Natchi's work crew lounged about the drill yard during their break, sitting on some of the larger pieces of lumber. Hammers, saws, and cans of nails lay about haphazardly. The white-clad man sat on the step by the back entrance blowing on a bowl of steaming chicken noodle soup. He looked around at the rest of his crew. Hasa Ren and Hasaki were occupied with a pomegranate they were picking apart cautiously so as not to stain their clothes. A few of the larger men were involved in a playing a ball game with two children with flowers in their hair. The sight made Natchi smile. The serious watch the children kept over the work going on in the yard often caused him some amusement. They seemed more aware of the goings on than most of their elders. Everyone appeared to have decided simply to leave Mitsu's plans to the strategist himself, and who was Natchi to complain? It made for less distractions and a quieter workplace.
"Diel!" called a woman in a worried tone.
Natchi turned his head to look at the elegant woman who spoke. She clutched her small child protectively as she rushed toward her husband. Diel, an olive-eyed man with curly blond hair, stepped over some of the tools on the ground to meet his wife.
"Eastlia, what's the matter?" he inquired sympathetically.
She gestured toward all the things on the ground with a sweep of her hand, "Look at all this! Someone could get hurt! How can you leave all these things lying around? I can't put August down for a second! I don't want him to be injured!"
Diel frowned and nodded, "It is irresponsible of us, Eastlia, but I'm not sure I can get the entire crew to clean up. I'll talk to the boss about it."
Natchi sipped his soup quietly as he watched the narrow-eyed man approach. Diel had not joined the work crew very long ago and so he was still somewhat nervous about making requests of Natchi. The blond man was not quite built to do hard manual labor, but he was in dire straits and needed the work, so Natchi had taken him on. "Excuse me, Boss, I hope I'm not interrupting anything too important..."
"Important- ha!" the white-clad leader laughed, "It's just lunch, Diel, it's not a surgery."
"Umm...well, you may have heard my wife back then, she was talking rather loudly, err, did you? Well, we don't think it's such a good idea to leave things about everywhere, eh, especially those rusty nails, at least, not if there's an alternative... And I, uh, I was wondering if you could ask the crew not pick up after themselves a bit if it's, ah, not too much trouble perhaps..." the worker mumbled.
"Fine, Diel! Just fine! I'll tell them to do that!" Natchi assured his employee, "You just relax! Don't worry so much about things anymore!"
"Oh, no, I won't, Boss!" the young father replied, eyes widening, before hurrying back to his wife's side.
"You showed him, Dear," Eastlia smiled.
Diel looked about nervously, took a deep breath and sighed, "Eh, not really, but what matters is that we'll get everything picked up. I better take care of my share."
"It's alright," Eastlia added, "Soon enough you'll be able to leave this job and we can go west as missionaries as we've planned."
"Yeah..." her husband murmured.
"Go 'est!" August repeated, clinging to his mother.
"That's right, August," Eastlia beamed.
Murasaki Fuji no Shita ni Kuni
"The Country Under the Purple Wisteria"
Chapter 76- The Allegiance of Thought
The second son of Emperor Leo Maximillian had accompanied Russ out of the cell he was being held in with relatively little fuss. He was unafraid. It seemed unlikely that the rebels would hurt him since they had waited so long to do anything with him, but there was always that remote possibility...
"Ah, Prince Jonathon, pleasure to see you again," Sanada said with a hint of sarcasm hanging over her words.
"Lady Sanada Morin," the prince responded with a nearly equal amount of sarcasm, "It's a lovely late autumn day, and of course running into you is my pleasure entirely."
Tej rolled his eyes, "You two make me sick."
Sanada jabbed her companion softly in the ribs, "That'll be enough of that." She turned her attention back to Jonathon, "What would you like to do after this war?"
"Make sure that you're fired," he snickered.
"No, stupid," the strategist sighed, "I mean after we win the war. Where would you like to be exiled to? The Tsurae Kingdom? The Great Forest? Somewhere else that I don't know about yet?"
Kiisan watched the exchange silently. Jonathon stood scuffing the toes of his boots on the platform and glancing downward to avoid Sanada's harsh looks. "I'd actually prefer not to be exiled," the Imperial prince responded softly, "I'm not interested in coming back in ten years to try and overthrow you in your turn. I'll leave that to somebody else. Ruling a country wouldn't quite suit me. I've always lived with the notion that's my older brother's destiny, not mine."
"Can we trust him?" Sita asked the others.
"I don't know..." Tej shrugged, "I've never been closely acquainted with Jonathon so I have no experiences to base my judgment on."
"I-" Sanada started, only to be cut off by Kiisan.
"I think we should take his word," the young man said firmly.
Jonathon looked up suddenly from his boots and gave the rebel leader a puzzled glance.
"...Why?" Sanada inquired. She was not adverse to Kiisan's suggestion so long as he had strong reasons backing up his decision.
"He hasn't done anything to harm us, and I, I guess I just have a good feeling about him," Kiisan explained.
"Fine, we won't exile you, Prince Jonathon," Sanada smiled, "If I were you, however, I'd get down on my knees right about now and swear your eternal allegiance to Father Kiisan."
His hands still bound behind his back, Jonathon knelt awkwardly before the young priest, looking up at the rebel leader with bright eyes, "Thank you, Father Kiisan, for choosing to spare me. For your kindness, I vow on my sword, Kneif, bestowed on me by my father, that I will honor your rule and my descendants and I will serve your family for the rest of our days."
It seemed a rather stern and serious promise to Kiisan, who wondered to himself if he would really care to have Jonathon serve him...especially for so long... "Thank you, Prince Jonathon," Kiisan managed to remark nervously, "I'm glad to have you...with us..."
Fairwind, Sita, and Russ burst into a fit of laughter over Kiisan's shaky response. Sanada sighed and Tej shook his head slowly. Jonathon allowed a smile to cross his face as well as Kiisan untied the prince's hands, "Oh, by the way, Father Kiisan, you don't have to call me "Prince." I don't think I'll be a prince for much longer."
The taller of the two young men stretched his arms; glad they were free again and rubbed his sore wrists. "Well, if we're going to be informal, Jonathon, please just call me by my name. I'd prefer it."
"Well met, Kiisan," the bright-eyed man replied. They shook hands heartily. An unlikely alliance had been formed that might just stand the test of time. It approved. Kiisan knew that it approved.
Why you just might be right about that, Father Kiisan.
Kiisan chose to ignore the Circle Rune's remark. It was all he could do.
Hai-Yong was working as hard as he could. Feeling the need to increase his pace, he started to make his stitches further apart, but the result was too messy to use. He had to rip out some of his work, which lost him time in the long run. Besides, going fast made him clumsier and he was growing tired of endlessly pricking his fingers.
He stopped to examine his handiwork, laying it across the cot and stepping back to look at it. The delicate thing seemed far too well made to be of his making. "I've managed to even impress myself," Hai-Yong laughed loudly, "I think this'll be okay!" He wanted to finish as soon as he could, to make sure it would be ready at the right time. He would not tolerate any less than the best he could produce. He grinned, examining his sore, bandaged fingers; the effort would be worth it in the end.