The Wings of Dreams

don’t. I’ve invited them over, their employers included, for dinner. Offered to share my tent. But even Gankyuu turns a deaf ear.”
    “That he does.”
    “I understand where the goushi are coming from. If everybody knew what they knew, the value of their services would go down. It wouldn’t be good for business. I hate to say it, but if amateurs like us don’t suffer a little now and then, the goushi will lose face in front of their employers. If going to Mt. Hou and coming back again was that easy, they wouldn’t be so eager to cough up the rest of their fees.”
    “That could have something to do with it.”
    “However sordid it may seem to you, Shushou, it’s not personal. It’s business.”
    Shushou pinched her brows and Kiwa continued. “That’s why I didn’t hire a goushi in the first place. Those going to the Yellow Sea for commercial reasons can stand to get their hands a little dirty. Nothing wrong with that. Like I said, it’s business. Except that employing such measures to protect myself, I couldn’t look Kyouki in the face when I arrived on Mt. Hou. That’s why I choose to rely on myself as much as possible.”
    Kiwa smiled and asked if there was anything bothering her, if there was anything she needed. “Not at all,” Shushou answered.
    That was when word came that Ren Chodai had finally shown up. Shushou got to her feet, bid Kiwa goodnight, and went over to see for herself. Along the way, she spotted a group of goushi tussling with one of the travelers, but ignored them and instead looked for Chodai amongst the arrivals.
    “Ren-san—”
    A pinched expression on his face, Chodai was supervising as his attendants pitched the tent. He turned to the sound of her voice. Recognizing her his brow furrowed.
    “What?” he said.
    “Did you find a detour?”
    “Well—” he prevaricated. But some of his retinue were holding their legs and moaning so clearly they hadn’t fully skirted the swamp.
    “The goushi know a lot about the Yellow Sea. Why not ask for their opinion?”
    Chodai plainly scowled. “The Lord God Creator doesn’t need people who can’t take a simple journey without depending on strangers.”
    “But the Lord God Creator doesn’t need people who are dead, either. You could ask the goushi for their travel tips, or at least observe them and do what they do. Couldn’t you avoid the worse of the dangers that way? That’s what Shitsu-san does. He’s suffered fewer dead and injured than you as a result.”
    Chodai hiked up his eyebrows. “Are you saying that I don’t measure up to Kiwa?”
    “No—I—that’s not what I meant.”
    “I am crossing the Yellow Sea by my own wits and reason. That’s the best way I can prove my worthiness to be emperor.”
    “I see,” Shushou muttered, and turned to leave. “While I understand such obstinacy, it’s a pity your retinue has to suffer for it.”
    Shushou intended to beat a quick retreat. She felt her temper rising. Chodai was free to be as stubborn as the mood struck him, go searching for detours all day long. Except his attendants were the ones scouting out the unfamiliar terrain.
    “The emperor has to be a heroic figure,” Chodai voice chased after her, raw with barely-constrained anger.
    Shushou stopped and looked back at him.
    “Isn’t it the most preeminent of a kingdom’s citizens who becomes emperor? What man who bends his knee to another could be considered preeminent?”
    “My professor at school used to say that the man who cannot respect others will himself never be so respected.”
    “So you’re saying to be like Kiwa and respect the goushi by copying what they do? If respect is what you mean, wouldn’t the natural thing be to try and stand toe-to-toe with them? The goushi have a detailed knowledge of the Yellow Sea. Because it’s their occupation. But if you respect the goushi, the proper response is to learn what it takes to cross the Yellow Sea like them. Not curry favor and ape what they do and lower yourself to the level of their underlings.”
    Shushou stared up at Chodai’s thin face.
    “I respect the goushi’s knowledge of the Yellow Sea. But right now, where we are, they have no intention of rushing to the aid of those in harm’s way. And I have no intention of begging for their help. Simply because they have a more thorough knowledge of the Yellow Sea in no way obliges them to take on the burdens of those less informed.”
    “I know. I know that very well.”
    “Why they