kscans

Chapter 12 - Western Capital

Since Saneyuki needed to stay behind to arrange the dojo repairs, the group decided to remain in the Western Capital for a while.

"The Western Capital is a fine place, you know? You should take your time and see the sights," Saneyuki said with a broad smile. For Shintaro, however, who was accustomed to city life, there was little new to see. In its place, he heard plenty of gossip, mainly because about seventy percent of the people on the street called out to him.

The gossip was all trivial: the cloth merchant's son had ruined himself gambling, a neighborhood cat had given birth to seven kittens, the price of dried goods had gone up, and so on.

Just now, a man in his forties or fifties approached him.

"Haven't seen your face around here. Where are you from? I'm the master carpenter over there. If you're looking for work, why not come work for me?"

"I'm afraid I'm already set, thank you."

"Oh, is that so? Where at?"

"The dojo just down the road."

"What, that place? Well, can't be helped then."

A woman who appeared to be the proprietress of an inn was sprinkling water in front of her establishment. She called out to him as well.

"Sir, won't you stop in for a while? I don't know where you're from, but you have a handsome face. If you'd like, you could train as a chef in my kitchen."

"...Why?"

"I just have a feeling that if you were standing in my kitchen, customers would come flocking. No good?"

"My apologies, but I'm to be employed at the dojo down the road."

"Oh, is that so. My mistake. Well then, it can't be helped."

After a few more similar conversations, Shintaro began to grow weary of it. He decided it would be better to either ignore people or turn the questions back on them. At that very moment, a man pulling a rickshaw called out to him.

"Hey, brother! Where'd you come from?"

"I'm tired of repeating myself to every person in this neighborhood. If you want to know, grab anyone and ask them."

"Wahahaha! My apologies. The folks around here are a bit sensitive to outsiders. Plus, with a guy as conspicuous as you, it can't be helped."

Shintaro eyed the man skeptically. "Conspicuous?"

"You betcha. You stand out. I'll bet you're popular with the ladies. I'm envious."

Shintaro, unsure of how to react or what to say, could only manage a wry smile.

*

While Shintaro was dealing with this, Kiku slapped the back of Saneyuki, who was busy inspecting the dojo for repairs.

"Hey! What happened to Shintaro?"

"Whoa! What was that for? You scared me."

"Don't 'what was that for' me! Is it really okay to leave him by himself?!"

"He's not a child."

"That's not what I'm talking about. I'm worried because he's not a child, you get it?"

"What do you mean?"

"If we let him wander the town alone, there's no telling where he might find out about us."

At Kiku's words, Saneyuki's face went pale. "D-do you think we can make it if we go get him now?"

Kiku bonked him on the head. "You idiot! It'll be a miracle if we do!"

*

Unfortunately, Kiku's worries were well-founded. It happened while Shintaro was taking a break at a teahouse, sitting on a long bench covered with a red felt carpet.

"You're a handsome one, brother," a girl working at the shop said, approaching him. She placed a block of sweet bean jelly on the bench and sat down beside him.

"This is on me. I haven't seen you around here before. Where are you from?"

"From the Eastern Capital."

"Oh, that's far. What brings you here? Sightseeing?"

"That's part of it, but I was thinking of settling here for a while."

"Really?! Did you find a job?" the girl exclaimed, leaning forward eagerly. Shintaro, slightly taken aback, nodded.

"Someone offered to hire me at the dojo down the road, so I came to check it out. But it needs repairs, so I won't actually start until around next year."

"Wow! That's exciting! So what are you doing until then?"

"I'll head back once, then travel north for a bit."

"I see. ...That dojo down the road, that's the young master's place, right?"

"Young master?"

"Yeah. Saneyuki-san."

"Ah—so that's what they call him."

"Huh? Oh, yeah, most people do. He's friendly and a good person, you know? If you're going to live somewhere, this is definitely the place. The East is so hard to live in, isn't it?"

Shintaro frowned. He had never once thought the East was difficult to live in. "Not particularly."

At his mild denial, the girl's eyes widened in surprise. "I heard the taxes in the East are high. Is that not true?"

"What?"

"They say merchants pay thirty percent of their sales, and farmers pay forty percent of their harvest."

"That's correct, but—"

"See, I knew it! Here, it's just ten percent for both sales and harvest!" the girl said, tapping Shintaro's arm. "Plus, in years with a poor harvest or when someone is bedridden for a long time, the taxes are waived. Isn't that wonderful?"

Now it was Shintaro's turn for his eyes to widen. "Is that so? But why is it so different?"

"Because our Tower Master is a great man. He's different from the one in the East!"

At the words "Tower Master," Shintaro's heart, needless to say, skipped a beat. "...Tower Master?"

"That's right. Masaki Sanetsugu-sama. He's poor, mind you. But that's why the people are well-off." The girl then pointed into the distance. "See that over there? The black Tower."

In the direction she pointed, he could indeed see a black tower, very similar to the one in the Eastern Capital.

"Just like the one in the East is called the Silver Tower, the one in the West is called the Iron Tower. Did you know?"

"The Iron... Tower." Shintaro stood up and stared at the distant structure. It wasn't that he was uneducated, but he had never known there were two Towers in this country.

The black tusk piercing the sky. Its quiet, firmly rooted presence was no different from the one in the East.

Can I make it here? he wondered, a wave of anxiety washing over him. The different color was a small mercy, but still...

"Anyway, if you're going to be working for the young master, shouldn't you go and pay your respects to his father? Or have you already?"

Shintaro froze and turned back to the girl. "What do you mean?"

"Huh? What do you mean 'what do you mean'? It's just as I said."

"Meaning?"

"The young master is the heir to the Tower Master, isn't he? So..."

Shintaro felt the ground beneath his feet lurch. He hastily pulled some coins from his tunic and placed them on the bench. "Thank you for the treat."

"Hey, wait! The jelly was on the house!" The girl desperately called after Shintaro as he hurried away, but he moved as fast as the wind and vanished in an instant.

*

Shintaro stood before the dojo gate. He hadn't decided what he was going to do; he had simply run here on impulse. He was agitated, far from calm. He sighed, looked down, and turned on his heel.

He wandered aimlessly through the town, occasionally calling out to passersby and gathering scraps of rumors about the Tower. The answers were all the same. The Tower Master and the young master were good people, and though the Tower's finances were strained, the townspeople lived relatively prosperous lives. It was a blessing, they all said.

Another thing he realized was how unusually close the people were to them. It was unthinkable in the East, where only a select few even knew the Tower Master's face.

Masaki Saneyuki is nothing like Kagasaki Razan.

Shintaro thought this, yet he still felt a powerful resistance deep inside—proof that he hadn't completely severed his lingering feelings for Mana. He laughed at himself as he hurried through the town. I thought I'd put it all behind me, but I'm not over it at all.

He looked up to see the setting sun casting long shadows across the road. Creeping toward him was the shadow of the Tower itself. Seeing it, he realized that the two Towers were not just similar; they were the same.

Shintaro trembled. His feet, which had stopped in desperation, were now frozen to the ground. The shadow was just one step away. His heart was in turmoil, trapped in a desperate situation that filled him with dread.

If only I could step into this shadow without feeling a thing, just like the people passing by.

Shintaro closed his eyes, making a fervent wish.

If I can step on this shadow without feeling a thing, then I can bid Mana a final farewell. I can move on without any regrets in this life.

As Shintaro stood there, lost in his intense thoughts, a voluptuous woman emerged from the twilight and sidled up to him.

"Hey there, handsome. Care to have a little fun?"

Shintaro frowned, his expression asking what this was all about. "I'll give you a special discount because you're so good-looking. Hmm, I might even pay you. What do you say? I'll buy you for a high price."

"...Buy what?"

"Oh, don't be like that. 'What' do you think? It's that, of course."

"Huh?" As Shintaro stood there utterly confused, someone suddenly tugged on his sleeve.

"What do you think you're doing?! A man like you shouldn't be wandering around alone at this hour!" It was Kiku. The other woman immediately pouted.

"Oh, please. Is he one of your clients, Sister Kiku?"

"No! You idiot!"

"Then don't get in my way."

"Can't do that! Go find someone else!"

The woman shrugged and reluctantly turned away. "What a shame. It's been a while since I've seen such a high-quality man."

After the woman left, Kiku grabbed Shintaro's arm and began dragging him back. "You're such a handful! Hurry up and walk."

"S-sorry. What was that all about, anyway?"

"She's a prostitute. Can't you tell just by looking?"

Shintaro's eyes widened, and in the next instant, his face turned beet red. It was Kiku's turn to be surprised.

"So innocent. You don't have any experience, do you?"

Shintaro grew even redder and fell silent. Kiku looked at him, exasperated.

"And you must have been so popular... you even had a fiancée, right? I heard from Sahei. You get dumped because you don't do anything. You're such an idiot."

Her blunt words wounded Shintaro deeply. It wasn't as if he had done absolutely nothing. They had kissed often and had done things that were close to being intimate. He had just never gone all the way.

"She said she wanted to protect her purity. I couldn't do anything more than that," he finally retorted.

Kiku just laughed it off. "At that rate, you'll never do anything in your entire life."

At her scathing criticism, Shintaro fell silent for good.