Chapter 371 - So Many Questions

  “Name your price.” Yuzu said with a piercing expression, “How much does it cost to contract the Red Lion Security Company?”

  “Er—“ Kai hesitated, looking at Firuzeh to take the lead on the business matter.

  A small frown touched the edge of Firuzeh’s lips as she felt a bit of frustration toward her colleague.

  It was true that they had no formal contract or reason to assist the White Maiden, but also, the White Maiden had already done so much for Firuzeh without asking for compensation.

  Without the White Maiden’s interference Firuzeh would have already been sacrificed to the Clockwork god’s ritual back in the Walled City of Hasan. So just for that alone, Firuzeh owed her life to the White Maiden.

  However, the White Maiden had also miraculously freed Firuzeh from the control of Rados, the angel-level entity that had lived inside her since she was a child, governing her every action and decision for as long as she could remember.

  For Firuzeh, who never even dared to dream that she could be free of Him, such a gift was priceless.

  Kai was aware of Rados, in a sense. Rados split Himself between multiple bodies, and though Firuzeh was not aware of how many bodies He had, she knew His main body lived inside Goro, the boss of the Red Lion Security Company.

  Though Goro ran the company and made most of the important decisions, for important matters that dealt with gods and angels, Goro would speak to them directly by forming a mouth on Goro’s back.

  However, the main body living in Goro had never revealed the existence of His other body inside Firuzeh. Nor did Firuzeh desire for anyone else to know of it. And so even up to now Kai was unaware that Rados actually had a body inside Firuzeh, and therefore he could not know what the White Maiden had done for Firuzeh.

  Firuzeh just couldn’t think of a good way to expin it to Kai.

  “I’m… no longer part of the Red Lion. As of today, I pledge my service to the White Maiden. Therefore… no payment is necessary.” Firuzeh announced solemnly, then looked to Kai with a softer expression, “Sorry, Kai. I know this is a surprise. If you want to leave, I won’t stop you.”

  Kai was stunned as he stared with mouth agape at Firuzeh. Even after he recovered his composure and closed his mouth he seemed to not know how to take the news, or what to say. His eyes hardened and his gaze nded briefly on Yuzu before he turned and exited the room without a word.

  Though Yuzu couldn’t read this turn of events ahead of time, she was not surprised that Firuzeh made this decision when the moment came.

  Firuzeh’s gaze lingered on the doorway with a frown on her face. After a moment she sighed, “I should talk to him.”

  Yuzu nodded, and shortly after just Char Char and her were alone in the room.

  “Don’t worry,” Char Char said, “Kai isn’t a bad person.”

  “Ah.” Yuzu said, her mind thinking back to their brief but tense ‘conversation’ on the journey to Ika vilge.

  The memory of having his dagger pressed against her side was not pleasant. However, she didn’t hold it against him. He was simply confused and scared for his friend. She had never been in any real danger, at least at that moment. He was only trying to assert control over the situation.

  As for whether Kai stayed with the group or not, Yuzu had no opinion one way or another.

  “We need a pn.” Yuzu said, moving on from the topic, “We’ve done more than what we were asked to do, but Yuima hasn’t shown any support at all.

  “I was hoping it wouldn’t be this way, but it really does seem that she has no intention of actually letting us handle the problem with Lord Matsuhara.”

  Char Char frowned, “Should we have just refused the quest in the first pce then?”

  “No… For one, there was always the possibility that She was sincere, especially with Lord Noga vouching for us.” Yuzu cupped her chin in her hand as she thought, “It was worth a shot, and delivering on our promise also shows both our competence and sincerity with Lord Noga.”

  “First, we need to get the word to Lord Noga about what happened… I gave the lodestone to Finn so that I would have him as our connection point.” Yuzu said, “I’ll try to reach him as soon as I have a spare moment.”

  “Second, we can’t wait for Yuima to show up and send us on another side quest. We need to figure out where to go from here.” Yuzu frowned, “I’ll need some time to think about it.”

  “Well… If we need to figure out what’s wrong with Lord Matsuhara… Should we find a way to reach him?” Char Char asked.

  “Sure, but how are we going to do that?”

  “I was talking with Naomi, these past few days… Not about our quest, or anything important, actually. Just about the surrounding areas.” Char Char said. “I figured we’re likely going to be travelling right away, and it’s good to know about our destinations before we reach them.”

  “We’re not too far in from the southeast border of Huan, at the edge of the Zhongshan Mountains. If we were to go east for three days we’d reach Boundary and could cross back into Kumin.” Char Char expined, “There are a bunch of small vilges around here, but they’re mostly just fishing vilges. Ika is the rgest one because it actually has mines.”

  Yuzu nodded, following along. It seemed like Char Char had an important piece of information that she was leading up to, so she let her friend continue.

  “If we go west from here, deeper into the mountains there is also a monastery that is only a few days away. It’s called Heaven’s Gate Monastery. Does it sound familiar to you?”

  “You remember Edwin, that monk that visited grandpa’s house before all this started? That’s where he and his master are from! And you know what’s even more interesting? Do you know why it’s called Heaven’s Gate?”

  “Tell me.” Yuzu said, not knowing the answer herself.

  Char Char’s eyes sparkled, “It’s because the legends say that this monastery is the gate to Lord Matsuhara’s heavenly pace!”

  Yuzu now saw where Char Char was going with this line of thought. If Yuima wasn’t going to help them reach Lord Matsuhara, then the obvious thing to do would be to find a way to reach Him themselves.

  Unlike Lord Noga, who had been presented as a mortal in NianXing legends, and whose descendants ruled over the province, Lord Matsuhara had been elevated to the position of a minor deity. The legends stated that in the War of Five Kingdoms, he had fallen in love with the Goddess of Nature. It was through their partnership that they were able to overthrow the previous corrupt warlords in Huan and Kumin and bring peace to the nd.

  Lord Noga, Lord Matsuhara, Runan and Li Ru. These were legendary figures that all had their pce in history.

  After the war, with the help of Yuima he was elevated to immortality, becoming the official protector and lord of the Huan people, both physically and spiritually. He built a beautiful, majestic pace in the spirit world and from that point on governed over the province of Huan.

  Just as the people of Kumin prayed to Lord Noga, the people of Huan prayed to Yuima and Lord Matsuhara. Each Huan deity governed a different aspect of people’s lives — Yuima, for example, was prayed to for bountiful harvests, health and wellness. Whereas Lord Matsuhara was prayed to for protection, spiritual matters and prosperity.

  To handle every day matters, Huan had numerous ministers who served both a practical bureaucratic function as well as a ritualistic, spiritual function. This was unlike Kumin, who had separated priests and ministers into completely separate roles. And of course, the Goddess of Nature had her own sect with her own temples, priests and followers. Furthermore, Huan wasn’t the only nd that Yuima was worshiped in. Huan was to the west of Kumin, but to the east of Kumin past the Chengdu Mountains, there was the country of LingNan which purely worshiped Yuima.

  Thinking about it, though, Yuzu didn’t know much about LingNan, only that it was a foreign power that had tried invading NianXing during its inner turmoil in the War of Five Kings. However, a battle at a small pass in the ChengDu mountains completely cut off access to and from the east, which persisted even into the modern day. That battle was famous for having no survivors on either side, and as such, historical records of it were scarce with little detail.

  As a result with the two countries separated by an impassable mountain range, with its only pass closed off, not to mention their previous rocky history, NianXing and LingNan had limited contact with each other to this day.

  Yuzu’s eyes glimmered as she contempted the complex history of her nation. Her mind turned to Li Ru and his seclusion in the temple atop the grave-lined mountain top.

  Dots connected in her mind as she realized that that very same vilge, located deep in the Chengdu Mountains, was the location of that legendary battle that saved NianXing from invasion. Li Ru’s poetry and tales had only depicted the travels of the four heroes up to a certain point, after which there was no record of him. Historians had two theories, one was that he had died unceremoniously in an unrecorded battle, another was that he had become weary of the war and disappeared into seclusion until his death.

  By coincidence, it turned out that both hypotheticals had elements of the truth in them.

  The War of Five Kings… Yuzu pondered. Why does it seem like the history of this war from one thousand years ago is more and more important to what’s happening right now?

  Kumin, Huan and Banbajan, the current three provinces of NianXing, formed three of the five kingdoms in that war. Those three provinces all had corrupt rulers who were overthrown by the heroes of the war. Lord Noga and Lord Matsuhara, who rose up from the common people, and Banbajan’s future ruler, Lord Shah, who was a prince at the time who had befriended Noga and Matsuhara.

  After the war these three blood brothers pledged allegiance to each other, forming the country of NianXing.

  Deka, the God of Life, had previously been the deity of Fuha. That nation was one of the five kingdoms that took part in the war. His defeat resulted in the once vibrant country’s descent into the wastends that it was today.

  Lord Shuma, the Sun God, was the ruler and god-king of Ying Chu, a rge isnd across the sea to the northwest of Huan and Kumin. This ancient kingdom was now a barren nd filled with ashes. In school, Yuzu had learned that when he was defeated, Lord Shuma razed his own country to the ground. However in Fuha, Yuzu had learned the history from Somm as she listened in on his lessons to Nilya. According to Somm, Lord Noga had sin the Sun God in His castle in Ying Chu, and his body’s violent eruption razed the entire isnd country to the ground.

  The war had happened a thousand years ago, but its ripples were still affecting the world. Before His death, Shuma and Akahi were allies. They had been together trying to bring Okuron to their side when Shuma received his amulet, into their ‘Pact’. She warned of a period of turmoil that would take pce after Okuron’s death…

  Was the War of Five Kings a part of that?

  Okuron had refused their help, and instead warned Akahi about the darkness between the threads in the tapestry.

  Clearly, this was something that Akahi was afraid of.

  What was this darkness that Okuron warned about? Did Akahi ever find a solution to it?

  How did Akahi die? When did she die?

  Why was she such dire enemies with Yuima? And how did Yuima come to possess the ornate chest that was linked to Fate?

  And what exactly was in the chest?

  Questions, so many questions… Yuzu frowned, lost in thought.

  She blinked as a stifled giggle shook her out of her thoughts, suddenly remembering that she was in the middle of a conversation with Char Char.

  “What?” Yuzu’s brows knitted together as she saw Char Char staring at her with an amused grin.

  “What are you thinking about?” Char Char asked pyfully, “You looked so serious and grumpy just now. Your lips formed a big upside-down ‘U’ like this.”

  The pretty Kumin girl warped her face in an exaggerated scowl.

  “I did not!” Yuzu snapped.

  “Did so!” Char Char deepened the frown, turning to look at the mirror on the desk. Seeing her own face she immediately broke into ughter, “You looked exactly like this!”

  “Did not!!”

  Yuzu punctuated her argument by throwing a pillow at Char Char’s head.