The night after Todo and his mother were taken to the Nagahama Palace.
On that day, as an exception, dinner was to be held at the samurai quarters, and a small welcome party was taking place.
The dishes prepared by Ichihime added color to the gathering, and a thick, mushy rice porridge was also prepared for her bedridden mother, who could barely eat solid food.
This is a sick person's meal made with a base of cracked rice and barley, with vegetables and shredded fish simmered until very soft.
Moriko was unable to eat most of it, but it seems that she was deeply touched by Ichihime's feelings.
Seeing her treat them with kindness and without showing any displeasure, the Todo mother and son quietly shed tears.
To begin with, it was unthinkable for the principal wife of a daimyo to show leniency to a zashiki-warashi (a type of house spirit) from a discriminated class, and they surely understood that better than anyone.
In that sense, the Nagahama Imperial Palace is...聖域Azil
(Discrimination will never disappear in my generation. But even so, we can still make efforts to increase the number of safe havens.)
The next day at noon, with Ichihime, who had slept beside me, in my arms, I renewed those feelings...
My form left the Nagahama Imperial Palace and was with Taishakutsukimo.
The destinations are Tomokuni Village and Hibari Village, both located north of Nagahama.
When visiting these communities of zashiki-warashi (house spirits), the first place you'll inevitably go is Tomokuni Village.
Hibari Village is located further north from Tomokuni Village, and if you start from Nagahama, it is more efficient to go to Hibari Village from the closer Tomokuni Village.
Taishakutsukimo galloped across the land with nimble footwork, carrying me on our way to Anegawa.
Unlike the Anegawa River I know, this river is overwhelmingly wider.
Tomokuni Village is formed by a sandbar floating in the middle of the river and two settlements on the riverbank.
To enter this community of zashiki-warashi (house spirits), one must pass through the gate located in the settlement on the riverbank.
Perhaps for defensive purposes, a wooden fence surrounds the entire settlement.
As usual, a gatekeeper was standing in front of the gate, but it was a different person than before.
The last time I visited, there was a mare and a man wearing a hood and carrying a matchlock gun—but this time, there's a man and a woman.
They were all armed with matchlock guns and wore hoods.
"Kyuooooon"
The Taishakutsukimo cried, and the gatekeepers lowered their guard.
They no longer harbor any animosity towards me.
The turning point was the previous Battle of Lake Yogo.
At that time, all the villagers of Tomokuni Village rallied to help the Asai army, and as a result, Tomokuni Village's position in northern Omi has changed in many ways.
This was largely due to the fact that men from northern Omi were serving as soldiers on the battlefield.
They share the understanding that, while a threat had appeared on the battlefield and put them in danger, they were able to escape the crisis thanks to a surprise attack by the Tomokuni forces against the approaching Asakura army.梟owl
Few people can dare to curse someone who has saved their life.
And when these villagers, who are farmers in peacetime, return to their hometowns, the role that the villagers of Tomokuni Village played on the battlefield spreads rapidly through word of mouth.
It was only natural that the image of Tomokuni Village in people's eyes began to change from what it had been before.
The villagers of Tomokuni Village have developed a sense of pride in having participated in an important battle for the Asai family, and this seems to be causing a slight change in their attitude towards human society.
"Thank you for your hard work. Is the village headman, Fujishiro, here?"
Taishakutsukimo stopped in front of the gate, and I stepped onto the ground, bathed in the increasingly strong sunlight.
The two gatekeepers bowed to me and invited me inside the gate.
They offered to show me the way, but I politely declined because I remembered the route from a previous visit.
At that time, don't forget to give them two small pouches filled with roasted beans as a souvenir.
I know all too well how important it is to accumulate those small acts of consideration.
Incidentally, I had about four more of the same items in my pocket as souvenirs for when something unexpected happened.
(I couldn't do much sightseeing before because I was with Toushirou... but I see, so this is what the village looks like...)
The roads are generally unpaved, and weeds grow everywhere.
The paths were marked by areas trampled down by the zashiki-warashi (house spirits), where no weeds grew.
There are no proper shops within the village.
Perhaps shops never existed there in the first place.
Goods are redistributed within the village, and anything that cannot be self-sufficiently produced is brought in from outside and then redistributed again.
It seems that such a society has formed within Tomokuni Village.
"Hey, how's it going?"
"Ah!"
The most difficult part of farm work in the summer is dealing with the weeds that grow in the fields.
When I patted the back of the zashiki-warashi (house spirit) who was pulling weeds in the field with her three children, the woman let out a startled cry and looked at me.
A zashiki-warashi (house spirit) with pure white horns growing from its forehead.
When I see it, I wonder if it has horse blood in it.
She said that they are growing potatoes in this field, and that harvest day is coming soon.
The fields are all shared by the village, and apparently, what is harvested there is distributed among the villagers.
It appears that Tomokuni Village is employing a coexistence strategy based on the redistribution of resources.
It was probably a system that was born and established in a situation where people were persecuted and even their daily lives were in danger.
As I parted ways with the children, I handed them the drawstring bags and told them to share the food before heading back down the road.
"Indra Moon Hair... Hmm, what's wrong?"
"Kyuooooon"
He narrowed his light green eyes and asked, lightly tapping her body as she stood still.
Then Taishakutsukimo pointed ahead with its horns, as if urging me to move forward.
There, the children of the zashiki-warashi (house spirits) are laughing, running, and rolling around, covered in mud.
They had a wide variety of appearances—some had horns growing from their heads, others rabbit-like ears, and some had green skin like plants.
Children find joy and laughter in things that adults don't quite understand.
But that was a feeling we definitely had, yet for some reason we had forgotten it.
Watching it makes me feel incredibly nostalgic and envious.
"Hey... Taishakutsukimo, did you ever go through a phase like that?"
"Kyuooooon"
"...Yeah, me too. But I can't go back."
Taishakutsukimo leans in and rubs his cheek against mine.
We indulged in sentimentality for a while, but we couldn't stay like that forever.
We started walking. We lifted our heads and headed towards our destination, Nakasu, where Toushirou's house was located.
A bridge spanning the Anegawa River, which has transformed into a mighty river.
The moment I reached that point, I couldn't help but sigh.
Having walked under the strong sunlight, the coolness along the river felt like a welcome relief.
"Kyuooooon"
Indra cried.
Then we started walking across the wooden bridge.
Incidentally, the bridge itself was made of fairly sturdy wooden timbers, and aside from the creaking sound it made with every step, it was perfectly passable.
As we reached the middle of the bridge, a huge splash of water erupted from the surface.
When I squinted to see what it was, I saw a large number of people.
"...What is that?"
However, even though they are human figures, they are not "people."
She has literally pure white skin and large, dark eyes.
Their ears are shaped like bird feathers, and they are all less than 130 centimeters tall...
A group of about 30 people were watching us from under the bridge, laughing.
"Kyuooooon"
Taishakutsukimo cried as he peered under the bridge.
Then, the group of something resembling humans all stopped laughing at once—they looked at each other, and then started talking noisily again.
"Kyuooooon"
Taishakutsukimo turned its gaze towards me and cried.
It seems they're not the kind of beings that would harm us.
The human-like creature headed in the opposite direction from us, and after getting ashore, it headed towards the settlement on the riverbank of Tomokuni Village.
They are holding fish that are still flopping around in their hands—could those be a type of zashiki-warashi (house spirit)?
"At times like this, it's inconvenient and frustrating that I can't talk to you directly."
"Kyuooooon"
Taishakutsukige rubbed her cheek against mine and started walking again.
I walked beside her, and we crossed the bridge.
Unlike the riverside settlements, smoke billows from everywhere on the sandbar.
"...A tatara ironworks, huh?"
A tatara site refers to an early iron-making method practiced in various parts of the world , or the place where it was carried out.踏鞴製鉄Tatara Seitetsu踏鞴吹Tatara-buki
Iron and steel
Steel requires a constant supply of air, and the device used to supply this air was called a bellows.
In Japan, since ancient times, Japanese iron and steel have been produced at tatara ironworks, using iron sand and other materials as the main raw materials.
However, the ironworks use a lot of wood as fuel.
As a result, many babies were born in the Chugoku region .禿山Hageyama
(But... this area is lush with greenery, and there are hardly any signs of trees being cut down...)
There's still a lot of smoke rising around me, so it seems like a large amount of fuel is being used.
But where it comes from, and how these zashiki-warashi (house spirits) manage to obtain the wood—it's all a complete mystery.
"Well, it's probably quickest to just ask Toushirou."
"Kyuooooon"
When the Taishakutsukimo bird cries out, the doors of a particularly large mansion in the Nakasu factory district are dramatically swung open, and a strikingly memorable face, one that you could never forget, peeks out from inside.
Deeply sculpted features. Eyes cloudy white, and a cat ear with a large missing right ear.
"Gufo, gufo, gufo"
An indescribable laughter echoed across the sandbar, and a gigantic figure, measuring four meters in length, suddenly emerged from the mansion.
"Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"
A voice that shook the earth echoed, and a giant stomped his foot on the ground and stretched out his arm with a grunt.
"Ohhhhhh, General! Are you there?!"
"Oh, there they are!"
When he raised his voice as if shouting, Toushirou let out another strange laugh, "Gwah, gwah, gwah."
◆
"Ohhh... so you're the eboshi-oya (guardian deity of the house) of a zashiki-warashi (house spirit)?"
"Yes, that's what I intend to become."
I was ushered into the mansion and sipped the tea they had prepared for me—I was sipping my tea in front of the astonished Toushirou.
Taishakutsukimo lay down gracefully, and seemed quite pleased with himself resting on my thighs as I sat cross-legged.頤chin
He gives off the impression that he's completely indifferent to Toushirou's surprise.
"We will hire not only humans but also Zashiki-warashi (house spirits) if they are capable... This is a ritual to demonstrate that intention to the world. By performing this, we will establish Asai's future policy."
"Mmmmm..."
Toushirou crossed his thick arms and began to grunt.
"Ideally, it would be Toushirou, or someone else. I would like someone from Tomokuni Village to be sent to the Nagahama Palace. It wouldn't make sense to have only non-zashiki-warashi attend the coming-of-age ceremony for the zashiki-warashi. We need to inform the village about the circumstances of the ceremony and get their input on the future direction of the Asai family."
"Hmm..."
Toushirou was still growling, his brow furrowed.
It seems like there might be some unresolved issue.
"Are you dissatisfied?"
When I blurted that out, he shook his arms vigorously in denial.
"No...it's nothing...nothing at all...it's just...hmmmm..."
He seems to be hesitating about something.
It's a bit confusing, but let's continue the conversation.
"Oh, and also..."
"What is it?"
"We decided that the head of Tomokuni Village would be appointed as the Asai family's firearms magistrate for generations to come."
Toushirou's cloudy eyes widened, revealing his astonishment.
"...General...that's..."
"This is a reward for the actions of our allied forces in the recent Battle of Lake Yogo. I'm not the only one; I've secured the agreement of the other generals in the council meeting."
I looked him in the eyes and said:
"The Asai family's firearms magistrate will be responsible for the management and operation of the Asai family's firearms, and this position will be held by the village head of Tomokuni Village for generations. As a guarantee, Tomokuni Village will be granted a fiefdom in Miyabe, just north of here. The firearms magistrate will act as the local administrator and govern it... Fujishiro, will you accept?"
In short, this means that the Asai family, a human society, officially recognizes and protects Tomokuni Village, home to the zashiki-warashi (house spirit).
"...That's such wonderful news...I'm truly so grateful..."
But, Toushirou asked.
"Are you okay?"
"...What is it?"
"Those guys from Ikkoshu... If you show too much favoritism towards the Zashiki-warashi... they'll turn against you."
The face of Okazaki Yasuyuki, one of the Asai brothers, flashes through my mind.
But that's fine.
"I dislike those who continue to oppress the oppressed. This decision was approved by Asai's council. There's no way we can back down now."
As soon as I said that, Taishakutsukimo yawned loudly.