The Greasy-Headed Shuyu-no-kami

[Outside the Southeast Gate, the Nakayama Road, Kishi Village]

A small party of one mounted rider and three on foot came to Kishi Village from the southeast.

"I am Kishi Harima-no-suke. Would you be the envoy of Sō?"

"I am the herald of Sō, Okamoto Shuyu-no-kami. As envoy of Lord Kazusa-no-suke, I have business with that dungeon up ahead."

The greasy Shuyu-no-kami pointed from horseback toward the dungeon.

"Aye, tall, isn't it. They say it's near fifty thousand shaku."

"Now then, Harima-no-suke-dono, would you happen to know how far the dungeon's sphere of influence extends?"

"To about this far. Though there's talk they mean to push it out to twenty or thirty ri in time."

"So we were already within its sphere of influence. And since we've come to no harm, then it would seem that dungeon is not, after all, ruled and worked by pirates."

"Aye. The Secretary-General-dono is a fearsome great villain, sure enough, but she's no pirate. She shows the enemy no mercy, burns thousands alive, women and children among them, without so much as a change of countenance, and goes round crushing the heads of every captured foe with her own hands. But to us who serve under her she's good, and she's on fine terms with neighboring Iruma besides."

"Villain" here doesn't mean a doer of wicked deeds, but is an old usage for "strong" or "merciless." Also, to Marie, a Preta is like a pest seen from a human's point of view.

"I'd not want to make an enemy of her."

"You'd not. 'You'd really go that far?' That sort of dogged thoroughness is the Secretary-General-dono for you. But mind, the Secretary-General-dono has no notion of conquering the realm or any such thing."

To begin with, there's no advantage whatsoever to ruling anything outside the dungeon's sphere of influence.

"Kōnodai is near enough to see this dungeon, so if there were any danger of an attack we'd have to act first. But it'd be pointless to go blundering in and rout ourselves shamefully like Tsukuba Naiyaku-no-jō-dono. Sō has sent an envoy to Tsukuba as well. Of course there's no guarantee Naiyaku-no-jō-dono will tell the truth, but we'll grasp the rough state of things at least."

"The Tsukuba main force was burned to death, every last man."

"Eh?"

"The whole camp was dropped into an enormous pit, and they were burned wholesale, baggage train and all. That business of showing the enemy no mercy I spoke of just now, that's the Tsukuba affair."

"…… Then it means we too could be dropped into a pit, here and now."

"The Secretary-General-dono won't go attacking an envoy out of the blue. And there's no advantage in making an enemy of Sō, either."

"His Lordship watches the disposition of our troops from atop that tower, and frets that the thinly-guarded villages might be raided."

"She can watch, true, but who's going to go raiding any villages? That's the way of it. Save for a handful of senior officers, the dungeon's folk can't leave its sphere of influence. We of the Kishi Band are no brigands. And the farmers would balk at taking pirates into service."