Horizon:GT2 Chapter15

Chapter 15: Bait and Resolve

Not so fast

We are in fact

Quite busy

Point Allocation (I Just Wanted to Say That)

●

Masazumi was led to an inn built on Asakusa.

She first thought it was built on top of a warehouse because everything here was on top of the large wooden shipping containers.

But a plaza with a stage was located out front of the longhouse-style inn. Out back was something like a back garden surrounded by more wooden containers.

She considered it a back garden because there really was a garden there.

…I guess they want to attract tourists.

The evening sun shined on the thicket of trees growing from a block of dirt ground. As for her…

…Maybe I should have told dad what’s going on.

She had been guided here by a forgettable ninja named Crossunite. As he explained it…

“To be honest, this is both the safest and most dangerous place for you.”

“What does that mean?”

“The festival being held out front is guarded by the Chancellor’s Officers, so even if they are not actively guarding you, they can respond quickly to most any attacker. But they are guarding the festival because it is the most likely target for an attacker.”

That makes sense, she decided.

…If only they were allowing change of residence requests for more than overnight stays.

Then her full request could have gone through and she would be a Musashi resident. Musashi’s Chancellor’s Officers and guards wouldn’t be able to ignore possible harm to one of their citizens.

But thanks to everything happening, she was instead still a Mikawa resident and Musashi could not proactively protect her.

“What is your understanding of this incident?” When she asked, a short boy stepped out from below the eaves. He wore glasses and beige Western-style clothing instead of a Far Eastern Uniform.

“Excuse me. I am Neshinbara Toussaint from Musashi Ariadust Academy Class 1-Plum. I have some questions for you. Because I am from Tres España originally.”

He raised his right hand for no apparent reason and added comments of “please, you have nothing to fear” and “you can relax, I assure you”, but she wasn’t afraid and she was perfectly relaxed. Was this guy alright?

At any rate, he asked his first question.

“Why do you think you are being targeted?”

“The culprit of the murder in Mikawa ran into me at night. Didn’t it say so in the report provided by Mikawa’s Chancellor’s Officers?”

“Crossunite-kun here saw the culprit call your name.”

Don’t you mean heard? Whatever. And does this mean he was the ninja yelling about a fire?

○

Flat Vassal: “Um, is it just me or is the Vice President’s distrust of us only growing?”

Vice President: “Can you blame me!? One of them strikes weird poses and the other is a weird ninja!”

Scarred: “M-Master Tenzou is not weird.”

Girls: “…”

Scarred: “Oh, um, uh, th-thank you for the applause! Thank you! We will do our very best to live up to your generous support!”

Gold Mar: “Did she just win an election?”

●

Masazumi decided these two were on her side. At the very least, they weren’t with the group that attacked her and they were trying to work with her to reach an understanding of the situation. Furthermore…

“So you’re in my year.”

“You will be joining our class. I imagine Principal Sakai had a hand in that. Because we lack a politician. In that sense, I am glad to have you. I hope your change of residence goes through quickly.”

She wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that, but she kind of agreed.

“I will be in a bit of a bind if I can’t move to the Musashi.”

“Then do you know why your request isn’t going through?”

“Because there was a murder in Mikawa and they know the murderer is still there.”

“Correct,” agreed Neshinbara. “And the likely murderer called your name and attacked you.”

“Judge. And I don’t know why.”

“Then why did Tres España agree to reduce the frozen requests to only permanent residence changes?”

“Good question,” she muttered, starting to think. She spoke her first idea aloud. “To use me as bait?”

●

Only after the fact did Masazumi realize the gravity of what she had said.

…Is that really it?

She had more or less guessed this already, but only by sharing it with someone else did its meaning hit home.

“What do you want to do? You don’t have a sign frame, do you? If you want to contact your father, I can have Asama-kun route you through.”

“Is the Asama Shrine Representative here too?”

“She arrived earlier. She is waiting next door right now.”

I see, thought Masazumi. This is turning into a big deal.

If she was being honest, she wanted to contact her father and let him make a decision for her. Because…

“This incident is on the level of a history recreation.”

…How did this happen?

What would her father think if he knew she was trying to involve herself in something like that?

She had no experience with this and hadn’t studied up on it, but she was getting involved in an incident that could influence a major nation.

Would he tell her to stop? But she heard a sudden racket outside.

“Hey, Asama! We’ve got everything set up, but what are you all doing in here?”

“W-wait, Toori-kun!? How did you get in through the rear!? There are guards!”

“Heh heh heh. Silly girl. Touching the entertainers is off limits! I rode my foolish brother’s shoulders all the way here while he insisted everyone clear the way!”

The forgettable ninja said “why am I not surprised?”, but Masazumi chose to ignore this. But the strange voice outside wasn’t done.

“Hey, I don’t know what you’re up to in here, but I brought you some food. I’m headed back to the festival area if you need me.”

It sounded like he was addressing all the others, not her.

“If you go all out with it, you won’t regret it,” he continued. “Today’s a festival, after all. So no holding back. Make sure you end the day with a smile.”

●

Oh, thought Asama. He must have figured out more or less what’s going on.

“Here you go,” he said, holding out a basket of snacks. He was even dressed as a festival snack seller.

“I’m glad you managed to get a stand this time.”

“If my sales are good enough, I might have a chance to do this again at the gagaku festival.”

Asama and the wolf accepted the snacks from him and Asama asked him a question.

“So all’s well that ends with a smile?”

“It’s a philosophy that rarely steers you wrong. It’s what I’m following these days. So,” he said. “I kind of hope we can all follow it.”

●

Masazumi sucked in a breath.

…That’s right.

She had considered many different things these past few days.

Like what her future would hold.

And what she should do about her past.

The future was an unknown, but her past was known. However, if she became someone new in the future, she still had to figure out what to do about her past.

Would she accept it or would she throw it out, forget it, and distance herself from it?

She understood that much.

But what did it mean to deal with something you understood so well? Her past was something only she could understand. A past was something everyone had, but it was also unique to each person.

She couldn’t write this off as a problem everyone faced.

It was her problem.

“That’s right.”

She suddenly realized she had been trying to figure out what she should do in the future, but…

…That’s not the right question.

She needed to consider something much simpler.

It wasn’t about what she should do. She would never reach an answer there.

She couldn’t predict the future, so she needed to instead think about…

…What I want to do.

“In that case…it just needs to be something that lets me smile in the end, huh?”

That was good enough for now.

She had no idea what her father would say afterwards and she might end up deeply regretting this. But…

“That counts as a goal, doesn’t it?”

She had a goal, so now she had to decide what to do based on that.

What could she do that would let her smile in the end?

…I know.

Her mother had always been smiling. All the housework keeping her busy couldn’t have been fun. That she still managed to smile was probably a form of stubbornness, but what if the housework and other tasks keeping her busy were all to preserve that smile?

If so, Masazumi’s father was the same. He was pushing her away, being strict with her, and hiding what he was thinking, but could it be for the same reason as her mother? He might be doing it out of concern for her.

She couldn’t know what someone else was thinking, so she had to focus on her own thoughts. And in this case…

“I agree too.”

●

Masazumi had some speculation regarding the incident. Why was she being targeted? Why was Tres España involved? If her speculation was correct…

“This is going to be trouble. It would be best if the rest of you didn’t hear any of this. So I would like for you to keep everyone but me and my bodyguards away from this room.

“But…”

Did she have to explain some of the reason before they would agree?

So she stated something that she was confident of even if it was speculation.

“A few days ago, Tres España carried out a history recreation: the Nossa Senhora da Graça Incident. The crew of a Far Eastern trade ship was killed during some trouble with Catholic Tres Portugal in Macau. The representative of Hinoe Domain retaliated by attacking Pessoa, the man behind it, and sinking his ship.”

“Judge. I remember seeing that in the newspaper. The article said Tres España would soon resolve the incident internally,” said the ninja.

Masazumi continued from there, feeling like she was pretending at negotiation or politics.

“But there is more to the incident. The recreation was started early in the Far East, but the Testament says this incident eventually led to a certain movement.”

“What movement?”

“Well,” she said. “The banning of foreign religions. A political decision was made to drive Catholicism out of the Far East. They decided it was too dangerous to let it stay. Now keep everyone away like I asked. You hope to capture the murderer using me as bait, don’t you?”

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