第三十一回：大橘托屠龍續太守，舊畫下獻計拱錦囊
"This is my home."
Daju had just walked Neko-chan and me down narrow alleys in that [1] older part of town. Here, the four-storied houses are built close to each other, worn brick serving as narrow pathways into the darkness of early morning. This alley leads to a crossed intersection, where a dead tree chopped off horizontally at the middle is planted.
I had just taken note that this place is just wide enough to fit one person if they stretched out their arms halfway in a weird chicken-like pose...
"Careful, this place is quite small..."
Unlatching a mechanism, the metal door to swings outwards with an unprompted bang on the adjacent wall, just narrowly missing my face!
What is this?! A deathtrap?! I did NOT sign up for the killing games! Whoever designed this door is a purveyor of manga where people are told to 'now kill each other until one person is left'!
Quick steps! Quick steps pass through the doorway after the catgirls;
when without warning the spring-loaded mechanism snaps back and slams the door back in closed position again!
It does not elude this detective that my forward foot is now a mere hair lower into the floor than the rest of the floor surface. A pressure plate. Its really ingenious, thankfully we are not in a detective manga, otherwise Knox would be broken in half at this point!
"Ayano? Are you alright? Watch your step here."
Neko-chan, not understanding my apprehension, follows Daju up the clay staircases every bit as narrow as the alleyways. There isn't any lighting, so I grope around on the handrails instead.
As my eyes adjust to the darkness, I can just barely make out the shabby blue paint that makes for the wooden doors that make up the rooms of this place. The material is coarse and chipped in places, kind of like the doors you would find at an old dock warehouse.
Finally reaching the top of the steps, Neko-chan gives back Daju a ring of keys, which she picks out one of them in the darkness to insert into the locked door.
"How do you two even see in this darkness?"
The two catgirls turn around to face me, their eyes lightly illuminating a yellow and orange glow respectively.
Right. They have THAT character setting.
"Gishishishi, I've never invited a non-cat person home before. Its not much, though."
Pushing open the door which also snaps back with a spring loaded mechanism when we pass, the living room is barely the size of two closets at the bunnygirl club, a makeshift folding table with two round stools are all the furniture that this room holds. Loose cartons hold a tea set and a tiny portable stove for heating water.
What I don't really understand is why you live in a literal warehouse when you are that rich? Clearly you have enough coin to build a bunnygirl club?
"... the 【Taisho】 isn't rich at all."
Ah? Then where does all the coin come from?
Rummaging through the boxes, Neko-chan finds a a small lantern and lights it up; Daju hangs it by a stick near the windows which face the north-side of the warehouse street.
"I loaned the initial funding. From the local【celebrities】[2]."
You guys have 'celebrities'?
"Those who sell arts and performances to make a living. All of 【Yan Province】pitched in when I made the call."
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W-well! I'm glad that you have a bunch of crazy friends who are on board with Madi-san's crazy proposal to build the Red Hare Loft!
I suppose the explanation is more for Neko-chan than me, since on the [New Continent] the concept of loaning money from a bank is pretty non-existent when you can mennifest it from your personal collection into a shopkeeper's hands. I guess merchantry doesn't really make money when the major kingdoms of the land are at war with each other!
Thankfully the bunnygirl club was such a success, nobody will notice if you sequester away some of the profits, maybe you can live a little less shabbily than... whatever this is! This isn't just hard living anymore, its downright masochistic!
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While waiting for the rice dumplings to be done, our orange tabby called for us beyond the wooden door that leads left from the one-roomed entrance. Unlike the entrance room, this one is tall, wide and spacious. Its long rectangular shape and bruised walls tell tales of shipping cargo having once taken up residence here. Aside from clothes hanging on the side walls, the only bit of furniture here is the hard bedding made of wooden strips, and a squarish hard pillow which Daju promptly 'pomfs' on and beckons Neko-chan over.
"Oh come on, Cousin! You used to live here!"
"YOU lived in the SAME room as Daju?!"
"N--- When I was injured and couldn't move...! What are you thinking, Ayano?!"
You can't fault me for thinking of yabai thoughts when two cats are in the same room! For someone as straight-laced as you, you sure have a tendency to get into yabai scenarios! I get that Daju fished you out of a river when you got isekaied, but the closeness between the two of you is pretty suspicious, don't you think? How do you have a cousin in isekai? You two practically look the same with your hair down, what's the statistical probability of THAT?!
"We're both girls, so its fine.
Doesn't the [Exposer] live pretty much the same way with you?"
She dodged the cousin question again.
Excuse me, but ever since we started living in [New Coimbra] we have separate rooms! Separate rooms! Truly the pinnacle of human evolution, the concept of privacy! I can read my detective manga in peace and if a big-boobed idiot wants to interrupt me she has to climb through the window! (She still does...!)
Neko-chan grunts, still standing red-faced at the door. Daju can only laugh as her attempt at seduction fails, flopping down on the bed with her tail curled up.
"Speaking of which, who is that in the picture?"
In the dim light of the rising morning coming through the paper windows, I can see an embroidered scroll opened up above where Daju rests her head. In the picture I can see some familiar faces inked in colorful traditional style, a smaller and smiling Daju is holding closer the shoulders of a MUCH younger Ou Nygai on the left, and a white-furred catgirl with long hair on the right. Right behind them stand two figures I don't recognize, a girl with bobbed green hair and a golden-haired girl wearing a ninja-like half-mask and monocle.
"That's Lady Bian. The 【Taisho's】 former business partner."
R-really? The white-haired catgirl doesn't seem like the merchanty type. Ou Nygai doesn't seem like the merchanty type either if I think about it. The way she fended off the red-haired girl in white 『mizugi』 makes me wonder how Daju even managed to become friends with a martial monster. Maybe Daju is just really adept at the whole networking business, even in ancient isekai you can't escape networking!
"Bian... was a top-class 【celebrity】in 【Yan Province】. Practically every household knew her name."
Was?
"She always was a bit headstrong, that fool. Eventually her performances ran afoul of the Duck Clan. Then..."
Daju turns on her side to face away from us. There wasn't any need to speak further, though it suddenly made a lot of sense why it seemed like the whole of 【Yan Province】turned up for opening night. And why the funding for it came in so quickly. 【Yan Province】as a whole doesn't seem too fond of the Duck Clan it seems, then again, who would?
I have to wonder if Daju ever told this story to Neko-chan already, who doesn't seem surprised at all.
"Cousin, Sister Ayano, if one day I end up like Bian..."
"Daju, don't be silly--- You'll live a long life---"
Our orange tabby doesn't seem to think so, even if the well-wishes came from Neko-chan. Suddenly sitting up cross-legged, she rocks back and forth, considering our options.
"The Duck Clan will surely retaliate for last night.
But I am glad, because I know...
... the Dragonocider Girl and her friends will continue my work for me!"
『hai』?
We will?
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Having entrusted a really heavy responsibility on (my) shoulders, Daju's rice dumpling breakfast was spent with skipping happiness, Neko-chan trying to get her to rescind what she thinks is a last will and testament.
But the orange tabby is deadly serious about this. Pulling out a small 【embroidered bag】 [3] under her bed for each of us, she beseeches us to only open them 'when the time is right'.
Personally, I don't see what's the big fuss. Haven't we been successful in beating back the Duck Clan so far? We now even have the [Lord Protector of New Coimbra] running around masquerading as a mythical 【Puyengman】, what could possibly harm us?
As it turns out, the forces that conspire to converge on 【Pu'yeng】...
... run far deeper than they appear!
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When the three of us return to the bunnygirl club, Madi-san was already on the stage, smacking a wooden board squiggled with a mess of lines and diagrams, trying to explain something to Oracion and Annalie. Oracion had just smack the left side of her head with an open palm when we walked in, and Madi-san points at us, and shouts,
"Aha! There you are, Aya-chan and Neko-chan!
Hmm hmm! Its now time for the isekai roundtable!"
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NEXT: The Isekai Roundtable Shall Now Commence, We're NOT Going Home Until Moi' Absorbs A Dragon's Soul!
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TERMINOLOGY
[1] That Side Of Town - The one where Ying-onee was being kept for competitive flower arrangement sessions!
[2]【Celebrities】- The word that Daju uses here is 【名士 】, refers to someone well-known, not necessarily for entertainment skills. In some ways, Daju is also a 【名士 】 by the time this story starts. - Author-kun
[3] 【Embroidered Bag】 - 【锦囊】, a sort of silk brocade that people used to send messages in. Most notably in Three Kingdoms it is used to pass on stratagems. Don't say that Author-kun a hack, Author-kun does his foreshadowing properly!