Of course, the chicken soup had a share for the silly son too; he'd already been fed.
Ah Man had stopped talking, afraid that Harano would compete with her, and not caring whether it was hot or not, she fished out the chicken meat and started stuffing it into her mouth, her cheeks puffed out like a hamster, so hot her eyes were tearing up, her bean-shaped brows rising and falling unevenly.
Everything in Japan during this era was shrunken—people were smaller, chickens were smaller too—not even half the size of chickens in later centuries. Plucked, they looked like quails, downright pitiful. Harano couldn't even be bothered to look at them; he just waited for Yayoi to bring him his meal and ate his own—he'd also sent the Momoi brothers off to buy fresh fish, mushrooms, and dried bamboo shoots. Now that he had plenty of money, of course he had to ensure a good standard of living.
With a good living standard comes good health; with good health, you won't drop dead from a minor cut or cold. He knew the average life expectancy in this era was only 29.6 years—he definitely didn't want to drag that number down any further.
As for what to do if these ten-odd kan of money run out...
From the very first day of transmigrating, he never worried about money. As a fully educated 21st-century college student, if, after getting to know the sixteenth century, he couldn't even make legit money to eat, he might as well just kill himself and save himself the embarrassment.
Ah Man wolfed down her food, finishing a whole pot of chicken, polishing off all the radishes and mushrooms too. She even had to crack open the chicken bones for the juice, and while she was at it, she put away two bowls of rice. Only when she truly couldn't eat another bite did she flop down on the ground, patting her small belly and snuggling against the warm cotton quilt, sighing, "So this is the life of you Advanced Warriors? It's really great. Even if I dropped dead right now, I'd have no regrets."
Harano had already finished eating and was reading the "Barefoot Doctor's Manual" he'd copied the night before, getting ready to either save or accidentally kill the laboring people of medieval Japan. Hearing her, he glanced over and replied coolly, "No one's asking you to die."
Ah Man grunted twice, finally remembering the main issue. She sat up and said seriously, "You want to know about Owari, right? Don't worry, since you fed me, I'll tell you everything clear as day. I wasn't even born in Year One of the Tenbun era, but my grandpa used to fart out stories for us all the time... Uh—where should I start?"
"Start with the Maeda Family!" Harano immediately suggested. After all, they were right on Maeda land; poking around about the Maeda Family first couldn't go wrong.
He also spread out a sheet of Mino Paper, ready to jot down the important points.
"Oh, the Maeda Family, I know about them!" Ah Man stared at the ceiling, thinking for a bit. "According to my grandpa, they migrated from Guo'an County in Minoh Province, following the Otagai River. They've only been settled in Haidong County, Owari Province for sixty or seventy years—maybe a bit longer, like seventy or eighty. Anyway, the Maeda ancestors have been reclaiming land this whole time.
About ten years ago, they finally split the family. The construction of Hosokawa Castle, East Rising City, and Shimo-no-Isshiki Castle all started within these ten years, and even now they're not fully built."
She paused, then moved on to the present, "Right now... the head of Hosokawa Castle is Maeda Kuran Riyharu. Word is pretty good; he's known as an affable old man, but his health doesn't seem great. Bit of a sickly type. The head of East Rising City is Maeda Sanroshi Heiryo—a notorious womanizer, with a harem of maids and always fooling around outside too, a regular at Whale House in every region.
And then, the head of Shimo-no-Isshiki Castle is Maeda Yu Shiro Shonari. They say he's really rigid, stickler for rules, otherwise just average—martial arts: so-so, talent: so-so, nothing much to worry about really.
So, the Hosokawa Maeda family is the main line, with a power base of over 2,000 kan of Wen. The East Rising and Shimo-no-Isshiki branches are cadet lines. They call themselves City Lords, but really they're just village heads with a few hundred kan to their name... Uh, that's the official story. In reality they're stronger than that—if the three families pool their strength and go all out, they can probably muster six or seven hundred fighters, with a good hundred household retainers and Lang Faction willing to fight and die. They're considered a strong local clan in Haidong County."
She'd really earned her chicken and white rice, talking enthusiastically and scooting closer with the quilt still in her arms, snatching Harano's brush out of his hand and sketching out the Family Crest on the paper—an essential skill for "information peddlers." Take one look from a distance at a family crest, item, banner, or horse seal and you'd know which troops are coming—saves you from getting up close and catching an arrow for your trouble.
"Maeda family's crest is all plum blossom. A solid dot in the center with five hollow circles around it is the Hosokawa Maeda family; a hollow dot in the center with solid dots around is the Shimo-no-Isshiki Maeda family; all hollow circles is the East Rising Maeda family."
As Ah Man drew, she explained. Harano finally solved a mystery: turns out the "five circles around one circle" design on the short haori of Jubei and Jiulang actually represented a plum blossom (technically a "divine radiance flower," but resembles a plum so everyone just calls it that)—talk about stick-figure drawing. Honestly, he'd never have guessed it in a million years.
"Can you draw a map? Mark out where their castles are." He shifted to make room for Ah Man, exchanged for a fresh sheet, and motioned for her to draw a map too.
Ah Man didn't mind—after all, the chicken was just that good. She gripped the brush and, thinking for a bit, first drew a wavy line slanting from the northeast to the southwest, then drew three small circles along the line. "The source of the Otagai River is in the big mountains of Minoh, and the Maeda family's three castles are just on either side of that river downstream—pretty much like this."
Once she finished, she fiddled with the sheet, hesitated a bit, then scrawled a crooked "North" character at the very top. Then she drew a horizontal line and wrote "Minoh Province" next to it—to mark orientation.
Harano was surprised: "You know how to write?"
Ah Man was quite proud of possessing such an "advanced skill," but acted casual: "You see enough of it and you just pick it up. It's not so hard."
After saying this, she scribbled out more wobbly characters like "Rice," "Wine," "Meal," and "Chicken," just to prove she wasn't lying—though her writing was hideous. The right side of her "chicken" looked more like a bird than a character and was hard to read, but she didn't show off much longer and kept selling intel to Harano.
"There's not much to say about the Shimo-no-Isshiki and East Rising branches—small populations, small territory, weak overall, always following the main family's lead. The face of the Maeda family is the Hosokawa Maeda main line; their current patriarch you already know: Maeda Kuran Riyharu. The old geezer is super fertile too, and lucky—eight kids lived to adulthood.
Let me think: The eldest is the heir, called Shinichiro Rikyu. Second is Nayazuke Riyuan. Third is Yu Saburo Ansheng. Fourth is Magoshiro Toshiie. Fifth was sent to the Sawake family as an adopted son and renamed Fujihachiro Ryoji. Sixth is so young I barely hear people mention him—probably hasn't done the coming-of-age ceremony yet, I think he's called Rokuro Hideki.
Then there are two daughters—the older one's about ten, called Tsubaki; the younger's six or seven, called Tsubasa—both said to be real little beauties. Plenty of families are scheming already.
Oh, and besides those eight, Riyharu the old guy has three adopted daughters.
One named Ashi, the illegitimate daughter of Maeda Sanroshi, placed with him; one named Amatsu, his wife's elder sister's daughter—after the sister remarried, she dumped her kid with his wife to raise; finally one named Yudai, daughter of Maeda Yuichiro, who left her with Hosokawa Castle when he remarried."
Harano felt like calling Yayoi to go stew another chicken for Ah Man—the information was so detailed it made his scalp tingle. Even the police back in Huaxia weren't this thorough; she sounded like she was reading the Hosokawa Maeda family census.
He couldn't help but ask, "How do you know all this in such detail?"
Ah Man waved her little hand, bean brows arching, unconcerned: "It's not some big secret—just ask anyone from Hosokawa Castle and they'll tell you! Those idiot peasants are just like your two dumb cronies—give them some spit to drink, and they'll blab about their ancestors for eight generations, just so folks think they're knowledgeable and not lower-class."
So now that we know, better write it down—who knows, maybe some other dummy will want to know someday, and we can make a little cash on the side, right?"
Harano nodded silently. She did have a point. But no more chicken—this sharp-tongued brat could gnaw on dried radish next meal.