Mirai tied the rice onto her horse and prepared to leave when a delicate voice called out to her.
"Shiratori kun." Mirai looked around to see Sora Mino standing there with her hands folded on top of one another
"Do you need something Mino san?" Mirai asked.
Sora's face blushed. "I-I would like to thank you for saving me, Shiratori san."
Mirai shrugged. "Oh that was nothing. Not need for the thanks. Bye!" Mirai got onto her horse and rode off.
Sora did a small bow and slowly made her way back to her house.
~1 week later~
During the week the two of them had been here, Mirai and Suki quickly noticed a big problem the Yamashiki country has.
The Yamashiki country is a very powerful country and is extremely wealthy when compared to the neighboring states. It has always been straight forward with its goal to construct peace in the world and it did. For the past few years, it has not gone into any wars with the other countries. However it was also during these years that their agriculture had been slowing down. Each year and the next only led to an even poorer harvest, it has became so bad that the country has been importing crops from other countries.
"Naoki look at this year's harvest." Kazuki threw a paper book at Naoki who opened it up.
Without reading it, Naoki asked. "How bad is it?"
Kazuki shook his head. "Very bad Naoki. This year's harvest does not even read half of last year's."
After hearing this, Naoki balled up his fists then Juji walked in with a bunch of scrolls in his hands.
"Naoki! Emergency! The peasants are filing in complaints, look at all this!" Juji dumped the pile onto Naoki's desk but Naoki merely looked at it.
"Naoki. There has to be something wrong! How could it be this bad?" Juji asked.
Kazuki stood there with his finger on his chin. "Could it be not enough water?" He asked.
Naoki shook his head. "Father personally made sure that each plantation gets more than enough water."
"Then what's the problem then?" Juji thought out loud.
Naoki let out a sigh. 'How can he solve this problem?'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Suki! Look you're cabbages are sprouting!" Mirai said to Suki who just got back from her work.
Suki smiled and placed her bags down in there house.
"Let me see." She said and Mirai scooted over to let Suki crouch down and look at her produce.
Mirai knew that Suki was pleased from the smile she had and got up to get a pail of water. When she got back to saw that Suki was investigating one of the patches of cabbages. "What happened?" Mirai asked.
"Look at this."
"Hm?" Mirai bent down to see that the cabbage Suki was looking looked withered down and small.
"Oh yeah I was about to ask. Suki do you know why it's like this?" Mirai asked.
Suki shook her head. "Then that's weird because the seeds are basically the same, both patched liv under the same environment, in the same soil but why?" Mirai mumbled.
"Mirai. What water did you use to water these cabbages?" Suki asked.
"Mirai answer my question." Suki said.
Mirai thought for a moment. "I think it was the water from the public well."
Suki then pointed at the other cabbages. "Then what about those?"
Mirai thought for a moment again. "The same type of water." Suki stood up. "That's weird." She mumbled.
Mirai looked at the pail of water. 'Is there something wrong with the water?' She thought.
The two of them walked back into the house to make dinner but the dilemma with the cabbages bothered the two of them. Late at night Mirai walked out and watered the plants again and studied the water. Something about this water is bugging her.
The next morning, the two of them left early to get to work. Suki worked with a merchant while Mirai worked in a store that sells all sorts of products. Mirai lugged two boxes into the room behind counter and stacked it up.
"Hey Shiratori!" Someone called and Mirai turned around to see a boy about 20 years old.
"What do you want Kudo kun?" Mirai asked.
"The boss told you to go pick up two orders from the merchant. Here's the list make sure everything is on there!" Kudo said and tossed the piece of paper to her and left before she could respond.
Mirai let out a sigh and followed her orders. She arrived at the port and found the merchant her boss usually orders with. Unfortunately, it wasn't the same merchant that Suki worked for but this merchant was pretty nice. This merchant was an old man but he was extremely respectful, he even offered to lend Mirai a wagon to carry the stuff back but Miria rejected it kindly. There weren't much stuff so after checking the order Mirai carried the box in her arm. However before she walked out of the port she heard hollering and saw someone collapse. Mirai made her way through the crowd and saw a young boy lying on the floor, his fingers were all blue, his eyes were rolled up to reveal the whites in his eyes and a foamy substance was coming out of his mouth.
"What?" Mirai immediately bent down and touched the boy's wrist.
When she couldn't find the boy's pulse she knew it was too late and shook her head. Multiple women in the crowd yelped while some of the other men merely gossiped amongst themselves.
Mirai waited at the scene but after seeing that the young man was carried of by some soldiers she suddenly remembered that she has to go back with the orders. She immediately ran back and the owner was about to yell at her had she not explained what happened at the port. The owner let her of with a warning and Mirai let out a breath. That night she told Suki what happened but she remained strangely calm.
However at the palace the emperor was stressed out. The incident at the port was not the only case, in one day there had been 5 other cases with similar aspects. Naoki stood in the room where the corpse were kept with his two friends.
"What are the results?" Naoki asked the doctor.
The doctor bowed. "Prince, all six of these victim have been poisoned and with the same type."
"Poisoned?"
"Yes. All six of them have the exact same symptoms and it is most likely a very slow acting poison that can produce these symptoms." The doctor reported.
"What is it." Naoki took out a report another soldier had given him and flipped it open.
"It is a very rare poison produced from a plant called a Ferabeth*. It's flower contains no poison but it's the berries and leaves that one has to be careful of. One bite is not enough to kill but long time ingestion of the berry and or the leaf is enough to kill a perfectly healthy man." The doctor said.
"If I remember correctly, that is not a plant native to this kingdom." Naoki commented.
The doctor nodded. "Yes your highness. This is not a native plant but it is native to the Minamoto country."
"The Minamoto country." Juji murmured under his breath.