Lady Miyasai poured three cups of tea slowly. Ishibashi stole a glance at his nephew. He himself wasn’t as shocked to see her perform the mundane task as he was the first time he came to see her. Okuda would have been dismayed. If Zenji was surprised at all, he showed nothing. Just thanked her profusely and had a sip.

“Have you had your first visit yet, My Lady?”^[1], Okuda opened the conversation.

“I went to the small Okagu temple very early in the morning”,  she said. “I was happy to welcome the new year in quiet. But I still want to make a longer trip to a bigger temple.”

“It was surprising to be welcomed in the house by someone else rather than you”, the Shugo observed. 

“I allowed myself that privilege”, she smiled behind her teacup, then politely waived at the man standing at the entrance of the room and he left after a deep bow. “I intent to let him go at servants’ day.”^[2]

They were sitting in the main ground floor room. It was neatly decorated with pines for the winter season, and two enormous vases were filled to the brim with water. Ishibashi assumed that was the first water that Lady Miyasai had drawn^[3].

Zenji wasn’t  saying anything yet it didn’t feel that his mind is absent.

“I understand you are a teacher, Zenji san”, Lady Miyasai said softly, looking at him over her teacup.

“I am, my Lady.”

“What do you teach?”

“Calligraphy, mainly.”

“So you do have an aesthetic feel”, Lady Miyasai smiled. Then turned to Okuda san.

“But wouldn’t it be too selfish to separate Zenji san from his students only because I wish to have my walls worked on?”

“I feel that it will be a great pleasure for Zenji to work a bit more so that he helps the most popular person in our little part of the county,” Ishibashi san said with a bow.

“The most popular person in Haruido! Is that me!”, exclaimed Lady MIyasai, genuinely astonished, given her reclusive life. “My dear Okuda san, I haven’t showed my face to the locals since I came here. They practically don’t know anything about me and they can only live on the descriptions that you give them.”

“That’s precisely why you are so popular with them”, smiled Ishibashi. “No one knows anything about you. You’re a mystery. People love mysteries and secrets and you give them exactly that.”

“People do love mysteries,” Lady Miyasai replied quietly but she was looking at Zenji instead at Ishibashi. “And to be honest, I like them too…”

Zenji’s face remained a mask. She held her gaze at him for a while but he didn’t look away.

^NOTES:

[1] The first visit for the New Year to a shrine or temple on 1 Jan.

[2] servants’ day is on 16 Jan servants visit their old homes.

[3] first water  – lit. ‘young water’; first water drawn on New Year’s Day.