All things considered, Miroku was ready to call the day a rousing success. With relatively little effort, he and Sango had managed to secure not just a fresh supply of food but also a small amount of real money. Sango might disapprove of his methods, but surely even she would have to admit this would make things considerably easier in the coming days.
"Well?" Inuyasha asked as they rejoined the rest of the group.
"We were able to obtain everything we needed, and then some," Miroku told him.
Sango sighed. "Only because you swindled that man out of everything you could get him to part with."
"You say 'swindled' as if there was no youkai to be slain," he pointed out. She wouldn't like that, but would also have no choice but to admit he was right. And what did it matter, anyway, if he'd known the youkai was there or not? It had still been there, and removing it was still doing the rich man a favor. As many sutra scrolls as he'd stuck on the walls around that place, it would be free of youkai and evil auras for years to come. As far as he was concerned, that rendered it a legitimate service, whether it had begun that way or not.
"And did you know about the youkai when you picked that house," Sango asked, sounding milder than he was comfortable with, "or did you choose it because it was the biggest one in town and likely owned by the richest person?"
"Now, now," he chided gently. Best if none of the villagers overheard her saying such things; word would inevitably get back to the rich man, and Miroku always preferred for that not to happen until after he left town. "Buildings of such age and stature naturally attract strange and unnatural creatures. It seemed a reasonable place to start. If they didn't have a youkai now, they inevitably would sometime in the future. No matter which turned out to be true, I was doing that man and his family a service."
Sango merely shook her head and shared a disapproving look with Kagome. Of course they didn't believe him that this was the reason; they tended to look for dishonesty and ulterior motives in everything he did.
He sighed.
"Don't start complaining about how misunderstood you are, monk," Inuyasha said before Miroku could utter just such a complaint.
"You see the way they're looking at me," he protested.
"Yeah, but didn't you bring that on yourself?" Shippou added helpfully.
As far as he was concerned, he had done no such thing, but he could see he was not going to get anywhere with the others. No sense arguing with them when they would only continue refusing to see reason. It would only waste his time and theirs, and they did not exactly have time to spare.
"We have what we came here for," Sango said into the silence that followed, "so what do we do now?"
"Maybe we should find a place in town to stay for tonight," Kagome suggested, her tone already turning dreamy. "We could have real beds and a roof over our heads, maybe even a bath!"
Miroku liked this idea very much, after so many nights in rundown abandoned buildings and out in the open. "Perhaps we might prevail upon our patron from earlier," he began.
"Not a chance," Inuyasha declared before he could finish. "We've got plenty of daylight left. We ain't gonna waste it here when we could be looking for jewel shards!"