Zhuo district, Youzhou province, Xizang
Four months and two weeks after the prophesied arrival of the Messenger of Heaven
It was a beautiful day in Xizang, one that had become the norm ever since its leader had returned from the battle that led to the death of 35,000 Yellow Turban rebels. In that short time, many more districts and villages within Youzhou had sent emissaries to Xizang, bringing deals of alliance and treaties with them. Sometimes the messengers were proud and formal, and other times they were desperate, but regardless of whether they hid their intentions well or not, the message was always clear: we trust you to protect us, so please let us join you.
Haru didn't really have a problem with that insofar as accepting them was concerned. He did, however, have a problem with all of the "tedious shit" (in his own words) that went hand-in-hand with accepting them.
Right now, said "tedious shit" was embodied by 1) several short stacks of paperwork sitting on his desk, and 2) Shoukatsuryou and Houtou sitting on the other side of the desk, looking at him expectantly.
"You're kidding me," Haru muttered. "All of this is for three measly treaties? Can't we just say 'Welcome to the alliance, pay your taxes on time and send us your soldiers when we ask you for them and we'll treat you good'? That's all it boils down to, anyway!"
Shoukatsuryou sighed. She could honestly not fault Haru for being so annoyed with the amount of work that he had to do, as she had been handling a similar workload to accommodate the restarted flow of new immigrants to Xizang. Trying to find ways to manage the treasury and expand the city without stressing the infrastructure was difficult, to put it mildly, and it had kept her and Houtou up several nights in a row. As young as they were, it was still exhausting to pull five separate 24-hour work sessions over the last two weeks.
"Lord Haru, proper records must be kept in order to ensure that the Imperial Court does not find fault with us should they send a messenger to inspect our records," Shoukatsuryou said, trying not to let her frustration with Haru's petulance show. "They do have the liberty to do so, and at the rate we're being approached by other cities and provinces, I wouldn't be surprised if it happens sooner instead of later."
"Yeah, but why am I the one doing this when I'm not even literate yet?" Haru asked. He rubbed his eyes as he tried to make sense of the print on the papers in front of him. "I know that you two have better things to do than help me sit and read through all of this. If I didn't need you all to help me through all of it, I'd rather do it by myself."
Houtou shook her head. "We've caught up with all of our work, Lord Haru. And these treaties are important." Her voice was firm, despite how softly she spoke. "If we have to sit here the whole night with you to get them done, then we will."
Haru did his best to match the uncharacteristically tense stare that Houtou was giving him from under the brim of her hat (made more impressive by the way her eyelids were half-open and how the bags sat beneath her eyes), but on the inside he could feel himself withering under its intense pressure. "I'm not gonna sit here and make you do that. Either of you. If it means that damn much for you all to make sure I get this done, I'll make sure it gets done, but we're going to take breaks like normal people. It ain't the end of the world if it takes a few days."
Shoukatsuryou shook her head, but there was a slight hint of frustration in her voice as she continued. "We're not worried about that, Lord Haru. We're worried about what Aisha said about your habit of sneaking off when no one's watching you do your work."
Haru slapped his face with one hand and rubbed his eyes. "That's only because she doesn't let me take a damn break. I don't have the stamina to sit and pore over shit for hours at a time like she does when she gets in the zone."
"She already told us about the time when you got one of the servants to slip something into her tea so you could sneak out while she fell asleep," Shoukatsuryou replied flatly. "She also told us how by the time she woke up, you'd been gone for at least four hours." She finally let herself express her annoyance with a sigh. "Lord Haru, we've been over this. You have to try to actually take your duty seriously when you're not fighting on the battlefield! People look up to you. People respect you. Yet you have no compunctions swearing and dodging work if the mood strikes you to. If you don't act like you should in your position, what reason will anyone have to obey you?"
Now the conversation was going on a track that Haru had ridden many times before. Shoukatsuryou would continue to go on about his duties as the ruler of Zhuo and he would continue to argue that he was fine doing things his own way. It hadn't erupted into a real argument before, as Shoukatsuryou had always taken pains to be polite, but her lack of sleep was likely to make her much blunter than normal, and he could tell from the way her weary eyes were starting to tighten in annoyance. "I hear you, Shuri. I do." He sighed. "But I have grown rough. Heaven ain't exactly the paradise you think it is."
Shoukatsuryou's irritation immediately faded, overridden by her scholar's curiosity. "Oh? What do you mean by that, Lord Haru?"
Haru realized what he had done only after he had done it, but the fact of the matter was that it was too late to get around it now. Fucking lovely, Haru. Plenty of time to scar the innocent girls with stories of your gruesome, righteous campaign against the NOL. This is probably the best damn plan you've come up with since you decided to go to Kagutsuchi in the first place. "Tell you what. If you agree to let me take a break every hour or so, I'll tell you a little bit. All right?"
Shoukatsuryou nodded eagerly, as did Houtou, but much more slowly. Haru let out a quiet sigh, and shook his head, running a hand through his mop of white hair. "Then let's get this started."
The beautiful day did not grace only Xizang, but also the open road. Travelers all over China were walking under a beautiful blue sky with a slight, tranquil wind at their backs, and birdsong echoed throughout the forests and the plains. It was all very idyllic, but despite that, Gentoku Ryuubi felt nothing but unease as she walked down the dirt road that led to her old village with Kan'u and Chouhi flanking her, with their respective weapons in hand and packs on their backs. On both sides of the road, there were a number of rice paddies, filled with men of all ages picking the rice with bended back and crinkled brow.
It had been quite some time since Ryuubi had left this place, and she had become a radically different person in some respects. When she had finally arrived in Xizang with the Zhuo army and told Haru her story, he had given her a post in the palace serving under old Gan instead of allowing her to find work in town. Since then, she'd worn the outfit she wore now—an outfit similar to Kan'u's, albeit with a red skirt underneath the much shorter green vest, white thigh-high boots, and a pink ribbon instead of a tie. Additionally, her hair had been tied into two small buns, one on each side of her head and each trimmed with a pair of white feathers—one in the front, one in the back.
Though her overall bearing and gait had not changed, Ryuubi now looked the part of Chuuzan Seiou's descendant, even if she didn't quite believe that she was. That, more than anything, would be the biggest wedge between her and the people that she had grown up calling neighbors, and Ryuubi truly wished from the bottom of her heart that that wouldn't happen. Even if this was the last time she ever returned to this village, she wanted to remember it fondly, and not with sadness.
Kan'u's expression was relaxed and calm as they approached the village gate, while Chouhi's bare feet padded along the dirt road without pausing. Ryuubi glanced at both of them with a small smile, and her nervousness disappeared for a few moments. It's been so good to travel with Lady Kan'u and Lady Chouhi. It's been pretty pleasant so far, but now... She looked around again, and bit back a sigh. I feel ashamed to be back here.
Once they stepped into the village, Ryuubi looked around with an air of feigned casualness. The village proper was surrounded by a few trees toward the back, where the woods grew denser toward the direction of a mountain in the distance. Most of the buildings were made of wood, but they were nothing at all like Xizang's buildings; they were distinctly simple huts or stalls. A number of the villagers stopped to look in their direction, and Ryuubi could tell that a few of them were looking directly at her and whispering to each other. Their eyes burned on Ryuubi's back, and she quickly turned toward the mountain. There was a house in particular that was butting up against the forest line, but it didn't look particularly remarkable; it was this house that Ryuubi gestured to with a slight pointing of the hand. "Follow me, Lady Kan'u, Lady Chouhi. The landlord's place is over this way."
Kan'u and Chouhi nodded, then fell into step behind Ryuubi. The whispers increased in volume, and none of the villagers addressed Ryuubi directly or looked in her direction when she looked in theirs. The reception was so cold that even in the sunlight it made her shiver a bit. What exactly had she done to merit such behavior? She couldn't recall leaving on bad terms with anyone. She looked down at her clothes and wondered if perhaps she had overdressed, or if Kan'u and Chouhi's weapons were attracting more attention than she'd thought they would.
Kan'u's expression grew more tense as they arrived at the landlord's hut. "Something is wrong here, Gentoku. Everyone was staring and gossiping like a gaggle of hens. What's the matter with these folk?"
"I don't know, Lady Kan'u," Ryuubi replied. "They might be uncomfortable with our clothing. I'm not quite certain."
Chouhi shook her head with a petulant frown on her face. "They're looking at you, Gen. And they don't look happy, either. Something is weird here. I don't like it."
Ryuubi didn't reply to that, but instead took the last few steps to the landlord's door and knocked briskly. After a few moments, a fairly tall woman with graying black hair opened the door and looked down a little bit at Ryuubi, then arched a rough eyebrow and smirked nastily in a way that Kan'u and Chouhi did not like. "Well, well, if it isn't Gentoku Ryuu. Never thought I'd see you here again, brat. You look awfully fancy in those clothes of yours. Found a man to take you to bed?"
Ryuubi's face flushed red, but she could not manage to display the anger she felt, only the embarrassment at the bold statement. Kan'u, however, had no such compunctions, and stepped forward, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Ryuubi. "You are Gentoku's old landlord, correct? I am Unchou Kan'u of Youzhou, and one of Gentoku's superiors at the palace. We came here to speak to you regarding the Ryuu family home and any possessions that were still in it when you evicted Gentoku."
The landlord's smirk widened. "Yes, I am Yuiren Lo. And to be honest I'm a little shocked. Kan'u of Youzhou visiting our humble village? That jumped-up Messenger of Heaven must have quite a bit of free time if he can send a general on a pointless trip to escort a royal concubine."
Chouhi tensed, and her Viper Spear clanked in her hand. Before she could speak, Kan'u put a hand up. "Ma'am, there's no need for all of that," Kan'u replied. Her voice was pleasant, but the expression on her face was harder than a diamond. "However, I would like to give you this warning. If you insult my lord again, the results will not be pretty for you personally. This conversation is not about me or about him—it's about the Ryuu family. Now, I'll say it again. We're here to see about any of the family belongings that you still have for them."
The hidden threat in Kan'u's voice made Lo capitulate slightly; she stopped smirking so broadly and actually looked at them with a more civil expression. "I may have a few. However, when Ryuubi decided to skip town instead of paying the rent, she gave up all her rights to them. Discussion over."
For the first time since the conversation started, Ryuubi spoke, or rather, shouted. "I did not skip town! You came to my door one week early with Shang and Shen, and literally told me that if I didn't get out, they would pick me up and throw me out! How dare you accuse me of trying to… trying to...!"
The other villagers looked at her more directly now that they'd heard her outburst, which carried pretty far. Kan'u blinked, shocked at how loudly Ryuubi had spoken and how her brow was furrowed and her blue eyes narrowed in unshakable rage. Even Chouhi's tense glare lightened somewhat out of the sheer novelty of this expression from Ryuubi.
Lo shrugged, and leaned against the door frame. She spared a glance over Ryuubi's head to see that the villagers were crowding around her house in a wide semi-circle. That was more than fine with her; the girl would likely embarrass herself soon enough, and if she did it in front of an audience, that was all the better. "So you say, so you say. Regardless, what I said still stands. Those things aren't yours or your family's anymore. They're mine now. You're simply out of luck."
Ryuubi's righteous anger, had she been the Ryuubi of two weeks ago, might have crumbled at that. But she had seen firm leadership and firmer self-reliance in that intervening time, short as it was. She had seen Kan'u, Shoukatsuryou, Houtou and Haru debate fiercely about policy without one shrinking away from the other. She had seen old Gan call Haru a fool to his face, then get complimented by Haru for doing so. She had seen all of them staying up till all hours of the night to get work done, and was often the only one that was awake enough to help them get to bed. Compared to all of those people—compared to all the work they did, all the sacrifices they made, all of the things they did for other people—Lo was no one special.
Though she was assured of what she wanted to do next, Ryuubi still took a moment to look around at the crowd that had gathered around them. Their faces were stern, hostile, confused, concerned, and she knew why; clearly, Lo's version of events had become the accepted truth of Ryuubi's departure, and now Ryuubi was the one set up to be the villain by coming back here to demand what should be rightfully hers after leaving in such a "cowardly" way.
When Ryuubi spoke again, the anger in her voice was more controlled, but there was a quiet, understated authority to it. As she looked her landlord in the eye, the angry red burn on her cheeks gradually faded. "Yuiren Lo. I will never deny that I did fail to hold up the commitment to pay back on the rented land. I will never claim that I should have kept my home in light of that failing; a contract is a contract, and must be honored one way or another. I am not here to dispute that." Her voice rose. "Those things I left behind are all I have left of my family that I can rightfully claim. I am not here to challenge your claim on that land. I am here simply to ask for what is left of the Ryuu family legacy. Even if the home and the land are not mine, those items are."
She then did the last thing that anyone would have expected, and slowly got on hands and knees, bowing her head. Kan'u and Chouhi gasped aloud, while Lo flinched. The villagers began to murmur and whisper even more, but Ryuubi did not raise her head to look at them and did not make the slightest sign of standing back up. "Please. Just allow me to take whatever was left behind. That's all I want."
After that, the only sounds in the air were the whispers of the villagers around the hut. Lo looked at them, then Kan'u and Chouhi, then down at Ryuubi. They all met her eyes without responding to her, but their furrowed brows and harsh frowns spoke clearly for them.
It was at last Kan'u that broke the silence. "Well? What is your answer?"
Lo's face pinched inward as she closed her eyes and frowned. "Damn it, fine. I already got rid of her clothes, but there were some papers and jewelry that I held on to. That's all there is. I'll get it for you. After that, could you try to stay away for more than a couple of weeks before you come crawling back with your tail between your legs like a dog? Have some pride."
Chouhi's eyes flashed as she stared up at Lo. "Say that again about Gen! I dare you! You're the one that kicked her out of her house—"
"That's enough, Lady Chouhi," Ryuubi said. Her voice was still velvety soft as she stood back up and bowed her head toward Lo. "Thank you, Lo. I appreciate it."
Lo let her mouth relax, and for the first time Ryuubi saw the deep, tired lines in the landlord's face and the way her gray eyes were dull and almost unseeing. It was as if the woman had aged five years since last they had met. "You're welcome," she muttered, turning away. "Wait here. I'll be right back."
The moment the woman was out of earshot, Kan'u gave a displeased sigh and turned to Ryuubi. "You have the patience of a saint, Gentoku." Her frown softened. "I'm sorry. You shouldn't have needed to do that. How disgusting that she would make you grovel for what should have been yours in the first place."
Ryuubi shook her head. "Being prideful would have just made things harder, Lady Kan'u. In the grand scheme of things, we're getting what we came here for, and that's enough."
"Aisha," Kan'u replied. Ryuubi blinked, then blushed as she realized what Kan'u was trying to say. "You've been standing on ceremony with me for a while now, and I've been addressing you by your given name since you helped me with the wounded at Kousonsan's camp. I think that as friends we should address each other more casually."
Chouhi nodded. "If Aisha is OK with it, then I am too. Call me Rinrin from now on, OK, Gen?"
For a moment, Ryuubi's mouth did little more than open and shut wordlessly. Eventually, she found her voice again, no longer looking like the somber young woman that had prostrated herself before a belligerent landlord. "I'm all right with that… a-as long as you call me Touka." She looked Kan'u in the eye, then Chouhi, smiling beautifully. "You're right… Aisha, Rinrin. We're friends. We should address each other like friends."
Kan'u returned the smile and placed her free hand on Ryuubi's shoulder, squeezing gently, while Chouhi grinned and propped her Viper Spear against her shoulder. "That's the spirit."
Haru grunted and leaned back in his chair, closing his burning eyes with a grunt and several muttered curses. Put simply, the paperwork had been, as expected, extremely boring and extremely frustrating, but somehow he was the only one that was actually fatigued by it; Shoukatsuryou and Houtou, despite their own poorly-hidden exhaustion, were still making steady progress. "It's been an hour, girls," he said aloud, gradually allowing himself to sit forward again. "You wanna take a break and listen to me tell some stories or what?"
Shoukatsuryou immediately put down the sheaf of papers she had in her hand and yawned a little bit, then shook her head and nodded. Her smile lit up her face, and Haru was again reminded of Maru so much that his heart almost began to hurt. "Of course, Lord Haru!"
Houtou's response was quieter, as all she did was put down her papers and look up at Haru, but her eyes seemed to twinkle in anticipation as she blushed.
Haru sighed, then ran a hand through his hair and put his elbows onto his desk, hiding his mouth behind clasped hands. Better skip all the shit about Ars Magus and Armaguses and shit for now. That'll just confuse the hell out of them. "I guess I'll explain what I mentioned earlier, then. You see, back in… Heaven, we had a problem with a monster called the Black Beast. It just sprung up out of nowhere one day and started to just destroy everything it saw. It got rid of a lot of big cities and countries before it suddenly stopped for a year. While it was stopped, six people stood up and helped us get ready to fight the Beast when it woke back up. The preparations worked, and we beat the Beast, but by then we were basically all fucked. And the worst part is that the Beast spreads seithr all over the goddamn place."
Shoukatsuryou frowned at the slight profanity, then cocked her head as her expression went from distaste to confusion. "What's… seithr?"
Haru waved his right hand around in the air a few times. It seemed like an idle action, but mentioning seithr made him think of his arm. "It's odorless and invisible… gas, I think. It's like the air around you, but when you breathe in a lot of it, it's really bad for your body. But, yeah, like I was saying, the Beast just put that shit all over the place. We had to start building cities in the mountains and the highlands to get away from it. Eventually we were able to start using it as… fuel, I guess you could say, for things like..." He let out another sigh. This was going to sound ridiculous, but it was the only example he could think of. "... moving flying boats, or really big plows, or stuff like that."
Houtou gasped slightly and stared at Haru like she'd been starstruck. "They have flying ships in Heaven?"
Shoukatsuryou was giving him the stink-eye, but Haru nodded anyway, knowing that he sounded like a complete moron. "Yeah. Otherwise you have to walk through the highlands or even the lowlands, and there's lots of seithr there. Most people would get sick in a couple of hours and probably die not long after that. I've done it a few times, and it really sucks."
"But why couldn't you use any of the flying ships?" Houtou asked. "If that's the safe way to do it, why would you walk through the mountains?"
Of course you'd ask that, Haru thought, stifling a curse. "I… kind of had a bad reputation around a lot of the cities. Did some shit that pissed off the Library. If I'd tried to get on a ship I would have had soldiers hunting me down as soon as they realized who I was."
This time, both Shoukatsuryou and Houtou gave him identical confused looks. "The Library?"
Haru fell quiet for a few moments. When he started talking again, his face darkened, and for a moment Shoukatsuryou and Houtou recognized the narrow-eyed scowl as the face he put on when he was in the middle of a fight. Yet, something about this seemed much darker than the general irritation he felt with the Turbans. "The government for all of Heaven, basically—a bunch of egotistical, stuffed-up assholes. Their real name is the Novis Orbis Librarium—we call it the NOL or the Library for short. After the Black Beast was killed, the Library took over." His eyes became slightly unfocused, as if he were staring hatefully at something beyond the castle walls. "Suffice it to say that they did some bad shit to me and mine back in the day, and were getting up to some really terrible shit before I came here. So… I paid them back a little bit."
The dark tone in his voice was enough to make the room feel uncomfortably cold despite the sunlight coming in and bouncing off of the walls. Both Shoukatsuryou and Houtou drew back slightly from Haru as his white eyebrows drew closer together and his gloves creaked ominously; his hands were clenched so tightly that the knuckles were about to pop. Then, as if he was waking up from a dream, Haru blinked once or twice, and actually refocused his eyes on the girls and not the wall behind them.
"Sorry," he said. Somehow, his voice sounded flatter, less lively than it normally did. He reached out to the papers he'd been looking over before the break. "I think that's enough for now. I kind of killed the mood."
"No, Lord Haru, it's alright," Shoukatsuryou said softly. If it hurt you that badly, I want to know what they did. "Please, continue."
Haru lifted his head up from analyzing the papers and looked directly at Shoukatsuryou. His eyes narrowed just a little bit, and the corners of his mouth pulled downward even more. "Shuri. Drop it."
Shoukatsuryou felt her lip tremble a little bit, but she didn't have it in her to press him again. Houtou had lowered her head and didn't appear to be paying attention at all. "Very well, Lord Haru," she replied. "Let me know when you've finished with that set of trade agreements."
Haru nodded, then directed his attention down to the papers again. Houtou looked over to Shoukatsuryou, and saw that the young blonde's eyes were watering as if she wanted to cry. Quietly, she reached out and rubbed the back of Shoukatsuryou's hand gently; when Shoukatsuryou looked up at Houtou, she saw that Houtou was smiling very softly. Despite how she felt at the moment, Shoukatsuryou returned the smile and the nod, then turned her attention back to the papers that she'd put down.
For now, I'll just leave it alone, Shoukatsuryou thought, grabbing the papers and shuffling them against her thigh. But someday… I hope Lord Haru will explain it. She recalled the dark, hateful look on his face after he'd mentioned that "Novus Orbus Librarium", and studied his stern face intently as he muttered something under his breath and rubbed at his eyes.
What did they do to him that gives him a reason to hate them so much?