On the road home, her steps were light.

  Yet she could not shake the faint unease lingering in her heart.

  The flowing, dance-like sword techniques of the northern Horyu school were beautiful, and there was much to learn from their attacks that wove truth and falsehood together.

  But they had refused to obey the new king’s tyranny and had hidden themselves deep in the mountains.

  As a comrade who had trained with them for two years, she had been invited to come along, but she chose to return to her village and walked a different path.

  The closer she drew to the village, the stronger her anxiety grew.

  As if to dispel it, she quickened her pace. When she crossed the pass, the river came into view.

  It was the river where they had always dredged for iron sand.

  In winter the water level dropped, making the riverbed easier to scour.

  So they would send out extra hands, enter the freezing-cold water, and collect large amounts of iron sand.

  She remembered how, after climbing out, everyone would gather around the bonfire, and the blood rushing back through their veins would cause a prickling pain.

  It had been harsh work, but her father would stroke her head with cold hands, hug her, and give her sweet sweets.

  That joy made her endure the chattering teeth every year as they all gathered iron together.

  For some reason, tears overflowed.

  She crossed the river and looked toward the village, but not a single wisp of smoke rose.

  Normally there should have been smoke rising from cooking stoves, hearths, and above all the forge, yet she saw none.

  A terrible premonition seized her body, and she unconsciously clenched her fists.

  Then she broke into a run.

  All that remained were the ruins of the village.

  There was no sign of people, only the wooden houses rotting away, creaking and rattling in the wind.

  Sui’s legs gave out beneath her.

  What had happened?

  Sui stepped forward to search for her brother.

  But there was no feeling of ground beneath her feet; she simply staggered, as if in a trance, toward the house where she had once lived with her brother.

  She remembered the way home.

  Her body knew it.

  Yet the scenery before her eyes was a lifeless husk—ruins overgrown with swaying pampas grass that rippled in the wind.

  No one was in the house.

  Sui headed for the forge.

  A swarm of flies was clustered there.

  He was surely inside.

  Through the wide-open door, she saw a large black stain spreading across the dirt floor.

  Blood.

  Someone had died here.

  She did not want to look.

  It was near where the anvil had stood.

  She stepped over the threshold, leaned against the wall, and entered.

  Then she simply sank to the floor.

  Eaten by insects, eaten by beasts, no longer retaining a human form—but it was surely her brother.

  No sound came from her.

  She might have been crying.

  At any rate, the stench was terrible, and she vomited.

  She crawled out while vomiting until her stomach was empty.

  Gastric fluid burned her nose.

  That brought back at least some sense of reality.

  What had happened?

  She covered her nose with a handkerchief and entered the forge.

  Beside the anvil lay an unfinished short sword.

  He must have been hammering it until the very moment of his death.

  In the back room, the inkstone and brush remained as they were.

  Had he been trying to write something down?

  When she opened the storage closet, she found a letter neatly folded with her name written on it.

  She slowly unfolded it and read the letter inside.

  She understood everything.

  Just like the Horyu school, the king had come here too.

  Sui carefully folded her brother’s letter and tucked it into her bosom.

  She wrapped the blood-stained short sword in a handkerchief and washed it carefully with well water.

  She washed it gently, as if wiping her brother’s body.

  The tears would not stop.

  She simply washed the short sword in silence.

  She did not know how much time had passed, but the sun was already beginning to set.

  Sui took a clean piece of cloth from her bag and carefully wrapped her brother’s short sword.

  After gathering her belongings, she searched for any keepsakes of her brother that might remain in the forge.

  When she looked again in the storage closet where the letter had been, she found something wrapped in undyed hemp cloth.

  Unwrapping it revealed a pair of kodachi.

  They were the ones she had begged her brother to make before she left.

  She remembered the day she had asked him to make swords from that beautiful, candy-like red bamboo.

  “You remembered…”

  She held the two kodachi tightly to her chest.

  “Thank you, brother… I… I’m going…”

  Sui lit a fire in the forge furnace.

  Then she held a dry branch to the flames, transferring the fire.

  The thoroughly dried branches burned well.

  She spread the fire throughout the forge.

  The flames quickly spread.

  Seeing this, Sui took the swords and stepped outside.

  The forge where her brother had poured everything was swallowed by fire.

  It felt as if the memories inside her were also being consumed by flames.

  Sui made a vow.

  She would not stain the swords.

  She would take revenge in the most painful way possible.

  From the forge that had burned down to ash, Sui miraculously found a throat bone.

  It had rolled a short distance from where her brother had fallen.

  It was as if it was saying, “Take me with you too.”

  Sui wrapped it carefully in several layers of hemp cloth and tucked it against her chest.

  She would not leave him alone.

  They would go together.

  When Sui returned home, she opened the chest her father had used.

  Inside were several lumps of lead.

  Her father had died several years earlier.

  It had been the year just before Sui left the village and headed north.

  After losing her mother, her father had begun drinking heavily.

  At some point he heard that adding lead to alcohol made it sweeter, so he would put lumps of lead into an iron kettle with wine, warm it, and drink.

  Lead was widely used in medicine and cosmetic powders.

  But Sui knew it was not medicine.

  After he started drinking alcohol with lead, her father would occasionally suffer abdominal pain and vomiting.

  When she warned him to drink in moderation, he became abnormally angry and changed completely.

  It was painful to see her father like that, so she let him do as he pleased, but eventually he lost strength in his right wrist.

  Even then he drank with his left hand.

  He said it was sweet and delicious, and he was in a good mood while drinking.

  One day when she returned home, her father had collapsed in front of the hearth.

  He was limp and unconscious, and from his slack mouth she could see his gums discolored blue-black.

  Her father died just like that.

  The man from the neighboring house who had drunk with him also suffered the same symptoms—sometimes improving, sometimes recurring—until he finally breathed his last.

  When her father was cremated, his bones almost completely crumbled away.

  She regretted bitterly that she should have stopped him.

  Because of that memory, recalling it was painful, and she had left the village without touching her father’s belongings.

  Sui reached out to them now.

  They were pebbles small enough to hide in a fist.

  She took the hammer from the room and hammered them flat.

  She filled a pot with water, set it on the fire, and added a large amount of salt.

  While heating on low heat and stirring, she gently sank the lead plates in.

  The lead plates gradually turned white and began to crumble little by little from the edges, sinking to the bottom.

  Eventually the lead plates disappeared without a trace, leaving only the undissolved salt and white powder.

  Sui simply stared at it.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  Then she strained it through paper, covered it with a sieve to prevent it from scattering, and dried it in the shade.

  After leaving it for two or three days and opening the sieve, sufficiently dry salt remained.

  Sui prepared a bamboo tube cut diagonally and made a lid from bamboo that would fit snugly inside.

  She drilled a side hole and processed it so a bamboo stick could secure the lid.

  She divided the salt into five equal parts and put them into the containers.

  She sealed them tightly and placed them in her bag.

  Then she wrapped the pair of swords made from amber-colored smoked bamboo in the most beautiful of her mother’s kimonos.

  She dug a hole in the corner of the earthen floor and buried the swords there.

  In her bosom she carried the small remains and the unfinished short sword.

  The short sword had no edge yet.

  It was for stabbing her own throat if the need arose.

  Then she packed all the remaining lead into her bag, shouldered it, and left the village.

  The capital lay northwest of Sui’s village, a ten-day walk away.

  It was a city named Choyou, located roughly in the middle between two great rivers that crossed the continent.

  Civil engineering work was underway to draw water from the northern river and create a canal.

  The laborers were mainly people from conquered lands.

  Sui walked toward the capital, glancing sideways at the men digging ditches.

  From a hill in the distance she observed the city gate.

  A line had formed at the gate, with sentries standing there.

  They might demand identification.

  At that moment she sensed a presence behind her.

  When she turned, there stood Kashun.

  He was a disciple of the Horyu school; they should have fled to the northern mountains.

  “Why are you here?”

  Sui asked.

  “Why are you here?”

  There was unmistakable bloodlust in Kashun’s eyes.

  Sui did not answer.

  “Weren’t you returning to your hometown?”

  Kashun’s tone grew sharper.

  “…There is no longer any hometown…”

  Hearing that, Kashun widened his eyes and gasped.

  “Your village too?”

  Sui nodded.

  “So that’s what happened… I’m sorry. Actually, the king’s men appeared in the northern mountains. Few know that location. I suspected you might have leaked it… I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t worry about it… Are the others safe?”

  Kashun frowned and shook his head.

  “Only a few survived.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that…”

  “Was your village attacked too?”

  Sui told him about her brother’s will.

  “I see… They said it was a test cut and slaughtered our comrades. It might have been one of the things your brother made.”

  Sui nodded.

  “What do you intend to do?”

  “I will kill them and take back the weapons. You came here for revenge too, didn’t you?”

  Kashun simply nodded.

  “Let’s change locations and talk.”

  With that, Kashun headed into a bamboo grove south of the capital.

  The bamboo grove rustled and swayed in the wind.

  Another man was there.

  She was sure his name was Hou, a spear user.

  When Kashun explained the situation to Hou, Hou seemed to accept it for now.

  “You should use a sword, right? Why don’t you have one?”

  Hou asked.

  “I have no intention of staining my brother’s sword. I will kill without using a sword.”

  “How will you kill them?”

  “With lead poison.”

  Hearing that, Hou laughed.

  “Isn’t lead medicine?”

  “My father put lead in his wine and drank it. He heard it made it sweeter. He died a few months later.”

  “Couldn’t it have been another cause?”

  “There was another man who put lead in his wine with my father and died with the same symptoms. The two of them drank together. Lead is not medicine. It is a poison that slowly eats away at the body.”

  “I understand. Let’s set the lead talk aside for now. How was the city gate?”

  Hou asked Kashun.

  “The sentries seem to be demanding plaques (passage permits). Without a plaque you can’t enter.”

  “Salt sellers are different.”

  When Sui said that, the two looked at her.

  “What do you mean?”

  Hou asked.

  “Long ago salt was a royal monopoly, but after excessive profiteering caused rebellions everywhere, the people began selling it freely, and each country abandoned the monopoly. Salt sellers mostly come from outside, so they are not required to show plaques.”

  “But we don’t have any salt.”

  Sui took a bamboo tube from her bag, opened the lid, and showed it.

  Hou tried to put his finger inside, so Sui warned him.

  “It contains lead dissolved in salt water. It won’t kill you immediately, but it’s poison.”

  At those words, Hou withdrew his hand.

  “But with this amount…”

  “That’s not a problem. We can just make more containers like this here. Weave a bamboo basket and put the containers inside. I only need to let them lick my salt.”

  Everyone’s eyes widened.

  “I see. If we check one, there’s no need to check the others.”

  When Hou said that, Sui nodded.

  They looked at each other, nodded, and began cutting bamboo to make containers.

  As masters of martial arts, cutting bamboo was trivial for them, and in no time a large number of empty containers were made.

  “But is it safe to let them lick salt mixed with poison?”

  Kashun asked.

  “Lead poisoning does not kill immediately. It slowly erodes the body, so by the time symptoms appear, it’s already too late.”

  “So it’s hard to detect?”

  Sui nodded.

  “If mixed with salt, they will ingest a little every day. At first my father repeatedly suffered abdominal pain and vomiting. He thought he had eaten something bad or drunk too much. After that his hands stopped working, and one day he lost consciousness and died just like that.”

  “It really is poison…”

  Hou muttered softly.

  Sui nodded slowly.

  “It might be worth trying.”

  Kashun said.

  “All right. Let’s try it.”

  With that, the two picked up the bamboo baskets and headed for the city gate.

  A long line had formed in front of the gate, but since they only needed to show plaques, the flow was quick.

  “Next!”

  The sentry said.

  Sui opened the lid of the container and showed it to the sentry.

  “I’m a salt seller.”

  The sentry put his finger inside the container and licked it.

  “Good!”

  The two behind showed the contents of their baskets, and the sentry waved them through as if to say hurry up.

  They looked at each other and smiled.

  After passing through the gate, the three first looked for an inn.

  They rented the cheapest inn in the area.

  They sat down and discussed their next plan.

  The four generals who had attacked the mountain and their subordinates were named Li Seikou, Kou Shiyou, You Eitatsu, and Ritsu Kaei.

  They had not returned to their territories but were staying in the capital.

  They were said to have taken up residence in the district where high officials’ mansions close to the royal palace stood.

  Sui immediately said she would go sell salt, took four empty containers from the basket, and put the filled bamboo tube from her bag into the basket.

  The two tailed her.

  Sui walked while looking at the nameplates on the gates.

  There was a gate with the nameplate “Kou.”

  Sui knocked on the door ring, and a voice from inside asked what she wanted.

  “Is this General Kou Shiyou’s residence?”

  A reply came from inside confirming it was.

  “I’m a salt seller. Would you like some salt?”

  The large door opened slightly, and a man peered out.

  “How much?”

  “Fifty sen.”

  “Cheap. I’ll take it.”

  With that he brought a container from inside the house and opened the lid.

  Sui tilted the bamboo tube and poured salt into it.

  The man handed her the money and closed the door.

  One house done.

  Next she searched for You Eitatsu’s residence.

  When she found the house, she knocked on the door ring the same way and sold salt to the servant.

  She also succeeded in selling salt at Ritsu Kaei’s house.

  However, at Li Seikou’s residence she was told they already had enough and had no choice but to leave.

  “Did you sell it?”

  Sui nodded to Hou and answered that she had.

  “But you didn’t sell to Li Seikou, right?”

  “I have another plan.”

  “What kind of plan?”

  Kashun asked.

  “I’ll buy expensive wine. I’ll put lead in it and sell it. If I can get into the kitchen, I’ll add it to the salt container.”

  With that Sui went to a wine shop and bought dry yellow wine.

  Then she returned to the inn, took lead and a hammer from her bag, hammered it flat, folded it, and broke it into small pieces.

  The jar was sealed with glue, but the sealing was sloppy and the lid opened easily.

  She dropped the lead pieces inside.

  The next day she went to General Li Seikou’s residence, knocked on the door ring, and asked the servant if he wanted wine. When he said to let him taste it, she opened the jar.

  The servant dipped his finger in and licked it.

  “This has a strange flavor. It’s refreshing yet very sweet. How much?”

  “Two shu silver.”

  “All right, I’ll buy it.”

  “Shall I carry it?”

  “Please.”

  With that the servant walked ahead, so Sui carried the jar and followed.

  It was not very heavy, but she carried it slowly as if it were.

  It seemed to be the kitchen area.

  The servant pointed and said here.

  Sui carried it slowly, and the servant left, saying he would leave the money there, looking somewhat exasperated.

  Sui searched for the salt container.

  The salt container was on the kitchen counter.

  There was still plenty inside, but she put it into the bamboo tube lid, added the prepared salt, and left.

  She left the residence, threw away the salt she had packed in the lid on the roadside, and left the area with an innocent face.

  Sui had planted lead-mixed salt in all the generals’ residences.

  For a while after that, Sui did nothing.

  After about two weeks, strange rumors began to spread.

  Four of the king’s loyal retainers had suddenly fallen ill and taken to their beds.

  Not only the generals but their servants were showing symptoms.

  In particular, General Li was paralyzed in all four limbs and could not move his body.

  His pregnant wife had miscarried, and all the children were unconscious.

  The other three had similar symptoms, with paralysis in the limbs and even hazy memories.

  Worried, King Wu sent doctors to them, but even those doctors collapsed.

  Those who fell ill were served porridge that would not burden the stomach, but salt was still added to that.

  Unless the salt was discarded, it would not stop.

  But no one thought there might be something mixed into the salt.

  One night, Sui asked Kashun for help.

  They were going to steal.

  Under cover of darkness they circled to the back of General Li’s residence. Sui used Kashun as a stepping stone to climb over the wall.

  Without making a sound, she slipped through the garden and peeked into the general’s bedroom.

  The general was groaning in his sleep on the bed.

  There was also what appeared to be a doctor in the room, but he too was sound asleep.

  When she reached for the spear within reach from the bed, a groan came from behind.

  General Li was awake.

  But he was no longer sane; his eyes were vacant.

  Just like her father, his gums were discolored blue-black.

  Sui glanced at the man, quietly left the room, leaped over the wall, and vanished into the night darkness.

  In this way Sui went around recovering the weapons from the generals, collecting a pair of kodachi, a spear, and a halberd.

  When she returned to the inn, Sui removed the handles from the spear and halberd and wrapped them tightly in several layers of straw matting.

  The handles were too long to hide.

  Hou and Kashun watched her actions intently.

  Hou had no choice but to acknowledge the toxicity of lead.

  And Kashun saw Hou steal lead from Sui’s bag.

  Hou looked at Kashun and smiled, the corners of his mouth curling up.

  “Are you going?”

  Kashun whispered softly to Hou.

  Hou nodded and gripped Kashun’s shoulder.

  Kashun looked into Hou’s eyes and nodded.

  A short while later, rumors began to spread that weapons had disappeared from the generals’ houses, and whispers arose that it was a curse.

  Sui searched for a way to deliver salt to the royal palace, investigating the source of supplies entering the inner palace.

  Kashun searched for infiltration routes into the royal palace.

  The palace guards were exceptionally strict, and he could find no opening.

  The carriages entering and leaving the inner palace also came from government offices, and countless merchants entered and left those offices.

  It was difficult to identify them.

  Meanwhile, Hou’s whereabouts had become unknown.

  She felt she had not seen him since the time of the thefts.

  “Where is Hou?”

  One night in the inn room, Sui asked Kashun.

  “I haven’t seen him lately.”

  “Aren’t you moving together?”

  “We act separately. If asked for cooperation, we cooperate, but he moves alone.”

  “I see…”

  At the time, Sui did not pay much attention to it.

  But one day, an unidentified man’s body was pulled from the palace moat.

  He had several stab wounds in his abdomen, and an empty bamboo tube was clutched in his hand.

  A crowd had gathered by the moat, and both Sui and Kashun were there.

  When Kashun saw the body, he said in a small voice that it was Hou.

  Sui was concerned about the bamboo tube the body was holding, so she rushed back to the inn and checked her bag.

  The last bamboo tube and the lead pebbles were gone.

  Hou had stolen them.

  Seeing Sui’s panic, Kashun followed.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “The salt and lead are missing.”

  “Was the tube Hou was holding yours?”

  “Probably… What did he do…?”

  Sui decided to observe the situation for a while.

  If she moved carelessly, they might notice.

  Kashun was of the same opinion.

  Two weeks passed, but the city remained peaceful.

  Only the number of people entering and leaving the palace had increased.

  Otherwise everything was as usual.

  Then one day, Kashun said his stomach hurt.

  The pain seemed quite severe; he was pressing his abdomen and groaning.

  It was a scene she had seen before.

  It was the same as her father.

  Sui immediately suspected lead poisoning.

  But she did not understand why Kashun was showing symptoms.

  Kashun was groaning, large beads of sweat rolling down his forehead.

  Sui drew water from the well to let him drink.

  At that moment, she realized with a start.

  She took a sip of the water drawn from the well.

  It tasted like ordinary water.

  She felt nothing unusual.

  A few more days passed, and the city’s vitality faded.

  Foot traffic decreased, and more people complained of fatigue.

  Symptoms had begun to appear in Sui as well.

  Abdominal pain, fatigue, and her period, which should have come, had stopped.

  She also began to taste an unpleasant bitterness in food.

  There was no longer any doubt.

  Hou must have put lead into every well in the city.

  He had probably infiltrated the palace as well and been stabbed by the guards.

  She had no way of knowing where the salt had gone.

  She had to leave this place.

  If she drank the water here, her condition would worsen and she would lose her life.

  She could not die yet.

  Sui cleared the cargo from an abandoned cart, gathered straw and matting.

  She took the weapons from the attic of the inn and hid them among the straw on the cart, laid Kashun on top, and covered him with matting.

  After paying the inn fee, she pulled the cart and headed for the city gate.

  A long line had formed at the gate.

  Everyone was fleeing.

  Whispers could be heard from those standing in line.

  They say the king stole the weapons from the master smith and killed him…

  The weapons have disappeared too…

  It must be the master smith’s curse…

  They say all the generals who received the weapons have collapsed…

  Even the king has fallen, apparently…

  The children are all dead, I hear…

  No, this might be an epidemic…

  Either way, if we stay here we’ll die…

  Such conversations reached her ears.

  There were sentries at the gate, but they were leaning against the wall looking down, and people passed through without issue.

  Even the guards protecting the city seemed to be affected.

  Once outside the gate, Sui headed for the village.

  From the cart came Kashun’s groaning voice.

  On the way to the village, she found an abandoned carriage.

  The cargo bed still held household goods and food.

  There was no sign of people around.

  Sui moved Kashun aside, hid the weapons among the household goods.

  He would probably die soon.

  Sui thought so.

  The cargo bed was in terrible condition from the smell of feces and urine.

  Fortunately the weapons were unaffected.

  Sui drove the carriage alone.

  It pained her to leave him behind, but she did not have the leeway to look after him.

  When she returned to the village, she dug up the swords and loaded them onto the cart.

  Then she knelt in the forge and offered a prayer. Sui headed west, following her village comrades.

  She realized she herself did not have much time left.

  The candle flame was about to go out.

  There was a knocking sound on the shrine door.

  “I’ve come to replace the candle.”

  It was the child miko’s voice from earlier.

  She entered, replaced the candle stand, and waved her hand over the old one; a single wisp of white smoke rose and vanished.

  Then she placed a new teapot.

  “Mother, what shall we do for dinner?”

  Her lisping tone was adorable.

  “Wait just a little longer.”

  The child miko nodded, took the candle stand and old teapot, and withdrew.

  “This is all of Sui’s account. Toward the end the writing was shaky. I hear her suffering was visible in the characters.”

  The miko poured tea into a teacup and moistened her lips.

  “Let’s stop here for today. Come again tomorrow.”

  “Please tell me just one thing.”

  The miko nodded.

  “The pair of kodachi that Sui asked Loki for—could it be…”

  The miko was smiling.

  “Yes. The ones hanging on the wall of your house are precisely the kodachi that Sui received from Loki.”

  Sara was speechless.

  The tachi and kodachi were all legacies from a thousand years ago.

  For the first time, Sara felt the weight of that.

  The charcoal in the hearth popped.

  Sara held the amber-colored kodachi in her hands.

  The kodachi that Sui had protected with her life were here now.

  Over a thousand years, passing through many hands, Sui’s feelings must have been carried on.

  A single drop fell onto the amber-colored scabbard and slid down.

  There is weight to the history of things.

  Especially the three blades now in her hands—they were the very feelings of her clan.

  The words Kazal had once spoken crossed her mind.

  “What remains now is only what we wanted to protect no matter what.”

  Sara thought that she was not the final owner, but merely one of the many owners who had existed until now—one who shared those feelings.

  It had to be that way.

  To pass it on to the next generation.

  Drops overflowed onto the amber-colored scabbard.

  Loki quietly approached, sat down beside Sara, and lay down as if to cover her, closing his eyes.

  This text is an English translation of the story originally written in Japanese by 東風ふかば.

  The translation was done using Grok 4.2.

  You can read the original Japanese version here:

  If you enjoyed this chapter, please leave a comment or a review! Your feedback is very much appreciated and encourages the author and the translator to continue bringing more chapters.

  Thank you for reading!