Kita and the Salaqa soldiers didn’t risk standing around a vacated street with a known enemy of the empire. At the snap of the sky princess’ fingers, a Giant-Class ant pulling a cedar wood carriage rolled onto the street, screeching to a halt in front of her. Zora wasn’t particularly surprised about the ant—plenty of factions across the continent used broken and tamed bugs as caravan pullers—but the lavish carriage he was immediately pulled into definitely caught him off-guard.

  Climbing inside, he was greeted with a cosy, richly decorated little room. The cushions on either side were upholstered with soft llama wool and alpaca hides. A low table between the seats propped up sweet-smelling incense burners and baskets full of candies. Metal ornaments shaped like feathers, suns, and corn stalks hung from the walls, jingling softly like wind chimes, and the roof was slightly raised like a pyramid. It truly was a carriage for a noble, but somehow, he just hadn’t made the complete association in his head that the girl in front of him a noble.

  Regardless, as they each took their seats on opposite sides of the carriage and she rapped the wall behind her to tell the driver to go, he felt just a tad bit worried about the square window on the door.

  There was a reason why most far northern carriages had either blinders to cover the windows or simply no windows at all.

  “Never seen an ant-drawn carriage before?” Kita said, setting her sawtooth blades down next to her as the driver outside cracked his whip. The wheels started rolling. “The Tamera are a decently sized organisation in the empire. They train and sell just about any type of Giant-Class bug if you have the coins to pay for it.”

  “I’m well aware of the Tamera,” he murmured, craning his head slightly to ‘look’ out the window.

  “Then why the befuddled look?”

  “I’ve never been on a bug-drawn carriage before. Could never afford the seat for even a single one-way trip between two neighbouring towns, you see.”

  “The Tamera drivers don’t work for just about anyone,” she said, thumbing back at the driver. “Yana has been driving for the Salaqa Household for decades. He’s one of our retainers. He’ll be one of yours, too, if you cooperate with us.”

  He smiled wryly. “I’d have to decline. Walking has its merits.”

  “I… don’t doubt that, given your long march down south has become quite the legendary tale, but you’re in Salaqa Ik’Balam, the Region Capital. It’s not safe to traverse this city on foot.”

  “Safe?”

  The carriage had rolled out onto a lively main street, but he made no mistake: the lively voices were mixed with murmurs of unease on the way to the Salaqa Manor. Vendors shouted about their wares, but he could hear the forced cheer, the weariness under their calls. People crowded the roads, their steps uneven; he caught the shuffle of tired feet, the quiet grumbling of empty stomachs. Children called to each other, laughing, but with voices worn thin from hunger. He heard whispers of rising prices and disappearing food, blades scraping against grindstones, whines and complaints sharp with an edge of tension—he didn’t need his eyes to tell this wasn’t how the city was supposed to be.

  It was only evening. The firefly lamps had yet to turn on yet, but people were already languishing around like the undead.

  “... The Capital Guards are doing their best to quell the unrest,” Kita said, dipping her head, folding her hands in her lap, doing her best to sit completely straight as the carriage rocked over a narrow bridge. “The cityfolk here are already having it much better than the commoners in the outskirts of the empire. We’re right outside the Capital. The Divine Fungus Tree, Chaak’lah, is still sprouting fruit steadily, so we’re the first to receive rations whenever the Capital sends resources out.”

  “You’re doing well, then,” he murmured, only half-listening as he continued surveying the city outside.

  “On the contrary,” she said sternly. “The Salaqa Region may still be holding on strong, but this unrest in the empire has been going on for the better part of the past decade. It’s only gotten worse and worse in recent years.”

  “How so?”

  “The full force of the Swarm is still battering the empire’s southern walls, and we’re losing ground in the far south every single day,” she said, tilting her chin back slightly as though she were reciting off a textbook in her head. “The experimental combat ant units the Capital has poured years’ worth of resources into haven’t produced any results. The Divine Fungus Tree in the Capital may still be well, but the other four in the outer regions are wilting due to excessive spore stripping. Losing significant portions of their monthly harvests to Capital tributes and then being unable to harvest new resources from the Divine Fungus Trees have caused unrest in the outer regions, and that isn’t without mentioning the mass infestations that have cropped up in many great fungi forests over the past four years. Travelling across the empire now, even with a trained mercenary band, isn’t an easy thing to do. Brood nests are everywhere. It’s almost impossible for any small town in the outer regions to defend themselves—”

  “Is that what you’ve been taught in the Royal Ayapacha Military Academy, or is that something you’ve seen for yourself?”

  Kita couldn’t find the words to respond as he made a point to look out the window, craning his head.

  “... I marched through the Tzu’zul Tak’in mountains in the northeast, reaching the far eastern gulf before realising I’d stepped foot into Attini Empire territory. That was two years ago,” he said, pulling out his wand and stabbing it into the table between them. “I marched south along the coast, made my first stop in Ixnal Ik’Balam, and there I was met with a Regional Capital ravaged by a recent infestation. Practically nobody stopped me as I marched into the Ixnal Manor and met the Regional Lord, who—make no mistake, was a wealthy man by my standards—bowed at my feet and pleaded for my help.”

  He carved a cross in the table denoting the city, then continued dragging his wand through the wood.

  “I was feeling just a bit worn out after having marched through the Sharaji Desert for a few months, so I thought ‘why not?’ and decided to stay,” he said. “I asked him how many men he could lend me to destroy the nearby brood nest with. He promised me three hundred. Only fifty were healthy enough to show up the morning of the extermination. The rest had lost their families, their homes, their summer tributes, and were in no position to fight. The ones who’d shown up simply had nothing left to lose, and as they led me to the nest, they flew the far southeastern word for ‘Vanquish Gods’ on their banners—it may or may not have been intentional, but I thought it funny they chose a word that shared the same spelling as ‘Failed Lords’ in the far south.”

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  Kita pursed her lips, but didn’t choose to respond. He continued carving his path through the table.

  “It took me a month to exterminate that brood. Afterwards, I continued travelling south along the coast, and the Kichel Lord pleaded to me exactly the same as the Ixnal Lord did. He promised one thousand soldiers, and only one hundred showed. Their flags flew the far southern spelling for ‘The Uncrowned’, though their insults were a lot more subtle than the Ixnal bunch,” he said, shrugging nonchalantly. “Nahtun, Xoco, Palo, and Tulum. Four more regional lords who bowed to me. The people on their soil were starving greatly, and even if they were of noble bloodline while their people were but simple commoners, they exhausted their warehouses for the sake of their children. It still wasn’t enough. They had to resort to mass bug-slaying just to continue feeding their soldiers, and I a man with a very small heart. I am moved by only what I can see in front of me, so I stayed and gave most of those regional lords even my fair share of points.”

  South along the coast. Then westwards past the Popol Tunich mountains, crossing the strait above the Laman Kab gulf. He probably could’ve marched down to the Capital in a year if he hadn’t made so many small stops along the way, but in doing so, he’d gotten about as much information as any outsider could regarding the Attini Empire’s current state of affairs.

  He stopped carving through the table as his wand reached the Salaqa Region.

  “... Seven Regional Capitals, fifteen boroughs, twenty-four harvesting towns, thirteen fungi forest villages, and two Divine Fungus Trees. I marched through more than half the northeastern bound’s total settlement count in two years,” he finished, sending Kita a gentle smile. “I don’t know what they teach you nobles in the Royal Military Academy, but if this is ‘unrest’ in your eyes, then I don’t know what I’m hearing. You people are teetering at the very edge of a full-blown civil war.”

  Maybe it was too much information to share with a young girl, but Kita was the one who’d come to him asking for his help. It was only fair she knew what she was dealing with, because if her father had any pride as a Regional Lord, she’d kick him out of her carriage right about now.

  Fortunately, he wasn’t parted from his soft cushioned seat. Kita was quiet for only a moment longer before letting out a soft sigh, shaking her head in defeat.

  “I didn’t want to… say it out loud, you know?” she muttered, averting her eyes. “My father will be delighted to know you already seem to have a decent grasp on the empire’s internal strifes and conflicts—”

  “—hah, I’ve barely even scratched the surface—”

  “But you realise you’re part of the strife in recent years?” she said, and she definitely tried to hide it as she sat up straight, but he heard her nervous gulp loud and clear. “You, the Warlord of the Northeast, have destroyed fourteen empire strongholds, robbed dozens of weapon caravans, and interfered with the Capital Guards at almost every turn. You’re not even alone in this. The Warlord of the Northwest who began fighting his way down three years ago has also destroyed dozens of strongholds and wounded thousands of able-bodied soldiers. Only the Empress knows what he’s even trying to do by reaching the Capital while sowing chaos everywhere—”

  “You’re talking about that Worm Mage?” He shrugged nonchalantly again. “I have no connections with that warlord. I’ve heard of him two years ago, but our decisions to march down the empire from both northern ends are purely coincidental. I have no idea what he wants either.”

  “But the Capital doesn’t think so. That’s why they’ve labelled you both enemies of the empire. They think you’ve made a covenant to coordinate your attacks.”

  “And so what if they think that? What does the think of me?”

  “He… my father… wishes to speak with you about uniting the empire by defeating Decima—”

  “But his eldest daughter, chosen to be his first-impression messenger, doesn’t even have the diligence to pull down the window blinds for a man labelled an enemy of the empire?”

  Kita blinked. He didn’t. He caught the whistling knife as it pierced through the window on his right, stopping it right before it could cut his face open, and then he caught the assassin by the throat as the boy lunged in through the window on the left. The carriage rocked to the side as Zora whispered “out”

  The driver scrambled off his seat outside as Kita picked up her dual blades, scowling fiercely, but Zora told her to “sit”

  And that was exactly what he did.

  After reaching into his own pocket and stuffing a small pouch of coins into the boy’s, he let go and listened to the faint of someone hitting the river below. Only once he heard the boy breaking the surface and flailing for something to hold onto did he hum “knock”

  For her part, Kita was still glaring furiously out the broken door as the carriage resumed motion.

  “He was an assassin,” she said quietly, turning her ire on him, “and assassins who attempt to hurt a guest of a Regional Lord must be disciplined. At the very least, he must be brought in for questioning. What if he was sent by Decima?”

  “But I’m not a guest. I’m a prisoner,” he reminded her, raising a finger as he leaned back in his seat, savouring the evening wind running through his hair. “And if you or any of your men dare pursue that boy, I throw a tantrum and leave. I’m not in the business of killing humans I don’t even know the names of.”

  “He tried to you! How many times– and you don’t even seem surprised! We pursue him!”

  “The weight of a single human life is a heavy thing,” he said, crossing his legs and leaning the back of his head against the cushion. “I’m aware it’s practically empire custom to execute anyone who does a noble any wrong, but not from the empire, and considering the assassin was probably just a sixteen year old boy trying to turn my head into the nearest bounty centre, I’m inclined not to pursue him as a former teacher. He knows nothing of his employer.”

  “But—”

  “You’re a child, too. No older than eighteen of age,” he said plainly. “Besides, you should’ve known better than to invite me into a carriage just about anyone with decent eyesight can peer into from dozens of strides away. I can’t help but wonder if the Salaqa Lord actually wants me dead by having you take me to your manor like this.”

  Kita bit her lip, looking quite furious, and he’d feel quite at ease if she lost her temper here and went off on him for insulting her household name—but to his surprise, she managed to take a deep breath and settle down, leaning back against her cushion as she picked up the broken glass shards around the carriage.

  “... Stop calling me a child,” she mumbled. “I’m seventeen. More than old enough to enlist in any division of the military.”

  “Yet you are still in the military academy.”

  She crossed her arms and grumbled, looking worriedly out the broken window to his right. No doubt she wanted to send her soldiers after the boy, but if she did that, she’d immediately lose the trust of the man she came all the way out to retrieve… so he sighed deeply in response, crossing his own arms as well.

  She wasn’t as much of a child as he’d hoped. Behind that scarred face of a swordswoman a typical sheltered noble who had to always have her way, and now, he wasn’t quite sure who he was dealing with.

  Perhaps the Salaqa Lord would be a bit different compared to all the other Regional Lords who’d bowed at his feet, pleading for his assistance.

  he mused, lolling his head left and right as he furrowed his brows.

  Sound Bug Facts #47: Similar to aphids, some cicadas, particularly nymphs or adults that excrete excess plant sap as honeydew, can attract ants, because ants feed on the honeydew as a carbohydrate source. In return, ants may offer some level of protection from predators or parasitoids for the cicadas, though this protection is less studied in cicadas compared to aphids!

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  See you guys next Wednesday~