Ch. 3 Being Famous Has It's Perks
Feudal Era Meets Mermaid Princess
Travel to the Eastern Lands took two weeks traveling at top speed for Hibiki she mostly traveled in the tree tops and away from the main roads she didn't want to run in to trouble. She knew staying under the radar was going to hard in the eastern lands because she remembered reading about the cautiousness of ryu-youkai in the palace archives. She did basically the same thing she had done in the southern lands looked for the closest village and looked for work this time it took even longer to gain the people's trust than before even with her healing abilities. She also learned her reputation as a thief preceded her seeing as a group of traders she had helped had spread the word around in the eastern lands where ever they went she was somewhat of a hero of justice to the people of the east.
This time she was a farmer's aid instead of a healer well mostly anyway she actually enjoyed the task of helping take care of the crops that would be sold in nearby markets even though it was hard work it was well worth it. She visited the small temple that the village had a and met the miko that resided there while wise the miko as most she had met on her journey so far was prejudiced, so the only thing she could do was be civil to the old women. She did not share the prejudices of humans and youkai as most mer-folk did and thought all races were equal and there for a reason because the kami must have had a reason for creating them in the first place.
She moved from village to village in the east until she came to a group of villages ruled by a power hungry lord, and decided to take action. She studied the lord and his family from within the walls as a servant in the lord's house and what she was made her want beat the crap out of the lord right then and there. The lord mistreated his family beating his wife and children in his drunken state while his oldest tried to protect them from his father's abuse, she could tell right away that his oldest would make a much better lord than he. Eventually she learned all she needed to know, and set about making sure the lord's eldest would take over as soon as possible. Nobody even suspected that he had been poisoned because of how much alcohol he consumed they just thought he died because he drank too much and she was happy for the lord's family.
She moved on after seeing that the new lord was safely in place and word of her deeds spread throughout the eastern lands until it reached the Eastern Daiyoukai himself who was intrigued by her though he did not approach her. Eventually she came full circle and decided to travel to the northern lands next she had always wanted to see the mountains once she had heard of them from reading the archives even though she didn't get to see any ryu-youkai.
It took her three weeks to reach the Northern Lands because she had to avoid a lot of people traveling for the markets and festivals of the more prosperous villages celebrating the harvests for this year. She also made one stop at one such festival and was reminded of the bright festivals of the capital city of the mer-people though the humans festivals were nowhere near as magical they had the same feel. Once she reached the Northern Lands she was in aww the mountains were huge and made her feel really small and insignificant just like the deep trenches and tall spires of her undersea home. She reviewed the information she had on the Northern Daiyoukai she knew he was a wolf youkai as they were the ruling youkai in the north.
She knew that the wolves were very territorial and did her best to stay away from them she did not want to be considered someone's property thank you very much no way no how was that ever going to happen.
She also learned that the prince of the wolf youkai who would be the next lord had put an unwanted claim on the shikon miko Kagome, and that in doing so was going back on his word to a female wolf youkai he had promised to mate. Once she heard that she was torn between being disgusted, and laughing her ass off at the situation "honestly" she decided to laugh rather than waste her time being disgusted over something like that after all it didn't involve her. She decided to travel through the mountains and explore first rather than find work like she had in the other territories, and as before her reputation preceded her well at least she made good gossip. There was more fighting for her in this territory than the others mainly because of the mountain bandits that made their homes in the mountains she got attacked at least twice a day until word got around that if you saw a stranger wearing all black wondering the mountains just let them pass.
Needless to say when she got done traveling the mountains they were a lot safer and the bandits no longer thought her easy prey just because she traveled alone and only carried a dagger as a weapon.
Once she was done traveling the mountain she visited the villages of the north the northern people were hardened by the harsh weather and conditions of the north and she admired them for their perseverance after all it wasn't easy living in such harsh conditions.
Shortly before deciding to leave the north word spread that the Northern Daiyoukai wanted to meet with her, however she was unsure if she should since she had not yet studied all the lords. For the first time since she started her quest she decided to contact her father she told him all she had learned and what had caused her to contact him before she had information on all the lords. He said it would be best to leave as soon as possible because it would be best to meet with all the lords at their annual gathering in the spring rather than with one lord at a time, she agreed especially since the Northern Youkai couldn't fallow her into another lords territory without permission. Fallowing her father's advice she left the Northern Lands that night swiftly even using magic to speed her on her way, the last stop on her journey before she would meet all the lords in person was the Western Lands ruled by the Silver Inu. She wondered how that would go because out of all the lords Sesshomaru was considered the most ruthless and strict of all, and hated humans completely while the other lords had varying degrees of tolerance for human kind.