After telling them to keep their spirits up, we left. Reporting back to the mayor was easy. We told the truth him. Something that raised my eyebrows was that we had the option to lie. That could make things go in very different directions depending on the lie. Keisuke wanted to tell the truth. I asked if he knew about why people would hate blue haired individuals. Keisuke seemed to know something. "In the western regions, blue hair is seen as a curse and a mark of bad character. Some blue haired people have been known to give terrible prophesies that, when they come true, can destroy the lives of those around them." he explained. The crossroad was literally the center of the country. He came from the outskirts of the west. The town and village were both considered to be in the interior of the country. Apparently, the capitol city was south on the road we met. We made the trek back to the town. I saw a couple of members from Akaime Clan. They looked at us in surprised and then pointed us out. We were safe in town, but we would be fair game after we left. I was looking forward to that.
Completing the mission was our priority. We were ushered into the big room where the mayor received guests and did official business. He was a shrewd old man with long white beard. He asked us why we were not the members of the Kirume Clan that he sent for. We told him we were retainers of the clan. The mayor rolled his eyes at us. "Retainers? Minor clans should learn their place and not try to repeat the actions of those above their station. I get criticized by the liege lord for tolerating them so close to the capitol in the first place!" he complained to no one in particular. There was no reason to engage with that any further. Keisuke recounted the story. I nodded and a firm line was the disposition of the man's lips. Our mission was then complete. Only 9 more to go. It also opened up a quest chain. The mayor was still paranoid with the refugee camp. He wanted to put a spy in their camp to see if they really had no bad intentions. The new lord controlled the city, but they had no sway outside of those walls. Now that they were there, anything could happen. Even blatant criminality.
While probably only a call made from his personal biases, that was something that could not be ignored. Even if he was not a bigot, there were women children and the elderly there without much food or proper shelter. They needed to do something to sustain themselves. Hunting and scavenging in the forest was possible, but did they all have the tools and equipment? We were to take our pay back to the clan for our hard work. As we were getting ready to leave town with the chest, a boy came up to us. "H-hello. I wanted to invite y-you to the inn for a... meeting. No violence will come to you if you do." he said. He had black hair and red eyes, so I was immediately very suspicious. "We will be there in a bit." Keisuke said before I could even think on how to turn him down. I just groaned. It was too late to do anything about it. Once the boy left, we hid the chest and then went to see what they wanted. The dining hall of the inn was empty. That was a massive red flag at midday. We saw some of the members of the enemy clan just lounging about. "They're here!" gasped the boy we met.
