Suzu pondered the question. She'd set out on her journey for any numbers of reasons, and all of them were dead and gone. Her past desires had no relationship to who she was now. "Oh, this and that."
"This and that brought you all the way to Kei?"
"Well, first of all, I heard that the Empress of Kei was a girl my same age--"
Shoukei eyes blinked and opened a bit wider.
"--and that she was a kaikyaku like me."
"You're also from Yamato?"
"Yes, that's right. With no place to call my own, I thought I'd call the kingdom of a fellow kaikyaku my home. Does that make any sense?"
Shoukei looked at her, her face blank with surprise. Finally she laughed and said, "Me, too."
"Eh? You're a kaikyaku?"
"No. I also came to this kingdom to see the Royal Kei--"
Suzu gaped at her.
"--because she was an empress the same age as me."
"That's weird. So the two of us, from Sai and Hou, came here to see the Royal Kei, and just happened to meet."
"Sure seems like it."
"Wow."
"You're not kidding."
Suzu and Shoukei giggled. "Hey!" came Rou's voice behind them. "No carrying on personal conversations!"
Suzu looked back with surprise, Rou was standing there, teacups in hand, and a sour look on his face. "No private chitchat between people who meet here. My place, my rules."
"Oh… sorry."
"I'm a broker of things, not of people. People who use my services are people with a reason for being here. No shady types set one foot inside the gate. And whatever reasons the two of you have, best you not know too much about each other."
"Sure," said Suzu, with a shrug of her shoulders. She glanced at Shoukei and caught her looking the same way, and for a moment their eyes met.
15-4
The next shipment didn't arrive until just before the gates closed. As Suzu and Shoukei couldn't leave Houkaku, they had no choice but to stay the night at Rou's place. They ended up sleeping in a small room furnished with a divan and a bed without a canopy. Two people in a space meant for one.
"Which one do you want? The bed or the divan?"
"Either's fine."
"Then you take the bed. I'll sleep on the divan."
"You don't have to do that."
"I'm returning on the sansui. Meikaku is way to the east, isn't it? And you've got to go back by horse, right?"
"Meikaku is only a day's ride by horse."
"You should take the bed, then. It's only a half-day ride for me."
Shoukei thought about it for a minute, then nodded. "Thanks. To tell the truth, it'd be nice for a change. I've been sleeping on a couch for so long."
"Really? Well, great then."
The two girls grinned at each other.
"Suzu," Shoukei asked, "what do you do in Takuhou?" And then quickly added, "Maybe that's the kind of thing I'm not supposed to ask."
"Let's pretend we didn't hear anybody say that."
They both giggled, the private laughter filling the small room.
"Oh, I do odd jobs around the inn. How about you, Shoukei?"
"Same here."
"So how did you come across--" those weapons, Suzu started to ask, and thought better of the question. They were probably getting a bit over their heads with a subject like that.
But Shoukei leaned forward and answered. "It is out of the ordinary. Do you know what's in those crates?"
"More or less."
"Winter weapons. To be used how? And there are thirty of them. Not things you can easily lay your hands on."
"Did the people you got them from say what they would do with the weapons?"
"I was only asked to make the delivery."
"Me, too."
A moment of silence followed, the two of them exchanging glances. Shoukei smiled first. "I haven't the slightest idea. It is unusual, amassing winter weapons like that. But somebody with money must be behind it."
"Yeah. I guess we've been told only what we need to know."
Shoukei tilted her head to the side and looked at Suzu. The girl from Takuhou was taking back a shipment of thirty winter weapons. The price of those thirty would be approximate to that of 300 ordinary weapons.
From Takuhou. "Then perhaps the target is Shoukou?"
Suzu waved her hands in denial. "No, it can't be."
"The man who sent me here is gathering mercenaries instead of winter weapons."
Suzu's eyes flew open. "Gahou."
"Undoubtedly. Are you thinking the same thing I am?"
"Sure seems like it."
The bedroom fell into silence. Suzu sat down on the divan and sighed. "The kid I was traveling with got killed by Shoukou."
"Really?"
"Why can a public servant like Shoukou get away with things like that? Shisui really is an awful place."
"I've heard rumors."
"Those rumors are only half as true as reality. Seishuu--the boy I made it all the way to Takuhou with--he didn't do anything wrong. He was killed for getting in the way of Shoukou's carriage. I was so angry. When I try to imagine people looking the other way when things like that happen, I get so mad I can't stand it. But Shoukou--"
"--has got Gahou watching his back."
Suzu blinked. "You know that for certain?"
"That's what everybody says: Gahou and Shoukou are two peas in a pod."
"No doubt they are. I'd sure like to see Shoukou and his ilk get what they deserve. With the Royal Kei looking out for Gahou, nobody's going to try and punish Shoukou. That's why we've got no choice but to take the initiative ourselves, right?"
"I don't agree."
"Eh?"
"I don't think the Royal Kei is doing anything like protecting Gahou. Isn't that what the Late Empress Yo-ou did, you mean?"
"It was true of the Late Empress Yo-ou, and the current Empress, too--"
"The person who brought me here said that the Royal Kei simply doesn't know about things like that."
"But--"
Shoukei looked intently at Suzu. "When I was in Ryuu, I met a friend of the Royal Kei."
"You what?"
"One of her closest companions. I can't believe she's that bad of a person. She wouldn't protect Shoukou or collude with Gahou."
"Maybe not--"
"The Royal Kei has only recently acceded to the throne. There's got to be a lot she doesn't understand. I think that's what it comes down to."
"Ignorance is no defense. She's the Empress, after all."
Shoukei gave Suzu a long, hard look. Then she said, "My father was the king."
"He… what?"
"The Royal Hou. Three years ago his subjects rose up and overthrew him."
Suzu gaped at her.
"My father was detested by the people. The result of all that hate was regicide. They hate him even now, and there's nothing I could do to change that. But even with a father like that, watching him die hurt terribly. Probably as much as it hurt when Seishuu died."
"Yes."
"In order to prevent my father's death, before the hate grew so intense, I should have remonstrated with him. I loathe myself now for not doing so. What if all the people surrounding the Royal Kei are naive dunces like I was? She'll be hated as my parents were. There were people who even said that I condoned my father's sins." Shoukei lowered her gaze. "I don't know what's really happening. But if the Royal Kei is surrounded only by those kinds of people? My father was chosen by Hourin. He couldn't have been doomed from the start. But when the people around him tried to warn him and couldn't get through to him, he ended up parting from the Way."
Suzu examined the longing look on Shoukei's face, an expression that brought to mind another person she'd met recently: She's a puppet.
"You're right," Suzu said. Shoukei tilted her head quizzically. Suzu continued, "I met somebody else who said the same thing. Only rumors, but the word was that the Empress doesn't have the trust of her retainers and can't get them to do anything she wants. So her only recourse is to do what they tell her to do."