“I heard that you’re a remarkably skilled woodworker,” continued Ko. “I wanted to take a look at your wares myself.”
“If it’s bowls and pots that you’re after, there are piles of them over there,” responded the woodworker, jutting his chin in their direction.
What a glum-looking man, Ko thought to himself. The artisan had a gloomy, world-weary look in his eyes.
“This is Jo. He’s the Yukei tribe’s finest woodworker,” Seki said proudly.
Jo showed no reaction. Instead, he just put his foot back on the pedal and started rotating the lathe again.
Ko sat down in the corner of the floorboard-covered section of the room and picked up a bowl from the pile. It was pleasant to hold and had an equally pleasant fragrance. Its sides and edges were smooth and free of any rough spots that might snag your fingers.
“That would make a beautiful bowl if you took it down to the lacquer craftsman at the foot of the mountains to lacquer. Even the lacquer craftsmen comment on how Jo’s bowls are smooth and comfortable to hold…” Seki explained.
“That doesn’t surprise me. These are some excellent pieces,” said Ko, gazing intently at Jo’s work. If the craftsman joined forces with a skilled lacquer painter who used quality materials, his items could command a very high price.
“Do you think they’d sell well in the imperial capital? Hypothetically speaking,” Seki asked.
“What?” said Ko, looking up at him.
Seki’s eyes were brimming with expectation.
“Well, as long as Jo was able to work with a good lacquerer, I’m sure he could bring in some steady sales. It’d just depend on the quality of the lacquer, I presume.”
“That lacquerer at the foot of the mountain is really talented. With his cooperation, Jo would definitely be able to make a life for himself down below…”
“Stop talking nonsense, Seki,” Jo hissed, shutting Seki up.
Hmm. By the sounds of it, this woodworker has dreams of leaving the mountains, Ko conjectured. He must have discussed those dreams with Seki, and perhaps Seki shared the same dreams. Did he wish to flee the mountains too, taking Jo’s little sister with him? A few moments earlier, the young woman had sat down in front of the furnace and begun to spin yarn on the spinning wheel set up there. Seemingly distrustful of the stranger who had just entered her brother’s workshop, she hadn’t said a word.
“It’s not every day that we get the opportunity to speak to a merchant like this, though. We can’t let this chance go to waste,” Seki passionately protested.
Jo, however, responded coldly. “It’s not as if the chief would allow it, anyway,” he said, sounding listless.
“Won’t your chief let you leave the mountain?” Ko asked him, but it was Seki who answered.
“He wouldn’t want to lose a talented craftsman like Jo.”
Jo carried on quietly, whittling away at wood.
Ko looked at the pile of bowls in front of him and pondered what he had heard. Seki kept asking him different questions about life on the flats as he did, and Ko threw in a few appropriate remarks every now and then just to be polite, but he wasn’t actually paying attention.
A little while later, someone came and opened the door.
“Excuse me,” said a cheery voice. “Is Ko in here?”
It was Jikei. The man scanned the room, and his eyes came to a halt as soon as he spotted Ko. He strode up to him and grabbed him by the arm.
“Wh-what do you want?” Ko asked.
“Come with me for a moment.”
“Where to…?”
Jikei forcibly dragged him out of the room. Seki was dumbfounded, while Jo—on the other hand—just took one brief glance at Jikei, not even stopping what he was doing.
“I’ve been talking with the chiefs, and they just can’t seem to come to an agreement. Neither side is willing to budge since their tribe’s profits will be directly affected. I, however, have an idea,” Jikei said. “I have a favor to ask of you, Ko.”
“What do you mean?”
Ko was unable to deduce what sort of favor this might be, and he was still none the wiser by the time he was forced into a seat at the discussion table. The chiefs were well-built men with full beards, all very similar to each other in both age and appearance. It was a challenge to tell them apart.
“Is this that kid from the rich family in Ga Province?” asked the chief of the Yukei tribe. He appeared to be the eldest of the group—probably in his sixties. His voice was low, muffled, and he sounded quite sleepy—or perhaps he was just tired of arbitrating.
“So, Yozetsu—what’s your plan?” asked the Yukyu tribe’s chief in a high-pitched voice. He had big eyes with double eyelids, but the way he was constantly blinking suggested his eyes were quite dry.
“If you want us, the Yuji tribe, to even consider obliging, it’ll have to be something extremely clever.”
The chief of the Yuji tribe was the youngest of the bunch, but he was still in his early forties or so. His glossy skin gave him a youthful appearance and his voice was irritatingly loud. On first impressions, it seemed like the chiefs of the Yukyu and the Yuji clan were really butting heads. It was hard to imagine either of them giving in.
What could Jikei possibly want from me? Ko wondered. He stole a sideways glance at Jikei to find the man beaming smugly.
“In Ga Province, there’s a large road that runs between the home of this young man’s clan and the port,” Jikei said. “Have you ever heard about that?”
All three chiefs looked skeptical.
“No,” said the chief of the Yukei clan, speaking on behalf of the three of them.
“That road was built by the Saname clan, who were the region’s rulers at the time. It’s a well-made road—the soil was shoveled out in order to lay down stones, and then tamped down again and covered with sand. The sand improves drainage and stops the road from getting muddy when it rains.”
“Right…”
The chiefs all looked confused and unimpressed. Ko, meanwhile, was simply surprised by how knowledgeable Jikei was.
“You need to be skilled in the art of surveying to build such a road, and there were members of the Saname clan who were. The Saname clan used to excel in such things.” Jikei then shifted the conversation toward Ko. “Is that not so?”
Ko nodded. “We’ve always been good at considering the small details.”
“Chiefs—the reason you keep getting to disputes is because you’re sticking to the same overly-generous boundaries set by your ancestors. It’s about time you draw out some clear, precise borders,” said Jikei.
“Clear?” The chief of the Yuji tribe frowned, clearly dissatisfied with this suggestion. “In our case, the borders are already clear.”
“In ours too,” contended the Yukyu tribe’s chief, enraged. “We’ve never taken a single step outside of the established boundaries! It’s the Yuji tribe who aren’t playing by the rules.”
“What did you just say?!” raged the Yuji tribe’s chief, veins practically bulging out of his forehead.