With Open Chest and Wings

"I didn't ask out of malice, you know?"

The table was set.

In fact, it was a large and fairly flat stone on which Rikko and Inako chose to sit and enjoy their frugal meal. Baked fish, fruit and water were the menu, offered to calm Inako's nerves and perhaps make Rikko forget the swelling caused by the slap he received.

“Did you really have to hit - oh! So hard?” - Rikko said, eating his fish with difficulty.

“It would have been worse if I wasn't hungry, don't complain! No one told you to ask a stupid question like that!” - Inako exclaimed, her cheeks swollen from food and disapproval.

“I was just curious, damn it. Asking doesn't hurt.”

“It did! To me!”

“Okay, my bad. And I wanted to ask you something else-whoa! No! Calm down! It's not that kind of question! Throw that rock over there!” - He added when he saw the fox-girl insinuate a new blow, this time with a rock.

“What is it?”

“What are you doing alone in this forest, with no luggage and your clothes in tatters?

Dropping the stone upon hearing an important question, Inako thought for a moment and then answered.

“I came... to look for my sister.”

“Did you two get separated somewhere?”

“Almost. She was kidnapped by slave traders when she went to the city alone to shop and receive donations for the temple.”

“Slave traders? Are you telling me you came to rescue your sister alone, without anyone's help?”

“There was no way!” - The skewer with the half-eaten fish fell from her trembling hands. - “The cart was already abandoned and she was already gone! No one tried to help because they were dangerous bandits!”

“Your clothes are very different from any I've ever seen. You must have come from very far away.”

“I'm from Sake, a small country very far from here. My father is a priest at a temple in Ocha. When he was young, he went to the city in secret because he liked to party a lot, and he ended up meeting my mother and Tenko's mother, my sister.”

Sake, Ocha… they're Japanese drinks! Is it just me, or are all the names of places related to drinks? - Rikko thought.

“We are the daughters of different hanjin mothers. They were friends and rivals at the same time, and the night they met my father they were betting on who could catch the most handsome man. They slept with him and we were born some time later, but they had to keep it a secret because it would be a huge scandal if a priest suddenly showed up with two daughters.”

“I can imagine why. You said hanjin, what is that?”

“Hanjin is what they call us who are half human and half other being. I am half Kitsune, and my sister is half Tanuki.”

“Like magical animals?”

“Yes. Years later, a disease was killing a lot of people and our mothers ended up dying. Our father adopted us and we went to live in the temple. He taught us everything he knew and now we are priestesses of the temple.”

“I'm sorry about your mothers. And then your sister was kidnapped and here you are.”

“Yes. I took what I could and then fled the temple after her without my father knowing. I stowed away on a ship when I heard where they took her and ended up in this country, what's its name…? Cham… Cham…”

“Champagne?”

“That's it! Since I arrived, I've been getting work here and there, it was the easiest way to find out something about my sister. And that's when I joined a group of adventurers as a support. Les... Les Intrépides! But they all died during the monster extermination mission and I was forced to flee alone. I ended up in this forest and I've been walking for days.

“What trouble are you going through... what was the last news you heard about your sister?”

“Ah! I have this here.”

Inako took a small folded yellowish paper from her pocket with a strong smell of what seemed to be tobacco and spread it on the ground, open, to show Rikko. It said:

11th Black Fair!

To be held in Cognac, on the first day of the Month of Juin, at the first toll of midnight.

The location of the gathering shall be revealed only to those graced with this notice.

It is required that all be properly attired for the occasion and assembled at the Taverne du Crépuscule, without delay, to take the carriage.

This year's harvest is truly unmissable, featuring only the finest and most exotic goods — carefully selected.

Tardiness shall not be tolerated.

To those of the finest lineage, we shall meet soon!

M.

“See? This fell out of the pocket of a man who was in the same city where I met Les Intrépides. He drank so much that he didn't see it fall. The fair will be in this city called Cognac.”

_…hmmm...

“So, what did you think?”

When asked by Inako, Rikko shook his head and gave his opinion.

“I thought I knew how to read, but now I see that I don't.”

“…”

“What's wrong?”

“You could have told me that before.” - The girl answered, with a bitter expression.

“Sorry. Can you read it to me?”

“Okay. So…”

This time, Inako reread the message again, taking care to do it calmly and pointing to the written words for Rikko. It was then that…

“Did you understand now?”

‘Yes, I- wait.”

“What's wrong now?”

Acquired Skill

-Decoding

Makes the user erudite in the art of words.

This has to be a joke. Thanya did a pretty lousy job.

“Now I can read. I understand what’s written.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just accept it and it will be better. In short, this fair is completely illegal. That’s why it needs to be hidden from common society and, of course, from the authorities. Anyone who wants to participate needs to appear in disguise and meet at this tavern, and from there be transported to the secret location. And they made it very clear that they need to arrive on time, or they will be left behind.”

“I have to get there no matter what!”

“Look, I don’t want to discourage you, but… it’s obvious that this fair will attract people as dangerous as the guys who kidnapped your sister, and powerful people.”

“I don’t care! I just want to get my sister out of there!”

“And how did you intend to do that? Did you ask for help from those adventurers who died?”

“No! I didn't tell them anything! I couldn't.”

At that moment, Inako felt her eyes getting hot, and tears ran down her face. She wiped her face with the sleeve of her ragged clothes and continued.

“I couldn't ask them for help, it wasn't right. Not when all of this is my fault.”

“Your fault?”

“Mine. I was the one who should have gone to the city, but I said I didn't want to go out of pure laziness! I was the one who should be kidnapped, I was the one who should become a slave, it was me, me, me, me, ME! ONLY ME!” - Inako could no longer hold back her tears and punched the ground with clenched fists. - “Only me...”

“I get it, you feel guilty. But that doesn't change the fact that one of the two of you would be in this situation, no matter who it was. Don't blame yourself for something you had no way of knowing would happen.”

“But…”

“You've already made it more than clear how much you like her, and I bet she'd say the same, so calm down and use your head.”

“You say to use my head, but what am I going to think?”

“When you're in a situation that seems like there's no way out, ask for help.”

“But who am I going to ask for help?”

“Ask me.”

“You?”

“I know what you're thinking right now. Yes, I'm a strange and totally suspicious animal, I don't seem trustworthy. But… together we can get help to save your sister.”

“How are we going to do that?”

“We can't do it alone, of course. But maybe we can get help from adventurers and blow this damn fair up!”

Inako's eyes lit up at Rikko's determined statement. Until then, she had never thought that there would be someone willing to carry her burden so willingly, and it had been a bird, who had shown her a new hope.

“YES! I ACCEPT!”

“So now we are in this together. Welcome aboard!”

“Aboard? Of what?”

“Oh, nothing, it's just a figure of speech.”

“Oh, okay. I'm counting on you then, Mr. Rikko!”

‘Mr. Rikko?”

“Yes! You are the one who will guide me from now on! Whatever you say, I do! For you, I'll kill or be killed!”

Upon hearing these statements, Rikko finally realized that she had just gotten herself into a real bind. But she didn't intend to regret her words. This encounter in the forest couldn't just be a coincidence.

“Very well. I'm counting on you.”

In the meantime, somewhere else...

‘Hey, you! Wake up!”

It was a dark, fetid place that exuded fear and hatred. There were several cages with thick iron bars all over the place, placed directly on the floor with little or no organization. If there were insects there, they could only be noticed by their feces or the crawling of their paws through the corners and cracks.

And it was in this completely unhealthy environment that Tenko, Inako's beloved sister, woke up.

“...Huh? OUCH!”

She woke up abruptly, with the sound of something hitting her cage. The source of this sound was caused by a wooden bowl containing a piece of stale bread and what looked like steaming watery porridge, arranged haphazardly. It had been ignorantly thrown by a grotesque-looking man.

"Here's your lunch! Enjoy it, because you won't have any more until dinner, hahaha."

Her clothes were in tatters. Her Kosode had several tears, as did her hakama, but the latter still had marks of dried mud to complete the sad appearance. Still dazed from the night's poor sleep, she felt that her throat was dry.

"Sir. May I have some water? Please."

"Well, well. It seems we're a bit picky today, don't we? Well, make sure you drink all your porridge, it has your precious water in it, HAHAHAHAHA!" said the man mockingly, before leaving noisily through the same door he had entered.

Devastated, Tenko realized that her request would not be granted. She was just one of the dozens of girls with whom she shared her captivity. She could hear several of them crying softly, suppressed by the tears of the previous night. She also heard someone coughing deeply somewhere. She dragged herself closer to the bars and reached through them to pick up the bowl.

“OUCH!”

It hurt when she touched the boiled porridge with her index finger as she tried to pick up the food.

She had been in that cage for a few days now, so she knew that trying to get the bowl through the bars was useless. So she carefully picked it up with her hands and blew as hard as she could before bringing it to her mouth with difficulty.

“Ugh. How bitter.”

She wasn't hungry, but she couldn't afford to refuse the meager meal. It was either her or the rats that would soon appear to fight over the leftovers. She left the bread for last, taking advantage of the excessive water in the porridge to soften it. She ate it little by little in silence, but when memories of a recent past came to mind, she let a few eager words escape her dry lips.

"Daddy. Inako. I miss you two."