"
Maomao,
Maomao"
"What is it,
Suzume,
?"
This exchange had already become routine.
However, it was unusual for her to come at this hour, after the day's work was done and Maomao was getting ready for bed.
"What's the matter, at this hour?"
"Oh my, it's the report about Rahan's coal and all that, I must say."
It was a report regarding the matter of Rahan's letter. However, since it might have been a misunderstanding on Maomao's part, she had asked Suzume to pass along the message.
Still, the fact that Suzume had come at this hour already gave Maomao a rough idea of the outcome.
"Actually, not many of the letters from Rahan have been reaching Getsubi no Kimi."
"Is that so?"
"We thought about half were probably getting through, but no matter how far the destination, having half the letters addressed to Getsubi no Kimi lost in the mail seems rather odd, wouldn't you say?"
"I see, I see."
In other words, there was a possibility that someone was disposing of Rahan's letters.
And if Rahan had wanted to convey something and sent Maomao a letter as a result, that would make sense. He had sent it as a backup, in a way that no one would notice, in a form that only Maomao and the others would understand.
"So it was just luck that we noticed, I suppose?"
"That's right. Maomao and Rahan's letter need to line up for it to work, and if Maomao had eaten Rahan's letter first, it would have been pointless."
"I wouldn't go so far as to eat a letter."
Maomao didn't always understand Suzume's jokes.
"Right, but Suzume's goat does eat them from time to time."
"You're still keeping that goat?"
"Yes, you can always drink fresh, gamey milk."
She'd certainly bought it during her inspection of the farming villages, but he never expected she'd still be keeping it around.
(He'd assumed it had ended up as dinner at some point.)
Goat meat was commonly used in the meals of the Western Capital, so he'd simply assumed it had been eaten.
"Yes, the mother goat gave birth and has been providing us with milk. The father went far away. But don't worry—he lives on forever in Suzume's heart."
In other words, she'd eaten one of them.
"Well then, shall we get back on topic?"
"Please do."
If he kept indulging Suzume's rambling, it would be morning before they knew it.
"About coal—actually, it seems that a small amount of coal was indeed produced in Xuixi Province."
"Really?"
"Yes. However, that was apparently nearly twenty years ago, and there are no records of production in recent years."
Nearly twenty years ago.
That was a troubling detail.
"If we're talking twenty years ago, could it simply be that the records weren't kept?"
The purge of the Xu clan had occurred seventeen years ago. Documents from that era had been burned during the upheaval.
"Exactly. I think there might have been someone on the purged side who was managing the mines."
"That is a problem. But wouldn't there have been people who actually dug the coal?"
"That's where it gets into the post-war cover-up, I think. Apparently the coal output wasn't considered significant enough to matter."
"In that case—"
"—it would be most convenient to just go along with that story, wouldn't it?"
What an ominous remark from Suzume.
"Maomao,
Gyokuyō
do you know why her ladyship summoned you, Jinshi, and that old strategist fellow?"
"I don't know. And I don't want to know."
Maomao flatly refused.
"Well, apparently she wanted to pick a fight with someone, or so I hear."
"Suzume always ends up telling me anyway, doesn't she?"
"That's right—I'm Suzume, the type who shares information with the people who need to hear it."
This was content Maomao absolutely did not want to hear.
Suzume had deliberately come to Maomao's room at night. If that quack doctor were around, it would cause a huge commotion.
"Now then, I wonder where she intends to start this war?"
"Oh, I can't hear youuu~"
When Maomao clamped her hands over her ears, Suzume narrowed her eyes and started tickling her.
"Aha, don't—"
The tickling was unbearable, and Maomao collapsed onto her bed. Suzume climbed on top and pinned her down.
Maomao couldn't keep her hands over her ears. Suzume whispered right beside them.
"Not the
North Alren
Alliance, but
Sahou,
apparently."
(I didn't want to hear that.)
She hadn't wanted to hear it, but since she had, she had questions.
"Why Sahou? Normally, attacking that country would cause more problems than it's worth. Of course, attacking any other country would be just as foolish."
"Well, let's see. As for the advantages—if you take the nearest city, you get access to a port. Gaining significant control over the sea routes would be a big deal. Transporting crops would become much easier, too."
That alone wasn't enough.
"Also, Sahou caused trouble last year involving shrine maidens, so it would be easy to fabricate a pretext. Especially with Lady Tsukinokimi, who bore the brunt of the banner's fallout, standing right there."
It certainly looked like a flimsy excuse on the surface, but under-the-table dealings must have taken place. If they could extract information from the former shrine maiden, it would be quite advantageous for the attacking side. But did Gyokuyō know about this? No—she couldn't possibly.
"Also, a stifling atmosphere drives people toward violence. Why not redirect that aggression away from the powerful and toward foreign nations instead? People who've lost their livelihoods to the locust plague will keep turning to banditry and worse. As for handling that sort—once they become pawns of war, the old strategist will position them quite nicely."
It wasn't an unusual reason for a war to start. But Maomao wasn't a fool.
"But this is Sahou we're talking about. If they invaded, wouldn't the other nations object? Sparrow?"
"That's right. The North Asian Federation would be especially troubled. Even if they seized the port in one fell swoop, it wouldn't necessarily work out in their favor. It would require a great deal of money as well."
Sparrow hopped up into the air.
"And as for the mountain where the coal mines are supposedly located—how about the western edge?"
"The western edge."
Meaning the area facing Sahou.
"Coal isn't used much in Ri, but in regions where timber is scarce, it's an excellent fuel to take the place of charcoal."
"That does seem to be the case."
Maomao had never actually used coal herself, so she couldn't say for certain—but if there were flammable stone that could be burned without having to make charcoal, it would certainly have its uses.
Maomao remained seated on her cot and looked at Sparrow.
"If there were substantial coal deposits that could be mined from the Sahou side, and furthermore exported by sea—what then? And on top of that, if Sahou didn't yet realize the coal was there, or fully understand its value? Well, I suppose they must have some idea of its worth."
Whether or not they went to war, whether profits would materialize—it all changed the equation.
"If coal had other applications as well, that would change things even further, but let's set that aside for now."
Sparrow made a gesture with both hands, as if placing something off to the side.
"Now I understand why Rahan told me to search for it."
Maomao felt utterly drained.
Rahan must have searched for records on Jussei Province that were still kept in the capital. Old documents might well have been discarded, yet he'd managed to find them—and sent them to Maomao encoded in a letter.
This was certainly not the sort of information they wanted the visitors from the capital to discover.
(He'd been mining coal from the mountains without the state's knowledge?)
There would have been enough surplus to distribute charity to the farmers hit by poor harvests.
While Maomao let streams of unpleasant sweat trickle down, Sparrow maintained her cool expression.
"Sparrow."
"What is it, Maomao?"
"But wouldn't that still be speculation, wouldn't you say?"
Maomao's motto was: never act on speculation. Times like these were precisely when she recalled her father's words.
"Yes. But there are multiple grounds for suspicion."
Sparrow cut straight through Maomao's hope without hesitation.
"Mines are dangerous places. That's why they would have used many slaves back then. Survivors of the Wind-Reading tribe, for instance."
"..."
With Sparrow's information network, they may have already heard accounts from former mine workers. Through that same network, they had learned that Gyokuyou's mother was from the Wind-Reading tribe.
"When compatriots are in peril, rescuing them could serve as a noble cause. A righteous cause, one might say."
Maomao did not hear the rest of Sparrow's words. The only thing on her mind was—
"Sparrow."
"Yes, yes?"
"Would Lord Jinshi go to war if there was profit in it?"
Sparrow simply smiled pleasantly.
"Do you think he would?"
Sparrow answered with a question of his own.
"In times of peace, His Lordship is a remarkably capable man."
Maomao could not tell whether that was praise or criticism, but she felt a slight sense of relief.