We have made camp in the wilds not far from a village - the representative, Shingen, tells us that he and his men do not stay in the villages overnight as their presence is likely to provoke attacks and they can ill afford to put down peasant riots. Several villages have already been destroyed or close to it as the result of riots - starting with the first village to object to the new quotas, that was razed entirely.

We have had the opportunity to question Shingen more about the rulership of this land. Contrary to the impression we had taken in the morning, Subaki is still the daimyo of the castle, and Terutaru is the chief magistrate, Shingen's immediate superior. Shingen knows little of the Daimyo's ways these days, reporting only to Teritaru, and is apparently very glad that he does not have to deal with the Daimyo directly.

Shingen had first noticed unusual orders in midsummer, around 9 months ago in Akodo or Doji, when the order came to Shingen to arrest any representatives of the Emperor who came to this place. Shingen himself did not wish to confront the Miya, but escorted a group of four to the castle where they were arrested by the castle guards and he didn't see them again. After that, duelists were posted on the bridge and horse patrols were sent out to look for Miya. Notably, the time at which this occured would have been about three months after the Scorpion coup, and three months is the time it would take a rider to get here from Otosan-Uchi. By the start of winter, the elimination of the Etta had begun - the last died in midwinter, lined up below the battlements as living targets for Subaki's archers. Also that winter, the bulk of the town's food reserves were shipped to the Shisuro capital, Shiro-no-Shisuro, the Castle of Pretending, leading to the early harvest orders. In retrospect, Shingen can recall orders that seemed to fit the new rule more than the old from before the order to arrest the Miya.

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All day on the road today, with only scant time to investigate the local flora and fauna - even less since we lost time in learning that a shrine to Inari accessible by a nearby road was too far to justify stopping to pray there. With such limited time I was entirely unable to find any insects - merely arachnids, the large scorpions from which the clan takes its name.

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We have arrived in the castle town, where a sickening parody of a market day is in progress. Eight musicians with cracked and bloody fingers struggle vainly to keep a tune while a troupe of dragon dancers stagger their way around threadbare stalls stocked with meagre scraps of rotting food.

One of the stalls I stopped at was tended by a large fellow who had been a labourer until a week ago, and seemed to have very little idea of what running a stall entailed. I learned a little from him of the suffering of the town, and and decided to help him out a little by paying two zeni for some merchandise I judged to be completely unsaleable. I will have to dispose of this discreetly later. Sammo and Kato have left to find a sticky bun shop, while Masaki and Juichi are turning their attention to the musicians. The drummer was the only one fit to answer, explaining the dire straits he town was in while struggling to maintain the beat and banging on the drum like a chimpanzee. The band had been playing since sunrise without reprieve, as they did every market day, and were to fearful to stop despite their obvious exhaustion. At the end of the conversation, Masaki produced a rice ball from his travelling pack, and offered it to the band. All eyes fell hungrily on the rice ball, and the band quickly agreed to switch to a piece that allowed each musician a brief idel period in which to eat.

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Sammo has returned from hisa quest for the sticky bun shop with a tale of woe. On his way, he saw the magistrate arrest the owner of a craft stall for falling asleep on the job and pressganged a passing townsman to take over, said townsman happening to be the sticky bun shop owner and more alert than most as he and his wife were able to take turns running the stall. He asked Sammo to inform his wife of his new role, and warned him that the sticky buns were a mere shadow of his normal wares owing to a critical shortage of quality ingredients.