Chapter 1048: That Creature Is a Harmful Creature (3)

As the wait in the village dragged on, the food was starting to wear on them. Or rather, the freshness of the seafood was starting to go downhill, and the meals were getting more and more meager.

That did not mean the villagers had grown less attentive just because the Japanese pirates were not coming.

If anything, the people serving them looked so apologetic they hardly knew what to do. What could they do, after all, when they simply could not get ingredients?

No one knew when the Japanese pirates might come, and even aside from that, once monsoon season truly set in, the sea itself became inaccessible.

In fact, while they scraped together whatever ingredients they could to put something like proper dishes in front of Qing’s group, the villagers themselves were living on mixed-grain porridge.

If this kept up much longer, the whole village was going to tear up its own foundations trying to keep treating them like honored masters.

That pirate-prince bastard—

Was he just a complete liar?

No, this would not do.

Come to think of it, was this not the real problem? Just sitting here and waiting?

Nothing ever improved with an attitude this passive. They should have taken the initiative and stormed out to butcher them in the first place.

For that reason—

BANG!

Qing kicked open the earthen den’s door.

The self-proclaimed prince jerked in fright. Then came an embarrassed little fake cough, then a long inhale, as if, prince that he was, he meant to bark a reprimand—

But the instant he noticed the massive hammer slung over Qing’s shoulder, his momentum shriveled up.

All he could do was speak in a voice straining for composure, with an air of antique dignity.

“[Ahem. So, you have come? Ah—but what is that large hammer for?]”

“[What do you think? Well then, Your Highness, is there anything you’d like to say? I’m feeling generous enough that I might hear one thing out.]”

“[C-could you at least pass a message to the villagers? I would like something properly edible for once instead of bran porridge—wait. Is this perhaps my last request? No. Surely not?]”

All that fuss, and the best he could manage was a complaint about the food.

And what was wrong with bran porridge anyway? It was not fit for human consumption, sure, but at least it was not actually foul-tasting. He ought to be grateful for that much.

Back when Qing had been a beggar, she had occasionally stolen a handful and boiled it herself. By her recollection, it had at least smelled faintly toasty and grainlike.

Taste-wise, it was basically nothing, but nothing was still better than bitter and puckering.

In any case—

Qing narrowed her eyes.

In this primitive ancient society, language was almost proof of status in itself. Nobles spoke differently from commoners.

Especially noble speech—it was difficult and finicky enough that unless one had grown up with it from childhood, it was not easy to imitate convincingly.

In that sense, he really did seem to be the child of some great house.

“[Hey. Are you really a prince?]”

“[Impudent. I am the heir to Great Ippen, a person whose station is beyond your right to question. Mind your manners, villager.]”

“[Manners, my ass. A prince gets captured—your crown prince, no less—and not a single bastard comes to save him? What, are you getting iced out? Don’t you have any friends?]”

The accusation came out of nowhere, so blunt that the prince could only open and close his mouth.

“[Ahem. Ill-bred, as expected of a rustic. But my loyal vassals are surely searching desperately for me even now. They must merely be lost, being unfamiliar with the geography of the Central Plains.]”

“[Whatever. If they’re this late, that just means they don’t even know where you are, right? In that case we can just bury you and say we never saw you.]”

“[Wait—]”

“[Well, since things have come to this, don’t take it too hard. I’ll make sure it doesn’t hurt. One clean blow. If you want someone to resent, resent your subordinates. Honestly, what kind of training did you give them? Not one of them has come looking for you.]”

And with that, Qing gave a little heave and lifted the hammer high.

The prince startled and flailed.

“[W-wait, wait, hear me out! If you do this, your little village won’t survive! Fine! Fine, I understand!!]”

“[Understand what? What do you understand?]”

“[When my warriors come, I’ll speak favorably of you! I’ll say you saved me when I was injured—like that! Then your village will be spared disaster, won’t it?!]”

“[And how am I supposed to trust that? What if you run off tattling the second you’re free? ‘Those bastards locked me up and fed me nothing but bran porridge. Those bastards were evil.’]”

“[I swear it! I vow it! So put that thing down! Hm?! Please!]”

“[One of my teachers used to say, ‘The Japanese are deceitful to the core. Never once in history have I heard of them keeping faith.’ Personally, I think that’s a very true statement.]”

“[Who said such outrageous—hieeek!!]”

BANG!!

The hammerhead slammed into the ground.

The prince froze solid, letting out a strange shriek. Which was only natural. When a hammerhead buried itself into the earth right in front of your face, your mind did not merely snap alert. It nearly fled your body altogether.

“[Ah, shit. Missed. Don’t move. If I hit wrong, it might get messy, you know? I said I’d send you off in one blow.]”

“[No! Don’t! Spare me! I was wrong!!]”

“[Plead your case before the King of Hell! Hup!]”

THUD!

“Aaagh!”

THUD!

“Hiiik!”

THUD!

“Aaaagh!”

THUD!

Again and again the hammer smashed into the ground, and again and again the hammerhead dropped just in front of his nose, the pressure of the wind from it pulling a whole orchestra of screams out of the prince.

From the start, if Qing had actually wanted to kill him in one blow, she would have simply planted it straight into him. There was no reason for a master at Transformation to keep striking the earth by his face unless she meant to.

But the prince did not know that.

To him, every instant was a miraculous brush with death. Bound hand and foot, twitching and flopping like a shrimp, he could only believe he was somehow managing to dodge each strike by sheer luck.

From Qing’s point of view, the little bastard’s wriggling actually had nearly gotten him killed several times. He could have just stayed still. Who was really going to kill him?

At any rate, the pounding went on.

THUD, THUD, THUD, THUD.

The sound of the ground being struck without pause.

The sound of one Japanese pirate’s heart being pounded flat.

At last Qing muttered, panting harshly on purpose, pretending to be worn out.

“[Man, this is exhausting. Just when I thought I might finally get my hands on some real money for once. My rotten luck.]”

At once, the prince’s eyes flashed.

Because the muttered line tacked onto the end had hit his ears like a thunderclap.

Money.

Real money.

Naturally, no one in the world muttered to themselves in a foreign language. But when your life was hanging by a thread, who had the leisure to worry about that?

“[Wait—money! Right! Do you want gold and silver treasures? Then I’ll give them to you! I’ll pay very handsomely. What do you say?]”

“[Oh?]”

Qing whipped her head around, looking suddenly interested.

“[Really? Your Highness is offering me money?]”

“[Yes. Release me. Then I shall speak to my royal father and have him reward you richly. I will grant you enough gold and silver treasure that you could live on it for the rest of your life—]”

“[Ah, shit. And here I thought you were saying something worthwhile. How am I supposed to trust that? Do I look that stupid?]”

“[I swear in Lord Saruta’s name! This is the unvarnished truth, and if I break it, I shall incur Lord Saruta’s wrath!]”

Qing frowned deeply.

Now what kind of strange oath was that?

Did he mean he was swearing in the name of his ancestors? So in her terms, something like swearing in the Seomun name and saying that if he broke it, he would incur Seomun’s wrath?

But that was not it.

In the archaic Japanese of this age, the exalted title used for royalty, attached to the Saruta family name, became the name of one of the chief gods worshiped by the Japanese—their leader among gods.

Which meant the Saruta family name itself was pretty damned presumptuous, even by Japanese standards.

But Qing’s translation ability only interpreted what Qing already knew. It was not generous enough to let her freeload her way into understanding things she had never learned.

“[That’s not the kind of promise I’m after. I was planning to take the gold and silver your men had looted right there on the spot, in cash, the moment they came charging in.]”

“[Then do exactly that. Only put down that fearsome thing first. Hm?]”

“[But your men aren’t coming. I didn’t want to do it like this either, you know? Well then, I’ve had a moment to catch my breath, so don’t dodge this time, okay?]”

And Qing hoisted the hammer again.

“[Wait, waitwaitwait, no, don’t, not like this. Please. I beg you. I am begging you like this.]”

“[Hm? Hmmm.]”

Then Qing lowered the hammer, making a little nasal sound as if a fine idea had just occurred to her.

“[Your Highness, do you want to live?]”

“[Who in the world wants to die... ]”

The prince let the end trail off. He had answered too quickly, desperate to live, and only afterward did it seem to occur to him how pitiable that made him look.

Qing clapped her hands once.

“[Then how about this? If your men won’t come here, we can go to them. We’ll take Your Highness along and collect your ransom from your subordinates. You know where they are, don’t you? Camp? Encampment? Stronghold? Somewhere like that.]”

“[Ah!]”

What was that “Ah” for?

The prince rolled his eyes around in obvious calculation.

Ah, hell. The little bastard was showing every inch of his scheming.

“[Yes, yes. That would do nicely.]”

“[Of course, we’ll only untie you after we’ve collected the ransom, so don’t get any ideas about trying to trick us.]”

“[How could I ever speak with one mouth and two tongues? You have come up with an excellent stratagem. Let us do exactly that.]”

As for what the little bastard was probably thinking, Qing could imagine it well enough.

This stupid bitch is begging for death. Once we reach my men, you’re dead. I’ll make you pay for every swing of that hammer...

Something along those lines. Or maybe some other nasty little scheme.

This was exactly why presentation mattered.

Back home, they said even the smallest change in wording could make all the difference. And there was that story about three in the morning and four in the evening—people felt differently depending on how things were framed.

If Qing had started by threatening him outright—Tell me where your men are. Spill the location of the camp.—the prince would have clamped his mouth shut.

Because then he would be betraying his own men just to save himself. What if he told her, and she went running off with officials or soldiers?

But if the request was simply: lead us to the people who will pay your ransom?

Whether he truly meant to hand over the money peacefully, or whether he was only thinking, Let me get free first, then I’ll settle accounts later, and nursing vicious resentment in his heart—either way, he would gladly volunteer to guide them.

The act of revealing the camp’s location was exactly the same.

But depending on how it was framed, people felt very differently about it.

Now there was no time to dawdle.

This was not really a fishing village—more a salt village—but they had been eating seafood for so long just because they were near the sea that Qing was now reaching the point of, no more seafood, absolutely no more, she wanted meat, actual meat, meat was beginning to shimmer before her eyes.

Two clear truths could be derived from this.

First, people really did need to eat meat.

Second—

Fish was not meat.

So Qing moved into action at once, and the first step was the construction of a bridal chair meant exclusively for the prince.

And so for roughly the time it took to drink two cups of tea, she hammered away.

Astonishingly, despite being a peerless master, Qing was also enough of a half-ass carpenter to count as a working one. She shaved wood, fit joints together, hammered things into place, and in no time at all displayed the miraculous skill of producing a bridal chair meant to carry the Japanese pirate prince.

From the outside it looked like a large wooden frame in the shape of a cross.

But its true nature was this—

A bridal chair for tying up a prince and hauling him around!

“[Hey, girl. Why are you tying me to something like this? Isn’t this a punishment rack? Did you not say you meant to collect a ransom from my vassals?]”

“[Now, now. A rack? This is a palanquin. A bridal chair. Just the one-person-carrying kind. Come on, Your Highness. How could we possibly send someone so noble off on foot? I’ll tie you on here and carry you myself, so stop worrying.]”

“[I-I would rather walk on my own feet.]”

“[Can’t do that. If your feet are free, you might run. More importantly, if I strap Your Highness right onto my back and something goes wrong, then when I turn and run the enemy won’t be able to shoot arrows at me, will they?]”

“[...]”

At the frank announcement that she intended to use him as a human shield on her back, the prince seemed to lose the power of speech.

Gongsun Yoye, however, unable to understand what was being said, looked sincerely impressed.

“So Qing can speak Japanese. To possess such extraordinary martial skill and know Japanese besides—truly remarkable, remarka—remarkable.”

“Eh, just a little. Just a little. Just enough to understand and speak, really. Well then, shall we get going? Jayeo, be good and listen to your mom while I’m gone, okay?”

“Mm. Have a safe trip.”

She looked bizarre enough, wearing a large cross-shaped frame on her back with a man tied to it.

But to Jayeo, Qing did not look all that different from usual.

To Peng Daesan, on the other hand, it was so absurd he seemed beyond words and could only keep his mouth shut.

And so—

Off they went.

Since the Japanese pirates were not coming, Qing had decided to go to them herself.

Those Japanese pirate bastards were dead.