《Fantasy Farmstead: Kuya Tio's Guide [Fantasy Slice-of-Life]》


 The teaser, Part of chapter 1

    I almost missed the entryway. The path from the road to the courtyard, assuming it had a courtyard, was so overgrown that it was indistinguishable from the surrounding forest. A small stone pillar set next to one side of the gateway was covered with moss and stained with time. With two simple letters it stated that the gateway and the land that lay beyond belonged to Han. Well I guess I wouldn''t need to buy a new marker. Clean it up, yes. The gateway itself was in particularly poor shape. One of the two pillars stood straight and tall, the other leaned dangerously into the forest, likely held in place by the rotting and sagging beam that made up the top spar. The lower spar was broken. Half of it hanging limply from the straight pillar. The other half likely lost among the detritus of the forest floor. The whole thing looked ready to fall over.


    "Thing will probably fall on me someday."


    I found the house. Or what I assumed was the house. Honestly if I hadn''t known ahead of time that there was supposed to be a house, I don''t think I would have recognized the lopsided mound of debris that looked mostly like a moss and brush covered hill. The root cellar was mostly intact. The door was rotted, but still somewhat functional. The roots of bushes and trees that shouldn''t have been on the roof poked through the ceiling and wound down the walls. Worse case scenario I guess I could sleep in here, but the roof was probably going to need replacing. The rice paddies were¡­ well, they were forests with an equally forested berm around them. I didn''t really know the ins and outs of rice cultivation yet, but trees in the brems probably didn''t do good things for water retention. Another mound hinted at a shed or chicken coop or something, but the pile didn''t tell me much.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    I stood in the center of what might have been the courtyard and rubbed my neck. This kind of sucked. Realistically I had expected to start with nothing albeit a bit closer to civilization. This place was not only on the edge of Mizuyamachi, it was on the edge of the empire as a whole. Sitting on the line that made up the end of the world, if I had been looking at a map, the mountains in the distance would have "here be dragons" written along their peaks. For all its negatives though, it was practically free. Yes I needed to build a house and clear the land with less starting money than I was hoping, but this opportunity was setting me at least five years ahead of schedule. Disappointing that the land was this overgrown and the house was basically gone, but if I could clear and rebuild this year, I could seriously consider finding a wife and starting a family. This was good. This would work. That or I''ll starve. I need an axe. And a saw. I needed a lot of things.

 Chapter 1: Prologue

    HEY!!! This Chapter has been through Revision. The newer updated Version starts at the end of the first draft. It will be labeled with "Rev1" before the Chapter name.


    "Captain Han. Kill them, all of them." King Hinaba said coldly.


    Lo Bao didn''t immediately move. A few of his men stepped forward and then there was an explosion of movement. The assassin the Ronin had brought in shifted in form, which allowed the man to escape his bindings. A Shrine Maiden, who had for some reason unknown to him come in alongside the Ronin, produced several knives and started throwing. The Ronin themselves seemed just as surprised as the King, but lacked the urge to help the monarch that had just told his men to kill them. It all happened so fast and yet Lo Bao seemed to understand immediately. The assassination of the King''s cousin had been a set up. A ploy to get someone hired to take the assassin in and stand before the King himself. It was a clever ploy. It wouldn''t have worked. However, the greatest asset the assassins had was the King himself. His order of killing the Ronin he had hired made said Ronin more likely to help the assassins instead of serving their monarch, drastically giving them the advantage. They would still fail, because of King Hinaba''s guards.


    "Hold!" The word that doomed him left Lo Bao''s lips, sealing his fate. His men paused in confusion, one decided to ignore the order and help his king. He was a good man, Lo Bao would not hold his loyalty against him. That moment in hesitation gave one of the assassins time to drive a dagger into King Hinaba''s gut, but the King himself was a worthy combatant and gave as good as he got.


    "Bao?" The King hissed.


    Lo Bao watched his King, truly frozen in indecision. It was a conflict of loyalties. Lo Bao had pledged his life to King and Country. That had been easier in the old days back when King Hinaba was known as Wise King Hinaba or Good King Hinaba. The man had changed after the death of his wife. Now Lo Bao served Mad King Hinaba. To serve his King he should sally forth and cut down the Ronin, dooming his country. To serve his country he should sally forth and cut down his King. As such, Lo Bao did nothing. Whichever side won this fight, he would not be going home tonight. With that single word, he was a deadman.


    Another two of his men stopped looking at him and joined in on the fray, putting themselves between their King and a truly massive man. One of the assassins lay dead at King Hinaba''s feet. Movement off to the side caught his attention. Prince Hinaba, the younger spitting image of his father, watched the fight with calm quiet concentration. He did nothing to help, but his presence alone was helpful. It allowed Lo Bao to give an order that both made sense and wouldn''t aid the Mad King. "Protect the Prince!" He bellowed.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Kotua would make a good King. That decided it. If for some reason the assassins and Ronin failed to kill the Mad King, then Lo Bao would do it himself. He was already a dead man and as suddenly as it started, it was over. The King tripped over the lifeless body of an assassin. An axe took him in the throat, blood spraying outward in pulses as his heart beat.


    "Enough!" Shouted the Prince.


    For a brief moment fear shot through Lo Bao, the Prince''s voice so similar to his father''s that it seemed the dead King would stand back up. Kotua pushed his guards away as nearly everyone froze. Both assassins were dead, one of the Ronin clutching the corpse of the Shrine Maiden in their trembling hands, a palace guard pushed themselves back onto their feet. The Prince stepped over his father and reached down, he didn''t take his crown, or his sword. Instead he picked up a small mundane locket that had fallen to the floor, its chain cut with the King''s throat. Kotua stood straight and glared at the room''s still living occupants.


    "It''s too bad the guard showed up a full ten minutes after the King was murdered."


    The Ronin stared at him, realization that he was giving them time to run, dawning just as another voice distrusted the eerie silence. The big one tore his comrade away from the dead Shrine Maiden as the Princess dropped to her father''s cooling body screaming at her brother to kill them. The younger princess Junko. The elder daughter Noa had walked out the palace gates over a year ago and had never been seen again.


    "Tomo, you are to give chase in nine and a half minutes."


    "Yes Omo." The man in question adjusted his position so he could watch the mechanical clock that stood at the far corner of the Throne room.


    Kotua stared down at his sobbing half sister. The eight year old girl was the only person her father treated with kindness these days. Only an innocent child could find the death of the King a tragedy.


    "Someone find her mother. And get me a chair, I do not wish to touch that." Kotua said glaring at the Throne. "Captain Han."


    Lo Bao bowed his head. "Yes Omo." This was it. He would now be punished for his failure.


    "You have failed in your duty to protect your King. There is no redemption in life."


    "Yes Omo. If you allow it, I will go to the dungeon and perform my final duty."


    "Not the dungeon. The garden. Full rights. Thank you for your service to our country."


    Lo Bao bowed. "Thank you, Omo."

 Chapter 2: Terrible First Impressions

    HEY!!! This Chapter has been through Revision. The newer updated Version starts at the end of the first draft. It will be labeled with "Rev1" before the Chapter name.


    First impressions are often deceitful. A beautiful plot of land may flood in the spring. A kind neighbor may be an axe murderer. A mean cock may be useless in protecting its flock. Remember, if you can¡¯t show who you are to people, at least try to show them the person you want to be.


    - Kuya Tio on Community, Kuya Tio¡¯s Guide to a Healthy and Happy Homestead.


    "Lo Bao Han?¡± Shinichi asked rather loudly and with an exaggerated expression. I had only been walking with the guy for the last few Li. He came off as excitable to say the least, big smiles, over exaggerated expressions, and very loud.


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s my uncle.¡±


    ¡°No, no, no, no. You don¡¯t understand. I know the land you¡¯re talking about. It''s a plot of trees in between my father-in-law and the twins. Oh you¡¯ve going to love it. Saito¡¯s the kind of guy who would give you the shirt off his back if he thought you needed it and Kiyoko, mmm, that¡¯s a nice piece of ass.¡±


    We continued walking as I listened to Shinichi ramble on about my apparently attractive neighbor who I was starting to think might be a whore and my other new neighbor who was apparently the greatest guy in the world. Also Shinichi¡¯s wife was named Yoko and she made the best dumplings in Sharinzhen. He had two children and his neighbor had a bad snoring habit. Shinichi apparently didn¡¯t shut up, but his enthusiasm was so infectious I couldn¡¯t find him annoying.


    This was the last leg of my journey to a large town called Sharinzhen, literally Wheel City. Some city planner had the bright idea to make a large town with eight villages surrounding it. Roads ran from Sharinzhen, the town center, to the eight villages labeled Sharinzhen 1-8 clockwise starting from Sharinzhen 1 where the main road to the center goes through. Each consecutive village was connected by a road which over time created the confusing idea of half villages such as Sharinzhen 1 and a half. It might have looked good on the initial plans, but the actual landscape didn¡¯t allow for a perfectly circular Wheel. I personally thought the whole thing was stupid, but I figured I should live there for a year or two before passing final judgment on the design.


    I was walking down a well used road just after Sharinzhen 1 where I met Shinichi. Trees on either side were just pushing out their spring buds. The air was cool, the sun was warm, and Shinichi was still talking. Sharinzhen was considerably farther out on the edge of the kingdom than I wanted, but when you inherit land from your rich uncle, you take it with a smile and a bow. The journey had been long, but with the Mad King dead the roads were free of marauding armies. The trees gave way to open fields of unworked rice paddies divided into standard sized Rai. Beyond lay the actual town of Sharinzhen.


    ***


    "Lo Bao Han? How is that rascal?" I grit my teeth and tried to keep a smile on my face. The administrator looked down at the paper I had given him and his smile vanished. "Oh. I''m sorry."


    "I didn''t really know him that well."


    "He was a good man as far as I can remember. One moment." He turned and started searching the shelves of documents. "Glad to have his nephew with us though. No one has been on the property for years. You''ve got your work cut out for you, but I think I might be able to swing you a free night in a tenement if you''d like. Hmm, there''s some due taxes on the land."


    That was expected. My uncle hadn''t been able to pay the taxes on account of being dead and a year''s worth of unpaid tax was cheap compared to buying a plot. I pulled out my coin purse and started counting.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    "So how does the nephew get a chunk of land? I would have figured he would have more immediate family that would have taken his possessions first."


    "Yeah I was seventh in line. One of the options was a manor on the second tier of Lianzhen not far from the Temple of the Six Tailed Fox."


    The administrator nodded. "Ah, yes I guess I could see our humble town being at the bottom of the barrel so to speak. I''ll draw up some directions for you."


    ***


    By some stroke of fate the tenement I was being offered free for the night was directly next to Shinichi. His wife was a rather attractive Oni-Kai woman and his toddler also had the cute little nubs of horns protruding from his temple. The guy hadn''t noticed me and as this was his first time home in a month, I silently dropped off my pack and headed out to find my land.


    My land. Now that was a thing. The land had been granted to me, but until just a bit ago where the taxes were paid and the papers updated it hadn''t been fully realized. It was now my land. My land was in Sharinzhen 4. About an hour''s walk northeast. A couple bridges, rice paddies, woods, then more rice paddies, and then I was in the village with all the looks from people not expecting to see a stranger. I wonder what made this area so good for rice farming when so much other land was better for wheat or millet. Access to water? Or more likely, access to water that was at a higher level than the fields. The central part of the town didn''t seem very terraced, but the village out here had some.


    The village itself wasn''t my destination though. I walked along the road heading toward Sharinzhen 3 counting off the properties as I went. This area was considerably more forested with each gateway leading to what was probably a cleared out courtyard and small farm. I almost missed my entryway. The path from the road to the courtyard, assuming it had a courtyard, was so overgrown that it was indistinguishable from the surrounding forest. A small stone pillar set next to one side of the gateway was covered with moss and stained with time. With two simple letters it stated that the gateway and the land that lay beyond belonged to Han. Well I guess I wouldn''t need to buy a new marker. Clean it up, yes. The gateway itself was in particularly poor shape. One of the two pillars stood straight and tall, the other leaned dangerously into the forest, likely held in place by the rotting and sagging beam that made up the top spar. The lower spar was broken. Half of it hanging limply from the straight pillar. The other half likely lost among the detritus of the forest floor. The whole thing looked ready to fall over.


    "Thing will probably fall on me someday."


    I found the house. Or what I assumed was the house. Honestly if I hadn''t known ahead of time that there was supposed to be a house, I don''t think I would have recognized the lopsided mound of debris that looked mostly like a moss and brush covered hill. The root cellar was mostly intact. The door was rotted, but still somewhat functional. The roots of bushes and trees that shouldn''t have been on the roof poked through the ceiling and wound down the walls. Worse case scenario I guess I could sleep in here, but the roof was probably going to need replacing. The rice paddies were¡­ well i''m not sure where they were. Returned to the forest I suppose. I didn''t really know the ins and outs of rice cultivation, but trees in the paddies and on the brems probably didn''t do good things for water retention. Another mound hinted at a shed or chicken coop or something, but the pile didn''t tell me much.


    I stood in the center of what might have been the courtyard and rubbed my neck. This kind of sucked. Realistically I had expected to start with nothing albeit a bit closer to civilization. This place was not only on the edge of Mizuyamachi, it was on the edge of the empire as a whole. Sitting on the line that made up the end of the world, if I had been looking at a map, the mountains in the distance would have "here be dragons" written along their peaks. For all its negatives though, it was practically free. Yes I needed to build a house and clear the land with less starting money than I was hoping, but this opportunity was setting me at least five years ahead of schedule. Disappointing that the land was this overgrown and the house was basically gone, but if I could clear and rebuild this year, I could seriously consider finding a wife and starting a family. This was good. This would work. That or I''ll starve. I need an axe. And a saw. I needed a lot of things.


    ***


    I needed to not stay in this tenement. I had been offered a great rate for it while I worked on building something on my land. I had wisely told the guy I needed to see how bad my plot was first. The land was bad, what was worse, was the tenement neighbors. Specifically Shinichi. He and his wife were very loudly going at it. In all honesty I might have secretly enjoyed the sound of a young couple making love from the otherside of too thin walls, but what I was hearing wasn''t love. Apparently Yoko had sent her children to her father''s house after her husband came home and apparently Shinichi liked to get drunk. He seemed like such a nice guy when he was sober. He was not a nice person when intoxicated. I curled myself in my blanket as far away from the couple as possible and tried to block out the sound. If I hadn''t known the two were married, I would have been inclined to report a rape. From the looks of passersby, this was a common occurrence. Finally finished, Shinichi stormed out of his tenement. I fell asleep to the soft sounds of a woman sobbing. Fuck, I already wanted to go home.

 Chapter 3: Meeting the Neighbors

    HEY!!! This Chapter has been through Revision. The newer updated Version starts at the end of the first draft. It will be labeled with "Rev1" before the Chapter name.


    What is wealth? Is it gold with which you can exchange for goods and services? Animals with which you can consume in times of little? Or is it Community, with which you can support each other through good times or misfortune?


    - Kuya Tio on Community, Kuya Tio¡¯s Guide to a Healthy and Happy Homestead.


    The axe bit into the thick flesh of the tree with a solid thwack. I panted in exhaustion. I hadn''t been out here very long and already I was down to my shirt and sweating hard despite there still being a layer of frost covering the trees and brush. I lifted a hand to wipe the sweat from my brow.


    "What in the¡­"


    I nearly screamed as I twisted around. My heart was hammering in my chest as I fell backward where I rolled back to my feet and backed up. The man staring down at me was intimidating. Not physically so. He was of average height and build. His chest and gut were a bit rounded and streaks of gray in his hair and short beard gave away his age. Small white Oni-Kai horns protruded from his forehead above dark glaring eyes. All and all, the man himself wasn''t all that scary. The sharp metal spearpoint pointed at my chest on the other hand.


    "I said, what the hells are you doing out here?" He growled.


    "I-I-I was cutting down some trees."


    The man didn''t look happy with that answer. "Why?"


    "To uh, clear some space."


    His eyes narrowed in annoyance.


    "What makes you think you can come out here and clear space?"


    "Uh, I own it?" That came out more as a question than an answer, but it clearly wasn''t a response the man had expected.


    He jabbed the spear point toward me. "Prove it."


    "I need to get to my bag?" I said pointing to my pile of belongings next to the root cellar.


    He grunted and motioned with the spear to get moving. As I slowly moved to my stuff while keeping an eye on the spear, it dawned on me what was going on. This chunk of land had been abandoned for so long that anyone showing up and cutting down trees would be suspicious as hell. I should have stopped by and introduced myself to the neighbors. This guy was probably Shinichi¡¯s father-in-law, judging solely by the fact that he was Oni-Kai and the other neighbor was supposed to be Kitsune. I held out the papers to him, of which he snatched them out of my hand and took a few steps back. He kept a suspicious eye on me as he struggled to open the documents. The tip of the spear dipped to a less threatening angle as he looked over the official paperwork.


    "Hmmm, Han eh? Any relation to Lo Bao Han?"


    "He was my uncle."


    His face twisted for a moment then he planted the butt of the spear in the ground and held it in the crook of his arm as he refolded the documents. My heart finally began its slow pounding decent to a normal pace. I was now covered in more sweat than when I was working and the chilly spring air was biting at my skin.


    He handed the papers back. "Sorry about scaring you. Nobody has been here in nearly forty years. You should have introduced yourself first."


    "Yes, wait, forty."


    "About that, yes."


    "But my uncle bought it less than forty years ago?" The guy was considerably less scary when not pointing a spear at me. I was a hair taller and not quite as thick.


    "Yeah, but he never got around to living here. Was going to fix up the old house." He looked around and pointed at the shrub covered hill. "Which was there. Only thing he managed before he got reassigned was to change out the name stone."


    Well so much for being closer to my uncle by living on the land he left me. I barely even knew the guy, even at family gatherings he always seemed in a rush to get to his next appointment.


    The man who I was sure was Shinichi¡¯s father-in-law, scratched at his bearded chin as he looked me over appraisingly. "Lots of work ahead of you, oh." He held out a hand. "I am Saito Xiao. I live just through those trees."


    I returned the gesture, clasping his forearm. "Yuji Han."


    "Hmm, well, should you need anything, asking is usually free." He said, giving me a toothy grin. I still wasn''t letting him out of my sight on account of him still having a weapon.


    "Do you know where the rice paddies are? There''s supposed to be three of them."


    He looked around while scratching his beard. "Quarter Rai?"


    "Yes. About that size, but I don''t know what shape."


    He nodded and pushed through the brush using the spear more as a walking stick. I followed as he turned at several sharp angles, pausing frequently to inspect the ground. "Here. I think." Saito said, prodding a slight, rather straight hill with the butt of the spear. "Probably the first paddy. That there." He pointed his spear at a slight rise through the trees. "That''s probably the second. Not exactly a terrace."


    I was truly screwed with the amount of work this was going to be.


    "How much you want to clear before planting season?"


    "All three if possible."


    Saito shook with a deep, slow, old man laugh. "No." He looked me up and down, shaking his head. "Not unless you''ve got a lot of money to get a crew out here."


    I had money, I did not in fact, have a lot of money. "I had been saving up for a place of my own for a couple years now. So I do have some, but I clearly need to build a house and that''s probably going to leave me with nothing left."


    "So self sufficiency is a necessity? Hmm¡­" He returned to examining me and scratching at his chin. Have you ever cultivated rice before?"


    "No." I answered honestly.


    "A garden?"


    "Some vegetables in pots."


    "Oh boy. This here is the berm that keeps the water in your lowest paddy. I suggest following its perimeter, you''ll find a spillway somewhere, clean it out. Then clear out the interior of the paddy of trees and brush. Don''t clear off the berm. The rotting roots will create tunnels for the water to escape. Best to work about that shortly prior to harvest. A single quarter Rai can produce enough rice for two and a half people if things are good. Things will NOT be good this year. You''re also going to need a garden. A man can not survive on rice alone."


    "What about the other paddies?"


    "Hmmm." Saito started. "Clean them out after the spring festival. Do the berms first. When you got free time. What about your taxes? You plan to pay in standards or corv¨¦e?"


    "Labor if possible."


    Saito nodded. "You''ll need to see the Patriarch, it will help you understand what you''re doing here. Season''s too short here, you need to start your seeds before final frost. You aren''t set up for that. You get me the seed and I''ll add them to my sprouting boxes. It costs me nothing and you have your work cut out for you."


    "Thank you. I really appreciate that." I gave the man a slight bow. He didn¡¯t return the gesture, just stared at me appraisingly while scratching at his beard.


    "Hrmmm. I don''t have a son present, or a useful son-in-law. I''ll make you a deal if you''re interested. I have four quarters, but I''m getting old and only tend two of them a year. If you help me work them, we''ll plant three and when all is said and done, I''ll split half the yield of one paddy with you. It won''t cost me any extra labor if you do your part and you won''t starve if this thing fails this year." He prodded the berm with the butt of his spear. "Still got to put your all into your own land. My offer is for this year only."


    This was a no brainer. He was basically offering to teach me how to grow rice for a little extra labor and giving me a safety net. Shinichi said his father-in-law would give the shirt off his back, this wasn''t exactly the same thing as he was getting something out of the deal as well, but I was taking that. I bowed again, deeper this time. "I would take that deal. I am humbled by your generosity." I didn''t particularly like groveling to anyone, but Saito was my neighbor and he was throwing me quite a huge bone here.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    Saito nodded and straightened. "Alright, enough of that. Get back to work now." With that and a short goodbye, he wandered off through the trees back to his own property. I picked up my axe and then decided I should meet the other neighbors before a similar misunderstanding could occured.


    There were no neighbors across the road. Presumably that land was owned by the village itself and private property on that side would start another Li or two down the way. My other niegboors had a well cared for gateway and a somewhat ornately carved stone with two letters that read "Yin." The path from the gateway was trimmed and paved and led to a mid-sized farmhouse that was easily defined as tidy and well cared for. Besides a shed, a neat and orderly wood pile, and patch of bare earth that would probably be a garden, it lacked any other structures or animals. The place screamed, "we work in town." Once on the veranda I found and used a brass knocker shaped into a stylized fox mask. The echo of the knocker resounded throughout the veranda, but no sound of movement or anyone calling out came.


    "Hello? Anyone home?"


    I took a brief look to either side of the house, shrugged, and headed back to work.


    ***


    "Good day¡­"


    "Gwaahh!" I tripped over a fallen tree as I spun around in surprise for the second time today. I caught the winch on the faces of both Kitsune before pushing myself back up on my feet. At least no one was pointing a spear at me this time.


    The man bowed. "My sincerest apologies. It was not my intent to startle you."


    "It''s okay. You''re not the first today."


    The man''s triangular white fox-like ear twitched as he tilted his head. "Xiao?" He asked. "You did not introduce yourself to him first, did you?"


    "I didn''t."


    The two Kitsune looked at eachother and grinned.


    "I assume he attempted to scare you." Said the woman in a melodious voice. "Please do not hold it against him. He is a good man."


    "Anyway." Interrupted the man. "I am Kenta Yin. This is my twin sister."


    "Kiyoko Yin." Said the woman with a bow.


    "You are the nephew of one Lo Bao Han, is that correct?"


    "Ah, yes. I am Yuji Han."


    "Is this by chance the same Lo Bao Han who let the Mad King die?" Kenta asked.


    This was a sketchy question. While I''ve never met someone who wasn''t happy about the King dying, it was always possible and it was possible they would take it out on me, unlikely, but possible. "Uh, yeah?"


    Kenta nodded, put the jug he was holding in the crook of his arm, and started digging around in his pockets under his traveling robe. Kiyoko looked smug. The two were extremely similar, both on the taller end for Kitsune, a out my height, not including the ears. Both had white hair, golden eyes, and similar facial features. Neither of them had the physique of farmers, instead having the strong, but more lithe forms of dancers. Kenta finally produced a silver coin and with a frown on his face, handed it over to his sister.


    "Thank you dear brother."


    "Uh, a bet?" I asked.


    "Oh yes, Kenta here said there was no way in all the hells someone stationed in Sharinzhen would ever be in the palace. Let alone the caption of the palace guard. To be fair, it does sound far-fetched."


    "Oh." Said Kenta thrusting the jug out towards me. "This is for you. Welcome to Sharinzhen."


    ¡°Ah, thank you.¡± This is way better than a spear point. ¡°How did you know I was here?¡±


    ¡°This too is for you. Welcome.¡± Kiyoko said, holding out a box made of paper.


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    ¡°You will find that gossip travels quickly in a small town.¡± Kenta replied to my earlier question.


    ¡°I¡¯d ah, offer you a seat and some tea, but¡­¡±


    ¡°Perhaps in a month or so. You will have much wood. A firepit and a bench would be well received. We can drink to your success then.¡±


    Kiyoko nodded her agreement. ¡°If you need anything, do not hesitate to stop by.¡±


    ¡°Yes. You have a lot of work. That is hard on the body and we both are talented masseurs, among other things. For you, the first one is free.¡± A predatory vulpine grin split their faces.


    They both bowed and said goodbye. As they weaved through the trees Kiyoko looked back and gave me a wink. Pretty sure they are both whores, but I''ll let time prove me right or wrong before passing judgment.


    Once the twins left I popped the top on the jug and sniffed. Probably sake/mijiu. A quick sip confirmed it. Opening the paper box made me grin from ear to ear. ¡°Honey cakes. Fuck yeah.¡± I took a slow, joyful bite of the sweet pastry. Whore or not, Kiyoko was in the lead for my favorite person in Sharinzhen.


    ***


    I turned to see what was making that damnable thwacking sound. Saito was standing behind me. A bit further back and smacking a tree with a branch to get my attention without scaring the shit out of me. I appreciated that. I also appreciated his lack of a spear.


    "Morning." He said cheerfully before his smile faded and he followed it up with. "You look like shit."


    I yawned. "Just tired. Didn''t sleep well."


    He frowned. "What kept you up?"


    I think he was fishing for flaws in my person. Like Shinichi¡¯s drinking issue. I suppose I would want a neighbor like that. "Freezing my ass off mostly." It had been damn cold. Apparently a root cellar was a terrible place to sleep. You couldn''t put the fire inside because it would fill with smoke and the room that kept food nice and cool also kept any idiot trying to sleep in it nice and cool.


    Now Saito just looked confused. "I would have figured you had a place to rent in town?"


    "I did, but the first night I was there I had to listen too''oo''ahhhh." My brain caught up with my mouth and took control before finishing that sentence. Yeah, literally almost told him I found hearing his son-in-law rape and beat his daughter to be horrible annoying.


    The sour look on his face told me he had filled in the blank. "They put you in the tenement on canyon?"


    I nodded. I''m not one hundred percent sure what the street name was, but he knew and I knew he knew.


    "So where did you sleep?"


    With another yawn I pointed at the root cellar and my small fire pit next to it. He stared at the hole, glared at me, then pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. "No." This guy really liked to tell me no. "No." He repeated. He looked back up at me, examined the trees and brush that I''ve already cleared, and frowned at the growing pile of logs. He nodded to himself and asked another question. "What did you eat this morning?"


    "Rice."


    "That''s it?"


    "That''s all I have on me right now."


    "No." He said again. "Come."


    "What?"


    "Come on, follow." He started walking off. "Leave the axe."


    I paused, set the axe down, and followed the older man through the trees.


    Saito had a nice place. The trail he had been using to get to my plot widend and branched off before reaching a fence gate. The whole yard was fenced in and a couple sheep grazed on the few bits of spring greens. A handsome farmhouse with a large garden plot sat at the south. A full four quarter Rai rice paddies at the north. Several sheds, a barn, chicken coop, wood processing area, and what looked like some type of workshop filled in the rest of the area. He walked over to the barn and opened a door, then went up a set of stairs.


    "You can sleep here." He said, pointing to a dwindling pile of hay up in the loft above the animal beds. I opened my mouth to say no. Not because I didn''t want to rough it out in a hay loft instead of a root cellar, but because I didn''t want to feel like I owed the guy that much. "You have until the spring festival. It should be warm enough by then and the planting will be done."


    I pressed my lips together and nodded. Saito walked back down the stairs and I kept on his heels. Damn I was tired, wouldn''t mind laying down now.


    "What are your plans for today?"


    "Well, I need to wash my clothes and rice pot. Was planning on chopping trees all day, but I''m tired enough that I don''t know how safe that is. Might just process the ones that are already down. Also going to introduce myself to the Patriarch and get some other tools that I''m lacking."


    Saito nodded along as I followed him around to the front of his farmhouse. "There''s a stream due north. Wash up there. I''d have Wei Lin wash your clothes and cook, but she''s sick."


    "I couldn''t ask that."


    "You didn''t. For now you''re stuck with my cooking. Just until the festival. You have a lot of work to do."


    I think I understood Saito. Shinichi was wrong. Saito wasn''t the sort to just give the shirt off his back to anyone. He was providing me with a smelly and slightly uncomfortable bed for a limited time. The kind of thing only someone who really needed it would accept. He was going to feed me, but it came with the caveat that I work my ass off. He was going to let me use one of his rice paddies, but I needed to work on it and all the others as well. He knew how to help people while simultaneously weeding out those that he shouldn''t be helping. Truly I was blessed to have him as a neighbor.


    "Oh. Wei Lin, what are you doing out here?"


    I paused and stared at the small pile of blankets with a face poking out. I had assumed Wei Lin was Saito¡¯s wife, I had assumed wrong. Judging by the size of shape and the snotty reddish face, she was maybe in her early teens. Clearly his daughter.


    "Wanted sunlight." She rasped in a scratchy, dry voice.


    "Mmm, well this is our new neighbor, Yuji Hon. Yuji, my youngest, Wei Lin Xiao."


    I bowed. "A pleasure to meet you."


    She sort of bowed back. She tried to speak, but it was interrupted by a cough and a snot sucking sound.


    "You stay here." Saito said before jumping up onto the veranda and entering the house. I was left with Wei Lin who looked equal parts happy to be sitting in the morning sunlight and ready to fall over. Getting hit with something like that now would be my ruin. Saito returned with a bowl of soup. "Here, eat that. You can return the bowl at dinner, now go get back to work."


    I bowed to the man. "Thank you Po." I considered calling him Kuya, but decided that was a little too familiar and he was old enough to be my father.


    "Yeah you can thank me when you''re done, now get."


    Saito¡¯s soup was a broth filled with various greens, meat that was probably rabbit, and a bit too much salt. It wasn''t great, but it sure beat just rice. The stream was indeed not far due north of my property. Washing clothes in freezing water sucked, but I felt a bit more awake. After a bit more work, I wrapped up and headed into the village proper to introduce myself to the Patriarch. Meng Su was a tall man with a gray beard, bright eyes and absolutely nothing else of note. He seemed the contemplative sort with a lot of beard stroking and staring off into the distances. Reasonably for a village elder, not sure about for a Patriarch.


    Trying to buy a few more tools taught me one of the quirks of living in a Wheel City. Sharinzhen 4 had a blacksmith. However he didn''t actually sell anything unless commissioned. Basically he either maintained tools or created things to be sold in the town center. I needed a shovel and it was entirely possible that I was going to walk an hour to buy one he might have made, and then walk an hour back and past his smithy. Apparently most businesses worked like this. Everything made was sold in Sharinzhen, the center, and that''s where you had to go to get what you needed. Kind of weird. I was too damn tired to safely chop down trees anyway so the walk was nice, if not tedious. The walk back was more annoying. When I came to Sharinzhen 4 the other day I had been carrying everything I owned plus an axe, a saw, and a pot. Today I was only carrying a shovel, a pick, and a hoe, but I had to carry the three unruly things in my arms for an hour. Half the weight, double the pain. I yawned and got back to work.

 Chapter 4: Another Few Weeks of Work

    HEY!!! This Chapter has been through Revision. The newer updated Version starts at the end of the first draft. It will be labeled with "Rev1" before the Chapter name.


    The cultivation of rice is a tedious and annoying endeavor alone. It is a productive and near enjoyable experience with friends. And it is often a party when done on a village scale. It''s also a back breaking pain in the ass when you are doing it for someone else for a measly few coins. Trust me, I would know.


    - Kuya Tio on Why a Normal Job Sucks, Kuya Tio¡¯s Guide to a Healthy and Happy Homestead.


    Seven men, three Carabao, and a lot of mud.


    "You got one of your quarters cleared out yet?" Chao asked.


    "Pretty much. I am astounded at how large of a brush pile I''ve got. No idea how to get rid of the stumps."


    "A couple years of water and they''ll rot away. The first year is always the worst." Kichiro chimed in.


    I nodded. "Saito is going to show me how to flood them tomorrow. Says we need to get the ground wet or I''ll never get the soil turned in time.


    "Ah there''s the Patriarch." Chao said, motioning to the older man. "Today will be easy, just a basic rip of the paddies. We''ll get to the real plowing next week, so just focus on learning how to manage the animals and use the plow."


    "Good morning men." Patriarch Meng Su said.


    "Morning Po." Chorused the group.


    "Well start from the east today. Who wants to take on the new kid?"


    "We got him." Said Chao pounding me on the shoulder.


    "Good, well then. Good plowing." With that Patriarch Meng Su turned around and walked away.


    When he was far enough that I didn''t think he would hear, I leaned over and asked. "Did we really need to wait for him?"


    Chao shrugged. "Well, sometimes you just got to humor your elders." And so we began plowing. A long boring job made frustrating when the Carabao got tired. Mostly it was doldrum. Very muddy doldrum.


    I wearily waddled past my property and into the woods stopping at the stream. Examining the rapidly moving water for a moment, I decided to just throw myself in. It was freezing cold. The air escaped my lungs in a shudder and my muscles stiffened. I burst out of the frigid water, gasping for air, and clawing my way up the bank. "H,h,h,oollly shi,shi,shit,t,t,t." The water near the village wasn''t this damn cold and the mud was still caked onto my clothes. Well that was stupid. Now I''m muddy, wet, and cold.


    ***


    It had rained a few times since I arrived, but they were always at night and very light. Today marked the first full spring rain I had seen this year and it was really coming down now. Saito¡¯s farmhouse included a Horigotatsu in the main room. Essentially just a low table over a pit, it was a primary fixture of his home with a beautiful dark colored and well polished table that I quite thoroughly enjoyed and I vowed to myself to have one in my own home. Four sets of dishes sat around the surface as we ate. In the last week or so I had eaten at this particular table nearly once per day and there were always four sets of dishes for only three people. I had resolved to ask Saito about it today and was slowly working up the courage to do so. I was probably not going to like the answer. Nobody set an extra seat at the table everyday for a good reason like just in case the King stopped by. Actually that was a really bad example. The damnable King had become well known for dropping in on peasant farmers, killing the men, raping the women, and setting the house on fire with the children still inside. Seriously horrific stuff. I remember the mandatory week of morning to include a lot of drinking and constant parties. Not sure anyone, least of all the common folk shedding a single tear for that freak.


    "A ques/Well I¡­" Saito and I started at the same time.


    "You first." I said. "Mine is just a question of idle curiosity."


    Saito nodded. "Was going to say, I think we''ll work on flooding the fields tomorrow. Seems mother nature is trying to help out today. Do you have anything you can work on today?"


    "Yeah, I''ve got some fletching I can do."


    "Fletching?" Wei Lin asked. Wei Lin almost never talked during these meals.


    "Arrow making. I only have a few shafts I can work on though."


    "Is that what the wood you have in my loft is for?" Saito asked.


    "Ah, yeah. Trying to dry them out.


    I had picked up Fletching as a sure way to make a few coins in my down time. It didn''t cost a lot in tools, but it was a tedious and boring job. Saito looked meaningfully at his daughter and nodded. Wei Lin had the courtesy to wait until her father looked away before she rolled her eyes.


    Saito took the last bite of his Giniling and rice and sat back with a contented and satisfied smile. "My dear daughter, your Giniling is the best. The potatoes and carrots are the perfect texture and the meat is spiced just right. Wouldn''t you agree Yuji?"


    I saw Wei Lin wince. "If you promise never to tell, I''ll admit that it is better than my mother''s." I think Wei Lin actually blushed at that though the statement was factual and mostly aimed at her father.


    Saito nodded his satisfaction at my agreement. He had been playing this game since the day we first met. Practically throwing poor Wei Lin under the proverbial cart and saddling her with extra work serving me. Saito¡¯s goal was clear. He wanted to show off his daughter''s stability as a devoted wife while simultaneously determining if I''d be a suitable suitor. I got why. I was essentially a perfect opportunity for him. He could evaluate me as a potential son-in-law as I worked on my property. If I married Wei Lin she would always be close by and he could more actively intervene if we had some domestic issues. He clearly felt guilty about blessing the marriage of Shinichi and Yoko and didn''t want to make the same mistake twice.


    There were two massive impediments with his plan. First and foremost, he never consulted Wei Lin on the matter. She was a dutiful daughter and did the tasks without complaint, but I saw her roll her eyes or sigh dramatically. She was feeding me, washing my clothes, and mending my shirts. Honestly I felt bad about it, but I was so damn busy trying to get everything done before planting season was over. I vowed to make it up to her after the spring festival. The second hit to Saito¡¯s plan was the whole first impression thing. Unlike the misunderstanding with Saito being cleared up within minutes of first having his spear pointed at me, I had a full week to solidify Wei Lin as a young girl in her early teens. She wasn''t. Wei Lin was short and petite, supposedly just like her mother. She had shiny dark hair, a rounded face with a wide nose, and a well proportioned body. In short she was a relatively attractive young woman of marriageable age and I still viewed her as a kid. In a way Saito¡¯s plan to endear her to me had worked, just not in the way he had expected. I''d feel rather comfortable treating her like a little sister.


    "Oh right. You had a question?"


    "Yeah, um. Forgive my ignorance, but¡­ Why is there always an extra set of dishes?" Well it was out now. No taking it back.


    Saito looked at the plates and sighed. He nodded his head with a solemn, dour, yet understanding expression which reminded me far too much of my own father. "My wife is dead. She''s buried in the back under the lilacs I planted for her when we were young. She isn''t coming back and I can accept this. My son however, he left to fight the Mad King. I know he is probably dead. Or maybe captured, contracted, and sold off to some foreign nation. I don''t know. I can''t know, but if by some miracle he walks through that door, I want him to know I never gave up hope."


    Fuck, I knew I wasn''t going to like the answer. "Thank you Po."


    "Ah none of that Po shit. I''ve decided it makes me feel old." He looked between me and Wei Lin, nodded, and extracted himself from the Horigotatsu. "Well, I''ll be in the shop. Why don''t you two play some games or something? Take a day off, yeah? Get to know each other."


    I finished my breakfast as he walked out the back, Wei Lin¡¯s eyes watching her father until she was sure he was gone. As she turned her dark eyes onto me and opened her mouth to speak, I realized this was the first time we had ever been alone together.


    "I''m not interested."


    It was a definitive statement, but I better make sure she was talking about what I thought she was talking about. "Interested in what?"


    "You."


    I nodded. "I figured as much."


    "I apologize for my father''s pushiness."


    "I understand it."


    "No." She said, sounding a lot like Saito. "You don''t. My sister¡­"


    I cut her off. "I was in the tenement next to your sister''s when Shinichi came home drunk. I understand."


    She stared at me, clearly surprised, but nodded in acceptance. "I¡­ Okay."


    "Thank you for everything you''re doing for me. I''ll make it up to you once the spring planting is done."


    "That''s not necessary."


    "Well I''ll make sure to reduce your workload." I stacked my dishes and got up. "Thank you for breakfast Ate."


    Her head tilted and lips twisted as she considered the Honorific. She nodded, accepting it. And I went to join Saito in his shop for the day.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    Turns out Saito was a Cooper. I don''t know why it surprised me that he made barrels, but having a neighbor that did had to be a good omen. He allowed me a corner of his shop for my fletching. That was another reason I learned the skill, it didn''t really take up much room. The tools and materials fit in a small bag and only the shafts had any real size to them. Due to the necessity of traveling light on my way here, I only had a few finished shafts on me. So while arrow creation was a ridiculously long process for such a simple item, I had finished before lunch. I searched, put my stuff away and asked Saito a simple question. Therefore spending the rest of the day learning how to make barrels.


    ***


    Flooding fields was an interesting process. We started by pulling a very large number of thick bamboo poles that had a channel cut out of them and all except one of the little interior dividers knocked out. After inserting them for cracks, we started laying them out from Saito''s fields all the way to the stream that ran from the hills to the river. That was the easy part. The more difficult part was proping them all up and staking them down so the water would flow through the bamboo channels all the way to the fields without spilling all over the place. It was both frustrating and fun. Once Saito¡¯s fields started filling he showed me where to find the bamboo and we started making channels for my own land.


    ***


    Knocked on the door of the Yin twins not terribly long after a visit from Kenta. He was heading into town and asked that I stop by with my shovel and help his sister with a new garden bed. By help, he meant do it for her, or them I guess. His exact words were something to the effect of, "I hate to interrupt you as I know you are very busy, but if you and your shovel could find your way to my home, my dearest sister would like help expanding the garden this year and our fine fingers are not really up to manual labor." Kenta a was cheeky fucker sometimes, wiggling his fingers at me. "She of course will return the favor by stating some seedlings for your own garden." And that''s how I ended up here.


    Kiyoko opened the door with a bright smile and a cheerful hello, I followed her out to the garden feeling¡­ Well awkward wasn''t the correct word. She was wearing a very nice shirt. It was red with a cherry blossom print and though it was of average fabric, I could see a silk version being used by servants at fancy tea houses. It hugged her body tightly, showing off the shape of her breasts and was cut low enough to expose a distracting amount of cleavage. The shirt reached down to mid thigh and had a slit along the sides from the hem to the hip. It was a very nice shirt. Kiyoko looked very good in it. The problem wasn''t the shirt specifically. The issue was that the kind shirt she was wearing required pants or a skirt underneath. Kiyoko wasn''t wearing either of those. On a related note, she had really nice legs. The fact that the fabric extended past her butt was contracted by her fluffy white tail which swayed as she walked revealing small under clothes made of some tightly woven red fabric. It showed a lot of butt. A very nicely shaped butt.


    She started talking the moment we got close to the garden. As it was right next to the house, I didn''t really have enough time to stare, but I prayed my eyes away and listened to her dilemma. Apparently Saito''s son, Hon Ri Xiao had dug what currently existed. Kiyoko had wanted to expand last year, but no Hon Ri and Cho, the neighbors to her other side, the wife wouldn''t let her husband help due to Kiyoko''s occupation. That''s the point where I figured I better just ask and get it over with.


    "What is your occupation? If you don''t mind me asking."


    "Courtesan."


    "Ah." So she was a whore.


    "And masseuse." She gave me a mischievous vulpine grin "Maybe when you''re done here I can provide an example of my services." She said playfully, pushing her delicate fingers against my chest. "Anyway, the garden."


    Each garden bed was about my height in length and width. Kiyoko''s concern was that she had calculated that she needed two more beds, but having two instead of three would throw off the symmetry of the garden. It was literally the kind of thing the average person, or myself specifically, wouldn''t have even thought twice about. For Kiyoko, this was a serious problem. In the end, I convinced her to just let me put in three beds and she could fill a bed with ornamental flowers or grown vegetables to give away. She proclaimed me a hero and rewarded me with a kiss on the cheek for my very mundane solution to her extraordinary mundane problem. The Yin twins were clearly a bit anal about symmetry and tidiness.


    "After the spring festival when the work slows down, I''d like your help on occasion, we can discuss payment for the service. Hon Ri used to haul water for us every other day or so. It''s not much, but my brother and I just aren''t built for it you know?"


    "Sure. That shouldn''t be an issue."


    She touched my arm. "Okay, when you''re done, wash your hands in the trough and come inside okay?"


    "Sure."


    She nodded and I got to watch her sexy long legs as she returned to the house. Shit after this I was going to need a dunk in the stream. The digging itself went stupid fast. I had been fighting my soil for the last week. A whole damn quarter Rai of interwoven roots and tree stumps that straight up weren''t ever coming out. I wish my dirt was like this. I suppose it will be after a decade of working the land. I washed my hands off in the water trough as asked and kicked off my boots before entering the Yin house.


    "Hello? Kiyoko?"


    The woman in question poked her head in from the next room. "In here, come in."


    The main room lacked the Horigotatsu that the Xiao house held so prominent. Instead it had a simple irori fireplace in the center which looked as though it hadn''t been used since the cold months. The room itself was tidy and neat. Very clean with decorative pictures and knick-knack filled shelves tastefully placed. The room Kiyoko was in caused me to pause. It was a kitchen. On the left by an open door was a full sized table with two chairs. The right had a countertop that stretched around the entire wall except for two spots, an actual working sink, and a custom built kalan. I had only seen one other household sink. That was at my uncle Lo Bao''s manor back home. This one wasn''t as fancy and it was leaking slightly, but holy shit, a sink. Garlic and herbs hung from the rafters and canned food filled the shelves, all meticulously organized. Kiyoko was hovering over the Kalan, the smoke from the clay stove and the steam from whatever she was cooking drifted up into a wide vent hood like you might see in a smithy. The woman was wearing an apron, which did nothing to cover her backside. Her butt and tail swayed as she hummed. She turned around with most of a steaming hot bun in one hand, a smaller piece in the other. She blew on the small piece.


    "Done already?"


    "Yeah, your dirt is not as difficult as mine"


    "Mmm." She hummed. "Try this for me?"


    "Sure." I reached out a hand, but she withdrew the bun and pouted. "What?"


    "Just open your mouth."


    I stared at her for a moment, but complied. She took a step closer and popped the bun in my mouth. Having a whore for a neighbor was freaking weird.


    "How is it? Not too salty?"


    "It''s good." It was good. Wasn''t ever going to complain about Siopao.


    "Mmm, Kenta is such a baby about salt. Likes everything bland." She handed me the larger price of meat filled deliciousness and turned around, putting three more buns in a basket. "How''s the land clearing going?"


    "Not terrible. Saito showed me how to pipe water from the stream which helped loosen the soil. He says I''m going to have to fight the rice paddies for at least a year before they hold water well. Got a garden area cleared and worked on a spot for chickens."


    She nodded and pressed past me to the table. "Good good. I can''t imagine trying to do that by hand. When will you start on a house?"


    "Right after the chicken coop I hope. Going to have to pay for that though. I don''t really know anything about building."


    Kiyoko set the basket on the table and took off the apron. She gave me her mischievous vulpine smile again. "Question for my strong and handsome new neighbor.


    "Oh?"


    Kiyoko turned to the table and pushed herself down so she was basically laying on it with her ass sticking out at me. She looked back at my slightly panicking face with her shit eating grin. Her tail pushed the flap of her shirt away and she wiggled her very nice butt at me. "Want a go? First time is free."


    "Ah, I ah." Was my very elegant reply. I wasn''t one hundred percent clear if she was serious or just fucking with me. The base instinctual part of me screamed "Hit That!" It''s a good thing people have the ability to reason. Shinichi was right, Kiyoko had a nice ass. Actually he said she was a nice piece of ass which meant something else entirely, but she did have a nice butt and the small red underclothes she wore drew attention to it.


    "No." I said, sounding way more hesitant than I wanted to.


    "Oh? Any reason in particular?" She practically purred.


    I still wasn''t sure whether or not she was just fucking with me, but I had two reasons not to screw my hot Courtesan neighbor. Possible a third as I was not sure how that would change the neighborly interactions. "Well, Reputation for one. I''m new here and I don''t want to be known as loose."


    Kiyoko returned to a standing position, before letting herself up and sitting on the table, leaning to one side, her rich white hair cascading down. She crossed her legs and dealt a killing bow to my excuse. "Ah yes, but I''m not going to tell anyone. Occupation confidentiality." She grinned and moved the hand that she wasn''t leaning on slowly up her waist to cup one of her breasts.


    She still might be fucking with me. "Well, there''s sort of another thing." In a way it was still about reputation, just not mine. Not sure what my expression looked like, but her grin faltered. "I had someone tell me about you¡­"


    "Someone said bad things about me?" She sounded hurt.


    "No, they said good things about you. It''s just, a couple hours later I unfortunately happened to hear how he treated his wife and that just sort of, left a bad taste so to speak."


    Kiyoko''s teasing grin vanished, replaced with disgust. "Shinichi." I didn''t say anything, but she clearly read my expression. She seemed good at that. "It''s a small town, everyone knows he beats the little Xiao girl." She looked out toward my property, or more likely Saito¡¯s property.


    The whole sexual aura that had existed a moment ago was completely gone. Replaced by the sour look on Kiyoko''s face as she hopped down from the table and to the cupboard. Shinichi was certainly a buzzkill. "I could tell you things that fucker''s said, but occupational confidentiality. You want a drink?" She pulled out a jug and a cup, looking back at me for my answer.


    I shrugged. "Sure." Then I ate the last of the siopao I forgot I was holding.


    She poured two cups, handed me one, drank hers in one go, and proceeded to glower at her cup for a solid minute. "So¡­" The kitsune woman said, her fox-like ears returning to an unagitated angle. I needed to watch those more. "I could probably get you a discount for the first time with another girl."


    "Why?"


    She shrugged. "Welcome to the neighborhood gift."


    "You gave me honey cakes."


    "Yeah well, you''re single and most people like sex."


    "Most people like honey cakes, even single people." This conversation keeps getting weirder.


    Kiyoko pointed one of the fingers holding her cup at me and tilted her head. "So, no sex at the brothel?"


    "I''ve never been to a brothel and I wasn''t planning to start now."


    "Is that an ever thing?"


    "Yeah, I think so."


    She leaned back against the counter. One arm under her breasts, pushing them up, the elbow of her other arm resting on the first. She tapped a long, elegant finger against her chin while she examined me far too much like Saito did. She pointed the taping finger at me. "I have a cousin about your age."


    I sighed. "I''m not going to fuck your cousin."


    "What? No! I mean I could introduce you. You''re going to look for a wife eventually, I presume. Unless you have issues with kitsune?"


    "No issues other than the obvious I guess, but I don''t even have a house yet."


    "Said I can introduce you. Not force a sudden and immediate marriage."


    "Oh, right."


    She tapped her chin again. "Hmmm, yes. I can get her here for planting, I think. She can teach you how to plant rice and you can get to know each other at the same time."


    "I''m, okay with that."


    "Right. Okay then get back to work. You need to build a house so you can marry my pretty little cousin." The teasing grin was back. "Oh and that basket is for you. If no one is around when you return it, just leave it by the door."


    "Ah thank you."


    "Thank you for the garden work."


    She waved as I retreated with my reward. Fuck that was¡­ Well I don''t know what that was, but now I really need a dunk in the cold stream. I shoved one of the meat-filled steamed buns in my face and grinned. If only Kiyoko was a decade younger and not a prostitute. There was definitely something to the saying "the way to a man''s heart is through his stomach." Maybe her cousin is a good cook. Even with the awkwardness, Kiyoko is still my favorite person in Sharinzhen. That might not be fair to Ate Wei Lin, but she was basically forced to feed me. Kiyoko gave me food of her own free will.


    ***


    The day after the Yin garden I was to be working the wheel. I had no idea what that meant, but it was supposed to be easy. It was easy. It was literally a waterwheel, though a bit backwards. Instead of water moving the wheel which moved something else, a person, me in this case, walked inside the wheel to lift water out of one paddy and into a shoot to another paddy. Behold the issue with moving water over relatively flat ground. I can see why most paddies are on terraces. I spent the next day plowing. Same as the last time and just as muddy. Lots of nervous tension in the air as the planting neared.

 Chapter 5: Planting

    HEY!!! This Chapter has been through Revision. The newer updated Version starts at the end of the first draft. It will be labeled with "Rev1" before the Chapter name.


    Building a chicken coop is a great project. It allows one to test designs they may want to use on larger projects, and if it looks like crap, the residents probably won''t care. Just remember to locate your coop properly. The garden feeds the chickens, the chickens feed the compost, and the compost feeds the garden. Don''t put these things too far apart. You''ll regret it.


    - Kuya Tio on Chickens, Kuya Tio¡¯s Guide to a Healthy and Happy Homestead.


    The chicken coop was¡­ Well it was. I had done it myself and it wasn''t filling me with pride. Clearly construction wasn''t my forte. The fence had been easier, just long saplings interwoven between some posts. Kuya Tio¡¯s Guide didn''t mention anything about remembering to put in a gate and¡­ I paused as my finder rested on a sentence in the aforementioned Guide. "And of course, don''t forget to put in a gate." I would have sworn that wasn''t there. Whatever. I closed the book and cocked my head at the coop. Saito was kicking me out of his barn in about a week and as long as I didn''t get any chickens for a while, the coop would be livable. The barn was getting smellier with the warmer weather anyway.


    Job done for the day I had dinner with the Xiao''s. This was normally a mundane experience, but today Yoko and her children joined us. Saito sat stern-faced and clearly upset, but did everything in his power not to let it show, likely for the sake of his grandchildren. I had anticipated a pleasant meal while peppering Saito about tomorrow''s planting. Instead dinner was a solemn affair while we all pointedly avoided looking at Yoko''s swollen face and the bruise on her throat shaped like a hand. It was a weird, awkward night and the next morning''s breakfast wasn''t much better, but after that we set out as a group to the village proper for my first Planting.


    "Kaori, this is my neighbor, Yuji Han. Yuji, Kaori Shao."


    I bowed as Kiyoko introduced me to her cousin. Kaori was shorter with dark brown hair and a darker skin tone than the Yin twins, whether that was hereditary or a lack of sunlight on the twin''s part I couldn''t say. Her face was cute, but plain and her clothing was well, nobody was dressed up particularly well except the Yin Twins and some older folks that likely wouldn''t be getting muddy. She bowed back, but I got the distinct feeling Kaori wasn''t meeting me entirely of her own free will.


    "Have you planted rice before?" Kiyoko asked.


    "No."


    She clapped her hands together. "Great. Kaori, you can show him how to plant seedlings and get to know each other. It''s perfect. Multiple birds and stones and such." With that said, Kiyoko wandered off.


    "Hey." Kaori started. "No offense, but I want children and you''re not compatible. I''m only here to get my family off my back."


    I nodded. That was a fair point. Kind of a major issue between Kitsune and any other race. "I get it. I''m just hoping Kiyoko becomes less¡­ intense."


    Kaori snorted at that. "You get the whole first time''s free thing?"


    I looked down at her, she just laughed.


    "Dad says I''m supposed to show you how to plant rice." Ate Wei Lin said, practically startling me as I hadn''t seen her coming. "Especially since you''re standing next to another girl." She added with a defeated sigh.


    "Kaori, this is Ate Wei Lin, not interested in me. Ate, this is Kaori, also not interested in me."


    "We know each other." Kaori said.


    "We got time, I''ll be back in a bit." Wei Lin wandered off having fulfilled whatever basic instructions Saito had given her.


    "Hey." Kaori said while poking me in the side. "I didn''t say I wasn''t interested. I just want kids, you know?"


    "Is there a difference?" There was a difference. Honestly, asking was really the adult thing to do. I probably should have kept my mouth shut. She stared at the ground, not answering. "What are we waiting for anyway?"The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Kaori was about to answer, but was cut off.


    "Hey! So you''re the Han brat I keep hearing about."


    An older man grabbed my forearm and started shaking. "Uhh, yeah?" He slammed his free hand into my shoulder.


    "You look nothing like Lo Bao."


    "Ah, yeah. I look more like my mother I guess." The old man was still holding my arm, I must have looked uncomfortable because Kaori giggled and had to turn away.


    "Your mother? And just who did Lo Bao marry?"


    "Ah, wait. Lo Bao is my uncle."


    "What? You''re not Lo Boa''s kid?"


    "No."


    "Oh." He finally let go. "Oh well, glad to have you around brat."


    "Sure."


    He left me to assault another man a few paces away. "That was weird."


    Kaori continued to giggle at my expense and we moved closer to the rice paddies as everyone else seemed to be congregating there. Ate Wei Lin silently showed up and we watched an old gray haired woman carrying silver incense balls start walking down the path between paddies while chanting something I couldn''t understand, assuming they were even actual words.


    "How long¡­" I started to ask before both Ate Wei Lin and Kaori shushed me. So I stood and watched along with the rest of the village as the old lady made her way up and down the paths. I had to assume the weather was perfect for this. The air was still a bit cool, but the nearly cloudless sky was a bright azure blue and the sun was shining brightly. It felt like the world itself was trying to give me a good first Planting experience. We all waited until the woman finished her chanting walk around the paddies. Long enough for my feet to hurt. Then we spread out to a couple paddies, grabbed baskets of rice seedlings, and waited.


    "What you think? We stand on each side of the new guy, he does a single row and if he keeps up, give him two on the next pass." Kaori asked Wei Lin.


    "Sure."


    I spent my time looking around while the two girls chatted about how to make me not useless. Most people were linking up in the water of the paddies, but several of the older folks were heading into the village and healing back tables and benches. Kenta was taking a seat at a very large drum while chatting with the Patriarch. He took a drink, presumably water, picked up the large drumsticks, then beat a rapid staccato beat that got everyone''s attention.


    "All right." Ate Wei Lin said while shoving a basket of seedlings in my arms just before Kenta let out another staccato followed by a steady beat. Suddenly I was trying to keep up as the two girls on either side of me were pulling exactly three seedlings out of their baskets and shoving them into the muck of the rice paddy in perfectly spaced rows. My only job was to fill in the missing space with a single seedling. It took about ten seedlings before I got the hang of placing them. As I got comfortable with shoving the little green shoots into the paddy I had enough time between rows to realize everyone else was following the beat of Kenta''s drum. When we reached the end, Kent played the staccato again and I saw him nod and grin to the person next to him.


    "You''re doing two rows now." Kaori told me as the line of villagers reset themselves to go back across the paddy.


    It was harder to keep up with two rows, but after two passes, I was handling it and was promoted to three rows. It took until we finished the first full Rai before I was able to keep up. When we reached the end I stood up straight and let my back pop. This was going to hurt by the end of the day.


    "Hey Yuji!" I looked up to see Kenta standing over his drum yelling at me with his hands up to his mouth. "If you think you''ve got it now, we''d like to speed up so we can be done planting before winter." I felt my face heat up as literally the entire village had a laugh at my expense. I looked to Ate Wei Lin who had a hand over her mouth and couldn''t look at me.


    Kaori poked me in the side. "Just hazing the new guy."


    They may have been hazing me, but I think Kenta may have been serious about speeding up. Every time I thought I was keeping up, I found myself behind. I was the last person to finish at the end of every row, but Kenta seemed to be waiting for me to finish before plating the quick staccato beat that signified finishing a line. The day became a frustrating game of keep up. My back hurt, I was sweating like a mad man, and I was completely out of breath when we finished a full Rai sized paddy and Kenta started playing something completely different. It was less a beat and more of a single tone song. It had a lot of ups and downs and Kenta himself was grinning like a madman while flourishing the drumsticks. The song ended on a single solid hit to the drum and I realized I was completely alone in the rice fields. Abandoned by everyone including the girls as the older villagers served lunch.


    It took two days to plant the village''s paddies with literally everyone pitching in. I spent the next day with Ate Wei Lin planting the three quarter Rai at the Xiao place and then by myself planting my single quarter full of stumps. It was the first time that I had taken a really good look at the seed starting setup. It pretty much consisted of a large stray lined box with several barrels inside. The seedlings were started in the barrels and every night Wei Lin or Saito would drop heated stones into a bucket of water and place blankets over the box. Basically the seedlings had to be babysat every night until it was warm enough for them to survive normally. It never dawned on me that rice, this far north at least, needed so much care in order to get a harvest.


    Saito told me to take the next day off to get some rest, but that just meant I was hauling water for the Yin twins and transplanting sprouted plants into my garden. Sore as hell, primarily in my lower back, I took Kenta up on his offer for a free massage. Which I barely managed to get, because everyone schedules him a week in advance of planting. All that said, the planting was over and it was time for the spring festival.

 Chapter 6: To Those Who Never Return

    Defense is an often overlooked aspect of the Homestead. As chickens need fencing to protect from predators and the garden needs a fence to protect from herbivores, so too does a village need a fence. Though instead of wood and rope, a village''s fence is often made of flesh and bone and steel and faith. Not all threats are physical and not all that can be lost is material.


    - Kuya Tio on Community, Kuya Tio¡¯s Guide to a Healthy and Happy Homestead.


    I buried my head in my hands and groaned. I hadn''t found the time to build a fence around the garden and literally everything I had planted yesterday had been eaten, the soil trampled with deer prints. It was a pretty solid hit to the gut and I needed to fence the plot in before the stuff directly sown into the dirt sprouted, but first, breakfast without looking too dejected and after breakfast, the festival.


    The spring festival was very¡­ un-festival like. Really just a village get together and feast. It started with the slaughter of a pig. Its throat was cut and blood collected into a pail. It was then gutted and cleaned. Hair shaved and singed away and internal cavity stuffed full of garlic and lemongrass. It was skewered with a spit and us men folk took turns rotating it over a bed of hot coals while the women seasoned and cooked the blood. The town square was a bustle of activity. Women in and out of the kitchens of the closest houses, children running circles around the square, and men at tables playing games either board, card, or dice. A large get together, not really a festival. It was one of those ¡°Hey how ya doin¡¯¡± type events that I never really cared for back home, but free food and a break from work. Practically every old man in the village quizzed me on my life which was tiresome at best and I lost a few games of cards before giving up. I felt an odd mixture of content, annoyed, and bored. Part of me, happy to take a day off, another part upset that I was here instead of home working. The only person close to my own age was Ate Wei Lin and I wondered if that had something to do with my lack of enjoyment. Obviously I was busier than hell trying to get the Homestead in order, but the only people I had met who were close to my own age were the Xiao sisters and Shinichi. I clearly needed to make some friends.


    ***


    ¡°So you plan to sleep in the chicken coop?¡± Saito asked, scratching at his beard in thought.


    ¡°Yeah, until I get the house built.¡±


    ¡°It''s waterproof right?¡±


    ¡°Fairly sure it is.¡± I wasn''t one hundred percent sure, the roof had been a massive pain in the ass, but we hadn¡¯t had a good rain during the day since I had gotten it on. ¡°I''d like to borrow some hay for bedding, if that would be alright?¡±


    ¡°Yeah that''s fine.¡± Saito nodded. ¡°About staying in there tonight though.¡±


    I was half expecting the guy to say ¡°no¡±, but the barn was starting to really smell and he did say he was going to kick me out after yesterday''s festival.


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Ah why?¡± I asked.


    He looked at me quizzically, like I should know the answer already. ¡°New place to sleep means poor sleep. You''ll need good rest for tomorrow.¡±


    Okay, now I was confused. ¡°What''s tomorrow?¡±


    Saito blinked owlishly at me. ¡°Militia training. Didn''t Meng Su tell you yesterday?¡±


    ¡°Militia training? No. No one ever said anything about a Militia.¡±


    Saito shrugged. ¡°It''s part of your corv¨¦e.¡±


    Of course I expected a town on the very edge of the empire to have some defense, but I expected an actual military. It just never dawned on me that the only people out here to serve as the military were the people that lived here. ¡°What am I supposed to do? As Militia, I mean.¡±


    ¡°We train once a week until harvest and once per month during the winter. One of the training sessions per month is done in the town with the rest of the Militia.¡±


    ¡°But we, like, if an army comes, we¡¯re supposed to stop them?¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡±


    ¡°Has that ever happened?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Said Saito to my relief. ¡°At least not in my lifetime.¡±


    ¡°So we never get called?¡±


    ¡°Oh we get called every other year or two. Monsters or outside barbarians.¡±


    ¡°And we fight them?¡± I asked, afraid to hear the answer.


    ¡°What? No. We protect the town until the military arrives. I suppose we fight them if they attack. Had a mountain troll once, that was scary, but the barbarians haven''t caused any problems in my lifetime. Usually come to trade cattle for supplies just before winter sets in.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± I didn''t have anything useful to say. I can''t believe I''ve just been conscripted. Well, I guess it isn''t actual conscription.


    ¡°Yep. We''ll head out after breakfast and Wei Lin will have something good for use when we get back. Probably side pork.¡±


    ***


    Militia training was nowhere near as bad as I had imagined. Honestly my mind had gotten the better of me and I spent the night imagining intense physical training, a lot of yelling, and getting pummeled by the other villagers in some sort of combat training. Saito and I left after breakfast. He was missing the spear, but wearing a large circle of bronze mirror armor that covered his chest and stomach. I didn''t ask about it, unsure if I was supposed to get one as well. When we got to town, a large door was opened, a rack of spears were moved off to the side, and everyone was handed a spear shaft with a cloth ball on the end. I guess that made sense as you wouldn''t want to stab your neighbors during practice. They also handed out large rectangular shields that when set on the ground, came up to my waist. We were then ordered to fall in line by a man who only went by Wu. This was the part where they planned to have a laugh at me. I had no idea what we were doing as the sixteen other men fell into a row of eight men two deep. They all laughed at my confused look and when I tried to stand next to Chao, I was told I needed special training to be on the end, and they laughed again. Wu yelled at them to stop screwing around and Chao moved over so I could stand between him and Saito. We then marched to an open area that I had previously wondered why the village hadn''t turned it into more rice paddies. Now I know. When I say we marched, what I really mean is that we walked and tried not to break Rank. I''ve seen actual soldiers march. We were definitely not marching.


    A large section of the day was dedicated to moving while staying in line. Move forward. Move back. Rotate left. Rotate right. Refusing the flank was difficult. Basically someone acted as a hinge and part of the line swung back. Considerably more difficult than it sounds. Bracing for a charge meant that the first line dropped to a knee, holding their shields in front of them and the butt of their spears dug into the ground while the guy behind you placed his shield over top of you. It made the line into a spiked wall of wood. War stories always focused on Samurai duels and generals doing clever shit, never the actual blocks of men. Now I know why. What do you do when faced with a wall of shields and spears other than press against it with your own wall of shields and spears, unless you have a mage. That''s a scary thought. If we fight a mage we are literally supposed to scatter as fast as possible and hope we don''t die. I hope to hells I never have to actually do anything more than practice this stuff.


    As the day was winding down and my arm was hell¡¯a freaking sore from carrying the shield, we switched to crossbow practice. That was easier than I expected. Put foot in loop at front, pull charging bar, insert bolt, aim, and fire. Most of the time was spent on how not to shoot your own people. Which mostly just don''t put a bolt in until it''s time to fire. I never hit the target, but that was apparently okay because if I ever had to use a crossbow it likely meant I''d be shooting at a block of people, not individuals.


    All in all Malitia trying wasn''t a bad experience and true to Saito¡¯s word, Ate Wei Lin had made side pork for dinner. Don''t ever let it get to my mother, but Wei Lin was definitely a better cook.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    ***


    ¡°Hey.¡± Said Ate Wei Lin.


    I straightened up, my back popping as I did so. I was finally clearing a place to build a house. Unfortunately that meant I had to remove the tree stumps and that was an exercise in frustration. Wei Lin was somewhat dressed up and holding several strips of paper connected to strings.


    ¡°Um. Dinner will be early tonight because the village is heading into town for Ah, well, a night of remembrance, I guess. We don''t really have a name for it yet. It''s not really a festival, but every year after the spring festival we write the names of people we lost to the war and hang them on a tree in town. And then drink. There''s lots of drinking. Have you lost anyone?¡±


    ¡°I''ve lost a couple friends. And my uncle, if he counts.¡±


    Wei Lin tilted her head as she considered. ¡°Yeah I think your uncle would count. A bit after the fact, but¡­ So how many do you need?¡± She held up the strips of paper.


    ¡°Three, but¡­ My friends were, on the wrong side of this.¡±


    She shrugged. ¡°Not everyone got to choose their side. How ¡®bout you get cleaned up and you can fill these out at dinner.¡±


    I felt weird tying the names of three people who didn''t live in this town and fought on the wrong side of the war to the tree. I couldn''t even really say they were close friends. Takao left on deployment one day and never returned. Kang was stabbed to death in the street outside a bar by the friend of a rebel he had picked a fight with. And I honestly hadn''t been that close to my uncle. I tied my tags in a small cluster on the back of a rather old and knurled tree, trying to take as little time as possible. Literally everyone was here. Some tied on their tags and left. Others stood around and bullshitted with friends. I kept vaguely close to Saito after Wei Lin disappeared with a few other girls. The sheer number of tags hanging from the branches was gut wrenching when you realized each one was the name of a person that was either dead or exiled.


    At some point the ¡°who are you¡±s started and after explaining a half dozen times the ¡°meet my daughter¡±s began. It bugged me that I had men literally throwing their little girls at me. It might sound like a fantasy in your head, but in reality it hit me as creepy. I got it. Most of the tags on the tree were men of my age. I was one of very few prospects in this town and Saito¡¯s compliments on how hard I worked and my own admission that I wasn''t seeking to court anyone until I could prove I could feed myself caused guys to try to sell me their daughter''s like property. Maybe it was a cultural thing as this wasn''t common in the city. Ayame was supposed to be kind and a great cook along with other positive wifely abilities, but looked just as displeased as Wei Lin had been with being marketed. Eiko was a bit younger and stared at me with doe eyes like I was some type of amazing catch, of which i was far more crept out than caught. Then there was Tung-Mei Wen. I didn''t receive a sales pitch for her. Her father introduced the girl and walked off completely aware that his daughter was smoking hot. The primitive part of me said ¡°yes, fuck that!¡± And very quickly convinced the logical part that I should at least get to know her for later when I did start looking for a wife. Then Tung-Mei opened her fucking mouth.


    I watched myself in mild fascination as the same part of me that handled the baser instincts simultaneously screamed, ¡°have sex with that¡± and ¡°run for your life¡±. Seriously stepping back and analyzing your base feelings when you were in no actual danger was a trip. We mere mortals are fucking weird. Tung-Mei was babbering on about how her friends, family, and this town sucked as I looked for a way out. I was hoping I could spot Ate Wei Lin or even Saito and make an excuse to leave when someone poked me in the side. I looked down at my brown eyed, plain faced knight in shining armor, or more specifically a green long sleeved Ao Dai dress with asymmetrical flower embroidery.


    Kaori pulled on my sleeve while looking at Tung-Mei and saying. ¡°Sorry Ate, but I need to borrow Kuya Han. You''re welcome to come with if you don''t mind some heavy lifting.¡±


    Tung-Mei scoffed and looked insulted. ¡°Whatever.¡±


    I was pulled away from the very attractive bitch.


    ¡°Fell into the trap huh? Pretty face, wide hips, and large breasts?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, thanks for saving me.¡±


    ¡°She''s a bitch. You looked like you needed the help and I figured we didn''t really get to talk during the planting. That much work isn''t really good for chatting.¡±


    ¡°Really, you and Ate Wei Lin seemed to be talking just fine as I tried to keep up.¡±


    Kaori laughed in a way that started as a chuckle, grew for a moment, then ended with a snort. ¡°Fair point. Fancy a walk?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I''m not exactly enjoying this.¡±


    ¡°To be fair, tonight isn''t really meant to be enjoyed.¡±


    ¡°I guess that makes sense. Everything is either melancholy, or hi, meet my daughter.¡±


    ¡°Oh it must be so hard to have pretty girls thrown at you?¡± Kaori said, her tone implying dry humor. ¡°My options are too young, too old, married already, or unable to give me children.¡±


    ¡°Sorry. The whole thing just kind of weirds me out.¡±


    ¡°Well that''s how we meet. Keep complaining and I might take it personally.¡±


    ¡°No, that''s not the same. Your father isn''t tring to sell me on how good of a wife you''d make.¡±


    ¡°He would. I think. I assume Kiyoko was doing the job, no?¡±


    ¡°No. That came after a different conversation and she never said anything about you as a wife prospect. I mean I assume that was the point of an introduction, but there''s no push behind it.¡±


    We crossed over the bridge. The river water ran dark and quite underneath us as night set in. Lanterns lit the street and people wandered around and chatted as if they had nothing pressing to do.


    ¡°What was the conversation about and how''d it lead to me?¡±


    ¡°Sex.¡±


    Kaori snorted. ¡°Of course.¡±


    ¡°She offered sex and when I said no she offered to get me a different girl at a brothel.¡±


    ¡°So you''re saying you didn''t screw my cousin?¡±


    ¡°I did not. I''ll admit I was tempted and she¡¯s kind of hot, but I''ve got a reason not to. But then she points a finger at me and says, I''ve got a cousin about your age. And I told her I wasn''t going to fuck her cousin either.¡±


    Kaori gave me a playful glare. ¡°Are you saying I''m not fuckable?¡±


    I chuckled. ¡°I''m saying I thought she was still trying to get me laid.¡±


    ¡°Ah, but are you sure that still isn''t her plan?¡±


    I had to think about that. ¡°You don''t seem the type.¡±


    ¡°You don''t know my type.¡±


    ¡°Fair point.¡±


    She led me down a tight alleyway and knocked on a door.


    ¡°Where are we?¡±


    ¡°My parent''s shop. Kind of half tea house, half restaurant.¡±


    A human woman opened the door wearing literally the same outfit as Kaori. She looked at Kaori and looked me up and down. ¡°Who the hells are you?¡±


    ¡°Yuji Han.¡± I replied with a bow. She didn''t return it, just blinked at me.


    ¡°Kaori? Are you on a date?¡± The woman asked teasingly.


    ¡°This is the last place I''d go on a date. Yuji will never be more than just a friend.¡±


    I put a hand to my chest and tried to look hurt. ¡°Ow, friend zoned already.¡±


    Kaori snorted.


    ¡°I didn''t like tails anyway.¡±


    Kaori put on a fake expression of shock. ¡°You racist bastard.¡±


    We both laughed. The woman looked from me to Kaori and back again. ¡°Yeah, I call horseshit. What do you want?¡±


    ¡°Tea please.¡±


    ¡°Seriously?¡±


    ¡°Booze if it''s free.¡± Kaori shot back.


    ¡°Tea then, oh and I''m totally telling your mom you''re dating a human.¡±


    ¡°Hey! No!¡± Kaori yelled, but the woman was already gone. ¡°Damn it.¡± She grumbled.


    ¡°Better your mom than your dad I suppose.¡± I tried.


    ¡°Fuck no. If I tell dad this isn''t a date he''ll believe me. Mom''s just going to harass me about it for the rest of the year.¡±


    ¡°Ah, well. Sorry.¡±


    Kaori let out a sigh before the door opened and she was handed a tray complete with tea kettle and cups. ¡°Thanks.¡± She managed before the door shut.


    Kaori poured two cups in the dull lantern light of the back alley before handing me one. She held her cup up. ¡°To those who never return.¡±


    I returned the gesture and we both took a sip. ¡°This holiday sucks.¡±


    ¡°To be fair.¡± Kaori said, pausing to take another sip. ¡°The harvest festival is the only one worth attending. We, that is, most of my friends and I usually just sit in the back of the shop here and get drunk during the summer festival. If you''re looking to actually meet some of the girls without their parents involved by then, stop by. Unless you were serious about that tail comment.¡±


    I shrugged. ¡°Honestly don''t care for the tail. Not against it either.¡±


    ¡°Hrmph. Yeah well, fuck you.¡± She poured herself more tea and leaned against the wall.


    ¡°What''s up for the rest of the night?¡±


    ¡°I''m going to stick around here in case things pick up. We''re always open late for these things, but I don''t expect much. We don''t sell booze.¡±


    Silence fell between us and I watched the moon slowly poke around the edge of the alleyway as we sipped our tea.


    ¡°How''s the homestead coming?¡±


    ¡°Got the paddy and garden planted. Then the deer ate my plants.¡± I replied with a scowl. ¡°Finally moved out of Saito¡¯s barn and into the chicken coop.¡±


    ¡°Eeww.¡±


    ¡°No, I don''t have any chickens yet. It''s clean. I''m currently working on clearing a place for my house. I think I''m going to need a lot of help with that though.¡±


    Kaori nodded along. ¡°What kind of house?¡±


    ¡°Honestly, I haven''t the slightest idea.¡±


    Kaori snorted and drained the last of her tea. That kind of marked a natural end to this particular event and after a short pause where only the sound of insects and chatter of some distant people was heard I decided to cut it here. ¡°I think I''ll head home now.¡±


    Kaori''s content smile faded a bit, but she nodded. ¡°Stop in sometime. I''m stuck here most days.¡±


    ¡°Will do. Good night Kaori.¡±


    ¡°Night.¡±


    I retraced my path over the bridge, stopping at its zenith to admire the sound of the water and the paper lanterns someone had mounted near the riverbank. It was a long walk home in the dark, but I didn''t get lost.

 Notes and Stuff

    I have been gone for a while. Just over a month I think. A couple Reasons for this.


    First, I was hit with a sudden and escapable obsession with sci-fi. I tried to continue writing, but it was difficult to write about homesteading in an Asian-ish Fantasy world when all I could think about was ¡°spaceship.¡± I''m mostly over it now, Ate through an 8 book series. 5 from A Merchant''s tale and 3 from A seekers Tale from the golden age of the solar clipper. Did not buy a Smuggler''s tale.


    Second. And this is a rather Problematic change. Almost everything written over the last 3 years has been done in five minute intervals on my breaks. I''ve moved shifts and buildings. I only have one friend in this State and I can now sit and talk with him on breaks. Obviously that''s bad for writing.


    My goal is to sleep faster. <insert shit eating grin> my new shift allows me nearly 8 hours of sleep now, so cutting 30 minutes off and using that for writing should be fine. The problem with writing at home is my wife and child. Yelling, pinching, kicking, biting, and telling me to do things is also not great for writing. And the kid Is just as bad. <insert another shit eating grin>


    There''s another thing going on. For a long time I''ve been trying to figure out dictation and transcription. I fucking hate typing. Almost everything these days is done with thumbs on a smartphone because it''s less painful. My original experiment with dictation started 10 years ago with dragon naturally speaking Software. It was a pain. More time spent editing than dictating. I Can now do the same thing for free with chrome and Google docs and it works better, but that requires my Computer and quiet. Two things I almost never have at the same time.


    There are two methods to transcribing an audio file. First is to pay a human to do the work. I''ve done this once. It is expensive and I''ve never made a dime on anything I''ve written. The second option is machine transcription. Programs that work for actual dictation are prohibitively expensive, but we now have plenty of programs that do the work for a fraction of the cost. Too good to be true right? It is. These programs are geared more toward making transcripts of phone calls or checking videos for ¡°offensive content¡±. They spit out a giant blob of text that makes the brain hurt just looking at it, but they are words instead of audio. We now also have a few cheap to free to use language learning models, we call them AIs for some reason. ChatGPT Is the most well known. It only accepts chunks of text under 1000 words, but will take those Blobs and turn it into something workable. Then comes the editing. I''m not entirely sure how bad the editing Is going to be, but it will likely be considerable.


    Expect a sci-fi short story in the upcoming future. This isn''t taking time away from writing Kuya Tio¡¯s Guide as it uses a completely unused block of time that has been unlocked for me when I switched shifts at work, the drive into and home from work. Of course I can''t write during this time, but I can talk into a recorder.


    A couple other hopes for this winter, I have a couple completed books I''d like to rewrite. One of which hasn''t been seen on this platform. These are low priority things however, I have a full time job, a growing side business, and a family that requires my every waking moment. I woke up early to write this this morning, but getting up ment that other people followed me and I am currently being used as a pillow. I just don''t have free time and I''m being told that I must stop now. <sigh>


    Below are my notes for this Story Thus Far


    82 kg of Rice per year per person


    1,000 kg per rai.


    Rai = 1,600 sqm / 0.4 acre


    Figure Homestead Rice paddies are 1/10 acre (.25 Rai) and feed 2.5 people. Average homestead has 3 paddies, and can support 7.5 people. 1/10 acre is 66x66 feet.


    Li - 500 meters. Half a KM, .31 milesThis tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    League - 3 miles


    Xiao


    Saito Xiao - Male Oni-Kai. Wei Lin¡¯s Father


    Description: He was of average height and build. His chest and gut were a bit rounded and streaks of gray in his hair and short beard gave away his age. Small white Oni-Kai horns protruded from his forehead above dark glaring eyes.


    Hon Ri Xiao


    Yoko Xiao - Female Oni-Kai. Wei Lin¡¯s sister has two small children. Modest is a male. Baby is female. Is pregnant.


    Wei Lin Xiao - Female Oni-Kai. Wei Lin was short and petite, supposedly just like her mother. She had shiny dark hair, a rounded face with a wide nose, and a well proportioned body. In short she was a relatively attractive young woman of marriageable age and I still viewed her as a kid.


    Shinichi - Married to Yoko


    MC - Yuji Han - Human Male


    Lo Bao Han - Human Male. Yuji¡¯s Deceased Uncle


    Lia Nakamura - Female Akumaji, Carpenter with strong Physique


    Kiyoko Yin - Female Kitsune, Yuji¡¯s Neighbor with white Hair, lives with twin Brother, whore.


    Kenta Yin - Male Kitsune, Yuji¡¯s Neighbor with white Hair, lives with twin Sister, whore.


    Descriptions - The two were extremely similar, both on the taller end for Kitsune, about my height, not including the ears. Both had white hair, golden eyes, and similar facial features. Neither of them had the physique of farmers, instead having the strong, but more lithe forms of dancers.


    Kaori Shao - Kitsune, brown hair, brown eyes, cousin to Yin. shorter with dark brown hair and a darker skin tone than the Yin twins, Her face was cute, but plain. Wide nose.


    Mr. DJ Sharon Cuneta. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok2z_zGDsQY</a>


    Meng Su - village Patriarch, a tall man with a gray beard, bright eyes and absolutely nothing else of note. He seemed the contemplative sort with a lot of beard stroking and staring off into the distances. Reasonably for a village elder, not sure about for a Patriarch.


    Sharinzhen - Literally Wheel Town or Wheel City. Has 8 spoke villages 1-8 and a few half villages.


    Sharinzhen 4 - The Village where Yuji Lives.


    Sake/mijiu - rice wine, there is a difference, Yuji isn¡¯t sure what it is.


    Giniling - carrots, potatoes, onions, garlic, and pork served with rice


    Carabao - A water Buffalo common in southeast Asia, or in this Fantasy Novel.


    Horigotatsu - a sunken area with a table over it.


    [Words with no Direct Translation]


    Tchie; (Slang) Word used as intimidation or gloating. Actual meaning often depends on inflection and context. Equivalents: Boo! Checkmate! I win! You lose! Die!


    Bruha; (Slang) Bitch. Word used as an insult, not in reference to a female dog. Is NOT gender specific.


    Kuso; (Slang) Fuck. Short for kusotsu(orgasm)


    Chikusho; (Slang) Damn, Shit.


    Kuso Anata; (Slang) Fuck you.


    Kuso Tchuni; (Slang) Fuck off.


    Tchuni; (Slang) Damn you.


    Kuso Ako; (Slang) Fuck me, Holy shit.


    Baka; (Slang) Idiot.


    Tsep; (Slang) Whelp, well, well shit(Polite/family friendly)


    E; (Slang) Huh? Really? What? Umm. Ahh.


    <Holding fist up with pinky finger extended == middle finger. Basically means ¡°You have a small penis¡±>


    [Honorifics]


    Kuya; (Honorific) Big Brother (No relation Requited). Used in front of, or in place of, a person¡¯s name to show respect toward that person as if they were an older Brother.


    Ate; (Honorific) Big Sister (No relation Requited). Used in front of, or in place of, a person¡¯s name to show respect toward that person as if they were an older Sister.


    Po; (Honorific) Elder (No relation Requited). Used in front of, or in place of, a person¡¯s name to show respect toward that person as if they were a respected elder.


    Amo; (Honorific) Boss or Master. Used in front of, or in place of, a person¡¯s name to show respect toward that person as if they were an employer, teacher, master, or respected supervisor.


    Puno; (Honorific) Chief. Used in front of, or in place of, a person¡¯s name (in a military scenario) to show respect toward that person as if they were a commanding officer or higher ranking member of a military or military like organization.


    Omo; (Honorific) Lord. As in a higher ranking bureaucrat, such as a Samurai, Daimyo, or king. Used in front of, or in place of, a person¡¯s name to show respect toward that person. Emphasis must be placed on the O, so that the word can not be confused with Amo.

 Chapter 7: Laying the Foundation Stone

    There are many factors to consider when building a house. Climate is a major one. A house built to keep the cold out is ill suited to the more southern regions of Anoria and vice versa. Where does one position the house on their property? How many people will live there? How much maintenance will it receive? What are the materials? Who is the builder? All of these and more must be fully considered, but most of all, why? Why is a house to be built in the first place? Answer these without deceiving yourself and only then you may build.


    - Kuya Tio on Building a Homestead, Kuya Tio¡¯s Guide to a Healthy and Happy Homestead.


    The last couple weeks became a blur of settled routine. I''d have breakfast with Saito and Wei Lin before setting to some task. Once per week it was weeding Saito''s rice paddies with Wei Lin immediately followed by weeding my own by myself. I hauled water for the Yin twins every other day and left with some treat or another every time. Either fresh if Kiyoko was home, or something set aside for me if she wasn''t. Kiyoko was still my favorite person here. Most every day I worked on clearing land for a house as well as the path from the gate to the yard. Once per week we did Militia training and it rained twice. Between all that I manage the water levels of my leaky rice paddy, and I scoured the building section of Kuya Tio¡¯s Guide.


    One of the primary things I needed to consider with my new house was heating. The winters out here were supposed to get colder than I was used to and a source of heat was far more important than any cooling effect for the summer. There were two serious options. An Irori, like the Xiao and Yin households had, or a Mass Heater. Saito had a Mass Heater in his Doma. He swore by it, but while having both was the ideal situation, Saito was the only one I knew that had the room. My house wouldn''t be large. I just didn''t have the money. My plan was to build the main section and add on later if I could find the coin. Both the Irori and the Mass Heater took up room and I also really wanted a Horigotatsu like Saito¡¯s. Both systems had pros and cons. The Mass Heater was the obvious long term winner. It burned a few sticks to heat an area for a long time where the Irori took many trees worth of seasoned wood. However the Mass Heater used a steel burn chamber that was made from the same stuff as high quality Samurai armor. That meant it was damn expensive and while it was shaped like a barrel, no one in a million years would use them to store stuff, so they weren''t readily available. The Mass Heater also had an interior core that degraded with use. It wasn''t a difficult job to fix and the core was one of the cheap parts, but if it went out in the middle of the winter, you''d be shit out of luck. The Irori was at its base, just a fire pit, with all the good and ill of that. I was discussing the pros and cons over dinner with Saito when Wei Lin asked a very pointed question.


    ¡°What did you grow up with?¡±


    I don''t think I''d ever felt so stupid. ¡°A heater. Thank you Ate. That helped a lot.¡± I''m pretty sure I saw Saito wince when I called his daughter Ate. He was a big man, he''ll get over me not wanting to fuck his little girl. Wow! I can''t believe that was an actual thought.


    ***


    It was my first Militia training in the town proper and the village, and likely all the rest of the villages, treated it as an actual drill. The bells started just after breakfast and both Saito and myself ran out the door and jogged to the village to collect our gear. Saito lagged behind a bit as he tried to don his mirror while running. Treating it like an actual drill stopped suddenly as we walked to town at the pace of a Carabao. Turns out it was common for us villagers to hang out in town after training and someone was designated to take the stuff back, hence the cart and Carabao. We formed up on the mustering grounds just outside Sharinzhen. Saito leaned over and said. ¡°One of the Lords is going to come out and inspect us. Just stare blankly into the distance until he says to pay attention. Probably give some pointless speech after that.¡±


    ¡°Does that happen every time?¡±


    ¡°Just the first training of the year.¡±


    Sure enough a man dressed head to foot in full crimson Samurai armor started walking along in front of the line. I worked very hard at not looking at the guy. Best I could tell, he was walking with his hands behind his back and nodding occasionally, possibly at Saito. He wandered back across the line and walked several paces out before turning. He raised a hand into the air and loudly said without shouting. ¡°Eyes on me.¡± He returned his hands to their place behind his back. The guy stood straight and tall, his red armor shining, the curved swords of his station displayed prominently. Our group of villagers by comparison, looked like children playing make believe war.


    ¡°You are not warriors.¡± He said in his loud carrying, but not shouting voice. ¡°You are not soldiers. Your job in an emergency is to follow the orders of your betters and to protect your town and its people. You do not need weapon training for this. You only need obedience. That is all.¡± He bowed and we bowed back. The guy then abruptly turned and started back for Sharinzhen. He didn''t even introduce himself.


    ¡°Very inspirational wasn''t it?¡± Saito asked in a sarcastic tone.


    ¡°Who was he?¡±


    ¡°Lord De Nakada.¡±


    Someone else took the Samurai''s place. This guy shouted. ¡°Sharinzhen zero through three, north side, face south. Sharinzhen four through eight, south side, face north.


    ¡°You''ll enjoy this.¡± Saito remarked as we lined up.


    I stared across the field at a wall of men. This did not seem enjoyable. It seemed terrifying. All those people with spears and shields lined up like an invading force.


    ¡°South side! Receive!¡±


    I swallowed hard as I dropped to a knee, my shield resting on the ground in front of me. My spear placed at an angle and sticking out between mine and Saito¡¯s shields. The guy behind me rested the bottom of his shield on the top of mine.


    ¡°North side! Advance!¡±


    I watched with heavy breath as the other group marched up and, in a rather anticlimactic display of ¡°pretend war¡± they pressed their shields to our spears and poked at our shields with their own spears. That was it?


    The rest of the day went back and forth with various commands I had already learned, but worked much differently in a large group. I could clearly see how a ragtag group of villagers with just a little training could hold against some invading force, at least for a short while. That said, I never want to see it happen. One thing of note that caught me about the whole Militia thing was that not everyone was male. We certainly outnumbered the women, but there were a few standing among the ranks.


    Training was called early and I started my to-do list by looking for food. It was a whole ten minutes into my wandering that I heard my name called and I could physically feel my stomach sink when I noticed the speaker.


    ¡°Hey Yuji!¡± Shinichi hollered in my direction. The man caught up with his voice rather quickly. ¡°Hey. How''s it going?¡±


    ¡°Fine mostly.¡±


    ¡°Yoko says her dad says you work like a dog. Remember to take a break once in a while, okay. I haven''t seen you since you first arrived. How do you like our humble little town?¡±


    ¡°It''s peaceful. Haven''t been impressed with the festivals, but people tell me the Harvest one is the best.¡±


    Shinichi nodded emphatically. ¡°Really the only one you''d regret missing.¡± He put an arm around my shoulders and shook me. ¡°I just got back to town, let''s go for a drink.¡±


    ¡°Um, I''m a bit busy at the moment. Maybe some other time.¡± Or never, I added silently.


    ¡°Ah come on. Just one drink. I''ll buy.¡±


    ¡°I''ve got to pass.¡±


    He spent a few more minutes trying to persuade me to go drinking with him, but inevitably gave up.


    I finally found the place I was looking for. It was a short and wide building with open windows in the front and looked totally different from this side than it did from the back. Two large symbols displayed the name of the building in High Ityean. The first, I did not understand, but the second, I was fairly certain meant place or land. I, like most people, couldn''t actually read High Ityean. Though you do pick up a few words over time. In smaller writing just underneath, it said ¡°Shao¡¯s Place¡±.


    I''d like to say that High Ityean was kind of pointless, but that wasn''t exactly true. Various regions had different words for different things and while Low Ityean focused on spelling the different words, High Ityean characters focused on the meanings. So the words themselves didn''t actually matter. I gave up on my musings of High versus Low Ityean and actually entered the building. The food smelled good, and I certainly could go for a cup of tea. I didn''t have a lot of money to burn on account of having to build a house, pay taxes, and survive the winter, but I figured a once-in-a-month splurge was not exactly breaking the bank, so to speak. Shao¡¯s Place was an odd mix between a tea house and a restaurant; they only had one thing on the menu, and they only served one type of tea, though the combinations seemed to change daily. Today was a dumpling soup, and I wasn''t gonna complain.


    I seated myself at a booth and waited for one of the waitresses in the green and floral print Ao Dai dresses to notice me. I was looking out the front window when one of the girls slid into the booth on the opposite side of me.


    "Hey," I said.


    "Hi," said a woman who was not Kori. I must look surprised because she giggled. She had roughly the same facial structure and wide nose, but her hair, skin, and eyes were a bit lighter in color. I could only guess it must have been Kaori¡¯s older sister.


    "Expecting someone else?" She asked.


    "Yeah, sorry, I thought you were Kaori."


    The woman nodded and held out a hand to shake. "Koko Shao," she said.


    I took the hand, and we clasped wrists for a moment. "Yuji Han."


    "It''s about time I get to meet you Yuji. A¡¯te has said so many things about you."


    "Good things, I hope."


    Koko nodded. "Yes, she''s very happy for the water."


    I sat staring at her completely frozen. When the hell had I helped Kaori with water? Again, I must have looked confused or something because she giggled. The sound was not unlike Kaori¡¯s, but it lacked the snorts.


    "Are you? Ok. Yuji?"


    A new voice got both our attention. "Mom," Kaori said with only the slightest touch of what was possibly panic in her voice.


    "Kaori?" Koko sing-songed.


    Holy shit. That''s Kaori''s mom. Either she was really young when she gave birth to Kaori, or she aged damn well.


    "What are you doing?" Kori practically hissed.


    "I''m getting to know Yuji," replied Koko with a vulpine grin.


    Oh. Oh, she must have been talking about Kiyoko. That''s the only person I haul water for, and that grin is entirely too similar.


    "Are you gonna set the tea down, dear?"


    Kaori seemed to realize she was still holding the tray with a teapot and a couple of cups, she put it down on the table just a little too harshly. "Sorry," Kaori nearly shouted, somewhat flushed. "Did you want the soup?"


    "Yes, please."


    "Ok." Kaori seemed to hesitate as though she didn''t want to leave her mother sitting in the booth with me. Koko giggled again and pushed herself out.Stolen novel; please report.


    "Why don''t you sit down and chat with your friend? I''ll get the soup." Koko wandered off, leaving Kaori to look like she was lost. She turned back to me, ears down against her head.


    "Ah, hi." It was my turn to giggle.


    "Are you gonna sit?"


    "Yeah, sure." Kaori pushed herself into the booth across from me in the same spot her mother had vacated and drummed on the table with her fingers for a moment before meeting my eyes. "So, what brings you to town?"


    "Mandatory Militia training. I''ve also got some errands to run. I need to talk to the blacksmith and find a carpenter."


    "Oh, what do you need a carpenter for?"


    "Because I have no idea how to build a house."


    ¡°Oh."


    "Are you ok?" I had to ask. She looked entirely too nervous.


    "Yeah, it''s just my mom is, uh..." She didn''t seem to be able to find the correct word and just kind of shrugged. "She''s gonna tease the hell out of me for this."


    "For what?"


    "You showed up, and I''ve mentioned you, so literally nothing, but she''s gonna make everything out of it."


    "Uh, yes. Mother¡¯s. I think I get what you mean."


    "My mom is..."


    I cut Kaori off by giving a very pointed look behind her. She froze.


    "Your mother is... what, dear?" Said the woman in question, her toothy grin spreading across her face. Koko stared at her daughter for just a few moments too long before setting a bowl of soup, and some dumplings down. "Please enjoy your meal, sir." She then turned her head completely to Kaori so I couldn''t see her face and must have done something because Kaori turned red. "Enjoy your break, dear." She sing-songed again before abruptly turning and leaving.


    The soup was good, the dumplings were good, the tea was good, and Kaori''s mother was absent enough for Kaori to calm down, and we fell back into the rhythm of polite and sometimes teasing conversation with minor spurts of giggles and snorting. All in all, it was a pleasant experience and almost made up for the pain in the rear end that was the rest of my day.


    The Blacksmith didn''t have the appropriate skill or tools that make the steel drum for the mass heater. Fortunately, the pieces could be ordered through the local tradehouse and came in standard sizes. That was a bit of an annoyance, but not necessarily a problem. The carpenters, on the other hand, were a serious issue. I started out talking to the one group Saito had suggested, but they were confident that they were booked out until next spring. That was mildly horrifying, but they did suggest another carpenter group in town. I thought it was kind of nice that they would recommend their competition. However, when I arrived there, they were also booked out until at least fall. They helpfully suggested their competitor, which were the guys who sent me to them. It was a long, nerve-wracking walk home to Sharinzhen-4.


    I did chance upon Saito as he was leaving the patriarch''s house, and that conversation went very quickly from, "Hey, how you doing?" to me lamenting the problem of all the carpenter groups being busy. He then looked like he was deciding whether or not to say something to me, tilting his head and sucking air through his teeth as if whatever he was going to say was painful.


    "Well, there is Nakamura."


    "Oh?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Nakamura in Sharinzhen-6. His eldest left after a falling out, and since then he''s hurt his back so he doesn''t actually do much work anymore. At least not the actual building, but his youngest does most of the physical labor. A single person can''t build a house, but I suppose you''d be willing to help. That would reduce the cost."


    "Well, that sounds pretty good. So what''s the problem?" I asked because there had to be some reason Saito was not interested in telling me about this guy in the beginning.


    Saito shrugged. "Nothing specifically, just didn¡¯t want to bring up, you know? You''ll get it when you''re older."


    I gave Saito a glare. That was the same infuriating response my father used to give me. He responded with a sheepish grin, and then replied with, "At least you might still get a house this year."


    Sharinzhen-6 was a bit more forested than four. I felt awkward walking into another village with everyone staring at me and looking for Nakamura. I was pointed to a plot in the back with a very handsome gateway. It was easily twice the size of mine, considerably wider, and lacquered a nice red color. Though, to be fair, mine was falling over, literally everyone had a nicer gate than mine. That was another thing I was gonna have to fix.


    The house was a classical farmhouse, but unlike the others, this one had a very large workshop off to one side with large barn doors that were wide open, showing off several logs that were on stands and an old man hunched over one of them with some tool that was stripping off slight shavings from the log. He was a Akumajin, a race that had a tail that was spaded and horns that, unlike Oni-Kai and Oni-Sen, tended to vary differently between individuals. His skin had a bit of a gray complexion, and his eyes were bright red. He straightened with a grunt as I approached the shop and gave a friendly wave as he leaned on the log he had been working on.


    "Morning," said the Akumajin.


    "Morning," I replied once I was close enough to not feel like I had to shout. I added, "I''m looking for a carpenter."


    The old man grinned. "Well, you found a carpenter. What are you looking to have done?"


    ¡°I need a house built.¡±


    He frowned. ¡°Can''t say that I can build a house. My back ain''t what it used to be.


    To be fair, that''s kind of what I was expecting him to say, or at least something along those lines. ¡°My back works fine. I just don''t know how to build a house.¡±


    ¡°So what you''re telling me boy, is that you want help building a house?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I guess so.¡±


    ¡°You guess or you know?¡±


    ¡°Well, I know my funds are limited. So I had expected to do as much work as possible myself. So I guess I know. Yes, I want help building a house.¡±


    The old man gave me the same appraising look Saito used to gave me and nodded mostly to himself before extending an arm.


    ¡°Hiroshi Nakamoto.¡±


    I grabbed his wrist and we shook once, ¡°Yuji Han.¡±


    ¡°Han? Any relation to Lo Bao Han?¡±


    ¡°That was my uncle.¡±


    ¡°Ah, good kid that one. How is he doing?¡±


    ¡°Um, he''s dead. He, uh, let the King die¡±


    ¡°Oh, oh, that was our Han?¡±


    ¡°Ah, yeah.¡±


    ¡°Ok boy, so you''re looking to build a house, what exactly did you have in mind?¡±


    ¡°I''m honestly not sure. I know I want a Horigotatsu and a Mass Heater. Something small that I can expand on later I think.¡±


    ¡°Humph.¡± He humped. ¡°Pretty open ended, isn''t it?¡±


    At about this time, my eyes adjusted to the darkness of the building. The wall that connected to the house was covered in different types of tools. Several workbenches were strewn about in the various corners, and several of the logs that the old man had been working on had very intricate notches carved into them. The floor was covered in wood shavings, and there were more doors in the back that revealed covered piles of neatly stacked logs. The smell of various cut lumbers sat in the air like a heavy mist and had been the only thing I had truly noticed when I walked in beyond the man in front of me.


    ¡°I guess I need help figuring out a design first, huh?"


    "Yeah, I suppose you do, boy. I''ll send my kid out to your place in three days. Kid''s busy with a few projects. Should be done by then. Get a look at the land and figure out what it is you want. Then we can start working on something. Sound good?"


    "Sounds great."


    We spent a few more minutes working out the details of how to find my property and I said my goodbyes. It was a rather long walk home, but with nothing else on the agenda, I figured I''d clear out a little bit more where I planned to put the house.


    My leaky rice paddy was a pain in the rear end. While Saito checked the water level of his patties once a month to once every two weeks in the summer, I was screwing around with this thing pretty much every other day. Breakfast had been weird and Saito hadn''t even been there, but every time Shinichi got back from wherever it was that he went, he went out drinking and then often beat poor Yoko. So while I generally did not like dealing with my leaky rice paddy, it did mean I was not stuck in an awkward situation at the Xiao household. To be fair, I was only using it as an excuse and didn¡¯t actually work on fixing the problem until much later.


    Of course, the world as a whole is a fickle thing and as I traced the pipe from my leaky paddy to the stream, I came across a swearing and grumbling in the woods that honestly could have only been Saito. I could just leave well enough alone and continue my work, but it was Saito; and so I marched off into the woods towards the sound, making sure to say, "Hello?" Loud enough to be heard before I got there so I didn''t actually startle the man. I met my neighbor in a small cleared-out area not too far from where his pipe ran up to the stream. He was leaning on a shovel with a sour look on his face and waiting for me to finish shoving my way through the brush.


    "You okay?" I asked practically before I got into the actual clearing.


    "My hell''s cursed, useless, piece of shit son-in-law is the most worthless, wretched, waste of flesh I''ve ever had the misfortune to know, and there''s not a day in my life I don''t regret blessing my daughter''s marriage."


    I froze, literally struck speechless as Saito continued to let out a string of pointed obscenities that I didn''t know the man was actually capable of, and when he finished, my only reply was a dumb, "Uh?"


    He took a deep breath and leaned more heavily on his shovel. "I asked Shinichi to come by this morning and help me take down a tree. He never showed up. The barest hint of a tiny bit of actual work and he runs off to the spirits only know wheres."


    "Did you, uh, want my help?"


    Saito shook his head. "Not today. I''m not in the mood anymore. Maybe tomorrow."


    "Sure," I briefly considered asking if Yoko was okay, but Saito was already upset enough, and I didn''t want to trigger any more issues. "See you tomorrow, then?"


    Again, Saito just shrugged in reply. He turned and walked further into his own property, cursing under his breath. I briefly wondered why he was out here with a shovel. Regardless of whatever he was up to, I had my own work to do.


    After a slightly strained breakfast at the Xiao household, Saito and I went out to take care of his tree. I could hear from the sound of the baby and the young child that Yoko was in the house, but she didn''t join us for the meal. Wei Lin was quiet as well and said practically nothing, her head down the entire time. The whole thing was a somber affair and apart from some basic instructions by Saito, we worked on taking down the large tree in utter silence.


    Saito had cleared the entire area around the tree, removing all brush and even raking away the leaves and other detritus that might cause a tripping hazard for when the tree came down. I didn''t know why it needed to come down and I was still hesitant to ask Saito anything while he was in his foul mood. So we worked in an awkward silence, and he told me I should get back to work on my own property once the tree had been felled. I did so and worked most of the day cutting down more trees, moving stuff out of the way, and mostly just trying to get ready for the carpenter to come talk to me about my house. I went back over to the Xiao household for dinner as per usual, where things got a little more tense.


    Yoko was not in good shape. She had one black eye, her lips swollen to the point of splitting. She was limping badly and occasionally winced in pain when she moved her arm the wrong way. Seeing her left a horrific knot in my stomach. This was just wrong. Not legally wrong; she was married to Shinichi, and therefore he could pretty much do whatever he wanted to her short of murder, but it was certainly morally wrong. The little boy clung to her side as if for emotional support, while the baby just ate, slept, and cried as babies do. She didn''t move fast, and Wei Lin was in a bit of a tizzy trying to make her sister as comfortable as possible. Saito sat at the head of the table, mouth pressed into a grim line and staring off into the space between him and the dumplings. It was a quiet, somber, and awkward meal and I was quite glad to have it interrupted by a knock at Saito''s door, followed by the voice of an old man saying, "Xiao, are you home?" Saito got up and left the three of us plus children at the table. The door was behind me, so I didn''t see the person who entered before the voice came again. ¡°Ah, Han, there you are.¡±


    I turned to find Meng Su following behind Saito. I gave him the best bow I could while sitting at the Horigotatsu. ¡°Po.¡±


    ¡°Sorry to interrupt your meal Xiao, but I have some questions for Yuji and I¡¯d like to ask them with the others around on the chance I need to ask anyone else some follow up.¡±


    Saito returned to his spot at the table and gave the patriarch a small bow. "That is fine. Please sit. Would you like to join us?" The patriarch shambled over towards the Horigotatsu and took a seat at the table. "No, no, thank you. That''s fine. Just a few questions. I''ll leave you to your meal."


    Saito poured the patriarch a cup of tea regardless, and the old man gave him a nod and took a sip before turning to me. "So, you were seen speaking to Shinichi a few days ago. Yes?"


    My gaze instinctively went to Yoko who had her face down, staring at the table. I didn''t think this was the sort of thing that should be talked about in front of her, but Saito gave me a nod when I looked his way, and I returned my attention back to the patriarch. ¡°Yeah, I ran into him just after Militia training.¡±


    ¡°Have you spoken to him since?¡±


    I shook my head. ¡°No, I haven''t.¡±


    ¡°What did you talk about?¡±


    "Uh, well, he kind of good-naturedly teased me about working too much, told me I needed to take a break once in a while, and invited me out to drink, which I politely declined. I was a bit busy."


    Meng Su nodded along with my explanation. "Do you know where he went after that?"


    ¡°No, I assume he went drinking. A bar or something."


    "And you haven''t seen or heard from him since, right?"


    I shook my head. "No, I haven''t."


    "And nobody else has mentioned anything about Shinichi, where he''s gone, or what happened to him?"


    I gave a slight upward nod to Saito. "Not other than Saito being a bit upset. He never showed up for an appointment to help fell a tree. That''s it."


    The patriarch looked towards Saito and gave him a nod. "Yes, I''ve already spoken to him about that." He looked at the rest of the table. "Has anyone else heard anything?"


    Wei Lin voiced the word "no," but everybody else just solemnly shook their heads, including the little boy, but I wasn''t sure he was actually old enough to understand the question.


    Meng Su took a deep breath in and let it out. "Alrighty. Well, I''ll stop interrupting you and let you get back to your dinner. Thank you for the tea, Saito." He took another sip of tea, bowed his head to Yoko, and then got up with a groan. Saito saw him out.


    I had thought to ask the patriarch why he was asking these questions, as it seemed like something horrible must have happened. I watched Yoko, who merely picked at her food, and the image of Saito standing alone in the woods with a shovel, the ground under his feet freshly disturbed, seemed to smack me in the face like someone swung the shovel at my head. Holy fuck.


    Saito retook his spot at the head of the table, and my gaze shifted towards him. His eyes narrowed slightly, and I wondered if he knew what I was thinking. It was hard to think of Saito as a person who could possibly kill someone, but with another glance at Yoko, it was also hard to think that Saito was the kind of person who could just sit around and do nothing while his daughter was continually abused. My gaze swept back to Saito, who was still staring at me, and I figured I had to come up with some way to break the tension. Glancing back down at the table, I reached out and plucked up another dumpling. "Who made the dumplings?" I asked, trying to keep my voice neutral, though I''m almost certain it cracked a little.


    "Yoko did," Wei lin said. She wasn''t looking, but I gave a nod in her direction. "Please don''t tell my mother, but these are possibly the best dumplings I''ve ever had."


    Yoko made a vague grunt noise that seemed to be approval, and I focused on putting food in my mouth without actually tasting it. At some point, Saito went back to his own food, and the knot in my stomach untightened slightly. Holy fucking hells.

 Chapter 8: All the Little Cogs

    A single person is not worth much. He may be able to feed himself, may be able to cloth himself, may be able to shelter himself, and may be to protect himself. A group of people, whether that be a handful or an empire''s worth, can do much more than the sum total of any individual. A village feeds a city. A farmer, a Carter, and a seamstress clothes a town. A lumberjack, a sawman, and a carpenter build houses and buildings. A Militia holds back the tide of destruction. And then a noble or lord takes all the credit. What can you do?


    - Kuya Tio on Community, Kuya Tio¡¯s Guide to a Healthy and Happy Homestead.


    It was mid-morning when I heard a voice I didn''t recognize. I hadn''t caught what they said, but couldn''t imagine it being anything other than ¡°hello.¡± Walking down my crooked path was an Akumajin that at first I thought was possibly Hiroshi''s son, but as they came closer, I realized it was a girl. She wore a tight sleeveless shirt, pants, and a slightly sun-worn smile. Her core muscles were well-defined and her arms were larger than mine. While she stood slightly shorter, she looked like she could beat the shit out of me.


    "You Yuji?" She asked with a nod of her head, her face set in a half grin.


    "Uh, yeah," I sounded just as confused as I felt. Come to think of it, Hiroshi and even Saito had never actually mentioned whether or not Nakamura''s kid was male or female. The idea of a female carpenter however, was a bit odd.


    "You need a house built, right?" She asked.


    "Uh, yeah."


    Her grin widened slightly, and I got the feeling she was enjoying this. She nodded past me with her chin and asked, "What''s that supposed to be?"


    I turned to look at what she was pointing out, but only saw the chicken coop I had been sleeping in. "Um, chicken coop?"


    "Oh, is that what that''s supposed to be?"


    This bitch. What the hell?


    "You weren''t expecting a girl, were you?"


    "Ah, no."


    "Well, as far as I know, you need a house. Do you have a problem with a girl building it?"


    I felt like this was a trap question, but honestly, I didn''t have any answer other than, "No."


    She chuckled. "You sound unsure."


    "I don''t have a problem with it."


    She cocked an eyebrow, her grin never fading. "Oh, you still don''t sound sure."


    "Uh."


    "I''m just messing with you, okay." She held an arm out to shake, and I took it. Her hands were a bit calloused, and her grip was possibly stronger than mine. ¡°Lia Nakamura.¡±


    ¡°Yuji Han.¡±


    She let go of my wrist and stepped up towards my side to face the same direction I was.


    "Ok, Yuji. What did you have in mind?"


    "I''m not really sure. I honestly can''t afford a traditional farmhouse at the moment. I''ve also never lived in a traditional farmhouse, so I couldn''t say if I would actually prefer it. I was thinking, something a bit smaller that I could expand on later?"


    Lia nodded along with each point I made. "Not a bad option. Where do you wanna put it?"


    "I was clearing a spot over by the trees there."


    She looked where I was pointing and shook her head. "Kind of a terrible spot."


    "Why?"


    "Well, it''s on the southmost side of the property against the trees. So in the winter, you''re not gonna get any sun on it, which means you''re gonna rely more on heating. In the summer, you might get a bit of shade, but it''s not particularly good for cooling either. Though, I suppose we could make that work by putting more openings in the rear. You''re gonna want the garden close to your house." She motioned towards my garden. "And it''s not, and you can''t see who''s coming. On that note, you should probably repair your gate before it falls on somebody."


    "Yeah, that''s on my to-do list. So you''re saying I should move the location of where my house goes?"


    "Maybe, maybe not. You said you couldn''t afford a farmhouse, there''s always the possibility you might be able to afford one later in the future. So, building a house right where you would want to put a farmhouse would mean you''d have to tear it down. So if you stuck a small place over in that spot," she again motioned over to the spot I had prepared. "You could use it as a guest house or a bunkhouse for workers later on if you wanted."


    "Huh? Ok. I''ll have to think about that."


    "So, what kind of features did you like?"


    "Well, I definitely want a Doma and, uh, Horigotatsu."


    She nodded her head in approval. "What about a heating system?"


    "Uh, mass heater with a regular heater for backup."


    She nodded to herself again. "Yes, that would probably be quite nice. So, no Irori?"


    "I don''t think so. No."


    "What did you grow up in?"


    "Uh, basic tenement."


    "Ah," she said as if that explained everything. "Well, if you''re comfortable with that, we could essentially build something that''s a little deeper than a basic tenement. You could save up your money, and if you wanted to expand, you could essentially just increase the width or start on a farmhouse. Mass heater would do the heating job no problem and that certainly would be cheaper."


    "So that''s a good idea?"


    She shrugged again. I honestly found her broad shoulders kind of intriguing. They were well defined, but still soft. "It depends on how you feel. It''s your house; you have to live in it."


    That was a very good point. I had absolutely no problems with the tenement, and I really didn''t know much about the actual farmhouse. Maybe if I spent more time in Saito''s place, I''d have the gist of it. "How much cheaper would the tenement cost?"


    "Easily a fraction of a farmhouse. The rough structure alone is much simpler. You''re gonna be doing some of the work. Yeah?"


    "I hope so. I need to save money and it''s not like I''m doing anything else other than tending the garden and the rice paddies right now."


    "Okay. I''ll run some numbers and make some sketches. I''ll talk to you in two days."


    "That works for me."


    "Oh, and about your gate. If you''re interested, I can basically bring you a new one, and we can get that replaced sooner rather than later."


    "I am not opposed to that."


    "Good, it''s honestly rather concerning."


    A couple of days later, Lia showed up with a Carabao-pulled cart that held everything needed to replace my broken gateway. She also had plans for several different options of housing, and I honestly wasn''t upset with any of them. We worked together for the afternoon while discussing schedules and payment. She gave me a list of things I should try to accomplish before we were ready to actually start building, one of which was to widen my narrow passage from my gate to my actual property site so that she could get the carts of lumber in. We both had to deal with Militia training as she was one of the other girls I had seen on the field, and I had some duties in the village tending to the rice paddies. It sounded like she was gonna be giving me a list of things to do and letting me deal with the simple grunt labor while she only came by to do the actual construction things that I had no clue how to accomplish. That made a lot of sense to me, and it was gonna save me a buttload of money. When she left that day, I had a new gateway, a bit less money, and certainly a new appreciation for the woman herself. I watched her spaded tail sway as she walked off tugging at the Carabao leads. Originally, I felt a bit weird and possibly even intimidated by the muscular woman. but as she wandered off back home, I think I''m kind of into it. Lia is fun, cheery, and has a light, consistently teasing tone that makes her a joy to be around and talk to. It''s not exactly like hanging out with one of the guys and also not exactly like hanging out with some demure girl. Honestly, it kind of reminded me of Kaori a bit. I shook my head and headed back to my property. I had a lot of work to do, and thinking about tight muscular women had better wait until after dinner.


    ***


    Noodles?" Wei Lin asked as she came out from the trail that connected my property to Xiao''s.


    "Hells, yeah," Lia practically yelled as she jumped off the joist we had been working on and headed over to the table.


    The table had technically been a suggestion by one of the Yin twins. I don''t remember which one. Despite the rickety construction because my construction skills suck, it was quickly becoming one of my favorite spots. Just a couple of boards laid out over a few stumps and some rickety benches. Wei Lin set the large bowl on the table along with the smaller bowls for us to use and said she''d be right back with tea. My guess is Saito was forcing her to cook for us, still with some vain hope that I would find her to be perfect wife material and court the girl. However, now she was also feeding Lia.


    "Oh, you gonna join us this time?" Lia asked with a wide grin.


    Wei Lin froze in consideration. "I guess?"


    "Great," Lia exclaimed while Wei Lin wandered back down the path. "You have the best neighbors."


    I had to agree to that. I honestly had no idea where I would be without Saito, and by extension, Wei Lin. We got cleaned up as we waited for Wei Lin to come back with tea, and I sat down at the table on my rickety benches. I sat across from Lia, and Wei Lin sat to my left.


    "Oh, yesterday''s food was absolutely delicious. I loved every bite," Lia enthused to Wei Lin. "And you should sit with us more often."


    My attention returned back to the house we''ve been working on while the girls chatted about food. The first day working on the place had been rather odd. We spent a lot of time trying to place large rocks. Lia had a few sticks that were a specific size and fit together in a way that created a perfect triangle. She used this to place the rocks, and we spent a lot of time digging and tamping down the dirt to get them in the right spots. After that, I had to hold up posts while she marked things. Then she went out cutting the bottoms of them while I cleared more brush. Once she had accomplished all the posts that sat on top of rocks, we mounted a line, and she drew and wrote on each of the posts, then put them back in the cart and took them home with her.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    The posts came back several days later, notched in very specific ways with various holes and cuts in them. It made absolutely no sense to me until we actually started assembling it. It was really just a lot of her yelling at me to hold things in one spot or another while she beat it with a wooden mallet. At the end of the day, we had a structure. Not really a house per se, just like the bare skeleton of one.


    Today''s goal had been fitting in the floor joists, which are the boards that hold up the floor. I can''t even quite describe it correctly. The one thing that truly gets me is so far we haven''t used a single nail. We''d shove one board through a post, shove another board, notched specifically so they could go through both boards and the post. Then once everything was tight, Lia would take a drill, make a hole, then shove a dowel into it that was split on both ends, stick a wedge in both splits, and then cut the whole thing flush. The whole structure seemed pretty sturdy and it made me feel like I really screwed up on my chicken coop as well as the bench I was sitting on.


    "Sounds good to me." Everything you''ve made so far has been delicious," Lia said before turning to me.


    "What do you think?" I stared at her with a blank expression, having missed the whole conversation.


    "Actually, it''s my sister Yoko who''s good at making the dumplings," Wei Lin said.


    "Oh, you have a sister?"


    It seemed strange to me that anyone would not know that Wei Lin had a sister, as most people in Sharinzhen proper were well aware of how Shinichi treated his wife. Then again, Lia is from Sharinzhen-6, and she possibly didn''t spend a lot of time listening to gossip.


    I spent the rest of the lunch trying to figure out what they were talking about. It really just seemed like Lia liked food. I suppose if I wanted to woo her, I''d have to learn how to cook. That thought caught me. Lia didn''t do much construction because she was one person. Her father didn''t have the back for lifting anymore, but most of the construction stuff just seemed to be holding stuff in place while the other person did things. Her and I were doing just fine building this house, and if we got together, we could probably run an actual carpentry business. She would be the brains of the operation, and I¡¯d just be the big, dumb one, holding stuff in place and I guess cooking the meals. I''d have to get better at cooking though.


    To be honest, I was still a little up in the air about whether or not I liked the fact that she was so muscular. At the same time, I had a hard time keeping my eyes off her butt and thighs. Other than food, I wondered what else she liked.


    The next day''s work threw me for just as much of a loop as the stones and odd cuts on the bottom of posts. Today, she showed up with a lot of planks. She showed me how to tie three of them together to form a triangular tube. Then we started a fire. She put the planks over the fire and told me to watch the color of the smoke and to speak up when I noticed the change. I did not notice a change.


    "There you see, the color of the smoke changed?"


    "Not really," I replied honestly.


    "Do it enough times, and you''ll get it. What happened is the fire ran out of uncharged wood to burn. Give it a couple more minutes and then take it off the fire." She pulled it out of the little fire, opened up the tube revealing blackened wood which was still on fire, then laid it on the ground to smother it out.


    "Ok. Your turn." She watched me as I watched the wood.


    "Did you see it this time?"


    "Um, maybe."


    "Well, give it a few minutes and then put it out."


    Once she was satisfied I was getting the gist of it, she left me to burn planks while she went back home to get more. Each one was long and thin, and on each end of the long sides, a groove had been carved away on opposite sides of each plank. I honestly had no idea what we were doing.


    "Why are we doing this?" I asked when Lia returned with more wood.


    "It''s for weather-proofing the wood. Once you''re done burning it, you''ll brush off the excess soot and then oil it."


    "Oh." I had seen the blackened lacquered wood on a lot of buildings. It had never occurred to me that they burnt it like that. ¡°And you can just do this to wood?¡±


    "This is cedar. Cedar works best. You can do it to other woods, but it''s best to do it with cedar," she replied. "All right. Here''s the brush and there''s the oil. Make sure you wait until everything is completely cooled off before you actually start brushing. And especially before you start oiling. I''ll see you in a couple of days," and then she left.


    This was obviously what I had signed up for, as I wanted to do most of the grunt work myself to save money and this did qualify as grunt work. Still, I was kind of sad to see her leave. I really enjoyed her company. While I was still up in the air on her physical appearance, I really enjoyed her wit and enthusiasm over Wei Lin''s cooking.


    Finally, we were using nails. The planks that had been charred, brushed off, and oiled were now being fit into place along the walls. There were a couple of studs that they were being pressed against, and I would hold a plank up while Lia drilled a small hole where the plank tab met the stud, and then she''d pound in a single nail. It was about four nails per plank. On each subsequent plank, that little notched tab would match up with the other notched tab, completely covering the nail we had just put in. While it took time to drill each hole and put in each nail, the walls themselves went up fairly quickly and in a single day, we had all four walls boarded up. I still wasn''t sure we had used more nails than my damn chicken coop.


    Once all the planks were put up, we put up a second baton that went over the planks with another drilled hole and another nail. What was supposed to happen is that the nails would eventually rust and cause the boards to rot. All I would have to do is remove the baton, replace the planks, and put the baton back on, and it wouldn''t affect any of the rest of the structure.


    The next day, we were at the top of the wall pounding in the top plate which held it all together. I found this a bit perplexing as it already seemed to be completely holding together, but Lia was the carpenter, not me. I was holding one of the top plates in place and staring out at my terribly done chicken coop while Lia was on her side of the board, tapping the top plate into its little grooves connecting to all the other pieces with her wooden mallet. It was rather hot today, and my shirt was sticking to my skin, and sweat poured down my forehead despite the fact that I wasn''t actually doing much physical labor. Lia''s shirt was sticking to her quite well, and I had been quite enjoying the sight, but there was something else that was vying for my attention. A slight distant ringing seemed to echo down the roadway from the village.


    Lia stopped tapping on her boards and listened as well. I hadn''t quite placed the sound when she swore and scrambled down the ladder, dropping her mallet on the floor and jumping off the house. Only as she was booking it past my yard and down my walkway to the road did I realize that was the alarm bell? But we didn''t have training today. What the hells? I scrambled down the ladder, dropping my own mallet, and stumbled off the deck to follow behind Lia. She was already passing the gate and turning left as I made my way down the trail to the road. In the distance came a rider on a horse who slowed down to stop to talk to Lia as I attempted to catch up. I looked down Saito''s passage, but didn''t see him coming yet. I kept running until I met up with the horseman who had finished with Lia and was riding towards me.


    "Get your shit and report to the mustering fields in Sharinzhen proper," he said, then tore off down the road toward Xiao, who was just now coming around his corner, armor already doned, and the same spear I had first met him with held in his hands. Somehow that made this whole thing more real. I didn''t wait for Saito, just ran to the armory where we were being handed out shields and actual spears. If seeing Saito with his spear didn''t make this more real, that certainly did.


    "What''s going on?" I asked.


    Chao just shrugged and said, "No idea. I just know that we''re supposed to go to Sharinzhen proper."


    We ended up heading to Sharinzhen proper in two groups, those of us who had gotten there quicker, and those of us who had gotten there later. I assumed Saito was in the latter part because I didn''t see him, and he would have been weighed down with the armor. We sort of half-jogged, half-fast-walked to town. It was the fastest I''ve ever made it to town, but Wu didn''t want us completely exhausting ourselves before we got there.


    Once we arrived, along with the guys from Sharinzhen-3, we were pushed off to one side and told to wait for the rest of our village to show up. We stood in formation until we were all together. Then the guy came back and asked, "You understand how a holler line works?"


    I had no idea. I was not looking forward to being the guy who said no. When another guy from Sharinzhen-3 piped in, "Not really."


    The guy nodded and said, "Okay, here''s how this goes. I yell at you some instructions, you turn your head and yell at the next guy the instructions and so on and so forth. We''re going down the line. Here we go." He then took a great big deep breath and said, "Proceed forward ten paces."


    The first guy in line after him turned his head and repeated it. The guy after him repeated it. The guy after him repeated it. In theory, I understood the practice, but usually when you got multiple people yelling the same thing down a line, the message would change. It didn''t seem like an ideal situation.


    "Ok? You guys got it. Start heading to Sharinzhen-6, halfway there you''ll meet a guy who will put you staggered out along the road. Go now."


    I still had no damn idea what we were doing, beyond the slight orders that we had gotten and didn''t really seem to have time to ask, as well as no one really seemed to have time to answer. When we made it halfway to Sharinzhen-6, we were collected by another guy who led us the rest of the way down, dropping one of us off at a specific distance so that we could all see each other and were in yelling range.


    And that''s how I spent most of the rest of my day. Standing in one spot on the road in the sweltering heat, holding a spear and a shield. A couple of hours later, I still had no damn idea what we were doing. Neither did either of the guys down the road from me. At some point, a guy on a horse came riding down the line telling each one of us that we were to wait for a horn blow and then start wandering into the woods for about ten minutes while trying to keep the guy to either side of us in sight. Once the horn blew again, we were to stop.


    It was almost another hour before the horn blew and it was about ten minutes before the horn blew again. I could just barely see the guy to the right of me and couldn''t see anybody to the left. Roughly thirty minutes later, I heard the horn blow again. I had no idea if I was supposed to start moving again or not. I looked to the guy to the right of me and he just sort of shrugged. I shrugged back. A couple of minutes later, the horn blew again. This proceeded until the yelling started.


    The message was either "dohn¡¯ moo" or "hove too," and I had to freeze when it got to me. Logically speaking, nobody here should know what "hove too" meant. So, I shouted, "don¡¯ moo" down the line, and it kept going. Seems like the message rebounded back because it was "don''t move" this time, and as I shouted down the line, I could hear it get screwed up as it went. This was really an inefficient way to spread information.


    For the next hour or so, I listened to the horns in the distance blow, each one getting increasingly closer until somebody came running down the line, seemingly just to verify where each person was. He didn''t know what was going on other than his orders to just make sure there was an unbroken line behind him. After him, came a group of people with a guy dropping people in between each of us. Now, I had a guy I could see closer to me on both sides. We were just standing out here, hot, sweaty, and very thirsty, not to mention hungry, confused, and annoyed. Again, the horn blew, and again, we all just stood there and waited because we didn''t know if we were supposed to be moving or not. This continued until we had a larger group of people come by, and then I was being led down the trails and placed in between somebody else. This time, I was actually close enough to have a conversation without yelling.


    "Do you know what''s going on?" he asked me, beating me to the punch.


    "No, I was gonna ask you the same thing."


    ¡°Best guess is we''re looking for someone or something. Seems kind of like we''re driving who or whatever it is into a smaller location, but that''s just a guess.¡± He said with a shrug.


    We made small talk until word came up the line that when we heard the horn blast, we were supposed to move forward again. This time, it was easier to keep the message straight because it could be heard for a long distance and it got clearer every time it got closer.


    The horn made its droning noise and we moved forward until the horn made its droning noise again. Then we stopped. I assumed everyone got repositioned again, and we did this three more times. At this point, the line was starting to get crowded, and we were considerably closer to the town proper.


    Someone finally came down the line, shouting that at the next horn blast, we should all start moving towards town at a leisurely walk and that if we hear three rapid horn blasts, we should move towards it as quickly as possible. Somewhere between thirty minutes and an hour later, the horn blast sounded, and we all started moving. A good fifteen minutes after that came the sound of the three sharp blats from towards town. A dead run wasn''t really possible, so we all seemed to make do with a quick trot. I was panting heavily and drenched in sweat. Once I broke from the forest and into the rice fields, I saw a large cluster of people that had made it there before me, behind them, the town Sharinzhen proper. Nobody really seemed concerned about anything, and I was wondering if maybe this wasn''t just some type of elaborate training scenario.


    That thought was crushed when I fell into a forming rank not far from the main crowd, a large mound that I had mistaken for a pile of dry reeds or something resolved itself to be the body of an enormous boar. Scores of arrows and a half dozen spears jutting out of the body made it look like a giant porcupine. The red-armored samurai, whose name I could not remember, stood by the beast, posing with one leg up on its head and his helmet tucked under one arm, while a scholarly-looking man held a piece of paper between the samurai Lord and another guy in a robe who was gesticulating wildly. At some point, I realized it was a mage who was creating some type of scene capture of the samurai.


    Was this whole exercise the Lord''s idea of a hunting trip? Or was the boar actually a threat? The thing was freaking huge, and boars had a tendency to be mean bastards, but couldn¡¯t we have just chased it off into the forest? Did we actually have to kill it? I stood in line in the sweltering sun, wondering if we had just done the town a service or merely aided in the samurai''s entertainment. Two stretchers were carried away, one of which had a sheet covering an unmoving body. This whole thing had at least one casualty.


    The samurai Lord, through having his image captured, approached the rank and file of us lowly Militia people. He stopped several paces in front of us with a great grin on his face and bowed slightly before yelling, "Thank you for your service. You may return home." And that was it.


    I wandered home, hot, thirsty, hungry, and chafing. After returning my spear and shield and making my way back to my unfinished house, I decided to take the rest of the day off. The stream above my house was still cold, and honestly, that sounded nice at this point in time. It was a weird feeling. I felt very much like a cog in a machine and not a particularly well-put-together machine.

 Chapter 9: Finishing Touches

    Kill not the goose that lays the golden egg. It''s an old saying and it warns of causing yourself more problems later on to accomplish something frivolous now. The problem is that we almost never realize that we are doing it in the moment, but it¡¯s always obvious in hindsight. My advice for dealing with this phenomenon, just roll with it.


    - Kuya Tio on Enjoying Life, Kuya Tio¡¯s Guide to a Healthy and Happy Homestead.


    The next week seemed to progress rather slowly. I spent a lot of time hammering at the floor of my Doma with a flat iron bit connected to a shovel handle. I had always assumed that the flat dirt floor of the Doma was simply packed in by having been walked on a whole lot. It never occurred to me that there was a tool. The only other thing of note as far as the inside went was framing out the hole for the Horigotatsu and filling in the hole for the mass heater with sand, various-sized rocks, bricks, and the clay tubes. The outside, on the other hand, left me with a giant pile of reeds that I was to bunch up in specific size bundles and tie off. There were a lot of reeds.


    Eventually, Lia returned, and we started framing up the roof pitch. I don''t really know if pitch is the correct word to use; that just meant the angle of the roof. So maybe the roof frame? The point was there were certain timbers that slotted into everything else that had been placed already. It really didn''t take all that long. I''m honestly surprised at just how much of this building had been crafted in Hiroshi''s workshop prior to assembly. All we were doing was fitting it together.


    Several lengths of bamboo poles made a lattice work, and we eventually began the long task of hauling up the reed bundles and tying them into place. Yes, I said tying. They go over certain bamboo poles in the lattice work and under others, and then they get tied in. All the reeds tend to just overlap each other. And apparently, one of the drawbacks to not having an Irori to constantly smoke out the reeds was that you had to periodically set up a fire in your doma to season the reeds and get rid of the rodents. When I had lived in the city, the roofs had all been made of tiles to prevent fire from spreading, though, I suppose that really wasn''t an issue way out here. The top, or peek, of the roof was capped with a wooden structure that was again, prebuilt and assembled on site. It was fascinating.


    "Hell''s, that''s good," Lia said, her mouth still half full of dumpling. "Have you considered starting a restaurant?"


    "No, it''s not that good," Wei Lin replied before pointing out, "And it''s my sister that makes the dumplings, not me."


    "Well, then maybe your sister should start a restaurant," Lia suggested. It was a very average day with average conversation about the food, and Wei Lin, as usual, looked a bit uncomfortable about getting so much praise.


    "Are you almost done?" Wei Lin asked, likely in an attempt to change the subject, though she didn''t seem completely certain who she was supposed to be asking.


    I looked to Lia, who had a far better idea than I did. The muscular girl shrugged, "Kind of, sort of, not really. Once the thatch is on the roof, got some detail work, doors, windows, stuff like that that Yuji here doesn''t know how to do. Then he has a butt load of work that he''s not willing to pay me for. A lot of sanding, insulating, clay work." She turned to gaze at me and continued, "I''ll show you how it once, and you can finish it up." She shoved another dumpling in her mouth, ending that conversation.


    "Well, that looks great so far. You''re an excellent carpenter," I told Lia in an attempt to compliment her, half as much as she was complimenting Wei Lin''s cooking. Though, it sounded really forced and awkward.


    Lia shrugged as she swallowed and pointed her chopsticks at Wei Lin, "So, what''s your plans? You know, for the future and stuff."


    Wei Lin poked at her own meal and kind of shrugged, giving a half-hearted response, "I''m taking care of my father for now. Though, that seems to be less of an issue now that he has somebody else to take care of. I think he''s pretty much adopted my nephew as his heir¡­ What about you? Any future plans?" Wei Lin threw the question at Lia. "Just the slow and steady acquisition of my father''s business. It was always supposed to go to his first-born son, but that didn''t work out quite well. I''m slowly getting him to ease up on the whole ''girls cannot be carpenters'' bullshit." As if it was a second-hand thought, she paused, looked at me, and then threw the question at me, "What are your plans? You¡¯re almost done here, planning to find a wife, do the homestead thing, and live happily ever after, yada, yada?"


    I had to stop and consider that for a moment. ¡°I''m not sure. That was always the plan, but I''ve been working my ass off for so long for this that I think if I suddenly hit the finish line, so to speak, I''d go mad. I guess I could go full farmstead. It''s gonna take at least another year or two to actually get this up and running fully." I looked around my property; most of it was still covered with brush, though a lot of the actual trees had been felled. "Maybe I should get some pigs."


    Lia just shrugged, while Wei Lin threw me a half-hearted follow-up question, "Where did you get the money to do all this stuff anyway?"


    That was an easy answer. "I worked for it."


    "That''s it?"


    Lia snorted. "How else do you think you get the money for this stuff? Sorry, I didn''t mean to sound mean."


    "Yeah, that''s it. I worked at a dock for years, just putting stuff on ships and taking things off. Did fletching in my spare time and shared a tenement house with two other guys. I really lucked out with this place getting it as an inheritance. The taxes on it were steep, but I''d have had to work my ass off for another couple of years before I could even dream of buying a property." I shrugged. "You know, it''s just one of those things you gotta do. Almost nobody gets anything for free. You just gotta go after your goal, make a plan, and start working towards it. If I hadn¡¯t started on my plan, I would have inherited this land and not had the money to pay off the taxes." I went back to my food.


    "Are you okay?" Lia asked Wei Lin, who was staring at me as though I just swapped places with some other person.


    "Uh," Wei Lin turned her attention back to Lia, then looked down at her food. "I have to go."


    Lia and I watched Wei Lin get up and walk back to her house. "Did I say something wrong?" I asked Lia.


    "I don''t know.¡±


    ¡°Do you think she''s okay?"


    ¡°Not sure.¡±The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    ***


    The next few weeks continued as usual. I had work to do in the rice fields, worked on my property, weeded rice paddies with Wei Lin, and had Militia training in Sharinzhen proper. Like last time, I sought out food and stayed in town a bit, ending up having lunch together with Kaori. I told her I thought I had a thing for Lia. When she confirmed I was talking about the carpenter, she laughed at me like I had made the most clever joke in the world. I kind of got the feeling I was missing something.


    Lia and I finished the roof, and she showed me how to sand the floors and insulate the walls with a mixture of straw, interwoven branches, and then a nice covering of clay. That covering of clay meant I had to choose color, which is not something I''d actually thought about when building my house. Most houses were the black and browns of wood and the whites of paper. Of course, the interior had walls, and every tenement I had been in had the same wall color, which I only now realized was just uncolored clay. This was my house, and I could choose whatever color I wanted. I focused on just getting the initial insulation and first coat on because I honestly didn''t have the slightest clue what color to make the walls.


    Wei Lin continued to deliver us food while I worked on the grunt labor and Lia worked on the casings for all the sliding windows and the door. But ever since that day, she had seemed a bit off. Even when not around Lia and just out at Saito''s paddies weeding, she seemed like she was in her own little world. Not sure if I offended her or what, but the sensation was rather odd.


    It kind of sucked to see Lia leave for the last time. The summer festival was close, and I''d likely see her then, but our constant banter had been a massive highlight to my weekly routine, and I was going to miss that if not the woman herself. The only other highlight was the metal drum and stovepipe for the mass heater had arrived, which meant I could finish and fire up my mass heater and see if it worked.


    They let me borrow a cart for transportation, which meant I had to bring the barrel home, then bring the cart back. It was a lot of work, well, a lot of walking for a day, but I couldn''t wait to get everything hooked up, and I started working on it immediately when I got back home.


    Some of the bricks had to be adjusted slightly to get the metal to fit in correctly, but once that was done, I managed to mix the cob, a mixture of clay, straw, and water that turns into a slurry, and got that packed around all the fire bricks and the metal. The lower portion should never actually burn out, so I would likely never have to break this part open again. With that done, I was able to fit the drum over the core. The core, being just a bunch of bricks mortared together in kind of a tube, was supposed to cut off about three or four fingers width before it hit the top of the drum. Mine clung to the top of the drum with still a little bit to go down, which meant I had to take the drum off, knock off a few of the bricks, and put a little bit of cob mixture on top of the core. With the big metal drum seated appropriately and latched in, I got to work on mounting the stove pipes. This was a pretty simple process as they were tapered to fit into each other. They went up past the drum before turning and going out a pre-drilled hole in the wall which would eventually be insulated around. I wanted so badly to fire the thing up and see if it worked, but I had to wait for the cob to dry. It would be a few days before I could do that.


    Saito requested some help getting something from town a few days later. It gave me some time in the morning to finally fire up the mass heater to see how well it worked. The problem with doing that is it would heat the house up, and it was summer. I lifted the flat rock that hid the access point to the riser or the steel pipe that the exhaust went up next to the steel drum. I built a small fire on a flat board and stuck that in there. The purpose of which was to heat up the riser which would pull the air through all the tubes and essentially suck the fire in through the feed port and into the steel drum. With that done, I had lit another small fire into the small feed port area. I waited till the little fire in the feed port caught before covering up the access port to the riser and waited with bated breath to see if it would pull. It did.


    After only a few minutes, my bundle of sticks started catching on fire, the flames pulled into the mass heater instead of going straight up like a normal fire would. Within moments, the steel drum was clicking and popping as it expanded from the heat. The whole house started to heat up while I ran outside to check the exhaust coming out of the riser. It was clear and warm, but not hot. Just as it should be. The whole system was working on just a tiny bundle of sticks. It was gonna be damn perfect for winter. With that test successful, I opened all the windows to air the place out while I was gone and headed off to town to fetch Saito''s package.


    I picked up Saito''s package from the same trading post that I had got the steel drum and riser from just a few days before. Again I borrowed a cart, which meant that again, I¡¯d have to run back in town to return it. The box was heavily marked with the words ¡°fragile" written in both the High Ityean character and the Low Ityean letters. I really wasn''t sure what he had picked up, but the thing was quite heavy, and it took more time to get the cart safely back to Sharinzhen-4 than the whole trip had taken me with the steel drums, which were pretty much invincible.


    "Where do you want it?"


    Saito looked down at me while scratching his beard, a thoughtful look plastered on his face. "Well, I suppose we should probably bring it to where it''s eventually gonna go," he said. I frowned at him and his non-answer. Saito moved around me and started down the path that led back to the road. "Come on," he called.


    Did I seriously haul this thing all the way out here just to take it halfway back? I turned the cart around and started pushing after him. At least the guy had the decency to put a hand on the edge of the cart and keep it steady. When I tried to turn left, he turned right, sparking my curiosity about what was in the crate and if it was meant for my house. I tried to keep my hopes down; I already owed Saito a lot and I didn''t necessarily like the giddy feeling rising in my stomach. This big box might be a gift. I held my tongue until we reached the gateway, my gateway, and turned in towards my property. Then I had to say something.


    "What''s in the box?" I asked.


    Saito patted the cart. "You''ll see soon enough."


    I felt guilty that he was giving me more stuff, yet massively excited. What the hell fit in a rectangular box, was very heavy, and would be extremely fragile?


    The short walk up my passage seemed entirely too far, but once we arrived, Saito helped me haul the thing out of the cart, through my doorway, and set it on the floor at the end of the Doma. He produced a metal pry bar and handed it to me. "Just needed an excuse to come look at your house," he said, kicking off his shoes to look around.


    "It''s not finished," I said, busy trying to pry open the box carefully.


    "Yeah, but it was all trees a few months ago," he remarked.


    I focused on getting the box open. First the top and then the sides. The thing was jammed, packed with straw, and as I pulled away the padding, the reddish-brown color of clay showed itself.


    "Oh, good. It''s not broken," Saito exclaimed, standing above me.


    "Um," I said smartly.


    "Unfortunately, this means that the free meals are over, except on Militia days. Join us for dinner, on those."


    "Th-thank you," I stammered out while still staring at the big clay thing. It had two chambers, was made of clay, and was one of those things I hadn''t even considered.


    "Yeah. Well, you can''t call it a house without a way of cooking food in it, yeah?" Saito remarked.


    "I didn''t even think about a Kalan," I said.


    "Well, that''s what your neighbors are for," he said as he put his shoes back on and stood up, he patted me on the shoulder before saying goodbye and heading out the door. I was going to have to build a cabinet or something in the Doma to put my new stove on; for now, I guess it could just stay on the floor.


    "You still gotta take the cart back," Saito yelled from somewhere outside.


    Seriously, I was gonna have to marry either Wei Lin or Yoko just to make that man my father.


    Author¡¯s Note:


    So the dictation and transcription process seems to be working well for me. At this point my bottleneck is time to edit the transcribed text. It is thursday, im posting this on tuesday and I already have the next chapter dictated. Albeit it''s more of a short interlude. I¡¯ll be starting the dictation of the next chapter in about 30 minutes. My goal is a chapter released every Tuesday, but at this rate, maybe I can go faster.


    The story is almost over. Maybe four to six chapters left. This brings me to an odd question that physically writing had never left me with¡­ What¡¯s next? Any ideas?

 Chapter 9.5: Interlude: Reap what you Sow

    Yoko watched as her father entered through the door with an armful of wood, followed closely by Ren, who was happily carrying a couple of sticks. Saito placed the split logs in a neat pile and thanked Ren for his help as he took the little boy''s sticks and placed them in the kindling pile. He brushed off his hands and, with a smile, said, "Help me get some more?"


    "Ok, Papa." Ren said, and they both headed back out the door. Yoko''s father''s smile was so bright he was practically glowing. She honestly hadn''t seen her father so happy since before her mother died.


    Yoko nudged the rocker that Rei was sleeping in before returning to her sewing, pointedly ignoring the other inhabitant of the house who was doing her level best to wear a groove in the floor as she paced back and forth, muttering to herself. Yoko had been working rather hard not to laugh at her little sister''s plight. She had brought her current situation down upon herself and was now reaping what she sowed, lying in the bed she made, and other similar metaphors.


    When Han moved to the little property next door, their father had practically thrown Wei Lin at the boy. Yoko didn''t fault him for that. He was desperately trying to make up for approving her own marriage to Shinichi. Wei Lin performed the duties of the obedient daughter, but had rebelled against her father basically telling her who to like. Yoko could fully understand that, but her little sister had not thought to consider that maybe she should actually give the guy a chance. She had not, and only very recently had that thought crossed her mind.


    Wei Lin had put their neighbor in his place a long time ago and composed herself to him as his little sister. She was, by her own making, truly screwed. Now she paced back and forth trying to think of some way to salvage the situation. Her only saving grace in this was Yuji''s own insistence to be able to care for himself through his first winter before actively searching for a wife. It gave Wei Lin time to broach the subject, but pretty much everything she could do to prove that she would make a good wife, she had essentially already done as his sister. She was gonna have to start over somehow.


    At some point, Yoko had to put down her sewing and take pity on her sister as soon as she made sure she wasn''t gonna laugh. "You should have him go with you to the summer festival," she suggested.


    "I''m going to be with you and dad.¡±


    ¡°Dad''s getting old. I have young children. We''re not going very long. You don''t need to babysit us."


    Wei Lin shook her head. "But what am I supposed to say?" She wondered aloud.


    Yoko offered, "If only the guy lived close by, and you could simply walk over there and say, ''Hey, the summer festival''s coming up; we should go there together.''"


    Wei Lin stopped walking and stared at her older sister. Clearly, she could not deny the clear, obvious, and easily superior intellect of her older sibling. Yoko tilted her head and cocked an eyebrow, and Wei Lin''s shoulders fell. "Fine," she said.


    "Go now.¡±


    ¡°But¡­¡±


    ¡°Go, now. Sige, sige" Yoko shooed her off and returned back to her sewing.


    "Uh, fine," Wei Lin muttered, and she walked away.


    Wei Lin very confidently marched her way over to Yuji''s property via the path that connected their two places. All she had to do was ask him to join them for the summer festival. She had a couple weeks to figure out what exactly to do when there, so this part of the plan would be easy, or at least it should be easy. She froze when she heard an odd sound coming from Shinichi''s yard. She heard the sound again,it was a long, almost pleasurable moan. "What the hell?" she asked herself just before another moan entered her hearing, along with the sound of Kiyoko''s voice.


    "Does that feel good?"


    Wei Lin could practically feel herself turning red. Yuji moaned again, and a third voice popped in. "You are very tense here," said Kenta.


    "What the hell?" she asked herself again. Either she was going to walk around the corner and find something completely normal, or Yuji was having a threesome with the Yin twins. She couldn''t quite turn back at this point, and with a deep breath to steady herself, she sallied forward.


    The image that came into view turned out to be the normal and more likely explanation of the two scenarios she had come up with. The three of them, Yuji, Kiyoko, and Kenta, were near the fire pit. Kiyoko was sitting with a cup in one hand and leaned forward with her elbows on her knees. Yuji also leaned forward, and Kenta holding Yuji¡¯s arm back, the fingers of his other hand digging into Yuji''s shoulders. Yuji made a noise of pain, and Kent apologized.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    "WeI Lin," Kiyoko sing-songed Wei Lin''s name with her vulpine grin plastered across her face. The two men turned to look at her, Kenta smiled and Yuji held up his free hand to wave. "Come join us," Kiyoko called. "I have something I wanted to ask you, anyway."


    Wei Lin approached the group as Kenta finished his back massage, and Yuji stretched his neck and rolled his shoulders. "Oh, that feels so much better. I had that one stuck for a while," he said before turning his attention back to Wei Lin. ¡°Hey A¡¯te


    Wei Lin felt herself wince before realizing that Yuji had been looking at her, and he might have noticed. It didn''t look like he had. On the other hand, it did look like Kiyoko had. Her eyes went from Wei Lin to Yuji and back again. She tilted her head, and her grin grew even wider.


    Kiyoko held up her cup while looking pointedly at Wei Lin. "Would you like a drink? I''m afraid I could only give you my cup. I don''t have a spare."


    "No, that''s fine," Wei Lin replied. Kiyoko asked again, "Are you sure?" pushing the cup towards her. She politely waved the woman off.


    Kenta took his seat, leaning close. "Forgive us for prying, dear Wei Lin. However, curiosity does tend to bite hard and deep. Either way, the secret is safe with us, but my sister and I have a bit of a bet going on, and we think that you can solve it."


    "A bet?" Wei Lin asked.


    Kyoko''s smile grew wider, and Kenta confirmed, "A bet. My dear sister here thinks that your sister, Yoko, killed Shinichi, and that your father cleaned up the mess."


    Wei Lin stared at the man. He had to be crazy.


    He put a hand to his chest in a flourish. "I, however, believe that it''s foolish to think of your dear sister as anything but an angel placed on this world to grace us. Therefore, it must be that your father killed Shinichi and cleaned up the mess. And so, I must ask you, which of us is correct?"


    He was definitely crazy. There was no way either Yoko or her father had killed Shinichi. If they would have, it would have happened a long time ago. She looked from Kenta to Kyoko to Yuji, who simply shrugged with an apologetic expression. Her eyes returned back to Kenta and his white bushy tail wagging behind him like a puppy.


    "I don''t think either of them killed him," Wei Lin stated.


    "Oh," Kiyoko piped in. "Was it you?"


    Wei''s gaze immediately went to Kiyoko, but Kenta interrupted before she could say anything. "Dear sister, there is no way in all the hells our dear Wei Lin killed Shinichi. The idea is preposterous."


    Wei Lin didn''t know if she was more offended by the fact that Kiyoko thought maybe she could kill Shinichi or the fact that Kenta thought that it was impossible that she could¡¯ve killed Shinichi. What a weird situation. Wei Lin looked to Yuji. "Um," she said.


    "Oh, don¡¯t look at me. If I had to venture a guess, I''d say Saito killed him, and to be honest, I''d help bury the guy if he did," Yuji said.


    "You didn''t even know Shinichi," Wei Lin stated.


    "Yeah, I, uh, I walked into town with him when I first arrived. I know more than I want to." Yuji replied.


    Wei Lin glared at Yuji for a moment, but he didn''t offer any more information. There was clearly more behind that story. "So you''re not giving us any clues?" asked Kenta.


    "No. Um, I just came over here to talk to Yuji," Wei Lin replied.


    "Sorry, sorry." He backed off, his hands up in the air as though he was giving up. Neither of the twins made any moves to leave, though Yuji''s attention was now fully on her.


    "Um, could I talk to you over there?" she asked.


    Kiyoko laughed.


    Wei Lin and Yuji stood partially down the trail that connected their two properties. In the background, Kenta was pouring himself another drink, and Kiyoko was pretending to be focused on the fire, though Wei Lin was certain she was trying to listen in. "Um, sorry, I just wanted to invite you to the, uh, the summer festival with us," Wei Lin said.


    Yuji nodded. "Not sure. Gonna be honest, I was kind of gonna use it as an excuse to introduce myself to some of the girls I haven''t yet met." Wei Lin grit her teeth as he looked back at his house. "Now that I''ve got the house practically built, I''m feeling pretty confident I''m gonna be able to support myself this winter, and I think it''d be all right to accelerate some of my plans."


    "I could introduce you to some of my friends." Wei Lin said, grimacing at her own words and covering the expression with her hands as Yuji''s attention turned back to her.


    "Yeah, all right."


    ¡°Shit, shit, shit, shit,¡± Wei Lin thought to herself, admonishing her stupidity. Yuji''s eyebrows furrowed as she was still trying to hide her face.


    "Are you okay?" he asked. Wei Lin nodded her head rapidly. "I think I need to get going."


    "Okay." He said, though he sounded horribly suspicious.


    "Ah, Wei Lin?" Kenta called.


    Wei Lin poked her head around the bushes in response.


    "If your dear sister is in need of comfort, I''m always close by. That goes for you as well," he said.


    Wei Lin turned red as the fox-eared man grinned, his vulpine smile wide. She wasn''t one hundred percent sure if he was being honest, which he probably was, or if he was teasing or just wanted to get a rise out of her. It was probably all of them. Wei Lin nodded and backed off towards her dad''s house. "Gonna go. Bye Yuji." With that, she turned around and tried very hard not to look like she was fleeing. It was terrible. Absolutely terrible.

 Chapter 10: Summer Festival

    The best day during any particular year is a day in which there is a party. I may be biased toward this as I love a good party, but no one can deny that a day of rest with friends and booze is fun. Well I suppose there are some who could deny it, but those people are unimportant.


    - Kuya Tio on Enjoying Life, Kuya Tio¡¯s Guide to a Healthy and Happy Homestead.


    The lead-up to the summer festival hadn''t been particularly interesting. It was the same old work with a little bit of new housework, and then the same old Militia service, tending the rice paddies, and the management of my own rice paddy water level. So really, the whole same old, same old. Time spent with Wei Lin felt more awkward than it had been before. It was like she was trying just too hard to make small talk, and she often seemed like she might be in pain, despite never admitting to such. I was starting to get a bit concerned about her.


    When the day of the festival rolled around, I met the Xiao family at their gate and headed towards town with them. They certainly looked a lot better than I did. Wei Lin had her hair up and wore a red cheongsam dress that reminded me that she wasn''t actually fourteen. Saito wore an outfit that made him resemble something of a very relaxed bureaucrat and marked the first time I''d ever seen the man in a hat. It was a short, squat, square thing, and I really didn''t think it fit him. Yoko matched her sister''s color with a red Ao Dai dress with what looked like a bamboo motif. While it didn''t seem anywhere near as fancy as Wei Lin or Saito''s clothing, it did seem to fit her quite well. Now that most of the bruising had healed, the woman herself looked quite radiant and she smiled pleasantly while holding the bundle that was one child in one arm and the hand of her little boy who was dressed in something of a more simplistic version of a kimono. Again, in red. By contrast, I wore my best off-white shirt and pants that only had no holes because Wei Lin had fixed them. I felt kind of like a homeless guy, but nobody mentioned my drab outfit. After the usual greetings and pleasantries, we started making our way to town.


    Still, something seemed slightly off. Contrary to her normal actions, Wei Lin took a position between me and her father, and Saito seemed to be contemplating that. We made idle small talk as we made the hour-long journey to town. It would have gone a bit faster had it been just me or Saito, or even me and Wei Lin, but Yoko was slowed down by the children. The little boy, whose name I still hadn''t even asked for or picked up, had considerably shorter legs than us adults.


    Sharinzhen had been decorated for the occasion with streamers, banners, and paper lanterns practically everywhere. Food stalls had cropped up like garden weeds overnight, wafting their scents of delicious edibles across the paths crowded with far more people than I would have thought. Then again, we did have eight villages, and I assume most people had come. A large stage had been set up in the central courtyard, and while nothing was going on quite yet, the Yin Twins, as well as a small group of others, stood on top of the decking in some type of heated discussion, while a few others set up musical instruments and various props. I knew it was just the beginning of the festival, and none of the actual festivities had started yet, but apart from the stage, the food stalls, a couple of places where it looked like there might be music, and a couple of stalls that seemed to hold games for kids, it really didn''t look like much, again, kind of a disappointment. Though the spring festival had ended up more as just a village cookout, this at least, could claim to be a festival.


    Wei Lin and I walked around a bit, seeing what was available for food and things to do as Saito and Yoko found a shaded place to sit near the stage. Wei Lin seemed rather nervous, and I swear she winced when some girl called out to her, making our little party of two a party of three.


    "This is Mei Wah. Mei, Yugi Han,¡± Wei Lin said, the tone of her voice suggesting she''d kind of rather be anywhere other than there. Mei Wah was an attractive girl, human with dark hair, dark eyes, and fair-colored skin. I got the feeling she was actually younger than Wei Lin despite being a full hand or so taller. We bowed politely to each other and exchanged the normal greetings, and the two girls chatted as the festival seemed to actually be getting started.


    Through Wei Lin, I met four other girls: Yuki Kobayashi, Fumiko Tan, Xiu Yogi, and Ling Su. In some way, it seemed like Wei Lin didn''t really want to be bothered, as she seemed to cling to my sleeve the entire time and honestly seemed rather dismissive of the girls. Of all of them, it was Ling Su that caught my attention the most. She wasn''t the most attractive of the five; honestly, that probably went to Mei Wah, but she was the oldest, almost my age, and the only Oni-Sen out of the bunch. She had dark hair and violet eyes and felt taller than me with her long white horns. She wore a red Ao Dai, almost like Yoko''s but with a Hibiscus flower design. She stuck around a bit longer, as she had also been a bit more traveled, and we chatted briefly about a couple of places that we had both been to.


    The whole thing seemed to make Wei Lin more nervous, and eventually, we went to the stage to watch a play put on primarily by Kiyoko. Kenta seemed to be working more on the musical end of things, and the other people presented a line of characters whose sole purpose seemed to be to make Kiyoko''s character''s life difficult. Honestly, I wasn''t exactly sure if this was supposed to be a comedy or a tragedy; it seemed to have bits of both.


    As the sun started to get lower in the sky, casting long shadows across the town, and Saito and Yoko were clearly getting ready to head home, Wei Lin seemed rather torn between staying and going.


    "You can go. You don''t need to stick around for my sake," I told her.


    She bit her lip in clear hesitation.


    "I''m probably just gonna get something to eat and go hang out by the river for a little while. I kinda wanna see the lanterns once it gets dark, but that''s about it."


    She looked back to her family and then back up at me, as though she was honestly torn.


    "Go, I''ll be fine," I said.


    She bit her lip again, but nodded and said her goodbyes, leaving me alone to wander the streets looking for something good to eat. She had been acting so strangely lately. I didn''t know if Saito was pushing her harder at me or if it was something else. Maybe having her sister around more changed their family dynamic in some way.


    I was standing near the Smithy, chewing on something pretending to be mochi balls. They had the completely wrong texture. Don''t get me wrong, it was good, but it wasn''t mochi, and to say otherwise was heresy. As I chewed, I felt a poke at my side and grinned, as there was only one person who ever introduced their presence to me by poking me in the side. As I turned my head, I found Kaori looking back up at me, her face contorted into half a smirk.


    "Hey," I said, mouth still half full.


    ¡°Hey, ¡° she said in return. "Since you''re all alone, wanna come meet the gang in the den of debauchery?"


    "Den of debauchery?" I asked, a little lost.


    "It''s a bunch of kitsune getting drunk in my dad''s place, at the restaurant.¡±


    ¡°I''m not really doing anything else," I replied.


    Kaori pulled me along down the alleyway again, and we entered into the back of the Shao¡¯s Place through the kitchen and into the actual room where I could hear the laughter of mostly women before we came around the corner and into what could only be called a Den of Debauchery. I assume the den idea was a play on the fact they were all kitsune. It looked like it normally did in the daytime, but several of the tables had been cleared away, there were only a couple lights on, and the whole group sat around one table. "Debauchery" because they were playing a drinking game, and by drinking game, I mean, they were just spinning a bottle and whoever the bottle pointed to took a drink. There didn''t seem to be much of a game behind it.


    "Where''s Izumi?" Kaori asked as she pulled me all into the room.


    "Getting more booze," someone shouted back.


    Kaori pushed me forward before starting introductions. "This is Yuji, surname Han, and for those of you who are familiar with Lo Bao Han, yes, that Han."


    There was a brief pause where there was a chorus of laughter and a few "Heys," and one of the girls spun the bottle. It''s open end landing to face the sole Huan Fang in the group who laughed and reached for the drink being poured.


    "Yuji, Izumi Hano is missing, Luli Noda, Chie Konda, Huan Fang, Chui Okita, and Yumiko Yaga," Kaori introduced, moving from right to left.


    I gave a slight bow to the group, and Kaori got me a seat so I could sit next to her, pretty much straight across from the Huan. After he finished spinning his bottle so it pointed somewhere else, he stood up and reached over the table to shake my hand. "Good to meet you."


    "Likewise," I returned.


    Again, I was a bit struck by how they were mostly women. Huan Fang was the only person roughly my age other than Shinichi that I had actually met so far, and I had been here for months. To be fair, most of that time was spent working, but it very much pointed out the disparity between genders in my generation. Him and Chie were clearly a couple as he wrapped his arm around her, and she was leaning into him.


    Kaori frowned at the empty bottles lying around. "How much did you guys drink already?"


    Her response was a bunch of laughter as the open end of the bottle landed on her. Chie handed her a small cup. Kaori rolled her eyes, took the shot, and spun the bottle herself. It landed on Luli.


    "Yuji," Luli said, holding up her shot. "Are you in and out, or are you sticking with us all night?" she asked almost in a slur before throwing back her shot. She was cute with fair skin and a pinched nose, and her grin was practically infectious.


    "Not really sure, but I gotta walk all the way back to four, so I don''t think I''m gonna drink too much.¡±


    She frowned and spun her bottle, and when it landed on Chie, she swore, "Damn, I was aiming for you."


    I had to laugh at that.


    "You can come to my place," she suggested.


    I looked at Kaori; she simply shrugged. "I said debauchery."


    "I think we''re gonna head out," said Huan.


    "Take care," said one of the girls, though I''m not entirely certain which one.


    Huan gave me a nod and said "Good luck with the Vixens." He then gave me a short salute, and he and Chie left out through the back as the open end of the bottle spun towards me. Yumiko poured my drink and handed it over, and I threw it back. Some harsh variant of rice wine, Sake or Mijiu, I could never tell the difference, but I put my cup down and spun it, only to hear another voice coming from behind me.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    "I Got More Boooooze," sung a woman''s voice just before she stopped and said, "Who the hell is this?"


    Kaori was busy taking her shot, so Luli spoke up. "This is Yuji Han, as in that Han."


    Izumi, or at least I was guessing that was who the new woman was, set the bottles down on the table and pretty much fell into my lap. She wrapped her arm around me and put her breast up into my face. "Fresh meat," she purred in my ear. "You got a girlfriend, Yuji?"


    "Um, no," I replied.


    She grinned. "I call first," she said.


    Luli popped up looking rather offended. "What? No, I saw him first! I want first!"


    "I called first; you get second," Izumi shot back.


    What the hell was going on? I looked at Kaori, who was filling up a shot of alcohol as the bottle landed back on me. At this point, I wasn''t sure if it was me or Izumi, but Izumi took the shot and threw it back, setting it on the table to spin the bottle again.


    "Anyone else?" Izumi asked.


    Chui pointed at Kaori and said, "She brought him."


    Izumi''s gaze went to Kaori. "Kaori?¡±


    Kaori looked at me as though she were considering something, her gaze then went to the empty alcohol bottles, then to Luli, then to Izumi. Her ears twitched once, and then she shook her head. "Nah."


    "Yumiko?" Yumiko shook her head.


    "Chui?"


    I looked at Chui as she seemed to evaluate me, her head cocked slightly to the side and one ear slowly drifted down at an angle. Out of all the girls in the room, she was the one I would define as hot. Red hair, fair skin, slight freckles. She had the face of a succubus, and though I couldn''t see anything below her waist, I was fairly certain she had the body of one too.


    "Yeah, I''ll take third," she said.


    "Great!¡± Izumi shouted while squeezing herself to meet tighter, ¡°the order''s set then."


    "The order for what?" I asked because this whole thing was rather perplexing.


    Izumi let go of me long enough to push herself back and enough to grab my face, look deep into my eyes, and say in a sultry tone, "The order in which we''re going to fuck you."


    The baser male part of my brain screamed, ¡°hell yes!¡± But I hadn''t had much to drink yet, and my gut seemed to be picking up on something I had been missing. "Why?" While I meant the question, it did kind of sound accusatory to me.


    Izumi must not have actually noticed, as she simply smiled and said, "Because you''re cute, and you''re the only guy in town that isn''t a decade older than me."


    There was no way that was true. "That''s not true."


    She shrugged and amended, "Okay, so the only unclaimed guy that isn''t a decade older than me, and also, you''re human, so you''re safe."


    I stared at the woman on my lap. That gut feeling that something was very wrong and I had missed something had turned into a solid, heavy weight sitting just over my bowels. Even the baser male part of me that had been solely focused on the fact that I might get laid by three girls stopped and said, "Wait, what?" My gaze turned to Kaori, who was actively staring at the bottle and looked slightly conflicted. "I think I gotta go."


    "Wait, what? No!" Yelled Luli. "Can I come with?"


    I started pushing Izumi off me. "Just, just wait. Just not tonight. Okay."


    "Oh, come on. Don''t be, uh, don''t be like that," said Izumi, the sultry sound gone.


    I picked myself up from the table and started heading to the back door to the complaints of mostly Izumi and Luli.


    The fresh air of the outside filled with the scents of food and the sounds of partying sort of helped clear my head. My libido was still fighting with my logic, and my logic was too busy trying to put pieces together that I clearly had missed. The sun had sunk down behind the trees, and while the sky was still slightly light, the long shadows were bringing darkness upon the town, and all the lit up lanterns were starting to show their ethereal glory. I walked through town in somewhat of a daze, shifting my gaze at each individual person as I went past them. There were children everywhere, boys and girls from toddlers up to their teens, as well as all the old people, but it was only just now that I noticed that between the ages of 16 and 25, there were no men. None. Completely none. The first guy I met was roughly my age, and that was Shinichi. I knew he was dead, and I was pretty sure I knew where he was buried, but the fact that my first encounter with a person from this town had been a guy my age likely had blocked my senses from the fact that he was literally the only one, except for Huan Fang, whom I had only just met. Sharinzhen-4 was mostly older people with only a few kids and a couple of middle-aged couples, so I hadn''t quite noticed. The only one roughly my age had, of course, gone off to war, but he was also the only one from Sharinzhen-4. Now, I was in the middle of the town proper with practically everybody in attendance who hadn''t packed it in early, and apart from a few groups of girls, some of whom would smile and wave coyly, my age group was missing. There''s no way this was possible.


    I found my way to the tree where all the villagers had hung up their missing loved ones. It was absolutely cluttered with tags and though I understood a lot of those were duplicates, it was still far too many. Sharinzhen was not that big, even including the eight villages surrounding it. What in the hells?


    "Are you okay?" came a voice from vaguely behind me. I turned to find Lia standing there. Apparently, her idea of dress clothes was extraordinarily similar to Saito¡¯s, having a relaxed bureaucrat look, though her long silk shirt was green instead of red and she lacked the funny hat.


    "Where is everybody?" I asked.


    Lia looked a bit confused and just kind of motioned to the village behind her. "Over there, drinking mostly."


    I gestured to the tree. "No, I mean, like everybody my age. Well, every male my age. There''s like two people in this town."


    "I think it''s more like five, and there was a civil war," she said, as if that explained everything. It didn¡¯t.


    The response did not help the horrible knot I had in my gut. "And what? Everybody just got up and decided to go fight the king?"


    "Oh? Yeah, no," she replied. "A couple of people left to go fight the king. Then the military came in and conscripted all men between the age of 15 and 25 as punishment."


    Somehow, the logical explanation was far worse than my mind had possibly conceived. Someone, possibly Wei Lin, had mentioned that not everyone got to choose what side they fought for. Nobody said the army just came in and took everybody, but that still didn''t fully explain it.


    "Well, where are they?" I questioned. "The war was over like a year ago. They can''t all be dead."


    Lia shrugged. "Well, I assume most prisoners were sold as slaves to foreign nations, and those conscripted will probably show back up once their terms are over."


    I turned back to the tree full of tags. "It''s not like this in the city. I mean, it''s noticeable, but not like this. A whole generation of men just gone."


    Lia walked up to the tree, her eyes focused on a specific area or maybe even a specific tag. "Well, it''s not just all guys." She reached out to a specific tag and ran her finger across the words. "Mika Saburo. She was brilliant, beautiful, and headstrong. Hells, she was headstrong. I love that girl."


    I idly wondered if the person Lia was referring to was family or a friend. Though, with some type of answer to my sudden horrible realization that everybody was missing, the knot in my stomach seemed to be feeling a little bit better. Maybe it was because Lia was here to answer things.


    ¡°But she didn''t return my affection because I didn''t have a penis.¡± She continued.


    My brain stopped functioning. Once again, I felt like I was not in the same conversation that other people were. Earlier, it was the group of kitsune girls. This time it was Lia. At some point, I put the pieces together to what she said and asked the follow-up question, probably very stupidly asked. "You''re gay?" Come to think of it, she spent a lot of time showering Wei Lin with compliments.


    She let go of the tag with a sigh and turned to consider me. She shrugged and gave her usual smirk. "Got a problem with that?"


    "Ah, no?" I said intelligently.


    "My dad''s coming around. I always wanted to be his favorite, and my older brother freaking the hell out and leaving really kind of worked in my favor. Though, I do kind of miss him."


    "Okay," I replied. That was probably a weird thing to say, but I honestly had nothing. I had gone from, "Holy hells, I''m the only person in this town of my generation," to "Wait, you''re gay?" Honestly, I don''t know where I was, just completely lost.


    "So how did you suddenly come to the conclusion that you were the only male of your age?" Lia asked, her arms crossed as she stared up at the tree, her spaded tail swaying slightly.


    "I was hanging out with Kaori and her friends, and a bunch of the girls started queuing up to screw me. I asked why and apparently it was because I''m the only one of their generation who isn¡¯t also kitsune."


    Lia turned around with a face that kind of screamed, "What the fuck?" "You''re telling me that you had multiple kitsune girls willing to have sex with you tonight, and you''re out here moping?" She sounded offended.


    "Uh, yeah," I replied.


    "What the hells? Are you gay?" She asked.


    "No," I replied.


    "Well, I''d love to have multiple kitsune girls who wanted to sleep with me. Is there some problem with it?"


    "Well, I mean, I guess just the reputation thing."


    "Reputation thing?" she asked.


    "Yeah, you know, like, yeah, Kuya Tio mentions in one of his books. You basically get a new start on reputation when you move to a new place, and I don''t want to taint it by being known as a guy who goes and, you know, sleeps with everybody."


    Lia was looking at me like I had a snake crawling out of my ear. "Kuya Tio? The guy who writes all the pornographic romance novels?"


    Yeah okay, that did sound pretty messed up, didn''t it? "Well, he writes guide books too," I tried to defend.


    Lia took a few steps forward, leaned in, and flicked me on the forehead. "Yeah, I''ve read enough of his stuff to say he would smack you for being out here moping instead of getting laid."


    "Well..." I attempted.


    "Yuji, you''re cute. As in, like childish cute, not attractive cute. Does that make sense?" she asked.


    "Uh... yeah?"


    "Either go home or go get laid. You''re lucky. You have your choice of any girl you want here. You can either do that or you could just go back to working on your house and ignoring them all," she advised.


    I just sort of stared at her because I really didn''t know what to say. I''m absolutely positive that reputation mattered, but in some ways, she did kind of have a point. "Uh..."


    Lia patted me on the shoulder as she walked off. "Good night, Yuji."


    "Good night," I said, though it wasn''t very loud, and I''m not sure she actually heard me.


    I passed the main square where Kenta was sitting on the edge of the stage, kicking his feet and chatting with several of the other guys, all of which were older. I didn''t see Kiyoko, and it honestly looked like things were starting to wind down. With it getting fully dark now, the lanterns were showing off their attractive glow and casting parts of the town in dappled light. I might have thought it was magical if my head didn''t feel so detached. I stopped on the bridge, as I often did. I looked over the railing and into the water. It was dark, and I couldn''t see through it, but I could tell it was moving, and for some reason, I just liked this damn spot. I''m not sure how long I stood like that, trying to order my thoughts and feelings on the whole situation. On one hand, the town had been missing my generation''s worth of men for quite a while. It might have just hit me now, but it''s been something they''ve been dealing with for a couple of years at least. So long they had a tradition of putting tags on the tree. On the other hand, Lia had been completely correct in a way. I was kind of lucky because I had my choice of women, though with any sort of certainty, I was really only familiar with three of them. Apparently, one was gay or a boy stuck in a girl''s body or something like that. Wei Lin, I still unfortunately saw as a 14-year-old, and our relationship was far more familiar. The other person was Kaori, who was not interested due to the biological inability to produce children. Maybe I should track down Ling Su and get to know her better. I pondered the world around me and how different this was from the city. The sounds of laughter slowly dying out as people petered out and went home. Sure, it was a nice night, quiet and cool, and I swear the sound of the moving water helped calm my nerves.


    There was a poke at my side.


    "Hey," said Kaori.


    "Hey," I replied.


    "You okay?"


    ¡°Yeah, I think so. It''s just something Izumi had said that made me realize I''m the only male of my generation in this town, and I honestly hadn''t noticed.¡±


    "Well, you''re not the only one. You met Huan Fang just tonight."


    I nodded at her point. "Yeah. Well, it just kind of hit me."


    Kaori stepped onto the lower bar of the bridge''s railing so she could lean over and look down at the water with me. "So, are you gonna go back and, um, sleep with my friends?"


    "What? No. I figure they''re drunk. They''ll, uh, change their minds in the morning."


    Kaori snorted. "Yeah, I wouldn¡¯t bet on that. But, um, can I propose something?" she asked, somewhat hesitant sounding.


    "Yeah."


    "A date?"


    "What do you mean?"


    ¡°Well, I actually kind of like living here. Unfortunately, my options here are to die childless and alone or die childless. Dying childless and alone sounds like it sucks more. So I thought maybe we could, uh, attempt, you know, just see if there could be something."


    "Sure. I''m up for that."


    "Two days from now?"


    "I don''t have a lot of money to take you out on the town."


    "A picnic then?"


    "Yeah. That sounds Nice."

 Chapter 11: A Date with Kaori

    Shared laughter is the best kind of currency. Its value can be greater than gold and earning it lightens the heart. Whether it be with friends or a lifetime partner, it is a joint investment that pays endless dividends that compound over time into a good life well lived.


    - Kuya Tio on Enjoying Life, Kuya Tio¡¯s Guide to a Healthy and Happy Homestead.


    I was getting a little nervous that my date with Kaori was going to get ruined. More specifically, it rained on. The day after the festival, a storm rolled in just after noon. I ended up hunkered down in my house working on my fletching, something I hadn''t really gotten much done with, though I now have plenty of room to dry material for arrow shafts. By nightfall, the storm had turned into just a steady rainfall, and it was still technically raining by morning. The clouds broke and the same sun came out just before noon, and I headed into town not one hundred percent sure when or where I was supposed to meet her.


    It was kind of an odd feeling. On the one hand, this was supposed to be a date, and I would normally expect to be more nervous. However, on the other hand, it was Kaori. I got along well with Kaori, so I''m not exactly sure if the whole thing about it being a date actually changed anything. Even if it didn''t work out, I still got to take a day off and relax. I couldn''t imagine anything going horribly wrong that would make the worst case anything other than no second date. There was however, the nagging feeling that I had no idea what I was supposed to do on a date. While I''ve been with plenty of girls, I had never been trying to find out if I wanted to spend more than a few days or weeks with them.


    It was my dad''s advice to find a good wife, as well as the advice of pretty much every other old man, and somehow it wasn''t exactly sitting well with me. I didn''t want to think to myself that the advice might be flawed. It was the one thing my father thought that he accomplished correctly in life. In hindsight, I guess my mom was pretty awesome.


    The town itself was back to its old look and feel pre-festival. Literally, all the decorations had disappeared overnight, well, overnight and through a storm. The normal hustle and bustle was in full swing as people went to and fro doing their various jobs, tasks, and following their whims. I went straight to Kaori''s dad¡¯s place as it was the only place I figured I''d find her, and I was told to wait outside by one of the waitresses when I entered the building.


    I pretended not to notice Kaori coming around the side of the building and looked off into the town square where a couple of the banners that had been there on the festival were still strung across. I briefly wondered if maybe those banners were there all year. I think they were there at the other little celebration thing they did with the tree. I continued to stare at them wondering if they were possibly there all year until I was poked in the side.


    "Hey," Kaori said in her customary greeting.


    "Hey," I returned, keeping in the current tradition.


    "I was going to show you a spot by the river just outside of town," she started but shrugged. "That''s probably pretty wet right now. So there''s a pavilion just on the road to seven."


    "Sure."


    "Sure? That''s all you have to say? No. Ok, Kaori. That''s such an amazing idea?" She teased. I laughed, and Kaori gave her customary giggle, ending in a snort.


    "Well, I haven''t seen it yet. How am I supposed to know if you''re being brilliant or just taking me to the slums?"


    Her ears dropped down, and she looked slightly confused. ¡°What are slums?¡±


    ¡°Where all the poor people live.¡± Did people here not know what the hell a slum was?


    "Ok, that doesn''t sound so bad."


    "In Lianzhen, it means they''re tightly packed and live in trash next to the waterfall where you have to scream at the person next to you in order for them to hear you."


    Kaori¡¯s ears flattened to her head. "Oh, that kind of sounds bad."This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    "Yeah, it''s not a great place, lots of crime too."


    "Wait, you''re from Lianzhen?" Kaori asked, her ears perking way up with clear and obvious curiosity.


    "Yeah. Is that a problem?"


    "Problem? Lianzhen is supposed to be like, the most beautiful city in all of Mizuyamachi. And you''re just from there like it''s nothing."


    "I guess it''s pretty. I haven''t actually been to any other large cities to compare it to."


    "I''d love to see it someday."


    "I''ll head back there someday to visit family. I''d be happy to play tour guide."


    "What¡¯s it like?"


    "Lianzhen? Well, you know, three tiers. I lived on the lower tier because I''m not rich and worked on the docks. Central tier is mostly the Mage College, some temples, some samurai, and some bureaucratic stuff. Third tier is where the Lord lives, huge manor that just kind of hovers over the top of the waterfall, and there''s a lot of other rich people up there. My uncle had a nice place on the third tier. So I''ve actually been up there a couple of times."


    "Your uncle is Lo Bao Han?"


    "Yes, he''s the one I inherited the property here from."


    Kaori nodded her head as we left the town proper toward seven. The world around us smelt fresh after all the rain, but as the heat was climbing and so too was the humidity. It clung to the skin and made it slightly difficult to breathe, but wasn''t too terrible yet.


    "You get a lot of girls interested because you''re the nephew of Lo Bao Han?"


    "No, but I got a lot of old men talking to me because they know Lo Bao Han."


    Kaori giggled and bumped into me with her shoulder. She pointed ahead and said, "there''s the pavilion. There''s a spirit shrine along a trail up into the woods just a little bit."


    "Sounds nice."


    "Yeah." Kaori said before adding, "Got in trouble a few times as a kid playing around there. Mom used to say, ¡®Don''t mess with the spirit shrine or the spirits will mess with you. That''s what happened to your sister Suki.¡¯"


    "You have a sister named Suki?"


    "No, unless they were being completely honest, in which case, yes, but I never met her because she messed with the spirits." Kaori¡¯s giggle made it clear she was pretty sure she never had a sister named Suki.


    When we got to the pavilion, we sat down in the center of the dry surface, and Kaori spread out our lunch. Dumplings, biscuits, rice, and a bunch of sides, with the main focus on a few strips of pork drenched in some savory sauce.


    "This is delicious."


    "It better be. I stole it from my dad."


    I giggled along with her. "Maybe your dad would make a good wife."


    "My mom thinks so."


    We giggled and laughed and snorted at that.


    ¡°You prefer Sake or Mijiu?¡± She asked.


    ¡°Honestly, I can''t tell the difference.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± She turned her back to me for a moment before shifting back around with a small cup thrust at me. ¡°Taste and guess. You got a fifty-fifty chance.¡±


    I took the cup and made a show of scrutinizing the color and odor before taking a tentative sip and considering. ¡°This is indeed Sake.¡±


    ¡°Pretty good for someone who can¡¯t taste the difference.¡±


    I nodded sagely. ¡°Being able to read helps.¡±


    Kaori¡¯s ears twitched and she frowned at me before looking back at her basket. She pulled the bottle up just a bit, fully exposing the label. She threw her head back and laughed. I laughed with her.


    We sat there for what might have been hours sharing stories of our childhoods. Me on the city streets of Lianzhen and her here in Sharinzhen. Despite the setting, kids apparently acted mostly the same, a lot of getting into trouble, trying not to get caught, and eventually getting found out.


    Lunch went great, and the rest of the afternoon went along quite well as we strolled back into the town proper, dropped off the basket, and walked towards my place so I could show Kaori my house. She teased me a bit about being attracted to Lia because, of course, she knew that the carpenter wasn''t into men when I had originally told her. It was just funnier if I found out myself. After a tour of the property and the house, we sat on the floor, our feet kicking over the pounded dirt floor of the Doma, as we chatted.


    I''m not exactly sure at what point we were kissing. She was soft and warm and sweet. Not the traditional beauty. Her features were plain, her nose was wide and flat, her skin a bit darker and less fair, but I didn''t care. Things were getting heated until Kaori asked a very specific question, which completely killed the mood. She clearly just couldn¡¯t get over the no children thing.


    I walked her home, but I guess we had hit the worst-case scenario. There would be no second date after this.


    Chapters after this¡­


    11: Yuji finds out a rumor, dialogue with Kaori¡¯s father


    12: dialogue with Ling Su, Yoko, Wei Lin


    13: dialogue with Yoko, Harvest


    14: Harvest festival


    15: Barbarians

 Chapter 12: Rumor

    Always keep solids and liquids separate, and yes, I¡¯m talking about your excrement. It¡¯s not a pleasant part of life, but it is a necessary part. Greens, those things that tend to stink and may or may not actually be green, are to be separated and mixed equally with browns, those things such as dried grass or wood shavings. Let sit for a year if the browns are of any of the humanoid races. See the composting section for more specifics.


    - Kuya Tio on Avoiding Horrible Homestead Happenings, Kuya Tio¡¯s Guide to a Healthy and Happy Homestead.


    My date with Kaori hadn''t gone quite as well as I might have hoped, but we didn''t exactly leave on bad terms either. Essentially, the whole situation boiled down to her really wanting children, and it''s just not something I could give her. Had she been any other race or had I been a Kitsune, this would not be a problem. That''s just how the world worked, I guess. Theoretically, there were other nations where people didn''t live in large multiracial communities. It was hard to consider a place where it was only human or only Kitsune or only Akumajin. Until I ever actually went to one of those places, which I probably won''t, my belief in their existence shall remain only theoretical.


    The rest of the week progressed normally, at least until I found myself weeding Saito''s rice patties with Wei Lin. That of course, was in the normal routine, and while Wei Lin had been awkward and somewhat distant recently, today marked a slight exception where she was also rather angry. I, of course, made the time-tested mistake of asking Wei Lin if she was okay, and she, of course, did the time-tested response of, "I''m fine." I might not have had a lot of experience with actual relationships, but even I knew, as well as practically every man on the face of the world, if a woman tells you that she is fine, specifically using the word ''fine'', then she is most definitely not ¡°fine¡±. She could have said, "okay," "all right," "angry," "I will be fine eventually," "I will be fine," or "I''ll get over it." But she used the word, the single word, ''fine''.


    We worked for probably another ten minutes before I stopped pulling weeds and made the stupid mistake of asking, "So what''s wrong?" She took a moment to straighten, took a large deep breath, turned to me, pointed her weed-filled hand at me accusatively, and said, "You slept with Kaori."


    My brain seized up, dumbfounded. Firstly, I had not slept with Kaori. Secondly, if I did, how would she have known? And thirdly, why the hell would it matter to her? I must have stood there confused as to which one of these things I should probably bring up first a bit too long as Wei Lin seemed to take that as me admitting guilt.


    "Why?" She demanded as if I had to explain why to her because I had somehow betrayed her.


    ¡°I didn''t sleep with Kaori,¡± I said honestly.


    "Horseshit!" Wei Lin yelled. She flailed her arms around, and stormed off back towards her house, leaving me with the rest of the weeding.


    What the actual hell?


    There were far too many things for me to do before I could go head off into town and talk to Kaori about whatever the hell was going on. I had to finish the weeding and work on the rice paddies. The next day I had to work in the village on those rice paddies. The following day, which I had opened, and honestly, I had to go into town and get food anyway, since I was cooking for myself. I walked the distance to Sharinzhen Proper, still confused and having thought over the whole situation for a solid two days. The things going through my head were probably a lot worse than what was actually going on. As if to complement my confused state, the sky above me was gray and cloudy, and it didn''t seem like it knew if it wanted to rain or to clear up.


    In town, I made my way to the tea house/restaurant that was Kaori''s father''s place and walked in a little bit more confused because I didn¡¯t actually want to sit down and order something. I just wanted to see Kaori and clear this up. One of the girls in a green dress whistled, though clearly not to me. Following gestures, I realized she was getting Kaori''s attention and pointing my way. Kaori seemed to wince, her ears going flat to her head as she gestured for me to wait a minute. I stood off by the door as she finished with her customers.


    "Hey," she said without the customary poke in the side.


    "Hey," I replied.


    "Uh, let''s talk out back. Okay?"


    We walked around the side of the building with each other into the alleyway. I was honestly getting quite familiar with this alley.


    ¡°I''m really sorry," she started. "I was explaining how our date went to some friends. Something got taken out of context, and one of them, I think it was Luli, thought we slept together. Normally, this would not be an issue. However, you''re the new guy our own age and apparently, there''s a lot of girls who are kind of upset that you might have already found somebody."


    "So this is just a, a misunderstanding?" I asked.


    "Yes," she replied.


    "So I should probably talk to your father," I suggested.


    Her expression changed to one of surprise, her ears going wide. "My dad, why?"


    "Well, there''s a rumor going around that I had sex with his daughter. So I should probably clear that up."


    "Oh, that''s not a problem."


    "Are you sure? Is it a problem if I talk to him anyway?"


    "I suppose not. Do you want me to go get him?"


    "I honestly think that would be the right thing to do."


    "Ok."


    Kaori seemed unsure, but went to fetch the man anyway.


    It wasn''t long before the three of us were standing out in the alleyway in a rough triangle, like some sort of three-way standoff.


    "Hello, sir. My name is Yuji Han. I went on a date last week with your daughter. Nothing happened, but through some sort of misunderstanding, there is now a rumor that I slept with her. I did not sleep with her, and I apologize if the rumor causes you any problems." I said, rather nervously.


    Kaori''s father didn''t say anything. He just stood there wearing a stained apron and wiping his hands off on a dish towel. His narrow eyes seemed to stare straight through me. His fox-like ears, which normally showed a lot of expression on kitsune, hadn''t so much as twitched. He stood considerably shorter than me, and yet I felt so very small. I was just about to say something again to break the silence when he gave a small throat clearing noise and said, "I know." His eyes snapped over to Kaori, and he nodded once before turning and going through the door back into his restaurant.


    "Uh?" I questioned.


    "Well," Kaori started, "If you had intended to get his permission to court me, I think you just succeeded."


    "What?" I was once again lost, feeling like I had no damn idea what was going on. I don''t know if city people like me just thought differently than the people on the edge of the empire, or if I was just stupid.


    "I''m pretty sure that was approval," Kaori said.


    "To court you?" I asked.


    "Yeah, why not? No other guy would try to clear up a rumor like that with him."


    "Why not?"


    Kaori shrugged. "Well, there''s no taboo."This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    "Taboo?" Now I was really confused.


    "Yeah, I''m Kitsune. There''s no taboo.¡±


    ¡°Taboo for what?"


    "Sex with non-Kitsune."


    "Oh," I said, just to acknowledge that I heard and basically understood her. "Oh," I said again in a lower tone as it hit me as to why the other Kitsune girls seemed to be lining up for sex. "Ohhhhh," I said once more as literally every interaction I''ve had with Kitsune, particularly women, popped into place and made perfect sense. Apparently, I was indeed stupid.


    Kaori laughed, a musical sound that ended with multiple snorts. "I am so glad I got to see that register. Your expression was delicious."


    "Ok. Just so I get this straight. If I go around and screw all the Kitsune girls in town, I''m a slut who likes fluffy tails and something or whatever. And if you screw people who are not Kitsune, you''re not a slut?" I tried to clarify.


    "No, I''m still a slut, just not to other Kitsune," Kaori responded.


    "That''s weird," I remarked.


    "Ok. Here''s a question. Was your first girl Kitsune?" she asked.


    "Miku, yeah," I replied.


    "Mine was an Oni-Sen." She lifted both hands in front of her like she was holding metal bars or possibly Oni-Sen horns and lowered them down towards her inner thighs while wearing a shit eating grin.


    I laughed.


    Kaori laughed.


    Kaori''s mother laughed.


    Kaori screamed, "Mom!"


    I laughed harder.


    "Oh, would that be the woodsman''s boy, Hong Su?" Kaori''s mother asked with her vulpine grin plastered across her face. She patted her daughter on her head and ruffled Kaori''s hair as she walked past. The woman gave me a wink before following her husband into the shop. Kaori was flushed, her tan skin darker than normal, and her ears were pressed down as far as they could go.


    "Hong Su, any relation to Ling Su?" I asked.


    "That would be his sister. You know her?"


    "Met her briefly at the festival."


    "She''s cute. You could do worse."


    We stood around in the alleyway for a little bit, not saying anything as Kaori looked nervously at the door. "So, what are you doing now?" she asked.


    "Well, I''m gonna pick up some food so I can make dinner. Then I guess I''m gonna head home."


    "Wanna hang out?"


    "Sounds good to me."


    "I just got to change. Be right back."


    "We can make some Giniling. That''s pretty quick and easy. And I wouldn''t mind testing out your brand new Kalan," Kaori said as we strolled through the market picking out vegetables, primarily potatoes. It was one of those things I should probably pick up a bunch of. Though we only had a few more months and mine might be actually good to dig up. Kaori had changed from her green Ao Dai dress uniform to a simple shirt and skirt that made her look every bit the peasant. It honestly worked for her.


    "Works for me. Then I don''t have to make breakfast in the morning either," I finished dickering with the people in the market, and we set off over the bridge and to Sharinzhen-4.


    "So, what''s your goal now? Now that you have a house, I mean," she asked.


    "Well, the goal was to set up a homestead, build a house, get the garden going, make sure I can feed and clothe myself through winter. And then, once I knew I was gonna be successful at that, to find a good wife. That was kind of my dad''s advice, but at this point, I think the whole ''find a good wife'' thing is flawed logic."


    "How so?" she asked.


    "Well, if you happen to find somebody you like who also makes a good wife, then you''re good. The problem is, at least as far as I have found so far, that everybody who makes a good wife is not necessarily the person I¡¯d wanna always be around. I''ve had several guys tell me about how good of a wife their daughters would make, and in some cases, the girls were way too damn young, like, creepy too young. I had another girl who was supposed to be a great wife, and I wanted to punch her the moment she opened her mouth."


    ¡°Tung-Mei.¡± Kaori interjected.


    "Yeah, thank you for saving me from that one. Where was I? Oh yeah. Take, uh, Wei Lin''s sister Yoko, for example. No one can argue that she wouldn''t be good wife material. She''s a great cook and she''s good with kids. As far as I know, she does all the cooking, cleaning, and sewing. To be fair, I don''t know much about her, but she comes with the whole, somebody else''s wife and has children thing. Assuming Shinichi is dead and assuming we weren''t at a deficit of men here, would anybody pick Yoko over someone they found more interesting just because she would make a good wife?"


    "Sure, but again, she does have children and is still technically married unless you know whether or not Shinichi is still alive."


    I shook my head. "My guess is he''s not, but I''m gonna stay out of that. So look at Wei Lin then, as far as I can tell, she cooks, cleans, does all the gardening work, all the other wifely duty stuff. I don''t particularly know if she''s good with children, but probably is. So there you have a girl who is good wife material."


    "She''s pretty too," Kaori added.


    "Sure, but I unfortunately have the, uh, mental image of her being fourteen."


    "How old is she?¡±


    "She''s like nineteen or twenty, but I don''t know, I met her when she was sick, and she just seemed like a small child, and I just, you know, I just haven''t gotten the image out of my head. Anyway, the point was I''ve spent a lot of time with Wei Lin, and while I like her in general as a person, I never think, ''Oh, yay, I get to be around Wei Lin.'' She is good wife material. Just not really a partner. Does that make sense?"


    "Yeah, I think so. So who''s someone you like being around?"


    "Well, I liked Lia."


    Kaori laughed.


    "Yep. Obviously that''s not gonna work out. But she''s interesting. She''s fun to be around. So she would make a better partner. However, I could not for the life of me picture her cooking, cleaning, and taking care of children. Not good wife material. Good person, but not a good wife."


    "Yeah, I get it. So, the problem is you need to find somebody who is a good partner and also happens to be good or at least reasonable at the domestic stuff."


    "Essentially, yes."


    "Chui." Kaori said.


    I had to stop and think about where I heard the name before. It sounded very familiar. "Number three?"


    "Number three?"


    "Uh, the girl who is number three in line to sleep with me at the festival."


    "Yeah, her. She seems to like you. She''s got most of those good wifely qualities. She''s very attractive. She''s fun to be around, and she''s kind of an amateur seamstress which fits right into your whole little work a lot and stuff."


    "I''m sensing a ''but.''"


    "But... she seems to have it in her head that you and I are magically going to end up together, and she doesn''t want to screw it up for me."


    "Sounds like a good friend."


    "Yeah, the best, I think."


    "What about the other kitsune girls?"


    "Luli is kind of on the amateur side of my cousin''s stuff. Basically, she''s just a nympho. Izumi, well, she had a lot to drink. She gets like that. Yumiko isn''t really interested in anybody. And Chie and Koko have got something worked out with Huan, and the three of them are pooling their resources together to move to some place where polygamy is legal."


    "Wait, polygamy isn¡¯t legal?"


    "Not for us peons."


    Well that made sense. Obviously, the samurai lords and higher-ups would be legally allowed to have more than one wife. ¡°So is it polygamy or polyamory?"


    "What''s polyamory?"


    "Is it that both girls are just with Huan or are they with Huan and each other as well?"


    "I think it''s just polygamy. But I didn''t know there was a third option. How does that work?"


    "You mean legally? I don''t know, call it polygamy and just look the other way."


    "Huh?"


    "Ok. So Lia¡¯s out," Kaori said, getting back to the original topic. "But I think another option would be to go with somebody that you liked and just made enough money that you could hire someone like Yoko to do your cooking and cleaning."


    "Well, there''s a thought. She could use the disposable income, and it''s not like she lives far away."


    "Right. So you can focus on finding someone you actually like and just outsource the whole wife stuff."


    "Sure. Doesn''t really help me with the whole Lia thing. Oh, hey, I got a question for you. Can you cook?"


    Kaori laughed. "Not as well as my dad."


    We both laughed and continued walking towards Sharinzhen-4, discussing the merits of various girls in a way far more like guys would than a guy and the girl I had tried to date a week ago. I always thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with Kaori and realized far too late that most of the things I liked about Lia were things I attributed to Kaori as well.


    I¡¯d considered myself lucky if I could find a girl like her in this town, preferably without a tail. I liked the horns; I was kind of into the horns. But the tail and ears of a kitsune, I think it was a little too dog-like for me.


    Once we arrived at my house, we set to work, cleaning and chopping up the vegetables, laughing and chatting about a whole lot of nothing as we turned meat, potatoes, and carrots into a dish to be served with rice. My new Kalan worked great. I''d have to remember to thank Saito again. We had dinner on the wood floor of my still very barren house and continued shooting the shit for a while longer.


    At some point, just like last time, Kaori and I found ourselves pressed into each other, lips pressed together, tongues dancing, hands groping. This wasn''t a date. There was no question of whether or not we were going to end up together. We were not, and without the expectation, there were no questions to kill the mood.


    Kaori was soft and warm and sweet. Utterly delicious.


    Again, I walked Kaori back to the town proper, though this time, it was far more cheerful, and the vibrant teasing nature continued all the way to her door. We said our goodbyes, and I headed home. I tried to ignore the twisting knot in my stomach. We had decided for certain that we were not going to end up together, and I kind of resented that certainty.

 Chapter 13: Good News from Abroad

    There are two types of societies so the scholars say. Convergent and Divergent. Anoria is divergent. A multiracial empire that has always been, but is that true. There are two naming conventions in the Ityean culture. Your Yoko''s, Saito''s, and Yuji''s are separate from your Wei Lin''s, Meng Su''s, and Hong Ri''s. Language suggests anywhere from three to six different influences. So I propose that there is no such thing as Divergent Societies.


    - Kuya Tio on The Briefest of Anorian Histories, Kuya Tio¡¯s Guide to a Healthy and Happy Homestead.


    "Yuji Han. Is that right?"


    I took my change from the person at the market stall before turning towards a vaguely familiar sounding voice, unsure of who was actually speaking to me. The long, gently curving white horns and violet eyes gave the woman away. "Yeah, Ling Su, correct?"


    She smiled. "That''s right. What brings you to the market?"


    I looked down at her basket full of vegetables and some empty canning jars. "Likely the same as you."


    She looked down at my basket and giggled. "Yeah, I suppose."


    I moved out from in front of the market stalls so we''d not be in the way. Ling Su moved a strand of hair out of her face, which was a considerably more difficult ordeal for her than any other race due to the long horns.


    "Ah, forgive me for prying," she started, "but there was a rumor that you were with Kaori, is that true?"


    "Uh, that was true," I tried to put extra emphasis on the ''was.''


    "Oh, so you are courting her now?"


    "No, nothing like that." This is one of those situations where I was starting to think I wasn''t in the same conversation again. I started this fairly confident she was talking about the rumor that I had slept with Kaori and now I suddenly wasn''t so sure.


    ¡°Oh, are you still with Wei Lin then?"


    She sounded slightly confused. "Wei Lin?"


    "Yeah, you were with her at the festival. You''re courting her then?"


    "No, I went with the whole family to the festival. Saito and Yoko sat down to watch the show and we just kind of toured around a bit."


    "So you''re not dating Wei Lin?"


    "No, never dated Wei Lin."


    "Huh? I thought you two were a couple on account she kept hanging on to you like she was afraid you''d wander off."


    I opened my mouth to say something, but that kind of hit me. Wei Lin had been hanging on to me; she¡¯d been acting rather weird for quite a while. I closed my mouth, and Ling Su laughed at whatever expression I had apparently made.


    "So if you''re not taken at the moment, care to walk and talk?" She turned, gave me a smile and a head movement, and I took that as my cue to pop up beside her.


    "Where to?"


    "Well, I''m about ready to head home, but being as I live on the exact opposite side of the city from you, walking me home might be pushing courtesy too far."


    "End of the rice fields?" I asked.


    Ling Su held her chin up, her head slightly cocked to the side as she made a show of considering my offer. She gave me a slight nod and said, "That sounds reasonable."


    We walked and talked until we were out of the town proper and across the rice fields. Even before we made it to the tree line, I had already determined that Ling Su was not the girl for me. There was nothing specifically wrong with her, and this really didn''t fall into the wood or would not make a good wife. We just clearly weren''t clicking in the way that I would expect and I found her almost noble way of speaking to be a bit annoying. She would go be good for a social encounter, but that would be about it. And clearly, she thought the same of me.


    "Well, Yuji, thank you for walking a lady this far, and I am a bit curious. Are you sure there''s nothing between you and Wei Lin?"


    "No, she made it clear she wasn''t interested long ago."


    Ling Su gave me a smile as though I were an idiot. "A girl can change her mind, you know." With that, she gave me a wave and started homeward.


    I stood there for a moment watching her go and thinking about that. Wei Lin had been acting very strangely. Was it possible that she had changed her mind on the whole not interested thing? She was now playing the shy girl who didn''t know how to speak up. To be fair she had always been quiet, but now it was like talking was suddenly painful. I thought about it on my way back into the town proper where I picked up some meat before I started my own trek home. Like always, I stopped on the bridge and looked over the edge, basket sat next to me and my arms on the rails, the soft babbling of the stream just seemed calm. It was a good place to relax and think and judging by the other people that often stopped in various places along the bridge and looked over the edge, I clearly wasn''t the only one.


    "Hello Yuji, contemplating the future?"


    This was a voice I instantly recognized. I turned to look at her, and while the face matched exactly who I thought it was, it was always weird to see Yoko without her two children.


    "Yeah, basically. Who''s watching the kids?"


    ¡°Wei Lin.¡± She set her basket down next to mine and joined me looking over the rail.


    "Contemplating work or women?"


    "Is there a difference?"


    Yoko chuckled. "Maybe, maybe not. I suppose it depends on the woman."


    "Say I had a question I wanted to ask you anyway. This is not really a ¡®right now thing,¡¯ but if I start making money instead of just spending it, would you be interested in basic maid work, cooking, cleaning, that sort of thing?"


    Yoko tilted her head upward a bit in consideration. A stray strand of hair and the hem of her skirt swayed gently in a slight breeze, and she had a serene smile plastered on her face as though she was quite satisfied with her life at this point.


    "Maybe." Yoko nodded slightly. "I suppose if the price is right."


    "Like I said, not a ¡®right now thing.¡¯"


    "What brings you to the question?"


    Talking about women. Dad''s advice was to find a good wife, but I seem to be attracted to girls who might possibly not make great wives. At least not in the traditional cooking, cleaning sort of thing.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    "Oh? Like who?"


    Well, in the most extreme example, Lia.


    Yoko giggled.


    "Yeah, I know. Well, I know now. Point is the, attracted to somebody who would not be a good traditional wife."


    "Anyone else?"


    I hesitated slightly before answering. "Kaori, I don''t honestly know if she''s wife material or not. Everything I''ve eaten with her has been made by her father."


    "I see. What about my sister?"


    "Well, my first introduction to Wei Lin was when she was sick. I thought she was somewhere between twelve and fourteen, and I still see her as being fourteen. I know that''s not fair, but also, she told me early on she wasn''t interested."


    "Girls change their mind, you know."


    "And that''s the second time I''ve been told that today. And Wei Lin has been acting weird."


    Yoko didn''t say anything, only simply nodded.


    "I''m gonna have to talk to her about it. Ain''t I?"


    "She''s tried to talk to you a couple of times, though, clearly with no success."


    "I also don''t find her very interesting.¡±


    ¡°Not attractive enough?"


    "No, Wei Lin''s pretty, just kind of..." How do I say she was dull without offending her sister? "Boring."


    Yoko chuckled and stepped back from the railing.


    "Yes. Perhaps a bit boring. She picked up her basket, ¡°I''ll be heading home. See you."


    "Well, if you''d like the company, I''m heading that way too."


    "That would be pleasurable. I would welcome the company."


    ¡°I¡¯ll carry your basket.¡±


    ¡°I can carry my own basket.¡± She argued.


    ¡°But you¡¯re pregnant.¡±


    ¡°I still have several months before I can¡¯t carry my own damn basket home.¡±


    ¡°Sure, but if I don¡¯t carry your basket for you I may lose the favor of your father.¡±


    Yoko clearly considered that for a long moment before giving in. ¡°Fine, if you¡¯re so intent on wooing my father.¡±


    Yoko was pleasant to talk to, but I always felt a bit uneasy around her. Listening to her talk, it sounded like she would be giving birth sometime in the early winter. That is to say, nine months after I arrived in Sharinzhen. The thought that I may have heard her become impregnated made my gut churn. We talked a lot about nothing and our conversion was prematurely interrupted by an Akumajin delivery boy. The kid passed us by, walking much faster than Yoko¡¯s pace, but slowed to do a double take at Yoko. He shifted the box in his arms around to look at the tag.


    ¡°Hey. Aren''t you Yoko Xiao?¡±


    ¡°I am.¡± Yoko said, coming to a stop.


    ¡°And you¡¯re living with your dad again? Saito?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    The boy shifted his weight around as he brought up the box and with a stupid grin and handed it to Yoko. Yoko took the thing looking, seemingly confused. Really? The boy should have done his job in taking it all the way to the Xiao household, not just handed it to the first person in the family he came across, especially on account of she was pregnant and it looked like a rather heavy box. I was trying to decide if I should say to the boy. At the very least, I would exchange Yoko¡¯s basket and carry the box. Instead, Yoko took off running, both myself and the kid stared after her as she sprinted down the road to Sharinzhen-4 cradling the box like it was one of her children. I looked at the kid, and he shrugged.


    "See you." The kid said before turning back to Sharinzhen Proper and leaving me on the road with both mine and Yoko''s baskets.


    I tore off down the road after Yoko, but couldn''t quite keep pace as I was trying to keep everything still in their baskets. She must have eventually run out of breath because she''d slowed down into a jog which allowed me to catch up, but her breathing was too ragged to talk. We got a lot of looks as we both ran through the village.


    Yoko let out a raspy, "Dad!" as she entered the Xiao household. Noticing something was wrong, Saito shot up, only to have Yoko run into him box first. Saito looked down at the package in his arms as Yoko bent over, her hands on her knees and trying to catch her breath. Wei Lin looked startled and I wondered what the hell was going on as Saito''s eyes were getting larger.


    Saito dropped to the floor, his fingers grasping at the edge of the box frantically trying to rip the thing open, apparently to no avail. He tore off out the back door and toward his shop, not bothering to put his shoes on. I stood in the entry looking confused. "Um," I said mostly just to get somebody''s attention. Wei Lin looked at me, and I held up Yoko''s basket. She looked from me, to the box, to where her dad had just gone, back to the box, and then back to me before deciding to actually come get the basket, which she promptly moved like five steps and placed on the floor.


    Saito came back in with a small pry bar and started tearing at the box. I didn''t know if I should stay or go. I was extraordinarily curious, but this didn''t seem to be a party to which I was invited.


    Saito got the box open by the time I stepped outside the door, and I had my hand on it so I could slide it shut. He pulled out the first scroll and started reading out loud.


    "Father, firstly, I''d like to say that I''m alive and well. I''m sure you''ve been quite worried about me and not being able to get you a message for so long left me with a knot in my stomach worrying that you''d be worrying about me. Secondly, I must apologize as sending a single package is very expensive, I would humbly request that you do your best to find the owners of the other messages placed in this box."


    I shut the door. Saito had tears in his eyes and was barely keeping his composure. The baby had started crying, and Yoko''s little boy seemed rather nervous as he too clearly didn''t know what was going on. This wasn''t a place I should be right now. Good news was, it sounded like the eldest Xiao kid was still alive. So, despite the way everybody was acting now, I figured they''d be quite pleased tomorrow, and I''ll probably hear all about it.


    I indeed did get to hear all about it. Hon Ri Xiao had been taken prisoner at the final battle in the Bloody Plains where he had been branded and sold as a contract slave to some foreign nation, nearly a month''s ride by ship. The owner of his new contract ran a mercenary company. Hon Ri was both low-ranked and underpaid as he was a contract slave, and he hadn''t fully learned the language yet. Him and a bunch of other guys had pulled their resources together to send a large box of messages, which even now Saito was trying to get sent out to their correct recipients.


    Overall, the Xiao household was in a great mood. I figure any sort of closure would have been helpful, but knowing that their son and sibling was alive and doing fairly well had lifted a massive weight off the entire family. I can''t even imagine how that would feel.


    Today was one of the days that I weeded the rice paddies with Wei Lin. It would also be one of the last days I would be weeding. It was also the day I decided to confront her about her new attitude around me. However, the last time we weeded the fields was still fresh in my memory, and I was waiting until we were at least starting with the last one before I bought anything up because honestly, I was nervous.


    "A¡¯te, a question?"


    Wei Lin physically winced at the word. "Yeah?" she asked, not looking up from her work.


    "What''s going on?" I asked.


    "What do you mean?" she responded.


    "I mean, you''ve been acting weird since one of the days we had lunch with Lia," I explained.


    For a moment, I thought she was ignoring me. "That''s fine. Don''t worry about it," she said.


    "A¡¯te, a question?" I repeated.


    Wei Lin slowly stood up, stretching her back and rotating. She turned to me. She looked like she was in pain and took a deep breath. "Can you please stop calling me that?" she requested.


    "Wei Lin, what changed?" I asked.


    Her mouth opened and closed a couple of times, and her hands waved in various directions as she tried to find a place to start. She seemed to give up as her shoulders slumped, and her eyes fell to the water we were both standing in. "Can we just start over?"


    "Start over? How?"


    "I don''t know, just," she scratched the back of her neck, "Hi. My name is Wei Lin Xiao. I''m 20 years old. I have an older brother and sister. I live on my dad''s farm. How are you?" She looked up at me through her bangs. Her expression caught somewhere between sick, in pain, and hopeful.


    "Okay. I am Yuji Han, 24. I''m from Lianzhen. I have four younger siblings, two boys and two girls. I''m probably nothing like my uncle Lo Bao Han, who is the same Lo Bao Han that let the king die, whether you are okay with that or not," I said, throwing Wei Lin something of a bone.


    She graced me with a smile. "Thank you."


    "Honestly, not sure that''s gonna change much," I admitted. "But I am curious, what changed?"


    Wei Lin shook her head. "I don''t know. I just, I never gave you a chance, and I was sitting there while Lia was completely oblivious to you trying to flirt with her, and you were completely oblivious to her flirting with me, and you had said some things, and I just kind of realized I never gave you a chance. I just kind of dismissed you immediately, and I fucked up. And it turns out you''re, I don''t know, what I''d like in a guy, I think."


    "Okay. Well, it might be difficult on my end. I kind of got this vision in my head of you being a lot younger than you are," I explained.


    "Younger? How young?" she asked.


    "Fourteen."


    "Fourteen? I''m not that short!" she shouted.


    ¡°I know it''s just that..."


    ¡°Fourteen!"


    Well, shit. Now she was getting angry.


    ¡°What about me looks fourteen?" She gestured vaguely to her face and chest area, and the short answer was nothing.


    "I don''t know. It''s just that..."


    "Do I act fourteen?"


    "No."


    "Fuck." She started storming off back towards the Xiao household while muttering. "Fucking fourteen. I am not that fucking short."


    I knew she was gonna get angry and storm off, and once again, I was left shin-deep in a rice paddy that needed to be weeded. This woman, I swear.

 Chapter 14: Harvest

    Fall is often the busiest time of year with only Spring coming close. The garden needs harvesting and preservation. Seeds need collecting and saving. The Harvest of the fields is in full swing. Like most grains, rice requires much in the way of processing to become edible and it requires more processing to be storeable for the long term. Woe be to those who slack in the process, lest all your work be for not and your food spoils and leads to starvation.


    - Kuya Tio on Avoiding Horrible Homestead Happenings, Kuya Tio¡¯s Guide to a Healthy and Happy Homestead.


    The remainder of summer seemed to pass in a blur while I was still working my rear end off, practically every day. All the looming deadlines seemed to have been put on hold. I still had the routine of work, tending to the rice paddies for myself, Saito, and the village, as well as Militia training and continuing to try to insulate and clay over the walls of my house. The firewood pile grew, as did my pile of shaft material for arrows, no longer being fed by the Xiao household, I found myself in the town proper more often to pick up the various ingredients that I couldn''t yet produce or trade with my neighbors for, which was great because honestly, it meant a lot of time spent with Kaori. We had a lot of fun picnics out by the river, walks along the rice paddies, and, in one scenario, getting caught in a downpour out by the forest shrine. We had been absolutely soaked through and couldn''t do anything but laugh.


    But summer was clearly coming to an end. The mornings were starting to have a bit of chill, and the leaves were changing from their vibrant green to the yellows, oranges, and reds of their fall colors. Again, the rush with its deadline of winter started pushing me to work harder. The fire pile got even larger, my second rice paddy became deforested, and the garden vegetables were ready to be processed, which brought me to my current scenario.


    Yoko poured a mixture of hot water and vinegar into a jar stuffed with chunks of tomatoes while I was busy pulling out the tomatoes from their hot water bath and squeezing them in such a way that they just kind of slid out of the skins. I had no idea that if you cooked tomatoes, the skins would fall off. I had a butt load of tomatoes, and Yoko was taking her time to show me how to can them for the winter. Something I had not really considered beyond just stockpiling some rice, which, of course, was absolutely foolish. It honestly showed just how much of a city person I was. There was no way I could eat all the tomatoes as they were growing now, and that went for the other vegetables. I knew how to ferment cabbage, but a lot of the other stuff was beyond me.


    Yoko picked up a jar and inspected it, glaring at the rim like it had done her dirty.


    "Something wrong with the jar?" I asked because I had no idea why she was so intent on it.


    "Huh? Oh, no. Just wondering how they made them all the same," she said before placing the jar down and starting to slide cut-up tomatoes into it.


    "Enchanted casts," I said.


    "What?"


    "They use a cast or a, uh, like a mold that''s enchanted to help it cool down and not stick to the mold. They just dump the molten glass and squish it in there and cut off the leftovers, then it cools."


    "Oh, that sounds expensive."


    "Well, a little bit, but if the factory is running at full operation, that''s what, three 10-hour shifts a day, six days a week, five weeks a month, ten months a year. I''m sure it adds up."


    Yoko cocked an eyebrow at me and then said, "And what about these lids? Do they use an enchanted mold for them too?" She asked, sounding kind of skeptical while holding up one of the little flat lids.


    ¡°No, they roll out the metal into a giant sheet and then use a large press to cut out the little circles. The leftovers of the sheet go back into the furnace or forge or whatever; it gets recycled into the next sheet. As far as I know.¡± I pointed to the mechanism that held the lids in place. ¡°That all basically gets extruded through a little hole like noodles via a large machine and then bent in the shape before it is treated to be more solid. I don''t think there''s any magic involved, but I could be wrong.¡±


    Yoko filled the jar up with the mixture of water and vinegar, placed the metal latching mechanism on, followed by a flat lid waxed around the edges, and it all locked into place. This was set inside of a water bath canner, which essentially was just a pot with water in it set over the Kalan.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    "You know all these things, but not how to can tomatoes?" she said.


    "Well, I''ve never had to can tomatoes."


    Yoko shook her head, her beaded earrings swaying back and forth. ¡°You know so much about things that are not important."


    I opened my mouth to protest, but paused when I realized she might actually be right. I had no idea how to grow rice or can tomatoes or honestly, a whole lot of different things that I needed to know in order to survive. I knew a lot of terms and a lot of stuff that I never actually touched, such as how the glass jars were all made exactly the same. Shit. She''s probably right.


    ¡°Well, I think you¡¯ve got this now.¡± She said, drying off her hands and giving me a smile before heading home.


    I did have it. It really wasn¡¯t that hard.


    The harvest season was a bit longer drawn out than I would have expected. We got together as a village in the same way we had done for planting. However, it was considerably easier as all the fields had been drained and the ground was dry. With serrated sickles in hand, we hand-cut and laid all the paddies far quicker than it had taken to plant them. Some people would come behind us, gather all the sheaths of rice together, and bind them into large bundles which would be carried off and stacked upside down in little rice towers where they would spend the next month drying. From there, the fields were seeded with winter rye grain, and that apparently marked the easy part of the harvest.


    Once done in the village, the process was repeated for both the Xiao household and my own. My little pile of rice created a considerably smaller tower than even Saito''s. But this tower was mine and after a whole summer soaking in water, some of those tree stumps fell to the ax quite well. I''d have far more space for planting next year. And that''s without including the now cleared out upper paddy.


    The actual harvest procedures didn''t really start until the leaves started changing colors and the air became cool. Once again, we assembled as a village, and the rice bundles were brought down from their towers and placed in piles where we started somewhat of a friendly competition.


    There were multiple ways to remove the rice kernels from the sheaths or thresh them. The most basic way was to lay them out over a mat and beat them. That was, of course, the low-tech way. The village essentially had large combs, and when the sheath was run through, it would strip the grains off and leave them in a pile. We worked in 15-minute intervals, seeing which person of the three combs could strip the most rice in the allotted time. It was kind of boring and monotonous, as well as physically taxing, and making the procedure a game really helped. There was a lot of cheering for the winners, and whoever won this little competition got to sit out on the next step as his or her rice grains were then brought to the hauling machine.


    The hauling machine was essentially a couple of barrels built in such a way that the top spun and of course, that top spun by manpower.As I had lost the threshing competition, I was stuck spinning the hauler. It was some type of grinding mechanism that I didn''t quite understand, but un-hulled rice went in the top, and hulled rice and chaff came out the bottom.


    Once that was completed, the rice was then scooped up and put into a winnowing machine which, again, had to be spun by manpower. This essentially was a big fan. Rice was dropped in through the top. The big fan was spun, and the chaff blew out. The rice which pulled at the bottom and was now hulled and chaff-less, and was then brought to polishing. Polishing was again another mechanism. This one more boring than threshing without the competition going on. Essentially, the rice sat in a bucket, and a foot pump, seesaw type thing, pressed a squared off log into the bucket to polish the rice. This had to be done quite a lot and pretty much took forever.


    Once the whole process was complete, I got a small break, and then it was back to separating the grains from the sheaths. Once again. It took an entire week, but it left us with a considerable amount of sacks of rice. The whole thing piled up in the village storage shed to be counted and gone through and eventually sent off to wherever the hell it went. That was essentially our taxes, and while people felt pretty good about the haul this year, it only meant that they were hoping they didn''t have to pay as much.


    Once the village farm work was done, it was off to the Xiao household and then to do my own. Saito didn''t have the big comb thing. So, we were stuck threshing by beating the grains. This was a job performed in turn by myself, Wei Lin, and Saito, with the little boy Ren, taking up a couple of turns with the big stick. That was kind of adorable. Saito did have one of the barrel huller-type things though, which I guess made sense on account of Saito made barrels. Polishing was done much the same as it was in the village, except we had to assemble the machine. Once we finished with Saito''s grain, I then got to move over to my grain, which I did completely by myself.


    In the end, I managed to fill almost three full sacks of rice from my field. All in all, it wasn''t a terrible haul. When you consider the fact that I got some from that upper field of Saito''s, things were looking pretty good. Almost three sacks from my field was not quite enough to feed a single person for a year, but Saito¡¯s upper field, which was originally going to be barren, produced nine full sacks. Half of that was mine to keep, which totaled up to about seven and a half sacks of finished, polished white rice. Pretty much exactly enough to feed two people for about a year. Every year would get better as my quarter Rai got closer to max capacity. I could also seed it with a winter grain and maybe get some wheat out of it, though Saito and Kuya Tio¡¯s Guide argued against the idea for a few years. All in all. I think I made it. Only thing left to do is enjoy the Harvest Festival.

 Chapter 15: Harvest Festival

    I don¡¯t know what to write here.


    - Kuya Tio on Questioning this top part of every chapter, Kuya Tio¡¯s Guide to a Healthy and Happy Homestead.


    I approached the storehouse with Saito, my coin purse safely tucked into a pocket. I didn''t know how much this was going to cost me, but I knew it was going to hurt. The line that was forming up in front of the storehouse had a considerably more nervous aura than I would have expected. The people at the front of the line were muttering quietly to each other, and I had the weird sense that something was wrong. I looked to Saito, who looked back at me with the same confused look. One of the village ladies came out of the storehouse with a small sack cradled in her arms and tears in her eyes. Somebody asked her what was going on, but she just sniffled and shook her head with somewhat of a grin while walking off. Saito''s brows were scrunched up in an expression of confused concentration. I felt like he knew what was going on, but didn''t want to say anything. The next guy to come out of the storeroom lacked both the sack and the tears. He had an expression as though he wasn''t sure if he should be happy or sad, and he just kind of looked at the line and nodded. He got heckled a bit more than the woman, but said nothing.


    As the line moved forward, the next person came out with an excited grin plastered on his face and gave one word to everybody''s stares, "rebate!" The muttering at the front of the line increased as we moved forward. Eventually, it was Saito''s and then my turn to enter.


    ¡°Ah, Saito,¡± said Meng Su as he flipped a few pages in his book and started going down the line, "Six point five."


    "What exactly is going on?" Saito asked as he watched Meng Su''s wife dump 6.5 large scoops of rice into a bag.


    "Tax cuts. Apparently. You can thank our New Lord," Meng Su said, pointing to a picture on the wall that looked like the same one I had seen most of my life. The Akumajin in the image was the younger version of his father, and I briefly wondered how they managed to get his image all the way out here already.


    "He''s not even king yet. Is he?" Saito asked.


    "Don''t know, don''t care." Meng Su said, turning his attention to me. "Um, Han Yuji. Two."


    Saito received his sack of rice and gave a short bow to the picture of the soon-to-be king before exiting the building. I followed suit and rushed to catch up with him.


    "Is everything ok?"


    Saito didn''t speak for a moment. "We haven''t had a rebate in over a decade."


    "Well, that''s good. Right?"


    "Yes, it''s just so unexpected. The taxes have been getting worse year after year."


    It was an odd feeling to have people so confused about getting something back. This wasn''t something I ever had to deal with in the city. Then again, most of my taxes were withheld from my income and I never really got to touch it. Here, I literally had to give at least a month''s worth of work, and then everybody had apparently expected to pay more. I just had to shrug. I didn''t have a frame of reference for this.


    Similar to the summer festival, I met up with the Xiao household, and we walked to town together. For the most part, they all wore the same clothes, including the kind of stupid-looking square hat on Saito''s head. The only real difference was that they were all dressed a bit warmer, and apparently masks were a thing for this particular festival. Both Yoko and Wei Lin wore a flexible beaded headdress that covered most of their faces, though I can only assume that the constant swaying had gotten annoying as both of them had taken the mask off very shortly after we started down the road. Yoko''s little boy Ren wore a leather mask shaped and painted to make it look like he had a large mustache and a beard. It was honestly kind of hilarious.


    Like last time, Wei Lin kept between me and everybody else, and like last time, we separated, with Saito, Yoko, and family going one way and Wei Lin and I touring the area. The Fall Festival had a slightly different vibe. There were still lanterns hung everywhere along with banners and streamers, and the smell of food was pervasive. Several small bands were playing various forms of music on multiple corners, and a large mannequin that resembled a carabao composed of rice stalks and thrush was being set up on the edge of town near the river.


    As we walked through the streets, we were almost run over by some type of monster, a caribou skull on a pole that trailed fabric and streamers, weaving its way through the streets like some type of creepy undead bull-centipede thing.


    "What the hell is up with that?" I asked Wei Lin because, like, what the hell?


    "I think there''s supposed to be some sort of story where one of the founders of the city plowed the fields with an undead bull. Originally, it was just two people running around with a skull, but at some point, a while back, a bunch of people decided they wanna be in on it, and the thing got longer every year," Wei Lin explained. Not that I quite understood.


    There was a poke on my side and the familiar, "hey."


    "Hey," I replied, as was both habit and the running butt of a joke that didn''t really matter. Though when I looked down at Kaori, I was a bit surprised to see what was staring back up at me. Kaori was wearing an Ao Dai that was a light blue color and had a black lightning motif running across it. Strapped to her face was a leather mask of a catlike skull flaunting an evil grin, and while the mask was bone white, it too had the black lightning motif, continuing up from the dress and across the face.


    Kaori leaned around me and looked towards Wei Lin. "Hey, Wei Lin."


    "Kaori," Wei Lin greeted far less enthusiastically.


    "Would you be terribly upset with me if I borrowed Yuji for a while?"


    Wei Lin looked pained as her jaw worked back and forth for a few moments before replying, "Not terribly."


    "Great. Thank you, Wei Lin," Kaori said as she pulled me. I hadn''t quite noticed that Wei Lin had been attached to my sleeve, and she seemed reluctant to let me go, but did so as Kaori pulled me away.


    "Uh-oh, looks like Wei Lin''s got a thing for you," Kaori teased.


    "Yeah, unfortunately for her, it''s not reciprocated," I replied.


    "Too bad. You''re quite cute together. What exactly do you find unappealing?" Kaori asked.


    "Well, for one, she''s boring," I stated.


    Kaori laughed, that brilliant laugh of hers that ended in snorts. Hell, I was growing to really like that laugh. "Well, I suppose that would be a drawback to the whole farm girl thing, right?" she said.


    "I don''t know. Yoko seems perfectly fine. She''s basically the same farm girl," I responded.


    "What do you mean?"


    "Out of all the people in this town, I have known Wei Lin possibly the longest, and I literally know nothing about her, or I know everything about her, and it''s extraordinarily boring. Like she has no opinions and no sense of humor, whereas Yoko does have opinions and does have a sense of humor. And I honestly know more about Yoko, though I''ve only talked to her like a handful of times."


    "Huh, yeah, I guess it does seem a bit odd."


    "So where are we going?" I asked.


    "Over by the games," Kaori said, dragging me further down an alley and into the other street where there were indeed booths set up with different various games. A lot of it seemed to be designed for young children, but there were a few more skill-based things that some of the older guys and girls were testing out. It was a bit odd because they didn''t require money and they didn''t have prizes. Literally, the only reward was whether or not you got your name up on a score board, which for a small town on the edge of the empire, I guess I could understand. It must have bragging rights or something.


    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Kaori and I played a few of the games, got something to eat, and listened to one of the bands play for a while before one of the shows on the big stage in the center square started up. As we watched the show, with Kaori pressed into my side, her mask tied to her waist as it had been uncomfortable and impossible to eat with, I looked down into her brown eyes. She looked back up at me and smiled.


    "Something wrong?" she asked, slightly teasingly.


    "I love you,¡± I thought, but had the good sense to say, "No."


    Kaori must have recognized something in my face because her eyes drifted down to our interlocked fingers and then back up at me. Her smile turned into a thin line, and her ears drooped. "I''ve got some things I need to do. I''ll see you later," she said, and with that, she pulled away and walked off into the crowd.


    I know I fucked up. We had been spending a lot of time together because honestly, I got along with her and I liked her. Though our time spent was always with the understanding that we would never end up together and thus would not develop feelings for each other, which was clearly just a bullshit excuse. I didn''t really know about her, but I sure was feeling something.


    I spent the next couple of hours wandering around in a funk, partially angry, partially anxious, and partially just confused and conflicted. I followed along with the crowd as most of the village seemed to be heading towards the edge of town, towards the Carabao effigy. It was at this time I saw one of Kaori''s friends who made eye contact with me then split off in a different direction as soon as she noted my existence. That was strange, and I honestly couldn''t remember which one that was, but either they were all avoiding me or she went to go find Kaori and tell her where I was located. I partially was hoping it was the second, but even then, I''m not certain that would be a good thing.


    Someone lit the effigy on fire, and it seemed like the whole village was singing some variant of a vaguely familiar song that I could only assume was local. That''s about the time when I noticed Kaori coming at me. A good part of me was happy to see her again. The rest of me noted the expression on her face and was absolutely terrified.


    "Hey," she said.


    "Hey," I replied.


    She reached up with both hands, grabbed my head, and pulled me down while simultaneously pushing herself up on her toes until we locked lips in a brief kiss where clearly more was wanted, but it didn''t happen. She pulled away and looked at me with sad eyes. The expression made sadder by the angle of her ears.


    "Is that hello or goodbye?" I wanted to kick myself for asking. I already knew the damn answer. Part of me just wanted the explanation from her out of some sick sense of satisfaction.


    "Goodbye. We''re getting too close. It''s just gonna hurt more later," she said as she started stepping back.


    I wanted to be so pissed at her, though I knew she was right. She gave me the briefest of forced smiles before turning away and disappearing back in the town while I watched her go, the light from the burning effigy behind me casting long flickering shadows. Why did all these festivals suck?


    I didn''t see much reason to stick around, so I started heading home, stopping on the bridge on the way out like I always did so I could look down into the dark water and watch the reflection of the moon play off the ripples. All these festivals sucked.


    I don''t know how long I had stood there before someone came up beside me and started climbing the rails to look over the edge with me. I didn''t pay any attention to the kid for a few minutes before a question with Wei Lin''s voice attached came from practically right next to my head.


    "You okay?"


    That kid, of course, had been Wei Lin, which kind of made me feel bad for thinking of her as a kid, but she was short. "I guess Kaori and I broke up," I admitted.


    "I didn''t know you were dating."


    "Yeah, well, we kind of weren''t."


    "How can you break up then?"


    "It''s complicated," I replied, and she did not respond back.


    A minute or so later, Wei Lin climbed further up on the railing, turned herself around so she could sit on top and locked her legs into the middle bar so she couldn''t fall backward into the water. For another few minutes we just sat there, me leaning against the rail looking into the water, and Wei Lin sitting on the rail looking in the opposite direction. She didn''t say anything, and neither did I.


    "Why did you hang around her if you already knew it wasn''t going to work out?" Wei Lin asked.


    "I don''t know, because I liked her."


    "I don''t get it. Is Kaori that attractive?"


    That honestly seemed like an odd question, but I answered anyway. "Kaori is not unattractive. There''s nothing specifically special about her, kind of plain, really."


    "So it''s just that you liked her as a person?"


    "Yes."


    The water beneath us babbled as the occasional person walked across the bridge heading home, and the moon slowly shifted in its course across the sky.


    "Am I attractive?" Wei Lin asked.


    I had a sigh. I really didn''t get what the hell Wei Lin was on about here. "Yes, you''re very pretty."


    "But you don''t seem to wanna hang out with me."


    OK, this conversation was just getting weirder. I knew Wei Lin had acquired some type of thing for me, but the questions themselves didn''t seem to be exactly adding up. "Well, it''s not always about being attractive, Wei Lin."


    "Is it sex?"


    "No, what the hell, Wei Lin?" I finally looked up at her to see her glaring at the decking of the bridge.


    "Yuji, I am broken."


    "You''re not broken, you''re just¡­"


    "No, I am broken. I just can''t get people. You''re all just so weird. Why am I not good to hang around?"


    "Because, Wei Lin, you have no personality."


    "Explain. Please."


    "Explain? You have no opinions. You have no desires. You don''t seem to like anything. You don''t ever joke. You''re very good with all the mundane things that need to be done. But honestly, Wei Lin, I''ve seen you practically every day for the last six months or so and I know more about your sister, and I''ve only had like, a handful of conversations with her. I know her favorite food. I know what plays she likes to watch. I know her favorite season. The only thing I know about you is that you got mad at me because I had originally thought you were fourteen." The tone I used might have been kind of harsh, but I was already upset over the whole Kaori thing and now I was dealing with whatever this was.


    I turned around with my back against the railing and faced the same direction as Wei Lin, though she had her gaze plastered toward the ground, the deck. Her mouth opened and closed several times as though she had tried to say something but was completely uncertain as to what words should be coming out.


    "Well, I, uh," she started before giving another long pause. "How does a person be more interesting?"


    That was a weird question. Wei Lin was being way more weird than usual. Beyond that, I didn''t know the answer to this. "How do you be more interesting? Do you enjoy anything?" I asked because generally, people enjoy something and they tend to like to talk about that something. Sometimes that can be interesting, much in the way that most people thought Yoko had the best dumplings, that came with a story about how she used to make dumplings with her mother. Well, I personally didn''t find dumplings interesting, beyond eating them. Yoko had a passion for creating them that could, in some ways, be considered interesting.


    "I like doing beadwork," Wei Lin said, fingers brushing against the beaded mask she had been wearing that was currently hung around her neck like a particularly uncomfortable necklace.


    "You made that?"


    "Yes."


    "Did you make the necklaces you usually wear?"


    "Yes."


    "What about Yoko''s earrings?"


    "Yes."


    I threw a hand up in the air in a half-hearted expression of exasperation. "Well, there you go, Wei Lin. That''s possibly the most interesting thing you have ever told me about yourself."


    "Why is that interesting?"


    "Because it''s something about you that you actually enjoy. I didn''t know you made that stuff. I just assumed that you liked it and therefore bought it. I assume you could tell me how you make them."


    "Yes."


    "Yeah. Well, there you go. Most people like to talk about the things they like to do. You''ve never done that. Ever."


    "Oh?" There was a long pause before Wei Lin continued. "You''re right. I can''t believe I haven''t noticed."


    I had to shake my head. This conversation was weird. "Wei Lin, I''m gonna go home now. You wanna tag along?"


    "Yes." There was a pause before she tried again. "Yes, I would enjoy the company."


    The words seemed stilted and forced, and when I looked at her, she gave me a smile. It wasn''t a particularly good smile. Like her words, it seemed kind of forced, and it kind of dawned on me at that moment that Wei Lin did not smile much, and when she did, it was very slight.


    "All right, let''s go," I waited for her to unlace her legs and climb down from the rail before starting off. "Can you tell me about beadwork? How do you do that?" I asked.


    Wei Lin and I made the long trek home to Sharinzhen-4 and for a while she spoke about how to make beads and weave them together in various patterns. It was by far the most interesting thing Wei Lin had ever talked about, mostly because she seemed like she knew what she was talking about, and I had no idea how beads were made in general. Another thing of interest specifically to me was how mechanical the explanation seemed. She didn''t have any particular enthusiasm in her voice like you would expect. The words she was using implied that she enjoyed it, but her tone seemed like she was just stating something mundane, say like the procedure that the village used to thresh, de-haul, winnow, and polish rice. It made me wonder if her normal tone was somehow faked. I couldn''t see her that well via the moonlight, but as she talked, she didn''t gesture. It seemed all a bit odd.


    We said our goodnights once we arrived at her gate, the tones and motions quickly returning as if the person I had been walking back home with had not been Wei Lin. I walked into my house alone, managed to light a candle and get some heat going through the mass heater. It would likely make things a bit too warm, but if I didn''t, things would get a bit too cold. I reflected on my day so far and how horribly wrong it felt. The thought of not seeing Kaori anymore hurt, and the weirdness with Wei Lin kind of just topped it off and made the whole day seem very surreal. I closed my eyes and, in time, began a rather uncomfortable and not very restful sleep.


    Chapters after this¡­


    15: Barbarians


    Extra: A brief History of the Anorian People by Kuya Tio


    Extra: Dedication

 Chapter 16: We the Peons

    I don¡¯t know what to write here either.


    - Kuya Tio on Questioning this top part of every chapter, Kuya Tio¡¯s Guide to a Healthy and Happy Homestead.


    As fall grew colder and every morning became frost covered, the ache from the whole thing with Kaori seemed to fade. Not entirely, but enough to make it more bearable. I spent more time with Wei Lin as she was clearly trying to make an effort to be more open. I found that she was a lot more talkative as we took trips into the town proper for foodstuffs that our farms hadn¡¯t produced. Though on the occasions where she was far away from other people and it was just her and myself, she tended to lose some of the inflection in her voice, her tone becoming more monotone and cold. She also attempted joking, which was a very strange endeavor. Her humor was very dry, often delivered without a lot of inflection, and she always watched my face intently for my reaction.


    It was on one of these trips to the town proper when we were far away from other people that I started to get an actual idea of what was up with Wei Lin. Not liking the idea of being told who to like had not been the only reason she had initially pushed me away. Another reason was that she simply did not find me attractive. She wasn''t attracted to women either. It was a bit odd talking to somebody who didn''t find anyone physically attractive, but as perplexing as it was for me, it must have been horribly confusing for her. As her friends entered puberty and started talking more and more about boys, she had tried to follow along, essentially learning how to fake it as best as she could. So her opinions on anything that was attractive were mostly either based on the pure symmetry of something or simply rehashing the opinions of other people. That was not to say that she couldn''t become emotionally attracted to people. She had, in time, developed several crushes on different people, and much to her chagrin, not having the ability to be physically attracted to people left her with the issue that her emotional attraction did not discriminate between male and female.


    While Wei Lin was afraid of people figuring out that she was, in her words, ¡°broken¡±, she was absolutely terrified of being thought of as gay. I''m not exactly sure why that was a problem. Then again, I was from a city, I knew plenty of gay couples, and on an individual basis, they didn''t really seem any different than anybody else. Though, I suppose the only gay person I knew in this town was Lia, and I personally thought Lia was kind of awesome. That did bring up another point. It turns out all of Lia''s compliments about Wei Lin''s cooking and all her other chatter hadn''t exactly fallen on deaf ears. If Wei Lin herself could get over the fear of being thought of as gay, the carpenter actually had a chance.


    One of the most surprising points of Wei Lin''s whole issue set was that she had been working very hard so that nobody would know. While I could fully understand hiding some of your issues from dad; the fact that she hadn''t told her sister, and more surprisingly, the fact that none of them seemed to have actually noticed, at least not in any serious way, baffled me. I personally believed she should tell Yoko and tried to convince her to do so. There was no way walking around pretending to be a normal person when something wasn''t quite adding up could be good for your mental health.


    All this wasn''t to say that Wei Lin didn''t have emotions. They were just more muted, which also meant that every time she had gotten angry at me, most of it happened in an act because that''s how she thought she was supposed to act. It wasn''t necessarily how she felt. It was just another oddity. I can''t say that the coming month or two had made Wei Lin and me really any closer in any real sense of the word, but I did finally get over the idea of thinking she was fourteen. With someone to confide in, she was able to ask me massive amounts of questions on how she should act in various scenarios. Again, it was mostly her trying to put up an act to seem normal. While it was very strange to me, she certainly seemed more like a person.


    It was just after breakfast, a couple of days after the first snow, when I heard the village bell ringing. We hadn''t had any of the town proper Militia training days since the harvest, and I wasn''t expecting any until after spring planting. The bell meant something was wrong, and I couldn''t help but hope that this wasn''t just some stupid Samurai hunting trip where I was gonna freeze my ass off in the cold weather for some asshead lord. I got dressed for cold weather and started jogging towards town, as was my duty. Saito came around the corner of his house very shortly after I passed, and the expected rider came galloping down the road. He flew past me instead of stopping to tell me what to do. He slowed down just long enough to have a quick word with Saito, then sped off and turned into Saito''s gate. Whatever conversation they had seemed to put an extra oomph in Saito''s steps as he pounded towards me. I let them catch up.


    "What''s going on?" I asked as I fell in line beside him.


    "They are, evacuating, all non,-militia," he spat between breaths.


    "Do you know why?"


    "No."


    When we arrived at the supply depot and were handed our shields and spears, we were told to wait in formation for a whole five minutes before doing a quick march towards Sharinzhen-5. Because Five was so close to Four, we simply had to take the path opposite to the path to my house. We would be in Sharinzhen-5 probably faster than we could be in the Sharinzhen proper. I watched all the non-combatants gather together and start heading towards town proper. There was nothing we could do until we arrived most of the way to Sharinzhen-5, where the Sharinzhen-5 Militia guided us off into some fields behind a few of the houses facing the mountains.


    I stood in line, staring in stunned silence along with most of the other people in the group, as our tiny little Militia army faced a truly massive horde of people.


    "Who are they?" I quietly asked Saito as we stood on one end of the field facing the horde on the other.


    Saito stood scratching his beard and examining the distinct groups through narrowed eyes. Relief washed over me when he sighed and gave a slight smile. "Barbarians from over the mountains. They come around every three or four years and trade some massive oxen for rice, cast iron pans, items of steel, things like that. We''ve never had a fight with them, so this will probably go fine."


    That certainly was a relief, knowing that this was not a unique occurrence and there had not been hostilities with these people, who at the moment outnumbered us at least fifty to one, was a bit more calming. However, that feeling of ease vanished a bit when Saito continued.


    "Though, I''ve never seen the purple ones before."


    "Purple ones?" I asked.


    Saito nodded towards the group on the far left, nearly equal in numbers to the group on the right. They all did seem to be a little different. There were two distinct groups: everybody on the right seemed to be just like us, though dressed in more barbaric clothing, lots of leather and fur. Most of the people looked human beyond the distinctly Oni-Sen appearance with their long horns. On the left, however, every single one of them appeared to be Akumajin. Though they all had the same horn structure, the few faces that I could see did indeed look purple, but they were still too distant to get a real accurate idea of whether or not it was just face paint or if it was actually their skin color. While they were two distinct groups, they intermingled in the middle, clearly demonstrating that they were friendly with each other.


    Not too long afterward, the Militia from Sharinzhen-6 arrived, increasing our group to be a little bit less outnumbered. Within the next hour or so, a very large group came up from Sharinzhen Proper, and our wall of men and a few women started to look like something respectable. This group also brought the two samurai that were in the town, the one guy I recognized in his red armor, though his name completely escaped me again. The one in the black armor I was not too familiar with, and they both sat on horses looking tall and calm. About an hour later came the arrival of the more distant groups from the villages on the other side of the city, and with that, things seemed to change.


    I don''t know if it was the way the samurai moved or maybe the people on the barbarian side moved, but very shortly, a small group on the barbarian side formed up as though it was going to split off and head towards our side. The two samurai and a few adjuncts meandered to the front of our lines, and the two lords dismounted their horses. With some unspoken signal, the two small groups approached each other in the middle. On our side, the two samurai and their fancy-ass armor, along with about four adjuncts; on the barbarian side, four others, two of these people were very small, one was fairly tall, and the other guy was somewhere in the middle. The tall guy looked like the definition of a barbarian. A tall Oni-Sen with broad shoulders and large curving horns dressed in heavy furs with a large axe in an ornate sheath. The others, by contrast, just seemed plain compared to this guy. While the shorter ones who looked Akumajin seemed to wear finer, more fancy clothing as though it had been woven from some material instead of just plastered on animal skins, they still had fur-lined mantles, which I assumed would be pretty warm. Necessary clothing if they had to come over the mountains.


    When the two groups got closer together, I no longer thought that the very short Akumajin people were really all that short. No, it was that the big barbarian Oni-Sen guy was freaking huge. He easily stood a head and a half taller than the tallest man on our side and that was not including the horns, which made him look even bigger. When the two groups arrived, the Akumajin looking person pulled back their hood and cloak, revealing them to be a purple-skinned woman whose face was covered in some type of tattoo or war paint. We all just stood and watched as the two groups spoke, and though we couldn''t hear what they were saying, I had a bad feeling that settled itself into the pit of my stomach. Things were not going well.


    "Something''s wrong," Saito said. Adding his experienced opinion to my gut feeling.


    "What do you think it is?" I asked.


    Saito didn''t have to answer, the purple-skinned woman spat towards the red-armored Samurai''s feet, turned on her heel, and started marching back to her group, only to have our wonderful lord Samurai move forward while pulling his weapon and cutting her from her shoulder to her thigh. The big guy didn''t take kindly to that, and before the red-armored Samurai had even realized he had finished his cut of the purple-skinned woman, the barbarian''s axe was already swinging at his head. It was a blow that knocked out the Samurai lord, if it didn''t kill him. The adjuncts on our side were running back towards our lines while the horn on the barbarian side was blowing, and a whole lot of them were running forward. The black-armored Samurai was attacking the barbarian, but the huge guy wasn''t going down easily, and the horde descended around them, engulfing them and cutting both Samurai off from our vision. On our side, someone was screaming to present shields, and I only understood what that meant after Saito''s shield was up in front of him, and the guy behind me gave me a gentle nudge on the shield arm.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    I hefted my shield up as we formed the wall. The group across the field from us was a considerably more disorganized, chaotic sort. They screamed at us, what I could only assume was obscenities when they spoke, but most of the sounds just sounded like uncivilized roaring. After a few minutes of this, the sea of barbarians split. A single old woman practically waddled out, large staff in hand. She was one of the Akumajin looking people with purple skin, but her face was painted white, and she wore an elaborate headdress that was attached to her horns. She leaned on a large staff and just seemed to eye us for a few moments.


    "What is she doing?" I asked Saito as the old woman started waving her stick around. It was a comical movement because it seemed like it was rather heavy, and she didn''t look particularly steady on her feet.


    Saito answered with a single gut-wrenching word. "Shit."


    The woman had been making a keening sound which had been steadily growing louder as she waved her stick. The faint white mist seemed to be coming off the mountain, rushing down like some avalanche, though I was fairly certain there wasn''t enough snow for that yet. Somebody off in the distance screamed "MAGE!," but we were soon given the order to brace for a charge. I had no idea why we''d be bracing for a charge. Nobody was charging. It was just an old woman whirling a stick around and squealing like an idiot.


    "Get down," Saito said. And I remembered that I was supposed to get down on a knee, set my shield in front of me, brace my spear so that the back end was in the ground, and the pointy part was sticking forward. Once I did that, the guy behind me set the bottom of his shield on top of mine, and I had to lean off to the side so I could peer between mine and Saito''s shields.


    I could feel my heart thumping in my chest as my brain tried to comprehend the misty whiteness that was in the background and seemed to be sapping all the color from the world. Out of the periphery, I saw Saito turn his head so he wasn''t looking. I wasn''t so wise.


    The wind hit. A cold, bitter wall filled with icy debris and snow, dust, and everything else it could pick up. I strained against my shield as a sheer force tried to push me back. The guy behind me lost his footing for a second, his shield slipping into my face, but it was only a moment before he repositioned, and I tried to comprehend the horrible roar that was coming at us. Somebody on our side screamed "BRACE!" And I had the stupid thought that I was already bracing. I heard a thud and a scream. The person on the other side of Saito grunted, and my spear jerked in my hand, falling forward like there was a great weight on it as something large and heavy pinged off my shield with a metallic sound and more screaming. They were screaming in front of me; they were screaming to the left and right, and they were screaming behind me. Someone was shouting to hold; someone else was shouting to get him, and there were a lot of other people just shouting random shit. I tried to lift my spear up, but couldn''t. And then everything just kind of went silent.


    It wasn''t complete silence. There were still people screaming, faint whimpers and coughing and gurgling. The world around me was still white though. The wind had died down on the other side of the shield wall; the yelling had stopped, and then there was a slight breeze. This one from our side which blew back all the settling dust and snow and revealed something I honestly didn''t want to see. The reason I couldn''t lift my spear was that it was impaled into the rib cage of a kitsune. We just sort of stared at each other as his mouth worked open and closed, much as if he was trying to say something, but the only thing coming out was a steady stream of bubbly blood. There was another person next to him, on both sides actually, and several people in the background were backing off as the order came to stand back up.


    I felt the guy behind me grab me by the back of the shirt collar. I was still trying to pick up my spear as though it weren''t lodged inside a person. My arm just didn''t seem to want to pull backward.


    "Just drop it," Saito hissed.


    "Drop what?" I heard myself say, though I sounded distant, even to myself.


    "Drop the spear," Saito repeated.


    I did as ordered and watched the shaft fall to the ground, the kitsune falling sideways. Then came the order to advance forward.


    I didn''t like this. I didn''t want to be here. This was horrible. I looked to my left to see if I could go left, but there was a person there, and Saito was to the right. I had lines behind me. The guy was pushing on me until I nearly tripped over the kitsune. I caught myself and held onto the shield in front of me as tightly as I could. I was breathing rapidly, but couldn''t seem to catch my breath. We made it a good dozen paces before we were told to stop, and I sure as hell wasn''t going more forward than everybody else, and then came screams from behind. I looked back, wondering what could have happened behind us, only to realize that some of the people in the back were taking the time to finish off anybody who was still alive.


    I wanna go home. I don''t wanna be here. I wanna go home. I wanna go home. I wanna go home.


    "Breathe," Saito said. I focused on Saito as he was staring directly at me. He said, "Breathe" again and then made an exaggerated breath in and then out. Not knowing what else to do, I tried to follow along with the movement.


    "That''s it, boy."


    What the hell was that supposed to mean? Wasn''t I breathing correctly to begin with? What the hell were we doing? Why the hell are we doing this? I looked back across the field in front of me at the horde of barbarians. Like on our side, the Iteyan-looking guys consisted mostly of men. Oddly enough, though, the purple-skinned people seemed to be largely comprised of women, if not equal. They still outnumbered us, but only now did I realize that the group in the back weren''t warriors. There were women and children and the old. They all seemed to stare at us in horror as their warriors backed off, staying crouched and ready to defend, and then we stood there. No one moved; seconds turned into minutes, minutes into hours. The barbarians had backed off far enough, and while they were watching us warily, they didn''t seem to be attacking.


    We all just stood in the cold, watching them. I have no damn idea how long it took before our group was pulled back, and we were told to warm up by the fires that someone had created, and we were given a warm drink and rice. And for the next several days, that''s what we did. A Militia isn''t supposed to engage the enemy; it''s merely a holding force, men to protect their home and families until the actual soldiers showed up. That''s what we did. It took four days. The nights were long and cold. The patrols were cold and tiring. Everything was mostly just cold. We did as ordered. And when the army got here, we did more standing around as ordered.


    It was the sixth day. I was sitting in the town proper with pretty much half of the rest of the Militia, though I sat with my group. We were sitting on a log looking into the fields, a tin cup of warm broth in my hands. I watched as the soldiers started moving out, heading back towards civilization. Cages full of children, on wheels pulled by horses. Those capable of walking shackled together and made to march behind the carts.


    "Sounds like we''re going to be sent home," Wu said, the guy who had always been in charge of our little unit.


    "Hey," said Chao. "Is it true? This whole thing started because Lord Red Armor what''s his face got offended because he didn''t want to talk to the girl?"


    Wu shrugged. "Probably, but the official story is the barbarians wanted to trade. Oxen for our women."


    "Yeah? Sounds like horse shit," Chao replied.


    Wu shrugged. "I''m gonna go double-check and make sure we can go home."


    I watched Wu leave to go talk to somebody higher up, my gaze returning to the barbarian slaves.


    "Chao," I asked.


    "Yeah," Chao said.


    "Are we the bad guys?"


    Chao patted me on the shoulder. "Na, we¡¯re just the peons." Chao sat up and stretched his back before returning his empty tin cup, and joining Wu.


    This whole thing was fucked.


    We got the order to go home very shortly afterward, and I wandered my way through Sharinzhen Proper in somewhat of a daze. My brain didn''t seem to be working perfectly well. I was cold and tired, and I didn''t really want to walk back home, but at the same time, I just wanted to be home. As I was approaching the bridge, I was pretty sure I wasn''t even gonna stop and look over the edge like usual.


    "Hey! Yuji!" I stopped and turned around, not exactly sure who had just called me. My eyes landed on a pretty kitsune, a girl whose name I couldn''t remember, and I only seemed to recognize her as number three.


    "Hey," I said.


    "You''re still single, right?"


    I had to let that rattle around in my head as it didn''t exactly mesh with the things that had been happening for the last few days.


    "Uh, yeah, I guess."


    "Good."


    Did that mean she was not asking me out? Why was that good? What the hell? "Why?" I asked.


    "Because Kaori has been an idiot, and you need to be open once we manage to knock some sense into her," she explained.


    "Huh?"


    "You heard me. You need to be available for when Kaori comes to her senses and realizes what she has."


    "I can''t give her kids," I stated because that was ninety percent of the reason why we were not together. The other ten percent of the reason was stubbornness because of the first ninety percent.


    Number three rolled her eyes so exaggeratedly that her head moved.


    "So you both find a nice brothel in the city. She gets knocked up, you have fun with some whore. Then you both have a kid. Pretty simple."


    "But it wouldn''t be my kid," I stated, pointing out the obvious.


    "Well, if that''s your problem, then you don''t deserve Kaori," she retorted.


    I tried to let that sink in, but my head wasn''t quite on correctly, and this conversation was massively jarring considering the shit I had just gone through for the last week. "Oh, ok. I''m gonna go home now." I started turning.


    Honestly, I was terribly confused. To be fair, I was confused before number three started talking. Chui, that was her name. Why do I keep thinking number three? As I left the town proper and started heading past the rice field, I kept replaying the last words in my head, "If that''s your problem, then you don''t deserve Kaori." I don''t know if that was an accurate statement, but where the hell could I get a friend like that?


    Could I do something like that though? Let Kaori be impregnated by some other guy and raise the child as my own? It kind of went back to the original mood killer question that Kaori asked me on that first date. At that moment, the answer had been probably not. But could I? There had just been a war. There were plenty of orphans, I''m sure. Did it have to be her kid? Could we adopt some poor kid that had nothing?


    The only thing I could actually do would be to talk it out with Kaori. I almost turned around right then and there, but nine Hells I was tired and cold. I continued thinking about it all the way home, dropping off my shield and the new spear I had gotten. I knew my house was gonna be damn cold and everything was gonna be frozen. I¡¯d need to borrow water from somewhere just so I could have something to drink.


    It was a pleasant surprise when I found a bucket of fresh, unfrozen water, that my house wasn''t completely freezing cold, and a platter of food with a note.


    -"Tried to keep your house a bit warm, and we figured you wouldn''t want to cook dinner.¡±-


    Kenta and Kyoko Yin.


    Damn, I had some great neighbors. I stoked the fire on my mass heater, sat down on the stone as it slowly warmed my butt, and ate a cold dinner. That was totally okay because I expected to have nothing when I woke up tomorrow, provided I did wake up tomorrow instead of sleeping for a full day or more. Then maybe I would go talk to Kaori. Maybe we could work things out. Maybe we couldn''t. But I think it''ll be okay. Shit, I forgot to write mom and dad.


    Thank you for reading this story.


    I often use Anoria as a sort of Big Bad. While the individuals tend to be normal people just trying to get by, the Civilization is, in DnD terms, Lawful Evil. So in the next story when the main characters are running from Anorian soldiers who are raping and pillaging non-Anorians, remember Yuji, or Saito, or Lia, or any of the characters. Thanks again for reading this. It blows my mind that people actually spend the time to read the stuff that falls out of my head.

 Extra: A Briefest of Histories of the Anorian People

    The Briefest of Histories of the Anorian People by Kuya Tio.


    The Iteyans, those descended from the Moon God Iteyo himself. So says the Iteyan Histories which I assure you are completely wrong, and yes, I know that you will argue that I am incorrect and that I cannot possibly know what I am talking about, but I assure you, dear reader, I know more than you. So shut up and listen.


    Let''s start from the beginning and when I say the beginning, what I really mean is some indeterminate amount of time during the second world, not terribly long after the second Draconic war, which human populations tend to think of as the first Draconic war. Let me guess. None of this is ringing a bell for you. Makes sense because we''re talking about the second world here and you have no histories on the second world. Yes, the second world. No, you do not live in the first world nor the second. We''re focusing here on a group of humans that inhabit the southern continent. This particular group has the features that we consider Iteyan today, shorter stature, higher cheekbones, wider faces, heavy epicanthic folds, brown eyes, brown hair, yada yada. These people were in the process of creating their civilization. Then along came a few gods. This essentially is a common trope in the second world. Some gods screw with people and create other races. While this group of gods had a bit of an argument and decided to create several peoples based on the looks of the current and human inhabitants.


    One God took the elves and gave them what we consider Iteyan features along with long slender curving horns and skin colors of red or blue. Yes, red or blue, not reddish, not bluish, but actually red or blue, solid colors here. Also made them insane. These original Oni-Sen all had some variation of eight insanities and lived about 1000 years. Yes, I said 1000 years. Of course, as you all know Oni-Sen breeding with humans gives us Oni-Kai, which for the most part are similar to our Oni-Kai today, save that they tended to be colored a bit differently, more towards the red or more towards the blue.


    Another God took the elves again, gave them the southern continent or Iteyan features and made them so they perfectly inhabited the southern Arctic circle. These people became known as the People of Snow or the Yuki No Hitto. You will notice that there are no Yuki No Hitto today. We''ll get to that.


    Another God again took the elves and crossed them with snakes. That is where we get the lamia or Hibijin. These are rather similar to how they are today.


    The final God in this took a fox instead of starting with an elf and gave that fox human intelligence and the Iteyan features and thus the Kitsune were born. This also explains why Kitsune do not breed with any other races, nor do they quite share most of the diseases that we all get. In those times, some of these Kitsune could transform in a kind of werewolf style into actual foxes. A thing they can no longer do these days.


    And thus we have the foundation for the southern continent. We''re gonna fast forward a couple 1000 years. Not a lot has happened. The craziness of the Oni-Sen created a genocidal war against the Yuki No Hitto resulting in the creation of a thin strip of land encompassing the entire south pole known as the Buffer Zone. The other three countries on the southern continent all border the Buffer Zone, the ocean, and each other. These countries were Ansev-Lii, Renkyu, and of course, Iteyo. And by far the worst country to live in was Iteyo.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.


    As we draw closer to the end of the second world, we must focus on two key players, an Oni-Sen called Mai Nohana, daughter of the infamous Mai Rei and a very unspecial slave girl whose name was Kisuku, who you in modern times will know as the Sanguine Fox. Of course, at this point in time, she is not a God.


    Mai Nohana, sometimes referred to as the butcher of Mai Rei, in many ways suffered underneath the cruelties of her mother until at one point she escaped. Mai Nohana would find herself in a continent to the northeast of Iteyo where she would become an adventurer in a party with a couple of the local inhabitants and a Fire Islander. And we shall return to her later.


    The slave girl Kisuku would be sold into the arena where the quiet Kitsune girl would find herself talented in the combat arts. However, much like Mai Nohana, Kisuku would find a single opportunity to escape and take it. And again, much like Mai Nohana, she would find herself in the company of a Fire Islander as well as the inhabitants of a country controlled by the Empire of Flame. Kisuku would grow in power and influence and the girl with no surname would eventually become known as the Sanguine Fox. And yes, I do mean the Sanguine Fox that is the goddess of battles and feasts.


    It is said by the Bard Tathalen Orenthandal that Mai Nohana arrived on a rainy day to beg the Sanguine Fox for help in bringing law and order to the country of Iteyo. The records are sparse and in the third world, completely non-existent, but by all accounts, this small alliance did indeed manage to unite the several factions in Iteyo under a single banner with a side benefit of ending the wicked baroness, Mai Rei, supposedly by the hands of her own daughter.


    Ah, but there is another player in this story as you may have noted that the Akumajin does not exist yet, and I may have also alluded that the second world was ending. So how then do we get a country known as Iteyo to become the moon God from which all Iteyans are descended?


    The answer is a demon by the name of Azelyn. In the time spent between helping Mai Nohana reconquer the country of Iteyo. The Sanguine Fox and her company of fellow adventurers were serving the whims of Azelyn, a proto-demon from the first world who was determined to survive the end again.


    The first attempt to create a pocket dimension failed, whose idea it was to convert the moon to a habitable place is uncertain. What is certain is that through certain shenanigans, it was actually made possible. And what people were moved from the world unto its moon at the end, of course, the Iteyans.


    And thus we can account for a few different things. Firstly, the Iteyan version of Flame Law, which is not an actual Iteyan concept. This would have been imported primarily from Mai Nohana, though likely also from the Sanguine fox herself, the demon Aezlyn may have also contributed. The second most important thing would be the Akumajin race as Aezlyn would be the progenitor demon from which all a Akumajin can trace their origin.


    And then comes the chunk of Anorian history that you know, for the Iteyans descended from the moon God Iteyo, destroyed all the dragons, and created a thriving civilization. When that world was going to end, as the gods were trying to kill each other, the Iteyans broke the fabric that held the different realities apart and transferred themselves into the new world where they again rebuilt their civilization. And hence we are here.


    I do understand that what I say is Heresy and that the only copy of this text will end up in the library of the Imperial Palace. That doesn''t make it wrong though.


    -Kuya Tio on, The Briefest of Histories of the Anorian People, Anorian Heresies located in the Grand Library of the Imperial Palace.


    ¡°What horse shit.¡± Ping Xiang said to himself as he closed the book and slid it back into its place on the shelf. The story was obvious drivel, though how the author knew his work would end up here caused the hair on the back of Ping¡¯s arms to stand up on end. He felt like he was being watched.

 Extra: Dedication

    Dedicated to Ky¨±bi. Because without you, none of this shit would exist.


    When I built my original DnD world, I threw all the Asian-ish stuff on the Southern Continent with a couple country names and called it good. Your desire to use a character from that region caused me to flesh the Southern Continent out. Later, in the ¡®Clash of Dragons¡¯ game, your character would be the main influence on what would become Anoria.


    Your choices and actions to save specifically the Iteyan people from the end of the world and in the specific way that it was done, gave the Anorians their culture, history, religion, and uniformity. Your interactions with Aezlyn created the Akumajin race. Your influence on this story doesn''t stop there.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    In the newer game we collaborated on your character¡¯s back story. Creating the war in the Mizuyamachi kingdom. I think you created four of the characters seen in the prologue. One of which is your character from the very short lived Fate game I tried to run. The opening scene of this book was supposed to be the end fight of that game.


    So thank you for over several years, helping me to create these cultures, people, and the worlds we¡¯ve run in.

 Rev1_Chapter 1: Prologue

    ¡°Captain Han. Kill them. All of them.¡± King Hinaba said coldly.


    Lo Bao didn¡¯t immediately move. A few of his men stepped forward, and then there was an explosion of movement. The assassin that the Ronin had brought in shifted in form, which allowed the man to escape his bindings. A Shrine Maiden, who had come in alongside the Ronin, produced several knives and started throwing. The Ronin themselves seemed just as surprised as the King, but lacked the urge to help the monarch that had just told his men to kill them. It all happened so fast and yet Lo Bao seemed to understand immediately. The assassination of the King¡¯s cousin had been a setup. A ploy to get someone hired to take the assassin in and stand before the King himself. It was a clever ploy, though it wouldn¡¯t have worked. However, the greatest asset the assassins had was the King himself. His order of killing the Ronin he had hired made said Ronin more likely to help the assassins instead of serving their monarch, drastically giving them the advantage. They would still fail because of King Hinaba¡¯s guards.


    ¡°Hold!¡± The word that doomed him left Lo Bao¡¯s lips, sealing his fate. His men paused in confusion. One ignored the order and help his king. He was a good man, Lo Bao would not hold his loyalty against him. That moment in hesitation gave one assassin time to drive a dagger into King Hinaba¡¯s gut, but the King himself was a worthy combatant and gave as good as he got.


    ¡°Bao?¡± The King hissed. Righteous anger in his tone.


    Lo Bao watched his king, truly frozen in indecision. It was a conflict of loyalties. Lo Bao had pledged his life to King and Country. Pledging loyalty had been easier in the past, when King Hinaba was known as Wise King Hinaba or Good King Hinaba. The man had changed after the death of his wife. Now Lo Bao served Mad King Hinaba. To serve his King, he should sally forth and cut down the Ronin, dooming his country. To serve his country, he should sally forth and cut down his King. As such, Lo Bao did nothing. Whichever side won this fight, he would not be going home tonight. With that single word, he was a deadman.


    Another two of his men stopped looking at him and joined in on the fray, putting themselves between their king and a truly massive man. One assassin lay dead at King Hinaba¡¯s feet. Movement off to the side caught his attention. Prince Hinaba, the younger spitting image of his father, watched the fight with calm, quiet concentration. He did nothing to help, but his presence alone was helpful. It allowed Lo Bao to give an order that both made sense and wouldn¡¯t aid the Mad King. ¡°Protect the Prince!¡± He bellowed.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    Prince Kotua Hinaba would make a good King. That decided it. If for some reason the assassins and Ronin failed to kill the Mad King, then Lo Bao would do it himself. He was already a dead man. As suddenly as it started, it was over. The King tripped over the lifeless body of an assassin. An axe took him in the throat, blood spraying outward in pulses as his heart beat its last few stokes.


    ¡°Enough!¡± shouted the Prince.


    For a moment, fear shot through Lo Bao, the Prince¡¯s voice so similar to his father¡¯s that it seemed the dead king would stand back up. Prince Kotua pushed his guards away as nearly everyone froze. Both assassins were dead, one of the Ronin clutching the corpse of the Shrine Maiden in their trembling hands. A palace guard pushed themselves back onto their feet. The Prince stepped over his father and reached down. He didn¡¯t take his father¡¯s crown, nor his sword. Instead he picked up a small mundane locket that had fallen to the floor, its chain cut with the King¡¯s throat. Prince Kotua stood straight and glared at the room¡¯s still living occupants.


    ¡°It¡¯s too bad the guard showed up a full ten minutes after the King¡¯s murdered.¡±


    The Ronin stared at him, realization that he was giving them time to run, dawning just as another voice destroyed the eerie silence. The giant of a man tore his comrade away from the dead Shrine Maiden as the Princess Junko dropped to her father¡¯s cooling body, screaming at her brother to kill them.


    ¡°Palace Guard Tomo, you are to give chase in nine and a half minutes.¡±


    ¡°Yes Omo.¡± The man in question adjusted his position so he could watch the mechanical clock that stood at the far corner of the Throne room.


    Prince Kotua stared down at his sobbing half sister. The eight-year-old girl was the only person her father treated with kindness these days. Only an innocent child could find the death of the King a tragedy.


    ¡°Someone find her mother. And get me a chair. I do not wish to touch that.¡± Prince Kotua said, glaring at the Throne. ¡°Captain Han.¡±


    Lo Bao bowed his head. ¡°Yes Omo.¡± This was it. He would now answer for his failure.


    ¡°You have failed in your duty to protect your king. There is no redemption in life.¡±


    ¡°Yes Omo. If you allow it, I will go to the dungeon and perform my final duty.¡±


    ¡°Not the dungeon. The garden. Full rights. Thank you for your service to our country.¡±


    Lo Bao bowed. ¡°Thank you, Omo.¡±

 Rev_1 Chapter 2: Terrible First Impressions

    First impressions are often deceitful. A beautiful plot of land may flood in the spring. A kind neighbor may be an axe murderer. A mean cock may be useless in protecting its flock. Remember, if you can¡¯t show who you are to people, at least try to show them the person you want to be.


    - Kuya Tio on Community, Kuya Tio¡¯s Guide to a Healthy and Happy Homestead.


    ¡°Lo Bao Han?¡± Shinichi asked rather loudly and with an exaggerated expression. I had only been walking with the guy for the last few Li. He appeared excitable, to say the least. Big smiles, exaggerated expressions, and very loud.


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s my uncle.¡±


    ¡°No, no, no, no. You don¡¯t understand. I know the land you¡¯re talking about. It¡¯s a plot of trees in between my father-in-law and the twins. Oh, you¡¯re going to love it. Saito¡¯s the guy who would give you the shirt off his back if he thought you needed it and Kiyoko, mmm, that¡¯s a delicious piece of ass.¡±


    We continued walking as I listened to Shinichi ramble on about my apparently attractive neighbor who I was thinking might be a whore and my other new neighbor who was apparently the greatest guy in the world. Also Shinichi¡¯s wife was Yoko, and she made the best dumplings in Sharinzhen. He had two children and his neighbor had a bad snoring habit. Shinichi apparently didn¡¯t shut up, but his enthusiasm was so infectious I couldn¡¯t find him annoying.


    This was the last leg of my journey to a large town called Sharinzhen, literally Wheel City. Some city planner had the bright idea of making a large town with eight villages surrounding it. Roads ran from Sharinzhen, the town center, to the eight villages labeled Sharinzhen 1-8 clockwise, starting from Sharinzhen 1, where the main road to the center goes through. A road that encircled Sharinzhen Proper connected each consecutive village. Over time, this created the confusing idea of half villages, such as Sharinzhen 1 and a half. It might have looked good on the initial plans, but the actual landscape didn¡¯t allow for a perfectly circular wheel. I personally thought the whole thing was stupid, but I figured I should live there for a year or two before passing final judgment on the design.


    I was walking down a well-used road just after Sharinzhen 1, where I met Shinichi. Trees on either side were just pushing out their spring buds. The air was cool; the sun was warm, and Shinichi was still talking. Sharinzhen was considerably farther out on the edge of the kingdom than I wanted, but when you inherit land from your rich uncle, you take it with a smile and a bow. The journey had been long, but with the Mad King dead, the roads were free of marauding armies. The trees gave way to open fields of unworked rice paddies divided into standard sized Rai. Beyond lay the actual town of Sharinzhen.


    ***


    ¡°Lo Bao Han? How is that rascal?¡± I grit my teeth and tried to keep a smile on my face. The administrator looked down at the paper I had given him and his smile vanished. ¡°Oh. I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t really know him that well.¡±


    ¡°He was a good man, as far as I can remember. One moment.¡± He turned and started searching the shelves of documents. ¡°Glad to have his nephew with us, though. No one has been on the property for years. You¡¯ve got your work cut out for you, but I think I could swing a free night in a tenement for you. Hmm, there are some due taxes on the land.¡±


    That was expected. My uncle hadn¡¯t been able to pay the taxes on account of being dead and a few months of unpaid tax was cheap compared to buying a plot. I pulled out my coin purse and started counting.


    ¡°So how does the nephew get a chunk of land? I would have figured he would have more immediate family that would have taken his possessions first.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I was seventh in line. One option was a manor on the second tier of Lianzhen, close to the Temple of the Six Tailed Fox.¡±This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    The administrator nodded. ¡°Ah, yes, I guess I could see our humble town being at the bottom of the barrel, so to speak. I¡¯ll draw up some directions for you.¡±


    ***


    By a stroke of fate, the tenement offered to me free for the night was next to Shinichi¡¯s. His wife was a rather attractive Oni-Kai woman, and his toddler also had the cute little nubs of horns protruding from his temple. The guy hadn¡¯t noticed me and as this was his first time home in a month, I silently dropped off my pack and headed out to find my land.


    My land. Now that was a thing. I inherited the land, but until today, when I paid the taxes and updated the papers, the reality hadn¡¯t fully sunk in. It was now my land. My land was in the village of Sharinzhen 4. About an hour¡¯s walk northeast. A couple bridges, rice paddies, woods, then more rice paddies, and then I was in the village with all the looks from people not expecting to see a stranger. I wonder what made this area so good for rice farming when so much other land was better for wheat or millet. Access to water? Or more likely, access to water that was at a higher level than the fields. The central part of the town didn¡¯t seem very terraced, but the village out here had some.


    The village itself wasn¡¯t my destination, though. I walked along the road heading toward Sharinzhen 3, counting off the properties as I went. This area was considerably more forested, with each gateway leading to what was probably a cleared out courtyard and small farm. I almost missed my entryway. The path from the road to the courtyard, assuming it had a courtyard, was so overgrown that it was indistinguishable from the surrounding forest. Moss and time stained a small stone pillar next to the gateway. A simple two-letter statement declared that the gateway and the land beyond it belonged to Han. Well, I guess I wouldn¡¯t need to buy a new marker. Clean it up, yes. The gateway itself was in particularly poor shape. One of the two pillars stood straight and tall, the other leaned dangerously into the forest, likely held in place by the rotting and sagging beam that made up the top spar. The lower spar was broken. Half of it hanging limply from the straight pillar. The other half likely lost among the detritus of the forest floor. The whole thing looked ready to fall over.


    ¡°You¡¯re going to fall on me someday.¡± I told my gateway.


    I found the house. Or what I assumed was the house. Honestly, if I hadn¡¯t known ahead of time that there was supposed to be a house, I don¡¯t think I would have recognized the lopsided mound of debris that looked mostly like a moss and brush covered hill. The root cellar was mostly intact, its door rotted, but still somewhat functional. The roots of bushes and trees that shouldn¡¯t have been on the roof poked through the ceiling and wound down the walls. Worse case scenario, I guess I could sleep in here, but the roof was probably going to need replacing. The rice paddies were¡­ well, I¡¯m not really sure where they were. Returned to the forest, I suppose. I didn¡¯t really know the ins and outs of rice cultivation, but trees in the paddies and on the berms probably didn¡¯t do good things for water retention. Another mound hinted at a shed or chicken coop or something, but the pile didn¡¯t tell me much.


    I stood in the center of what might have been the courtyard and rubbed my neck. This kind of sucked. Realistically, I had expected to start with nothing, albeit closer to civilization. This place was not only on the edge of Mizuyamachi, it was on the edge of the empire itself. Sitting on the line that made up the end of the world, if I had been looking at a map, the mountains in the distance would have ¡°here be dragons¡± written along their peaks. For all its negatives, though, it was practically free. Yes, I needed to build a house and clear the land with less starting money than I was hoping, but this opportunity was setting me at least five years ahead of schedule. Disappointing that the land was this overgrown and the house was basically gone, but if I could clear and rebuild this year, I could seriously consider finding a wife and starting a family. This was good. This would work. That or I¡¯ll starve. I need an axe. And a saw. I needed a lot of things.


    ***


    I needed to not stay in this tenement. The rate I had been offered was excellent and would give me a place to stay while I worked on building something on my land. I had wisely told the guy I needed to see how bad my plot was first. The land was bad, what was worse, was the tenement neighbors. Specifically Shinichi. He and his wife were loudly going at it. In all honesty, I might have secretly enjoyed the sound of a young couple making love from the other side of too thin walls, but what I was hearing wasn¡¯t love. Apparently Yoko had sent her children to her father¡¯s house after her husband came home and apparently Shinichi liked to get drunk. He seemed like such a nice guy when he was sober. He was not a nice person when intoxicated. I curled myself in my blanket as far away from the couple as possible and tried to block out the sound. I would have reported a rape if I hadn¡¯t known they were married. From the looks of passersby, this was a common occurrence. Finally finished, Shinichi stormed out of his tenement. I fell asleep to the soft sounds of a woman sobbing. Fuck, I already wanted to go home.

 Rev_1 Chapter 3: Meeting the Neighbors

    What is wealth? Is it gold with which you can exchange for goods and services? Animals with which you can consume in times of little? Or is it Community, with which you can support each other through good times or misfortune?


    - Kuya Tio on Community, Kuya Tio¡¯s Guide to a Healthy and Happy Homestead.


    The axe bit into the thick flesh of the tree with a solid thwack. My breath came rapidly, causing a harsh, coarse feeling in the back of my throat as I swept the sweat from my eyes. I hadn¡¯t been out here very long and already I was down to my shirt and sweating hard despite there still being a layer of frost covering the trees and brush.


    ¡°What in the¡­¡±


    I nearly screamed as I twisted around. My heart was hammering in my chest as I fell backward, where I rolled back onto my feet and backed up a few steps. The man staring down at me was intimidating. Not physically so. He was of average height and build. His chest and gut were rounded and streaks of gray in his hair and short beard gave away his age. Small white Oni-Kai horns protruded from his forehead above dark, glaring eyes. The man himself wasn¡¯t all that scary. The sharp metal spearpoint pointed at my chest, however.


    ¡°I said, what the hells are you doing out here?¡± He growled.


    ¡°I-I-I was cutting down some trees.¡±


    The man didn¡¯t look happy with that answer. ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°To, uh, clear some space.¡±


    His eyes narrowed in annoyance.


    ¡°What makes you think you can come out here and clear space?¡±


    ¡°Uh, I own it?¡± That came out more as a question than an answer, but it clearly wasn¡¯t a response the man had expected.


    He jabbed the spear point toward me. ¡°Prove it.¡±


    ¡°I need to get to my bag?¡± I said, pointing to my pile of belongings next to the root cellar.


    He grunted and motioned with the spear to get moving. I kept one eye on the spear as I made my way to my stuff. I realized what was going on. The abandonment of this land was so long ago that cutting down trees would make anyone suspicious. I should have stopped by and introduced myself to the neighbors. This guy was probably Shinichi¡¯s father-in-law, judging solely because he was Oni-Kai and the other neighbor was supposed to be Kitsune. I held out the papers to him, of which he snatched them out of my hand and took a few steps back. He kept a suspicious eye on me as he struggled to open the documents. The tip of the spear dipped to a less threatening angle as he looked over the official paperwork.


    ¡°Hmmm, Han, eh? Any relation to Lo Bao Han?¡±


    ¡°He was my uncle.¡±


    His face twisted for a moment, then he planted the butt of the spear in the ground and held it in the crook of his arm as he refolded the documents. My heart finally began its slow pounding descent to a normal pace. I was now covered in more sweat than when I was working and the chilly spring air was biting at my skin.


    He handed the papers back. ¡°Sorry about scaring you. Nobody has been here in nearly forty years. You should have introduced yourself first.¡±


    ¡°Yes, wait, forty?¡±


    ¡°About that, yes.¡±


    ¡°But my uncle bought it less than forty years ago?¡± The guy was considerably less scary when not pointing a spear at me. I was a hair taller and not as thick.


    ¡°Yeah, but he never got around to living here. Was going to fix up the old house.¡± He looked around and pointed at the shrub covered hill. ¡°Which was there. Only thing he managed before he got reassigned was to change out the name stone.¡±


    Well, so much for being closer to my uncle by living on the land he left me. I barely even knew the guy. Even at family gatherings, he always seemed in a rush to get to his next appointment.


    The man who I was sure was Shinichi¡¯s father-in-law, scratched at his bearded chin as he looked me over appraisingly. ¡°Lots of work ahead of you, oh.¡± He held out a hand. ¡°I am Saito Xiao. I live just through those trees.¡±


    I returned the gesture, clasping his forearm. ¡°Yuji Han.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, well, should you need anything, asking is usually free.¡± He said, giving me a toothy grin. I still wasn¡¯t letting him out of my sight on account of him still having a weapon.


    ¡°Do you know where the rice paddies are? There¡¯s supposed to be three of them.¡±


    He looked around while scratching his beard. ¡°Quarter Rai?¡±


    ¡°Yes. About that size, but I don¡¯t know what shape.¡±


    He nodded and pushed through the brush, using the spear more as a walking stick. I followed as he turned at several sharp angles, pausing frequently to inspect the ground. ¡°Here. I think.¡± Saito said, prodding a slight, rather straight hill with the butt of the spear. ¡°Probably the first paddy. That there.¡± He pointed his spear at a slight rise through the trees. ¡°That¡¯s probably the second. Not exactly a terrace.¡±


    The weight of all the work ahead of me began bearing down.


    ¡°How much you want to clear before planting season?¡±


    ¡°All three, if possible.¡±


    Saito shook with a deep, slow, old man laugh. ¡°No.¡± He looked me up and down, shaking his head. ¡°Not unless you¡¯ve got a lot of money to get a crew out here.¡±


    I had money; I did not, in fact, have a lot of money. ¡°I had been saving up for a place of my own for a couple of years now. So I have some, but I clearly need to build a house and that¡¯s probably going to leave me with nothing left.¡±


    ¡°So self sufficiency is a necessity? Hmm¡­¡± He returned to examining me and scratching at his chin. ¡°Have you ever cultivated rice before?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± I answered honestly.


    ¡°A garden?¡±


    ¡°Some vegetables in pots.¡±


    ¡°Oh boy. This here is the berm that keeps the water in your lowest paddy. I suggest following its perimeter, you¡¯ll find a spillway somewhere, clean it out. Then clear out the interior of the paddy of trees and brush. Don¡¯t clear off the berm. The rotting roots will create tunnels for the water to escape. Best to work about that shortly prior to harvest. A single quarter Rai can produce enough rice for two and a half people if things are good. Things will NOT be good this year. You¡¯re also going to need a garden. A man can not survive on rice alone.¡±


    ¡°What about the other paddies?¡±


    ¡°Hmmm.¡± Saito started. ¡°Clean them out after the spring festival. Do the berms first. When you got free time. What about your taxes? You plan to pay in standards or corv¨¦e?¡±


    ¡°Labor if possible.¡±


    Saito nodded. ¡°You¡¯ll need to see the Patriarch. It will help you understand what you¡¯re doing here. Season¡¯s too short here. Seeds need to be started before the final frost. You aren¡¯t set up for that. You get me the seed, and I¡¯ll add them to my sprouting boxes. It costs me nothing and you have your work cut out for you.¡±


    ¡°Thank you. I really appreciate that.¡± I gave the man a slight bow. He didn¡¯t return the gesture, just stared at me appraisingly while scratching at his beard.


    ¡°Hrrmmm. I don¡¯t have a son present, or a useful son-in-law. Make you a deal if you¡¯re interested. I have four quarters, but I¡¯m getting old and only tend to two of them a year. If you help me work them, we¡¯ll plant three and at the end of the season, I¡¯ll split half the yield of one paddy with you. It won¡¯t cost me any extra labor if you do your part, and you won¡¯t starve if this thing fails this year.¡± He prodded the berm with the butt of his spear. ¡°Still got to put your all into your own land. My offer is for this year only.¡±


    This was a straightforward decision. He was basically offering to teach me how to grow rice for a little extra labor and giving me a safety net. Shinichi said his father-in-law would give the shirt off his back. This wasn¡¯t exactly the same thing as he was getting something out of the deal as well, but I was taking this deal. Again, I bowed. Deeper this time. ¡°I would take that deal. Consider me humbled by your generosity.¡± I didn¡¯t particularly like groveling to anyone, but Saito was my neighbor and he was throwing me quite a huge bone here.


    Saito nodded and straightened. ¡°Alright, enough of that. Get back to work now.¡± With that and a short goodbye, he wandered off through the trees back to his own property. I picked up my axe and then decided I should meet the other neighbors before a similar misunderstanding could occur.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    There were no neighbors across the road. Presumably that land was owned by the village itself and private property on that side would start another Li or two down the way. My other neighbors had a well cared for gateway and a somewhat ornately carved stone with two letters that read ¡°Yin.¡± The path from the gateway was trimmed and paved. It led to a mid-sized farmhouse that was easily defined as tidy and well cared for. Besides a shed, an orderly woodpile, and a patch of bare earth that would probably be a garden, it lacked any other structures or animals. The place screamed, ¡°we work in town.¡± Once on the veranda, I found and used a brass knocker shaped into a stylized fox mask. The echo of the knocker resounded throughout the veranda, but no sound of movement or anyone calling out came.


    ¡°Hello? Anyone home?¡±


    I took a brief look at either side of the house, shrugged, and headed back to work.


    ***


    ¡°Good day¡­¡±


    ¡°Gwaahh!¡± I tripped over a fallen tree as I spun around in surprise for the second time today. I caught the winch on the faces of both Kitsune before pushing myself back up on my feet. At least no one was pointing a spear at me this time.


    The man bowed. ¡°My sincerest apologies. I did not intend to startle you.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s okay. You¡¯re not the first today.¡±


    The man¡¯s triangular white fox-like ear twitched as he tilted his head. ¡°Xiao?¡± He asked. ¡°You did not introduce yourself to him first, did you?¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t.¡±


    The two Kitsune looked at each other and grinned.


    ¡°I assume he attempted to scare you.¡± Said the woman in a melodious voice. ¡°Please do not hold it against him. He is a good man.¡±


    ¡°Anyway,¡± interrupted the man. ¡°I am Kenta Yin. This is my twin sister.¡±


    ¡°Kiyoko Yin,¡± said the woman with a bow.


    ¡°You are the nephew of one Lo Bao Han, is that correct?¡±


    ¡°Ah, yes. I am Yuji Han.¡±


    ¡°Is this by chance the same Lo Bao Han who let the Mad King die?¡± Kenta asked.


    This was a sketchy question. While I¡¯ve never met someone who wasn¡¯t happy about the King dying, it was always possible. It was also possible they would take it out on me, unlikely, but still possible. ¡°Uh, yeah?¡±


    Kenta nodded, put the jug he was holding in the crook of his arm, and started digging around in his pockets under his traveling robe. Kiyoko looked smug. The two were extremely similar, both on the taller end for Kitsune, about my height, not including the ears. Both had white hair, golden eyes, and similar facial features. Neither of them had the physique of farmers, instead having the strong, but more lithe forms of dancers. Kenta finally produced a silver coin and, with a frown on his face, handed it over to his sister.


    ¡°Thank you, dear brother.¡±


    ¡°Uh, a bet?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Oh yes, Kenta here said there was no way in all the hells someone stationed in Sharinzhen would ever be in the palace. Let alone the caption of the palace guard. To be fair, it does sound far-fetched.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Said Kenta thrusting the jug out towards me. ¡°This is for you. Welcome to Sharinzhen.¡±


    ¡°Ah, thank you.¡± This is way better than a spear point. ¡°How did you know I was here?¡±


    ¡°This too is for you. Welcome.¡± Kiyoko said, holding out a box made of paper.


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    ¡°You will find that gossip travels quickly in a small town.¡± Kenta replied to my earlier question.


    ¡°I¡¯d, ah, offer you a seat and some tea, but¡­¡±


    ¡°Perhaps in a month or so. You will have much wood. A firepit and a bench would be well received. We can drink to your success, then.¡±


    Kiyoko nodded her agreement. ¡°If you need anything, do not hesitate to stop by.¡±


    ¡°Yes. You have a lot of work. That is hard on the body and we both are talented masseurs, among other things. For you, the first one is free.¡± A predatory, vulpine grin split their faces.


    They both bowed and said goodbye. As they weaved through the trees, Kiyoko looked back and gave me a wink. Pretty sure they are both whores, but I¡¯ll let time prove me right or wrong before passing judgment.


    Once the twins left, I popped the top on the jug and sniffed. Probably sake, or maybe mijiu. I could never tell the difference. A quick sip confirmed it. Opening the paper box made me grin from ear to ear. ¡°Honey cakes. Fuck yeah.¡± I took a slow, joyful bite of the sweet pastry. Whore or not, Kiyoko was in the lead for my favorite person in Sharinzhen.


    ***


    I turned to see what made that damnable thwacking sound. Saito was standing behind me. Further back and smacking a tree with a branch to get my attention without scaring the shit out of me. I appreciated that. I also appreciated his lack of a spear.


    ¡°Morning.¡± He said cheerfully before his smile faded and he followed it up with. ¡°You look like shit.¡±


    I yawned. ¡°Just tired. Didn¡¯t sleep well.¡±


    He frowned. ¡°What kept you up?¡±


    I think he was fishing for flaws in my person. Like Shinichi¡¯s drinking issue. I suppose I wouldn¡¯t want a neighbor like that. ¡°Freezing my ass off, mostly.¡± It had been damn cold. Apparently, a root cellar was a terrible place to sleep. You couldn¡¯t put the fire inside because it would fill with smoke and the room that kept food nice and cool also kept any idiot trying to sleep in it nice and cool.


    Now Saito just looked confused. ¡°I would have figured you had a place to rent in town?¡±


    ¡°I did, but the first night I was there I had to listen too¡¯oo¡¯ahhhh.¡± My brain caught up with my mouth and took control before finishing that sentence. Yeah, literally almost told him I found hearing his son-in-law rape and beat his daughter to be horribly annoying.


    The sour look on his face told me he had filled in the blank. ¡°They put you in the tenement on canyon?¡±


    I nodded. I¡¯m not one hundred percent sure what the street name was, but he knew, and I knew he knew.


    ¡°So, where did you sleep?¡±


    With another yawn, I pointed at the root cellar and my small fire pit next to it. He stared at the hole, glared at me, then pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. ¡°No.¡± This guy really liked to tell me no. ¡°No.¡± He repeated. Looking back toward me, he examined the trees and brush that I¡¯ve already cleared, and frowned at the growing pile of logs. He nodded to himself and asked another question. ¡°What did you eat this morning?¡±


    ¡°Rice.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s it?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s all I have on me right now.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± He said again. ¡°Come.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Come on, follow.¡± He started walking off. ¡°Leave the axe.¡±


    I paused, set the axe down, and followed the older man through the trees.


    Saito had a nice place. The trail he had been using to get to my plot widened and branched off before reaching a fence gate. Two sheep grazed on the few bits of spring greens in a yard surrounded by fence. A handsome farmhouse with a large garden plot sat at the south. A full four quarter Rai rice paddies at the north. Several sheds, a barn, a chicken coop, wood processing area, and what looked like some type of workshop filled in the rest of the area. He walked over to the barn and opened a door, then went up a set of stairs.


    ¡°You can sleep here.¡± He said, pointing to a dwindling pile of hay up in the loft above the animal beds. I opened my mouth to say no. Not because I didn¡¯t want to rough it out in a hay loft instead of a root cellar, but because I didn¡¯t want to feel like I owed the guy that much. ¡°You have until the spring festival. It should be warm enough by then and the planting will be done.¡±


    I pressed my lips together and nodded. Saito walked back down the stairs and I kept on his heels. Damn, I was tired, wouldn¡¯t mind laying down now.


    ¡°What are your plans for today?¡±


    ¡°Well, I need to wash my clothes and rice pot. Was planning on chopping trees all day, but I¡¯m tired enough that I don¡¯t know how safe that is. Might just process the ones that are already down. Also going to introduce myself to the Patriarch and get some other tools that I¡¯m lacking.¡±


    Saito nodded along as I followed him around to the front of his farmhouse. ¡°There¡¯s a stream due north. Wash up there. I¡¯d have Wei Lin wash your clothes and cook, but she¡¯s sick.¡±


    ¡°I couldn¡¯t ask that.¡±


    ¡°You didn¡¯t. For now, you¡¯re stuck with my cooking. Just until the festival. You have a lot of work to do.¡±


    I think I understood Saito. Shinichi was wrong. Saito wasn¡¯t the sort to just give the shirt off his back to anyone. He was providing me with a smelly and slightly uncomfortable bed for a limited time. The thing only someone who really needed it would accept. He was going to feed me, but it came with the caveat that I had to keep working my ass off. He was going to let me use one of his rice paddies, but I needed to work on it and all the others as well. Saito knew how to help people while simultaneously weeding out those that he shouldn¡¯t be helping. Truly, I was blessed to have him as a neighbor.


    ¡°Oh. Wei Lin, what are you doing out here?¡±


    I paused and stared at the small pile of blankets with a face poking out. I had assumed Wei Lin was Saito¡¯s wife. I had assumed wrong. Judging by the size and the snotty reddish face, she was maybe in her early teens. Clearly his daughter.


    ¡°Wanted sunlight.¡± She rasped in a scratchy, dry voice.


    ¡°Mmm, well, this is our new neighbor, Yuji Han. Yuji, my youngest, Wei Lin Xiao.¡±


    I bowed. ¡°A pleasure to meet you.¡±


    She sort of bowed back. She tried to speak, but it was interrupted by a cough and the sound of sucking snot.


    ¡°You stay here.¡± Saito said before jumping up onto the veranda and entering the house. Saito left me with Wei Lin, who looked equally happy to sit in the morning sunlight and was ready to fall over. Getting hit with something like that now would be my ruin. Saito returned with a bowl of soup. ¡°Here, eat that. You can return the bowl at dinner. Now go get back to work.¡±


    I bowed to the man. ¡°Thank you Po.¡± I considered calling him Kuya, but decided that was a little too familiar and he was old enough to be my father.


    ¡°Yeah, you can thank me when you¡¯re done. Now get.¡±


    Saito¡¯s soup was a broth filled with various greens, meat that was probably rabbit, and a bit too much salt. It wasn¡¯t great, but it sure beat just rice. The stream was indeed not far due north of my property. Washing clothes in freezing water sucked, but I felt a bit more awake. After a bit more work, I wrapped up and headed into the village proper to introduce myself to the Patriarch. Meng Su was a tall man with a gray beard, bright eyes and absolutely nothing else of note. He seemed the contemplative sort with a lot of beard-stroking and staring off into the distances. Reasonable for a village elder, not sure about for a Patriarch.


    Trying to buy a few more tools taught me one quirk of living in a Wheel City. Sharinzhen 4 had a blacksmith. However, he didn¡¯t actually sell anything unless commissioned. Basically, he either maintained tools or created things to be sold in the town center. I needed a shovel, and it was entirely possible that I was going to walk an hour to buy one he might have made, and then walk an hour back and past his smithy. Apparently, most businesses worked like this. Everything made was sold in Sharinzhen, the center, and that¡¯s where you had to go to get what you needed. Kind of weird. I was too damn tired to safely chop down trees anyway, so the walk was nice, if not tedious. The walk back was more annoying. When I came to Sharinzhen 4, the other day I had been carrying everything I owned plus an axe, a saw, and a pot. Today I was only carrying a shovel, a pick, and a hoe, but I had to carry the three unruly things in my arms for an hour. Half the weight, double the pain. I yawned and got back to work.

 Rev_1 Chapter 4: Another Few Weeks of Work

    The cultivation of rice is a tedious endeavor alone. It is a productive and near enjoyable experience with friends. And it is often a party when done on a village scale. It¡¯s also a back breaking pain in the ass when you are doing it for someone else for a measly few coins. Trust me, I would know.


    - Kuya Tio on Why a Normal Job Sucks, Kuya Tio¡¯s Guide to a Healthy and Happy Homestead.


    Seven men, three Carabao, and a lot of mud.


    ¡°You got one of your quarters cleared out yet?¡± Chao asked.


    ¡°Pretty much. I am astounded at how large of a brush pile I¡¯ve got. No idea how to get rid of the stumps.¡±


    ¡°A couple years of water and they¡¯ll rot away. The first year is always the worst.¡± Kichiro chimed in.


    I nodded. ¡°Saito is going to show me how to flood them tomorrow. Says we need to get the ground wet or I¡¯ll never get the soil turned in time.¡±


    ¡°Ah there¡¯s the Patriarch.¡± Chao said, motioning to the older man. ¡°Today will be easy, just a basic rip of the paddies. We¡¯ll get to the real plowing next week, so just focus on learning how to manage the animals and use the plow.¡±


    ¡°Good morning men.¡± Patriarch Meng Su said.


    ¡°Morning Po.¡± Chorused the group.


    ¡°We¡¯ll start from the east today. Who wants to take on the new kid?¡±


    ¡°We got him.¡± Said Chao, pounding me on the shoulder.


    ¡°Good, well then. Good plowing.¡± With that, Patriarch Meng Su turned around and walked away.


    When he was far enough that I didn¡¯t think he would hear, I leaned over and asked. ¡°Did we really need to wait for him?¡±


    Chao shrugged. ¡°Well, sometimes you just got to humor your elders.¡± And so we began plowing. A long boring job made frustrating when the Carabao got tired. Mostly it was drudgery. Very muddy drudgery.


    I wearily waddled past my property and into the woods, stopping at the stream. Examining the rapidly moving water for a moment, I decided to just throw myself in. It was freezing cold. The air escaped my lungs in a shudder and my muscles stiffened. I burst out of the frigid water, gasping for air, and clawing my way up the bank. ¡°H,h,h,oollly shi,shi,shit,t,t,t.¡± The water near the village wasn¡¯t this damn cold and the mud was still caked onto my clothes. Well, that was stupid. Now I¡¯m muddy, wet, and cold.


    ***


    It had rained a few times since I arrived, but they were always at night and very light. Today marked the first full spring rain I had seen this year, and it was really coming down now. Saito¡¯s farmhouse included a Horigotatsu in the main room. Essentially, just a low table over a pit, it was a primary fixture of his home with a beautiful, dark colored and well-polished table that I thoroughly admired and I vowed to myself to have one in my own home. Four sets of dishes sat around the surface as we ate. In the last week or so, I had eaten at this table nearly once per day and there were always four sets of dishes for only three people. I had resolved to ask Saito about it today and was slowly working up the courage to do so. I was probably not going to like the answer. Nobody set an extra seat at the table every day for a good reason, like just in case the King stopped by. Actually, that was a terrible example. The damnable king had become well known for dropping in on peasant farmers, killing the men, raping the women, and setting the house on fire with the children still inside. Seriously horrific stuff. I remember the mandatory week of morning to include a lot of drinking and constant parties. Not sure anyone, least of all the common folk, shed a single tear for that freak.


    ¡°A ques/Well I¡­¡± Saito and I started at the same time.


    ¡°You first.¡± I said. ¡°Mine is just a question of idle curiosity.¡±


    Saito nodded. ¡°Was going to say, I think we¡¯ll work on flooding the fields tomorrow. Seems mother nature is trying to help out today. Do you have anything you can work on today?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ve got some fletching I can do.¡±


    ¡°Fletching?¡± Wei Lin asked. Wei Lin almost never talked during these meals.


    ¡°Arrow making. I only have a few shafts I can work on, though.¡±


    ¡°Is that what the wood you have in my loft is for?¡± Saito asked.


    ¡°Ah, yeah. Trying to dry them out.¡±


    I had picked up Fletching as a sure way to make a few coins in my downtime. It didn¡¯t cost much in tools, but it was a tedious job. Saito looked meaningfully at his daughter and nodded. Wei Lin had the courtesy to wait until her father looked away before she rolled her eyes.


    Saito took the last bite of his giniling and rice and sat back with a contented smile. ¡°My dear daughter, your giniling is the best. The potatoes and carrots are the perfect texture and the meat is spiced just right. Wouldn¡¯t you agree, Yuji?¡±


    I saw Wei Lin wince. ¡°If you promise never to tell, I¡¯ll admit that it is better than my mother¡¯s.¡± I think Wei Lin actually blushed at that, though the statement was factual and mostly aimed at her father.


    Saito nodded his satisfaction at my agreement. He had been playing this game since the day we first met. Practically throwing poor Wei Lin under the proverbial cart and saddling her with extra work serving me. Saito¡¯s goal was obvious. He wanted to show off his daughter¡¯s stability as a devoted wife while simultaneously determining if I¡¯d be a suitable suitor. I got why. I was essentially a perfect opportunity for him. He could evaluate me as a potential son-in-law as I worked on my property. If I married Wei Lin, she would always be close by and he could more actively intervene if we had some domestic issues. He clearly felt guilty about blessing the marriage of Shinichi and Yoko and didn¡¯t want to make the same mistake twice.


    There were two massive impediments to his plan. Foremost, he never consulted Wei Lin on the matter. She was a dutiful daughter and did the tasks without complaint, but I saw her roll her eyes or sigh dramatically. She was feeding me, washing my clothes, and mending my shirts. Honestly, I felt bad about it, but I was so damn busy trying to get everything done before the planting season was over. I vowed to make it up to her after the spring festival. The second hit to Saito¡¯s plan was the whole first impression thing. Unlike the misunderstanding with Saito being cleared up within minutes of first having his spear pointed at me, I had a full week to solidify Wei Lin as a young girl in her early teens. She wasn¡¯t. Wei Lin was short and petite, supposedly just like her mother. She had shiny dark hair, a rounded face with a wide nose, and a well-proportioned body. In short, she was a relatively attractive young woman of marriageable age and I still viewed her as a kid. In a way, Saito¡¯s plan to endear her to me had worked, just not in the way he had expected. I¡¯d feel rather comfortable treating her like a little sister.


    ¡°Oh right. You had a question?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, um. Forgive my ignorance, but¡­ Why is there always an extra set of dishes?¡± Well, it was out now. No taking it back.


    Saito looked at the plates and sighed. He nodded his head with a solemn, dour, yet understanding expression which reminded me far too much of my own father. ¡°My wife is dead. She¡¯s buried in the back under the lilacs I planted for her when we were young. She isn¡¯t coming back and I can accept this. My son, however, he left to fight the Mad King. I know he is probably dead. Or maybe captured, contracted, and sold off to some foreign nation. I don¡¯t know. I can¡¯t know, but if by some miracle he walks through that door, I want him to know I never gave up hope.¡±


    Fuck, I knew I would not like the answer. ¡°Thank you Po.¡±


    ¡°Ah, none of that Po shit. I¡¯ve decided it makes me feel old.¡± He looked between me and Wei Lin, nodded, and extracted himself from the Horigotatsu. ¡°Well, I¡¯ll be in the shop. Why don¡¯t you two play some games or something? Take a day off, yeah? Get to know each other.¡±


    I finished my breakfast as he walked out the back, Wei Lin¡¯s eyes watching her father until she was sure he was gone. As she turned her dark eyes onto me and opened her mouth to speak, I realized this was the first time we had ever been alone together.


    ¡°I¡¯m not interested.¡±


    It was a definitive statement, but I had better make sure she was talking about what I thought she was talking about. ¡°Interested in what?¡±


    ¡°You.¡±


    I nodded. ¡°I figured as much.¡±


    ¡°I apologize for my father¡¯s pushiness.¡±


    ¡°I understand it.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± she said, sounding a lot like Saito. ¡°You don¡¯t. My sister¡­¡±


    I cut her off. ¡°I was in the tenement next to your sister¡¯s when Shinichi came home drunk. I understand.¡±


    She stared at me, clearly surprised, but nodded in acceptance. ¡°I¡­ Okay.¡±


    ¡°Thank you for everything you¡¯re doing for me. I¡¯ll make it up to you once the spring planting is done.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not necessary.¡±


    ¡°Well, I¡¯ll make sure to reduce your workload.¡± I stacked my dishes and got up. ¡°Thank you for breakfast, Ate.¡±


    Her head tilted and lips twisted as she considered the Honorific. She nodded, accepting it. And I went to join Saito in his shop for the day.


    Turns out Saito was a Cooper. I don¡¯t know why it surprised me he made barrels, but having a neighbor that did had to be a good omen. He allowed me a corner of his shop for my fletching. That was another reason I learned the skill. It didn¡¯t really take up much room. The tools and materials fit in a small bag and only the shafts had any actual size to them. Because of the necessity of traveling light on my way here, I only had a few finished shafts on me. So while arrow creation was a ridiculously long process for such a simple item, I had finished before lunch. I looked around the shop as I put my stuff away and asked Saito a simple question. Therefore, spending the rest of the day learning how to make barrels.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    ***


    Flooding fields was an interesting process. We started by pulling a very large number of thick bamboo poles that had a channel cut out of them and all except one of the little interior dividers knocked out. After inspecting them for cracks, we started laying them out from Saito¡¯s fields all the way to the stream that ran from the hills to the river. That was the simple part. The more difficult part was propping them all up and staking them down so the water would flow through the bamboo channels all the way to the fields without spilling all over the place. It was both frustrating and fun. Once Saito¡¯s fields started filling, he showed me where to find the bamboo and we started making channels for my own land.


    ***


    I knocked on the door of the Yin twins not terribly long after a visit from Kenta. He was heading into town and asked that I stop by with my shovel and help his sister with a new garden bed. By help, he meant, do it for her. Or them, I guess. His exact words were something to the effect of, ¡°I hate to interrupt you as I know you are very busy, but if you and your shovel could find your way to my home, my dearest sister would like help expanding the garden this year and our fine fingers are not really up to manual labor.¡± Kenta a was cheeky fucker sometimes, wiggling his fingers at me. ¡°She, of course, will return the favor by starting some seedlings for your own garden.¡± And that¡¯s how I ended up here.


    Kiyoko opened the door with a bright smile and a cheerful hello. I followed her out to the garden feeling¡­ Well, awkward wasn¡¯t the correct word. She was wearing a very nice shirt. It was red with a cherry blossom print and though it was of average fabric, I could see a silk version being used by servants at fancy tea houses. It hugged her body tightly, showing off the shape of her breasts and was cut low enough to expose a distracting amount of cleavage. The shirt reached down to mid thigh and had a slit along the sides from the hem to the hip. It was a very nice shirt. Kiyoko looked very good in it. The problem wasn¡¯t the shirt specifically. The issue was that the kind of shirt she was wearing required pants or a skirt underneath. Kiyoko wasn¡¯t wearing either of those. On a related note, she had really nice legs. The fact that the fabric extended past her butt was contradicted by her fluffy white tail, which swayed as she walked, revealing small under clothes made of some tightly woven red fabric. It showed a lot of butt. A very nicely shaped butt.


    She started talking the moment we got close to the garden. As it was right next to the house, I didn¡¯t really have enough time to stare, but I pried my eyes away and listened to her dilemma. Apparently Saito¡¯s son, Hon Ri Xiao had dug what currently existed. Kiyoko had wanted to expand last year, but no Hon Ri. The wife of a man on the other side forbid him from helping due to Kiyoko¡¯s occupation. That¡¯s the point where I figured I better just ask and get it over with.


    ¡°What is your occupation? If you don¡¯t mind me asking.¡±


    ¡°Courtesan.¡±


    ¡°Ah.¡± So she was a whore.


    ¡°And masseuse.¡± She gave me a mischievous, vulpine grin. ¡°Maybe when you¡¯re done here, I can provide an example of my services.¡± She said playfully, pushing her delicate fingers against my chest. ¡°Anyway, the garden.¡±


    Each garden bed was about my height in length and width. Kiyoko¡¯s concern was that she had calculated that she needed two more beds, but having two instead of three would throw off the symmetry of the garden. It was literally the sort of thing the average person, or myself specifically, wouldn¡¯t have even thought twice about. For Kiyoko, this was a serious problem. In the end, I convinced her to just let me put in three beds and she could fill a bed with ornamental flowers or grow vegetables to give away. She proclaimed me a hero and rewarded me with a kiss on the cheek for my very mundane solution to her extraordinarily mundane problem. The Yin twins were clearly a bit anal about symmetry and tidiness.


    ¡°After the spring festival, when the work slows down, I¡¯d like your help on occasion. We can discuss payment for the service. Hon Ri used to haul water for us every other day or so. It¡¯s not much, but my brother and I just aren¡¯t built for it, you know?¡±


    ¡°Sure. That shouldn¡¯t be an issue.¡±


    She touched my arm. ¡°Okay, when you¡¯re done, wash your hands in the trough and come inside, okay?¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡±


    She nodded, and I got to watch her sexy long legs as she returned to the house. Shit, after this I was going to need a dunk in the stream. The digging itself went stupidly fast. I had been fighting my soil for the last week. A whole damn quarter Rai of interwoven roots and tree stumps that straight up weren¡¯t ever coming out. I wish my dirt was like this. I suppose it will be after a decade of working the land. I washed my hands off in the water trough as asked and kicked off my boots before entering the Yin house.


    ¡°Hello? Kiyoko?¡±


    The woman in question poked her head in from the next room. ¡°In here, come in.¡±


    The main room lacked the Horigotatsu that the Xiao house held so prominently. Instead, it had a simple irori fireplace in the center, which looked as though it hadn¡¯t been used since the cold months. The room itself was tidy and neat. Very clean with decorative pictures and knick-knack filled shelves tastefully placed. The room Kiyoko was in caused me to pause. It was a kitchen. On the left by an open door was a full sized table with two chairs. The right had a countertop that stretched around the entire wall except for two spots, an actual working sink, and a custom-built Kalan. I had only seen one other household sink. That was at my uncle Lo Bao¡¯s manor back home. This one wasn¡¯t as fancy and it was leaking slightly, but holy shit, a sink. Garlic and herbs hung from the rafters and canned food filled the shelves, all meticulously organized. Kiyoko was hovering over the Kalan, the smoke from the clay stove and the steam from whatever she was cooking drifted up into a wide vent hood like you might see in a smithy. The woman was wearing an apron, which did nothing to cover her backside. Her butt and tail swayed as she hummed. She turned around with most of a steaming hot bun in one hand, a smaller piece in the other. She blew on the small piece.


    ¡°Done already?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, your dirt is not as difficult as mine¡± ¡°


    ¡°Mmm.¡± She hummed. ¡°Try this for me?¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡± I reached out a hand, but she withdrew the bun and pouted. ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Just open your mouth.¡±


    I stared at her for a moment, but complied. She took a step closer and popped the bun in my mouth. Having a whore for a neighbor was freaking weird.


    ¡°How is it? Not too salty?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s good.¡± It was good. Wasn¡¯t ever going to complain about Siopao.


    ¡°Mmm, Kenta is such a baby about salt. Likes everything bland.¡± She handed me the larger price of meat filled deliciousness and turned around, putting three more buns in a basket. ¡°How¡¯s the land clearing going?¡±


    ¡°Not terrible. Saito showed me how to pipe water from the stream, which helped loosen the soil. He says I¡¯m going to have to fight the rice paddies for at least a year before they hold water well. Got a garden area cleared and worked on a spot for chickens.¡±


    She nodded and pressed past me to the table. ¡°Good, good. I can¡¯t imagine trying to do that by hand. When will you start on a house?¡±


    ¡°Right after the chicken coop, I hope. Going to have to pay for that, though. I don¡¯t really know anything about building.¡±


    Kiyoko set the basket on the table and took off the apron. She gave me her mischievous, vulpine smile again. ¡°Question for my strong and handsome new neighbor.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡±


    Kiyoko turned to the table and pushed herself down so she was basically laying on it with her ass sticking out at me. She looked back at my slightly panicking face with her shit-eating grin. Her tail pushed the flap of her shirt away and she wiggled her very nice butt at me. ¡°Want a go? First time is free.¡±


    ¡°Ah, I ah,¡± was my very elegant reply. I wasn¡¯t one hundred percent clear if she was serious or just fucking with me. The base instinctual part of me screamed, ¡°Hit That!¡± It¡¯s a good thing people have the ability to reason. Shinichi was right. Kiyoko had a nice ass. Actually, he said she was a delicious piece of ass, which meant something else entirely, but she did have a nice butt and the small red underclothes she wore drew attention to it.


    ¡°No.¡± I said, sounding way more hesitant than I wanted to.


    ¡°Oh? Any reason in particular?¡± She practically purred.


    I still wasn¡¯t sure whether or not she was just fucking with me, but I had two reasons not to screw my hot courtesan neighbor. Possibly a third as I was not sure how that would change the neighborly interactions. ¡°Well, Reputation for one. I¡¯m new here and I don¡¯t want to be known as loose.¡±


    Kiyoko returned to a standing position before letting herself up and sitting on the table, leaning to one side, her rich white hair cascading down. She crossed her legs and dealt a killing bow to my excuse. ¡°Ah yes, but I¡¯m not going to tell anyone. Occupation confidentiality.¡± She grinned and moved the hand that she wasn¡¯t leaning on slowly up her waist to cup one of her breasts.


    She still might be fucking with me. ¡°Well, there¡¯s sort of another thing.¡± In a way, it was still about reputation, just not mine. Not sure what my expression looked like, but her grin faltered. ¡°I had someone tell me about you¡­¡±


    ¡°Someone said bad things about me?¡± She sounded hurt.


    ¡°No, they said good things about you. It¡¯s just, a couple hours later, I unfortunately happened to hear how he treated his wife and that just sort of left a foul taste, so to speak.¡±


    Kiyoko¡¯s teasing grin vanished, replaced with disgust. ¡°Shinichi.¡± I said nothing, but she clearly read my expression. She seemed good at that. ¡°It¡¯s a small town. Everyone knows he beats the little Xiao girl.¡± She looked out toward my property, or more likely Saito¡¯s property.


    The whole sexual aura that had existed a moment ago was completely gone. Replaced by the sour look on Kiyoko¡¯s face as she hopped down from the table and to the cupboard. Shinichi was certainly a buzzkill. ¡°I could tell you things that little fucker has said, but occupational confidentiality. You want a drink?¡± She pulled out a jug and a cup, looking back at me for my answer.


    I shrugged. ¡°Sure.¡± Then I ate the last of the Siopao I forgot I was holding.


    She poured two cups, handed me one, drank hers in one go, and proceeded to glower at her cup for a solid minute. ¡°So¡­¡± the Kitsun¨¦ woman said, her fox-like ears returning to an unagitated angle. I needed to watch those more. ¡°I could probably get you a discount for the first time with another girl.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡±


    She shrugged. ¡°Welcome to the neighborhood gift.¡±


    ¡°You gave me honey cakes.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, well, you¡¯re single and most people like sex.¡±


    ¡°Most people like honey cakes, even single people.¡± This conversation keeps getting weirder.


    Kiyoko pointed one of the fingers holding her cup at me and tilted her head. ¡°So, no sex at the brothel?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve never been to a brothel, and I wasn¡¯t planning to start now.¡±


    ¡°Is that an ever thing?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I think so.¡±


    She leaned back against the counter. One arm under her breasts, pushing them up, the elbow of her other arm resting on the first. She tapped a long, elegant finger against her chin while she examined me far too much, like Saito did. She pointed the taping finger at me. ¡°I have a cousin about your age.¡±


    I sighed. ¡°I¡¯m not going to fuck your cousin.¡±


    ¡°What? No! I mean I could introduce you. You¡¯re going to look for a wife eventually, I presume. Unless you have issues with Kitsun¨¦?¡±


    ¡°No issues other than the obvious, I guess, but I don¡¯t even have a house yet.¡±


    ¡°Said I can introduce you. Not force a sudden and immediate marriage.¡± She laughed.


    ¡°Oh, right.¡±


    She tapped her chin again. ¡°Hmmm, yes. I can get her here for planting, I think. She can teach you how to plant rice and you can get to know each other at the same time.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m, okay with that.¡±


    ¡°Right. Okay, then get back to work. You need to build a house so you can marry my pretty little cousin.¡± The teasing grin was back. ¡°Oh, and that basket is for you. If no one is around when you return it, just leave it by the door.¡±


    ¡°Ah thank you.¡±


    ¡°Thank you for the garden work.¡±


    She waved as I retreated with my reward. Fuck, that was¡­ Well, I don¡¯t know what that was, but now I really need a dunk in the still icy stream. I shoved one of the meat-filled steamed buns in my face and grinned. If only Kiyoko were a decade younger and not a prostitute. There was definitely something to the saying ¡°the way to a man¡¯s heart is through his stomach.¡± Maybe her cousin is a good cook. Even with the awkwardness, Kiyoko is still my favorite person in Sharinzhen. That might not be fair to Ate Wei Lin, but she was being forced to feed me. Kiyoko gave me food of her own free will.


    ***


    The day after the Yin garden, I was to be working the wheel. I had no idea what that meant, but it was supposed to be easy. It was easy. It was literally a waterwheel, though a bit backwards. Instead of water moving the wheel, which moved something else, a person, me in this case, walked inside the wheel to lift water out of one paddy and into a shoot to another paddy. Behold the issue with moving water over relatively flat ground. I can see why most paddies are on terraces. I spent the next day plowing. Same as the last time and just as muddy. Lots of nervous tension in the air as the planting neared.

 Rev1_Chapter 5: Planting

    Rev1_Chapter 5: Planting


    Building a chicken coop is a grand project. It allows one to test designs they may want to use on larger projects, and if it looks like crap, the residents probably won¡¯t care. Just remember to locate your coop properly. The garden feeds the chickens, the chickens feed the compost, and the compost feeds the garden. Don¡¯t put these things too far apart. You will regret it.


    - Kuya Tio on Chickens, Kuya Tio¡¯s Guide to a Healthy and Happy Homestead.


    The chicken coop was¡­ Well it was. I had done it myself and it wasn¡¯t filling me with pride. Clearly, construction wasn¡¯t my forte. The fence had been easier, just long saplings interwoven between some posts. Kuya Tio¡¯s Guide mentioned nothing about remembering to put in a gate and¡­ I paused as my finder rested on a sentence in the aforementioned Guide. ¡°And of course, don¡¯t forget to put in a gate.¡± I would have sworn that wasn¡¯t there. Whatever. I closed the book and cocked my head at the coop. Saito was kicking me out of his barn in about a week, and as long as I didn¡¯t get any chickens for a while, the coop would be livable. The barn was getting smellier with the warmer weather, anyway.


    Job done for the day, I had dinner with the Xiao¡¯s. This was normally a mundane experience, but today Yoko and her children joined us. Saito sat stern-faced and clearly upset, but did everything in his power not to let it show, likely for the sake of his grandchildren. I had expected a pleasant meal while peppering Saito about tomorrow¡¯s planting. Instead, dinner was a solemn affair while we all pointedly avoided looking at Yoko¡¯s swollen face and the bruise on her throat shaped like a hand. It was a weird, awkward night and the next morning¡¯s breakfast wasn¡¯t much better, but after that we set out as a group to the village proper for my first planting.


    ¡°Kaori, this is my neighbor, Yuji Han. Yuji, Kaori Shao.¡±


    I bowed as Kiyoko introduced me to her cousin. Kaori was shorter with dark brown hair and a darker skin tone than the Yin twins, whether that was hereditary or a lack of sunlight on the twin¡¯s part. I couldn¡¯t say. Her face was cute, but plain and her clothing was well¡­ Nobody was dressed up particularly well except the Yin Twins and some older folks that likely wouldn¡¯t be getting muddy. She bowed back, but I got the distinct feeling Kaori wasn¡¯t meeting me entirely of her own free will.


    ¡°Have you planted rice before?¡± Kiyoko asked.


    ¡°No.¡±


    She clapped her hands together. ¡°Great. Kaori, you can show him how to plant seedlings and get to know each other. It¡¯s perfect. Multiple birds and stones and such.¡± With that said, Kiyoko wandered off.


    ¡°Hey.¡± Kaori started. ¡°No offense, but I want children and you¡¯re not compatible. I¡¯m only here to get family off my back.¡±


    I nodded. That was a fair point. Kind of a major issue between Kitsune and any other race. ¡°I get it. I¡¯m just hoping Kiyoko becomes less¡­ intense.¡±


    Kaori snorted at that. ¡°You get the whole first time¡¯s free thing?¡±


    I looked down at her. She just laughed.


    ¡°Dad says I¡¯m supposed to show you how to plant rice.¡± Ate Wei Lin said, practically startling me as I hadn¡¯t seen her coming. ¡°Especially since you¡¯re standing next to another girl.¡± She added with a defeated sigh.


    ¡°Kaori, this is Ate Wei Lin, not interested in me. Ate, this is Kaori, also not interested in me.¡±


    ¡°We know each other.¡± Kaori said.


    ¡°We got time. I¡¯ll be back shortly.¡± Wei Lin wandered off, having fulfilled whatever basic instructions Saito had given her.


    ¡°Hey.¡± Kaori said while poking me in the side. ¡°I didn¡¯t say I wasn¡¯t interested. I just want kids, you know?¡±


    ¡°Is there a difference?¡± There was a difference. I probably should have kept my mouth shut. She stared at the ground, not answering. ¡°What are we waiting for, anyway?¡±


    Kaori was about to answer, but was cut off.


    ¡°Hey! So you¡¯re the Han brat I keep hearing about.¡± The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    An older man grabbed my forearm and started shaking. ¡°Uhh, yeah?¡± He slammed his free hand into my shoulder.


    ¡°You look nothing like Lo Bao.¡±


    ¡°Ah, yeah. I look more like my mother, I guess.¡± The old man was still holding my arm. I must have looked uncomfortable because Kaori giggled and had to turn away.


    ¡°Your mother? And just who did Lo Bao marry?¡±


    ¡°Ah, wait. Lo Bao is my uncle.¡±


    ¡°What? You¡¯re not Lo Boa¡¯s kid?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± He finally let go. ¡°Oh well, glad to have you around, brat.¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡±


    He left me to assault another man a few paces away. ¡°That was weird. Do you know who that was?¡±


    ¡°No. Not his name at least,¡± Kaori said before continuing to giggle at my expense. We moved closer to the rice paddies as everyone else seemed to congregate there. Ate Wei Lin silently showed up, and we watched an old gray-haired woman carrying silver incense balls start walking down the path between paddies while chanting something I couldn¡¯t understand, assuming they were even actual words.


    ¡°How long¡­¡± I started to ask before both Ate Wei Lin and Kaori shushed me. So I stood and watched along with the rest of the village as the old lady made her way up and down the paths. I had to assume the weather was perfect for this. The air was still cool, but the nearly cloudless sky was a bright azure blue and the sun was shining brightly. It felt like the world itself was trying to give me a good first planting experience. We all waited until the woman finished her chanting walk around the paddies. Long enough for my feet to hurt. Then we spread out to a couple of paddies, grabbed baskets of rice seedlings, and waited.


    ¡°What you think? We stand on each side of the new guy. He does a single row and if he keeps up, give him two on the next pass.¡± Kaori asked Wei Lin.


    ¡°Sure.¡±


    I spent my time looking around while the two girls chatted about how to make me not useless. Most people were linking up in the water of the paddies, but several of the older folks were heading into the village and hauling back tables and benches. Kenta was taking a seat at a very large drum while chatting with the Patriarch. He took a drink, presumably water, picked up the large drumsticks, then beat a rapid staccato beat that got everyone¡¯s attention.


    ¡°All right.¡± Ate Wei Lin said while shoving a basket of seedlings in my arms just before Kenta let out another staccato, followed by a steady beat. Suddenly I was trying to keep up as the two girls on either side of me were pulling exactly three seedlings out of their baskets and shoving them into the muck of the rice paddy in perfectly spaced rows. My only job was to fill in the missing space with a single seedling. It took about ten seedlings before I got the hang of placing them. As I got comfortable shoving the little green shoots into the paddy, I had enough time between rows to realize everyone else was following the beat of Kenta¡¯s drum. When we reached the end, Kent played the staccato again, and I saw him nod and grin to the person next to him.


    ¡°You¡¯re doing two rows now.¡± Kaori told me as the line of villagers reset themselves to go back across the paddy.


    It was harder to keep up with two rows, but after two passes, I was handling it and was promoted to three rows. It took until we finished the first full Rai before I could keep up. When we reached the end, I stood up straight and let my back pop. This was going to hurt by the end of the day.


    ¡°Hey Yuji!¡± I looked up to see Kenta standing over his drum, yelling at me with his hands up to his mouth. ¡°If you think you¡¯ve got it now, we¡¯d like to speed up so we can finish planting before winter.¡± I felt my face heat as literally the entire village had a laugh at my expense. I looked at Ate Wei Lin, who had a hand over her mouth and couldn¡¯t look at me.


    Kaori poked me in the side. ¡°Just hazing the new guy.¡±


    They may have been hazing me, but I think Kenta may have been serious about speeding up. Every time I thought I was keeping up, I found myself behind. I was the last person to finish at the end of every row, but Kenta seemed to wait for me to finish before playing the quick staccato beat that signified finishing a line. The day became a frustrating game of keep up. My back hurt. I was sweating like a madman, and I was completely out of breath when we finished a full Rai seized paddy. Then Kenta started playing something completely different. It was less a beat and more of a single tone song. It had a lot of ups and downs and Kenta himself was grinning like a madman while flourishing the drumsticks. The song ended on a single solid hit to the drum and I realized I was completely alone in the rice fields. Abandoned by everyone, including the girls, as the older villagers served lunch.


    It took two days to plant the village¡¯s paddies with literally everyone pitching in. I spent the next day with Ate Wei Lin planting the three, quarter Rai at the Xiao place and then by myself planting my single quarter full of stumps. It was the first time that I had taken a really good look at the seed starting setup. It consisted of a large straw lined box with several barrels inside. The seedlings were started in the barrels and every night Wei Lin or Saito would drop heated stones into a bucket of water and place blankets over the box. Basically, the seedlings had to be babysat every night until it was warm enough for them to survive normally. It never dawned on me that rice, this far north at least, needed so much care in order to get a harvest.


    Saito told me to take the next day off to get some rest, but that just meant I was hauling water for the Yin twins and transplanting sprouted plants into my garden. Sore as hell, primarily in my lower back, I took Kenta up on his offer for a free massage. Which I barely managed to get, because everyone schedules him a week before planting. All that said, the planting was over and it was time for the spring festival.

 Rev_1 Chapter 6: To Those Who Never Return

    Defense is an often overlooked aspect of the Homestead. As chickens need fencing to protect from predators and the garden needs a fence to protect from herbivores, so too does a village need a fence. Though instead of wood and rope, a village¡¯s fence is often made of flesh and bone and steel and faith. Not all threats are physical and not all that can be lost is material.


    - Kuya Tio on Community, Kuya Tio¡¯s Guide to a Healthy and Happy Homestead.


    I buried my head in my hands and groaned. I hadn¡¯t found the time to build a fence around the garden and literally everything I had planted yesterday had been eaten. The soil trampled with deer prints. It was a pretty solid hit to the gut, and I needed to fence the plot in before the stuff directly sown into the dirt sprouted, but first, breakfast without looking too dejected and after breakfast, the festival.


    The spring festival was very¡­ un-festival like. Really just a village get together and feast. It started with the slaughter of a pig. Its throat was cut and blood collected into a pail. It was then gutted and cleaned. Hair shaved and singed away. Internal cavity stuffed full of garlic and lemongrass. Then, we put the pig on a spit and rotated it over hot coals while the women seasoned and cooked the blood. The town square was a bustle of activity. Women in and out of the kitchens of the closest houses, children running circles around the square, and men at tables playing games, either board, card, or dice. A large get together, not really a festival. It was one of those ¡°Hey how ya doin¡¯¡± type events that I never really cared for back home, but I would not complain about free food and a break from work. Practically every old man in the village quizzed me on my life, which was tiresome at best, and I lost a few games of cards before giving up. I felt an odd mixture of content, annoyed, and bored. Part of me, happy to take a day off, another part upset that I was here instead of at home working. The only person close to my age was A¡¯te Wei Lin, and I wondered if that had something to do with my lack of enjoyment. Obviously I was busier than hell trying to get the Homestead in order, but the only people I had met in Sharinzhen as a whole who were close to my age were the Xiao sisters and Shinichi. I clearly needed to make some friends.


    ***


    ¡°So you plan to sleep in the chicken coop?¡± Saito asked, scratching at his beard in thought.


    ¡°Yeah, until I get the house built.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s waterproof, right?¡±


    ¡°Fairly sure it is.¡± I wasn¡¯t one hundred percent sure. The roof had been a massive pain in the ass, but we hadn¡¯t had a good rain during the day since I had gotten it on. ¡°I¡¯d like to borrow some hay for bedding, if that would be alright?¡±


    ¡°Yeah that¡¯s fine.¡± Saito nodded. ¡°About staying in there tonight, though.¡±


    I was half expecting the guy to say ¡°no¡±, but the barn was starting to really smell and he said he was going to kick me out after yesterday¡¯s festival.


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Ah, why?¡± I asked.


    He looked at me quizzically, like I should know the answer already. ¡°New place to sleep means poor sleep. You¡¯ll need good rest for tomorrow.¡±


    Okay, now I was confused. ¡°What¡¯s tomorrow?¡±


    Saito blinked owlishly at me. ¡°Militia training. Didn¡¯t Meng Su tell you yesterday?¡±


    ¡°Militia training? No. No one ever said anything about a Militia.¡±


    Saito shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s part of your corv¨¦e.¡±


    Of course, I expected a town on the very edge of the empire to have some defense, but I expected an actual military. It just never dawned on me that the only people out here to serve as the military were the people that lived here. ¡°What am I supposed to do? As Militia, I mean.¡±


    ¡°We train once a week until harvest and once per month during the winter. One of those training sessions per month will be done in the town with the rest of the Militia.¡±


    ¡°But we, like, if an army comes, we¡¯re supposed to stop them?¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡±


    ¡°Has that ever happened?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Said Saito to my relief. ¡°At least not in my lifetime.¡±


    ¡°So we never get called?¡±


    ¡°Oh, we get called every once in a while. Monsters or outside barbarians.¡±


    ¡°And we fight them?¡± I asked, afraid to hear the answer.


    ¡°What? No. We protect the town until the military arrives. I suppose we fight them if they attack. Had a mountain troll once. That was scary, but the barbarians haven¡¯t caused any problems in my lifetime. Usually come to trade cattle for supplies just before winter sets in.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± I had nothing useful to say. I can¡¯t believe I¡¯ve just been conscripted. Well, I guess it isn¡¯t actual conscription.


    ¡°Yep. We¡¯ll head out after breakfast, and Wei Lin will have something good for us when we get back. Probably side pork.¡±


    ***


    Militia training was nowhere near as bad as I had imagined. Honestly, my mind had gotten the better of me and I spent the night imagining intense physical training, a lot of yelling, and getting pummeled by the other villagers in some sort of combat training. Saito and I left after breakfast. He was missing the spear, but wearing a large circle of bronze mirror armor that covered his chest and stomach. I didn¡¯t ask about it, unsure if I was supposed to get one as well. When we got to town, a large door was opened, a rack of spears were moved off to the side, and everyone was handed a spear shaft with a cloth ball on the end. I guess that made sense. You wouldn¡¯t want to stab your neighbors during practice. They also handed out large rectangular shields that, when set on the ground, came up to my waist. We were then ordered to fall in line by a man who only went by Wu. This was the part where they planned to have a laugh at my expense. I had no idea what we were doing as the sixteen other men fell into a row of eight men, two deep. They all laughed at my confused look and when I tried to stand next to Chao, I was told I needed special training to be on the end, and they laughed again. Wu yelled at them to stop screwing around and Chao moved over so I could stand between him and Saito. We then marched to an open area that I had previously wondered why the village hadn¡¯t turned it into more rice paddies. Now I know. When I say we marched, what I really mean is that we walked and tried not to break Rank. I¡¯ve seen actual soldiers march. We were definitely not marching.


    Much of the day was dedicated to moving while staying in line. Move forward. Move back. Rotate left. Rotate right. Refusing the flank was difficult. Basically, someone acted as a hinge and part of the line swung back. Considerably more difficult than it sounds. Bracing for a charge meant that the first line dropped to a knee, holding their shields in front of them and the butt of their spears dug into the ground while the guy behind you placed his shield over the top of you. It made the line into a spiked wall of wood. War stories always focused on Samurai duels and generals doing clever shit, never the actual blocks of men. Now I know why. What do you do when faced with a wall of shields and spears other than press against it with your own wall of shields and spears, unless you have a mage? That¡¯s a scary thought. If we fight a mage, we are literally supposed to scatter as fast as possible and hope we don¡¯t die. I hope to hells I never have to actually do anything more than practice this stuff.


    As the day was winding down and my arm was hell¡¯a freaking sore from carrying the shield, we switched to crossbow practice. That was easier than I expected. Put foot in the loop at the front, pull the charging bar, insert bolt, aim, and fire. Most of the time was spent on how not to shoot your own people. Which is mostly just don¡¯t put a bolt in until it¡¯s time to fire. I never hit the target, but that was apparently okay because if I ever had to use a crossbow, it likely meant I¡¯d be shooting at a block of people, not individuals.


    All in all, militia trying wasn¡¯t an unpleasant experience and true to Saito¡¯s word, A¡¯te Wei Lin had made side pork for dinner. Never let it get to my mother, but Wei Lin was definitely a better cook.


    ***


    ¡°Hey.¡± Said A¡¯te Wei Lin.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    I straightened up, my back popping as I did so. I was finally clearing a place to build a house. Unfortunately, that meant I had to remove the tree stumps, and that was an exercise in frustration. Wei Lin was dressed up and holding several strips of paper connected to strings.


    ¡°Um. Dinner will be early tonight because the village is heading into town for Ah, well, a night of remembrance, I guess. We don¡¯t really have a name for it yet. It¡¯s not really a festival, but every year after the spring festival we write the names of people we lost to the war and hang them on a tree in town. And then drink. There¡¯s lots of drinking. Have you lost anyone?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve lost a couple friends. And my uncle, if he counts.¡±


    Wei Lin tilted her head as she considered. ¡°Yeah, I think your uncle would count. A bit after the fact, but¡­ So how many do you need?¡± She held up the strips of paper.


    ¡°Three, but¡­ My friends were¡­ on the wrong side of this.¡±


    She shrugged. ¡°Not everyone got to choose their side. How ¡®bout you get cleaned up and you can fill these out at dinner?¡±


    I felt weird tying the names of three people who didn¡¯t live in this town and fought on the wrong side of the war to the tree. I couldn¡¯t even really say they were close friends. Takao left on deployment one day and never returned. Kang was stabbed to death in the street outside a bar by the friend of a rebel he had picked a fight with. And I honestly hadn¡¯t been that close to my uncle. I tied my tags in a small cluster on the back of a rather old and knurled tree, trying to take as little time as possible. Literally everyone was here. Some tied on their tags and left. Others stood around and bullshitted with friends. I kept vaguely close to Saito after Wei Lin disappeared with a few other girls. The sheer number of tags hanging from the branches was gut wrenching when you realized each one was the name of a person who was either dead or exiled.


    At some point the ¡°who are you¡¯s¡± started and after explaining a half dozen times the ¡°meet my daughter¡¯s¡± began. It bugged me that I had men literally throwing their little girls at me. It might sound like a fantasy in your head, but in reality, it hit me as creepy. I got it. Most of the tags on the tree were men of my age. I was one of very few prospects in this town and Saito¡¯s compliments on how hard I worked and my own admission that I wasn¡¯t seeking to court anyone until I could prove I could feed myself caused guys to try to sell me their daughter¡¯s like property. Maybe it was a cultural thing, as this wasn¡¯t common in the city. Ayame was supposed to be kind and a great cook along with other positive wifely abilities, but looked just as displeased as Wei Lin had been with being marketed. Eiko was a bit younger and stared at me with doe eyes like I was some type of amazing catch, of which I was far more crept out than caught. Then there was Tung-Mei Wen. I didn¡¯t receive a sales pitch for her. Her father introduced the girl and walked off, completely aware that his daughter was smoking hot. The primitive part of me said ¡°yes, fuck that!¡± And very quickly convinced the logical part that I should at least get to know her for later, when I did start looking for a wife. Then Tung-Mei opened her fucking mouth.


    I watched myself in mild fascination as the same part of me that handled the baser instincts simultaneously screamed, ¡°have sex with that¡± and ¡°run for your life¡±. Seriously stepping back and analyzing your base feelings when you were in no actual danger was a trip. We mere mortals are fucking weird. Tung-Mei was blabbering on about how her friends, family, and this town sucked as I looked for a way out. I was hoping I could spot A¡¯te Wei Lin or even Saito and make an excuse to leave when someone poked me in the side. I looked down at my brown eyed, plain faced knight in shining armor, or more specifically, a green long-sleeved Ao Dai dress with asymmetrical flower embroidery.


    Kaori pulled on my sleeve while looking at Tung-Mei and saying. ¡°Sorry A¡¯te, but I need to borrow Kuya Han. You¡¯re welcome to come with if you don¡¯t mind some heavy lifting.¡±


    Tung-Mei scoffed and looked insulted. ¡°Whatever.¡±


    I was pulled away from the very attractive bitch.


    ¡°Fell into the trap, huh? Pretty face, wide hips, and large breasts?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, thanks for saving me.¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s a bitch. You looked like you needed the help and I figured we didn¡¯t really get to talk during the planting. That much work isn¡¯t really good for chatting.¡±


    ¡°Really, you and A¡¯te Wei Lin seemed to be talking just fine as I tried to keep up.¡±


    Kaori laughed in a way that started as a chuckle that grew for a moment, then ended with a snort. ¡°Fair point. Fancy a walk?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m not exactly enjoying this.¡±


    ¡°To be fair, tonight isn¡¯t really meant to be enjoyed.¡±


    ¡°I guess that makes sense. Everything is either melancholy, or hi, meet my daughter.¡±


    ¡°Oh, it must be so hard to have pretty girls thrown at you?¡± Kaori said, her tone implying dry humor. ¡°My options are too young, too old, married already, or unable to give me children.¡±


    ¡°Sorry. The whole thing just kind of weirds me out.¡±


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s how we meet. Keep complaining and I might take it personally.¡±


    ¡°No, that¡¯s not the same. Your father isn¡¯t trying to sell me on how good of a wife you¡¯d make.¡±


    ¡°He would. I think. I assumed Kiyoko was doing the job, no?¡±


    ¡°No. That came after a different conversation and she never said anything about you as a wife prospect. I mean, I assume that was the point of an introduction, but there¡¯s no push behind it.¡±


    We crossed over the bridge. The river water ran dark and quiet underneath us as night set in. Lanterns lit the street and people wandered around and chatted as if they had nothing pressing to do.


    ¡°What was the conversation about and how¡¯d it lead to me?¡±


    ¡°Sex.¡±


    Kaori snorted. ¡°Of course.¡±


    ¡°She offered sex and when I said no, she offered to get me a different girl at a brothel.¡±


    ¡°So you¡¯re saying you didn¡¯t screw my cousin?¡±


    ¡°I did not. I¡¯ll admit I was tempted, and she¡¯s kind of hot, but I¡¯ve got a reason not to. But then she points a finger at me and says, I¡¯ve got a cousin about your age. And I told her I wasn¡¯t going to fuck her cousin either.¡±


    Kaori gave me a playful glare. ¡°Are you saying I¡¯m not fuckable?¡±


    I chuckled. ¡°I¡¯m saying I thought she was still trying to get me laid.¡±


    ¡°Ah, but are you sure that still isn¡¯t her plan?¡±


    I had to think about that. ¡°You don¡¯t seem the type.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t know my type.¡±


    ¡°Fair point.¡±


    She led me down a tight alleyway and knocked on a door.


    ¡°Where are we?¡±


    ¡°My parent¡¯s shop. Kind of half tea house, half restaurant.¡±


    A human woman opened the door wearing literally the same outfit as Kaori. She looked at Kaori and looked me up and down. ¡°Who the hells are you?¡±


    ¡°Yuji Han.¡± I replied with a bow. She didn¡¯t return it, just blinked at me.


    ¡°Kaori? Are you on a date?¡± The woman asked teasingly.


    ¡°This is the last place I¡¯d go on a date. Yuji will never be more than just a friend.¡±


    I put a hand to my chest and tried to look hurt. ¡°Ow, friend zoned already.¡±


    Kaori snorted.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t like tails, anyway.¡±


    Kaori put on a fake expression of shock. ¡°You racist bastard.¡±


    We both laughed. The woman looked from me to Kaori and back again. ¡°Yeah, I call horseshit. What do you want?¡±


    ¡°Tea please.¡±


    ¡°Seriously?¡±


    ¡°Booze if it¡¯s free.¡± Kaori shot back.


    ¡°Tea then, oh and I¡¯m totally telling your mom you¡¯re dating a human.¡±


    ¡°Hey! No!¡± Kaori yelled, but the woman was already gone. ¡°Damn it.¡± She grumbled.


    ¡°Better your mom than your dad, I suppose.¡± I tried.


    ¡°Fuck no. If I tell dad this isn¡¯t a date, he¡¯ll believe me. Mom¡¯s just going to harass me about it for the rest of the year.¡±


    ¡°Ah, well. Sorry.¡±


    Kaori let out a sigh before the door opened and she was handed a tray complete with tea kettle and cups. ¡°Thanks.¡± She managed before the door shut.


    Kaori poured two cups in the dull lantern light of the back alley before handing me one. She held her cup up. ¡°To those who never return.¡±


    I returned the gesture, and we both took a sip. ¡°This holiday sucks.¡±


    ¡°To be fair.¡± Kaori said, pausing to take another sip. ¡°The harvest festival is the only one worth attending. We, that is, most of my friends and I usually just sit in the back of the shop here and get drunk during the summer festival. If you¡¯re looking to actually meet some of the girls without their parents involved by then, stop by. Unless you were serious about that tail comment.¡±


    I shrugged. ¡°Honestly, don¡¯t care for the tail. Not against it either.¡±


    ¡°Humph. Yeah well, fuck you.¡± She poured herself more tea and leaned against the wall.


    ¡°What¡¯s up for the rest of the night?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m going to stick around here in case things pick up. We¡¯re always open late for these things, but I don¡¯t expect much. We don¡¯t sell booze.¡±


    Silence fell between us, and I watched the moon slowly poke around the edge of the alleyway as we sipped our tea.


    ¡°How¡¯s the homestead coming?¡±


    ¡°Got the paddy and garden planted. Then the deer ate my plants.¡± I replied with a scowl. ¡°Finally moved out of Saito¡¯s barn and into the chicken coop.¡±


    ¡°Eeww.¡±


    ¡°No, I don¡¯t have any chickens yet. It¡¯s clean. I¡¯m currently working on clearing a place for my house. I think I¡¯m going to need a lot of help with that, though.¡±


    Kaori nodded along. ¡°What kind of house?¡±


    ¡°Honestly, I haven¡¯t the slightest idea.¡±


    Kaori snorted and drained the last of her tea. That kind of marked a natural end to this event and after a brief pause where only the sound of insects and chatter of some distant people was heard, I decided to cut it here. ¡°I think I¡¯ll head home now.¡±


    Kaori¡¯s content smile faded a bit, but she nodded. ¡°Stop in sometime. I¡¯m stuck here most days.¡±


    ¡°Will do. Good night Kaori.¡±


    ¡°Night.¡±


    I retraced my path over the bridge, stopping at its zenith to admire the sound of the water and the paper lanterns someone had mounted near the riverbank. It was a long walk home in the dark, but I didn¡¯t get lost.

 Rev_1 Chapter 7: Laying the Foundation Stone

    There are many factors to consider when building a house. Climate is a major one. A house built to keep the cold out is ill suited to the more southern regions of Anoria and vice versa. Where does one position the house on their property? How many people will live there? How much maintenance will it receive? What are the materials? Who is the builder? All of these and more must be fully considered, but most of all, why? Why is a house to be built in the first place? Answer these without deceiving yourself and only then you may build.


    - Kuya Tio on Building a Homestead, Kuya Tio¡¯s Guide to a Healthy and Happy Homestead.


    The last couple of weeks became a blur of settled routine. I¡¯d have breakfast with Saito and Wei Lin before setting to some task. Once per week it was weeding Saito¡¯s rice paddies with Wei Lin, immediately followed by weeding my own by myself. I hauled water for the Yin twins every other day and left with some treat or another every time. Either fresh if Kiyoko was home, or something set aside for me if she wasn¡¯t. Kiyoko was still my favorite person here. Most every day, I worked on clearing land for a house and the path from the gate to the yard. Once per week, we did militia training, and it rained twice. Between all that, I manage the water levels of my leaky rice paddy, and I scoured the building section of Kuya Tio¡¯s Guide.


    One of the primary things I needed to consider with my new house was heating. The winters out here were supposed to get colder than I was used to, and a source of heat was far more important than any cooling effect for the summer. There were two serious options. An Irori, like the Xiao and Yin households had, or a Mass Heater. Saito had a Mass Heater in his Doma. He swore by it, but while having both was the ideal situation, Saito was the only one I knew that had the room. My house wouldn¡¯t be large. I just didn¡¯t have the money. My plan was to build the main section and add on later if I could find the coin. Both the Irori and the Mass Heater took up room and I also really wanted a Horigotatsu like Saito¡¯s. Both systems had pros and cons. The Mass Heater was the obvious long-term winner. It burned a few sticks to heat an area for a long time where the Irori took many tree¡¯s worth of seasoned wood. However, the Mass Heater used a steel burn chamber that was made from the same stuff as high quality Samurai armor. That meant it was damn expensive and while it was shaped like a barrel, no one in a million years would use them to store stuff, so they weren¡¯t readily available. The Mass Heater also had an interior core that degraded with use. It wasn¡¯t a difficult job to fix, and the core was one of the cheap parts, but if it went out in the middle of the winter, you¡¯d be shit out of luck. The Irori was at its base, just a fire pit, with all the good and ill of that. I was discussing the pros and cons over dinner with Saito when Wei Lin asked a very pointed question.


    ¡°What did you grow up with?¡±


    I don¡¯t think I¡¯d ever felt so stupid. ¡°A heater. Thank you A¡¯te. That helped a lot.¡± I¡¯m pretty sure I saw Saito wince when I called his daughter A¡¯te. He was a big man. He¡¯ll get over me not wanting to fuck his little girl. Wow! I can¡¯t believe that was an actual thought.


    ***


    It was my first militia training in the town proper and the village, and likely all the rest of the villages, treated it as an actual drill. The bells started just after breakfast, and both Saito and I ran out the door and jogged to the village to collect our gear. Saito lagged a bit as he tried to don his mirror armor while running. Treating it like an actual drill stopped suddenly as we walked to town at the pace of a Carabao. Turns out it was common for us villagers to hang out in town after training and someone had been designated to take the stuff back, hence the cart and Carabao. We formed up on the mustering grounds just outside Sharinzhen. Saito leaned over and said. ¡°One of the Lords is going to come out and inspect us. Just stare blankly into the distance until he says to pay attention. Probably give some pointless speech after that.¡±


    ¡°Does that happen every time?¡±


    ¡°Just the first training of the year.¡±


    Sure enough, a man dressed head to foot in full crimson Samurai armor started walking along in front of the line. I worked very hard at not looking at the guy. Best I could tell, he was walking with his hands behind his back and nodding occasionally, possibly at Saito. He wandered back across the line and walked several paces out before turning. He raised a hand into the air and loudly said without shouting. ¡°Eyes on me.¡± He returned his hands to their place behind his back. The guy stood straight and tall, his red armor shining, the curved swords of his station displayed prominently. Our group of villagers, by comparison, looked like children playing make believe war.


    ¡°You are not warriors.¡± He said in his loud carrying, but not shouting, voice. ¡°You are not soldiers. Your job in an emergency is to follow the orders of your betters and to protect your town and its people. You do not need weapon training for this. You only need obedience. That is all.¡± He bowed, and we bowed back. The guy then abruptly turned and started back to Sharinzhen. He didn¡¯t even introduce himself.


    ¡°Very inspirational, wasn¡¯t it?¡± Saito asked in a sarcastic tone.


    ¡°Who was he?¡±


    ¡°Lord De Nakada.¡±


    Someone else took the Samurai¡¯s place. This guy shouted. ¡°Sharinzhen zero through three, north side, face south. Sharinzhen four through eight, south side, face north.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll enjoy this,¡± Saito remarked as we lined up.


    I stared across the field at a wall of men. This did not seem enjoyable. It seemed terrifying. All those people with spears and shields lined up like an invading force.


    ¡°South side! Receive!¡±


    I swallowed hard as I dropped to a knee, my shield resting on the ground in front of me. My spear placed at an angle and sticking out between mine and Saito¡¯s shields. The guy behind me rested the bottom of his shield on the top of mine.


    ¡°North side! Advance!¡±


    I watched with heavy breath as the other group marched up and, in a rather anticlimactic display of ¡°pretend war¡± they pressed their shields to our spears and poked at our shields with their own spears. That was it?


    The rest of the day went back and forth with various commands I had already learned, but worked much differently in a large group. I could clearly see how a ragtag group of villagers with just a little training could hold against some invading force, at least for a short while. That said, I never want to see it happen. One thing of note that caught me about the whole militia thing was that not everyone was male. We certainly outnumbered the women, but there were a few standing among the ranks.


    Training was called early, and I started my to-do list by looking for food. It was a whole ten minutes into my wandering that I heard my name called and I could physically feel my stomach sink when I noticed the speaker.


    ¡°Hey Yuji!¡± Shinichi hollered in my direction. The man caught up with his voice rather quickly. ¡°Hey. How¡¯s it going?¡±


    ¡°Fine mostly.¡±


    ¡°Yoko says her dad says you work like a dog. Remember to take a break once in a while, okay? I haven¡¯t seen you since you first arrived. How do you like our humble little town?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s peaceful. Haven¡¯t been impressed with the festivals, but people tell me the Harvest one is the best.¡±


    Shinichi nodded emphatically. ¡°Really, the only one you¡¯d regret missing.¡± He put an arm around my shoulders and shook me. ¡°I just got back to town. Let¡¯s go for a drink.¡±


    ¡°Um, I¡¯m a bit busy at the moment. Maybe some other time.¡± Or never, I added silently.


    ¡°Ah come on. Just one drink. I¡¯ll buy.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve got to pass.¡±


    He spent a few more minutes trying to persuade me to go drinking with him, but inevitably gave up.


    I finally found the place I was looking for. It was a short and wide building with open windows in the front and looked totally different from this side than it did from the back. Two large symbols displayed the name of the building in High Ityean. The first, I did not understand, but the second, I was fairly certain meant place or land. I, like most people, couldn¡¯t actually read High Ityean. Though you pick up a few words over time. In smaller writing just underneath, it said ¡°Shao¡¯s Place¡±.


    I¡¯d like to say that High Ityean was kind of pointless, but that wasn¡¯t exactly true. Various regions had different words for different things and while Low Ityean focused on spelling the different words, High Ityean characters focused on the meanings. So the words themselves didn¡¯t actually matter. I gave up on my musings about High versus Low Ityean and actually entered the building. The food smelled good, and I certainly could go for a cup of tea. I didn¡¯t have a lot of money to burn on account of having to build a house, pay taxes, and survive the winter, but I figured a once-in-a-month splurge was not exactly breaking the bank, so to speak. Shao¡¯s Place was an odd mix between a teahouse and a restaurant; they only had one thing on the menu, and they only served one type of tea, though the combinations seemed to change daily. Today was a dumpling soup, and I wasn¡¯t gonna complain.


    I seated myself at a booth and waited for one of the waitresses in the green and floral print Ao Dai dresses to notice me. I was looking out the front window when one of the girls slid into the booth on the opposite side of me.


    ¡°Hey,¡± I said.


    ¡°Hi,¡± said a woman who was not Kaori. I must look surprised because she giggled. She had roughly the same facial structure and wide nose, but her hair, skin, and eyes were a bit lighter in color. I could only guess it must have been Kaori¡¯s older sister.


    ¡°Expecting someone else?¡± She asked.


    ¡°Yeah, sorry, I thought you were Kaori.¡±


    The woman nodded and held out a hand to shake. ¡°Koko Shao,¡± she said.


    I took the hand, and we clasped wrists for a moment. ¡°Yuji Han.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s about time I get to meet you, Yuji. A¡¯te has said so many things about you.¡±


    ¡°Good things, I hope.¡±


    Koko nodded. ¡°Yes, she¡¯s very happy for the water.¡±


    I sat staring at her, completely frozen. When the hell had I helped Kaori with water? Again, I must have looked confused or something because she giggled. The sound was not unlike Kaori¡¯s, but it lacked the snorts.


    ¡°Are you? Ok. Yuji?¡±


    A new voice got both our attention. ¡°Mom,¡± Kaori said with only the slightest touch of what was possibly panic in her voice.


    ¡°Kaori?¡± Koko sing-songed.


    Holy shit. That¡¯s Kaori¡¯s mom. Either she was really young when she gave birth to Kaori, or she aged damn well.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡± Kaori practically hissed.


    ¡°I¡¯m getting to know Yuji,¡± replied Koko with a vulpine grin.


    Oh. Oh, she must have been talking about Kiyoko. That¡¯s the only person I haul water for, and that grin is entirely too similar.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    ¡°Are you gonna set the tea down, dear?¡±


    Kaori seemed to realize she was still holding the tray with a teapot and a couple of cups. She put it down on the table just a little too harshly. ¡°Sorry,¡± Kaori nearly shouted, somewhat flushed. ¡°Did you want the soup?¡±


    ¡°Yes, please.¡±


    ¡°Ok.¡± Kaori seemed to hesitate, as though she didn¡¯t want to leave her mother sitting in the booth with me. Koko giggled again and pushed herself out.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t you sit down and chat with your friend? I¡¯ll get the soup.¡± Koko wandered off, leaving Kaori to look like she was lost. She turned back to me, ears down against her head.


    ¡°Ah, hi.¡±


    It was my turn to giggle. ¡°Are you gonna sit?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, sure.¡± Kaori pushed herself into the booth across from me in the same spot her mother had vacated and drummed on the table with her fingers for a moment before meeting my eyes. ¡°So, what brings you to town?¡±


    ¡°Mandatory militia training. I¡¯ve also got some errands to run. I need to talk to the blacksmith and find a carpenter.¡±


    ¡°Oh, what do you need a carpenter for?¡±


    ¡°Because I have no idea how to build a house.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡±


    ¡°Are you ok?¡± I had to ask. She looked entirely too nervous.


    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s just my mom is, uh...¡± She didn¡¯t seem to be able to find the correct word and just kind of shrugged. ¡°She¡¯s gonna tease the hell out of me for this.¡±


    ¡°For what?¡±


    ¡°You showed up, and I¡¯ve mentioned you, so literally nothing, but she¡¯s gonna make everything out of it.¡±


    ¡°Uh, yes. Mothers. I think I get what you mean.¡±


    ¡°My mom is...¡±


    I cut Kaori off by giving a very pointed look behind her. She froze.


    ¡°Your mother is... what, dear?¡± Said the woman in question, her toothy grin spreading across her face. Koko stared at her daughter for just a few moments too long before setting a bowl of soup and some dumplings down. ¡°Please enjoy your meal, sir.¡± She then turned her head completely to Kaori so I couldn¡¯t see her face and must have done something because Kaori turned red. ¡°Enjoy your break, dear.¡± She sing-songed again before abruptly turning and leaving.


    The soup was good, the dumplings were good, the tea was good, and Kaori¡¯s mother was absent enough for Kaori to calm down, and we fell back into the rhythm of polite and sometimes teasing conversation with minor spurts of giggles and snorting. All in all, it was a pleasant experience and almost made up for the pain in the rear end that was the rest of my day.


    The Blacksmith didn¡¯t have the appropriate skill or tools that make the steel drum for the mass heater. Fortunately, the pieces could be ordered through the local trade house and came in standard sizes. That was a bit of an annoyance, but not necessarily a problem. The carpenters were a serious issue. I started out talking to the one group Saito had suggested, but they were confident that they were booked out until next spring. That was mildly horrifying, but they did suggest another carpenter group in town. I thought it was kind of nice that they would recommend their competition. However, when I arrived there, they were also booked out until at least fall. They helpfully suggested their competitor, which were the guys who sent me to them. It was a long, nerve-wracking walk home to Sharinzhen-4.


    I did chance upon Saito as he was leaving the patriarch¡¯s house, and that conversation went very quickly from, ¡°Hey, how you doing?¡± to me lamenting the problem of all the carpenter groups being busy. He then looked like he was deciding whether or not to say something to me, tilting his head and sucking air through his teeth as if whatever he was going to say was painful.


    ¡°Well, there is Nakamura.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Nakamura in Sharinzhen-6. His eldest left after a falling out, and since then he¡¯s hurt his back so he doesn¡¯t actually do much work anymore. At least not the actual building, but his youngest does most of the physical labor. A single person can¡¯t build a house, but I suppose you¡¯d be willing to help. That would reduce the cost.¡±


    ¡°Well, that sounds pretty good. So what¡¯s the problem?¡± I asked because there had to be some reason Saito was not interested in telling me about this guy in the beginning.


    Saito shrugged. ¡°Nothing specific, just didn¡¯t want to bring up, you know? You¡¯ll get it when you¡¯re older.¡±


    I gave Saito a glare. That was the same infuriating response my father used to give me. He responded with a sheepish grin, and then replied with, ¡°At least you might still get a house this year.¡±


    Sharinzhen-6 was a bit more forested than four. I felt awkward walking into another village, with everyone staring at me and looking for Nakamura. I was pointed to a plot in the back with a very handsome gateway. It was easily twice the size of mine, considerably wider, and lacquered a nice red color. Though, to be fair, mine was falling over. Literally everyone had a nicer gate than mine. That was another thing I was gonna have to fix.


    The house was a classical farmhouse, but unlike the others, this one had a very large workshop off to one side with large barn doors that were wide open, showing off several logs that were on stands and an old man hunched over one of them with some tool that was stripping off slight shavings from the log. He was an Akumajin, a race that had a tail that was spaded and horns that, unlike Oni-Kai and Oni-Sen, tended to vary differently between individuals. His skin had a bit of a gray complexion, and his eyes were bright red. He straightened with a grunt as I approached the shop and gave a friendly wave as he leaned on the log he had been working on.


    ¡°Morning,¡± said the Akumajin.


    ¡°Morning,¡± I replied once I was close enough to not feel like I had to shout. I added, ¡°I¡¯m looking for a carpenter.¡±


    The old man grinned. ¡°Well, you found a carpenter. What are you looking to have done?¡±


    ¡°I need a house built.¡±


    He frowned. ¡°Can¡¯t say that I can build a house. My back ain¡¯t what it used to be. ¡°


    To be fair, that¡¯s kind of what I was expecting him to say, or at least something along those lines. ¡°My back works fine. I just don¡¯t know how to build a house.¡±


    ¡°So what you¡¯re telling me, boy, is that you want help to build a house?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I guess so.¡±


    ¡°You guess, or you know?¡±


    ¡°Well, I know my funds are limited. So I had expected to do as much work as possible myself. So I guess I know. Yes, I want help to build a house.¡±


    The old man gave me the same appraising look Saito used to give me and nodded mostly to himself before extending an arm.


    ¡°Hiroshi Nakamura.¡±


    I grabbed his wrist, and we shook once. ¡°Yuji Han.¡±


    ¡°Han? Any relation to Lo Bao Han?¡±


    ¡°That was my uncle.¡±


    ¡°Ah, good kid, that one. How is he doing?¡±


    ¡°Um, he¡¯s dead. He, uh, let the King die.¡±


    ¡°Oh, oh, that was our Han?¡±


    ¡°Ah, yeah.¡±


    ¡°Ok boy, so you¡¯re looking to build a house. What exactly did you have in mind?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m honestly not sure. I know I want a Horigotatsu and a Mass Heater. Something small that I can expand on later, I think.¡±


    ¡°Humph.¡± He humped. ¡°Pretty open ended, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    At about this time, my eyes adjusted to the darkness of the building. The wall connecting to the house displayed various tools. Several workbenches were strewn about in the various corners, and several of the logs that the old man had been working on had very intricate notches carved into them. The floor was covered in wood shavings, and there were more doors in the back that revealed covered piles of neatly stacked logs. The smell of various cut lumbers sat in the air like a heavy mist and had been the only thing I had truly noticed when I walked in beyond the man in front of me.


    ¡°I guess I need help to figure out a design first, huh?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I suppose you do, boy. I¡¯ll send my kid out to your place in three days. Kid¡¯s busy with a few projects. Should be done by then. Get a look at the land and figure out what it is you want. Then we can start working on something. Sound good?¡±


    ¡°Sounds great.¡±


    We spent a few more minutes working out the details of how to find my property and I said my goodbyes. It was a rather long walk home, but with nothing else on the agenda, I figured I¡¯d clear out a bit more where I planned to put the house.


    My leaky rice paddy was a pain in the rear end. While Saito checked the water level of his patties once a month to once every two weeks in the summer, I was screwing around with this thing pretty much every other day. Breakfast had been weird and Saito hadn¡¯t even been there, but every time Shinichi got back from wherever he went, he went out drinking and then often beat poor Yoko. So while I generally did not like dealing with my leaky rice paddy, it meant I was not stuck in an awkward situation at the Xiao household. To be fair, I was only using it as an excuse and didn¡¯t actually work on fixing the problem until much later.


    Of course, the world as a whole is a fickle thing and as I traced the pipe from my leaky paddy to the stream, I came across a swearing and grumbling in the woods that honestly could have only been Saito. I could just leave well enough alone and continue my work, but it was Saito; and so I marched off into the woods towards the sound, saying, ¡°Hello?¡± Loud enough to be heard before I got there, so I didn¡¯t actually startle the man. I met my neighbor in a small cleared-out area not too far from where his pipe ran up to the stream. He was leaning on a shovel with a sour look on his face and waiting for me to finish shoving my way through the brush.


    ¡°You okay?¡± I asked practically before I got into the actual clearing.


    ¡°My hell¡¯s cursed, useless, piece of shit son-in-law is the most worthless, wretched, waste of flesh I¡¯ve ever had the misfortune to know, and there¡¯s not a day in my life I don¡¯t regret blessing my daughter¡¯s marriage.¡±


    I froze, literally struck speechless as Saito continued to let out a string of pointed obscenities I hadn¡¯t known the man was capable of, and when he finished, my only reply was a dumb, ¡°Uh?¡±


    He took a deep breath and leaned more heavily on his shovel. ¡°I asked Shinichi to come by this morning and help me take down a tree. He never showed up. The barest hint of a bit of actual work and he runs off to the spirits only know wheres.¡±


    ¡°Did you, uh, want my help?¡±


    Saito shook his head. ¡°Not today. I¡¯m not in the mood anymore. Maybe tomorrow.¡±


    ¡°Sure,¡± I briefly considered asking if Yoko was okay, but Saito was already upset enough, and I didn¡¯t want to trigger any more issues. ¡°See you tomorrow, then?¡±


    Saito just shrugged in reply. He turned and walked further into his own property, cursing under his breath. I briefly wondered why he was out here with a shovel. Regardless of whatever he was up to, I had my own work to do.


    After a slightly strained breakfast at the Xiao household, Saito and I went out to take care of his tree. I could hear from the sound of the baby and the young child that Yoko was in the house, but she didn¡¯t join us for the meal. Wei Lin was quiet as well and said practically nothing, her head down the entire time. The whole thing was a somber affair, and apart from some basic instructions by Saito, we worked on taking down the large tree in utter silence.


    Saito had cleared the entire area around the tree, removing all brush and even raking away the leaves and other detritus that might cause a tripping hazard for when the tree came down. I didn¡¯t know why it needed to come down and I was still hesitant to ask Saito anything while he was in his foul mood. So we worked in an awkward silence, and he told me I should get back to work on my own property once the tree had been felled. I did so and worked most of the day cutting down more trees, moving stuff out of the way, and mostly just trying to get ready for the carpenter to come talk to me about my house. I went back over to the Xiao household for dinner as per usual, where things got a little more tense.


    Yoko was not in good shape. She had one black eye and her lips were swollen to the point of splitting. She was limping badly and occasionally winced in pain when she moved her arm the wrong way. Seeing her left a horrific knot in my stomach. This was just wrong. Not legally wrong; she was married to Shinichi, and therefore he could pretty much do whatever he wanted to her short of murder, but it was certainly morally wrong. The little boy clung to her side as if for emotional support, while the baby just ate, slept, and cried as babies do. She didn¡¯t move fast, and Wei Lin was in a bit of a tizzy, trying to make her sister as comfortable as possible. Saito sat at the head of the table, mouth pressed into a grim line and staring off into the space between him and the dumplings. It was a quiet, somber, and awkward meal and I was quite glad to have it interrupted by a knock at Saito¡¯s door, followed by the voice of an old man saying, ¡°Xiao, are you home?¡± Saito got up and left the three of us plus children at the table. The door was behind me, so I didn¡¯t see the person who entered before the voice came again. ¡°Ah, Han, there you are.¡±


    I turned to find Meng Su following behind Saito. I gave him the best bow I could while sitting at the Horigotatsu. ¡°Po.¡±


    ¡°Sorry to interrupt your meal Xiao, but I have some questions for Yuji and I¡¯d like to ask them with the others around on the chance I need to ask anyone else some follow up.¡±


    Saito returned to his spot at the table and gave the patriarch a small bow. ¡°That is fine. Please sit. Would you like to join us?¡± The patriarch shambled over towards the Horigotatsu and took a seat at the table. ¡°No, no, thank you. That¡¯s fine. Just a few questions. I¡¯ll leave you to your meal.¡±


    Saito poured the patriarch a cup of tea regardless, and the old man gave him a nod and took a sip before turning to me. ¡°So, you were seen speaking to Shinichi a few days ago. Yes?¡±


    My gaze instinctively went to Yoko, who had her face down, staring at the table. I didn¡¯t think this was the sort of thing that should be talked about in front of her, but Saito gave me a nod when I looked his way, and I returned my attention back to the patriarch. ¡°Yeah, I ran into him just after militia training.¡±


    ¡°Have you spoken to him since?¡±


    I shook my head. ¡°No, I haven¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°What did you talk about?¡±


    ¡°Uh, well, he kind of good-naturedly teased me about working too much, told me I needed to take a break once in a while, and invited me out to drink, which I politely declined. I was a bit busy.¡±


    Meng Su nodded, along with my explanation. ¡°Do you know where he went after that?¡±


    ¡°No, I assume he went drinking. A bar or something.¡±


    ¡°And you haven¡¯t seen or heard from him since, right?¡±


    I shook my head. ¡°No, I haven¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°And nobody else has mentioned anything about Shinichi, where he¡¯s gone, or what happened to him?¡±


    I gave a slight upward nod to Saito. ¡°Not other than Saito being a bit upset. He never showed up for an appointment to help fell a tree. That¡¯s it.¡±


    The patriarch looked at Saito and gave him a nod. ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve already spoken to him about that.¡± He looked at the rest of the table. ¡°Has anyone else heard anything?¡±


    Wei Lin voiced the word ¡°no,¡± but everybody else just solemnly shook their heads, including the little boy. But I wasn¡¯t sure he was old enough to understand the question.


    Meng Su took a deep breath in and let it out. ¡°Alrighty. Well, I¡¯ll stop interrupting you and let you get back to your dinner. Thank you for the tea, Saito.¡± He took another sip of tea, bowed his head to Yoko, and then got up with a groan. Saito saw him out.


    I had thought to ask the patriarch why he was asking these questions, as it seemed like something horrible must have happened. I watched Yoko, who merely picked at her food, and the image of Saito standing alone in the woods with a shovel, the ground under his feet freshly disturbed, seemed to smack me in the face like someone swung the shovel at my head. Holy fuck.


    Saito retook his spot at the head of the table, and my gaze shifted towards him. His eyes narrowed slightly, and I wondered if he knew what I was thinking. It was hard to think of Saito as a person who could kill someone, but with another glance at Yoko, it was also hard to think that Saito was the kind of person who could just sit around and do nothing while his daughter was continually abused. My gaze swept back to Saito, who was still staring at me, and I figured I had to come up with some way to break the tension. Glancing back down at the table, I reached out and plucked up another dumpling. ¡°Who made the dumplings?¡± I asked, trying to keep my voice neutral, though I¡¯m almost certain it cracked a little.


    ¡°Yoko did,¡± Wei Lin said. She wasn¡¯t looking, but I gave a nod in her direction. ¡°Please don¡¯t tell my mother, but these are possibly the best dumplings I¡¯ve ever had.¡±


    Yoko made a vague grunt noise that seemed to be approval, and I focused on putting food in my mouth without actually tasting it. At some point, Saito went back to his own food, and the knot in my stomach untightened slightly. Holy fucking hells.

 Rev_1 Chapter 8: All the Little Cogs

    A single person is not worth much. He may be able to feed himself, may be able to cloth himself, may be able to shelter himself, and may be to protect himself. A group of people, whether that be a handful or an empire¡¯s worth, can do much more than the sum total of any individual. A village feeds a city. A farmer, a Carter, and a seamstress clothes a town. A lumberjack, a sawman, and a carpenter build houses and buildings. A Militia holds back the tide of destruction. And then a noble or lord takes all the credit. What can you do?


    - Kuya Tio on Community, Kuya Tio¡¯s Guide to a Healthy and Happy Homestead.


    It was mid-morning when I heard a voice I didn¡¯t recognize. I hadn¡¯t caught what they said, but couldn¡¯t imagine it being anything other than ¡°hello.¡± Walking down my crooked path was an Akumajin that at first I thought was possibly Hiroshi¡¯s son, but as they came closer, I realized it was a girl. She wore a tight sleeveless shirt, pants, and a slightly sun-worn smile. Her core muscles were well-defined and her arms were larger than mine. While she stood slightly shorter, she looked like she could beat the shit out of me.


    ¡°You Yuji?¡± She asked with a nod of her head, her face set in a half grin.


    ¡°Uh, yeah,¡± I sounded just as confused as I felt. Come to think of it, Hiroshi and even Saito had never actually mentioned whether Nakamura¡¯s kid was male or female. The idea of a female carpenter, however, was a bit odd.


    ¡°You need a house built, right?¡± She asked.


    ¡°Uh, yeah.¡±


    Her grin widened slightly, and I got the feeling she was enjoying this. She nodded past me with her chin and asked, ¡°What¡¯s that supposed to be?¡±


    I turned to look at what she was pointing out, but only saw the chicken coop I had been sleeping in. ¡°Um, chicken coop?¡±


    ¡°Oh, is that what that¡¯s supposed to be?¡±


    This bitch. What the hell?


    ¡°You weren¡¯t expecting a girl, were you?¡±


    ¡°Ah, no.¡±


    ¡°Well, as far as I know, you need a house. Do you have a problem with a girl building a house for you?¡±


    I felt like this was a trap question, but honestly, I didn¡¯t have any answer other than, ¡°No.¡±


    She chuckled. ¡°You sound unsure.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t have a problem with it.¡±


    She cocked an eyebrow, her grin never fading. ¡°Oh, you still don¡¯t sound sure.¡±


    ¡°Uh.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m just messing with you, okay?¡± She held an arm out to shake, and I took it. Her hands were calloused, and her grip was possibly stronger than mine. ¡°Lia Nakamura.¡±


    ¡°Yuji Han.¡±


    She let go of my wrist and stepped up towards my side to face the same direction I was.


    ¡°Ok, Yuji. What did you have in mind?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not really sure. I honestly can¡¯t afford a traditional farmhouse at the moment. I¡¯ve also never lived in a traditional farmhouse, so I couldn¡¯t say if I would actually prefer it. I was thinking, something a bit smaller that I could expand on later?¡±


    Lia nodded along with each point I made. ¡°Not a bad option. Where do you wanna put it?¡±


    ¡°I was clearing a spot over by the trees there.¡±


    She looked at where I was pointing and shook her head. ¡°Kind of a terrible spot.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s on the southmost side of the property, against the trees. So in the winter, you¡¯re not gonna get any sun on it, which means you¡¯re gonna rely more on heating. In the summer, you might get a bit of shade, but it¡¯s not particularly good for cooling either. Though, I suppose we could make that work by putting more openings in the rear. You¡¯re gonna want the garden close to your house.¡± She motioned towards my garden. ¡°And it¡¯s not, and you can¡¯t see who¡¯s coming. On that note, you should probably repair your gate before it falls on somebody.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s on my to-do list. So you¡¯re saying I should move the location of where my house goes?¡±


    ¡°Maybe, maybe not. You said you couldn¡¯t afford a farmhouse. There¡¯s always the possibility you might be able to afford one later in the future. So, building a house right where you would want to put a farmhouse would mean you¡¯d have to tear it down. So if you stuck a small place over in that spot,¡± she again motioned over to the spot I had prepared. ¡°You could use it as a guest house or a bunkhouse for workers later on if you wanted.¡±


    ¡°Huh? Ok. I¡¯ll have to think about that.¡±


    ¡°So, what kind of features did you like?¡±


    ¡°Well, I definitely want a Doma and, uh, Horigotatsu.¡±


    She nodded her head in approval. ¡°What about a heating system?¡±


    ¡°Uh, mass heater with a regular heater for backup.¡±


    She nodded to herself again. ¡°Yes, that would probably be quite nice. So, no Irori?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so. No.¡±


    ¡°What did you grow up in?¡±


    ¡°Uh, basic tenement.¡±


    ¡°Ah,¡± she said, as if that explained everything. ¡°Well, if you¡¯re comfortable with that, we could essentially build something that¡¯s a little deeper than a basic tenement. You could save up your money, and if you wanted to expand, you could essentially just increase the width or start on a farmhouse. Mass heater would do the heating job no problem and that certainly would be cheaper.¡±


    ¡°So that¡¯s a good idea?¡±


    She shrugged again. I honestly found her broad shoulders kind of intriguing. They were well defined, but still soft. ¡°It depends on how you feel. It¡¯s your house; you have to live in it.¡±


    That was an excellent point. I had absolutely no problems with the tenement, and I really didn¡¯t know much about the actual farmhouse. Maybe if I spent more time in Saito¡¯s place, I¡¯d have the gist of it. ¡°How much cheaper would the tenement cost?¡±


    ¡°Easily a fraction of a farmhouse. The rough structure alone is much simpler. You¡¯re gonna be doing some of the work. Yeah?¡±


    ¡°I hope so. I need to save money and it¡¯s not like I¡¯m doing anything else other than tending the garden and the rice paddies right now.¡±


    ¡°Okay. I¡¯ll run some numbers and make some sketches. I¡¯ll talk to you in two days.¡±


    ¡°That works for me.¡±


    ¡°Oh, and about your gate. If you¡¯re interested, I can basically bring you a new one, and we can get that replaced sooner rather than later.¡±


    ¡°I am not opposed to that.¡±


    ¡°Good, it¡¯s honestly rather concerning.¡±


    A couple of days later, Lia showed up with a Carabao-pulled cart that held everything needed to replace my broken gateway. She also had plans for several options of housing, and I honestly wasn¡¯t upset with any of them. We worked together for the afternoon while discussing schedules and payment. She gave me a list of things I should try to accomplish before we were ready to actually start building, one of which was to widen my narrow passage from my gate to my actual property site so that she could get the carts of lumber in. We both had to deal with militia training as she was one of the other girls I had seen on the field, and I had some duties in the village tending to the rice paddies. It sounded like she was gonna be giving me a list of things to do and letting me deal with the simple grunt labor while she only came by to do the actual construction things that I had no clue how to accomplish. That made a lot of sense to me, and it was gonna save me a buttload of money. When she left that day, I had a new gateway, a bit less money, and certainly a new appreciation for the woman herself. I watched her spaded tail sway as she walked off, tugging at the Carabao¡¯s leads. Originally, I felt a bit weird and possibly even intimidated by the muscular woman. But as she wandered off back home, I think I¡¯m kind of into it. Lia is fun, cheery, and has a light, consistently teasing tone that makes her a joy to be around and talk to. It¡¯s not exactly like hanging out with one of the guys and also not exactly like hanging out with some demure girl. Honestly, it kind of reminded me of Kaori a bit. I shook my head and headed back to my property. I had a lot of work to do, and thinking about tight muscular women had better wait until after dinner.


    ***


    ¡°Noodles?¡± Wei Lin asked as she came out from the trail that connected my property to Xiao¡¯s.


    ¡°Hells, yeah,¡± Lia practically yelled as she jumped off the joist we had been working on and headed over to the table.


    The table had technically been a suggestion by one of the Yin twins. I don¡¯t remember which one. Despite the rickety construction because my construction skills suck, it was quickly becoming one of my favorite spots. Just a couple of boards laid out over a few stumps and some rickety benches. Wei Lin set the large bowl on the table along with the smaller bowls for us to use and said she¡¯d be right back with tea. My guess is Saito was forcing her to cook for us, still with some vain hope that I would find her to be perfect wife material and court the girl. However, now she was also feeding Lia.


    ¡°Oh, you gonna join us this time?¡± Lia asked with a wide grin.


    Wei Lin froze in consideration. ¡°I guess?¡±


    ¡°Great,¡± Lia exclaimed while Wei Lin wandered back down the path. ¡°You have the best neighbors.¡±


    I had to agree to that. I honestly had no idea where I would be without Saito, and by extension, Wei Lin. We got cleaned up as we waited for Wei Lin to come back with tea, and I sat down at the table on my rickety bench. I sat across from Lia, and Wei Lin sat to my left.


    ¡°Oh, yesterday¡¯s food was absolutely delicious. I loved every bite,¡± Lia enthused to Wei Lin. ¡°And you should sit with us more often.¡±


    My attention returned to the house we¡¯ve been working on while the girls chatted about food. The first day working on the place had been rather odd. We spent a lot of time trying to place large rocks. Lia had a few sticks that were a specific size and fit together in a way that created a perfect triangle. She used this to place the rocks, and we spent a lot of time digging and tamping down the dirt to get them in the right spots. After that, I had to hold up posts while she marked things. Then she cut the bottoms of them while I cleared more brush. Once she had accomplished all the posts that sat on top of rocks, we mounted a line, and she drew and wrote on each of the posts, then put them back in the cart and took them home with her.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    The posts came back several days later, notched in very specific ways with various holes and cuts in them. It made absolutely no sense to me until we actually started assembling it. It was really just a lot of her yelling at me to hold things in one spot or another while she beat it with a wooden mallet. At the end of the day, we had a structure. Not really a house, per se, just like the bare skeleton of one.


    Today¡¯s goal had been fitting in the floor joists, which are the boards that hold up the floor. I can¡¯t even quite describe it correctly. The one thing that truly gets me is so far we haven¡¯t used a single nail. We¡¯d shove one board through a post, shove another board, notched specifically so they could go through both boards and the post. Then, once everything was tight, Lia would take a drill, make a hole, then shove a dowel into it that was split on both ends, stick a wedge in both splits, and then cut the whole thing flush. The entire structure seemed pretty sturdy, and it made me feel like I really screwed up on my chicken coop as well as the bench I was sitting on.


    ¡°Sounds good to me. Everything you¡¯ve made so far has been delicious,¡± Lia said before turning to me.


    ¡°What do you think?¡± I stared at her with a blank expression, having missed the entire conversation.


    ¡°Actually, it¡¯s my sister Yoko who¡¯s good at making the dumplings,¡± Wei Lin said.


    ¡°Oh, you have a sister?¡±


    It seemed strange to me that anyone would not know that Wei Lin had a sister, as most people in Sharinzhen proper were well aware of how Shinichi treated his wife. Then again, Lia is from Sharinzhen-6, and she possibly didn¡¯t spend a lot of time listening to gossip.


    I spent the rest of the lunch trying to figure out what they were talking about. It really just seemed like Lia liked food. I suppose if I wanted to woo her, I¡¯d have to learn how to cook. That thought caught me. Lia didn¡¯t do much construction because she was one person. Her father didn¡¯t have the back for lifting anymore, but most of the construction stuff just seemed to be holding stuff in place while the other person did things. She and I were doing just fine building this house, and if we got together, we could probably run an actual carpentry business. She would be the brains of the operation, and I¡¯d just be the big, dumb one, holding stuff in place and I guess cooking the meals. I¡¯d have to get better at cooking though.


    To be honest, I was still a little up in the air about whether or not I liked the fact that she was so muscular. At the same time, I had a hard time keeping my eyes off her butt and thighs. Other than food, I wondered what else she liked.


    The next day¡¯s work threw me for just as much of a loop as the stones and odd cuts on the bottom of posts. Today, she showed up with a lot of planks. She showed me how to tie three of them together to form a triangular tube. Then we started a fire. She put the planks over the fire and told me to watch the color of the smoke and to speak up when I noticed the change. I did not notice a change.


    ¡°There you see, the color of the smoke changed?¡±


    ¡°Not really,¡± I replied honestly.


    ¡°Do it enough times, and you¡¯ll get it. What happened is the fire ran out of uncharged wood to burn. Give it a couple more minutes and then take it off the fire.¡± She pulled it out of the little fire, opened up the tube revealing blackened wood which was still on fire, then laid it on the ground to smother it out.


    ¡°Ok. Your turn.¡± She watched me as I watched the wood.


    ¡°Did you see it this time?¡±


    ¡°Um, maybe.¡±


    ¡°Well, give it a few minutes and then put it out.¡±


    Once she was satisfied I was getting the gist of it, she left me to burn planks while she went back home to get more. Each one was long and thin, and on each end of the long sides, a groove had been carved away on opposite sides of each plank. I honestly had no idea what we were doing.


    ¡°Why are we doing this?¡± I asked when Lia returned with more wood.


    ¡°It¡¯s for weather-proofing the wood. Once you¡¯re done burning it, you¡¯ll brush off the excess soot and then oil it.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± I had seen the blackened lacquered wood on a lot of buildings. It had never occurred to me that they burnt it like that. ¡°And you can just do this to wood?¡±


    ¡°This is cedar. Cedar works best. You can do it to other woods, but it¡¯s best to do it with cedar,¡± she replied. ¡°All right. Here¡¯s the brush and there¡¯s the oil. Make sure you wait until everything is completely cooled off before you actually start brushing. And especially before you start oiling. I¡¯ll see you in a couple of days,¡± and then she left.


    This was obviously what I had signed up for, as I wanted to do most of the grunt work myself to save money and this qualified as grunt work. Still, I was kind of sad to see her leave. I really enjoyed her company. While I was still up in the air about her physical appearance, I really enjoyed her wit and enthusiasm over Wei Lin¡¯s cooking.


    Finally, we were using nails. The planks that had been charred, brushed off, and oiled were now being fit into place along the walls. There were a couple of studs that they were being pressed against, and I would hold a plank up while Lia drilled a small hole where the plank tab met the stud. And then she¡¯d pound in a single nail. It was about four nails per plank. On each subsequent plank, that little notched tab would match up with the other notched tab, completely covering the nail we had just put in. While it took time to drill each hole and put in each nail, the walls themselves went up fairly quickly and in a single day, we had all four walls boarded up. I still wasn¡¯t sure we had used more nails than my damn chicken coop.


    Once all the planks were put up, we put up a second baton that went over the planks with another drilled hole and another nail. What was supposed to happen is that the nails would eventually rust and cause the boards to rot. All I would have to do is remove the baton, replace the planks, and put the baton back on, and it wouldn¡¯t affect any of the rest of the structure.


    The next day, we were at the top of the wall pounding in the top plate which held it all together. I found this a bit perplexing, as it already seemed to be completely holding together, but Lia was the carpenter, not me. I was holding one of the top plates in place and staring out at my terribly done chicken coop while Lia was on her side of the board, tapping the top plate into its little grooves, connecting to all the other pieces with her wooden mallet. It was rather hot today, and my shirt was sticking to my skin, and sweat poured down my forehead despite the fact that I wasn¡¯t actually doing much physical labor. Lia¡¯s shirt was sticking to her quite well, and I had been quite enjoying the sight, but there was something else that was vying for my attention. A slight distant ringing seemed to echo down the roadway from the village.


    Lia stopped tapping on her boards and listened as well. I hadn¡¯t quite placed the sound when she swore and scrambled down the ladder, dropping her mallet on the floor and jumping off the house. Only as she was booking it past my yard and down my walkway to the road did I realize that was the alarm bell? But we didn¡¯t have training today. What the hells? I scrambled down the ladder, dropping my own mallet, and stumbled off the deck to follow behind Lia. She was already passing the gate and turning left as I made my way down the trail to the road. In the distance came a rider on a horse who slowed down to stop to talk to Lia as I attempted to catch up. I looked down Saito¡¯s passage, but didn¡¯t see him coming yet. I kept running until I met up with the horseman who had finished with Lia and was riding towards me.


    ¡°Get your shit and report to the mustering fields in Sharinzhen proper,¡± he said, then tore off down the road toward Xiao, who was just now coming around his corner, armor already doned, and the same spear I had first met him with held in his hands. Somehow that made this whole thing more real. I didn¡¯t wait for Saito, just ran to the armory where we were being handed out shields and actual spears. If seeing Saito with his spear didn¡¯t make this more real, that certainly did.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± I asked.


    Chao just shrugged and said, ¡°No idea. I just know that we¡¯re supposed to go to Sharinzhen proper.¡±


    We ended up heading to Sharinzhen proper in two groups: those of us who had gotten there quicker, and those of us who had gotten there later. I assumed Saito was in the latter part because I didn¡¯t see him, and he would have been weighed down with the armor. We sort of half-jogged, half-fast-walked to town. It was the fastest I¡¯ve ever made it to town, but Wu didn¡¯t want us completely exhausting ourselves before we got there.


    Once we arrived, along with the guys from Sharinzhen-3, we were pushed off to one side and told to wait for the rest of our village to show up. We stood in formation until we were all together. Then the guy came back and asked, ¡°You understand how a holler line works?¡±


    I had no idea. I was not looking forward to being the guy who said no. When another guy from Sharinzhen-3 piped in, ¡°Not really.¡±


    The guy nodded and said, ¡°Okay, here¡¯s how this goes. I yell at you some instructions, you turn your head and yell at the next guy the instructions and so on and so forth. We¡¯re going down the line. Here we go.¡± He then took a great big deep breath and said, ¡°Proceed forward ten paces.¡±


    The first guy in line after him turned his head and repeated it. The guy after him repeated it. The guy after him repeated it. In theory, I understood the practice, but usually when you got multiple people yelling the same thing down a line, the message would change. It didn¡¯t seem like an ideal situation.


    ¡°Ok? You guys got it. Start heading to Sharinzhen-6. Halfway there you¡¯ll meet a guy who will put you staggered out along the road. Go now.¡±


    I still had no damn idea what we were doing, beyond the slight orders we had gotten and didn¡¯t really seem to have time to ask, as well as no one really seemed to have time to answer. When we made it halfway to Sharinzhen-6, we were collected by another guy who led us the rest of the way down, dropping one of us off at a specific distance so that we could all see each other and were in yelling range.


    And that¡¯s how I spent most of the rest of my day. Standing in one spot on the road in the sweltering heat, holding a spear and a shield. A couple of hours later, I still had no damn idea what we were doing. Neither did either of the guys down the road from me. At some point, a guy on a horse came riding down the line telling each one of us that we were to wait for a horn blow and then start wandering into the woods for about ten minutes while trying to keep the guy to either side of us in sight. Once the horn blew again, we were to stop.


    It was almost another hour before the horn blew, and it was about ten minutes before the horn blew again. I could just barely see the guy to the right of me and couldn¡¯t see anybody to the left. Roughly thirty minutes later, I heard the horn blow again. I had no idea if I was supposed to start moving again or not. I looked to the guy to the right of me and he just sort of shrugged. I shrugged back. A couple of minutes later, the horn blew again. This proceeded until the yelling started.


    The message was either ¡°dohn¡¯ moo¡± or ¡°hove too,¡± and I froze when it got to me. Logically speaking, nobody here should know what ¡°hove too¡± meant. So, I shouted, ¡°don¡¯ moo¡± down the line, and it kept going. Seems like the message rebounded back because it was ¡°don¡¯t move¡± this time, and as I shouted down the line, I could hear it get screwed up as it went. This was really an inefficient way to spread information.


    For the next hour or so, I listened to the horns in the distance blow, each one getting increasingly closer until somebody came running down the line, seemingly just to verify where each person was. He didn¡¯t know what was going on other than his orders to just make sure there was an unbroken line behind him. After him came a group of people with a guy dropping people in between each of us. Now, I had a guy I could see closer to me on both sides. We were just standing out here, hot, sweaty, and very thirsty, not to mention hungry, confused, and annoyed. Again, the horn blew, and again, we all just stood there and waited because we didn¡¯t know if we were supposed to be moving or not. This continued until we had a larger group of people come by, and then I was being led down the trails and placed in between somebody else. This time, I was actually close enough to have a conversation without yelling.


    ¡°Do you know what¡¯s going on?¡± he asked me, beating me to the punch.


    ¡°No, I was gonna ask you the same thing.¡±


    ¡°Best guess is we¡¯re looking for someone or something. Seems kind of like we¡¯re driving who or whatever it is into a smaller location, but that¡¯s just a guess.¡± He said with a shrug.


    We made small talk until word came up the line that when we heard the horn blast; we were supposed to move forward again. This time, it was easier to keep the message straight because it could be heard for a long distance and it got clearer every time it got closer.


    The horn made its droning noise, and we moved forward until the horn made its droning noise again. Then we stopped. I assumed everyone got repositioned again, and we did this three more times. At this point, the line was starting to get crowded, and we were considerably closer to the town proper.


    Someone finally came down the line, shouting that at the next horn blast, we should all start moving towards town at a leisurely walk and that if we hear three rapid horn blasts, we should move towards it as quickly as possible. Somewhere between thirty minutes and an hour later, the horn blast sounded, and we all started moving. A good fifteen minutes after that came the sound of the three sharp blats from towards town. A dead run wasn¡¯t really possible, so we all seemed to make do with a quick trot. I was panting heavily and drenched in sweat. Once I broke from the forest and into the rice fields, I saw a large cluster of people that had made it there before me, behind them, the town Sharinzhen proper. Nobody really seemed concerned about anything, and I was wondering if maybe this wasn¡¯t just some type of elaborate training scenario.


    That thought was crushed when I fell into a forming rank not far from the main crowd, a large mound that I had mistaken for a pile of dry reeds or something resolved itself to be the body of an enormous boar. Scores of arrows and a half dozen spears jutting out of the body made it look like a giant porcupine. The red-armored samurai, whose name I could not remember, stood by the beast, posing with one leg up on its head and his helmet tucked under one arm, while a scholarly-looking man held a piece of paper between the samurai Lord and another guy in a robe who was gesticulating wildly. At some point, I realized it was a mage who was creating some type of scene capture of the samurai.


    Was this whole exercise the Lord¡¯s idea of a hunting trip? Or was the boar actually a threat? The thing was freaking huge, and boars had a tendency to be mean bastards, but couldn¡¯t we have just chased it off into the forest? Did we actually have to kill it? I stood in line in the sweltering sun, wondering if we had just done the town a service or merely aided in the samurai¡¯s entertainment. Two stretchers were carried away, one of which had a sheet covering an unmoving body. This whole thing had at least one casualty.


    The samurai Lord, through with having his image captured, approached the rank and file of us lowly militia people. He stopped several paces in front of us with a great grin on his face and bowed slightly before yelling, ¡°Thank you for your service. You may return home.¡± And that was it.


    I wandered home, hot, thirsty, hungry, and chafing. After returning my spear and shield and making my way back to my unfinished house, I decided to take the rest of the day off. The stream above my house was still cold, and honestly, that sounded nice at this point in time. It was a weird feeling. I felt very much like a cog in a machine and not a particularly well-put-together machine.