half, someone had to help carry their lord's burdenーー.

He wished for such a dream-like convenience to come along.

That girl will one day leave this castle.

She unhesitantly said this.

The light joke he said to Nobunaga just moments before.

Even so, Kawajiri truly did think of them as a lovely couple.

….If he wished, one day she willーー.

*Rice cakes.

It's been such a long time since I wanted to translate this story. It's one of my favorites. I don't know why though, it's so hard to explain, I just love the content and ongoing theme. I'm glad I finally got to it and I hoped everyone enjoyed this story.

The next story huh... Hmm... you're all in for a big surprise there. But that comes in next week! So until then, I hope you all have a safe and wonderful week.