The Twelve Kingdoms: A Thousand Leagues of Wind

thing I have learned living in the real world is that I don't understand it at all."
    "Empress."
    Youko smiled at the scowling Keiki. "I'll return after I've learned everything inside and out. I can't believe I'm saying this myself, but I don't know when I'll return to Gyouten. That's how much I've figured out I didn't know."
    "Indeed," said Keiki.
    "I'm pretty sure I'll know for myself when enough is enough. I don't regret it. Coming down to the real world to live like this was absolutely necessary."
    "Yes."
    "So please wait until I've come to a conclusion. I don't think it will take that long."
    Keiki didn't answer, but only bowed deeply.

Part XIV
    er rescuer came into the room. "How are you feeling?"
    Shoukei smiled stiffly. "Nothing worse than a sprain. Thank you."
    The man had carried her to a dilapidated house in Hokkaku. The first thing she'd noticed when they arrived was that she couldn't walk. She'd twisted her ankle either when she was scrambling up to the parapets or jumping down into the alleyway. She'd already observed it swelling up a bit.
    Shoukei sat down with her leg propped up on a couch. The man pulled out a chair. "You're a brave young girl, but caution is the better part of valor. The girl who ran off into the countryside, do you know who she was?"
    "I don't. She helped me get away and then just disappeared."
    The man said absently to himself, "Her actions struck me as something more than simple kindness--more an extraordinary display of resolve."
    Shoukei leaned forward. "I could say the same about you."
    The man smiled broadly, a smile that bespoke the character of a good-natured individual. "Call me Kantai. I've settled here in Hokkaku. I'm a mercenary of sorts."
    "A mercenary? You?" His laid-back attitude didn't match the merciless image of a soldier.
    "I've got a good arm for it. You run into a lot of highwaymen around here. So I get hired to protect people and their stuff. You don't really need to be all that strong. There simply aren't that many men who really know how to handle a sword."
    "And that's why you came to my rescue?"
    Kantai gently smiled. "I know the feeling, wanting to clobber somebody with a rock like that."
    "Oh." Shoukei felt the tension ease out of her shoulders. "I'm Shoukei."
    "Shoukei-san. Did you have a place to stay tonight? The gates have closed already."
    Shoukei shook her head.
    "You can stay here if you'd like. I'm renting the place with a couple of my mercenary friends. They're admittedly an ill-bred lot, but they're not bad blokes."
    "Thank you, but I hate to impose."
    Kantai laughed. "Forget about it. After having to look at their sorry faces all day, a pretty girl like you is a breath of fresh air. Anyway, you'd have a tough time trying to find an inn after this."
    Shoukei nodded. There was still the possibility that people were searching for her. "But what about yourself? I'd think they would remember your face as well."
    This truly did bring a worried look to the man's face. "That's for damn sure. I'm going to have to lay off work for a while. Well, at any rate, food's not an issue, so I'm not too concerned."
    "I'm sorry."
    "You've got nothing to be sorry about. It was my decision to rescue you, after all. I've got my own thoughts about the way they do things around here." Shoukei leaned closer and looked at him. Kantai smiled a bit awkwardly. "When you take seventy percent in taxes, not everybody's going to be able to pay."
    "Seventy percent."
    "In Wa Province, seventy percent is the standard. In fact, the governor of Shisui is the only beast who collects seventy percent. So you're talking fifty to sixty percent on the outside. But nobody can live under that kind of tax burden. In Wa, everybody lives the life of a refugee."
    "That's awful."
    The tax rate was normally ten percent. At the very worse, additional levies could increase it to thirty percent. At seventy percent, it's tough getting enough to eat, let alone living any kind of life.
    "And if you don't pay, you end up like they did. On top of the taxes are the heavy demands placed on the work gangs, building walls, roads, bridges. Those walls are what you get when you throw people off their land and press them into hard labor."
    "Why do they put up with it?"
    "Because nobody wants to be crucified."
    "Yeah."
    Kantai patted Shoukei on the shoulder. "Until things calm down, you can rest here. Take your time. " He smiled a bit bashfully. "But before you go, I could use a little help around the