Tamed #1
“So what I did back then was…….”
“You bastard! Even bullshit has its limits! That doesn’t make any sense…….”
Several days had passed since Megus’s sudden outburst.
The unsettled atmosphere had fully settled, and everyone had grown indifferent, treating it as just another thing that had happened. The Yo clansfolk of the merchant caravan chatted at ease with their hoods off.
Crack. Freesia gazed into the red-burning campfire, lost in thought. Behind her impassive expression she struggled to rein in the emotions flaring as fiercely red as the flames themselves. At the same time she felt a sharp, stabbing ache in her chest.
If I hadn’t been there.
If that had been the case… wouldn’t Edgar’s head have gone flying for daring to provoke the Seeker so recklessly?
The mere thought made anxiety and a sense of loss crash over her.
Tch.
Freesia clicked her tongue lightly, fingers laced together. Her eyes, fixed on the campfire, flashed with sharp resolve, as if she had made up her mind.
On the day the royal merchant caravan returned to the palace after its long journey, Iris let out a heavy sigh right in front of Freesia. Every piece of the report her daughter had come to deliver late at night was far from ordinary.
“This time… a great many things really did happen.”
The other side’s merchant secretly bringing the Seeker along. That Seeker suddenly flying into a rage and charging at them. It was only natural that Iris’s eyes took on a troubled light.
“Yes. So I wanted to discuss it with you a little, Mother.”
“Of course. This isn’t something we can simply let slide.”
Iris nodded, acknowledging the point. They needed countermeasures so the same thing would never happen again.
“First I should hear your thoughts. Do you have something in mind?”
“I do, actually.”
“Let’s hear it.”
When Iris laid the groundwork, Freesia opened her mouth as if she had been waiting.
“For now I think we need to open a new trading partner. I’m even considering going to a city farther out from… Paestum.”
“Why did you come to that conclusion?”
“Setting aside that they tried to stab us in the back the first time, the fact that they brought the Seeker makes things feel awfully awkward. Of course there was nothing we could do about the pressure the Seeker herself applied… but I can’t help feeling uneasy about it.”
“Without trust, things always leave a bad taste. Changing trading partners is a sound idea. But how do you think that merchant will react?”
“He’ll probably spread rumors, won’t he?”
A hollow smile touched Freesia’s lips as she answered.
If you can’t have it, smash it. Humans already regarded the Yo as filthy, so finding other deals would be difficult. Merchant Hans would spread rumors with exactly that intention in mind.
Iris nodded at her daughter’s prediction. The candle lighting the room flickered gently, illuminating both mother and daughter’s faces.
“In that case it will be extremely hard to open trade with new humans, won’t it?”
“Edgar said the same thing. But he also said there might be another possibility.”
“What kind?”
Edgar. Every time that name left her daughter’s lips, Iris felt interest and worry rise together. Her daughter, who had never shown interest in the opposite sex, was showing favor to this man alone—yet he was human. Because he was human, she worried that when a critical moment came he might side with humans rather than with her daughter.
Still…….
Judging by this latest incident, she felt she could ease that worry a little. Personal feelings aside, he had crushed the Seeker head-on.
“He said human greed might be the answer.”
Freesia answered in a flat tone, recalling the conversation she had shared with Edgar.
Back then Freesia herself had asked, “Wouldn’t that mean we couldn’t open any trade at all?”
Edgar’s reply had been this:
“If trade really ends up completely blocked, we can just drop it. Honestly, we haven’t taken any losses. It’s a shame, but shutting it down wouldn’t deal us a heavy blow.”
“That’s… true, I guess?”
Information circulating among people could be dug up some other way. If they put their minds to it they would find the answer. Freesia agreed with that thinking as well.
“Yes. But personally… I think finding another trading partner might not be as hard as we expect.”
“Why?”
“Because the silk clothes are beautiful.”
It was silk superior in everything from luster to texture compared to the fabrics already circulating. It could thoroughly satisfy the vanity of nobles—or anyone with money.
Of course, if word got out that the Yo had made it, people might throw the silk away as filthy. The stereotype that the Yo were dirty and vulgar ran strong. But there would surely be people who saw it as an opportunity regardless of that image. People who thought it didn’t matter whether the Yo made it or not, as long as the goods were good.
And the moment those people became new customers and began buying the silk… even the humans who had previously bought the silk and then flown into a rage would……
“That boy really thought that far ahead?”
“Yes. He said that once things go that way, people’s thoughts about the Yo might change without them noticing. At least on the surface.”
Iris, who had asked in surprise, moved her lips and then closed them again. Her eyes and ears found Edgar and Freesia’s logic appealing.
If they could make people feel attraction toward Yo-made products starting with the silk… they might even be able to change humans’ arrogant notions in the end.
It’s not completely pie-in-the-sky talk.
Humans seemed to band together yet were each separate; they seemed separate yet banded together. And this case could be seen as stimulating the side of humans that was each separate.
Iris reached that conclusion.
“Your thinking has merit. So for now you plan to rest and watch how the situation develops?”
When Iris asked in a gentle voice, Freesia answered just as gently.
“That’s the plan. We were going to take a long break anyway, so you could say this worked out well. I’ll contact the silk producers myself.”
“Do that. Since it’s come to this, rest thoroughly. As far as I’m concerned you don’t even have to go out at all…….”
Iris trailed off and shot Freesia a sidelong glance. It was a signal that the profits they had already gained were enough; there was no need to force anything. Freesia seemed to understand, for she smirked and nodded.
“I’ll think about that a bit more. But… Mother.”
The smiling speech lasted only a moment. A shadow fell over Freesia’s expression as she called to Iris. She was afraid of what reaction might come from the words she was about to speak.
Seeing her daughter’s stiffened voice and face, Iris wiped away her smile. She anticipated that a serious, and potentially grating, sensitive topic was about to emerge.
“Hmm? What is it?”
“Would you… allow Edgar to learn sorcery?”
Just as expected.
The moment the word sorcery slipped out, Iris’s gaze grew even heavier.
Just as humans had mages, the Yo had sorcerers. So sorcery itself was not some enormous secret that had to be locked away tightly. The door to learning stood open, and it was common for those who obtained the chance to master it.
The problem was that a human would be learning sorcery. At the very least, Iris had drawn that line.
“…Are you serious?”
A chill edged the voice that asked again. The unspoken meaning—that she would not grant permission—pressed down on Freesia.
“Yes.”
Even so, Freesia kept her head bowed and declared that she wanted things done her way.
What was this about?
Iris hid her curiosity and asked in a voice that had softened just a little. It did not look like a decision made on a momentary impulse.
“Why?”
“…Because I’m scared.”
Scared. The unexpected answer made Iris tilt her head and ask.
“Scared? Of what?”
“If I hadn’t been there… that man would have died.”
“And that scares you?”
Iris’s eyes, fixed on Freesia, began to waver more and more. Eyes that had been like an impregnable fortress were trembling at just a word or two from her daughter. Eyes that would not have budged for any other Yo.
It was proof of how deeply Iris cherished and loved Freesia.
“Have you… grown that fond of the boy?”
“Yes. But… what scared me more was not knowing how I might have reacted. If that man—if Edgar—had died, I feel like I would have done the same thing I did that day.”
Good heavens. Iris covered her mouth with one hand in astonishment. She knew exactly what day Freesia was talking about. And she knew what her daughter’s heart had been like then as well.
Teaching sorcery to a human was not forbidden by law. They had simply lived so cut off from each other, as if the other did not exist, that the idea had never even been imaginable.
Iris intended to grant permission according to her daughter’s wishes, but just in case she spoke as follows.
“If you put it that strongly… then do as you like. But there is a condition.”
“What is it?”
The moment permission fell, Freesia’s head, which had been pointed downward, snapped up. Even her eyes sparkled at the thought that she had cleared one hurdle.
“If a situation ever arises where you must weigh humans against the Yo, you must of course choose the Yo. You must prioritize the interests of the Yo over those of humans. Understood? This is a rule and condition you must stake your life on keeping.”
It was grim, yet not as difficult a condition as it might have seemed. Especially for Edgar, who had never regarded the Yo with aversion from the start. So Freesia answered as if it were no great matter.
“Yes. I’ll do that. I should tell him as well.”
“Tell… him?”
Here, “tell” of course meant the condition Iris had just stated. Yet something still felt off, so Iris narrowed her eyes and asked. Freesia looked at her mother’s half-lidded eyes and slowly opened her mouth.
“Yes. This is purely my own wish. That man still doesn’t know a thing.”
She had thought as much. She had simply assumed Edgar’s own will had not been completely left out of the equation. That was also why Iris had reacted more sharply.
Yet the person who might actually learn the sorcery knew nothing at all. Iris inwardly lamented the rather hasty handling of the matter.
“My daughter. Your way of handling things is truly… like this.”
Like this.
It was a phrase that would make anyone angry to hear, yet Freesia’s lips stayed tightly shut and would not open. The tense atmosphere had softened, but Freesia’s expression remained rigid.