Heyitsjiwon

Heir of the Mitsumine Clan

Mitsumine Ryuunosuke could not help but frown slightly as Kitsune left the room. Once Kitsune left, Ryuunosuke muttered "I hope you can discover your own strength in these troubling times." He then turned to a servant who was waiting upon him and said "It appears that it is time to begin to address the foreign dignitaries who have arrived. Will you please allow them into the manor and place them in their each respective waiting room. I must figure out who has arrived first and then proceed from there. Also, will you please inform my uncle that I am now about to meet the foreign dignitaries? If I remember correctly, he should be talking with that pugnacious woman from the Hakurou Clan. Touka, I believe, was her name."

Ryuu then turned to Hana and said "Well, both of our jobs are now really about to start. Tell me while we wait for the dignitaries and diplomats to arrive. What did you think about the heir to the Boar Clan?" Although it seems like it, Ryuu was not just spending this moment to simply create conversation. This was the first of Hana's tests. Ryuu was a person who could not trust someone until he learned about how a person thinks or usually acts. Therefore, Ryuu was going to pay close attention to how Hana was going to answer to this seemingly casual question.

Heir of the Mitsumine Clan

So, now that we finished with intros, or at least that is what it looks like. Are we going to begin the first event?

Heir of the Mitsumine Clan

“Hatamoto-san. I hope you do not take offense to what I am about to say. However, I believe that you and your father have an inherent misconception about strength. Strength is not determined by how one wields his sword. Rather, strength is the ability to stand up against what seems to be an immense challenge. I know that the Boar clan has historically been plagued with conflict had wars, but wars are not fought with swords. Wars are fought with the mind.” Ryuu said as he then let a few seconds of silence to allow his words to settle in before he continued.

“You come to me to help you learn how to fight? I must confess that I have yet to see a battle with my own eyes. Yes, I have been in some spars and faced a few challenges in regards to conflict. However, I believe that the greatest challenge that any leader can face is the challenge to prevent wars from starting. Contrary to what people think, there are no winners in a war, only degrees of losers. In fact, the only person who can claim to have won a war is the one who has lost the least. Therefore, a victory in preventing a war is much sweeter than a victory in winning a battle because you have prevented unnecessary suffering and loss.”

Ryuunosuke took a second to clear his throat, and then continued with his little speech. “Therefore, Hatamoto-san. I believe that you are stronger than you think that you are. Please, have some faith in yourself. Otherwise, how do you expect your people to have faith in you?” He then changed the topic and said “I thank you for your gifts, but I do not believe that I can teach you much. Rather you must discover for yourself what strength is and go forth from there. I can provide you shelter here if you desire. However, I must warn that there may be moments where I, the leader of the Wolf Clan, may come into a conflict of interest with the Boar clan. Therefore, if you are able to respect my desires to help my people, then I welcome you.”

Heir of the Mitsumine Clan

Waiting on you, heir to the Boar Clan.

Heir of the Mitsumine Clan

Ryuunosuke was a bit flustered by Hana. He was not expecting her to come so close to him. To be quite fair, Ryuunosuke never really had much experience interacting with the other sex who were around his age. So, he was a bit uncomfortable when Hana had come closer to him. In fact, he couldn't help but shuffle a bit on his cushion. However, what she told him also made him uncomfortable as well. How did she know that Ryuunosuke was concerned about the activities of the branch family and was thinking about it at this moment? His suspicions were not eased one bit by her comment. Still, there was no evidence to prove anything, so he could not be hasty in his decisions to judge her as friend or foe. For now, he would have to continue to monitor her with a close eye.

Ryuu responded to Hana's question by saying "That decision will be up to you. If you wish, you may stay and advise me while I meet other visitors and dignitaries. However, I understand that you are likely wary and tired from your travels. You may excuse yourself and rest or maybe explore the grounds of your new residence. I will leave the choice to you. Now, I don't want to keep the other guest waiting too long." He then got up and walked to the door. He slid it open to address the attending servant and said "I am now ready to address the next visitor. Will you please bring him here?" Ryuu then returned to his spot and sat back down in seiza.

Heir of the Mitsumine Clan

For some reason, I can't help but imagine some of the recent events in an exaggerated anime form. It's actually pretty funny.

Heir of the Mitsumine Clan

Ryuunosuke was nodding at Hana, but there was an internal debate brewing within himself. On one side, he just could not believe that such a woman would waltz into his court and offer her expertise so easily. The fact that she comes from the Capital did not comfort him at all either. However, the knowledge and skills she appeared to have would be indispensable to the clan. Someone who can actively manipulate numbers to make sound forecasts and prediction was worth more than a mountain of gold because this person could essentially manipulate the entire market. Thus, Ryuu found himself at an impasse. Would be believe that this young woman was here in goodwill and actually wanted to help him, or would he believe that she was just a trap set by the branch family for them to consolidate their power even more?

Ryuu thought in silence for several seconds until he finally said “Although I am impressed with what I have seen, I cannot grant you immediate access to the family’s funds and records. I would first like to see you at work and see if you fit in our work culture and environment. I am sure that you realize that I have to be reasonable and cannot outright give you access to everything. Still, I will gladly provide housing so you may stay if you desire, and work as a retainer of the Mitsumine main family for now to show us your abilities. I know that this is quite a few steps down in terms of your current position under Tenzen-san, but once again. I hope you understand that I must be rational in my decision to accept your generous offer. I must express the fact that I do hope you do take the offer.”

Heir of the Mitsumine Clan

I am not taking it the wrong way. I understand why you brought it up, but I was just trying to say that double entry accounting in its simplest form is very simple and easy to understand. However, there are calculations and analysis that could be done with double entry book keeping that really do make it incredible. I was under the assumption that Hana was trying to develop the analysis part and had a great knowledge on the things that can be done with double entries, which made her the expert. I only intended Ryuu to notice the obvious about the system that a basic knowledge of math would provide. And yes, he said "why didn't I think of the system" cause it is at first very easy and simple in a cursory glance. What is spectacular about the system is that it enables you to analyze the numbers like never before and Ryuu would have no idea about it. Only Hana would. Although, I do admit that the cipher part was a bit too much. Cause I did make some assumptions about the cipher that really cannot be made.

I'm sorry if I came off as sounding angry or if I offended anyone or anything like that, but I was just trying to explain how I saw the topic. Either way, I already editted my IC post with Skylar's guidelines.

Heir of the Mitsumine Clan

Honestly, Skylar, which way would you prefer? You are the resident expert on this topic.

Heir of the Mitsumine Clan

I do agree, and that's why I only made him a very simple, surface understanding of double entry accounting. That there are 2 entries per transaction. I didn't give him an insight into assets, liabilities, and equity, scrubbing, forecasting, and a whole bunch of more complex accounting concepts that stem from double entry book keeping. Also, the cipher part... I just said he noticed patterns such as characters being repeated. So that he can identify that the transactions are being entered twice. So, he esstentially only did two things. One is see that the cipher repeats per line. Two is see that the double entry makes it twice as had to make an error.

But I will go ahead and make the changes as soon as possible if you really think that it is abnormal.