A Knight Order? The Kishi Order?

[Foot of the Hill]

"Secretary-General-dono, I have brought the Kishi Band."

Following along behind the Daikan, Yoshida Nishinoichinojō, were his usual retainers, plus some twenty men. No horses anywhere in sight.

"The Kishi Band, led by Kishi Harima-no-suke," said an elderly man who appeared to be the group's representative.

"Every one of them on foot, yet a knight order?" Marie asked.

"The Kishi Band."

"Not a single horse, yet knights?"

"Indeed. Kishi."

"Secretary-General-dono, this Kishi Band is a warrior band of sure skill, but they are a little difficult in temperament, so they could find no place to make a name for themselves in either Tama or Iruma and have been left masterless. Will you not take them into your service here? It would be a problem if they grew desperate and turned to banditry. A skilled bandit is the stuff of nightmares."

A convenient way to be rid of a nuisance?

"Er, Harima-no-suke-dono, can you ride a horse?"

"Of course. The mounted ranks are five: the District Governor of Kishida in Soeshimo and the District Governor of Kishimoto in Aimi, my two sons, and myself. There are fifteen foot-soldiers, and back in Kasumigaseki my family and menservants and the like are waiting. Squires I plan to hire as the stipend allows."

In short, including Rāja's mount, six horses would do.

"Going by the numbers, the stipend you'd need is around 2,000 hyō… However, this dungeon, even if we add paddies this winter, will yield only about 2,000 koku next year. For the time being it would have to be payment in kind, in tubers and fuel."

"That's quite all right. To begin with, nobody around these parts draws a stipend paid in rice. Normally you're granted a village and take tubers and miscellaneous grains as the land tax. In time I'd like to be granted a village of my own."

"Then there's the matter of horses. Daikan-dono, are horses really out of the question?"

"They're difficult. A horse eats like a horse, so just keeping one runs you a good ten ryō a year. South of Iruma, in Fuchū in Tama, is the town that, together with Hiki and the rest, forms the center of this country, so I'd think you could find horses if you went that far… though I can't say so for certain."

Mind you, Fuchū may host the Tokyo Racecourse, but the horses are usually off training at Miho. Not that any of this is relevant.

"I'm not asking for a thousand-ri steed."

"A thousand ri? Secretary-General-dono, you seem to hold excessive expectations of horses. In reality a thousand ri is impossible; it's more like ten or fifteen ri. In a place like this, with no inns along the way, a march accompanied by foot-soldiers covers five ri a day. On a highway, eight to ten ri is possible."

"A thousand ri is just a figure of speech for a fine horse; I don't actually expect one to run a thousand. At a walk it's about 50 km a day, so ten or fifteen ri is exactly what I expected. A horse can hardly gallop at full tilt all day long. That said, horses would be useful for routing the pirates…"

"Fighting while still mounted is difficult. Even a warrior band will more often than not dismount on the battlefield. Of course, if you could gather even a dozen-odd riders, never mind several dozen, and charge, that would be powerful, but training for it is extremely hard, and the cases where it's useful are few."

"A dozen-odd riders… three of these knight orders' worth. It's worth aiming for. Whether the policy is 'a rich nation with a strong army' or 'a poor nation with a weak army,' given that the road conditions make running automobiles difficult, a mobile cavalry corps is useful."

[Tier-Group 4, First-Floor Reception Room]

"This is General Rāja, who is in charge of this dungeon's public order."

"Rāja. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"And this is the Knight Commander, Harima-no-suke-dono."

"Kishi Harima-no-suke. I look forward to working with you."

"Separating the military from the police has been common sense in civilized society ever since ancient Rome, and even in Japan under the ritsuryō system the Ministry of Military Affairs and the Ministry of Justice were separate, but in this dungeon, what with our still being small in scale and our strategy of 'a rich nation with a strong army' versus 'a poor nation with a weak army' not yet decided, the military and the police are not separated."

"Po-lice? What might that be?"

"They prevent and crack down on crime. In other words, something like the town magistrate's office. Around these parts it seems to fall under the Daikan's duties."

"Crack down, you say, but how do things stand with the statutes?"

"Basically: death for murder, corporal punishment for assault, fines for theft. But a proper set of rules is still being drawn up. Fortunately, murder has never occurred."

"I am drafting it on the basis of the Six Codes Compendium. But a law is meaningless if no one knows it, so its application is still some way off."

"The content has to be kept to the bare minimum, or the Dungeon Master in particular won't be able to remember it."

"I can take the head of an enemy, but I haven't the skill to strike off a head without pain as a punishment. For pirates that's actually just fine, though."

"In that case, we'll have to give some thought to the method of execution as well."