by Fuyumi Ono
"That's not what I mean. But as much as the people of this town make my brother mad, he doesn't get mad at Shoukou. In other words, if he got really worried and started thinking seriously about how to dispose of Shoukou, he'd conclude it'd be better to go on living and putting up with whatever came his way."
"I get that." Suzu gazed at her hands. Getting injured always hurt. After a while, you reflexively became afraid of the pain. So you soldiered on in order to escape the pain. But at the same time, the soldiering on began to feel like an accomplishment, when nothing was actually changing.
Sekki sighed. "But what if my brother attacks Shoukou and fails? Shoukou will become enraged, and life will only get worse for the people of Shisui. The people of Shisui, in turn, will hate my brother."
"That's probably true."
"That's why it's just too risky to leave him to his own devices. But I really don't know if I'm being a help or a hindrance."
Sekki grinned mischievously. Suzu smiled as well. At that point, the aforementioned Koshou appeared. Suzu and Sekki exchanged glances and burst out laughing.
"What's going on?"
"Oh, nothing. What's up?"
Kousho beckoned to Suzu from the kitchen door. "Sorry, but I have a job for your sansui."
"You need to transport something?" Kousho often had Suzu carry goods to villages in the surrounding areas.
"Yes, but this time it's a bit further. A two-day journey to the east by horse cart, there's a city called Houkaku. Here's a map. Go to Rou's place. He should have the items we've requested."
Hansei Rou and Kousho were old friends.
"I understand."
"I'm sure Rou will do a good job packing them, but even if stopped by sentries, we cannot permit this shipment to be opened. If they were, they're bound to be stolen."
"These are items you don't want anybody to see?"
Kousho nodded. "Winter weapons."
Suzu stiffened at the mention of the term.
"They're pretty heavy, but not that bulky. Once they arrive, at the very least, we need to get these winter weapons into the skilled hands of a minimum number of our group."
Suzu nodded. "That's fine. I'll be going, then."
The next morning, Suzu left Takuhou and headed east on the main highway. On a sansui, the trip took half a day. Suzu arrived at Houkaku by noon. Houkaku was as big a city as Takuhou. Houkaku was the capital of Rouya prefecture, which was next to Shisui prefecture.
According to the map Kousho had drawn, Suzu looked for a house in the southwest part of the city. She found there a broken-down dump of a residence. The main gate facing the street was tightly shut. When she knocked on the gate, a fifty-something man with odd, mottled brown hair appeared.
"Who is it?"
Suzu bowed, greeting him as Koshou had instructed her. "I've come from Shikin, county of San, in Baku Province."
The man eyes suddenly fell upon her hands, focusing on her ring finger. "Come in."
Rou was cooperating in Koshou's cause, but he wasn't an intimate member of their group. The greeting was not used when seeing friends, but to establish Suzu's bono fides as a trustworthy ally.
Through the door was a narrow courtyard. At the back of the courtyard was an old house no wider than the yard, a small building no larger than a shack. Suzu led the sansui into the courtyard. The man closed the gate behind her and said, "I'm Hansei Rou. Koshou and I hail from the same home town."
"Yes. I came to pick up the shipment."
"Right," Rou nodded. He said with a grim expression, "That is the case, but the shipment in question hasn't arrived."
"Eh?"
"Today, I was supposed to get two separate shipments, but neither has arrived. I'm sorry, but perhaps I could ask you to wait?"
"Okay," said Suzu. Koshou had told her to follow Rou's instructions after she got here.
"If the shipments arrive this evening, I'll have to ask you stay overnight. The place is a mess, but there is a room where you can sleep. I apologize for the inconvenience."
"It's fine. No problem."
"You might as well sit back and relax. I'll get water for that fine horse of yours. Would you like some tea?"
"Sure," Suzu said, with a nod.
Rou wasn't a handsome man, but proved to be a good talker. They sat down at a stone table and watched the sansui munching on the feed and conversed about this and that.
"So you're all the way from Sai? That must have been one long trip."
"I came most of the way by ship."
"What do you think of Kei? Must be pretty cold compared to Sai."
"I was with a troupe of traveling entertainers for a while, so I've been all over the place."
"How about that."
A knock came at the gate. "And now they show up!" Rou playfully scowled. He opened the doors. After exchanging a few words with the visitor in a low voice, a girl about Suzu's age appeared, leading a horse. Her hair was mottled like Rou's but a dark blue color. It struck Suzu as quite extraordinary.
"Well, at least twenty have arrived," Rou said with forced smile. He showed the girl to the table. "Why don't you take your time as well?"
"But--" the girl said, glancing up at him.
"Sorry," said Rou. "Without all thirty pieces, this girl isn't going to pay me. And without that money, I can't pay you."
Suzu raised her voice. "If that's the case, I can pay--"
Rou raised his hand, cutting her off. "No. My place, my rules, and that's not my line of business. I'm the broker, not a dealer."
"Oh, okay."
Rou grinned and glanced over his shoulder at the girl. "That being the case, you'll have to wait for a while. Save your complaints for the tardy party. Would you like some tea, too?"
"Thank you," she nodded.
Suzu gave her a good, long look. From the bone structure of her face, she could tell she was a beautiful woman. They were about the same age. At Rou's urging, she sat down in one of the stone chairs and glanced at Suzu. Her gaze quickly moved onto the sansui.
"A sansui," she said.
Suzu leaned forward. "Are you familiar with sansui?"
"I've seen one or two before."
"Oh. I'm from Takuhou. I'm Suzu. And you are?"
"I came from Meikaku. My name is Shoukei."
"We seem about the same age. How old are you?"
Shoukei seemed to mull the question over momentarily. "Sixteen."
Suzu was about to say that she was, too, but hesitated. What was the best way to describe her age? She was swept into this world at the age of fourteen, twelve by the way birthdays were counted here. After that, she'd wandered hither and yon for four years, and then had become a wizard. That would make her sixteen, more or less.
"I'm the same age," Suzu said. Shoukei tilted her head to one side, but said nothing more. Suzu said, "Shoukei, are you a subject of Kei?"
"No. I'm from Hou."
"Hou? The northwest kingdom in the Kyokai?"
"Yes. One of the four Outland Kingdoms. How about yourself?"
"I'm from Sai. We've both come from far away kingdoms."
"Indeed," laughed Shoukei.
Suzu felt herself relaxing. "This is nice. It's not often that I've gotten to meet a girl my same age in Kei."
"That's true. So why have you traveled so far to get here?"
Suzu pondered the question. She'd set out on her journey for any numbers of reasons, and all of them were dead and gone. Her past desires had no relationship to who she was now. "Oh, this and that."
"This and that brought you all the way to Kei?"
"Well, first of all, I heard that the Empress of Kei was a girl my same age--"
Shoukei eyes blinked and opened a bit wider.
"--and that she was a kaikyaku like me."
"You're also from Yamato?"
"Yes, that's right. With no place to call my own, I thought I'd call the kingdom of a fellow kaikyaku my home. Does that make any sense?"
Shoukei looked at her, her fa
ce blank with surprise. Finally she laughed and said, "Me, too."
"Eh? You're a kaikyaku?"
"No. I also came to this kingdom to see the Royal Kei--"
Suzu gaped at her.
"--because she was an empress the same age as me."
"That's weird. So the two of us, from Sai and Hou, came here to see the Royal Kei, and just happened to meet."
"Sure seems like it."
"Wow."
"You're not kidding."
Suzu and Shoukei giggled. "Hey!" came Rou's voice behind them. "No carrying on personal conversations!"
Suzu looked back with surprise, Rou was standing there, teacups in hand, and a sour look on his face. "No private chitchat between people who meet here. My place, my rules."
"Oh . . . sorry."
"I'm a broker of things, not of people. People who use my services are people with a reason for being here. No shady types set one foot inside the gate. And whatever reasons the two of you have, best you not know too much about each other."
"Sure," said Suzu, with a shrug of her shoulders. She glanced at Shoukei and caught her looking the same way, and for a moment their eyes met.
Chapter 59
The next shipment didn't arrive until just before the gates closed. As Suzu and Shoukei couldn't leave Houkaku, they had no choice but to stay the night at Rou's place. They ended up sleeping in a small room furnished with a divan and a bed without a canopy. Two people in a space meant for one.
"Which one do you want? The bed or the divan?"
"Either's fine."
"Then you take the bed. I'll sleep on the divan."
"You don't have to do that."
"I'm returning on the sansui. Meikaku is way to the east, isn't it? And you've got to go back by horse, right?"
"Meikaku is only a day's ride by horse."
"You should take the bed, then. It's only a half-day ride for me."
Shoukei thought about it for a minute, then nodded. "Thanks. To tell the truth, it'd be nice for a change. I've been sleeping on a couch for so long."
"Really? Well, great then."
The two girls grinned at each other.
"Suzu," Shoukei asked, "what do you do in Takuhou?" And then quickly added, "Maybe that's the kind of thing I'm not supposed to ask."
"Let's pretend we didn't hear anybody say that."
They both giggled, the private laughter filling the small room.
"Oh, I do odd jobs around the inn. How about you, Shoukei?"
"Same here."
"So how did you come across--" those weapons, Suzu started to ask, and thought better of the question. They were probably getting a bit over their heads with a subject like that.
But Shoukei leaned forward and answered. "It is out of the ordinary. Do you know what's in those crates?"
"More or less."
"Winter weapons. To be used how? And there are thirty of them. Not things you can easily lay your hands on."
"Did the people you got them from say what they would do with the weapons?"
"I was only asked to make the delivery."
"Me, too."
A moment of silence followed, the two of them exchanging glances. Shoukei smiled first. "I haven't the slightest idea. It is unusual, amassing winter weapons like that. But somebody with money must be behind it."
"Yeah. I guess we've been told only what we need to know."
Shoukei tilted her head to the side and looked at Suzu. The girl from Takuhou was taking back a shipment of thirty winter weapons. The price of those thirty would be approximate to that of 300 ordinary weapons.
From Takuhou. "Then perhaps the target is Shoukou?"
Suzu waved her hands in denial. "No, it can't be."
"The man who sent me here is gathering mercenaries instead of winter weapons."
Suzu's eyes flew open. "Gahou."
"Undoubtedly. Are you thinking the same thing I am?"
"Sure seems like it."
The bedroom fell into silence. Suzu sat down on the divan and sighed. "The kid I was traveling with got killed by Shoukou."
"Really?"
"Why can a public servant like Shoukou get away with things like that? Shisui really is an awful place."
"I've heard rumors."
"Those rumors are only half as true as reality. Seishuu--the boy I made it all the way to Takuhou with--he didn't do anything wrong. He was killed for getting in the way of Shoukou's carriage. I was so angry. When I try to imagine people looking the other way when things like that happen, I get so mad I can't stand it. But Shoukou--"
"--has got Gahou watching his back."
Suzu blinked. "You know that for certain?"
"That's what everybody says: Gahou and Shoukou are two peas in a pod."
"No doubt they are. I'd sure like to see Shoukou and his ilk get what they deserve. With the Royal Kei looking out for Gahou, nobody's going to try and punish Shoukou. That's why we've got no choice but to take the initiative ourselves, right?"
"I don't agree."
"Eh?"
"I don't think the Royal Kei is doing anything like protecting Gahou. Isn't that what the Late Empress Yo-ou did, you mean?"
"It was true of the Late Empress Yo-ou, and the current Empress, too--"
"The person who brought me here said that the Royal Kei simply doesn't know about things like that."
"But--"
Shoukei looked intently at Suzu. "When I was in Ryuu, I met a friend of the Royal Kei."
"You what?"
"One of her closest companions. I can't believe she's that bad of a person. She wouldn't protect Shoukou or collude with Gahou."
"Maybe not--"
"The Royal Kei has only recently acceded to the throne. There's got to be a lot she doesn't understand. I think that's what it comes down to."
"Ignorance is no defense. She's the Empress, after all."
Shoukei gave Suzu a long, hard look. Then she said, "My father was the king."
"He . . . what?"
"The Royal Hou. Three years ago his subjects rose up and overthrew him."
Suzu gaped at her.
"My father was detested by the people. The result of all that hate was regicide. They hate him even now, and there's nothing I could do to change that. But even with a father like that, watching him die hurt terribly. Probably as much as it hurt when Seishuu died."
"Yes."
"In order to prevent my father's death, before the hate grew so intense, I should have remonstrated with him. I loathe myself now for not doing so. What if all the people surrounding the Royal Kei are naive dunces like I was? She'll be hated as my parents were. There were people who even said that I condoned my father's sins." Shoukei lowered her gaze. "I don't know what's really happening. But if the Royal Kei is surrounded only by those kinds of people? My father was chosen by Hourin. He couldn't have been doomed from the start. But when the people around him tried to warn him and couldn't get through to him, he ended up parting from the Way."
Suzu examined the longing look on Shoukei's face, an expression that brought to mind another person she'd met recently: She's a puppet.
"You're right," Suzu said. Shoukei tilted her head quizzically. Suzu continued, "I met somebody else who said the same thing. Only rumors, but the word was that the Empress doesn't have the trust of her retainers and can't get them to do anything she wants. So her only recourse is to do what they tell her to do."
"Yes, indeed."
"You think that's really what's going on?"
"I've heard that most of the ministers at the Royal Court are from the era of the Late Empress Yo-ou. I think you can guess what kind of people they are. The same ones who stood by while Yo-ou fell from Way before their very eyes."
"But the Royal Kei dismissed the Province Lord of Baku. Wasn't he beloved by his people?"
"Standard practice for corrupt officials. Of course, beasts like Gahou and Shoukou would conspire against an accomplished and respected man like the Marquis. They'd cook up some
crime to frame him with."
"But--"
"There's a superintendent in Ei Province by the name of Enho. I've heard that he's highly knowledgeable of the Way. The rike where Enho was superintendent was attacked. The attackers killed a girl and kidnapped Enho. A gang was hanging around the rike, and rumor has it they were from Takuhou. I've also heard that the same day Enho was assaulted, even after the gates were closed, they were opened again."
"You're kidding." Very few people could order a city gate reopened after it was closed. "It must have been Shoukou."
"He's the only one who could pull off something like that, don't you think? Just like the people around the Royal Kei could engineer the downfall of the Marquis without breaking a sweat."
Shoukei looked into Suzu's eyes. Her big eyes suddenly brimmed over. Shoukei watched her silently.
"The Royal Kei . . . she's a good person?"
"I have to think so. The way you asked, do you not like her?"
Suzu shook her head. "It'd be such a relief is she were."
"Suzu?"
"I wanted to see her. I thought for certain she must be a good person. I met Seishuu on the ship from Sai. He was in a really bad state, and I was worried sick about him. I told him we'd go to Gyouten together . . . . "
Suzu spoke his name in such a grief-stricken voice it made her heart ache.
"But he was killed by Shoukou. Anybody who'd let a beast like that run free, who'd protect him, wouldn't have done anything for Seishuu if I had taken him to Gyouten. So what did I bring him to Takuhou for? Just to die?"
"Suzu--" Shoukei said, taking hold of her hand.
"He was such an unfortunate kid."
"Yes, he was."
"If we had gotten to Gyouten, the Royal Kei would have helped him."
"Of course."
Shoukei stroked the back of the sobbing Suzu. She wept like a child. It was enough to break her heart.
I only wish you could understand.
That was all she desired to say to the Empress in Gyouten. Shoukei didn't know whether or not the Royal Kei could have healed Seishuu. She wished--
I only wish you could understand how all the hopes of the people rest upon your shoulders.
