The Hand of Death Ch. 14

We all stood there for several moments before one of the Yoriki's ronin said, "He did die well."

That brought us out of our reverie and we started cleaning our things and putting away our weapons. The eta came and dealt with the body. The Yoriki had him buried in the graveyard of the Machi-bugyo where all of the policemen are buried. Daiki was very pleased at the returned goods and money to the town as well as his increase from the discovery.

The man on the floor turned out to be one of the leaders of the bandits so I had the ronin drag him out to the yard and cut his head off without ceremony. The remaining three were young scared men. These Daiki sent to his mines for three years. The next two weeks in Daiki's court helped improve my mood immensely.

When it came time to go home, Xai was allowed to fly me home and stay for the week. Daiki was very happy about the extra goods and money Xai had found. The visit was great, and mother loved Xai's coldhearted sense of humor. I never told her why he had it.

There were other jobs over the next six months; frame an Awaji courtier for the theft of a spell scroll in Shiro Asahikawa, leave proof that the Okayama are funding bandits in the Etorofu lands, and take a load of stolen cargo to Kyushu Toshi to frame a Kokura merchant with it. This last one was very simple, the local Machi-bugyo didn't like him and he was tired of the Kokura getting away with things.

There were other missions but I honestly forget what they were. Most of my work didn't keep me away for any longer than a few weeks. Masao must have realized I was happy because the next one was going to take months to complete.