Maomao
Their journey from that point on had been calm.
(I had expected there to be more insects.)
Being grasslands, there were a fair number of them. But they weren't exactly swarming—she could only see them hopping about here and there.
(Perhaps it had been an unfounded worry?)
No locust plague had broken out in the western capital. If so, even Maomao could feel relieved.
By the time they reached the next rest stop, they had caught up with
Ra-han's
brothers, who had gone on ahead.
"What? Could that really happen?"
Ra-han's brother listened to the account, his face gone pale.
(That would be the normal reaction, I suppose.)
Seeing
Suzume,
who seemed unfazed by the bandit attack, Maomao understood. It wasn't so much that she was used to such things—more that this fell within the range of what she'd expected. That was the kind of reaction she'd had.
The advance party consisted of one loaded cart, two military officers who appeared to be guards, three farmers who seemed to be helpers, and two local guides, in addition to Ra-han's brothers.
Maomao didn't know how many of each would be considered proper, but she felt that two guides was quite a lot.
(Weren't there originally supposed to be just one assigned to us?)
Come to think of it, she had somehow never gotten around to hearing about the guide situation.
After finishing their second rest stop, the farming village was close at hand. Centered on a flowing river, there were settled houses with fields and trees all around. Beyond them, gentle mountains came into view. Unlike the mountains Maomao was familiar with, these were more like
low hills—
as though the grassland itself had simply risen upward.
The white dots scattered about—could those be sheep? The darker shapes might be cattle.
From the number of houses, the population was probably around three hundred at most.
As we drew closer, goats and sheep came out to greet us. Some were fluffy and woolly, while others looked scrawny with their fleeces freshly shorn. It must have been right in the middle of shearing season.
Even the children appeared to be proper workers, picking up sheep droppings and putting them into baskets.
"What's that over there?"
"Apparently sheep droppings can be used as fuel. And if you spread them on the floor, they say it keeps things warm."
Bashin was looking at me strangely, so I offered a brief explanation.
"From dung?!"
"Oh my, you didn't know that? My dear brother-in-law."
Suzume never missed a chance to needle Bashin. When doing so, she apparently always used the term "brother-in-law" as her
standard
go-to.
The village was
surrounded
by a moat and brick outer walls. Given that bandits had shown up earlier, they probably appeared from time to time.
At the village entrance, Bashin was talking to someone. A messenger had apparently already arrived, so they let us through without any trouble.
—Or so it seemed.
One of the two guides had been called over by Suzume. Suzume was all smiles, while the guide's face was gradually turning pale.
The uneasy atmosphere was spreading to those around them. Behind Suzume stood an armed officer from the advance escort. Suzume was cheerful and the guide was obedient enough, but it was plain to see he was being escorted somewhere against his will.
(Oh, I see how it is~)
Maomao crossed her arms and watched to see where the guide was being taken.
"Hey, what's going on over there?"
Rahan, ever the straight man, spotted it with his sharp eyes.
"I think she wants to negotiate the price down. They were told the road was safe, but bandits showed up anyway."
"Ah, but isn't that just picking a fight?"
"It might be, but it sounds like they were charged extra for a route that was supposed to be completely safe, on top of being told it was a special favor."
"No way. Besides, there's nothing out here but open grassland. The ones getting duped have only themselves to blame!"
That's exactly right. Of course, it was just Maomao running her mouth, so it was pure nonsense.
While they were talking, footsteps approached.
"The village chief will show you to your lodgings."
Basen had arrived.
"Understood."
"Thank you for your trouble."
Raban's brother responded politely. Despite being treated carelessly, he was originally the eldest son of a respectable family, so he probably knew his manners.
"I see. By the way—"
Basen looked at Raban's brother.
"What should I call you?"
Basen didn't seem to know Raban's brother's name either.
"Oh!"
Raban's brother's face lit up with expectation.
"Raban-brother would be fine."
Maomao answered immediately.
"Hey!"
The back of Raban's brother's hand smacked Maomao's shoulder with a sharp *crack*.
"Very well. Raban-brother it is, then."
"H-hey, not there!"
Raban's brother shouted at Basen, all pretense of courtesy forgotten.
"Yes. Literally, he is Raban's older brother. I'm sure you know of Raban, but this one doesn't have nearly as strong a personality, and he's a perfectly ordinary person, so he's no threat. As a potato farmer, he's
a professional,
so please leave him to it."
"Who are you calling ordinary! Who are you calling a farmer!"
If he wasn't a farmer, then what was he? He'd been helping out on that enormous potato field, so he could at least be a little proud of it.
"Very well. If you're a relative of Lord Rakhan, then I must treat you with proper courtesy."
(Now that's something I can appreciate.)
What she meant was, Basen's treatment of Maomao was rather rough.
"Um..."
The village chief spoke up tentatively.
"Would you like me to show you around?"
"Ah, sorry. I'd appreciate that."
Looking relieved, the village chief led them to the square at the center of the village.
"Then please, make use of this dwelling."
It was a portable tent of the kind used by nomadic peoples.
"This tent was used by someone who settled in the village a few years ago, but it's still perfectly usable and warm inside. The lady may use the smaller tent next to it."
Peering inside, it was indeed warm. A frame woven like a net had been draped with wool cloth.
The interior was lined with carpets, and a hearth had been set up at the center. There were no windows, so the air might grow stale, but a cylindrical chimney rose above the hearth for ventilation. Piled beside the hearth was what must have been the sheep dung the children had been gathering earlier.
The carpet was an elaborately woven, vibrantly colored piece — a clear sign of the farming village's hospitality toward its guests.
"Good thing I hadn't folded it up yet,"
the village chief murmured.
(He must be talking about Rikuson.)
He had supposedly arrived only a few days ago. What exactly had he come here for?
The village chief had sun-darkened skin and, though he looked like an old man, his legs were still sturdy. Perhaps the region's strong sunlight made people appear older than they were. Or perhaps, being a nomadic people even after settling down, they naturally kept their strength.
"It's already late today, so we'll have dinner and get some rest. I'll post a guard in front of the tent — would that be acceptable?"
"Yes, that's fine."
Maomao gathered her belongings and moved to the smaller tent.
She removed her shoes and stepped inside to find the surface delightfully plush.
It seemed several layers of wool cloth had been placed beneath the carpet.
She slipped off the coat draped over her shoulders and found herself sprawling on the floor in a starfish pose before she knew it.
Oh no, I'm dozing off.
The inside of the tent was warm, and the floor was warm too. She was about to drift off when she jolted awake and slapped her cheeks.
She sprang upright just as Sparrow came back.
"Maomao, you look so comfortable. Sparrow wants to lounge around too."
Sparrow flopped down with a grin, eyes narrowing.
"Sparrow, may I confirm something with you?"
Maomao gathered everything that had been bothering her throughout the day into her thoughts. As she organized her thinking, she settled into a formal seated position without really noticing. Sparrow mirrored her, sitting cross-legged across from her.
"Sure, sure. What is it, Maomao?"
Sparrow's manner was as easygoing as ever.
"It was you who set the bandits on us, wasn't it?"
Maomao's question didn't so much as flicker across Sparrow's expression.
"What do you mean by that, Maomao?"
"I phrased that poorly. Let me rephrase: you anticipated that bandits would attack, and in order to minimize the actual damage, you redirected them toward our group that set out second."
Sparrow's expression remained unchanged.
"What makes you think that?"
She wasn't trying to trip Maomao up. It was simply that Sparrow looked like she was enjoying this, eager to hear the answer.
"First: why split into two groups? You may have been considering my well-being and wanted to shorten the travel time as much as possible. I can tell from the fact that Lady Moon went out of her way to prepare a comfortable saddle. But even granting the split, with two guides available, it's strange that neither was taken along with either group."
"Oh my."
Sparrow seemed to excel at reading maps, but on unfamiliar terrain, having a guide was never a bad thing. It struck Maomao as deliberate that none had been brought along.
"Second: this outer coat."
"Did you take issue with the coat?"
"It was wonderfully warm and I put it to good use. But the one thing that struck me was how ornate it was."
"Ornate, you say?"
Maomao looked at the coat Sparrow was wearing.
"You're fond of flashy things, Sparrow. So if you had two coats, I'd have expected you to pick the more flamboyant one. Yet you chose the comparatively plain one."
"You're right, but Sparrow knows when to keep things appropriate, too."
Sparrow spoke in her usual frivolous tone.
"Yes. If Sparrow were to give me something finer, it would have been something from Lord Jinshi. You were talking about a comfortable saddle, so I assumed you were giving me the cloak from Lord Jinshi. But that wasn't the case, was it?"
The cloak Maomao had received was pleasant to the touch. The fine embroidery clearly indicated it was a high-quality piece.
"Wearing something this nice would be like announcing yourself as a prime target for thieves. The reason your cloak is a bit plainer, Sparrow, is to make me look like a maid to one of the lords, isn't it?"
"Hehehe. My position has always been that of your maid, Maomao. So are you suggesting I deliberately dressed you in a fine cloak to make you a target, and then split the group into a vanguard and a rearguard?"
"I'd say it was less about making me a target and more about minimizing real damage by focusing it on one place."
Sparrow blinked in surprise.
"If the bandits were to ambush the cart heading to the village all at once, it would be a large group. With soldiers present, their fighting strength increases, but there are also people unaccustomed to such dangers. I didn't want to scare them unnecessarily and hinder future work, and the chance of someone being taken hostage was not insignificant."
Rahan's older brother seemed ordinary and healthy, but didn't look particularly battle-hardened. He'd probably be as timid as the next person.
"If we split into a vanguard and rearguard, and they thought the group with fewer people had someone valuable, the bandits would likely target that one. Two women and one man. Lord Maosen's abilities are honestly monstrous, but he looks childlike and isn't that large for a soldier."
The bandits probably wouldn't expect to find a bear in human skin once they opened the crate.
"But, Maomao. If your theory is correct, how did Sparrow manage to lure the bandits out? Even if you were wearing a fine cloak, would they just happen to come along as if lying in wait?"
"That's exactly why. Just now, I was speaking with one of the guides. Point three: Sparrow only spoke with one of the guides about the village."
Maomao remembered the pale-faced guide.
"Before the vanguard set out, didn't you tell the two guides different things, Sparrow? About where the rearguard would stop for water. If you showed them a map and pretended to confirm where to rest, you could inform them of the rest stop location."
She didn't know what communication method the guides used, but there were plenty of ways to share information with bandits.
"Yes. I'd already hired people who looked suspiciously like they might be connected to the bandits as guides. Sparrow told each of them the rest stop location and confirmed where the attack would happen. To determine once and for all if the guides were white or black. Of course, it's possible they were both black."
"Just one of them. The other guide had a clearly established identity."
Sparrow did not deny Maomao's words.
"On Lord Jinshi's orders?"
Maomao had told Jinshi to use her as a tool. So it wasn't unthinkable that she'd anticipated this kind of use.
"No. I'm the one who prepared the cloak."
"I see."
Then it must be something else.
"Maomao, you're so clever—it leaves poor Suzume at a loss."
"Well, since I can never tell what Suzume is thinking, I'm at a loss too."
They both sighed.
"Maomao, I have two favors to ask."
"What are they?"
"Suzume is a bright, fun-loving Suzume, so please keep treating me as you always have—just as Suzume."
With that, she produced the shurushuru flag.
"…I don't quite understand, but fine."
Maomao took the flag and let it dangle from her fingertips, contemplating what to do with it.
"Maomao. One last favor from Suzume. May I ask a question?"
"Go ahead."
"Why did you think that flashy, lavish outer coat wasn't a gift from the Lord of the Moon?"
Suzume seemed to hold a perfectly genuine question about this.
"I just figured that if he were to give me something, it would be something practical—comfortable to wear, sure, but understated and fitting to my station."
"Oh? Is that how he is?"
"I suppose that's how it's turned out."
Suzume stared at her with an indescribable expression, but then her gaze suddenly lifted upward.
"My apologies."
A woman's voice came from outside the tent.
"Please, come in."
When Maomao spoke, the wool cloth at the entrance shifted aside.
"Sorry to bother you."
Peering in was a middle-aged woman. She held reins in her hand.
"I've prepared three goats as you asked. What would you like me to do with them?"
"Yes, yes—thank you very much. Here's your payment."
Suzume forced the money into the woman's hands. It seemed she had made the arrangement before heading back to the tent.
(Are we taking the goats with us?)
If we were going to eat them, it would be cheaper to have them butchered first, and we didn't need three anyway.
Suzume held the goats' leads while rummaging through the luggage. She pulled out a heavy-looking bag.
"What's that?"
"Salt. There's no sea around here and you can't get rock salt either, so salt is precious. The goats love it too."
"What are you planning to do with it?"
Maomao couldn't quite read her intentions.
Suzume gave a cheerful grin.
"I'm going to negotiate. Suzume is a pacifist, so I'll try to keep things as peaceful as possible. Maomao, you just rest your tired body, okay?"
Suzume turned her back on Maomao and strode off with the goats in tow.