But what drew my attention even more than her outfit were the large, brown ears quietly perched atop her tawny, bobbed hair…and the large, brown, bushy tail behind her that occasionally twitched.
“A squirrel? No…her ears are slightly different. Maybe she’s part chipmunk?” I quietly surmised. “They don’t call them the Beastly Wilds for nothing.”
I continued to stare intently at her while I mumbled to myself.
Her delicate features didn’t seem to be adorned with any makeup. Yet, her skin was clear and smooth, and her deep blue eyes had a sparkle to them. She was a really beautiful girl…although I guess I should say Beastgirl? Beastwoman? I wasn’t sure how these people referred to themselves.
The Beastly Wilds were home to a people known as the “Beastfolk.” Not quite human, not quite animal, they were something in between. Access to the mountain was only possible through special border gates, which doubled as quarantine stations for medical examination purposes when crossing the border.
The Beastly Wilds—this whole forest—was their territory. The nation of Japan had no rights to it. None, that is, except for one small human settlement—a single house and an orchard, both, until recently, belonging to my great-grandpa.
In the distant past, my ancestors had somehow earned the right to have this plot of land. And in the name of harmony between humans and beastfolk, or reconciliation between our peoples, or something like that, it’d been strictly passed down through my family for hundreds of years. Every generation, somebody would be forced to take ownership of the house and have no choice but to live in it… This was the true inheritance that the rest of my family had been so desperate to avoid.
Still, I hadn’t expected to meet a beastperson on my very first day. As I stared at the girl, trying not to gape, she noticed me.
“You there,” she said in a high but resonant voice. “Are you a relative of Tomiyasu’s? Are you his heir? You humans, with your dark hair and your dark eyes—I can never tell you apart. But I think I see something of Tomiyasu in you. Judging by these books, I take it you’re here to look after the orchard. Will you also be making a pact with us, as Tomiyasu did before you?”
She said it so seriously—so sincerely—but I had no idea what she meant. Initially, all I could manage was a confused tilt of my head.
“…Yes, you’re correct,” I finally replied with some apprehension. “I am indeed Tomiyasu Moriya’s great-grandson. But…I don’t know anything of a pact. You mean some sort of contract? What exactly are you talking about?”
She responded to my bewilderment with a grim scowl and a long sigh, making no effort to mask her annoyance.
“We look after the orchard and, in exchange, Tomiyasu handed over 30 percent of the harvest. That was the deal we had before,” she explained, eyeing me with a stern face.
She was watching me closely for any reaction. I guess she was trying to get a read on me—what I thought about such an arrangement and whether I’d agree to it.
For 30 percent, it seems I can have everything taken care of… Everything?
“Just what do you mean by ‘look after’?” I asked. “Could you tell me what that means, in detail? You mean to say that, for just 30 percent of the harvest, you take care of all the necessary work? Right up till harvest time?”
I voiced my doubts in a shower of questions, but the girl just nodded silently in answer to the final one and continued staring me down.
Thirty percent in exchange for all the work… If you flipped that around, then these folks put in all the effort, only to have 70 percent of the proceeds taken off the top. Gramps got a hell of a deal out of this arrangement. It was positively brutal—feudal, even. In fact, it sounded a lot like old-fashioned tenant farming.
Great-Grandpa owned the land and orchard and gave the laborers a portion of its harvest as payment. If I remembered right, tenant farmers also got something like 30 percent of the yield at harvest time…at least, that’s what I seemed to remember from school.
Thirty percent. It was a very good arrangement. A new idea came to me.
“I understand,” I said. “You receive a payment of 30 percent for your efforts, which entails all the work needed up to and including the harvest. That said…I was wondering if you’d be open to negotiation regarding the exact figures. I was thinking—”
As soon as I mentioned an adjustment, the girl’s gaze became much more intense, and a truly terrifying expression began forming on her face. Her hands balled up into tense fists, suggesting a terrible strength. She looked like she might leap toward me at any moment. I stepped back a bit unconsciously, but I still had the presence of mind not to turn away and not to break eye contact. I quickly kept speaking.
“I was thinking of increasing your share to 40 percent for the same work. However, while you’re at it, I’d also like you to teach me everything there is to know about the orchard and its trees. Would that be possible?
“I don’t know the first thing about tending an orchard. Leaving everything to you is a pretty good deal for me, but I’d rather think a little more long-term here. This orchard belonged to my great-grandfather, and I think it’s important for me to learn everything I can in order to keep it secure and productive for many years to come.”
I said my piece and waited to see how the girl would respond. I doubt she had expected her share to jump a whole 10 percent. The fierce expression that’d been brewing on her face melted away, and her previously sharp eyes and mouth were now round with surprise. Her tense fists relaxed and opened. The tip of her big, bushy tail began to meander in the air behind her.
She was stuck in this state of blank amazement for some time. Then, attempting to rearrange her vacant expression into something more self-possessed, she responded.
“Teaching you the ins and outs of orchard work is no skin off my nose,” she said. “I have to teach the new kids every year, see? It’s hardly worth mentioning. You sure you’re okay with giving us a whole extra 10 percent for a little job like that?”
I couldn’t believe how honest her answer was. Perhaps she’s just straightforward by nature? The girl had laid her cards right on the table and they were very much in my favor. She’d given me the perfect reason to withdraw my offer. This was completely backward from how things had been at work—my colleagues had kept their cards so close to their chests, you never knew who was friend and who was foe.
In that moment, the young woman won me over. I could feel a warm smile threatening to stretch across my face. She was frank, honest, and no doubt hardworking, given the orchard’s spotless state. She and her comrades were probably responsible for the house too—even though it wasn’t covered by this pact of theirs, which, in any case, would’ve been null and void when Great-Grandpa passed away. Despite all that, everything had been spotless when I’d arrived.
So while the extra payment could be considered a token of gratitude for their keeping the house clean, if this girl’s comrades were half as upright and hardworking as she was, I could hardly think of fairly paying them for their services as any kind of loss.
“Yes, I’m quite certain,” I told her. “You’ll get 40 percent. We’ll start with a one-year agreement for the standard work and the extra training, and if I need another year of tuition, we can always arrange an extension. Speaking of which, do we need to write up a contract? I can grab some stationery…”
As I made to enter the house, the young woman stood up from her perch on the veranda.
“There’s no need,” she said, reaching for my hand and grasping my wrist firmly. “What’s your name?”
“…My name is Mikura Moriya,” I said.
“I see. I’m Tokatechi Kurikara,” she replied.
What an unusual name, I thought to myself. A moment later, every tree in the vicinity began violently rustling. This was no murmur of trees in the wind. Even a large earthquake wouldn’t shake the leaves like this. I had no idea what was going on.
“Calm yourself,” Tokatechi said, still gripping my wrist tightly. “It’s only the beastfolk who live in these woods. They can kick up a real storm, don’t you agree? The Beastly Wilds are home to a great many creatures, big and small. They will be the ones to witness our pact. But remember this—if you break your word, you’ll be making an enemy of them, as well as me.”