“Look, where's your dignity, stealing my material like it is nothing, [b]thief[/b]?”

“Oooh, where's [i]your[/i] dignity, trying to pick a fight with me? Are you really a tengu? Or just an [b]Oni[/b] in disguise?”

*Caw! Caw! Caw!*

They both throwing insults at each other, it looks like they forget about the interview. You silently walk away with Kanako. Goodbye ladies, time to hit the eject button.  Nathaniel Hearst would be rolling in his grave.

---

You and Kanako arrive at the largest building in the town; An big, old castle. This must be the lord's palace. There are some guards at the gate. Kanako once again gives the letter, standard procedure. Given who you'll be meet soon, it's expected. The guard then lets both of you in.

“Welcome. Lord Tenma is expecting you,” You greeted by a girl, as tall as you, in a kimono. A servant, perhaps? “Follow me.”

You enter the big castle; The interior's pretty much what you can expect from a castle; wooden stairs, creaking noise of the floor... You remembered one castle intentionally had creaking floorboards, to alert the defenders in case of assault. The girl stops in front of a room.

“Please wait,” she says, and goes in. After a while, she opens the door. You let Kanako enter first, so you don't screw things up.

*Whoosh!*

You enter the main room; There are many people here, all of them in red, long-nosed tengu masks. At the back of the room, sits a person, again, covered in a tengu's mask. That must be the lord. Kanako bows down to him, and you followed.

“Welcome. I see you brought the outsider too,” he starts to speak. People in the room start talking too, you can only heard some of them.

“He looks harmless... But still, he's a human...”

“We shouldn't let him live with them... There's already a village for his kind...”

What should you do... It's uncomfortable get stared by those men and women. And from their talking, it's clear that they are not happy with your presence...

“Alright, leave me with the outsider,” he gives an order.

“My Lord, it's unwise to leave you alone, he might be dangerous-”

“I appreciate your concern,” the lord responds. “But as you can see, to have him sit here, he had to pass through our guards at the gate, and I'm sure none of us doubt how good are white wolf tengu at their job.”

They go out one by one, leaving you, Kanako, and the lord in the room.

“Kanako, would you mind?” He calls her.

“But he's... unable to speak.”

“I know Kanako. That doesn't mean I can't communicate with him, right?”

Kanako looks at you. Well, if the lord wants it, then you can't refuse... You nod to her, indirectly telling her it's okay to leave you. She pats your back, then gets up, and bows to the lord and steps out of the room.

The lord then makes some gesture with his hands. Uh.. What is he doing?

“You can't use sign language?” He talks again. Oh, that's what he meant with the hand signs. You shake your head. “Too bad... It'll let you communicate with others faster than writing. But then, I doubt you'll use the language will anyone other than me... Come closer, I can't read your note if you sit too far from me.”

You slowly stand up and move yourself closer to him, only a few inch between his fancy seat and yours.

“First, I'm sorry if the great tengus were giving you an unpleasant treatment, we tengus are... skeptical about newcomers. We only wish for peaceful living, nothing bad,” he explains. “I'm sure Kanako has told me a bit about me before this, but let me introduce myself. I'm Tenma, lord of the tengus... Although personally, I prefer the term 'boss' more. It's up to you. We can drop this formality, if it disturbs you.”

Whoa... He's pretty casual... It makes the atmosphere better, but it's weird how a lord act this... informal.

[] Keep it this way, my lord...

[] If you want it, boss!