A Guest of the Haudenosaunee
There is a truly wonderful farming method on the Eastern Continent called the Three Sisters Farming.
You plant squash in the ground, and once it has grown a bit, you plant corn. Then, when the corn is a little taller, you plant beans.
At first glance it looks like farming done at random, but ancient wisdom of an incredible kind is woven into it!
The squash's broad leaves choke out the weeds on the ground, and the beans supply nitrogen to the soil. That's why the crops flourish.
"You mean it's better than the Three Sisters method?"
Ah, she's misunderstood me. Apparently she thought I was dismissing it.
"No, no — when I first came to the Eastern Continent, that very Three Sisters method was what surprised me most. I think it's truly remarkable wisdom."
"Ahem, ahem."
Granny is awfully quick-tempered. Is she that passionate about farming? One word of praise for her crops and she's suddenly all pleased.
"Even with that wisdom, you still have to move your fields periodically, don't you? I can eliminate that and let far more crops grow."
And since this region gets plenty of rain, it seemed like a good idea to teach them the Daehan method of farming here too.
The Three Sisters method is only good for subsistence-level farming; it isn't suited to mass production.
Eventually, there'd be a hard ceiling on the harvest.
"Is that truly so?"
Hard to believe, I suppose. Without the concept of fertilizer, it's an impossible idea no one would ever think to imagine.
"If the chance arises, you should come see our land. There, farming goes on all year round, even in winter."
"What! Truly?"
Only within the World Tree's range, but it's an outrageously overpowered ability all the same.
"I would very much like to bring you there and show you myself."
Once you see it, you won't be able to resist. Trust me.
"It happens to be winter — might I go now?"
"Are you able to leave the village empty?"
Wasn't she someone very high up?
Win over just one person this high-ranking, and the whole job gets easier.
"Hoo... The harvests keep shrinking, and food has grown so scarce that the men have been going out to hunt far away. Somehow, I must find a solution."
Ah. So with all that hunting, the animals have been thinning out, which drove them farther and farther afield — and that's how they ran into us? No wonder the village seemed so far from the fort.
"Would you truly like to visit Daehan? I can't speak for everything else, but it's a country where you need never worry about food. Not one bit."
Can't speak for everything else, but when it comes to food, we're dead serious!
"There is truly that much food?"
"Yes. We farm and raise animals on that grain, and we eat those animals. We don't go out hunting."
Well, occasionally I do go hunting as a hobby, but that's an exception, you know?
"By word alone, it sounds a paradise on earth. But how am I to believe it?"
Fair enough, right? It really is a wonderful place to live. Unlike the other nations of Europe or the Middle East, we don't exploit the common folk. Do you know how much happier that alone makes people?
And when you're dirt-poor next door to another country, well, comparing yourself to them makes you feel relatively happy too.
"We'll stay here while you're away. Go take a look for yourself. You won't regret it."
"Still..."
Granny is quite the skeptic, isn't she...
"Even one person is enough. We know a way for everyone to live happily."
"Hmm..."
I wish she'd set her doubts aside.
"I am the highest-ranked person on this side. Since I am staying here, no one will pull anything funny."
"What! We do not take hostages!"
Aigoo! Granny, you're far too quick on the draw. If you'd just turned it over in your head a moment longer...
"No — I am a guest."
"...Huh? The young woman is truly wise, isn't she?"
"Ehehe..."
How flattering, hmm? Never mind that I've probably lived about fifty times longer than Granny here.
"By the way — Daehan?"
"Yes. That is our country's name."
"What is a country?"
Hmm. How should I explain this to these people?
Every village has a representative, and those representatives meet to decide policy — isn't that practically democracy? And there's even a separate institution to keep those representatives in check?
It seems similar to the League, yet a little different. How should I put it into words?
"It is a gathering of an enormous number of tribes, who share their wisdom together and stand against their enemies as one."
"Oh? Share their wisdom, you say? Are there many people?"
"Hmm... At the very least, more than ten thousand times the size of your League."
"Gahk!"
Aigoo. Granny's about to choke. Maybe a hundred thousand times, honestly?
Put another way, this amounts to saying, 'We are that powerful, and yet we chose to show you goodwill.'
"Remarkable, this country of yours.... With that many people, of course your farming would advance."
Not exactly, but close enough, I suppose?
Strictly speaking, the farming flourished first, and then the people multiplied — but what's the difference, really?
"Yes. And since our land is so vast, representatives are chosen and there is a place where they gather to voice their views and hold council."
"It is not so unlike us, then?"
Theirs is presumably a peaceful council. Ours is a battlefield... Fists occasionally fly, you know?
Still, the mood with Granny was flowing along pleasantly.
"So, to put it simply — I am inviting you to join a gathering far greater than your League."
Though entering is up to you, leaving won't be so easy. Not that I intend to make you want to leave.
"Remarkable, indeed."
"The way policy is decided and things are run will differ from here, but it will not diminish your autonomy. And—"
Time for the gift-giving, I think. I need to show them what they stand to gain by joining us.
Clatter-clatter, clang-jangle, thunk-thunk.
Goodness, why does that armor roll around so shapelessly?
I'd taken out quite a lot of axes and armor, you see?
"..."
Granny appears to have fainted with her eyes wide open?
"Are you all right?"
"Where in the world did all this come from?"
"That's a secret~"
Trying to pry into the secrets of my subspace, are you? Even I don't know the answer to that one.
"You can receive weapons and farming tools like these. And if you wish, you may even use an enormous farming machine called the Gulleongsoe."
"What in the world kind of place is it?"
"A country built because we wanted everyone to live together in harmony and joy."
We just want to live quietly and peacefully, but there are always ruffians who have to go poking at us, so we've never thrown the first punch. Probably?
Whatever the kids do out there is just cute horseplay, after all!
If we'd ever fought in earnest, wouldn't everything but us have been reduced to ash?
"As you can see, it lies very far from here, and I am an old woman. Could I truly make the journey?"
"It's no trouble at all. Would you like to try going once?"
There happens to be a wonderfully convenient thing called a train, you know. You can even ride there and back the same day.
At this point she's practically won over, isn't she? One tour and it's a done deal.
"Wait a while. I must hold a council."
"Ah — and everything I've brought out here is a gift. Take it with you and talk it over."
"Ah! Gifts.... My thanks to you!"
If you're a guest and want to be treated well, you have to give good gifts — that's simply the rule.
Granny, perhaps seeing the usefulness of the axe immediately, was stroking one with her hand.
It fells trees, doubles as a weapon, and in a pinch can even serve as a shovel — a truly versatile tool.
"Ah!"
Thump, thump, thump.
"Oh? And this?"
"This is even more important!"
Do you know what sells best in Daehan's trade?
Setting aside food, weapons, and luxury goods — it's cotton. This stuff sells in absolutely staggering quantities.
"Go on, feel it."
"It feels like cloth? How can anything be this soft?"
"There are mountains of cloth like this, too."
"By the way, where do you keep pulling these things from?"
She seems to have decided that since I possess some wondrous arts, I must have something like a magic pouch as well.
Well, fair enough — if such a thing existed, I'd want one too.
"I tuck things into a secret pouch and take them out when needed."
"Could such a thing be made?"
"There's only one in existence, and it's mine alone."
"A pity..."
She really did covet it, apparently. Then again, how would anyone else even be able to use it?
"Hmm..."
What is she pondering so gravely?
"Do you happen to have a mate?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"I mean, is there a man? How would you like to meet my grandson?"
Oh dear?
"I'm quite old, you know?"
"Old? How old could you possibly be?"
"Before long, I'll be turning four thousand."
"Ohohoho! Understood! This topic ends here."
And she gave my shoulder a hearty slap — good heavens, what strength. My whole body swayed like a reed in the wind.
"I must convene the council, so you will remain here for the time being."
"Thank you."
I suppose I'll be staying here a while, then. The chiefs of the surrounding tribes would be gathering for a grand council, she said.
Then people came in and busily carried the gifts away. I had laid out quite a generous spread, after all.
The cotton alone was enough to clothe every man, woman, and child in this village at least once over.
A few days after Haneul entered the Seneca village, the tribal council was convened.
"Is everyone gathered?"
"Yes."
More than fifty people had assembled. Curiously, quite a large number of them were women.
"The guest from the west came to us today and said that if we join with her people, we need never worry about food again."
Murmur, murmur.
At once the crowd began talking over one another — how could such a thing even be possible?
"Surely this isn't some trick to deceive us?"
"Do you see the things laid before you?"
"Yes..."
"They were offered as gifts. Examine them."
At one side of the fire pit sat axes, armor, and cotton.
The people reached out and handled the goods among themselves.
Thwack.
"Gahk... It's harder than stone!"
These people did use gold, silver, and copper, so they knew of metal — but iron they had never known.
One man swung his stone axe against a steel axe, and the stone head shattered, as any observer would expect.
"And the edge isn't even nicked."
"Are there many things like this?"
Thud, crumble.
"Gahk! My axe!"
Meanwhile, deeper in, another man was bringing a stone axe down upon a suit of armor. The stone axe, of course, burst into fragments.
"Oh! So such things truly exist!"
"What in the world can this be!"
The men's interest was, without question, the axes and armor.
"This is soft and warm to the touch — it's wonderful, isn't it?"
"To think there could be so much of this cloth..."
"Clothes made of this would keep us warm even in winter."
In complete contrast, the women's interest was, naturally, the cloth.
"Ahem."
"..."
"..."
At the Clan Mother's cough, the room fell silent at once — proof enough of how great her authority was.
"You have all examined them closely, yes? Chiefs — what say you? If we fought those who wield such weapons, could we win?"
"Fear not! We would never retreat — we would stand and fight!"
The male chiefs answered that they would never yield and would meet them head-on, yet privately they wondered whether victory was even possible.
"She said their village is ten thousand times larger than ours. What of that?"
"Gahk..."
At that point, weapons aside, wasn't it beyond the level where they could win even if the enemy came at them bare-handed?
"Even so, we would give our utmost."
"Yes. I too pondered long and hard. And yet these people have come asking for dialogue. I had my suspicions, of course."
As Clan Mother, she had spent sleepless nights turning the question over. What were Daehan's true intentions?
But no matter how she considered it, the simplest path was to fight them off and drive them away. Watching the hesitant men before her, and looking at those weapons, her conviction only deepened.
"Furthermore, there is said to be land where crops grow all year round, and I intend to go see it."
"Gahk..."
"Mother..."
This time it was the women who were astonished — for in the League, most of the farming fell to the women.
They understood at once how extraordinary this was. A crop ordinarily took three or four months to grow; to think farming could continue all year long — it was an immense thing.
"And even were it not their land, we are told that by learning their farming methods, we could harvest more crops than we do now — without moving our fields."
"Hah..."
"..."
The people had finally run out of words.
"Could this not be some scheme to deceive us?"
"While we go and see, the guest from that side has agreed to remain here."
"As a hostage?"
"As a guest."
"Ah..."
With the harvests dwindling under the repeated strange weather of recent years, these people were in a state of crisis.
They had to find some way forward so their children wouldn't starve — but when they hunted animals, territorial clashes were breaking out with the other tribes nearby.
"And so I wish to send a few of us to see it. Above all, she was the first person I have ever met who carries the scent of nature herself. I wish to trust her."
"Ah..."
"As Mother wills..."
The greatest reason she had wanted to place her faith in Haneul was the feeling of peace that emanated from her.