Warring States Survival Guide
Chapter 54 - 30: Is It Donkey Attraction?

Chapter 54: Chapter 30: Is It Donkey Attraction?

The Hosokawa Family’s messenger came to visit, and besides freeing Harano from his "imprisonment," he just exchanged a few pleasantries before leaving, only leaving behind a letter for Harano, along with a pretty decent set of lacquered tableware, a delicate ceramic teacup in a wooden box, and a bolt of fine-woven linen.

"Who wrote the letter? What does it say?" Ah Man was a born busybody—seeing the messenger come and go, she couldn’t help but nose in again, throwing out casual questions while checking Ah Qing carefully to see if Harano had done anything funny while she wasn’t around.

If she really let her little sister out like this, even she felt a little regret now, getting all paranoid, afraid Harano was just hiding his true nature and might suddenly reveal his beastly side: give a lewd chuckle, drooling as he swept Ah Qing into his arms and did whatever he wanted. And Ah Qing, being tied to the bet, would have no choice but to shut her eyes, tilt her head away, blush with shame, and just endure whatever came.

Though that was unlikely—Harano usually seemed pretty decent. But it’s hard to judge someone’s bones, not just their skin—who knows what’s hidden inside? Samurai are all perverts anyway; nothing disgusting would surprise her.

"It’s a letter from a guy named Okumura Sukueimon Iefuku, thanking us for saving A Song, and sending along a little thank-you gift." Harano didn’t notice Ah Man eyeing him up; after reading the letter, he tapped the table thoughtfully and said, "He also hopes I can visit Hosokawa Castle as a guest and check on his lord Maeda Toshimasa’s illness while I’m there. He said whenever—he’s ready to welcome me at any time."

This was a bit unexpected. He figured the letter would be from Maeda Toshie or maybe from the lord of Hosokawa Castle himself, Maeda Toshimasa—but out of nowhere, here comes someone he doesn’t even know: Okumura Iefuku.

"Okumura Sukueimon? I know him, he’s one of the Hosokawa Family elders. The Osumi family has served the Maeda Family for generations—he’s actually a big shot in the Maeda family." Ah Man chimed in with some basic insider info, then rooted through the gifts, sizing up their value and complaining, "You could sell this stuff for maybe a string of coins at most. The lacquerware’s from Hosokawa Guanyin Temple, the teacup is just a run-of-the-mill Seto Pottery piece with a little flaw, and the cloth is probably home-woven. Put together, it’s worth maybe seven or eight hundred wen at most! These samurai are still cheapskates—ask someone to cure an illness and that’s all they offer? You want to go?"

Supposedly it’s a thank-you gift for saving A Song, but honestly it feels more like a consultation fee. Old-school Japanese Samurai in these times loved to talk in roundabout ways—they were embarrassed to discuss money directly, much like the old stuck-up scholars from China. On that, she was pretty clear.

"Let’s just go tomorrow—it’s not like we have anything else going on," Harano decided quickly. After all, they were living on someone else’s land now and the tone was polite enough. Besides, it wasn’t like they wanted him to work for free. No need to act all uppity and stir up trouble for no reason.

Even a mighty dragon can’t mess with a local snake—let alone him, he wasn’t any kind of dragon, just a down-and-out foreigner who’d stumbled in here. He should be laying low and keeping careful either way.

Ah Man thought it was fine. The money was a bit lacking, but still better than treating some broke villager—so she was quick to say, "Go ahead then, I’ll look after the house."

She wasn’t planning to tag along. She could act all shameless at Harano’s place because he was a pushover who’d put up with her, but if she went to Hosokawa Castle, she wouldn’t just miss out on any big meals—chances were she wouldn’t even get to sit at the table. She’d have to kneel behind Harano and stare at the food, and maybe, if she was lucky, get a bowl of horribly bland beans-and-greens rice after. With her slick and lazy personality, no way she’d go put herself through that misery.

Harano nodded—he didn’t care either way. If Maeda Toshimasa’s illness turned out to be tough and took him a couple of days, he’d feel better knowing Ah Man was here to watch the simpleton. If something did go wrong—with her street smarts, she could at least drag the idiot to safety. As long as they weren’t killed, everything else was negotiable.

By now, he pretty much trusted Ah Man and Ah Qing. After all, they even bet their heads and paid up—people with that kind of backbone were worth relying on!

With things settled, he called in the Momoi brothers and told them to feed the secondhand donkey more beans, clean up the worn-out cart, and get some travel rations ready. They’d head out at dawn—no screwing around.

......

The night passed uneventfully, and soon enough it was dawn the next day.

Harano finished his daily chores ahead of time and ate a quick breakfast. Then, after tidying up his clothes, bow, and medicine chest, he got ready to leave. But right outside the door, he saw Ah Qing fitting a bean bag on the donkey and whispering something to it, brushing its coat gently with so much patience and care. The old donkey even rubbed its head against her, all friendly, not a trace of its usual stubbornness—it seemed like they were old pals.

Harano was a little surprised—that was his donkey, so why was it so chummy with Ah Qing, who was basically an outsider?

Could it be donkey-to-donkey attraction? Maybe Ah Qing herself is kind of donkey-ish, so the donkey feels a kinship?

Not that it really mattered. The real point was that Ah Qing’s copper ring stick was leaning on the donkey cart and her little macaque was squatting on the donkey’s back, searching for fleas—looked like she was planning on tagging along, too.

He turned to ask Ah Man, who’d come to see him off, "She’s coming along too?"

"Didn’t you say she should be your bodyguard?" Ah Man yawned, resting her sleepy face on her arms, totally unconcerned.

She didn’t want to go suffer, but if Ah Qing wanted to take that punishment, she had no objections. It wasn’t like it would kill her anyway. Plus, times were chaotic—even if, in theory, the road from Hibitsu to Hosokawa Castle should be safe, who knows what could happen in reality. With Ah Qing along, she could rest easy—if someone knocked Harano off with a club and left him for dead, she’d have nowhere to freeload meals anymore, and that’d be a real loss for her.