***So, ... off to Japan. Not to a part that he'd ever really heard of, but one goes where the money is, after all.
Valdemar learns first hand what Cor had been talking about regarding becoming known and trusted.
In case you need to read it, the characters and placenames in this are fictional.
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When autumn came, they set off, Valdemar along for the ride to learn the way of things. It would be well into winter by the time that they arrived.
His mentor on the trip was the man named Jans -- an open and very gregarious sort, which was why Valdemar didn't trust him at all, though Jans was very valuable for the things that he tried to each his pupil. They sailed and landed at a very small seaport on Hokkaido, avoiding the Dutch establishment near Nagasaki entirely.
From there, they traveled on, hiding as much of their foreignness as they could from the locals and Valdemar was instructed to hide his hair under his coat while wearing a conical hat over top of everything. As they got a little closer to where they were going, Jans told Valdemar that he ought to disregard what Cor had told him.
"They'd only see you as a challenge to their authority," he said, "It draws too much attention to us."
He motioned to the landscape around them, "These people here live like bandits compared to how they live in the larger places. I don't know why Cor wanted us to come here. I've been here twice before and I couldn't wait to get out again."
"How many guns could we sell to the people in those other places?" Valdemar asked.
"Not many," Jans replied, "Other than to thieves and -"
"Bandits," Valdemar said quietly.
Jans nodded, "What is sold in the larger places is all done through our enclave in Deijima, far to the south."
"Is Cor allowed to sell there?"
Jans shook his head, "No. He has no license from the Royal Dutch family for that."
"I guess, "Valdemar said, stretching a little in the saddle, "that the bandits around here must only get the worst of the junk that these larger places have refused, the bottom of the barrel. Maybe that's why Cor wants us to come here to sell."
Jans's head swung around to look over, but Valdemar was looking off in a different direction then.
"Something to keep in mind there," the Dutchman said after a little while, "You can't take anything from them at face value. Little is as it seems and you should be especially wary of their hospitality. There will always be a price."
Valdemar turned then to look at Jans, "Are you always this cheery on these trips? You struck me as a much more open and friendly person back on Sumatra."
"I just want to caution you not to be too open with them. As I said, you really can't take them at -- "
"Jans," Valdemar interrupted, "You're talking to a man who's mother was a whore his whole life long and never knew. I only found out about it on the day that she'd been beaten to death. I was fourteen then.
Do you think that the arrival of that knowledge wasn't profound to me? It caused me to realize that I shouldn't take ANYONE'S word at face value.
And not to put too fine a point on it, you're also traveling with a man who was knocked unconscious and kidnapped into English navy service just for visiting a whorehouse himself. I hear what you are trying to warn me about."
"It sounds as though you have some bad luck," Jans suggested but Valdemar shook his head.,
"Not really, because I understand it. My mother did what she had to do -- what she'd always done to keep us alive. The bad luck was hers.
And as far as the other, I'm really thankful that I was allowed to at least fuck the girl before the press gang barged in. "
He looked ahead at the narrow pass they were headed for and hoped the snow in the middle wasn't too deep.
"If they'd have caught me after I'd paid but before I got to have any fun - THAT would have been bad luck."
They rode in silence for a few seconds before Jans burst into laughter, nodding his agreement.
"So tell me about where we are going and who rules there, who we will need to deal with, things like that."
Jans nodded, "The local leader here is daimyo over a very small area in terms of the people, though there is a lot of land encompassed by it and most of that as you see is highlands. The people here originally were called the Ainu and were defeated by the southerners who represent the majority of the Japanese.
Lord Maeda is said to have some Ainu blood in him, but I have my doubts that it would be allowed and he doesn't look anything like one of the Ainu.
In any event, he has some backers down in the capital of Edo because they know that they need him. We are on the most northerly island and not all that far from Russia. Lord Maeda holds the place as the northern bastion of Japan. There are islands even farther north which the Japanese claim as theirs, but there are already some large groups of Russians there, fishermen mostly."
He looked around at the mountains and forests for a moment, "As you can see, there are not many people here to rule over.
Lord Maeda sees the need for firearms. Bows have too short a range effectively, and if the Russians do come, they wouldn't be bringing any bows for damn certain. But being out on the edge of the world as he is here, there is not much support for the idea in the capital. The lord is not a stupid man. He knows that the Imperial court knows nothing of life here and he knows how badly it would go for him and the people here if there were to be an invasion.
The great armies would come from the south -- eventually and far too late -- only to be cut to pieces by the Russian forces -- who would be using muskets and rifles, naturally. His backers understand this, but they are in the minority."
He looked over at Valdemar, "Cor explained the different classes to you? Did he mention the Samurai?"
Valdemar nodded and Jans reply began with little more than a curt nod and a grunt, "The line is thin and a little foggy here. There are not enough people for the Samurai as a class to exist here very much. They could strut about all they wished and freeze for it. So the ones here are a little closer to Samurai farmers because they need to be, and there are commoners who are a little more like warriors at the same time, because they need to be.
Something such as this is not possible in the south, but here, well it is a common need to eat and stay warm and to keep what they all have. The few Samurai here are known and respected as is their due, but it isn't a big jump to think that the majority are also not strangers to the work of farming. It is hard to live here."
As they got closer to the place where Jans said they needed to be, Valdemar saw people here and there.
They were mostly watchers who were looking back at him from under the eaves of the nearby forests. Once or twice, he saw a man with a bow turn to trot to a horse staked farther into the trees and ride off.
"If that is the kind of bows that they use here," he nodded, "I can see why this daimyo feels vulnerable."
Jans hadn't seen the men that his companion had and listened as Valdemar spoke of it. "Once again, you cannot trust what you think that you see. The Japanese have elevated archery to a form of art."
The large man grunted back, "I once had a job looking after the house of a rich man who lived on the outskirts of where I was in Helsingborg. He was a bit of a poor noble, and a lot of what I did was dust and wipe the symbols of the older time of his, ... nobility, shall we say. He'd mastered the bow like nobody that I have ever seen and his favorite bow was a gift to him from some Persians, like the one that I own.
He showed me a lot of things because he liked me and had little to do when he was there -- other than manage his family's matters and he hated that. I know how to use a sword -- as much as he could show to a boy as I was and I can shoot a bow.
But I had trouble even lifting that one bow. Try as I might, I could not even begin to draw it. He was very kind to me and told me that one day, when I was bigger and old enough, he would have one like that made for me so that he could have a hunting companion."
Valdemar fell silent then and Jans looked over. "What happened?"
The blonde shrugged, "He died. He was hunting for boar and it went badly." Valdemar sighed, "So I lost the best job in the world and I became a warehouseboy.
But I know what I am looking at when I see a bow, Jans."
Not long after midday, they were met by a party of men on horseback, led by a grim and dour person who tended to bark out his wishes in an authoritative voice which had the sound to it that he expected his words to bring instant action. It was the first time that Valdemar had heard the language spoken by a Japanese male in what he took to be a position of authority and he didn't like it already.
After a rather rough and curt exchange with Jans and a long and carefully appraising look at Valdemar after the introduction, the men turned and rode off. Their guides looked to be a little apprehensive.
"Who the hell was that?" Valdemar asked and Jans grinned humorlessly, "A Samurai named Oda. The right hand of Maeda in a lot of things. He gave us permission to come to the village."
Valdemar watched the group gallop off, "Is he always like that, or are his piles giving him trouble today?"
There was no humor in the Dutchman's face as he replied, "That is how it goes here. He showed me as much respect as he feels is my due. To these people, we are seen as savages, or little better. They look at us and see not much more than savages who have come into possession of a few things that they might wish to trade for and they probably think that we stole them in the first place. Where we are going, it would be a little wise for you to keep your head down respectfully."
Valdemar smiled, "I'll try, Jans. But I've been beaten and whipped by men for only asking that they make it clear what they want -- and I've killed for it in return. I prefer to give respect where I see that it is deserved."
He chuckled, "But I will try."
They rode into a rather small place in a bit of a bowl-shaped valley. There seemed to be a bit of fog hanging in the air and a great deal of frost covered a lot of the place. He asked about it and Jans said that there was a hot spring in the valley. Many of the people stopped what they were doing to get a look at the travelers. Jans was known to them and a lot of them smiled and nodded to him, offering little half-bows.
