CHAPTER 4
Flynn returned from her scouting expedition and pulled a face like she didn"t know how to best give vent to her anger.
"Captain, we have a problem. We"re up to our neck in problems!"
"Yeah, yeah, I know. But we waited here for you obediently, didn"t we? We could have made a run for it."
"Of course, you’re right," admitted Flynn. "I must thank you for that."
She looked down at the back of one of the lazily grazing animals and snapped her tongue in disgust. Her ladylike behavior vanished as if it had been blown away. She had turned into a very typical girl next door.
We"d just barely managed to escape the Steppe Brotherhood by clinging to the backs and stomachs of the sheep. We finally let ourselves sink down into the gra.s.s outside a village. Of course, about thirty head of sheep were also in the traveling party.
During our escape, I caught a glance at a signpost. The path to the east led to Big Simaron, and the path to the west into the motherland of Small Simaron.
After Flynn had impressed upon Murata and me not to run away, she"d made her way into the village. She wanted to get some information there.
I wondered at the fact that she"d left her prisoners behind with no guard. The chain of unpredictable events must have really put her off her stride.
"The border with Big Simaron is reportedly tight. Not even the shopkeepers and sheepherders who cross the border every month can get through easily. The residents seem unnerved. The soldiers seem to be the only ones who know what"s going on. When I look at all the uproar, though, it"s only a matter of time until the populace becomes fully aware of the situation."
"Don"t forget that we"re sheep thieves," Murata chipped in impa.s.sively.
One of the sheep raised its head and looked at us through soft gray eyes. Perhaps it felt we were speaking to it.
"No, no one would make this kind of fuss over a few stolen sheep."
I petted the animal"s head.
"This is crazy," I complained. "A border blockade just because of a family argument? What parents would immediately set up such severe safeguards against their own daughter?"
"It doesn"t have anything to do with family any more, Captain. We"re up against an enemy with its sights set on Carolia. As soon as my father finds out that Norman Gilbit can no longer lead the country, he"ll immediately try to overthrow the princedom and take it for himself."
"Shoo, get away from here!” Flynn roared at the sheep. “Why won"t these dratted wool bundles disappear?! Where am I supposed to sit down?!"
Every animal, without exception, raised its head, feeling unjustly snubbed.
"Nmo!" they protested crossly.
"Now don"t look at me like that! Because of you, all my plans fell through!"
Shoving the sheep aside, she flopped down at the foot of a tree. Like a young girl, she cowered there with her arms wrapped around her knees.
Pretty soon she"s going to start crying, I thought. Her back looked so darn small.
"How did it get this far...?" she sighed.
"I can tell you that," I replied.
Meanwhile, Ken Murata counted the beige heads of sheep and estimated the market value of the wool.
Leaning against the huge tree trunk, I looked down at Flynn. "All this stuff happened because we sought out your estate," I said. "We hoped somebody there would help us get back home again. Then you locked us up and, last but not least, you abducted us to drag us with you all this way. Does that answer your question?!"
"You"re right, Captain. I apologize."
Flynn"s sudden hindsight caught me by surprise. She was a few years older than I was and up to now, she"d always been so self-confident. I became weak.
"I don"t want to hear an apology from you. That won"t change anything. I just want to understand the reason we got into this mess. You understand that, right?"
"Indeed."
A bell rang several times. A quiet little group stepped out of a building that looked like a church. In the middle of the group, men were carrying a snow white box. Judging from the size and shape, it was probably a casket. The silent procession walked past us, then turned down a path that led up to a hill with a gentle incline.
Involuntarily, I tucked my thumbs behind my back, which is traditional for children in j.a.pan when they see a funeral. When I noticed it, I gave a tortured smile. I wasn"t an elementary school student any more. And I also wasn"t in j.a.pan any more.
"It looks like someone has died," I observed.
"A child."
"How do you know that?"
I focused my gaze on the retreating funeral procession. Now I recognized a woman who could have been the mother of the child.
"It"s a white casket, so it was a boy. Adults use a brown casket, girls use an auburn casket. Child soldiers are buried in a white casket to praise their courage and patriotism. The boy was at most twelve or thirteen."
"But the war hasn"t even begun yet! Or has it?! Twelve, you say? How can a twelve year old be a soldier?"
"That"s nothing unusual here."
Flynn lifted her head from her knees and looked up to the sky, which held some drifting clouds. A small bird flew past the sun, which was s.h.i.+ning weakly between a few clouds.
“The Steppe Brotherhood doesn’t have its own country, and hasn’t for over a hundred years. It was always an organization entrusted with the task of training soldiers sent to it from other nations. The Brotherhood possessed enough estates and a.s.sets, but it never overcame the status of an educational inst.i.tution. Even after the invasion of the continent by both Simaron empires, the community remained what it had always been. It saw to the training of the men entrusted to it, nothing more. It didn"t make any difference what country they came from or what region. The only goal was to turn them into good soldiers.
"Through the course of wars that sometimes lasted years, one country after the next fell to Simaron"s rule -- nearly the whole eastern half of the continent, including Carolia. Under Simaron"s rule, the terms and conditions gradually changed for the Steppe Brotherhood. The people who were sent to us to be educated were simply too young. The laws of Simaron say that a boy must become a soldier by the age of twelve. But at that age, there are large differences between individuals. Children who grow up in poor villages are usually gaunt and in poor health. Some are too weak to hold a sword properly and are thus totally unsuitable to be soldiers. Despite that, my father and brother approached the training like in old times. The casualty rate during the training increased. No wonder -- they were only children, their bodies weren"t fully developed yet. They couldn"t understand the danger of battle. For better or worse, the Brotherhood made such children into soldiers and let them loose on the world. Meanwhile, they weren"t sent back to the individual armies of various nations, but rather became soldiers of the superpower Simaron. I grew up at one of these training sites, with the clinging of swords and war cries day in and day out. The young soldiers" cries of pain could be heard all the way through our estate."
Finally, it seemed Murata had identified the sheep with the highest market value. Happily cheering, a young girl came running up and enclosed the wool-mountain -- it was the size of a small motorbike -- in her arms. Her mother, who"d followed, laughed with Murata.
"When my marriage into the Gilbit family was certain, my father and brother were so happy they couldn"t even calm down again. It was their big opportunity to seize possession of a country of their own. Since they would be related to the prince by marriage, they hoped to become part of the government without the colonial power taking it the wrong way. Piece by piece, they wanted to gather more power for themselves. Even if they were never recognized as a state, their status would definitely have increased beyond a mere inst.i.tution. The influence that the colonial power exercised over its va.s.sal states was comparatively small. Carolia possesses a large harbor and good relations.h.i.+ps with the owners of merchant s.h.i.+ps. My father had no intention of involving himself in those areas of business. The Gilbits were to continue to take care of those matters, and keep the profits for themselves. A violent takeover by the Brotherhood would only provoke discontent among the tradespeople."
"We saw the harbor of Gilbit. Many huge s.h.i.+ps were making anchor there. The streets were well-built and the seniors could really knuckle down. I really liked the harbor."
"Thank you, Captain." Flynn"s smile reached her bright green eyes.
"There"s one thing I still don"t understand. Although your husband died, you still didn"t want to allow your father into the country. Instead, you wore that stuffy mask for years. Why play that crazy game? Were you sorry to give up the power once you had it?"
"No, that wasn"t the reason." Flynn shook her head slowly and her long hair slid from her lap.
"I hate them, the Steppe Brotherhood! Year after year, boys were conscripted from Carolia. Supposedly, Simaron needs every soldier it can get for the coming war against the demons. If they"re so keen on the idea of war, they should fight it with their own people! All those high-born n.o.blewomen who"ve never walked through mud and dirt. All the n.o.ble gentlemen who"ve never taken care of their own horse, they should fight by themselves! If I give Carolia over to my father and brother, they’ll convert the whole country into a giant army barracks. Then it will no longer be the nation of Carolia my husband loved so dearly. Carolia is not a country for soldiers to flounce around in."
Aha, so that"s the way it was.
"The demons won"t partic.i.p.ate in any war against humans," I said. "At least, not as long as there"s a spark of life in me."
"I don"t understand... how can you make that promise to me? I can judge very well from your black-as-night hair and eyes that you must be a powerful demon of high birth. And there are also those terrifying powers you command..." Flynn hesitated for a moment with her fingers touching her lips.
"Since you"re a descendant of the Wincotts, you surely possess even mightier powers, even if you don"t give that impression at the moment. But you wouldn"t have any influence over the entire Demon Empire, would you? The demons are governed by a king, and anyone who isn"t loyal to him will find himself a head shorter. Once this terrible king sets his demons in motion, no one could hold them off."
Excuse me? Who the h.e.l.l had set this false rumor loose in the world?
Suddenly I was uncertain. This information about the demons was, of course, complete nonsense. Despite that, Flynn seemed to know what she was doing, and that made a big impression on me. Although Flynn wasn"t allowed to rule as Lady Carolia, she was much better suited to be a ruler than I was.
"You"re a good queen," I admitted.
"Me? What gives you that idea? It"s not true. My husband was a good prince. The people loved him. But when I became his bride, stones were thrown at my carriage when I traveled. "How can he marry a daughter of the Steppe Brotherhood?!" the people ranted. I couldn"t hold that against them. For generations, my family had sent innocent people into battle and earned their money doing so."
"But that was your father! The people can"t blame you for that."
"I"m not much better," Flynn said with a sarcastic undertone in her voice.
Murata let out a strange cry and turned around to face us. Then he flailed his right arm around and yelled like crazy.
"d.a.m.n it, what"s wrong with you, Murak... Robinson?! Did you get stung?!"
"Good gracious! Your friend, Captain, is truly a puzzle to me. I still can"t explain where he might have hidden that bottle that caused the smoke. A few days ago, I got a completely different impression from him..."
"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Murata yelled. "I sold a sheep, man! And his new mama is even named Mary! Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb! Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb!"
Well, super. As long as he didn"t expect us to sing along.
With the growing dimensions of our money pouch, hope rea.s.serted itself that everything might work itself out.
With the sale of thirty sheep, we earned a tidy bundle of money that had Flynn looking into the future a little more optimistically. She seemed utterly determined to deliver Captain Crusoe and Tokyo Magic Robinson to Big Simaron, no matter the cost!
From carriage travelers without a care in the world, we"d become refugees being hunted everywhere. Flynn didn"t take much time obtaining our disguises and gear. She decided on three plain sets of men"s working clothes with no hesitation.
"Flynn changed in the shop"s restroom. She gets quirkier all the time," I observed.
"You said it, old friend," Murata agreed.
To stand out less, Flynn pulled my baseball cap low over her eyes. Although her face was mostly hidden, I thought she looked really good. Actually, I liked her much better in the new outfit than before. A blond beauty with a pony tail and a baseball cap -- I could typically only get a view like that from the satellite transmissions of Major League Baseball.
Okay, sportsfan, settle down now! This woman is dangerous! She locked us up and is in the process of kidnapping us!
"A question, s.h.i.+buya. Is it possible that your taste in girls is a little extreme?"
"Huh? What do you mean, extreme?"
"Well, you either like older women or lolitas."
"Excuse me?! Why do you say that?!"
Murata threw me a critical look over the rim of his lenses and I started to get a little nervous.
"N...n...nonsense! Whomever I fall in love with is pure coincidence!"
"It"s okay, it"s okay, you don"t have to turn so red over it. I was just thinking of your cute little one from the lower cla.s.ses, with the short haircut and the childlike face, that you went out with right at the end of middle school. She looked like an elementary school student."
"My G.o.d, that was a guy! From the baseball team! That was a sports haircut! And of course I wasn"t going out with him!"
That"s the way false rumors are set loose in the world.
"Admit it, Robinson," I changed the topic. "Even if Flynn might be too old for me, she"s got a great neck, and her hairline is just unbelievable, isn"t it?"
I stuck my hand out to clap Murata on the shoulder.
"Help, what"s this?!" I called in dismay.
"Nmo!"
Instead of Murata"s shoulder, I"d got hold of the back of an animal that was already quite familiar to me.
"Hey, what are you doing here?" I asked in astonishment.
"Oops, looks like somebody has followed us. Mary"s lamb is living up to its reputation."
"Well, great! And what do we do with him now? Flynn isn"t going to like this at all."
As expected, Flynn, who"d been organizing some winter clothes for the cold weather, let out a sharp scream when she discovered the sheep.
"Iiiiiieh! Why is that thing here?! But we sold them all! They"ll never let us on board a s.h.i.+p with a sheep!"
"Why a s.h.i.+p? We aren"t near the sea," I wondered.
Our travel companion, cozy in a leather jacket, propped her hands on her hips and said arrogantly, "The Steppe Brotherhood has secured the borders to Big Simaron. I"ve decided to travel via Small Simaron to trick them. If we travel along the Longalbalu River north to its mouth, we can smuggle ourselves on board a s.h.i.+p on the coast. That way we can have our choice of Big Simaron harbor cities. It"s true that it"s a considerable detour, but this route is the safest."
"A s.h.i.+p, then..." I sighed.
I really didn"t have anything against s.h.i.+ps, but once I had been on board a luxury liner that was attacked by pirates. I had no desire to live through such a scary experience a second time.
--
The river that was to bring us north was d.a.m.ned wide. One could always see to the other side of even the biggest rivers in j.a.pan, which was definitely not true here.
"Are you sure this Longalbalu isn"t perhaps a sea?" I asked, in light of the dimensions.
"No, it"s definitely a river. And a s.h.i.+p is much more comfortable and faster than traveling over land, isn"t that so?" Flynn boasted self-confidently.
In the light of the setting sun, the surface of the water took on an eerie violet color.
"No more joking around, Flynn! You really want to get on board that barge? It won"t bother Robinson and me, but what about you?"
"Of course I"m coming on board, Captain. We have no choice. Three suspected criminals and a farm animal? A normal pa.s.senger s.h.i.+p would never accept a troop like ours."
Dried gra.s.s poked up through the gangplank everywhere. At the end of it, a s.h.i.+p lay in anchor which surpa.s.sed all our expectations.
Although it was the size of a tourist s.h.i.+p in Hakona, its design was shockingly plain. It looked like an oversized rescue boat with a partial overhang. Nearly the whole deck was covered with wooden crates. In the small area where people could take shelter from the rain, the people were packed in like sardines.
A woman like Flynn, who"d lived on a grand estate up till yesterday, honestly wanted in on this kind of adventure?
"Rad!" marveled Murata. "Looks like the Nile. Gosh, maybe a murder will take place here! Like in an Agatha Christie novel!"
"You won"t take it? You can"t be serious!" we heard Flynn"s voice. "That"s not counterfeit, those are real bills from Small Simaron."
Flynn stood at the ticket counter. The man across from her gave no indication he would take the bills.
"What"s wrong here?" I asked. "Should the Captain take the situation in hand?"
"I don"t know which army your worthy Sir Consort has come from, but these days no one is so crazy as to take Simaron currency. After all, war could break out any moment," the ticket seller growled.
"Only amateurs would fail to see the danger of a price slump and happily continue taking Simaron money as payment. We have no idea where you"re from. Despite that, we"re letting you on board at the last minute. So naturally we would want to see gold, silver, or precious stones as payment."
Flynn pressed her lips tightly together for a moment and drew her hand up to her left ear. I turned away fast. I can"t watch when a woman removes her earring. It looks so d.a.m.ned painful.
"Will you be satisfied with that?" Flynn asked.
"Mmm, that"ll do nicely. But we can"t give any change." With a self-satisfied smile, the man pocketed the precious metal. It was surely very expensive. Probably a gift from her husband. Why would she do that? Why would this woman go so far?
Robinson and I could only watch from the sidelines. Then we marched over the plank with the sheep on a leash. As soon as we were on board, the s.h.i.+p raised anchor and gave itself up to the gentle current.
The evening sun sank into the horizon and the sky took on the color of a mandarin orange.
Although we"d decked ourselves out in thick coats, the cold sank into our bones with the onset of night. The few pa.s.sengers who"d come on board with us had their collars turned up high. They used the crates as protection from the wind and huddled together tightly.
"Why doesn"t anyone go into the cabin?" I mused.
It didn"t take long for this question to be answered, since we decided to flee inside to escape the cold.
When I opened the door to the only large cabin s.p.a.ce the s.h.i.+p had, there were over a hundred men of all ages hunkered down in the comparatively warm room. They all had the faces of gangsters. They were clad in uniforms -- bright pink one-pieces. When they noticed us, they all went silent and stared in our direction.
Over a hundred pairs of bloodshot eyes took us in their sights. I"d have liked to slam the door behind me and take to my heels but, out of pure fear, I didn"t even dare turn my back on them.
"Erm -- which team do you gentlemen belong to?"
"Psst, Robin! Are you nuts?!" I barked at Ken Murata, but I couldn"t get him to be quiet.
"Jeez, just look, they"re all wearing uniforms."
So what?! Just because people are wearing the same clothing doesn"t make them athletes by a long shot.
The gangster-faces all bared their teeth threateningly and began to yowl.
"We’re a team of murderers!"
"Together we"ve slaughtered a thousand people, if not two thousand!"
Help!
When I lowered my gaze in fear, I saw chains and iron b.a.l.l.s on the men’s legs.
"This boat is a prisoner transport..."
Too late. The sh.o.r.e was already far away; there was no turning back now.
Flynn became very pale all of a sudden.
"Right now I"m feeling a really urgent physical need..." she murmured.
Too bad the toilets were on the other end of the room.