Chapter 230: Returning to the Land of Rice Fields
At that moment, Sōji stood alone outside the inn, watching the two groups disappear to the north and south.
Ugly Treasure poked its head out of his collar and gently brushed his wrist with its feelers.
He raised a hand and rubbed that little head, then turned and set off along the post road to the west.
Sōji chose to travel on foot from the Land of Hot Water, heading west across the northern plains of the Land of Fire.
The northern plains of the Land of Fire had a distinct winter vastness, their harvested rice paddies covered in a thin layer of snow.
An endless expanse of grayish white stretched to the foot of the distant mountains. Here and there, a few hardy pines and cypresses stood on the paddy banks, icicles hanging among their branches and leaves, glittering in the sunlight.
It was afternoon when he passed through Tanzaku Town, and the sign at the Yamada Trading Company's headquarters gleamed like new in the winter sunlight.
Achun had received word in advance and was already waiting at the entrance.
She handed Sōji a detailed plan for recovering funds, with the date for receipt of the outstanding payment on the Land of Wind's precious metal ores and the scheduled allocation of the Soaring Dragon's next maintenance funds prominently marked.
Sōji read through it and silently pushed his timetable for redeeming Jacob's Ladder back by two months.
Once those two payments arrived, the year-end dividends would just barely give him enough to budget for the Prison Realm and Sukuna's Finger, but he would still need another way to come up with the billion ryo for Jacob's Ladder itself.
So he did not linger in Tanzaku Town. After taking the plan, he