Seki shook his head, looking rattled. “No, I could never. I’m not a talented woodworker like Jo… That, and she’s scared of the flats. She’d never go.”
“Oh.”
This was somewhat anticlimactic, but it made sense. Seki and that coward of a girl would undoubtedly be better off in the familiarity of the mountains as opposed to thrusting themselves into the unfamiliar world of the lowlands.
Both men were silent for a while.
Then, Ko stopped in his tracks. The snowy road was so narrow that only one person could pass at a time. Seki, who was walking ahead, looked back at him.
“Is something the matter?”
“I’d like to have a quick business discussion with Jo. Go on ahead.”
Ko turned back the way they’d come and began retracing his steps. The sun had set early. The area was already enshrouded in a veil of dusky gloom, and flakes of white snow lightly fluttered through the air. His deep sigh formed a white mist before him.
Even though the sun had gone down, there were no lights on inside Jo’s main house now. Ko could still hear the hum of the woodturning lathe coming from the workshop. He must have worked non-stop from morning until night.
When he saw that Ko had returned, Jo gave him a suspicious look and—unsurprisingly—stopped his lathe.
“What do you want?” he asked.
“I wanted to have a brief conversation with you. It’s about business.”
Ko glanced toward Jo’s younger sister. Sensing that Ko wanted her to leave, Jo instructed her to go and warm up the house. She looked hesitant, but did as her brother ordered nonetheless. She abandoned her spinning wheel and exited the workshop.
“So?” Jo spoke in a curt manner—one that suggested that he found having to converse with Ko terribly irksome.
“I heard that you wanted to leave the mountain. I’m going to help you out,” Ko stated straightforwardly.
Jo raised his eyebrows. “How come?”
“Because I’m impressed by your skills. It’d be a shame for your potential to remain untapped.”
“Do you really think I’m going to trust the flattery of some outsider?” Jo said, snorting.
“In the lowlands, everyone will be an outsider. Those outsiders are the ones you want to do business with, aren’t they? Only an outsider will be able to free you from these mountains. Do you think you can pick and choose why somebody decides to help you?” Ko said with a smile, but Jo just scowled.
“Are you on board with this opportunity or not? You have one night to decide, so give it some careful consideration,” Ko declared, and then he left the workshop behind him.
He started making his way to the chief’s residence, but just as he was approaching the narrow, snowy road, something startled him and brought him to a halt. It was Jikei, standing right there in front of him.
Even in the dim light, Ko could tell that the look on his face wasn’t a happy one. He was flanked on both sides by walls of snow, so there wasn’t space for Ko to squeeze past.
“What have you been doing?” Jikei asked in a low voice.
“Talking business with Jo. Why would that bother you? It’s not as if I’m going to make much money from mapping out the mountains. An extra deal isn’t going to hurt…”
“This region is not fit for the sort of ‘business’ you’re looking for. I thought you knew that. I have a good idea of what Saname Choyo has sent you here for, but I can’t comprehend why he’d make you do something so idiotic.”
It seemed that Jikei was done with silently trying to deduce Ko’s intentions. He wasn’t going to mince his words anymore.
“You’re an intelligent young man, Ko. You must have known from the offset that this plan was unwise.”
As Ko had expected, Jikei had indeed come to the Northern Mountains to assess the situation in the area. Not only that, but he’d come to stop any potential rebellion that might break out. He was in the exact opposite position to Ko’s.
Ko heard some snow tumbling off the branch of a tree. Jikei was giving him a hawklike glare, but Ko gazed serenely back at him.
“I don’t have the faintest idea what you’re talking about.”
“You’re not going to escape this situation unharmed. Do you realize that?”
Ko tried to get past him, feigning ignorance, but Jikei grabbed him by the collar and started aggressively reprimanding him.
Infuriated, Ko glowered back. “Of course I do. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have put myself out on such a limb. I made peace with what I was getting myself into.”
“You damn fool! Why in the world would you force yourself to accept it?!”
Jikei pinned Ko against a wall. Snow fell down from above, fine flakes wafting through the air like smoke.
“There’s no need to panic. A small uprising or two should be suppressed in no time.”
“Will that be enough to satisfy Saname Choyo, as long as it means the descendant of the Ran Dynasty gets killed?”
Jikei knew exactly what was going on.
His Majesty truly is a step above my father, Ko thought to himself, smiling slightly.
“Yes. Wouldn’t that be best for His Majesty as well? He’d be rid of the hassle she causes him.”
Jikei loosened his hold on Ko and let out a sigh. “Whether or not somebody is a ‘hassle’ does not decrease the value of their life.”
Ko snorted with laughter, but Jikei just gazed at him with a forlorn look in his eyes.
I wish he wouldn’t look at me like that, Ko thought.
Jikei’s pitying expression messed with his head.
“That isn’t only true for the descendant of the Ran dynasty either. You’re right in saying that a small uprising could soon be quashed, but that would also mean that you and several other local people would lose their lives—lives that otherwise wouldn’t have been taken so soon.” Jikei slapped Ko on the back and then shook him by the shoulders. “Young folks like you shouldn’t rush to their own deaths. I want you to live.”
What is he talking about?
Ko stared at him. “Why is my life of such importance to you? I don’t understand what you’re so frantic about.”
“You…”
At a loss for words, Jikei hung his head. His hands—which were still on Ko’s shoulders—were shaking. When Ko peered questioningly at his face, he noticed that the man was crying. Understandably, Ko was taken aback.
“Wha… J-Jikei, wh-what’s wrong?”
Ko wondered if he was unwell and if something was causing him physical pain. He was still an old man, no matter how solidly built he was. But just as Ko was about to place his hand on his arm, Jikei grabbed hold of it and squeezed tight.
“I can’t let you die. No matter what plans you come up with, I’m going to put a stop to them. Do you understand?”
Why…?
Ko looked into Jikei’s tear-filled eyes, perplexed. The two men continued to stand in the dim evening light as the snow began to pile up on their shoulders.