Volume 4, Chapter 26: A Woman’s Anticipation (1/2)

T/N: I’m going to change the dialogue style to English. Hopefully, this will make the conversations easier to follow. Let me know if that doesn’t work. If you guys are okay with that, I’ll go back to give the older chapters the same treatment.

In such a large estate, there would have to be one or two rooms just for clandestine meetings.

Rahan spoke to a server. And it was there where she would never forget how he took out a heavy thing from his breast pocket. It seems even he won’t be stingy in times like this.

A short while later, the server brought a key over and guided them, “This way.”

Maomao tilted her head, wondering if this was fine since it wasn’t that secretive, but then Rahan whispered in her ear. “This is normal.”

“Hmmm.” She felt a little gloomy, but that can’t be helped. Better bend than break – if there is this kind of rule, then you’ll just have to abide by it.But then there’s no meaning for him to be careful by taking the pains to have her food taste, right?

The room at the end of the corridor was really a room. There was wine, dried fruits and jerky on the roundtable – all of them contained components that made you feel vigorous. There was a couch and a bed – either of them was big enough to fit two people.

It seems a little cramped for five people, but the interpreter left his seat for them. Looks like he’s going to keep a lookout outside.Now then, she wondered how they were going to communicate, when the woman spoke to them.

“Thank you for coming all the way to here.”

Fluent words flowed out of her mouth.

“My name is Irene. My companion is my attendant. Please rest assured that he is tight-lipped.”

“May I call you Airin-san? I am Kan Rahan. My companion is a relative so don’t mind her.”

Extremely simple self-introductions. If she had to say it, it was like a conversation where they verified the identity of the other party they already knew.

Rahan surveyed the room. Maomao rapped the wall lightly. There were no concerns about sound leaking from the room that had been constructed from stone. Perfect for clandestine meetings.

Rahan took out a sheet of paper from his breast pocket. He opened the wax seal. “I was surprised at first when I heard the talks will be with Sha’ou merchants. Is that serious, I had thought,” he said.

The attendant pulled out a seat in front of the roundtable. Airin looked at Rahan. Rahan grinned, urging her, and Airin sat.Maomao didn’t know if that was the behaviour of an attendant or that was etiquette from Sha’ou, but Rahan also drew a seat back and gestured Maomao to sit. Maomao was against going along with him, but it was hard to stay standing for a long time so she decided ;to ;sit.

The attendant brought in a seat before she realised and Rahan set it down in a place that would be easy to sit.

After Rahan sat down, the attendant began to prepare drinks. It wasn’t something you can drink as is; it was diluted with water. Since it’s a strong spirit.

(Just what kind of talk is starting?)

There shouldn’t be a need for Maomao to be here, right? Apart from drinking wine, there was nothing for her to do. It would have to be no good to sleep just because there was a large bed, right?

However, the woman called Airin started to talk about something that forced Maomao wide awake.

“I’ll say it clearly since it’s hard to beat around the bush. Can you allow us to live in your country?”

“…can you explain what you mean by that?” Rahan said as he pushed up his glasses.

It should be fine to just move here, right? It wasn’t absent for foreign entertainers to become interested in other countries and just stay there. It was quite common for merchants too.

However, the woman before her eyes didn’t look like an entertainer. And her air was different to a merchant’s

“What’s ;your reason?” he asked.

“Do you know the governing style of my country?” Airin asked.

At Airin’s question, Maomao tilted her head. Maomao only had knowledge of how that country was used as an intermediator for trade.

This part, Rahan was quite able for it. “I heard that it is governed based on the oracle of the priestess.”

The government does this and that according to divination. Even this country, Rii, had a couple of parts that rely on it, although the weight of it is small. The imperial court also has a post that specialises in divination.

“In truth, it is the god. The young girl is worshipped as the god, and her words become the voice of the god,” Airin said.

It was something that was difficult to understand for Maomao. It was the same for Rahan. Both of them had characters where they believe what they see with their own eyes. However, they got the gist of it. Otherwise, they wouldn’t cross over with society.

Rahan regarded Airin as he stroked his chin. “What ;Iknow, is that I heard that the current goddess has reigned for close to thirty years, though?”

From the fact that he was using “I(watashi)” rather than “I(boku)”, Rahan must be recognising that this is a public place. In other words, he wasn’t putting confidence into this woman.

At his question, Airin’s expression shifted into a faint smile “Indeed, in the past, there are also those whose lives ended as gods. The current goddess’ mark of a woman has yet to come. Thus, she still possesses the qualifications of a god.”

In other words, her menarche hasn’t come. There are cases where it comes extremely late, but if it hasn’t come when she’s past thirty, it probably wouldn’t come at all.

“Normally, even if it’s long, it will change in around ten years,” Airin said.

She felt that Airin’s words were filled with slight contempt.

Only allowed on Creativenovels.com

“Even I might have sat there with that duty,” she added.

Maomao understood the reasons for this woman to suggest her moving.