In the past, a Kuri daimyo with no backing — even if assassinated — would have no one to speak up for them.
Once Kuri's daimyo was dead, the people beneath her would be no cause for concern. The Flower Capital would make a token effort to find the culprits, but would never pour serious resources into the investigation. Even if the perpetrators were identified, it would be very difficult to actually do anything to them.
At most, a few scapegoats would be found to confess, and the matter would be quietly buried.
In fact, when it came to tracking down the culprits, those people might even need the underworld's help — at which point it would be the thief crying "stop thief."
Kuri's daimyo had too thin a foundation. Right now, there were simply no deep ties between Kuri and the other regions. Even those with some trade dealings wouldn't go out of their way for her. If anything, some daimyo were probably hoping Kuri would fall so they could take a slice of what remained.
If it were another daimyo, however, things would be entirely different. The most obvious example was Shimotsuki Yasuie and Shimotsuki Ushimaru — both were branches of the Shimotsuki family, and though separated by distance, the blood between them would never be severed.
And among Wano's many "moon" families, there were countless threads of ancestry tying them together. If any among them were assassinated, the other daimyo — and even the Shogun — would not stand idly by.
Moreover, even if a daimyo were killed, it would be difficult to destabilize the region they governed. In great families like these, the capable were not limited to just the one person holding the title. A successor would quickly emerge to steady the situation.
But Kuri's daimyo, for now, seemed to have no heirs.
In the final days of the Fire Festival, the enthusiasm of those who had long been reveling had largely faded.
At festivals like this, the opening days were always the most electric. Once those days passed, many adults returned to work and rarely ventured out at night. Even though morning start times had been pushed back, they preferred to rest at home.
Kuri was prosperous, but survival still required labor. The common people's lives were still hard.
Hard, yet they were already content. Looking back, the hellish Kuri of the past remained vivid in their minds. Now, as long as one worked, there was food to eat and clothes to wear — even a little leisure time. It was the kind of life that would have been unimaginable before, something like paradise.
In other regions, after all, those at the very bottom were reduced to begging just to survive.
The life they had now was already beyond what they once dared to dream. What more was there to be dissatisfied with?
Adults had to toil for their families — but Kuri's children didn't need to think about such things. These children had once survived through hardship too, yet now they could play without a care in the world.
The oldest children truly born after the founding of the new Kuri were only a few months old.
"Where should we play today?"
"Not sure. We've been playing goldfish scooping and ninja games for days now." A few children walked along the street, clutching candy apples or grilled squid. Children's happiness was always simple — even an ordinary game of fish-catching, played with enough friends, could keep them happily occupied for a whole month.
But adults were different. Once you grew up, happiness became something of a luxury.
Still, every now and then, even children felt a little restless and wanted something new.
"Kentarou went home too. We've lost so many people lately," one of them said. The dwindling numbers had been why they couldn't quite get excited about anything recently.
"Can't be helped. He has to work during the day now — planting season is almost here."
Farming had always been a vital part of life in Kuri. Here, no one looked down on those who worked the land. And since large quantities of grain were exported to Himegi, Udon, and Suzu, farmers actually earned quite decent incomes.
"But isn't Kentarou's family's field in the fallow period right now?" Young as they were, these children had grown up through those hellish years and understood farming well.
To protect soil fertility, Karin had specifically instituted a fallow period — during these months, grain planting was prohibited. But to ensure farmers could still get by, there were generous subsidies during the fallow season.
The fallow period was a good time for grazing livestock, though ordinary farming families didn't have much land to begin with, and raising a sheep or two was already considered fortunate. Generally speaking, when the fallow period came, farming households sent their working-age members out of the village to find odd jobs.
Karin had once wanted to lift the maritime ban so these people could fish the inland sea during the fallow season — but the ban was a policy issued by the Shogun, and lifting it on a large scale would cause serious trouble.
"I heard he went with his father to work at the official fields," another child said.
The official fields were numerous and vast, enabling crop rotation, which meant they needed labor at all times. The Tenryobugyou's people couldn't be expected to farm professionally year-round — the best solution was to hire ordinary farmers as seasonal workers.
"Izou and Kikunojo left too," a boy said, his face turning slightly red with regret.
Izou and Kikunojo were children they had never met before — but during this Fire Festival, they had encountered this pair of "sisters."
The Fire Festival was a grand celebration, so even those working on major construction projects deep in the Guardians' Forest were given several days off. Oden and the others had come back to spend the holiday in town, and nearly spent every coin they'd earned right back into the market.
The two children, Izou and Kikunojo, had come along to Kageboshi Town to join the festival. They were originally from Suzu, but in the past could only watch others enjoy the Fire Festival from the outside. This was their first time truly taking part, and they had made several new friends among Kuri's children.
"A-Masa, don't tell me you've got a crush on one of them? Is it Izou or Kikunojo?" another child immediately said with a grin and a wiggle of the eyebrows. In their eyes, Izou and Kikunojo were indeed two remarkably striking "beauties."
Izou had a sharper, more dashing look to her features and expression; Kikunojo carried the air of gentle, untouched grace. These two tall "young women" still had the bodies of ordinary children for now.
"Don't — don't go spouting nonsense!" The boy called A-Masa flushed bright red and protested loudly.
"Good, because it'd be better if A-Masa didn't get any strange ideas — because I heard something huge!" one of them said in an exaggerated whisper, and they all huddled together as if conspiring.
"What?!"
"I heard," the child said, "that Izou and Kikunojo might be the daughters of the legendary Kozuki Oden."
"Really?!" someone gasped. "I never heard that Lord Kozuki Oden had children!"
"Well... it might not be daughters exactly. But I really did hear that someone saw them walking with Lord Kozuki Oden. Maybe they're... like, a bride-in-training, or something like that..."
Unlock 30 chapters instantly (for the price of the old 20-chapter tier) and get 50–55 new chapters every month.
If you're enjoying the story, consider supporting me here:
patreon.com/anish_44