AA302 - Lore Dump (Patreon)

Instead of talking, the party spent the wait examining the other patrons. There were about a dozen… peasant farmers was James’s guess. They didn’t look too dirty, but they were wearing simple, brown-coloured clothing and eating simple, brown-coloured food. The wooden cups they were drinking from were also brown, of course, and kept James from seeing what they were drinking. If he had to guess, though, he would say it was something brown.

There were two people who didn’t fit the mould. They were drinking together at a separate table. One of them had a sword strapped to his back, and the other had placed his on the table. Those were the only two proper weapons that James could see. The farmers did carry a profusion of weapon-like tools—knives, hand axes and even a sickle—but nothing as effective as a sword or a spear.

The swordsmen were the only ones not looking around the room. Hunched over and muttering softly to each other, they seemed to be doing everything they could not to draw attention. Presumably from Kana.

Everyone else in the room was ogling Kana as best they could. They tried to be furtive about it, but they were very bad at that. Not that it mattered, because Kana was loving being the centre of attention.

Eventually, Shugen returned.

“These ignorant peasants don’t even have maps of their own kingdom,” he complained. “I’m reasonably sure that we are on the westernmost continent of Izumo… but there are some discrepancies with what I know.”

“Like, how do you have a westernmost continent on a globe?” Harue asked. “Is this a flat planet?”

Shugen waved dismissively. “All things are—were—measured from the capital on Yashima, the central continent. The Dragon Godking’s seat of power has been moved to Hidekami, but the tradition remains.”

“Why would he move it?” Suki asked. “He does not seem the type that changes his mind.”

“It may have had something to do with how they spoke of the Yashima islands, but they know so little of geography and history that I can’t say for sure.”

“What of the forest to the east?” Mitsue asked.

“There are small patches of trees in all directions, but both men agreed that “large forest” could only refer to the Forest of Kohren, about a month’s walk east of here.”

Shugen grimaced. “That is a name I know. If it is the same place, it happens to be my old homeland.”

“East is where we should go, then,” Mitsue stated.

“Not so fast. The locals were adamant that the best way to get to Kohren is to travel south.”

“That makes no sense,” Mitsue protested.

“No, you’re imagining Earth geography,” Suki said. “Roads everywhere, planes and cars… here, it’s rivers that are the fastest route, right?”

“Correct,” Shugen stated. “And there are more factors besides. For one, there is an entire kingdom between here and the forest, and from the sounds of it, it isn’t friendly to this one. Let me give you the big picture.”

He dipped a finger in some tea and drew a rough shape on the table, like a squashed pentagon.

“We’re around here.” He pointed at a spot near the middle of the western half of the shape. “The Kingdom of Valakai, on the continent of Izumo. The forest is here.”

He pointed at a spot much closer to the centre. “Now, the south-western half of the continent is made up of smaller, human kingdoms.”

“It’s not all ruled by Orochi?” James asked.

Shugen pursed his lips. “Quick diversion. First, the Dragon Godking is not known by that name here. Which makes it good that you used it, because commoners like us do not get to use his name.”

“What is it?” James asked. Shugen rolled his eyes.

“Oru-Kael Vaash,” Kana said, before Shugen could castigate James for asking stupid questions.

The whole room went silent. Every peasant sat stock-still, desperately trying to look at Kana from the corner of their eye. It wasn’t something James would normally notice, but with everyone doing it, it became something more than obvious.

Kana looked around the room calmly and said something in the dragon tongue. Shugen sighed and said something in the low tongue. The room untensed. Enough for the other patrons to start moving again, anyway.

“What did she say?” Amilie asked.

“I hardly need someone to translate to you,” Kana said haughtily. “I said that they might gaze upon me as much as they liked, as I was surely the most magnificent and beautiful thing that they would see in their short lives.”

She gazed disapprovingly at Shugen. “You mistranslated it, though.”

“The way you phrased it implied that their lives weren’t going to extend past tonight,” Shugen explained grumpily.

“Yes. That was the part you got wrong. Make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

The rest of the party, except for Shion, looked at each other.

“Kana,” Suki said. “We don’t want to threaten the villagers like that.”

“Actually,” Shugen said with a groan. “Speaking like that is exactly how a dragon princess should talk.”

“Exactly. As I am… pretending to be a dragon princess, that is how I should talk,” Kana agreed.

“However, it is the job of her translator to moderate her statements so that the entire village doesn’t go screaming out into the night.”

Kana frowned. “I suppose that would be inconvenient,” she admitted.

“Where was I?” Shugen muttered. “Oh yes. Orochi is better to use than… that, but if people figure out you’re using it to refer to him, they’ll be twice as offended.”

“Got it,” James confirmed. “So you were saying how he doesn’t control everything?”

“He appears to have suffered some setbacks, yes. This kingdom is said to be a loyal vassal to the Imperial Dragon Empire. The village chief is less sure about the neighbouring ones. Loyalties change frequently due to the war.”

“What war? Who’s fighting?”

“The other major powers.” Shugen tapped the diagram again. “The rest of the continent is split between them—Nagato in the north and the Empire of Hebi-Ichigo in the east. Those are both ruled by Dragons, but Nagato is allied with the Dragon Empire.”

“So the Dragon Empire doesn’t have a direct presence on this continent?” Mitsue asked.

“I wouldn’t expect the knowledge of these peasants to be comprehensive—or even up to date—but not as far as they know.”

“So this kingdom to the east…” Arjun said.

“Eryndor,” Shugen supplied. Arjun nodded in acknowledgement.

“It must be an ally or vassal of Hebi-Ichigo who is… Orochi’s main rival?”

“Fifteen thousand years ago, there was a Dragon God called Hebi-Ichigo,” Shugen said cautiously. “If this is the same one, she might have grown to become Orochi’s match.”

“Dragon God,” Suki noted. “Not Dragon Godking.”

“There is only ever one of those,” Shugen agreed. “Back then, she didn’t have an empire, and I don’t know much more about her than that. Her name was passed around as a powerful dragon to be cautious of; that was all.”

“If she opposes Orochi, she might be able to help us,” Arjun continued. Katarzyna punched him in the shoulder.

“You work with one dragon, and you’re ready to forget everything the Order stands for?” she asked. Her tone was joking, but James could tell she was at least a little bit serious.

“We’re in the dragon world; we can’t kill every dragon we see,” Arjun countered. “And we still don’t know how we’re going to get back home.”

“Hebi-Ichigo might be useful in that regard,” Shugen conceeded. “But her Empire is on the other side of the forest, so we should check out Mitsue’s lead first. I don’t think Eryndor will be able to contact her in any reasonable amount of time.”

“Is that true if we’re going by boat?” Arjun asked. “Sailing along the coast is faster than going upriver, I’d say.”

“I’d need to see a map,” Shugen replied, glaring at his wet painting. “Some of the things they say about the southern coast confuse me. That’s why we should go south.”

“Those two things don’t go together,” Suki pointed out. “What, exactly, do you think we should do?”

“Three days south of here is a major town,” Shugen explained. “They should have maps and supplies available. We’d re-evaluate the situation at that point, but what I think we’d do is go further south, sail down a river and along the coast, then up along another river. These guys say it should take two weeks. Then it’s a hard but short hike into the forest.”

“Or we could get supplies here, and just march east,” Mitsue countered. “Most of us are used to hiking.”

“These guys reckon that route takes a full month—if you know the way,” Shugen stated. “It’s rough terrain, and you have to get past the kingdom’s borders. And we can’t get supplies here.”

“Why not?” Mitsue asked.

Shugen gestured at the other patrons. “Why do you think everyone else is eating millet and gruel? Bandits cleared them out a few days ago. Stole some girls and all the food they could carry. We’re eating the last crumbs of good food that they didn’t make off with.”

James felt sick. “We’re eating the last of their food?”

Shugen shrugged. “They’re happy to be of service to the dragon princess,” he said.

“Indeed, that is only natural,” Kana said. She leaned forward intently. “But you should have mentioned bandits much sooner.”

*

The next day they headed north, to where the villagers said the bandits had their hideout. Mitsue studied the ground ahead of them with a frown.

“We… are planning on killing these bandits, are we not?” he asked the group.

“What? No! I mean…” James trailed off as he considered the implications. There were supposed to be about thirty of these guys. Were they going to chain them up and take them all the way back to… that village? The town further south? They didn’t even have any chains! They had some rope, but…

“Of course,” Kana said confidently, derailing James’s spiral. “They are bandits, outside of the protection of any law. No one will object if we eat them.”

A chorus of loud protests from all the humans reassured James that someone, at least, would object.

“Human morality is so confusing,” Harue said. “These guys are murderers! Rapists! They put their recycling in the wrong bin and leave it out on the wrong day! There’s no crime they wouldn’t commit. And you want to, what? Just let them go, like an undersized halibut?”

“No, but… they deserve their day in court,” James said.

“Hmm, well, the villagers might agree with you, if by ‘court’ you meant ‘the hard-packed earth of the village square’, and by ‘day in’ you meant ‘bleeding out over the course of the day in the hot sun, staked out and hamstrung to make sure there’s no escape’.

“That’s very… specific,” Amilie said, looking a little green. “Is that how they execute people here?”

“I dunno! I’ve just been thinking of methods for fun!” Harue said with a grin. “But I think they might go for it if we suggested it. That headman looked really angry when he was telling us about his granddaughter.”

“Shugen,” James pleaded, “Tell me that’s not how they execute people here.”

“How should I know?” Shugen protested. “But she’s right about the villagers wanting them painfully dead. They’d probably chop them up with hoes and bury the pieces to fertilise the fields.”

“A fun activity for the whole community!” Harue said. “Practical, too.”

Shugen shot her a dirty look. “You should also consider that execution by dragon may be on the list of prescribed punishments.”

“As it should be,” Kana said smugly.

“This is a human kingdom, so they wouldn’t have access to dragons most of the time, so it might not be. But we have a dragon right there, so they might just ask her to kill and eat them.”

“I would graciously accept,” Kana said, “For I am always a friend of the law. And hungry.”

“Arrghh!” James said, holding his head in his hands. “This is a nightmare!”

Suki hugged him from the side. “It’ll be fine, James. You’ll come up with something.”

“Why are you so weird about this?” Harue asked. “You know, the ones that get killed are going to get eaten by animals anyway, so why do you care if Kana has one?”

“Can’t we bury them?”

Harue’s eyebrows went up. “A six-foot-deep hole for thirty people? With no shovels?”

“The packs have some entrenching tools,” Arjun said. “And, traditionally, what you do is get the survivors to dig the hole before putting them in it.”

James just groaned. Suki squeezed him supportively and looked up at Arjun.

“I don’t think that’s helping,” she said.

“Fair enough,” Arjun agreed, holding his hands up. “Let’s break this down. There are a number of hurdles to get over.”

“Hurdles?” Harue asked.

Arjun nodded. “The first one is killing. I think everyone is over that one. We’re going to fight these folks; I think that everyone has come to terms with the fact that some of the bandits are going to die.”

He looked around the group, getting solemn nods or impatient grunts in reply.

“The next hurdle,” he continued, “is killing in cold blood.”

“Wait, wait, wait. I thought that was humanity’s favourite way of killing people! You do it so often! More than any other way!”

Arjun sighed and took a deep breath in before addressing Harue.

“I’m not sure that’s true,” he said, “And killing so many people… quietly, isn’t because we like it. It’s because it’s easier.”

“I’m not sure that’s true,” Harue repeated. “But go on. So you kill people because it’s easy?”

“No,” Arjun said, his voice strained. “There are always other reasons for the killing. Unless you’re a psychopath… or a fox.”

“Hey, we’re not murderers,” Harue declared, her voice full of what was probably fake outrage. “We only kill people when it’s necessary for our survival!”

She paused, and James recognised it was for the comic beat. “Or if it would be really funny!”

“Of course,” Arjun said flatly. “Take this upcoming fight. If we don’t accept their surrender, the bandits will fight to the death, making the fight harder. If we do accept their surrender, then we might only have to kill half of them, making the fight easier.”

“Right. Then we disarm them, make them dig their own grave and put them in it. It’s kind of poetic in a way…” Her eyes drifted off to one side, but she returned to the conversation. “Is there a problem with any of that?”

“The lying,” Arjun said patiently. “Surrendering is a deal to stop fighting in exchange for your life. Killing them after they’ve surrendered is going back on your word.”

“Is it, though?” Harue asked. “They get an extra three hours of life doing hard labour, isn’t that enough? I don’t think this implicit deal of yours states an extension period.”

“Longer than that,” Arjun said. “If I had to state it, it would be until they are released or they attempt to escape.”

“The solution is simple,” Kana said. “We do not accept surrender. A dragon does not seek easy fights.”

“Sure, sure, that does sound like a human thing. But at some point, these guys are going to throw their weapons down and beg for their lives. How do dragons feel about killing the helpless?”

“All are helpless before our power,” Kana stated proudly. “But… some are more helpless than others.”

“You know,” Suki said slowly. “We don’t really know anything about these bandits. Why are we sure they’re bad?”

“We know that they stole the villagers’ food and a few of their younger women,” Shugen said. “That sounds somewhat evil.”

“Maybe they were actually running away from their family to be with the boyfriends that their parents disapproved of,” Suki countered.

“Maybe they’re being forced into crime by their leader… or some other person!” James blurted, jumping on the idea. “We don’t know anything… that’s why we have trials back home.”

“This isn’t Earth,” Kana said disapprovingly. “The rules are different.”

“But we bring our own rules with us!” James declared. “If this world doesn’t have juries and fair trials, we should make sure that the people we’re killing are actually bad!”

“That will make it harder for you when they do turn out to be bad,” Mitsue said.

“Yeah,” James agreed. “But we don’t have to take the easy path, right, Kana?”

“I don’t mind taking some of them alive,” Kana agreed. “But, to be clear, those that die in the fight, and those that turn out to be bad, I can have my pick to eat, yes?”

“Ahhhh….” James felt sick to his stomach again.

“And there’s the last hurdle,” Arjun said. “Call it… desecrating the dead. Humans don’t like it when you do that.”

“How can there be desecration? To be eaten by me is a greater honour than any human could hope for!”

“You know what? You’re right,” James said.

“Of course I’m right,” Kana muttered, but James was still speaking.

“We can’t give them a proper burial,” he said, looking at Shugen.

Shugen nodded. “I don’t know the rites, and no priest would perform them for bandits.”

“Right,” James agreed, pushing past his unease. “I need to focus on the ones that can be saved, if there are any.”

“What do we do with the ones that aren’t guilty?” Mitsue asked. “We will find it difficult to convince anyone else of that.”

“That will depend on what we find out,” James said. “We don’t need to make any decisions until then.”

“Ooh!” Harue exclaimed. “Can we—”

Twock.

Everyone turned to look at the sound. Shion, bored with the conversation from the start, had been walking around the group, looking out at the brush, hills and occasional tree that surrounded them. Ostensibly, she was keeping watch.

Now, she was staring incredulously at the group, with a yard-long arrow in her neck.

“What the hell?” she shouted, her voice completely unaffected by the wound. “Why do I have a stick in my neck?”

“Everybody take cover!” Arjun yelled.