Ten days had passed since Yae was supposed to be married off to a man of Miya Province. It was the height of summer—when the green was at its thickest.
The three of them were out looking at the mysteriums around the Can House, checking if there were any they could clean up for use as storehouses or dwellings, when Yae noticed several human figures atop a steep cliff. She only got a glimpse of them through the trees, but they looked like large men. Arai and Sui had noticed them even before Yae did, and after exchanging a glance, they raced up the cliff.
The men from Miya Province flashed in Yae’s mind as she watched the brothers go. She remembered how brave and vigorous they had appeared and felt a tinge of pain in her chest. Guess I haven’t completely gotten over those feelings. The burning anger and sadness she had felt immediately after being abandoned, however, was gone. There’s so much to do these days I barely even think about it.
Now that she had decided she would be staying here for a while, she was totally occupied with making the Can House into a comfortable living space. The river was close by, but she still wanted a well in the house. She planned to put a bathtub and toilet in the glass bottle next to the Can House once it had been cleaned. She was immensely grateful that the brothers had divine power. It was going to be so convenient having ready access to a substitute for gas and electricity.
After that, she wanted a hammock. She wanted to make a couch and a dresser, too. Since being reborn in this world, Yae had become quite proficient as a do-it-yourselfer.
I’ll need to get tools somewhere… It sucks that proper iron tools are so expensive. Thank you, silver walnuts! I should be able to buy a fair amount of items with those. Japan was slow to develop iron manufacturing, and the same goes for this world. To start with, there’s not enough iron ore or people with the technical knowledge to craft it. Tatara furnaces are incredibly scarce… I’ll ask Arai and Sui to cut down some trees for wood… The first priority is preparing the bathtub and toilet.
Arai had already sneaked into Kaki Province once to get cloth and ironware from her Whiskey House, but they would need a lot more than that. As Yae worried over the remodeling plans for the Can House, the tiger brothers returned from the cliff and changed back into their human forms.
“Who was it?” she asked. It could have been people from a nearby province who noticed their presence and came to scout. Or bandits passing through by chance, or random outsiders. Maybe they were lost. Yae leaned forward as she asked, and the brothers patted her on the head in turn.
“Some morons from who-knows-where,” Arai answered.
“Yes, something like that. We drove them away, so you don’t need to worry about them,” added Sui.
They clearly didn’t intend to tell Yae who the men were. But if they had decided that she didn’t need to know, she would trust them. They were doing a good job as her bodyguards.
They’ve both been really nice to me ever since I cured Sui’s deformation. It felt like they had accepted Yae as a person. That said, she occasionally saw a conflicted expression on Arai’s face, as if he wanted to tell her something. Yae, too, found it difficult gauge the right distance in their relationship.
I wonder how long they’ll stay with me. There was a possibility Arai would try to kill her again should the chance arise. He still hadn’t told her the reason he’d tried to murder her before, which made it difficult to trust him completely. But despite how dangerous he was, she was still unable to tell him to stay away. And besides, I feel like doing that would only provoke his desire to kill me…
Realistically, Yae wouldn’t be able to live here alone without their help. So there was no choice but to build trust over time.
As Yae fretted over their relationship, Arai ran his eyes over the surrounding area. “By the way, Yae, how about giving this land a name?”
Yae tilted her head. “You want me to name it?”
Arai knew that when she was in Kaki Province, Yae had performed Appellation on plants that showed signs of deformation. He had been near her as Kuroashi back then, and he had had many opportunities to see her writing down their names and creating labels.
“Yeah. Deciding a boundary and demonstrating that this place has a name will give it power. Shades wander aimlessly into this area now, but once the land is imbued with that power, their numbers should decrease dramatically,” Arai explained. Yae was impressed by his levelheaded suggestion.
“I was always making signposts in Kaki Province, wasn’t I?” There were also animal statues set at the edges of the province. They were probably meant to serve as guards. This world was not like Japan, where cities and towns were clearly separated and maintained. And that was true of roads as well. As soon as people stopped walking on them, they became overgrown with weeds. The border between forest and province quickly became unclear, so there was a need to prepare statues and signposts to mark where people lived in an easy-to-understand way.
More than people, nature was the center of this world. As if to prove it, the mountains were thick and layered with green. Falcons soared through a sky that stretched upward without end. After letting out a breath, Yae gazed at Arai.
“Wouldn’t the land receive much more power if you two did it?” she asked. They were originally gods of great divinity, so she figured they would be a much better fit for this sort of task.
“If we perform the naming, this place will come to resemble a sacred realm. Are you okay with that?” Arai asked seriously. Yae glanced around to avoid his gaze.
“…What would that look like, out of curiosity?”
“Do you want me to say it would be paradise? Or hell? It all depends on the heart of the beholder. Either way, it would become the kind of place where people and beasts suffer divine punishment if they enter or take lives without permission. The land would curse them regardless of what Sui or I want. The air will warp, beasts will become spirits—”
“Fine. I’ll do it,” Yae interrupted. The power of gods was frightening. It’s a bit late to worry about this, but will I really be okay living with these two…? My soul won’t be destroyed, will it? I won’t turn into a spirit, right?
Arai ignored her unease and spoke in a carefree tone. “No one should have a problem with us settling here, right? The only things here are abandoned mining tunnels and mysteriums that most people avoid. Nothing anyone would get upset over losing.”
Yae agreed with a sigh. The west side of Mount Yagi, which faced Mount Saeba and all its forbidden grounds, was untouched land—or rather, land that had long since been abandoned. The Great Protector was the ruler of the country of Izumo, but each province was essentially ruled by its chief. The chiefs were allowed to manage their provinces however they wished as long as they didn’t disadvantage the Great Protector. Conflict between provinces was also tolerated. Most chiefs devoted themselves to protecting and developing their provinces, and they usually didn’t concern themselves with other provinces unless they were left with no other choice. Provinces made up of belligerent Wild-Natured people were a little different, but even they wouldn’t invade forbidden ground.
So long as Yae didn’t do anything to shake the foundations of the country, it was unlikely anyone would take issue with her living here and keeping to herself. Every country had outsiders. But Yae wasn’t a chief, and she felt a little awkward naming the land as if she owned it.
“Do it, Yae,” Arai ordered, crossing his arms, and Yae groaned. Sui, meanwhile, was enjoying himself braiding her hair and inserting flowers in silence.
What would be a good name? She reached for the leather bag tied at her sash—the waist bag was a favorite of hers that she had had Arai retrieve from her Whiskey House—and pulled out a small pouch. It was filled with dried raspberries and pears that she had made just the other day. All she had done was pick fruits growing nearby, cut them up casually, and dry them for a few days, but they made for nice snacks.