They live with it

All the soldiers were obviously afraid, the first ones to react were the soldiers who had watched my fight with Shinju and they quickly swore themselves to me followed by the rest of the soldiers after a few minute, I knew that command through fear like this wouldn't work long term but it'd work for now, I also knew I have to take steps against desertion soon.

Deciding to let any deserters make the first move I said to the soldiers "Soldiers Shinju will remain your acting commander so return to business as usual however I want all of you to make camp just outside of town for the time being! Shinju keep them in line and don't travel more than a mile from this village under any circumstance, same for you 2." I said the last part towards Daiki and Akane, with that the soldiers started moving and I turned to the villagers.

The villagers were busy checking on and helping each other, though the shock of the day was still evident in their movements and the way they were talking, as the soldiers got some distance away several of the villagers came up to me with words of thanks which I accepted, after a few minutes of this a familiar ginger cat woman and 2 kittens walked up to me, the woman bowed her head low and said "Thank you, thank you so much for saving my son and daughter." followed by the kittens doing the same, I replied "I'm happy to have been able to protect them." She raised her head followed by her kittens before saying "if there's any way I can repay you just say it."

I thought for a second before saying "Actually would you mind telling me about this region? I don't know much and I'd rather not rely entirely on those soldiers words." She nodded and replied "I'd be happy to tell you anything I know, do you mind if we talk in my home? I'm just a little shaken and would like to sit down and make some tea for my nerves." I nodded and keeping her kittens close she lead me to a small home on the edge of the village.

The house was a small one room building with a porch, it was a little shabby compared to the rest of the village but I decided to push that thought away, after a moment she turned to me with a look which I'm pretty sure was embarrassment and bowing her head again said "please forgive me but I didn't think about how you wouldn't be able to fit in my home." The apology seemed a bit much so I just replied "It's alright, we can simply sit outside while we talk after you make the tea." She raised her head and said "Of course, I'll go make the tea." I stood there slightly dumbfounded at that interaction but brushed it off, Jun looked at me and said "Moms always like that don't worry about it." Kiku nodded in agreement so I brushed it off and went to sit in the grass followed by the 2 kittens.

We sat for a few minutes, Kiku and Jun seemed to be doing quite well considering their day and were making jokes at the expense of Daiki and Akane, after a few minutes their mother came out of the house with 4 cups, a kettle of tea, and a bowl with preserved fruit in it for the kittens who apparently hadn't eaten today, she apologized for the wait before filling the cups and passing them around, she sat on the porch of the house while I sat in the grasses across from her and the kittens sat together to the left of me snacking and drinking.

After taking a sip of her tea the mother said "that's better, now what questions do you have?" I took a sip of my own tea before replying "first off I haven't asked your name yet." Another look of embarrassment crossed her face before she said "I suppose you haven't, my name is Emiko." she paused for a second before adding "your next question?" I chuckled a little before saying "my first question is what is happening between lord Kosuke and lady Haruka?" she paused, "that is going to take a while to explain."

She sighed "If you really don't know anything about this then the best place to start would be with the beginning of the chaos, the chaos is what we call the last 100 or so years of chaos and war that has ravaged these lands, I don't know the finer details but effectively the emperor lost all control of the lords within just a couple of years and the lords all start vying for territory, this caused massive devastation and many families rose and fell very quickly, in the northern region which were in a powerful lord rose to power and subjected multiple lords becoming one of the most powerful people in the land over the last 20 years, however he and his heir died in a battle along with many other lords last year causing massive instability across the land." Kiku and Jun drank their tea quickly and started asking their mom for more.

Emiko scolded them to drink slower before filling their cups up before turning back to me and continuing "now as I was saying, among the casualties of the battle was lady Haruka's father and many of his samurai, lord Kosuke on the other hand survived and lost few men so freed from his oaths he's decided to turn his eye to conquering our province, lady Haruka rallied all the men she could but she's still terribly outnumbered, that's about as much as I know." I nodded "thank you Emiko that greatly helps.'' She nodded and thanked me again before Jun yawned loudly and asked his mom if he could take a nap, Emiko agreed and Kiku offered to take him to bed which Emiko also agreed to.

As the 2 kittens went inside I said to Emiko "their such adorable kids." Emiko signed and said "they really are but they can be such a handful alone." I replied "alone?" At that question Emiko looked somber for a moment before replying "I lost my husband 2 years back, an evil oni who was apparently exiled from their tribe was attacking innocent people so a hunting party was formed, my husband among them, he was also one of 3 who died." I replied "please forgive me, I didn't mean to drag up bad memories." Emiko replied in turn "it's alright you didn't know, anyways shall we talk about something?"

I nodded and said "I haven't spent much time around children so I couldn't really tell but how old are Kiku and Jun?" Emiko thought for a moment before saying "Kiku is 8, Jun is 6." I nodded at that, and so our conversation went on for a time mostly talking about the 2 kittens but also about the village, her work, and so on until perhaps an hour later a soldier walked up to me and said bowing his head "my lord the camp is finished and lady Shinju wishes to speak to you." I sighed and stood up, bowing to Emiko. I thanked her for her hospitality and we parted ways as I followed the soldier.