🇧🇷 (em português)

Chapter 4: Monuments of Deceit — Second Half

While some choose to work hard, others

prefer to work smart. Those who wish

to maintain a life of easy fulfillment

may come across the greatest hardships.

Conclusion to the first half.

It's getting late. Normally, this would have been around the time when we
would have been done with carrying all our harvest back to the Storage Shack
to be sorted out and stored away. But Pakua had something else in mind.

"Huh, Pakua? i'm not so sure about this anymore."

"Really? Too late to chicken out now, Kasu. What's up with you?"

"Sorry, I'm freaking out. What if the others find out about what we did?"

"They *will* if you keep acting like that. So play it cool."

I can't help it. Waiting for the others is getting to me. I'm just glad that
we got some work done at the eastern side of the Crop Fields. Even if we're
here too early, we'll look a little a less shady while we sort "our" harvest.

After a while, the other Hirokaria begin to show up, leaving their piles of
food carefully separated from each other's. It was quite the harvest; the
real eye-catchers were two piles in particular. Luckily, nobody said a word.
Sooner than I realized, it was just the two of us left in the shack again.

"Phew!"

"Heh! I told you that it was cool."

"Thank God! Can we leave now? I'm so sick of this place."

"Not yet. That Grape Head still hasn't shown her face around here."

"Oh yeah. Well, her pile is already sorted, so this would have been the time
when she would show up to help the others. She always volunteers, right? To
stay behind and store it all away on her own. It must take a lot of work."

"Yeah, go figure. Of all the days for her to stop sucking up to the Pajé."

Pakua would kill me if she heard this; I look up to Wasa'i. She works hard
and dreams big. Becoming an Izagaia is no joke. Not every Kisé can do it.

*** *** ***

"Wasa'i! what took you so long. Did a breeze knock you away or something?"

"Shut it, sloth. I had better things to do than pity your laziness."

"Oh, really? Tough talk from someone who just got outmatched by a sloth."

"Wait, w-what!? What happened to your... when did you...."

"I know what you're thinking, 'Wow! what an amazing work ethic!' Say, if you
ask nicely, may just throw you a bone and teach you some of our secrets."

Ah, I know that grin. It's the face Pakua makes whenever a plan goes right.
No wonder she was so patient. She must have really looked forward for this.

"And if you bow to us right now, we may even — after becoming Izagaias —
recommend you to the Pajé. Aren't we so kind? He he he!"

Huh? But I don't want to become an Izagaia! Going around, hurting others for
no reason and embarrassing myself in front of the Pajé er... again.

"You! You did something, didn't you? I just know it! I'll go tell the Pajé!"

If someone entered the room right now, they would think that a flying tomato
was bursting into flames. Wasa'i's tiny arms are shaking like crazy.

"Do I hear a sore loser? Like she'll listen to your buzzing without proof."

"O-Oh, I can prove it, a-alright."

"Wait, what?"

Oh no! P-Pakua!

"I'm the one who stores the harvest, genius. All I need to do is look inside
these cabinets and... to no one's surprise, empty, just like your heads! Now,
if you two clean up this mess while I'm gone, I may just tell the Pajé to go
easy with your punishment. Wouldn't that be nice? Have a good day, vermin!"

"Grr! Oh no, you won't go anywhere. Not this time!"

In a split second, Pakua grabs Wasa'i's doll-like body and shoves her inside
the cabinet. She holds it shut as Wasa'i's muffled protests can be heard.

This is a disaster. Pakua has gone too far this time. What will happen
to us? She isn't thinking straight. I need to do something and fast!

"Pakua, stop this already!" I scream as I push Pakua as hard as I can.

"Wasa'i, it's true that we cheated. We took some of the harvest away from the
cabinets to make our piles look bigger. I'm sorry."

"What the hell! Kasu, whose side are you on?"

"Hmmph. At least you know when to give up."

I'm such a coward. How could I do this to my friend? I should have just
played it dumb. It's not like we took anything from that one cabinet in
particular anyways... Huh? W-wait a minute. No! it can't be!

"Wait! I get it now. Wasa'i, you're... hiding something, aren't you?"

"...!"

"Ugh, Kasu. You're not making any sense right now."

"Pakua, think out loud. Isn't it weird how that cabinet she opened just
happened to be empty? What if she already knew that in the first place?"

"Oh... OOOH! T-That Double-crossing Cicada!"

"Isn't it obvious? You two took what was inside of it. I don't see your p—"

"We didn't, not from that one. But it was empty anyways. Do you know why?"

"Even if you weren't lying. Maybe I just didn't needed to put anything in
there. There you go. Now, stop wasting my time with your rubbish."

"Wrong! you would never do that."

"What do you know, besides how to be useless like her? You sure can't lie."

"Everything grows fast in Nusokén. Just look at today's harvest, and that's
just one day. We barely have enough space to begin with, so why would you go
through the trouble of leaving that one cabinet empty? it makes no sense."

Her face went from red to pale; she already knows where I'm going with this.

"But what if you emptied it without anyone noticing it? You're always coming
here by yourself, so no one would find it strange or even bother to check."

"Ah, so that's how she always had the biggest piles. The nerve on this worm!"

"..."

I don't know what took over me. When I was just an Ipohyk, problems like this
didn't crossed my mind. Now I'm standing in front of a sobbing mess that used
to be a fellow Hirokat. This side of hers, has anyone ever seen it before?

"Y-You... if o-only I was an Izagaia... Y-You would have p-paid for this...."

In the end, we agreed to let this die here. Pakua wasn't happy about it, but
nothing good would come from the others knowing the truth. My friend can be
so narrow-minded at times, but I can always give her a good push for her own
good. It's the least I can do for someone who's always watching over me.