Hebe stood in the warm afternoon sunlight with her hands tucked into her sleeves. Her flaxen hair was tied behind her head and secured with a wooden hairpin.
She wore a dark outer robe with wide sleeves, while the close-fitting garment beneath was an immaculate white. Her slender feet rested on wooden clogs as she stood quietly nearby.
"Foxy..."
"Shh." Hebe raised a finger to her lips. "Miss A-Long, call me Little Jade when we're outside. Don't expose my identity."
After soothing the somewhat restless Miss A-Long, Hebe turned and headed toward the village.
Her wooden clogs clicked against the gravel road, and the villagers looked over warily.
Hebe stopped several meters away, folded her hands within her sleeves, and gave a slight bow.
"My companion and I came from the mountains. May I ask how to get to the castle town?"
The fox's clear voice carried through the air. The villagers relaxed somewhat, and a few brave souls poked their heads out.
"Head east!"
"Thank you." Hebe thanked them crisply, then turned and left.
The villagers looked at one another. Hadn't they said that the prettier the monster, the more vicious it was? Why was this one so easy to talk to?
Someone whispered, "I heard from my pa that one of his friends ran into a monster in the mountains before. That monster asked him some questions too, then treated him to fine wine and meat. When he came down the mountain, it even gave him loads of gold."
The moment those words were spoken, the villagers were overcome with regret. Some hurriedly ran out, hoping to catch up with Hebe, but by the time they reached the edge of the village, she had already vanished without a trace.
When Hebe returned, Miss A-Long was still squatting there.
"Foxy turned into a person..." Miss A-Long said, her meaning unclear.
"You can turn back." Hebe comforted her. "Let's go."
It was spring, and some cogon grass grew beside the road to the castle town. Hebe plucked several tender blades and wove them into a hollow ball.
Hebe handed the hollow ball to Miss A-Long and had her hang it at her waist.
"This way, Miss A-Long will look like an ordinary young girl to humans."
A-Long's abnormal height and hair harder than ordinary swords practically advertised her non-human nature. Without illusion magic to conceal it, even entering the castle town would have been difficult.
Miss A-Long was delighted after receiving Hebe's gift and promptly forgot her earlier unhappiness.
One moment, she ran ahead to chase swallows; the next, she bent down to smell wildflowers by the roadside.
It was not until the sun was about to set that Hebe and Miss A-Long reached the castle town. Several soldiers in straw hats, holding bamboo spears, guarded the road entrance. A plaque bearing Chinese characters hung above the low gate behind them.
—Hyuga.
"So this is Hyuga Province, the Miyazaki Prefecture of the Eastern Country in later generations." Hebe suddenly understood.
She turned to look back down the road they had come from. The towering mountain peak was blanketed in snow.
"So that was Mount Takachiho."
In legends of later ages, Mount Takachiho was one of the most important settings in Eastern Country mythology.
Legend said that the Heavenly Rock Cave where Amaterasu hid was on Mount Takachiho, and that the gods of Takama-ga-hara traveled up and down this mountain.
Yet over the past year, Hebe had seen neither any Heavenly Rock Cave nor even one so-called "god of Takama-ga-hara."
According to some accounts, Tamamo-no-Mae was an aspect of Amaterasu... Hebe found it rather amusing.
Then the little shrine where she had spent the winter could be considered the Heavenly Rock Cave.
Exorcising Monsters?
Whether Hebe was a Nine-Tailed Fox or the goddess Amaterasu, she still had to pay the toll.
Fortunately, even copper coins were rare goods imported from Cathay at this time. Most places in the Eastern Country still relied on barter.
On the way here, Hebe had casually woven several more fragrant hollow balls and successfully used them to pay the fee to enter the castle town.
She also took the opportunity to ask the gate guards what year it was.
—Kentoku 3, or 965 AD.
Although the Eastern Country had its own court, it also used Cathay's era names. Hebe counted on her fingers. Great Song had already been established, but the chaotic era of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms had yet to end.
Hebe shook her head and cast aside that faint melancholy.
The facilities within castle towns of this era were utterly lacking, and the food was even harder to describe. Even nobles ate nothing more than hardened white rice. They molded the rice into cylinders, overturned them into bowls, and arranged dishes around the rice bowl in sequence.
Rather than enjoying the food, they seemed to be enjoying the visual beauty of the presentation.
Hebe had once seen later reconstructions. Chefs placed seasoned wild boar, pheasant, dried abalone, octopus tentacles, and butter made from coagulated milk into small bowls around the rice.
But in reality, the nobles of this era did not particularly enjoy animal meat. On one hand, it was a matter of religious belief. On the other, they probably simply could not beat the animals.
—The weak were lowly, while the strong were arrogant.
After paying a bloody price, the Heian nobles quickly came to understand this rule. Compared to their lives, mere appetites could easily be abandoned.
The ordinary commoners, meanwhile, ate millet and brown rice as their staple foods.
Standing in stark contrast to both classes were the warriors. As the main force behind the Eastern Country's expansion in this era, warriors basically lived off their enemies to maintain their fighting strength.
In other words, they foraged. Whatever they caught, they ate. To make their meals more nutritious, they sometimes even planted vegetables in their own courtyards...
Hebe stared at the building at the end of the castle town's main street, an obvious noble estate, and lightly sniffed the air.
There were traces of illusion magic lingering above the building, as well as... a distinctly beastly scent.
The sun was already about to sink below the horizon. The streets had become empty, and even those who still lingered were being driven away by soldiers wielding clubs.
Curfew was about to begin.
Hebe no longer hesitated and led Miss A-Long toward the noble estate.
A young servant came out to greet them.
"May I ask what business these two honored guests have in visiting?"
Although Sugawara no Michizane had ended the missions to Tang several decades ago and vigorously promoted the so-called "national style," people throughout the Eastern Country still admired the customs of Cathay. Whether in clothing or daily life, they still regarded the "Tang style" as beautiful.
The young servant recognized at a glance that Hebe's robe was in the most standard Tang style.
"My companion and I have cultivated ourselves together in the mountains of Takachiho. In recent years, stillness has bred a desire to travel, so we descended the mountain to wander the world." Hebe spoke in refined Cathayan from the outset. "Just now, while standing in the center of the castle town, I saw the clouds and vapors shifting above your residence. Has anything strange happened here recently?"
The young servant was tongue-tied. He could roughly understand what Hebe was saying, but he could not answer in Cathayan.
After standing there stunned for quite some time, the servant bowed deeply, then hurriedly opened the gates.
"Please follow me, both of you!"
They happened to arrive just as the household's master was having dinner.
The master's surname was Minamoto, and he came from the Seiwa Genji.
A bowl held cylindrical white rice, while several chunks of fish seasoned with pickled plums sat in a small bowl beside it. Together with some kelp, it made a feast that even Heian nobles would relish.
"Please, honored guests, eat." The master of the estate sat in the seat of honor and smiled as he gestured.
Hebe looked at the food, sighed, and reached out to hold Miss A-Long back.
"Though nobles do not eat particularly well either, at least their food is edible... Isn't it rather presumptuous to serve us clods of dirt and broken tiles?"
The noble seated at the head changed expression slightly. "You—"
Before he could finish speaking, the girl seated among the guests raised her hand and snapped her fingers.
Snap.
The scenery around them changed.
What rice and fish had been placed before them? The rice bowl contained a pile of foul-smelling mud, while the smaller bowl held a handful of pebbles. As for the kelp, it was merely grass.
Miss A-Long flew into a rage and charged at the noble seated at the head of the table with a roar.
"Aah!"
The dignified noble let out a scream and vanished in an instant. The next second, however, he slammed headfirst into the ground and revealed his true form.
He was a plump tanuki, with a bright green leaf resting atop his head.
Hebe reached down and picked up the tanuki. "Using illusion magic in front of me, hm?"
The tanuki covered its face with its front paws. "Tanutarō was wrong! Tanutarō will never dare again!"
Hebe had just been about to say something when she heard footsteps outside.
Then the middle-aged noble they had seen earlier rushed in through the door. He first looked around frantically before fixing his gaze on the tanuki in Hebe's hand.
"Damn tanuki!" the middle-aged noble said bitterly. "You've plagued me for half a year. Today, I'll kill you for sure!"
As he spoke, he reached out to grab the tanuki.
Hebe quickly pulled back, causing the middle-aged noble to grasp at empty air.
"May I ask who you are..." The noble narrowed his eyes and withdrew his hand.
"You may call me Tamamo-no-Mae," Hebe replied. "This tanuki can now be considered my spoils of war. It would not be right for Lord Minamoto to snatch my things like this, would it?"
The noble laughed heartily. "I was merely joking just now. Please, sit!"
Soon, servants hurried in and removed the bowls filled with mud and stones, replacing them with steaming hot dinner. This time, it was real food.
Miss A-Long ate happily—after all, there were no seasonings in the mountains.
Hebe still did not touch her chopsticks.
The noble was secretly alarmed, thinking that this beautiful girl called Tamamo-no-Mae must be an extremely high-ranking noble, perhaps even someone who had come from Cathay.
The tanuki secretly clicked its tongue, thinking Tamamo-no-Mae must be an immensely terrifying great monster. She was not even tempted by such delicious food; perhaps she had crossed the sea from the west.
Both the noble and the tanuki felt increasingly uneasy.
Once Miss A-Long had finished eating, Hebe passed her own plate over as well.
This was naturally a grave breach of etiquette, but no one dared comment on it.
"Lord Minamoto comes from the Seiwa Genji. Your family background is truly illustrious," Hebe suddenly said. "I wonder whether you miss the scenery of Heian-kyō?"
A look of nostalgia and pride appeared on the noble's face.
The Seiwa Genji descended from the Imperial Monarch's bloodline, making them genuine court aristocrats.
Heian-kyō was the most prosperous capital in the Eastern Country at this time, while Hyuga Province... well, given a choice, no one would willingly leave the bustling capital region for the southernmost frontier.
"Ever since I left Heian-kyō, I have missed my homeland at every moment."
The Minamoto Noble sighed and looked eagerly at Hebe.
"Miss Tamamo-no-Mae has helped me resolve the tanuki trouble. I am immensely grateful. If you have any request, please feel free to name it."
Hebe smiled. "I happen to be going to Heian-kyō. I ask that Lord Minamoto write letters of introduction for my companion and me, so we may avoid unnecessary trouble."
The noble laughed. "What difficulty is that? I shall write them for Miss Tamamo-no-Mae at once."
Before long, two letters, their ink still wet, had been written.
Hebe blew gently on the two letters, and the ink dried instantly.
She put away the documents, cupped her hands toward the stunned noble, then picked up Tanutarō, who was stealthily trying to escape, and called Miss A-Long as they left the lord's estate together.
Miss Tamamo, Save Me!
The tanuki's ears drooped as Hebe held it by the scruff of its neck.
"Don't eat me. I don't taste good," the tanuki said, trembling so hard that its dialect slipped out.
Hebe smiled teasingly.
Tanuki were also monsters skilled in illusion magic. They appeared and disappeared unpredictably and loved mischief by nature. They could freely transform into other objects and even take human form, though most of the time they did not pose a threat to life.
By comparison, tanuki were somewhat removed from the camp of beasts and more inclined toward humans.
This was also one aspect of the gradual blurring between humans and beasts during the Heian era—even aristocrats could fall into becoming great monsters, while demons and goblins gradually developed humanity through their contact with people.
Hebe did not remove the leaf from the tanuki's head.
For tanuki, the leaf atop their heads was both a tool for casting illusion magic and the source of their wisdom. Once it was plucked away by someone else, a tanuki would become an ordinary tanuki.
Before you continue