"Oh! Zuwaro, my brother, there is no need to send all the captives back! These three warriors come from the Matsumae Ando Clan farther south, and are not within the scope of our house's ransom... I beg you! Take them back to the distant snowfields, and do not let them appear again. And these hundred-odd farmers and artisans, I also beg you to take them away, the farther the better!..."
"May the Buddha bear witness! As for the trade between your tribe and our house, please, by all means, do not let the great clans farther south learn of it... Those powerful and greedy clans are always like wild boars that can never eat their fill, charging savagely in every direction... They are different from our house, and are more accustomed to using brute force to seize every potential profit!"
"Likewise, if the trade between your tribe and our house becomes known to the powerful Temple-Shrines, it may very well be interfered with by greedy monk-officials!... These monk-officials possess ways to reach the ears of Heaven. They never accomplish anything, but they are very good at ruining things. And their greed is also very hard to satisfy; even the Buddha cannot enlighten them..."
"So, I beg you! Do not draw other unpredictable clan powers into the trade between us!... And our house will also do everything in our power to satisfy the goods your tribe needs, as well as the artisans to be 'invited and hired'..."
Night gradually descended, and bonfires were lit along the shore. The three Kingdom Longships had already been filled with goods and livestock, so there was not enough room to accommodate the hundred-odd Wajin farmers. Therefore, more than ten Kingdom Warriors disembarked and skillfully tied the Wajin farmers into lines of twenty men each, preventing