A Dispatch.

“What’s the matter — there’s one missing.”

“The horse was spooked, so they’re just a little delayed. Everyone is safe.”

Only then did Aspara let out a great breath.

“Truly, thank goodness…”

“Even so… we let them slip away.”

He said it in a tone steeped in frustration and guilt.

“That is enough. Please pass word to the castle lord and to the others, in my stead, that they have done well.”

“Yes.”

But the castle lord was already making ready to return to the capital. As things stood, the plan was to dispatch the castle’s messenger bird to the border and try to halt them there.

The odds of it arriving in time were slim. Even so, at this point, it was the best choice available.

“《— — —— —. You— ——.》”

“He says we will return to the castle at once. Lady Aspara, you will need to ride behind me.”

“Very well.”

Gus made ready to ride at full gallop, and to lighten his horse’s load, Aspara shared a mount with Volmo. The man who only that morning had been throwing jealous jabs, teasing them about the attendant and the wife sharing a single horse, now gripped the reins tightly, a decidedly serious look in his eyes.

“《— —.》”

“The castle lord says to follow carefully. We will ride at an ordinary pace.”

“Mm.”

As deeply worried villagers called their farewells, the three of them hastily turned their horses back toward the castle.

“…”

“Are you all right?”

“Hm? Ah, yes, I am all right. Thank you for your concern.”

“Please do not trouble yourself too much. I may have overreacted. It may not blow up into as great a matter as you fear.”

“That is not the reason. It is only…”

Aspara turned to look back at the village, already no more than a dot in the distance, and said,

“It is only that I felt, freshly, that I may be a more wicked woman than I had thought. I felt it while I was waiting with the villagers for the rest of you to return.”

“Ah…”

Volmo worked his mouth for a moment as if carefully picking his words. Then, at last, he said quietly,

“That village has a great many immigrants living in it, which is why. Overall public opinion has, if anything, improved.”

“Mm?”

“I don’t know what those fellows did, but please don’t trouble yourself over it too much.”

What on earth is he talking about? Aspara thought, and glanced over at him.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Among the common citizenry, the regard for you is not especially good, Lady Aspara — but I believe that has more to do with racial antipathy toward a foreign bride than with any substantive issue.”

“Any substantive issue?”

“Er…”

“Is there some substantive issue with me?”

Volmo hesitated a moment, then said,

“Aren’t they referring to the fact that, since you came, Lady Aspara, the castle lord’s political course has become… er, a bit more hardline?”

“That is not it.”

“Then…”

“I mean while we were waiting for you all. I was so preoccupied with the castle lord’s safety that I could not spare a thought for the safety of the townspeople. That is why I am disappointed in myself.”

“Ah… ah, that, yes. Well, that kind of thing happens.”

“The castle lord has changed since I came — tell me more about that, in detail.”

Caught off guard by what she had just heard, Aspara pressed him. Volmo, who at first refused to answer, in the end gave up what he knew.

“The king of the barba— no, the castle lord, you see, is originally a rather mild and merciful ruler. Well — only where his own people are concerned, of course.”

“Surely he is still that way now, is he not.”

“That is so. Even so… before, he was even more so. Anyone who crossed over into the snowfields he took in as a citizen; he did not resort to force… the current porousness of the border is an aftereffect of that, in fact.”

“It is a touch too porous.”

“But lately, I understand, that is no longer the case. He is putting down tax-refugees by force, and… overall, he has grown stricter.”

“…”

“Of late he has been shortsighted and aggressive. Some opinion — some small opinion has it that this is because of the new wife he has taken in.”

Volmo glanced warily at the woman beside him, then added,

“…Even so, well, it is merely that the timing happened to overlap a little with your marriage, Lady Aspara… ah, to be precise, they say he became like this after the trip south to the banquet. Perhaps he simply saw the abundance of the outside world and grew envious, thinking ‘Let us develop our land too, quickly!’ — something like that, no? That is not necessarily a bad thing, either.”

Aspara said nothing at all.

Since after the banquet…

“Hahahahaha!”

Flower and his servants were crossing the valley and making their way south.

“It was a stroke of fortune that we decided to block the road. It was a close thing.”

“Indeed. Had we been caught by those barbarian savages, who knows what would have become of us…”

“I hear they even set fire to whole carts of migrants who come to settle there, and kill them that way.”

Each man sighed in relief and stroked his chest. Even though they had now put a fair distance between themselves and the northerners, the horses’ pace still ran a little on the fast side.

“Still, it was worth every bit of it.”

“A true word, my lord. To think such a valuable item would be found in a backwater such as that…”

The servant was thinking of the purple cloth they had stripped from the half-blood youth as he spoke.

That cloth was nothing less than a treasure. Dye made by grinding up shells, as a rule, takes on a certain reddish cast unless the artisan’s skill and luck are both in their favor.

The scrap of cloth they had taken, however, bore a purple so perfect it verged even slightly on blue. An astounding first-grade article.

“To waste a dye of this caliber on such shoddy cloth.”

“That will be the proof that there’s some young artisan practicing their dyework somewhere.”

The version of events they had in their heads ran like this.

Aspara had come from a southern island, the source-region of purple dye. She would have brought the secret art of dye-making over here and begun spreading it. Likely it was a scheme to scrape together, by any means, the cost of maintaining dignity in this impoverished nation.

The trouble was the raw material.

Purple dye required vast quantities of seashells. This purple cloth was proof that someone in a southern nation had exported a vast quantity of shells to the north, and that, in turn, meant evasion of taxes owed to the central kingdom.

“If the full story of the matter is investigated properly, compelling Lady Aspara’s return will not be so very difficult.”

“Quite so. Once that comes about —”

“So long as she comes south… there will be time enough to win her over.”

“…”

“…Pardon?”

Flower’s attendants, as though accustomed to this, shut their mouths. But one young novice, only two months on the job, raised his hand to indicate that he had a question.

“…Erm, Lord Flower.”

“Speak.”

“I just want to ask, in case — master, do you… seriously love Lady Aspara?”

He asked cautiously. The intent was: After coming all the way out here and failing, that is the next plan?

The other senior attendants merely watched the flustered newcomer with complicated expressions.

“What are you saying? Of course I am serious. That is the very reason I came this far, is it not?”

“Then… the matter of saying, just now, that you love both your current wife and Lady Aspara, and that the three of us should live together — that too was in earnest?”

“Do I look like a liar to you?”

“No, I simply wanted to ask, in case. …And Lady Sebinya Gobir agreed to this as well?”

“It was the good lady of my house who first proposed this solution, as it happens.”

“Truly a clever woman,” he added, wearing a wistful expression.

Master seems to be a true match made in heaven with his current wife — would it not be better to simply live with the two of them alone…

The attendants all thought the same thing. But none of them could say it directly to this madman.

[20.]

At Fang Castle, whose two masters were both away.

The castle lord and his lady’s close circle were, likewise, spending their own time together.

Pillowing each other’s laps, exchanging gifts, petting silk-furred rats side by side: a plain but cozy sort of time.

In the early afternoon, when the shadows were beginning to grow long, the two were lying in Jack’s room, going over the gifts they had exchanged, a ring made of leather cord and a tree branch that looked remarkably like a sword, enjoying a spell of ease.

“Nice.”

“Mm.”

“I wonder if my lady is having a good time too…”

Jack flopped onto his back as he lay there and mumbled. Since Ugli did not much care for it when Jack talked about Aspara while they were together, his eyes went cool for a moment. But that glint was hidden right after by the smile that followed in its wake.

“Who knows — maybe she’s doing this right now!”

“Aaagh! Stop it!”

Tickle, tickle. Jack twisted his body trying to dodge his lover’s mischievous fingers.

“Hahaha! Wait, wait!”

“Don’t wanna?”

“Wait, really, just for a second! Heehehehee! Wait, outside, someone’s coming, hahahah!”

“《Who?》”

Ugli switched languages in an instant, instinctively, and asked.

No sooner had the word come out than someone flung the door of the room wide open.

“Jack, something urgent came up so I came back early! The castle lord said to go fetch Ugli —”

Behind the opened door was Jack’s roommate, who by rights ought to have been out all day long.

“Heehehe… hee… hello, Voli-moly.”

“《Something urgent, you say — what sort of matter?》”

Ugli wiped the playful voice of a moment before completely from his tone and asked gravely. The voice would have been impressive, had he not been speaking while lying on his side on the bed.

“《…Why are my bed and Jack’s bed pushed together?》”

“《That is not the important thing. What in the world is this urgent matter?》”

“Has something happened to my lady?”