Suzume
The suspicious person they had been looking for was there, in the place Suzume had led them to.
"I told you, it's a misundersaaanding!"
A shrill voice rang out.
It was too piercing to properly be called a woman's voice.
Looking at the figure, Maomao could see why.
"A ragamuffin."
The child was probably around ten years old.
Narrow eyes, sallow skin.
Rather than the features of someone from the Western Capital, the child showed stronger characteristics of the people found in Kaō Province.
The facial structure looked like a boy's, but the long hair was tied back behind the head, so it was probably a girl.
In the Western Capital, even boys carefully wrapped their heads in cloth, or more often wore their hair in long braids.
Because the child had been wearing a face covering and letting long hair flow freely, she must have been mistaken for a woman.
"I'm not a brat!"
The child puffed out her cheeks indignantly. That attitude was proof enough of being a brat.
In the room were the suspicious person's child, Tomei, Basen, and one guard who was always around but whose name Maomao didn't know.
"Maomao."
Tomei narrowed her mismatched eyes and looked at her.
"Lady Tomei, why are you here?"
"We thought it was a woman, then it turned out to be a boy—so our second son said he'd handle the interrogation. But now that he's realized it's a girl, what do you suppose will happen?"
"Ah..."
Maomao understood.
Basen was, in principle, terrible with women. How terrible, you ask? He was so painfully shy that there were genuine concerns he might never produce heirs.
"Mother..."
Basen looked awkward.
He still seemed like a child, but even at this age, was it still no good?
(Enkyu and I seem fine, though.)
Enkyu looked like such a rare creature that it couldn't be helped, but maybe Maomao was in the same category too?
"Is the interrogation not going well? Shall Enkyu handle it?"
Enkyu approached with narrowed, smiling eyes.
"Enkyu, you don't need to do it."
Momomi stopped her.
"Is that so? I'm quite good with handling children, though."
Enkyu pulled a flag from her sleeve with a rustling sound.
"I apologize, but what is the current situation?"
Maomao stepped in between them. The Ma family all had such
strong personalities
that she'd be left behind if she didn't assert herself properly.
"I apologize. The situation right now is that this child...
Kurumu
is what he's called."
"Ku...rumu?"
"It's written like this."
Momomi wrote it on the table to show her.
"Thank you."
The name felt far from the typical sounds around the capital. If anything, it had the ring of
Sa'ou
about it.
"You tell them too! As you can see, I'm a lovely, beautiful girl you can find anywhere! The only reason I was hanging around here was to catch a bird I used to keep!"
"Beautiful girl..."
The gazes turned to Kuromu. She apparently had quite a high opinion of herself. But if they kept nitpicking here, the conversation would only go off track again.
"As you can see, I have no intention other than catching the bird, and of course no ill will whatsoever. So I'm asking you to please hand it over and let me go."
"My, my, how brazen."
At Momomi's explanation, Suzume chimed in on Maomao's behalf.
"Come on! I was the one who raised that bird in the first place. Look! See how attached it is to me!"
"Doesn't look that way to me."
The bird refused to meet Kuromu's gaze and turned its head away. Even up close, it had a truly bizarre look on its face.
"That's because—look!"
Kuromu donned the black outfit and mask. The bird—
the Masked Owl—
finally drew close to Kuromu.
"Heh heh. I hatched it from an egg. I've been taking care of it dressed like this the whole time."
"So what you're saying is, if someone wears that outfit, the bird will respond to anyone. It doesn't have to be you specifically."
"!?!"
At Maomao's words, Kuromu looked as though her jaw was about to hit the floor.
"No, really! Believe me! Please believe this poor, innocent child!"
Kuromu looked on the verge of tears.
"See, I even know its favorite food!"
"This one is so cute, isn't it? Here—have some chicken."
Momomi held out a piece of chicken she'd picked up with chopsticks toward the owl. The owl hopped and bounced around inside its cage to get closer, then pecked at the chicken.
"!?!"
"It seems like it'll take food just fine even without anyone wearing the black outfit."
Still wearing the mask, Kuromu made a stuffy-nosed sniffling sound, like a child pouting.
As for Mashan, since his mother was running the show, he simply stood there without uttering a word. He had achieved a state of perfect nirvana.
Gaoshun
"He's a bit similar."
"I-I, that's, properly, I, I raised them—"
"If you say you raised them, then show me the evidence."
"D-demanding evidence like that is—"
"Maomao, you're ruthless even to a child, aren't you."
Suzume remarked as if it were someone else's problem while offering Momomi some extra chicken. She did seem to be considerate of her mother-in-law, at least. With her husband and brother-in-law, she acted freely.
"Ruthless as you may call it, even a child can start a fire. If someone were behaving suspiciously at a powerful person's villa in the Western Capital, it would be normal to punish them regardless of age."
"That's true, I suppose."
"Oh, Suzume. Raw chicken is dangerous to eat, so please only snack on it after it's been cooked."
"Oh, pardon me."
Suzume had been about to carry the feed chicken to her mouth out of habit. Gourmet as she was, eating raw pork and chicken was not recommended.
"P-properly. I, I did raise them... I, I hatched them from eggs, I did."
"Is that so? Then how did you obtain the eggs? And what method did you use to hatch them? Please also explain why the birds you raised ended up running away."
Sniffling his runny nose, Kuromu began to talk in bits and pieces.
"T-the eggs, I got them. A hunter who was a friend of my old man, he said he didn't want them. My old man wouldn't buy them either."
"A hunter?"
"When they hunt hawks and such, if they find a nest, they take the eggs. My old man buys those eggs. T-then raises them and sells them to rich people."
"I see."
So these birds were leftover eggs that hadn't sold.
"Then how did you hatch them?"
"M-my old man always kept the room warm. He'd stoke the fire like crazy, and when it got too hot, he'd ventilate, and about five times a day, he'd turn the eggs over. I wasn't allowed to use the room, so I tucked them under my arm. I think a mother bird keeps them warm constantly — they hatched in about five days."
"Hmm."
Maomao realized that Kuromu was telling the truth. She only knew roughly how birds were hatched, but she didn't think he was wrong.
"So, what do you say?"
Bashan, who had been relegated to the role of Gaoshun's backup, asked Maomao.
"I don't think there's anything suspicious about it. I doubt anyone could whip up a lie on the spot and make it this detailed."
However, there was something that bothered her.
"Did you raise this owl with the intention of selling it?"
"N-No!"
"That's what I figured."
Maomao grabbed him by his black outfit.
"It seems you raised it with the plan of releasing it back into the wild."
"...Yeah. I taught it how to catch insects so it could hunt."
"But it ended up getting sold anyway?"
"...That's right. That damn old man."
Kuromu clenched his fist tight.
"It had a funny face and unusual fur, so he sold it while I was away. Without consulting anyone—just did it on his own.
Man—
There wasn't even a buyer lined up! I was going to release it back into the forest! That's why I went to all the trouble of raising it in this sweltering outfit!"
Kuromu was seething with anger, but this was hardly unusual. When it came to the possessions of women and children, the head of the household essentially did whatever he pleased. This was the common way of thinking in Li.
(Living in a place where women hold the power, you really do grow numb to this sort of thing.)
It wasn't uncommon for daughters to be raised as tools for political marriages, or groomed purely for the sake of bride money.
"I understand. Then would you mind if I continued from here? These are only guesses, so please correct me if I'm wrong."
"O-Okay."
Kuromu sniffled and nodded.
"Your father's profession isn't actually falconry per se, is it? Rather, he sells hawks to the wealthy? Hawks for hunting, as well as ones kept as pets."
Kuromu nodded.
"The place where the owl was sold to was this estate.
Jade Oriole—
"...to the young lady, right?"
"...No, that's not right. Technically, she's an adopted daughter. There are no girls that age at the Oriole King's."
Kurumu, perhaps having finally gotten past his hiccups, spoke in a much clearer voice.
"The Oriole King?"
Unfamiliar with the term, Maomao asked what that meant. An adopted daughter wasn't all that unusual—it was something she'd already anticipated—so it didn't particularly bother her.
"There's a play with that name. The hero cuts through tangled problems like a sharp blade, defeating enemies left and right. It's a story based on an old nobleman—"
"—the prototype."
"—and that's how it came about. Someone playfully called him 'Jade Oriole' and 'Oriole King,' and the nicknames just stuck."
Kurumu looked young, but Maomao thought he was remarkably quick-witted. For a child his age, his vocabulary was impressively broad.
"Jade Oriole seems to be quite popular in the Western Capital, huh."
"Well, yeah. He's the eldest son of the lord who built up the capital—"
"—Lord Yuyuan—"
"—and he's easygoing enough to strike up conversations with commoners, so."
"...Is that so."
Maomao still didn't have a clear picture of this man called Jade Oriole, but right now there were more important things to ask about.
"So the owl was sold to Jade Oriole's daughter, but the owl itself managed to escape and ended up nesting here in this estate?"
"Something like that."
"How did you find out the owl escaped?"
"...Well, um. The person herself came and apologized, looking very sorry about it."
"The person herself?"
Maomao exchanged a glance with Sparrow beside her. Both Momomi and Basen wore puzzled expressions.
"Believe it or not, I'm actually acquainted with people in the Jade household. They even taught me how to read and write."
"Oh? Even though you look so scruffy."
"Who are you calling scruffy?! I'm a beautiful young lady!"
Kurumu reacted to Sparrow's muttered remark. His pout seemed to have completely vanished.
"What exactly do you mean by that? Honestly, you don't look like someone who would be coming and going from a manor."
Momomi had changed her tone, but she was saying the same thing as Sparrow.
"I was on good terms with the Ōsugi King's mama — Lady Gyoku'en, the wife. My old man was a relative who sold birds to the rich through that connection. I met the daughter a few times during deliveries, and when I asked her to return the bird, she was stuck. You can't just give back something you got from your father."
"So you're saying she let it go on purpose."
Maomao confirmed.
"I don't know about that. But I got a message that it was wrong to let it go. So I took that to mean they wanted me to catch it. I'm innocent, right?"
"No, you're not innocent — you went and scared the manor's residents needlessly."
"Grr..."
Kurumu growled like a beast.
"Well, I've more or less figured out the situation. Maomao-san."
"That's right."
"But isn't there something else you'd like to ask, Maomao-san?"
Sparrow was right.
Maomao's real question wasn't about why he'd been lurking around the manor. She had already more or less predicted that part.
"Then, as compensation for the trouble, would you mind answering a few of my questions?"
"Sure, go ahead."
Momomi answered on Kurumu's behalf. Maomao directed her questions at Momomi as well.
"Your family seems to have raised birds, but did you ever use them as a means of communication?"
"My family didn't. Apparently some relatives used to way back in my great-grandfather's time, but I don't know about now."
"Hmm." Maomao crossed her arms.
"Then, did you used to do things like falconry?"
"We did. My old man just started selling them to the rich because it was good money. We'd hunt rabbits and sometimes foxes too. The reason they said they didn't want this one's eggs was because..."
"Hawks..."
"...and..."
"...eagles."
"Otherwise you can't catch large prey during a hunt. It's more useful to have a bird that can hunt rather than just be a pet."
Indeed, this owl could at best
catch mice
or small rabbits at most.
"Then, could you train a bird to catch only a specific type of creature?"
Kurumu furrowed his brow.
"...I've never done it, but I can't say it's impossible. If you keep feeding a chick only a specific type of food from when it's young, it can become a picky eater. Or, you change the reward based on the prey during the hunt. With falconry, when the bird brings back what it caught, you exchange it for food. If it learns what kind of prey can be traded for its favorite food, it might start selecting specific prey."
Maomao thought that Kurumu was indeed smart. Setting aside his high-pitched voice, talking with him felt far more like speaking with an adult than someone of
Chou U
his same age.
"Then,
locusts
—maybe we could make a bird that targets only locusts."
"Locusts?"
Bashan latched onto the idea.
"Locusts, huh. That'd mean it'd have to be a bird that isn't too big, like this one. Plus, it'd probably prefer meat, so exchanging meat for prey might be more realistic."
"Is that so? Then, one last question—"
Maomao drew a slow breath and exhaled.
"Are you from the wind-reading clan?"
Kurumu blinked in momentary surprise.
"How do you know that name?"
Maomao clenched her fist tight.