"Appa! Everyone, stop!" a sharp female voice cried out, cutting through the angry snarls.
The ferocious-looking man who had rushed toward me first stopped dead in his tracks. The ragged men behind him also halted. I watched their wooden, reflexive obedience with interest. If I said just one more provocative word right now, I'd be the perfect villain.
A blond man of about eighteen, his hair tied back in a braid, stepped out from the crowd. "Onmyoji," he said, his voice respectful as he bowed his head, his face a picture of apology. "Please forgive our impoliteness."
I smiled graciously. "It's quite all right. I was just taking a walk. If there's been a misunderstanding, we simply need to explain it."
"We are terribly sorry," the blond man repeated, keeping a safe distance of seven or eight steps.
I didn't respond directly, instead asking a simple, classifying question. "Are you 'non-persons'?" The hinin, a class that existed even below the untouchables, performed the filthy jobs no one else would: clearing sewage, transporting excrement, and collecting the dead. They lived in slums on the edge of the capital, shunned by everyone.
"…We were residents of Qianfan Manor," the man replied.
"I see." I nodded slightly. Zhuangmin, manor serfs. Private slaves belonging to a noble house. They were technically untouchables, but living under a lord's protection was better than being on your own. Now I understood. They were the people of the Qin clan manor, the one Fujiwara no Yukinari had just seized. Driven from their land, they had fallen into a state worse than the established hinin, who at least had jobs and a place in the social order. These people had nothing.
"As I said, I'm just taking a walk. There's no conflict here. Please get out of the way," I said with a smile.
The blond man quickly ordered the others. "Appa, Apei, everyone, step aside!"
Though they looked dissatisfied, they did as they were told, dragging their feet. I watched them with amusement. Ordinary untouchables wouldn't be so unruly. They were more interesting. As I passed, I saw young men with crooked mouths and twisted noses—delinquents—glaring at me, making low, guttural sounds like rabid dogs.
"Haha," I chuckled, opening the folding fan at my waist to cover my mouth in a gesture of pure, aristocratic condescension. They felt the provocation, and their grins became wider, more menacing. I just laughed again, shook my head, and prepared to leave.
But it wasn't over.
A rumbling sound approached from the distance. A troop of fully equipped guards, wearing armor and holding spears, advanced at lightning speed. When they saw the ragged people on the road, they expertly began dragging them away with ropes, completely ignoring their wails and screams. I calmly waved my fan and stepped to the side of a wall. Thanks to my trip to the palace library with Baoyin, I recognized them as soldiers from the Outer Guard House. My understanding of this world was much deeper now.
"Hurry! The soldiers are arresting people!" someone shouted. The crowd exploded into a panic, stampeding like a startled flock of birds, running like crazy right past me.
"That's fast," I laughed.
As countless figures streamed by, one of the young delinquents who had been glaring at me suddenly leaped from the crowd. His face was a mask of cruelty and smug satisfaction as he swung his hand in a hard slap aimed directly at my face.
Shhh-rip.
The sound was like tearing silk. A round object, the size of a ladle, was launched into the distance at high speed. A chorus of male and female screams cut through the sky as the young man's headless corpse crumpled in front of me. Blood gushed from his neck like a fountain, forming an eye-catching pool on the ground.
I gently waved my folding fan, my gaze fixed on the distance, paying no attention to the body at my feet. The screaming crowd scrambled backward, creating a wide, empty circle around me in an instant.
"Let's go," I said calmly, pointing to the side with my fan. "If you don't leave now, you won't get another chance."
The blond man who had spoken to me earlier started forward, but a shorter boy beat him to it.
"Mikey!" someone shouted.
"It's alright," the short boy said, stepping before me. "I'm deeply sorry, Onmyoji-sama. One of ours offended you."
"It's fine," I said, shaking my head. "If I was truly offended, more than just one would be dead." I gestured again with my fan.
"Thank you for your tolerance!" the blond man said, rushing forward and bowing deeply before forcibly pulling the shorter boy away. As they passed, the others finally mustered the courage to scurry by, keeping as far away from me as possible.
Tsk, tsk. I clicked my tongue in boredom.
I waited until the last of the serfs had passed before I started moving. Just then, the armed guards marched past. Though they looked ferocious, with miserable people tied to their ropes, they slowed their pace when passing me so as not to stir up dust. They were far more polite than the hinin.
I couldn't help but smile at them. A real smile this time.
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