Chapter 2: Daimyo? Daimyo of the Land of Ancestors!
The instant Minamikawa confirmed the choice, the whole world seemed to flip over.
Heaven and earth inverted. The scene before his eyes darkened rapidly, turning pitch black until there was no trace of light left.
Minamikawa felt his consciousness being yanked away, dragged deeper and deeper, until he sank into complete darkness.
Then, in the next moment, brightness returned.
When he opened his eyes again, everything had changed.
He was standing inside a grand hall. It was magnificent and ornate in every direction, yet it carried an inexplicable sense of age and neglect, as if it had not been repaired for a long time.
Minamikawa instinctively stood up, and only then did he realize that his body had changed too.
He was about ten years old now, several years older than before.
After a brief pause to steady himself, he walked to a bronze mirror and examined his reflection.
The child in the mirror had delicate features and wore a long robe. His posture and clothing looked dignified, refined, unmistakably noble. With that appearance alone, anyone would know he was no ordinary commoner.
The hall looked grand, his clothes looked grand, his identity looked grand.
But his body felt weaker.
"My chakra…"
Minamikawa frowned as he sensed the frailty in his limbs.
This body was clearly older than his original one, yet it was the weaker of the two, and the reason was obvious.
There was no chakra.
Not even a trace.
Just now, he had reflexively tried to refine chakra, but he had failed completely.
"Land of Ancestors… this is a name I've never even heard."
He lowered his head, thinking hard.
Memories surged up in his mind, but there was no familiarity at all.
The Five Great Nations he remembered did not exist here. Instead, there were countries with names like the Land of Ancestors and Land of That.
As for ninjas, that profession did not exist at this time either.
The military backbone of each country was the samurai class.
And even among samurai, chakra did not seem to exist at all.
Outside, there were all kinds of demon legends, said to rise from time to time and devour countless lives.
No matter how he looked at it, there was not a single point that matched the world in Minamikawa's memory.
"Where the hell did this send me?"
His head throbbed.
This was nothing like what he had imagined.
Fortunately, because his original body still existed, even if he died here, he would not truly die. He would only return to his original body.
And the reincarnation panel's options were clearly real.
In this world, his name was Tenji, the daimyo of the Land of Ancestors.
Tenji was not a title. It was simply a name.
But the status of daimyo was genuine.
His predecessor's father had died in battle not long ago, and because of that, Tenji had inherited the position, becoming the new daimyo of the Land of Ancestors.
Unfortunately, even with the name "daimyo," this country did not feel large to Minamikawa Yuu at all.
Compared to the Five Great Nations of later eras, it was nothing. It might even be inferior to a small country like the Land of Grass.
The territory was small. The population was thin. Strategically, it was constantly threatened by hostile neighbors.
Inside the country, the people were poor, living mostly through farming. It was trouble at home and danger beyond the borders, a nation surrounded by hardship.
"Ah, this start isn't very smooth."
As he carefully reviewed the situation, Minamikawa's lips curled without meaning to.
"This is pretty interesting."
He had thought reincarnation would give him a long period to train, never expecting that this world did not even have chakra.
If that was the case…
Then treating this reincarnation like a realistic nation building game was not a bad idea.
"Fine. Then next… we start farming."
With that thought, he straightened and moved immediately.
The situation outside the Land of Ancestors was terrible.
Putting aside the poverty within the borders, there was also the looming threat of Land of That.
Now that the previous daimyo had fallen in battle, Land of That was very likely to invade on a large scale.
Faced with that, Minamikawa decisively chose to keep his head down.
Under the name of a junior, he personally wrote a letter to the Daimyo of Land of That, expressing his willingness to submit. He proactively offered annual tribute and proposed arranging an engagement with the Land of That's princess, with the intention of marrying her in the future.
That series of moves pleased the Land of That greatly. The Land of Ancestors' "tactfulness" satisfied them.
With the external threat temporarily removed, Minamikawa shifted his focus to internal affairs.
He drew funds from his private treasury, recruited samurai on a large scale, and took in orphans.
For two years, he built up a private force of his own. Only after that did he begin a vigorous transformation of the country.
In Minamikawa's eyes, the Land of Ancestors was primitive. The entire nation was built around agriculture, and not only commoners but even nobles were poor.
But to him, that was also an advantage.
Poor nobles meant weaker resistance to reform.
With external pressure eased and a private army in his hands, the difference between having resistance and not having it was not that big.
He reformed commerce. He abolished various privileges held by domestic nobles. He reduced checkpoints and cut down taxes such as transit duties.
In agriculture, he distributed land, absorbed population, and used direct "excuses" to deal with local landlords inside the country.
Years passed like this, and the Land of Ancestors underwent enormous change.
Populations across different regions multiplied. People from other countries were drawn in.
Towns prospered. Commerce flourished. Public security improved drastically.
Tax revenue rose, and that attracted even more samurai and nobles, causing the country's overall strength to climb significantly.
This year, Minamikawa was seventeen years old.
Without realizing it, he had buried himself in development for years.
Just as he was preparing for his next major move, an incident caught his attention.
In the southern region of the Land of Ancestors, a God Tree had suddenly appeared.
It had first emerged last year. At the beginning, it was no different from an ordinary tree.
But in only one year, it grew wildly, shooting up past a hundred meters as if in the blink of an eye.
That terrifying growth rate drew attention from all sides.
Gradually, people began calling it the God Tree, and its name spread farther and farther.
It was around this time that Minamikawa Yuu finally noticed it.
At first, he did not sense anything wrong.
Even though this world lacked chakra, it still had supernatural forces.
Demons rampaged beyond the borders. There were also shrine maidens said to possess a unique Senjutsu.
Among the samurai, many had special techniques that could slay demons.
Minamikawa understood these things well. He had recruited many such figures under his command, so he was not unfamiliar with the strange and unnatural.
In his view, this so called God Tree was probably just another kind of demonic object, nothing worth panicking over.
Still, it was within the Land of Ancestors' borders.
Out of curiosity, he decided to go in person.
He set off immediately, heading toward the place where the God Tree stood.