World on a String | A Sasori fanfiction

Chapter 4 - Re-devising foundations

The night in desert lands are especially cold.

Dripping wet, Ichika sat on the cold floor shivering. Though she was suffering so much, Maren casually sat on her bed reading through thick stacks of documents. 

The previous Ichika had tried to use this situation to harm Maren, but now she knew better. She had been expressly warned against creating any sort of commotion. Even if she was the victim, if she cried about Maren bullying her, she would be accused of slander.

A maid is supposed to quietly serve their master but she had already received two huge strikes. First the instance where she was accused of framing Maren. Then, she also invited an unauthorized person to drink tea with Maren. Both of them were insulting the Daimyo himself - after all even if she was an illegitimate child, she had his blood in her veins. How could someone with the Daimyo's blood be insulted by servants?

Interestingly, Ichika was still counting on Maren bailing her out.

Maren might have started to fight back, unable to bear the injustice. But the mastermind was Lady Kouyou and her children. Maren was a kind soul and would suffer grievances rather than let someone else get hurt. If she cried and pleaded, Maren would let her go.

Ichika was ruing all her actions. Maren, no...the Second Miss Maren, was nothing like she thought. She was even smarter than Kazue!

'If only she was the legitimate daughter. With her smarts, Daimyo-sama would definitely favor her over Karen. But I didn't have a choice...if I didn't side with the twins, I would have been bullied!'

Even at this point, Ichika was justifying her actions to herself. In her mind, her actions were self-protection. Justified since she was a helpless maid.

"M-Miss...I was forced. Supporting the unfavorable Miss without backing would have me killed in the internal politics!" Ichika cried. 

The cold look of indifference in Maren's eyes made her feel colder. The sympathy she was expecting was nowhere to be found.

"The lack of background was a valid excuse last time, and I gave you a second chance. But the me right now has the power enough to enter the library and have meals with the family. My power is rising to the point that Lady Kouyou feels threatened."

Ichika gulped. That...was true. Despite being an illegitimate daughter, Maren's allowance had been increased to match Karen's. She was allowed to pursue her interest and not need to answer to Lady Kouyou's orders like a servant.

"Did you know? Your actions today would have ruined me completely and forced me to marry Yura-san even though he is an old married man with his own family. Not to mention, Sunagakure and Yura-san would be forced to bear the full brunt for this scandalous situation. An entire village would have been destroyed."

It wasn't an exaggeration.

As a girl, having an affair was akin to losing her purity. She would be forcefully married off and lose all rights to associate with the Wind Daimyo. Sunagakure would have been horribly hit - reduced to an illegal ninja village with no monetary support. All of the registered Suna-nins would become rogue nins overnight.

One of the five great shinobi nations...would disappear off the list.

Just when Ichika had given up hopes of getting out of punishment, an evil glint shone in Maren's eyes. "Ichika dear, I forgive you. Your betrayal was unavoidable because you are weak right?" 

Maren words were sweet and in line with the sympathy she was expecting but for some reason, Ichika felt a chill down her spine. 

"...since you need to get stronger, why don't you train to be a ninja?"