A Grievance Session

"You listen up! You were nothing but stray dogs on the verge of starving to death by the roadside. Lord Mao took pity on you and had me bring you back so you could eat.

"But there are conditions. If you're still so stupid that you can't even follow simple orders, then every last one of you can get back behind that fence and fend for yourselves!"

Yasuke let loose a stream of abuse at them.

Below him, every face was filled with fear.

Just as Yasuke had said, they really had been stray dogs on the verge of starvation, teetering between hunger and despair. Then Yasuke had brought them back, and they'd finally eaten a mouthful of steaming rice.

When that first mouthful of hot rice passed their lips, the rising steam blurred their eyes.

The plump, glistening grains carried the fragrance of rice and a scalding warmth into their bellies, filling their empty stomachs and rekindling the flames of life that had nearly gone out.

A happiness spread from their throats to every limb, more precious than any treasure. It let them taste life again.

If they were sent back now to the cold iron fence at the border of the Land of Fire, to endure the hunger and cold they'd suffered before, they'd rather die on the spot!

The new recruits immediately tensed up, concentrating with all their might. They were terrified that one careless mistake would get them thrown out of the ranks and sent back to their old living hell.

Sure enough, after Yasuke's barrage of scolding and threats, the new recruits' formation still looked awkward, but it was much better than before.

Seeing this, Dongfang Mao nodded, then walked forward.

When Yasuke saw Dongfang Mao return, his eyes lit up. He quickly shouted to the recruits in front of him.

"Stop! All of you, stop! This is Lord Mao. He's the one who gave you food and saved your lives!"

The new recruits turned their gazes toward Dongfang Mao as he approached.

He looked very young, almost like a child, but no one dared question him.

Gratitude appeared on their faces. Some even had tears in their eyes, and they looked ready to kneel.

Dongfang Mao accepted their gratitude without reservation. He had saved their lives, after all.

But a moment later, he raised his hand to stop them and addressed the crowd kneeling before him.

"Get up, everyone. Now that you're here, we're all brothers. There's no need for such a grand gesture."

Just then, one of the new recruits crawled out of the group and spoke to Dongfang Mao, tears of gratitude streaming down his face.

"We can never repay Lord Mao for saving our lives. From now on, we're willing to charge into battle for you and brave fire and water!"

With him leading the way, the others quickly followed suit and shouted in unison.

"We're willing to brave fire and water for Lord Mao!"

Dongfang Mao looked at the man for a long moment, then waved his hands repeatedly and let out a heavy sigh.

"Actually, Yasuke, the brothers in the village now, and I all used to be just like you. Our families suffered through famine, and our fields yielded nothing.

"But the nobles and officials turned a blind eye. They even made things worse, imposing all kinds of exorbitant taxes until we had no choice but to sell our fields for next to nothing and become vagrants, with lives as fragile as blades of grass, never knowing if we'd see another day."

As they listened to Dongfang Mao, complicated expressions appeared on the faces of the crowd.

They hadn't expected Dongfang Mao to be not some young master from a wealthy family who'd run away from home.

He'd once been a vagrant who couldn't afford to eat, just like them. What moved them even more was that his past had been almost exactly like theirs.

They couldn't help feeling a deeper sense of kinship with him.

At the same time, their fists clenched beneath their sleeves.

For the first time, they began to wonder why they'd fallen into such a wretched state, while the noblemen could sing and drink every night, with fine wine in their hands and beautiful women in their arms.

As he spoke, Dongfang Mao wiped at the corner of his eye with his sleeve, though there were no tears there. Seeing the crowd visibly moved through the gaps in his fingers, he took a deep breath and continued.

"Fortunately, fate brought me together with these brothers. We supported one another, and that's how we managed to cling to a chance at survival.

"Now that you've joined us, I hope we can all work together and do our best to survive in this cruel world. So what you said just now was a little too much."

"No! It wasn't too much!"

The man who'd spoken earlier stepped forward again. He seemed worked up, his face flushed red, and turned to look at the others behind him.

"Everyone, some of you might know me. I'm from Ainuma Village, and my name is Tokichiro.

"My family had farmed for generations. We didn't gamble or drink. No matter how hot or cold it was, no matter the wind or rain, we got up early and worked until dark every day, yet we only ever grew enough to fill our bellies. Meanwhile, the manor lord would take seven-tenths of our yearly harvest with just a few words.

"This year, the drought left my family with no food at all. The four of us went to the manor lord's gate and knelt, begging him to spare us some grain!

"But he ordered his servants to beat every one of us and drive us away. I don't understand. He lives in such a huge manor and owns so much farmland. He has wine and meat every day, yet he wouldn't spare us even a little grain."

As he spoke, Tokichiro's eyes reddened and his voice choked with emotion.

"After that, my grandfather, father, and mother all starved to death. And I, like everyone here, came to the border looking for a way to survive.

"But the way those big shots and passing merchants looked at us was just like the way they looked at livestock.

"In their eyes, we might have been worth even less than livestock!

"Only Lord Mao treated us wretched nobodies like human beings. If Lord Mao hadn't given us food, we'd still be by that fence, close to death.

"I can never repay Lord Mao's kindness! From now on, my worthless life belongs to him!"

Tokichiro's forceful words resonated with many of them.

They might have only been grateful for what Dongfang Mao had done, but they could relate to Tokichiro's words. Some couldn't help speaking up, too.

"My situation was a lot like Tokichiro's..."

"Mine too..."

"I just don't understand. We only want to survive, so why is it so hard..."

The new recruits took turns sharing their stories. Before long, one of them reached a painful part of his tale and burst into tears. The others were swept up in his grief, until all thirty or so young men were crying together.

Dongfang Mao was left utterly dumbfounded. Wasn't this just a grievance session?

Tokichiro really was a genius. Dongfang Mao had been planning to find the right moment to arrange something like this, but before he'd even had a chance to prepare, Tokichiro had gone and done it for him!

As the new recruits wailed and came to understand the suffering they'd endured, their sense of gratitude toward Dongfang Mao began to swell without limit.

In the end, their emotions all joined together in a shout that rang across the grounds.

"We're willing to give our lives for Lord Mao, to repay his great kindness!"