Maomao
She had spent enough days in the settlement to get a general sense of things. The women, needing an outlet for their gloomy moods, chattered away at Maomao, the newcomer.
They talked about their bandit chief — a man who put on airs of being some kind of one-eyed dragon, but looked more like a bear. The things they said were so outlandish that Maomao worried she might be killed if she were ever overheard. He was dim-witted, but he had good instincts and held the bandits together through sheer brute strength.
"If only he weren't around — the rest are nothing but small fry."
The older woman spoke as she cooked. Beside her, Maomao peeled potatoes without pause.
The meeting hall where Maomao had been thrown held roughly thirty women in total. They had been gathered mainly for cooking duties, while the rest were divided into roles such as laundry and cleaning. The settlement had originally housed about a thousand people, but a locust plague had driven half of them to other regions — mostly the merchants. Those who remained were largely the devout who wished to protect the church, farmers, or people who had nowhere else to go.
(So the bandits probably started out with fewer than a hundred.)
They numbered around fifty, give or take. But that had been enough to raze a settlement full of noncombatants. Once they killed the soldiers who had been sent, all that remained were clergy and farmers.
(Farmers are physically strong, so they should have been formidable.)
They just didn't know how to fight.
Rahan
Her brother was a perfect example.
Seeing how the bandit chief used the remaining men to do his dirty work, his subordinates didn't seem like much. They were truly a ragtag mob.
"Come to think of it,"
"Shijō"
"or something like that — who is that?"
Maomao hesitated over whether she should ask, but spoke up anyway.
"Apparently he's the man who crushed one of the bear's eyes some years ago. He attacked the merchant caravan that man was guarding and got beaten for it, so now he holds a grudge."
(That eldest son...)
Well, he wasn't to blame, but the reason Maomao was in such a bind right now was that good-for-nothing son. If she traced things back even further, it would lead to
Xiaohong
—but—
(She's cute, so I'll let it slide.)
Somehow, she had grown soft for her.
She had been dealing with nothing but worthless, twisted little brats all this time, so an honest, obedient child was impossibly adorable. If the whole world were full of children like that, even Maomao would end up saying she liked kids.
(
Lingli
the princess was, well, cute in her own way, but it was still work, after all.)
Without thinking, she found herself recalling the Jade Pavilion.
But Maomao wondered—why had Xiaohong come to fetch her? At first, she had assumed Xiaohong, being blood-related, knew about the hidden passage, which was how they had been able to find Shishou. But would that really be a place you'd so readily teach a child about?
Maomao finished peeling the potatoes. She set the peeled potatoes on the cutting board. The potatoes would be steamed as a staple, and the skins would be julienned and stir-fried.
Maomao picked up a piece of potato skin and furrowed her brow.
(This really needs to be something better than this.)
In truth, while the teacher had said he would cull a quarter of the inhabitants, not all of them were killed—those who could serve as labor were kept as slaves. So the food was exceedingly meager.
The staple was nothing more than stir-fried potato skins, accompanied by a thin, bland soup. In exchange, the bandits were given precious lamb and cheese instead.
The cooking women had their misgivings but could not refuse. At the very least, they stir-fried the skins in the pot left over from cooking the meat, to add some flavor.
It seemed there had been no discrimination on the grounds of them being heretics to begin with. So they held a grudge against the teacher
who
had made this policy decision.
"That's terrible. Abandoning small children just because they're heretics."
"What a disappointment. Now he's nothing but that bear-man's lackey."
There were those who thought as much.
"But we could have been killed too."
"Some kind of selection was necessary, so it couldn't be helped, given his position."
There were those who thought that as well.
"Either way, we've received a lot of help from the heretics. Besides, didn't a heretic young man bring these very potatoes?"
The older cooking woman said as she put the potatoes into the pot.
(Big brother~)
"That's right. He only stayed a few days, but he was a real hard worker. If I were ten years younger, I'd have proposed marriage."
A different old woman spoke up.
"Even if you'd been ten years younger, you'd already have had a husband, wouldn't you? He'd have been perfect for my daughter. If only he'd stayed a bit longer, I'd have snuck into his bed at night."
"Oh, the neighbor said the same thing. She heard he looks like a farmer but actually comes from some prestigious family."
"No way. A man who puts that much effort into his hoe work can't possibly be from a prestigious family."
"That's right. Still, what impressive hoe work."
(Brother, you're quite the heartbreaker.)
I wondered what my brother Luo Ban in the western capital would think if he heard this. Once things calmed down, maybe I should come back to this village and marry in.
The kitchen was out of the guards' line of sight, so their voices carried.
"Um—"
"What is it?
Xiongxiong?
?"
A fake name I'd come up with myself but couldn't get used to. I should have picked something else, but I couldn't think of anything, so there was nothing to be done. I remembered Xiao Hong giving me a "huh?" look, even though she didn't complain about it at all.
"Before we arrived, did a female bodyguard come through here? She was hired to escort us."
I brought up the female bodyguard I'd been worrying about.
The old woman groaned as she tasted the food.
"Hmm, I don't think there was any commotion like that. But I'm always here, so I often don't know what's going on outside."
"I don't really know either. But once they figure out someone's a heathen, they usually lock them in a cell and decide what to do with them later."
"...A cell?"
I couldn't imagine someone as cautious as that female bodyguard being captured so easily, but something unexpected must have happened. Had she left Maomao and the others behind and fled?
Groaning, Maomao julienned the potato skins.
"Here you go."
Xiao Hong brought the potatoes over.
"You're so small, yet such a big help."
The old woman stroked Xiao Hong's head with her calloused palm. Xiao Hong blushed shyly.
"It's a good thing you lot are the useful sort. If you couldn't cook, you'd have been sent off to do other work."
"Is the other work harder than this?"
"Cleaning and laundry are heavy physical labor, and the field work is brutal too. There are no easy jobs around here, but cooking at least means you don't have to worry about getting enough to eat — that makes it one of the better ones. Just one thing to watch out for."
"Wh-what is it?"
The older woman leaned in close with a quiet shushing sound.
"We take turns, two at a time, to serve drinks to Bear Man. When you do, make sure you don't act suspicious. There was one girl who hid a kitchen knife and tried to kill him when he let his guard down once…"
Just looking at her expression, you could tell how it ended.
*(Then, what about poison?)*
"He won't touch the food or the drink first. He makes the women taste everything first."
*(Tch.)*
Maomao tossed the cut potato peels into the pot. The pot still held the oil from frying the meat.