"What, did your earlier actions give you away?"
"N-no!" Yiduo hurriedly denied it. "But Jihl's youngest daughter seems to suspect something about the miners' rations being skimmed. She hasn't discovered it was me, though."
"Find a chance to clear yourself of something that trivial. Don't bother me with it."
Though Yiduo couldn't see the other person's expression, he could already imagine the impatience beneath the mask.
"But, but that's not the point. They seem to have brought in a shipment of grain!"
At that, the insect trainer stopped what he was doing.
"Tell me more."
Yiduo didn't dare delay. He immediately gave an embellished account of the foremen's conversation he had overheard at the granary.
A golden tree, "divine arts" that could heal the land and grow crops out of thin air, and a blessing that could give people immense strength...
Most importantly, he had indeed seen Elder Beruto bring back a shipment of grain and hand out some extra rations, telling them not to spread the word for the time being.
Yet after hearing his account, the other person gave a derisive snort, showing little interest.
"Hmph, a boring trick. Winning people over with an illusion is nothing new, whether in the empire or the south."
From Yiduo's description, that bit of grain would only last a few days, and wouldn't affect the execution of the plan at all.
Besides, the attitude of a single elder meant little. It didn't matter even if they failed to turn them against one another.
"But I also heard-"
"Are you questioning my judgment?"
Perhaps sensing its master's anger, the slick, squirming sounds in the bamboo basket grew more intense.
Then slimy, clammy, deathly pale insects, each as large as an adult's forearm, poured out and swarmed toward Yiduo.
In an instant, an even stronger, more pungent stench surrounded him.
"M-my lord!!"
Yiduo's scalp went numb, but he didn't dare move so much as a toe.
Those insects were the ones infamous as "corpse worms," said to feed exclusively on corpses. They were also the hallmark of insect trainers.
Fortunately, the corpse worms had little interest in Yiduo, a living person. Instead, they crowded around the sack at his feet and feasted on the wheat inside.
The insect trainer couldn't even be bothered to look at Yiduo and continued fiddling with the reagents on the table.
"Remember, aside from Tolmekia, no one can save your little Valley of the Wind. Do I need to repeat myself?"
"N-no, you don't. I understand! Please..."
Surrounded by insects, Yiduo was on the verge of tears.
Seeing that the intimidation had worked, the insect trainer finally whistled.
In an instant, the hair-raising rustling erupted again.
The corpse worms pushed the ration sack back to her side and resumed devouring the delicious fresh wheat grains.
Yiduo's stomach churned. He wanted nothing more than to flee this wretched place, but until this important figure from Tolmekia gave him leave, he didn't have the courage to move.
Only after all the insects had "returned to their nest" did the insect trainer return to the previous subject.
"Don't panic. I've received word that 'reinforcements' will arrive soon."
"Besides, doesn't their shipment of grain make things easier for our plan?"
But the more you say that, the less reassured I feel!
Yiduo screamed inwardly, but when he spoke, it came out as a timid question: "But what if... the people in the valley catch me..."
"Oh? Why weren't you afraid when you scattered spores from the Sea of Corruption in the forest? Why weren't you afraid when you slipped notes into the rations? Now that someone's only begun to suspect you, you're scared?"
The woman's voice was full of mockery. With the plan this far along, did he still want to jump ship halfway through?
It was too late.
Perhaps feeling that she needed to offer this pawn some comfort, she softened her tone and coaxed Yiduo.
"Think of your parents. Think of the loved ones swallowed by the Sea of Corruption. Only Tolmekia can save the Valley of the Wind. When the day comes that we formally wage war on that cursed forest, the empire won't forget your contribution, and you..."
"Will become a hero who saved his homeland."
"Go on. If you're really afraid, you can suspend your activities after you've done that. Leave everything after that to our people."
From beginning to end, she never once turned to look at Yiduo.
Yiduo no longer remembered how he had left the castle.
He walked down the flagstone street, his head still buzzing with the insect trainer's words.
Just then, a friend called out to him, startling him so badly that he nearly collapsed.
"Hey, Yiduo! How come you slipped back on your own? Want to grab a drink later?"
He turned to see his friend walking with several other companions, waving enthusiastically at him with his one remaining arm.
Most of the granary guards had disabilities that kept them from doing heavy physical labor.
He forced his pounding heart to calm down and took a deep breath before answering, "You go ahead, Pao. I'll be there later."
"All right, I'll save you a seat. Don't stand me up!"
His companion's footsteps gradually receded, leaving only Yiduo's heavy breathing in the alley.
He slumped against the wall, staring blankly ahead.
"A hero... heh, hahahaha!"
He suddenly burst out laughing and didn't stop until he was gasping for breath.
Then Yiduo dragged his lame leg slowly toward home, muttering something obsessively under his breath.
"A hero... I'm the hero who saved the Valley of the Wind..."
Beep, beep, beep-beep-beep-
Under the moonlight, a camp of several cowhide tents stood alone in a barren desert that stretched as far as the eye could see.
A diamond-shaped antenna for transmitting and receiving signals stood atop one of the tents, and the incessant sound of a telegraph came from inside it.
The tent's furnishings were extremely sparse. Apart from a sleeping bag, a folding table, and several bamboo baskets, there was nothing else.
A man dressed almost exactly like the previous insect trainer, but so tall and burly that he hardly looked human, held a pen and paper, recording the "important intelligence" he had just received.
"Heh, they've even resorted to this kind of supernatural hocus-pocus. They're just like those Dorok People... ignorant and hateful."
"Only the forest is a true god."
"Still, it's clear that the little princess has run out of options. It's time for the next step."
He pulled out a fresh sheet of writing paper and wrote down the intelligence he had just received, along with new orders, in a prearranged code.
After carefully rolling up the letter and inserting it into a tiny metal cylinder about as thick as a pencil, used to conceal intelligence, the male insect trainer whistled.
Soon, an insect utterly different from the "corpse worms" crawled out of a bamboo basket with a clicking sound.
The insect was the size of a human head, its body covered in a smooth, thick black shell, like a mutated, enlarged pill bug.
This was his "messenger."
To prevent the radio transmission from being intercepted and decoded, he decided to use a more traditional and reliable method, one exclusive to insect trainers.
The insect trainer lifted the messenger insect as gently as if it were a baby and placed the metal cylinder into its mouthparts.
Watching the messenger burrow into the sand and swiftly head west, he offered a devout prayer.
"May the day the forest covers the earth come soon..."