The True Identity of the Migrant Band

[Northwest of the Dungeon]

The refugees were taking a short rest. At the head of the column, a war council was under way.

"The Asura are a warrior race, so a dungeon ruled by Asura is bound to be fortified. There's no doubt the castle gate is rigged with traps."

"We know that much, you damned Preta."

The dog was spoiling for a fight with the Preta from the very start. For the record, the Preta look exactly like the figures painted in the temples.

"The Preta are tough, so they can take an arrow or two. We won't waste time making camp and let the enemy prepare. The moment we arrive, the Preta close on the enemy's position first. They deliberately avoid the gate, and if there's a wall or a moat, the Preta pile themselves up to build a siege tower. Then the nimble monkeys and deer climb up it, charge in, and get cut down. They open the gate from the inside, the boars and deer storm through, and last of all the humans take the place."

Not partial mounds of earth with ladders propped against them, the way Tsukuba Naiyaku-no-jō had pictured it, but a passage that lets a whole army pour into the castle. When Alexander the Great took Tyre it cost him seven months, and the Roman siege of Masada two years, but with the Preta as living sandbags, not even a single day is needed. And since the Preta are tough and won't be crushed to death, you can simply dig them back out afterward.

"So the beastfolk are the ones who get cut down?"

"The leading role in this expedition is the Preta to begin with. The Preta can endure a total fast, so for a distance like this, no food or drink is needed. Thanks to that, we don't even need a baggage train."

"What let us pass for migrants is the beastfolk, who settle matters with their own bodies rather than with weapons. If we went about carrying spears and the like, they'd know us for an expeditionary army from a hundred ri off, the way the Hiki people did. And come to think of it, we were supposed to attack together with Tsukuba, weren't we? It's because you Preta are so slow on your feet that we're behind schedule. If the dungeon's already fallen by the time we get there, the whole march is for nothing."

Calculated out, the line of sight comes to seventeen ri. In other words, that's exactly the distance from the dungeon to Kasumigaseki, so a hundred ri is out of the question. A tower from which you could see a hundred ri would put the air at about twenty percent of what it is at the surface, and not even a mountaineer could survive up there.

"Now, now, let's keep to a more constructive topic. If we don't cooperate, we won't take the castle. That would be the very thing that drags down Naiyaku-no-jō-dono in the middle of his own siege."

"Quiet, you in heat. The most useless race of the lot, and you've got the nerve."

The most useless are the Heavenly. Without a dungeon's unique law, they can neither fly nor work miracles. Having no sex either, they're no use as courtesans or catamites. And in the end, no matter how often they wash they stay filthy, their hair grows grimy and patchy-bald, a vile underarm odor reeks off them, and they go wandering about in that very state. On top of that, it's said their whole body gives off an unbearable stench and their eyes go blind. These are called the Five Signs of a Deva's Decay.

"As things stand, the Beasts look more useless to me. A mad dog that bites at anyone and everyone, a stupid deer that's fast on its feet but won't even scout. Well, Suzuki the crow is the only one of her kind and flying is hard work, so there's room for some leniency there. But if you're going to be that dim-witted, then you're no beastfolk anymore, just a plain animal, and you'd be better off in a stewpot."

As in the Edo period, dog is not much of a proper foodstuff; it's the sort of thing a samurai's servants eat. The beastfolk, of course, are not for eating.

"What was that?"

"This one's a mangy cur, raised without discipline."

If you don't drill it into a dog while it's a puppy that humans are above it, the dog turns rebellious. Religiously speaking, humans and beastfolk are of different realms, the Human Realm and the Beast Realm, but biologically both are animals, so they can't fully escape the pull of instinct.

[Northwest of the Dungeon]

Haruna and Rāja had come out to meet the migrant band, but before they drew near, Haruna stopped.

"General, these aren't migrants."

A horse has good ears. They speak of "chanting the sutra to a horse's ear," but it isn't that the horse can't hear the chant, only that, being of the Beast Realm, it doesn't understand it.

"Thank you, Haruna. Let's get back at once and work out a countermeasure. Sorry to ask it, but go at full speed, a flat-out gallop."

Rāja and Haruna hurried back to the dungeon, but there was less than an hour before the enemy would arrive.