Ominous Movements Far to the Southeast

[Tsuji Village, 10 *ri* to the Southeast]

Marie, Kinran, Kishi Harima-no-suke, and Tsuji Bunzō were out inspecting the planned site of Tsuji Village.

"Lord Director of Books, this 'automobile' is a convenient thing, isn't it."

So said Tsuji Bunzō.

"Seein' as we can't use the self-drivin' feature, an automatic-only license turns out to be just a scrap of paper. That was a miscalculation. Most sales work only takes ya to places where people actually live, after all."

Kinran couldn't drive a manual car. Incidentally, in the case of a taxi, a driver with a Class-2 license manages it remotely, so the passenger needs no license.

"Naturally, retrofitting an automobile to be controlled by radio waves from the dungeon proper is beyond even Mint's hands."

"Thinking ahead, I'd have liked to set up a fort as far out as Kanae Village, at least."

"Harima-no-suke-dono, the dungeon's sphere of influence stretches, at the very most, to about the next village out, Nishi Village. Even so, with food imports stalling and migrants on the rise…"

"Someone is buying up food in bulk."

Kishi Harima-no-suke declared it outright.

"That would be the way of it. Even if Tsukuba Naiyaku-no-jō were still alive, he'd have no strength left to fight again, and since there's said to be heavy buying in the direction of Sō, Sō is most likely about to launch a full assault on Awa. Though it's a mystery that there's no particular movement at Kōnodai."

"Or, conversely, there's the possibility that Awa attacks Sō, or that it passes straight through Sō and comes at us instead."

So said Kishi Harima-no-suke.

"Would Sō really permit Awa to pass through?"

"If they do no harm and merely march along the highway to pass through, Sō would likely turn a blind eye. Fighting Awa would bring casualties, but if Awa wins, the territory becomes an enclave, so Sō can extort lodging fees from then on, and if Awa loses, Sō can in turn invade a weakened Awa."

"We haven't sworn any pact with Sō to the effect of 'block the passage of another country's army,' after all. So, supposing Awa does attack…"

"On our side we've six warrior bands, a hundred and some men. Nishi Tatewaki and Kanae Danjō won't arrive for a while yet."

"At ten thousand koku, a hundred men is a reasonable number, and if the enemy is ordinary humans, it's plenty. Pretas would be a nuisance, though."

"Pretas, eh."

"Pretas are 'walking stone,' so not only are they fine without feed for days on end, they can't be killed by burning or by sinking them in water, and if there are great numbers of them, by piling themselves up they render ramparts, moats, and pit traps all meaningless. They are, so to speak, a dungeon's natural enemy. Pretas alone would be one thing, but if a strategist and Pretas come together, exterminating them is no easy matter."

"True, you can't kill a Preta without striking off its head or crushing its skull. And they're hard, on top of that. In numbers they're troublesome. Mind you, sink one underwater and even a Preta can't breathe, so it falls into suspended animation. And since it can't move right away once hauled out of the water, perhaps we use the dragon to raise a great flood and submerge the whole area."

"That's impossible. There ain't that much water to be had. All there is around here is sand. And bein' sand, even a Preta won't sink into it."

"If we made quicksand, we could at least slow their advance, but it's not as though they'd sink, after all."

"In the event the enemy attacks, defending the fields will be difficult, so we'll put planting at Tsuji Village on hold. The particulars we'll consider going forward, but on the near side of Kishi Village, we'll provisionally treat Minuma as the final defense line. As for stopping the merchants… that would be difficult, would it not."

"The merchants don't answer to the Director of Books, after all. If the Awa army says it'll pay, they'll go off to sell. And forcibly confiscating goods from merchants would cause trouble."

Even in an otherworld Warring States period, the baggage train played only a supporting role, and provisions were procured locally as a matter of course. That is, bought with coin from merchants and farmers. The rest was plunder from the enemy, but since it was an age when even the farmers were armed, that wasn't very efficient. This world being largely desert, baggage trains are operated on a grander scale than in the Warring States period, but even so, if coin will settle it, coin settles it.

"Kinran, prepare Tsuji Village so it can be fortified should the need arise. We'll suspend the construction of Nishi Village until the enemy army is confirmed, but we'll push the sphere of influence out to Nishi Village by force. It'd be well if we could ready things as far as Kanae Village, but in our present state that's beyond us. Besides, at thirty ri the car runs out of battery and can't make the round trip."

"Understood."

"And, Tsuji Bunzō-san, the site of Tsuji Village, is it truly fine here, a full ten ri off, rather than just south of Kishi Village?"

Marie confirmed it while studying a map of Saitama Prefecture.

"No problem."

[Core Room]

"Master, it seems there's a possibility Awa will attack. As a precaution, going forward we'll continue the field-making and seed-summoning that are indispensable to keep us from starving, and hold all other activity to the bare minimum to conserve dungeon energy."

"Marie-san, Awa this time, is it. And here they must surely know what became of Tsukuba."