Volume 4, Chapter 26: A Woman’s Anticipation

T/N: I’m going to change the dialogue style to English. Hopefully, this will make the conversations easier to follow. Let me know if that doesn’t work. If you guys are okay with that, I’ll go back to give the older chapters the same treatment.

In such a large estate, there would have to be one or two rooms just for clandestine meetings.

Rahan spoke to a server. And it was there where she would never forget how he took out a heavy thing from his breast pocket. It seems even he won’t be stingy in times like this.

A short while later, the server brought a key over and guided them, “This way.”

Maomao tilted her head, wondering if this was fine since it wasn’t that secretive, but then Rahan whispered in her ear. “This is normal.”

“Hmmm.” She felt a little gloomy, but that can’t be helped. Better bend than break – if there is this kind of rule, then you’ll just have to abide by it.But then there’s no meaning for him to be careful by taking the pains to have her food taste, right?

The room at the end of the corridor was really a room. There was wine, dried fruits and jerky on the roundtable – all of them contained components that made you feel vigorous. There was a couch and a bed – either of them was big enough to fit two people.

It seems a little cramped for five people, but the interpreter left his seat for them. Looks like he’s going to keep a lookout outside.Now then, she wondered how they were going to communicate, when the woman spoke to them.

“Thank you for coming all the way to here.”

Fluent words flowed out of her mouth.

“My name is Irene. My companion is my attendant. Please rest assured that he is tight-lipped.”

“May I call you Airin-san? I am Kan Rahan. My companion is a relative so don’t mind her.”

Extremely simple self-introductions. If she had to say it, it was like a conversation where they verified the identity of the other party they already knew.

Rahan surveyed the room. Maomao rapped the wall lightly. There were no concerns about sound leaking from the room that had been constructed from stone. Perfect for clandestine meetings.

Rahan took out a sheet of paper from his breast pocket. He opened the wax seal. “I was surprised at first when I heard the talks will be with Sha’ou merchants. Is that serious, I had thought,” he said.

The attendant pulled out a seat in front of the roundtable. Airin looked at Rahan. Rahan grinned, urging her, and Airin sat.Maomao didn’t know if that was the behaviour of an attendant or that was etiquette from Sha’ou, but Rahan also drew a seat back and gestured Maomao to sit. Maomao was against going along with him, but it was hard to stay standing for a long time so she decided ;to ;sit.

The attendant brought in a seat before she realised and Rahan set it down in a place that would be easy to sit.

After Rahan sat down, the attendant began to prepare drinks. It wasn’t something you can drink as is; it was diluted with water. Since it’s a strong spirit.

(Just what kind of talk is starting?)

There shouldn’t be a need for Maomao to be here, right? Apart from drinking wine, there was nothing for her to do. It would have to be no good to sleep just because there was a large bed, right?

However, the woman called Airin started to talk about something that forced Maomao wide awake.

“I’ll say it clearly since it’s hard to beat around the bush. Can you allow us to live in your country?”

“…can you explain what you mean by that?” Rahan said as he pushed up his glasses.

It should be fine to just move here, right? It wasn’t absent for foreign entertainers to become interested in other countries and just stay there. It was quite common for merchants too.

However, the woman before her eyes didn’t look like an entertainer. And her air was different to a merchant’s

“What’s ;your reason?” he asked.

“Do you know the governing style of my country?” Airin asked.

At Airin’s question, Maomao tilted her head. Maomao only had knowledge of how that country was used as an intermediator for trade.

This part, Rahan was quite able for it. “I heard that it is governed based on the oracle of the priestess.”

The government does this and that according to divination. Even this country, Rii, had a couple of parts that rely on it, although the weight of it is small. The imperial court also has a post that specialises in divination.

“In truth, it is the god. The young girl is worshipped as the god, and her words become the voice of the god,” Airin said.

It was something that was difficult to understand for Maomao. It was the same for Rahan. Both of them had characters where they believe what they see with their own eyes. However, they got the gist of it. Otherwise, they wouldn’t cross over with society.

Rahan regarded Airin as he stroked his chin. “What ;Iknow, is that I heard that the current goddess has reigned for close to thirty years, though?”

From the fact that he was using “I(watashi)” rather than “I(boku)”, Rahan must be recognising that this is a public place. In other words, he wasn’t putting confidence into this woman.

At his question, Airin’s expression shifted into a faint smile “Indeed, in the past, there are also those whose lives ended as gods. The current goddess’ mark of a woman has yet to come. Thus, she still possesses the qualifications of a god.”

In other words, her menarche hasn’t come. There are cases where it comes extremely late, but if it hasn’t come when she’s past thirty, it probably wouldn’t come at all.

“Normally, even if it’s long, it will change in around ten years,” Airin said.

She felt that Airin’s words were filled with slight contempt.

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“Even I might have sat there with that duty,” she added.

Maomao understood the reasons for this woman to suggest her moving.

“Do you think the current government of Sha’ou moves with only the words of the goddess?” Airin continued.

It was a remark that struck the core of what happens afterwards.

“How will my country move when it is incited by the ;North?”

And then.

“What would happen if my country that is surrounded by sand is unable to buy food rations from other countries?”

Airin’s sky coloured eyes faced them.

As soon as Maomao returned to her room, she threw off her peculiar dress. The clothes had something weird built-in, but more than that, her body suddenly got heavy.

Could the ‘North’ that the foreign woman called Airin had mentioned be Hoku’aren(North Aren)?

Also, the reason she mentioned food would be…

(Is there already the fear of food shortages?)

Maomao violently wiped off her makeup and collapsed onto the bed.

The desert region procures its grains from other countries. It was difficult to obtain a steady food source from barren land.

From the looks of things, the North made a price hike for grains. The North suddenly raised the price of grains due to the locust damages last year. It is obviously apparent that it was the share sold to other countries that had been put off first.

From this time point, if it’s like this, if there will crop failure this year too, what could come of it?

If it turns out like so, how would the North go out? Selling grains sparingly, on the contrary, will turn out to be not enough. Countries that cannot provide meals to themselves have no choice but to steal from elsewhere.

If it turns out like so, Sha’ou is the closest. If that country falls, it would become a foothold to other countries that communicate to it.

In the worst case, a war will break out.

(No, no, wait a sec.)

Was it really a country that would think so rashly?But, in this society, it would require the conditions to request common sense from the other party. Common sense exists from the situation where the other party possesses the same values as you and has the flexibility to a certain extent.

Maomao flapped her limbs on the bed, and stopped.

(Alright.)

Speaking of that, what would come out of Maomao thinking of something like this?

This kind of matter is better left to the big shots. Even if they get overworked, this is the work for the people who eat much nicer meals. What this means is that there’s no point for her to just think about it here.

However, it would be meaningless if those big shots are incompetent.

Maomao suddenly recalled the man called Uryuu.Riishu’s father. The man who considered his daughter as a political tool.

If he was the type of shallow person, who, believing that his daughter wasn’t his child, had tried to get rid of her, he was in no way useful.

“….”

Maomao fixed her posture. She had been slouching. And then, moving sluggishly, she headed for the desk that furnished the room.

The ink in the glass bottle didn’t need to be dissolved in water. There was a quill instead of a brush, and parchment, not paper made from plant material.

(What a waste.)

This is expensive, Maomao searched in the drawer. When she did so, there was wool paper inside, so she replaced the parchment with this. She wasn’t used to the stationery, so the ink blotted and the characters became unsightly. ;Afterwards, he would say all kinds of things, but it’s fine if it’s readable ;– Maomao wrote down the things to be done.

And then she located a servant to discreetly pass the paper over to Rahan.

(Now then, will he get on board with it?)

How would Rahan move in such a time? He would get on board with it if he considers that he could properly make a connection with the other party, or he might say that he won’t assist with such an unprofitable thing.

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(Well, I’m fine with it either way though.)

Whether he’s up for it or not, it was no loss or gain for Maomao. Rather, he might treat it as meddling.

However, normally, he would perfectly set the place for me for this kind of thing though, she thought.If it was Jinshi.

Well then, well then, what should I do when I return from this trip– a different issue came to Maomao’s mind, but she decided to forget about it as well.

If it’s something you don’t know even if you agonise over it, it would be better to use that time for something else.That was Maomao’s personality.