This Is the Edge of the Dungeon's Sphere of Influence

[Just Short of Tsuji Village]

The highway looked as though it had been sheared off right outside Tsuji Village, and the aqueduct bridge laid bare its cross-section at the same spot.

"This is the edge of the dungeon's sphere of influence. About ten ri from the dungeon, I'd say. Just as we expected, it's narrower than to the west. The heavier the foot traffic, the more readily the dungeon's sphere of influence spreads, and it won't swallow up places where people live."

Hosokawa Minbu-no-shō said, pointing it out.

"Beyond this lies danger, was it."

Satomi Uma-no-kami asked.

"Enter, and monsters come at you, or there are traps. Conversely, so long as you stay out of the sphere of influence, there's basically no danger from the dungeon itself. Of course, Named monsters do appear, but they're few, and they grow weaker outside the dungeon. There's also the chance that samurai the dungeon has taken into service will mount a raid, but their numbers will be small."

"That much we can handle."

"This is the last safe place, so today we make camp here."

"And from tomorrow on?"

"At dawn, once the Pretas have caught up, we take ample rest a while longer. After that, we advance while watching for traps. By past records, this dungeon makes heavy use of pit traps, so the ground, the highway included, cannot be trusted in the slightest."

"That's a nuisance. We've still got ten ri to go, haven't we. No wonder we need the Pretas."

"By the look of it, there's no one in that building. Fled, perhaps. Shall we go check?"

Miyoshi Moku-no-kami said, eyeing Tsuji Village.

"Leave it be. As Minbu-no-shō-dono says, there may be traps. And the enemy is famous for never taking prisoners. As luck would have it, the ground hereabouts is firm sand and level, so let's make camp, a little early though it be."

[The Campsite]

"Now then, Moku-no-kami-dono, Uma-no-kami-dono, Tenzen-dono. Tomorrow at last we enter enemy ground."

"Minbu-no-shō-dono, is there no danger of the enemy attacking the merchants? A siege is a drawn-out affair, and without merchants our resupply won't hold and the encirclement can't be sustained."

Miyoshi Moku-no-kami voiced her concern.

"That dungeon has already concluded pacts with Musashi and Sō. That being so, its position no longer permits it to attack merchants. That we can draw resupply from the merchants is precisely where we hold an overwhelming advantage over Tsukuba Naiyaku-no-jō. Were the merchants within our own camp, the dungeon could make excuses; but the merchants lodged in their own inns, it cannot attack them."

"So whether it be a lord or a dungeon, any wretch who attacks merchants without cause faces the merchants' reprisal in turn."

Satomi Uma-no-kami.

"It mustn't go loosing whistling arrows at a man just for passing alongside its mansion. That is the long and short of it."

"Moku-no-kami-dono, Musashi though it be, surely even they wouldn't go shooting at merchants."

Even in the Picture-Scroll of Obusuma Saburō, steeped though it is in prejudice against the folk of Saitama Prefecture, no one shoots a merchant. Incidentally, the "ugliest woman in all the Bandō" is depicted as a Russian beauty, tall, with large eyes, a high nose, and wavy black hair, and since there are Nordic whites among the bandits, it would seem Europeans were already in Japan by the Kamakura period. The afro-haired ascetic monk being set upon at the gate, by contrast, is not a black man, from which one surmises there were no black people about and the figure was drawn from hearsay alone. These are, of course, merely models for the painting; it does not mean white bandits actually existed.

"Ahead of us lies Kishi Village. By the standard playbook we ought to lay siege, but this is a dungeon. Dungeon structures can't be broken, and the enemy can lay all the traps it likes. So we use the Pretas as a shield and pass straight through. Once we reach the city's environs and link up with the merchants, the victory is ours."

"A race against time, in other words."

"Camping within the dungeon's sphere of influence… no, napping, rather. Either way, sleeping is far too dangerous, so tomorrow we rest fully through the day, set out a little early in the evening to match the Pretas' pace, and by forced march reach the front of the dungeon before daybreak."

"And if the dungeon's sphere of influence ever spreads so wide it can't be crossed in a single day, how do we take it then?"

"Moku-no-kami-dono, should that come to pass, the orthodox frontal-assault strategy is no longer an option. There are stratagems, to be sure, but one never knows who may be listening. Besides, a dungeon that vast is a great rarity. For sheer breadth, Nasu-Shiobara runs some dozens of ri on a side, but in these parts that's about the only one."

[Tier-Group 3 Control Room]

Since it wouldn't do to cram all of the dungeon's central functions into the Core Room, the room on Floor 10 of Tier-Group 3 facing the inner atrium now serves as the "control room," where Mint is usually stationed.

"Mint, are you picking up the conversation all right?"

"No trouble at all, Director. The enemy army doesn't appear to be moving until the Pretas join them. Tomorrow as well it'll be at rest, by all accounts, though some of them may set out from the campsite."

"Marie-san, and the first trap?"

"Master, the timing of its activation is what matters. Pretas are heavy, so even if we can sweep away the Pretas alone, the rest will flee. But if it can be done, I'd dearly like to finish them off for certain right here."