4 – The First Proper Step

It hadn’t been too hard to make the inn, a building that we had chosen to name ‘The Western Point.’ The first step had been Yomi using some of her money (of which she apparently had a significant sum squirrelled away) to buy a few acres just on the border of my farm, joining both plots of land together. From there we split the cost on building material, which was easier to get into Tiode these days.

Yomi and I had more than enough physical power to handle the building process, but getting extra help from Smoke, Haita, and even Yamato sped the process up further. I would have considered it cheating, if I cared a shit about fairness. It had barely taken a couple of days to get everything set up.

And, from there, it became another part of my daily routine.

In the morning I tended my farm, doing a quick round of the place and handling any of the minor chores that needed doing. Then I’d chip in at the inn for anything that needed doing there.

Already Yomi and I had formed a sort of rota when it came to balancing the workload, taking turns with different tasks as the days went by.

On that morning, Yamato was by my side as we walked the road leading toward the looming structure of the inn. He hadn’t changed that much in the weeks since the destruction of his sect, but I suppose he was somewhat less miserable.

“Why in the world did you decide you wanted to become an innkeeper?” he asked, motioning between the building itself and the expansive stables off to the side of it.

I shrugged at him. “I need more things to occupy the time, the money is nice... beyond that, why not? There are worse jobs.”

“Objectively speaking, yes, but that doesn’t make this a good job on its own,” Yamato said. He snorted. At least his nose was still in one piece.

“You live the life I’ve lived? You’ll know all about shitty jobs,” I said. Really, anything beat being a mass murderer for an evil emperor. The killing was bad enough without adding in the mass graves I’d had to fill.

“What was the life you lived?” he asked, raising his scarred brow.

I didn’t answer at first, quietly working my jaw. Inwardly I wondered if I’d ever have to speak the truth to anyone. If I could ever bring myself to. If anyone would, somehow, find out the truth out and tell the whole village before I could.

A thought that chilled me to the bone.

“A dreadful one.” I looked him in the eye. “One nobody should ever want to emulate.” Part of why I’d taken Yamato in after the fall of the Snake Flower Sect was because I wanted him to find a bettr path, the path I never had a chance to find when I’d lost it all.

“But now you act as a hero to Tiode?”

“Not a hero,” I replied gruffly. “Ain’t my fault stupid shit keeps landing in my lap, forcing me to act. Ideally I’d just focus on my farm but everyone else in the world has other ideas, and gods forbid I have a moment of peace.”

Haita was at the gate, his arms folded, and he pused off the fence as we approached. “Aniki,” he said, nodding my way. “Morning.”

“Haita,” I said. He’d grown on me, and it helped that he was a good worker. Not that I would admit as much aloud.

“Before we get started... I want to say that I don’t wanna work with this guy any longer,” he said, motioning sharply at Yamato. The sole survivor of the Snake Flower barely reacted. "I gave this guy time to recover, Aniki. Because I don't like kicking a man when he's down," Haita said, sounding proud of himself for something so basic.

"Not too long after you met me you planned for you and your two friends to knock me down in and alley, and kick me while I was down," I flatly told him. I didn’t hold a grudge about it, but facts were facts.

Haita ignored this. "But enough time has passed." He pointed a large finger at Yamato again, jabbing with greater insistence. "I ain't forgiven you for what you did."

"Beating you to a pulp?" Yamato asked, a flat look on his face.

Haita snorted. "I know how to take a punch. I don’t even vare about you beating the tar out of me! What I mean is what you did to Mikan. What you were planning on doing to her!" He narrowed his eyes at Yamato.

I grunted, glancing his way. "He's got a point." Perhaps I should have said something sooner on the matter but... well the kid was already suicidal, so why harp on it?

Yamato glanced away with his good eye. "You're right," he said simply.

It was clear Haita hadn't expected this, raising his brows and taking a step back. "Huh?"

Yamato turned wordlessly and made his way from the inn, striding toward Tiode at a measured pace.

"If he ain't back in time to muck the stables," I pointed at Haita, "then guess what your job will be this morning."

Haita's shoulders sagged. "Shit," he huffed.

"Exactly."

We'd gone after him largely to ensure he didn't do anything stupid, but even so I was still surprised by the sight that greeted us outside of Mikan's store.

Yamato was kneeling, his forehead pinned to the soil in a devout bow, while Mikan looked down at him with a rather uncomfortable look on his face.

"Please," he said, "forgive me. I was a fool. A monster. I chose to abuse my power, to hurt you in ways that couldn't be undone!"

I gave the smallest of nods. No doubt Yamato had a vivid understanding of what it was like to feel powerless, to have someone stronger exercise their power over him.

No doubt it hadn't felt good.

Some folks are raised knowing not to abuse their power, and others have to find out the hard way. I suppose it was good to learn it at some point, at least.

"I was guided by my own arrogance. By the tales others had told to me. I saw mortals as my playthings and sought to use that twisted notion on you, and I had no right to act in such a cruel and monstrous way."

"I... er..." Mikan stole an anxious look my way. She looked like a deer who’d just been startled at the stream.

Sighing, I made my way over to her. Just as a form of moral support, I reckoned.

"I cannot... expect forgiveness, nor do I, but... I regret what I have done, what I... intended to to do. Whatever punishment you deem fitting, I will undertake it. If you need a servant, I will do it. If I should be beaten to a pulp, I will accept it. If my death would please you, then I... will provide." Tears pattered to the dirt beneath him.

I gave Mikan a sideways glance. "Up to you," I told her. "I'm not in a position to judge morality."

She sighed, glancing away from the both of us. "I can't... I don't think I can really forgive you, as such," she admitted. "It still... terrifies me, thinking about that day. But, even so... I don't like people suffering. I don't like anyone suffering."

Yamato did not move.

Haita stood silently, his jaw set as he glanced back and forth between the two.

"If you really want to do right by me, then... then be a better man than the one you were before. Help people!" She raised her chin, a spark of anger in her eyes. "Protect people who can't protect themselves, instead of acting like you can do whatever you please."

Yamato looked up. That look of teary-eyed... relief(?) on his face was about the most emotion I'd seen from him over the past few weeks.

"But," and Mikan said this with an impressive strength in her voice, "don't do the right thing just to make things up to me. Do them because they're the right thing to do!"

"I will," Yamato said. "I swear on my life, I will."

I sighed, glancing up at the clouds. "Now would you kindly run along and muck the stables? And you," I glanced to Haita. "I don't expect you two to like each other, but this hatchet? It's buried."

"Why... would I bury a hatchet?" Haita asked.

"Gods above, just get back to the damned inn." The two young men left, and I stood by Mikan for some time as she caught her breath.

“He was genuine, wasn’t he?” she asked, not meeting his eyes.

I shrugged at her. “He never struck me as much of an actor. I’m sure he meant it.”

Mikan nodded. “I didn’t forgive him. I don’t forgive him. And... maybe I never will. But... I want him to get better, even so. Does that make sense?”

“I reckon so,” I told her. “You’re a good person, Mikan. A kind person. Someone who doesn’t want to get their heart wrapped up in things like retribution.”

“If he actually had... had his way with me, I probably wouldn’t feel so merciful.”

“Maybe not. I can’t imagine most people would, in that situation,” I replied. “But there’s no point speculating on what might have happened. The only thing that ever matters is what has happened. Past is set in stone, and even the gods can’t change it.”

She nodded again.

“I meant it, you know. I don’t want him to suffer, or anyone else to suffer. I hope he can find some kind of peace, with all that happened to him.”

“Peace, huh?” I replied, my gaze scanning the village. Seemed to grow more and more by the week. “It’s a hard thing to come upon.”