Chapter 26
An Outlet for Their Feelings
“Eh—? Even if you ask why, a bow is what hunters use to take the lives of beasts and birds, right?”
Meifan answered my question with a casualness akin to a child solving a riddle.
“Are Jinju considered part of the human category…?”
“Well, they walk on two legs, don’t they? Beasts walk on four legs, and birds have wings, right?”
Hmm. I found myself holding my head slightly in confusion.
“It’s the Shikitari,” Mei Yui stated flatly. So that was also part of the Shikitari.
“Swordsmen take human lives, hunters take the lives of birds and beasts, farmers take the lives of plants. Though they are not here in Jiu City, fishermen take the lives of fish and shellfish.”
Just then, someone suddenly hugged me from behind. A hard chest. Thick arms. A man.
“Mr. Marebito, find anything?” Village Chief Fu Chao asked in a bright voice, resting his chin on my shoulder. This was good. I liked this feeling. The feeling of guys horsing around. Mentally, I still felt like I was that age.
…Was that it, maybe? The reason Rika rejected me? I felt a momentary pang of depression.
“Dad!” Meifan called out to Fu Chao. Ah. So they were father and daughter.
“Hey. Make sure you practice properly. Once those monsters are gone, we hunt immediately. The fields have probably been ravaged. We’re counting on your bows and arrows.”
“Sir!” Meifan saluted, then ran over to her younger sister Minyu, and they began archery practice again.
“So, what do you think of my daughters?” Fu Chao said, his chin still on my shoulder. “Great figures, right? Curvy in all the right places, big chests and big butts.”
“Ah… eh?”
“You got a good look at them in the bathhouse, right? Quite a sight, weren’t they?”
“Ah, no, well…”
This was so different from any parent-child relationship I knew that I was at a loss for how to react, feeling bewildered. Well, I had considered that such relationships might exist in the world, but actually encountering one left me flustered.
Rika’s dad had also joked, “She’s a beauty, right?” before.
But to have someone boast so openly about their daughters’ good figures… Moreover, there was no unpleasantness in his tone; in fact, it even felt somewhat refreshing, which was perplexing. There are all kinds of people in the world.
“They’re… very skilled, aren’t they? With the bow…”
“Hey! My daughters are first-rate in their archery skills too.”
“Are you a hunter too, Mr. Fu Chao?”
“Nah? I’m a farmer.”
“Eh?”
“It’s all about ‘following the guidance of the Ancestral Spirits,’ that sort of thing. We commoners can’t become kings or nobles, but we can do what we want to do.”
This was unexpected. Even being so bound by ‘Shikitari,’ they had freedom of occupational choice?
“Even… swordsmen?”
“Of course. On the contrary, among the royalty and nobles, there aren’t any eccentric folks who’d become swordsmen. Many have parents who are swordsmen, but there are also plenty whose parents are farmers or merchants. Even our Lord Feilong is from a farming background.”
Ahead in our line of sight, Meifan and Minyu continued their archery practice. Meifan, using a large, long bow, shot from a farther distance, while Minyu, using a smaller bow, shot from closer range. They silently kept loosing arrows.
“I have a question.”
“What is it? Ask me anything. After all, I was the one who started this ‘let the Marebito-sama do as he thinks’ thing.”
“Are there any residents, perhaps even the more hot-tempered ones would be better suited… who would want to join the fight against the Jinju?”
“Hmm,” Fu Chao said, separating from my back. After thinking for a while, he turned his gaze towards Meifan and Minyu.
“Their grandfather… my wife’s father… was eaten by a Jinju right before their eyes.”
I gasped and looked at the two. They continued their archery practice silently.
“Among those who managed to escape into the Final Wall, those who didn’t lose a family member are rare. Except for the drifters who had no family to begin with. It was the voice of my father-in-law, screaming ‘Run!’ while being bitten into his stomach, that snapped me back to my senses. I dragged my daughter and wife away as we fled.”
I had heard that about 40% of the residents, excluding the swordsmen, had been lost. But I hadn’t understood what that meant.
“The old man and I were drinking, so we had an oil lamp lit. He had a face like a weasel, a little guy.”
So there are small Jinju too, besides the tigers, lions, and wolves… Fu Chao watched Meifan and the others in silence for a moment before speaking.
“There are probably plenty of folks struggling to find an outlet for their feelings.”
