In any case, the Navy was
above this. It didn't bow to the requests of foreigners, and it
certainly didn't give a fuck about what the Army thought. Integrity was important, more important than political favours or goodwill. So you did what you would do with any other sailor who had gotten themselves into this sort of situation through their own negligence. You called Iha into your office, gave her a robust talking to about the danger she had put herself, other drivers, pedestrians, and her passenger in, and then confined her to her quarters for 30 days. Effectively, she wasn't allowed off base to do anything fun. No nights out with friends, no drinking, just a barrack room and whatever she could find to amuse herself from the enlisted club. That meant Admiralty approved literature, board games, and playing cards (as long as no gambling was involved) and boredom.
In addition to this, you assigned her kitchen duty for the duration of her restriction to the Naval yard and, worst of all for an accomplished and confident driver, required her to retake her truck driving qualification course. You could have been harsher, or even just given her corporal punishment, but you didn't like to do that, even with the masculine sailors. A slap in the face or a boot up the ass was all well and good, but you weren't about flogging or other beatings. It was crude, and you preferred to let sailors stew in their misdeeds instead of getting it over with in twenty minutes.
Regardless, Iha was not happy about her punishment, though she had the good sense not to let it show too much when you doled it out to her. Maybe this would finally get her to shape up: she couldn't coast on her wartime commendations forever.
Unfortunately, news of this soon got out. There was no court martial, no particularly terrible punishments, and that filtered to the Army soon enough. You knew it was going to be bad, but the first inklings of how bad reached you through one of the WNA drivers on return from the Arsenal. She'd told her NCO that she'd been pulled aside by a WAA girl and informed that the regular army was taking over duties loading the truck, and the shipmaids should not leave their cabs under any circumstances.
You politely asked in the officer's mess if they could spare any qualified drivers, but no luck: the relatively small pool of drivers in the Navy were all down south at the shipyards, moving supplies and materials as more or less the entire Northern Fleet had been sent to Shimazu for an overdue refit and rebuild with the end of the war.
The worst part was that you never heard exactly what happened. You heard rumours and whispers, you
knew something had happened or
was happening, but nothing official was registered, no complaints. The drivers were staying silent, all of them probably dearly aware that a complaint would come back and hurt the entire WNA, and equally aware there was almost no chance of justice, that the Army would never punish one of their own for crimes against the Navy's women.
Despite repeated pleas for the victim (or victims) to come forward and tell you so that you could pursue justice, but no one ever spoke up. You could see it though, when you assembled them every morning, the nervous looks, controlled breathing, the shipmaids that wouldn't meet your eyes. You knew the feeling well enough yourself, and they were ill equipped to hide their emotions from someone trained in the art of the Imperial Court.
You knew it was bad, you were almost certain you knew who had been hurt, and you could do nothing. That just made it worse.
+2 Stress
You brought it up obliquely a few times, but nobody in the officer's mess seemed to understand how dire things were. But word got out eventually, as one of the commanders running the perimeter guard took you aside and told you he'd heard 'something dire', and then you suddenly had a squadron of burly petty officers showing up every morning to ride in the passenger seats of your trucks.
"We don't like those Army bastards picking on our girls," was all one of them said when you asked for an explanation of their presence. You didn't like the idea that you needed men to protect the women under your command, but it was better than them going without any at all, and so you allowed it. It did occur to you that your shipmaids weren't entirely safe from
them either, but at least if something happened it might be able to be resolved within the Navy instead of lingering forever in interservice memos. Plus, if you were honest with yourself, your shipmaids
did actually seem much happier once they had company.
The issue even spilled beyond your realm, with the usual interservice punch ups that happened when someone went to the wrong bar starting to begin with aggressive sailors invoking their lady comrades as justification for throwing the first punch. Hopefully things didn't get too out of control: a few years before you entered active service the Army and Navy had actually had an armed stand-off in Joseon that had to be defused by the Diet.
The other consequences of your actions hit you in a completely oblique way. There was some minor awkwardness when you were brought in to command the test crews trying out the new Naylor pom-pom guns on base, as you'd worked with them with both your light torpedo boat and with the aircraft destruction unit in Joseon. That was fine, just a bit of social tension as you endured the disapproving glares of Miss Clara Rose Sanders's uncle, who apparently was very fond of his niece. You were big girl, you'd be fine.
Besides, the new guns were incredible. Upcalibred from 37mm to 40mm, firing a shell that weighted twice as much at slightly higher velocities.
These guns could fire explosive shells on timed fuses for anti-aircraft work, or even highly sensitive impact fuses that wouldn't just pass harmlessly through their canvas. They were brilliant, and you imagined them mounted together as twin guns, or even in threes or fours--what airplane would dare show itself near a fleet equipped with this sort of gun? Just the thought of the delicate little playthings getting swatted out of the sky by the shells made you feel warm and fuzzy inside.
You ended up giving a whole-hearted endorsement of the new gun and even recommended that they be mounted as twin guns, or even in triplets, in order to increase the volume of fire against aerial targets and vary the fuses for moving targets. You hoped they ordered a thousand of them and you got to use them, remembering those awful little Caspian planes buzzing over the landing force, your torpedo boat unable to stop them as they strafed boats and dropped those little spherical bombs all over the place. You'd tried the machine gun, but it couldn't be elevated enough to really be effective, and you'd had to settle for the delayed catharsis of seeing their burnt remains in pictures after Caspian airbases were overrun.
And after such a lovely and productive day, your ears ringing and heart still pounding from the excitement, the empty shells clattering across the deck boards and the firework burst of shells stitching the skies and water, you came home to find Aiko had a guest.
"...I'm home," you said wearily. Your arrival was regular enough that there was already a welcome steaming cup of tea waiting for you on the table. Aiko's guest was turning a rather delicate shade of red as she looked up at you, and probably with good reason, because it was Miss Clara Rose Sanders.
"
Oh fuck," Clara said. You managed not to laugh.
"I told you you'd get to meet Arisukawa Haruna!" Aiko said with a smile.
"We… I just realized we've already met." Clara Rose said.
"You have?" Aiko turned her eyes on you, seeking confirmation.
"Yes," you said. You weren't going to go into details in order to be polite but…
"She's the officer who had Hoshi confined to quarters," Clara said after a moment. "The one who came when we had the accident?"
"Haru! What the hell?" Aiko said, staring at you in shocked outrage. "I thought it was the Army's fault!"
"She violated a pile of regulations, Aiko. Damaged Navy property, violated traffic rules, ignored a traffic police officer, not to mention her… liaison with civilians while on duty. She's in the Navy, there have to be consequences to that so that we can maintain discipline and good order in the ranks." you said, unsure why this was at all a big deal. "But, moving past that-- Miss Sanders, what are you doing here?"
"Reading,
Miss Lieutenette." Clara Rose said, staring off a little distantly, clearly extremely embarrassed. "Sorry, I don't know rank words. Um…
Rikugun-Shōi, right?"
Oh Spirits.
"That's a junior officer. Of the army. I'm a Lieutenant of the Navy. Which is different from a junior lieutenant of the Navy," you explained.
She corrected herself, and you were still surprised by how good her pronunciation was despite the gaps in her vocabulary. She must have had a very good tutor.
"Anyway, yes, this is Clara, the-"
"Clara Rose." Clara Rose insisted.
"Clara Rose, she's the friend I met in the library last week, Haruna. She wanted to practice her Akitsukuni and pass the time while her girlfriend's
in lockup…"
"She's confined to the base facilities, it's not jail." you said.
"Sure. Anyway, she's also interested in engineering stuff so I lent her some of my textbooks from last year and then we got talking about like, generators? She likes steam engines, so talked a bit about that and then about her girlfriend and the Navy and Albia and stuff. She's cool!." Aiko said in a blur of words, her usual reaction when she got flustered. "Her Akitsukuni is really good because she needs help with advanced characters and like, I know all that stuff…"
"Your Akitsukuni
is remarkably good, for a foreigner," you said as you sank down to sit across the table from the pair of them. Tea. There was tea. You took a sip. "...What made you want to learn the language, Miss Sanders?"
"Well, I came here when I was thirteen because my mom was helping set up the branch office here, you know, the factory and everything, and that took a while, and I kinda just ended up finding it all really fascinating. The culture, the architecture, the
food. It's all so wonderful! So… begged my mother to go back to the branch office and did most of my secondary studies at the International School here in Tokei. And now I have a job at the branch office here, just paperwork things mostly, but also translating, while I try to figure out where to go next." She sipped her own tea, apparently lost in thought for a moment.
"...It's nice to be able to court who I like, too. I don't want to go back to Artemis or the country house or Birchwike where I have to put it all under my hat, you know? I mean, look at you two! You can get
married. When I tried to tell my teacher back home that was a thing she
didn't believe me."
"...Why wouldn't they believe you?" That took you off guard. Sure, they didn't practice it, but it was part of the
record here when you got married. All you had to do was go down to your local registrar's office and see all the books to see that it was a thing.
"There's not even the words for it! The word
marriage means between a man and a woman, you try to say 'two women got married' and they ask who their husbands were! And then you try to explain more and they look at you like you've grown a second head. My first Europan tutor told me to translate 'lesbian wedding' as '
friendship ritual', like um, a bond between friends. It's completely alien, '
very queer' as you might say in Albian."
"She's been telling me so much about Albia. Honestly, I kinda want to visit." Aiko said.
"Why? It's so much better here!" Clara protested.
"You said you went to an all-girl school and it wasn't even special." Aiko pointed out. "And the men there don't make fresh remarks at you when you walk down the street."
"Well, I mean, yes, Akitsukuni men can be infuriatingly backwards in their thinking at times, but I can be
friends with them? In Albia they don't make
any remarks, it's like we pretend the other doesn't exist unless we're courting." Wow, she was really going now. That little revelation was a touch shocking, though. The men and women didn't talk at
all? Did everyone live like they were in some feudal lord's court all the time? You nodded as you listened, content to let her list out her reasons for staying.
"Not to mention my salary goes pretty far here, compared to back home. That's nice, I realize it's not so easy for everyone." she added.
"What do you make?" you asked. Aiko stared at you.
"Haruna, you can't do that."
"Do what?"
"Ask people how much money they make! It's rude!"
"... that seems strange. Why would that be a rule?" you said awkwardly. You pondered a moment, trying to imagine it. "Prevent people from comparing salaries so nobody gets mad?"
"Yeah. That's the idea?" Aiko said.
"Why would you get mad at somebody for making more? It's their employer that sets their salary, not them, so if you're going to get mad at anyone... In any case, everyone knows what everyone else in the Navy makes, that's how ranks work. I make 200 yen a month on a shore posting, I'll make 225 or so when I'm at sea. And that goes up if I have more than five years active service..."
"Well," Clara said, "...I make 63 pounds, seven shillings a year for my work as a clerk and translator."
"Hm. Okay…" You weren't good at maths. "What was the exchange rate again?"
"Last I checked, about seventy to one." Clara said. Aiko, who was sipping from her tea, sputtered a moment.
"You make 4,400 yen a
year? As a clerk?" Aiko said. "My family pulled in, like, 5000 a year once the shop was really going well. That's only profits, dad would invest like half of that back into the shop, too…"
"...Why are you so excited about the money?" you asked, then wished you hadn't.
"Haruna, I love you, but sometimes you are really stupid." Aiko said, shaking her head sadly.
"Money can be exchanged for goods and services," Clara said. "The exchange rate with Albia is exceedingly one-sided because of your country's small gold reserve and economy, and then cost of living is lower here as well, so I make enough money that I'm basically middle class here. In Albia, I'd likely struggle to live on my own outside of pretty bad neighbourhoods or far out in the suburbs. Thank God for the Underground."
"Haruna, sweetie, try to remember that not everyone is independently wealthy," Aiko added.
"I'm not independently wealthy… it's very dependent. It's my family's money… I just get a stipend... urgh, right," you muttered, feeling very out of sorts. You
knew that, you knew the pay rate for enlisted sailors and that a lot of rural conscripts thought it was great pay, but you hadn't really internalized it and how much it mattered.
Then you realized your apartment's rent was twice the entire monthly pay of your sailors. Three times that of a shipmaid. You'd been proud of how modest a place it was. How much did that tiny place Aiko lived in with all those other ladies cost? How much did the tea in this cup cost?
"Oh, I think we've broken her." Clara said calmly.
"Nah, she gets like this. You should have seen when I told her that this place is basically the size of my childhood home," Aiko joked.
---
You were invited to the Palace the weekend before the wedding, directly by your cousin. They were relaxing security finally, and the Empress wanted to use the chance to talk to you after the war.
Despite the supposedly reduced alertness, the security was intense: there was a machine-gun nest next to the bridge. It grimly reminded you of Nashimoto's plot. They were searching the Army officers and politicians, though you managed to get through without hassle and cross, then you were guided by servants to the Winter Palace. The Imperial Guard were on high alert, with easily twice as many as usual lining the walls and hallways. You'd been told to bring along your service pistol--the Empress wanted to go shooting. You'd handed it over at the gate, as usual, though, and the guardsman there had assured you that it would be on hand when things got started.
Traveling along winding paths meant to put one in mind of the mountains and forests of the countryside, you finally approached what had
used to be an archery range and was now just… the target range. You could hear the crack of gunfire and finally you were ushered inside after being handed a pair of ear-plugs.
The Empress, dressed in Western-style sporting clothes and with her hair done up in the most modern hairdo you'd ever seen on her, was holding one of the familiar military rifles into her shoulder as she aimed at a row of targets that had been set up fifty meters away. With a crack she fired and knocked one down, then pulled the bolt back to eject the spent cartridge and handed the now-empty weapon over to the Imperial Guard captain who stood a few steps behind her. There were a few other women here as well, mostly ladies-in-waiting and other court functionaries either along just to provide commentary or to join in the shooting. All of them applauded politely at her shot.
"Ah, it's little Haruna," Mitsuko said with a beaming smile. "I'm so glad you made it," she stepped forward and gave you an embrace. Oh
wow that was weirder than it used to be when you were a kid. But then, she hadn't been empress quite yet when you were a kid. A generation ago, touching the Empress was an actual, for real crime.
"Thank you for inviting me, Your Imperial Majesty." you said, "What are we shooting today?"
"Anything and everything, I think," she said. There were a series of racks that had been set up along with a table. The racks were loaded with rifles of every design, from sporting pieces to the latest samples of military arms from around the world. The cases on the table were, no doubt, filled with handguns.
"But I do want to see what you prefer to shoot with. Captain?" She gestured and the captain stepped forward and offered you your holstered pistol. Any ammunition had, of course, been removed.
"Sergeant Hara will be your loader," she said as if having someone else load your gun for you was the most normal thing in the world. Though she must have seen the look on your face, because she smiled. "You aren't allowed to load it because you aren't allowed to 'carry' arms, though you can shoot one if you don't move with it and as long as the Imperial Guard is supervising. A clever little loophole. I can't because last time I did I skimmed a knuckle on the edge of a rifle and they wouldn't let me in public for two weeks until it healed."
As you broke open the revolver and offered it over to Sergeant Hara for loading, servants scurried out to set up pistol targets at various distances. The Empress was still speaking.
"I'm surprised you shoot with something that huge. It must be heavy."
"It is, but it's reliable and powerful. I trust it over any automatic."
"That is very much like you. Well, take a shot, let's see how you do." You held your hand out and Sergeant Hara snapped the revolver closed and placed the heavy grip into your hand. The Empress stood behind you, off to one side, so she could watch you shoot. The sergeant also stood there, though much closer. Close enough that you sword you could feel him breathing on your neck and conspicuously in between you and the Empress. It would be impossible to get a direct bead on her from here--which was the whole point, you expected. Not that you planned to try and gun down your poor cousin, of course.
Turning your body slightly to the side, you leveled the pistol as you had always been taught, felt your arm and shoulder tense and complain as the heavy weight of the extended pistol began to make itself known. No time to wait around. You peered down the simple sights of the revolver and squeezed the trigger. As always, the damn thing kicked hard back into your hand, but the weight of the gun helped you keep it on target. You settled into it and leaned forward slightly, carefully squeezing off each of the six rounds in the gun. Then, in a simple motion, you broke it open and ejected the spent brass before offering the weapon back to your supervising guardsman.
"Well shot," Mitsuko said, and everyone gave a polite smattering of applause. "But isn't that thing heavy? You were trembling a little in the arm."
"Ah. Well, I'm used to it," you said.
"Look--" The Empress gestured as a servant brought forward your target. "You started off alright with the first one, but then you drifted down and to the right--it's fatiguing your arm, clearly. I really think you ought to stop trying to out-man the men around you."
"Ah… Thank you for the advice, Your Majesty." Your cheeks turned a bit red at the comment. You weren't trying to do anything of the sort! But one did not get into an argument with the Empress over such remarks. Not in public. The Empress was continuing.
"Here, Hyesun. Show Haruna what you can do." You stepped back as one of the courtly women got to her feet and walked up to the firing line. Like the Empress, she was dressed in modern, fashionable sporting clothes and you realized that she was from Joseon. Then the name sparked recognition. Yi Hyesun, one of the last scions of the Joseon Royal Family. She had been brought here when you were a child--she was your age or maybe a touch younger. Initially a hostage against poor behavior and now, you expected, a puppet queen to be installed on the throne of the Joseon 'protectorate' when her doddering father kicked the bucket.
Hyesun held out a hand and one of the guardsmen placed a pistol, one of those boxy Dyskelandic things, into it before stepping back. You tensed, wondering if she might turn it on the Empress--an act of rebellion that might cost her her life, surely, but one that would strike a severe blow. But no, of course not. She'd been raised here her entire life. They
trusted her with a gun.
She took up a picture perfect shooting stance, her grip on the compact automatic pistol she carried sure and steady, and then began to fire. It was quick, quicker than you had been. There was a rattle of sharp cracks, then she pulled the action on the rear of the pistol back, looked inside as if to confirm that all the cartridges had been fired, and then handed it back to her loader.
"Five out of seven in the center ring!" one of the servants called out, and there was another round of polite applause. You admit, it stung your pride a little.
"You see, much more accurate." your cousin said.
"And very easy shooting, too. I could do that all day." Hyesun said.
"Alright, but I've had bad experiences with automatic pistols in field conditions." you explained. "A revolver will never fail, and if there
is a dud round or something, I just pull the trigger again."
The Empress was clearly expecting that, as she was hunting through the cases on the table.
"I know you say that, but here, try… this."
She scooped something up out of the case and offered it to you. A little smooth, boxy gun with dark, beautiful blueing that was run through with silvery etching. The grips were ivory, you thought. It looked like a toy. It didn't have anything you recognized, lacking a hammer or noticable magazine well, the trigger just a recessed half-moon in a guard or anything. It certainly looked futuristic. On top of that, it was feather light (or felt like it) and was at least 100 millimeters shorter than you big revolver.
"I have no idea how this works." you confessed.
"Well, you really should learn. Our officers have to keep up with modern technology." Hyesun joked, and everyone laughed a little. Our officers. Woof.
"Right, Sergeant, would you mind instructing Lieutenant Arikasawa on her pistol's operation?"
You handed the man the weapon, and he gripped it in such a way as to show you his every hand motion. A smooth, elongated box of a magazine was inserted in the well hidden under the grip until it clicked, then he grabbed the serrated section of the slide above the grip (which now, you saw, served the purpose of giving you grip on the mechanism which would put a cartridge into battery and ready to fire) and pulled it back in a single smooth motion to prepare the pistol for firing. Then he handed you the pistol. Even loaded, it felt like you were barely carrying the thing.
"What about the safety?" you asked.
"It is in the rear of the grip. Holding it ready to fire will unlock it. There is also a manual safety on the left side if you really need it." he explained, and as you held it you noticed the little spring-loaded button on the rear, curved to fit. Ingeniously, all it would take to fire it would be to grip the weapon--which meant that all that needed to be done to fire would be to unholster your loaded pistol and line it up with your target.
You lined yourself up on the target, pointing your shoulder at it like you were taught, raised the pistol with a straight arm, steadiled the smooth, tiny sights over it, and started to squeeze the trigger. It fired far earlier than you were expecting, a trigger weight more like a single-action revolver than anything, and that threw you off a bit.
Your first shot went entirely wide of the target and you frowned. You weren't the best shot, but you were better than
that. You lined back up and kept shooting, and while your grouping still wasn't great, it was, admittedly, better than with your revolver. Your later shots were better than your initial attempts, once you had gotten a better feel for the trigger. If you practiced with it, it would be a light, handy pistol for when you needed one. And it carried two more rounds than your revolver, on top of that.
Despite what you considered a poor showing, Mitsuko lead the others in attendance in a polite applause for your efforts and stepped back over to you, smiling brightly.
"Delightful, isn't it?"
"It's a wonderful little pistol," you admitted as you handed the weapon back to Sergeant Hara. "I have to admit that if I were to practice, I would happily replace my revolver. Easier on the wrist, too."
"Then you have to take it--I'll send you home with it, along with the spare magazines and a holster. And a box of ammunition, of course--" She raised a hand and one of the Imperial guardsmen stepped forward. "Have this weapon boxed up and prepared to be sent home with the Princess, would you?"
"Your Majesty, I couldn't--"
"Nonsense. Look, I'll keep your massive cannon. No one gets me anything like that, it's always dainty and appropriate little pistols and women's rifles. It'll be nice to have a change of pace. Then it won't be like a gift so much as an exchange." She
was the Empress and so you had to smile and nod.
"Thank you, then, for the exchange. What's it called?"
"Cochran Model 1904 Pocket Hammerless. Of course, it
does have a hammer it's just hidden in that rounded bit at the back there…" She was happily about to start going into the mechanical details of the the weapon when a young voice called out.
"Mama!" Coming along the path was your much younger cousin, Mitsuko's daughter accompanied by her father… well, maybe her father. There were several Imperial Consorts and the actual
father of any of the Empress' children was a closely guarded state secret (if it was, in fact, known) to avoid any sort of political maneuvering in the Imperial Bedchamber.
"Kimiko, my darling!" The Empress beamed and bent to pick up her daughter, who was dressed in traditional clothing, and cradled the girl in her arms despite some disapproving stares from older ladies of the court. Kimiko was six and third youngest of the four Imperial children.
"How were your lessons today? And look, cousin Haruna has come to visit me."
"Good," replied the girl in the laconic nature of all children who do not want to discuss their school lessons. "Hi Haruna."
"Hello, Kimiko. I haven't seen you since… hm, you were much smaller, anyway," you said.
"Can I wear your hat?" she asked.
"She did very well with arithmetic," said the Consort, then he stepped past the three of you and selected his own weapon to begin shooting. Apparently he had needed a break from… whatever he was doing.
"Well, in that case…" you said, plucking your hat from your head and offering it to the girl. It immediately slid down, the brim covering her eyes. She laughed and pushed it back up, holding it in place with a hand.
"You'll make a fine officer one day," you said in your best impression of the Naval Academy's commandant. "The hat already suits you."
"Can I do that, mama?" She seemed… not excited, but at least intrigued by the idea. At least she liked the hat.
"You could, I think," Mitsuko said. "Though by then I'm sure Haruna will be an admiral and you'll have to salute her."
"If I'm so fortunate, I shall certainly reserve a place on my staff for ensign Kimiko," you said, laughing.
For the next hour or so there was a leisurely pace of shooting, with many of the younger and more modern members of the court participating. You had a chance to sample many of the weapons she had lying around, including a variety of interesting rifles gifted from states around the globe (you were a particular fan of a Caspian model, of all things, gifted just before hostilities, a lever-action weapon firing full rifle rounds).
You also discussed those Dynamist manifestos the Empress had sent you, politely confessing you'd not gotten much out of them. They seemed vague and not terribly actionable, so while you appreciated their sentiment of unity between genders and classes, you weren't actually sure when you finished reading it what was intended. The Empress took it in stride, discussing her own interpretations, and more than once you found yourself drawing arguments from some of the other political reading you'd done, albeit far outside the context the authors probably intended. In any case, it was light and cheery, just theory.
Things wound down slowly, people moving off to business, and finally the Empress was called away for something when it was just her and a few others, all of them embarrassing you with their excellent marksmanship.
"Well, the Prime Minister is here, so I'm afraid the guns must go away. Though, Haruna, feel free to shoot of the rest of that magazine, may as well."
You were currently playing around with an Albian gun with ten shots, which seemed entirely too many, and not wanting to disappoint your cousin, you kept firing as she swept away and took nearly everyone else with her. Nearly everyone, as Hyesun was also staying behind, it seemed.
"Don't have you to, uh, go?" you asked awkwardly.
"No, I don't have to do much of anything." she joked. "I've really taken to the shooting, though, it's much more fun than endless meetings and tea and such. But you'd know that, right?"
"Well, see, normally I don't actually shoot the guns myself. And they're much bigger." you replied, indicating to your old revolver lying on the table. Earlier, everyone who was shooting had taken a shot with it, and none of them could really control it.
"I don't see why you thought you had to carry a ship's cannon with you as well." she quipped, and you couldn't help but smile. Wow, she was funny. She was a lot closer to hostage than guest when you spent more time in the palace, so you never really interacted before, but she seemed like a lovely person.
You finished off your last shots and handed the rifle off to one of the Guard, then you decided to stay to watch Hyesun's last round of shooting. To your surprise, it wasn't with a gun, but instead a bow that one of the guards brought to her.
"Ever fired a bow?" she asked. You shook your head.
"Not since I was in secondary school." That said, you watched as she loosed an arrow into a distant target, dead on.
"Of course not, not a lot of use for them at sea, I imagine. I'm told Joseon had a lot of very good archers, though they weren't much good against rifles, obviously." Hyesun replied, the guard nearest her handing her another arrow.
Obviously. Spirits, this was uncomfortable. She loosed another arrow and you watched it soar through the air to land perfectly on target. You smiled, then spoke, reciting one of the poems you read as you were studying her language, one that seemed appropriate.
"
I love only the lotus for rising from the mud, yet remaining unstained. Bathed by pure currents and yet not seduced."
There was a pause.
"That was beautiful." Hyesun said. "What does it mean?"
---
On your journey home, you reflected on the day, the political discussions and awkwardness. Your meeting with Clara Rose and how ignorant it made you look. You knew a lot, but you were increasingly realizing it was mostly in fields that weren't actually relevant to most people's lives, which did little to inform opinions on anything. Of course not: you were
supposed to have gotten married and politely ignore those conversations when your husband had them with his powerful friends.
You should probably start expanding your horizons a bit. Now that there wasn't a war on, politics seemed as much a part of your duties as commanding men and sailing ships.
Maybe you could pick up a book on the way home and get started tonight? If nothing else, you'll have something to talk about at the wedding.
[ ] Study economics more closely, get a better understanding of how that works. How's all that work?
[ ] Study the recent history of western politics and the current situation. What's going on?
[ ] Study the history of colonization in more detail. How did things get this way, really?
[ ] Maybe instead of that, you should get serious about learning Caspian and practicing your other languages. Maybe your old tutors are still working… you should send some letters.
[ ] Actually, maybe you and Aiko can find other ways to pass the evening that don't involve books. (-2 Stress)
