The Twelve Kingdoms: A Thousand Leagues of Wind

"Livestock are also born on the riboku, right?"
    "Yes. From the first of the month to the seventh, petitions are made to the riboku. The first day is for birds like chickens and ducks. The second day is for dogs. The third day is for sheep and goats. The fourth day is for boars and pigs. The fifth day is for cattle, and the sixth for horses. The seventh day is for people."
    "People? There are days designated for people?"
    "Yeah. On the seventh or any day after the ninth. Children requested on the seventh are supposed to turn out the best. My mom said that Keikei was."
    "I see."
    "Livestock germinate in a month. You can tie many ribbons at once, but not all of them will necessarily grow a ranka. For people, it's always only one."
    "So you don't have twins?"
    "Twins?"
    "When two children are born at the same time? In Yamato, as many as five children have been born at the same time."
    "Wow, that's weird." Rangyoku looked back over her shoulder at the Rishi. "The eighth day is for crops. But only the empress can make such requests."
    "You can grow the five grains [wheat, rice, beans, and kinds of millet] whenever you want yourself just by planting the seeds. When they bear fruit, you get more seeds, right?"
    "That would seem to be the case."
    "Plants and trees aren't animals. But not just anybody can make requests for new grain stocks. Only the empress can do that, and at a tree in the Imperial Palace. When Heaven grants the request and the tree bears fruit, the next year, a ranka containing those seeds can grow on every riboku in the kingdom.
    Youko opened her eyes wide with surprise. This certainly was news to her. She'd have to ask Enho to fill her in on the details.
    " Yaboku, or wild riboku, grow animals other than livestock and domesticated birds. Did you know there are trees in the water, too?"
    "I didn't. For fish, I imagine?"
    Rangyoku smiled. "Exactly. And then yaboku for wild grasses and trees."
    "Plants other than grains just grow on their own?"
    "They do. Otherwise there wouldn't be any new plants and trees. So it seems like they can do it all by themselves. When and where new grasses are born nobody knows. So now and then people examine the base of yaboku to see if any unfamiliar plants are growing there. If there are, then bring them home and grow them. There are itinerants who do that for a living. They're called husbandry hunters. They go around searching for new ranka. It also seems to depend on the riboku. There are trees that produce a lot wild species, and those that don't at all. The ones that do are kept secret. No one will talk about them. Hunters will kill people who try to follow them."
    "Huh."
    "You can gather unusual medicines and herbs and saplings for new crops and sell them, but it sounds like a scary business."
    Youko nodded in agreement. Of course, people were discriminated against in this world as well. There wasn't much discrimination based on occupation, because vocations weren't inherited along family lines. No matter what family a child came from, he would get a partition when he turned twenty. A big business or enterprise couldn't be passed on to your children. The disabled were also treated with compassion. But the world was closed off to hanjuu and itinerants.
    "What is it?" Rangyoku asked.
    Youko shook her head.
    Her friend was a hanjuu. In gratefulness to him, she wished to repeal all the laws that held hanjuu back. The ministers refused to go along. She considered it for her Inaugural Rescript, but that didn't sit right with her. The Inaugural Rescript was supposed to make a statement. Without really being aware of it, she had become seized with the conviction that she should carry out her first official duties with all the self-confidence and gravity of an empress.
    "Did I say something bad?"
    "No, of course not. Just something that's been on my mind of late. Ah, here we are."
    She and Rangyoku came to the town gate. Rangyoku had to leave for the grazing grounds. Youko had a task in Hokui.
    "Well, cheer up, okay?"
    Youko smiled. No doubt, Rangyoku assumed that her dolefulness was caused by thoughts of her homeland. Appreciative of such sentiments, Youko waved and headed west on the loop road.

    Towns usually had only one main gate. Kokei had two. That's because Kokei had originally been a part of Hokui.
    The town was definitely the nucleus of the city. The city offices were originally located in an extension of the town hall. When the city became a county seat, the tables were