It was raining as evening approached.
It was said that places near mountains often rained. Thinking back, Masahiro never saw the sun ever since he came to Izumo.
It was so cold and Masahiro and Narachika sat near the hearth to gain some warmth. There was a pot of wild boar meat Taiin caught and some vegetables bubbling on the fire.
Narachika laid down his bowl and chopsticks then sighed.
"You get pretty good meals here! All I had for the last few weeks were dried biscuits."
He stirred the pot and observed his surroundings.
"You have a pot and a stand by the hearth, the walls and roof do not have any significant damage, there must be somebody nearby cleaning it regularly. You really should thank that person by making sure it is cleaner than it was when you first came here."
When Narachika felt Masahiro"s confused gaze, he stopped stirring the stew.
"Didn"t grandfather tell you? I came here because he told me to go to that village nearby. He said that solving that mysterious incident happening there was your mission."
"Village?"
Masahiro tried to get his bearings correct as he never thought of his current location before. Then, Narachika pulled out a piece of paper.
"Luckily I bought this map. Look, there"s the village, near the west sea.
The map showed Izumo"s surrounding districts. Masahiro was now near the east sh.o.r.e, the walk to the village should take about 2 to 3 days, while the Shinshou might take about 2 hours to reach there. Using Taiin"s wind, maybe half an hour. However, he really hoped that last method wasn"t taken into consideration.
"There are many cases of villagers losing their memories or vanishing into thin air. Because that piece of land is under Fujiwara-sama"s territory, grandfather wants me to visit the head of the village to find out the truth."
Once he finished speaking, Narachika paled.
"Oops."
"Brother?"
Narachika blinked, and stared back at his confused brother.
"Fujiwara-sama"s letter, I dropped it together with my luggage."
"What?!"
Now Masahiro really panicked.
"That"s, that is bad, really, really bad, right? Brother……"
Narachika didn"t seem to care.
"It should be bad, I think."
"……"
Masahiro was at a loss of words.
Narachika crossed his arms and started muttering to himself, trying to find a way to avoid the situation all together, testing out lame excuses to run away and escape the paperwork.
Seeing his brother like that, Masahiro can"t help but feel how similar his brother is when compared to his grandfather. However he conveniently forgot that he was no better. The only one whom was different was his forever serious, second brother Masachika, but still Masachika also ran into things without thinking. So there was still a bit of their grandfather in him.
Suddenly, there was a strong gust of wind crashed into the shack; the straw rafters" shook violently the front door creaked painfully against the wind. Taiin didn"t even notice any of the havoc she caused when she crashed in.
"Something bad has happened!"
When Narachika saw Taiin and Genbu rushing in, he immediately stood up. Taiin was panicking when she said,"Narachika, the village…… You aren"t listening to me!"
She glared at Narachika who just walked past her, only interested in his luggage. Narachika, unfazed by her glare, took his luggage from Genbu and started rummaging through it.
Genbu watched as he continued searching.
"Did you lose anything?"
"Um……no, everything"s here, wonderful, phew, now I can finish what I came here for."
Narachika gave a smile of relief. Meanwhile an annoyed Taiin poked his back painfully.
"That hurts!"
"Then you should have listened to me! Something has happened in the village!"
"I know."
Narachika calmly replied. He then grabbed the package wrapped with oiled paper from the deepest corner of his bag. The entire bag was soaked, luckily he had the foresight to make sure this important package stayed dry, those paper talisman and stuff like that could be redone anytime.
After repacking his luggage, Narachika looked at his younger brother.
"Well, the situation seems rather dangerous, so I don"t think I should waste anymore time here. What about you? Do you still need to stay here and rest?"
Masahiro"s eyes widened, he was speechless.
What his brother meant to stay was: Don"t push yourself, I can handle it myself is if you are unwell.
"No! It"s nothing, I"m fine!"
Masahiro cleared his thoughts and answered confidently. The most serious wound he had was just a wound that scarred him emotionally. It was because his heart felt congested with feelings and emotions that made sleep hard to come by, everything he ate was like swallowing grains of sand down his throat. Nothing seemed good.
Narachika looked at that defiant spark in Masahiro"s eyes.
"You sure? Then, we can start our journey, shall we?"