Year of the Boar, Ninth Month, Day 15.

I understand now why Nanami's correspondence has been so sporadic; Yuika runs her ragged. I thought Mother demanding but now I have seen the way The Lady Dying Crane treats her staff, I feel guilty about sending Nanami here to deal with her. I should have found a male retainer to go and work in her stable or the kitchens; Nanami does not look very well either and I have told her that she is not to worry about my needs since I have managed very well looking after myself these past months and I will continue to do so until we have stopped travelling.
Nanami has not yet told Yuika that she has been working for me and I do not blame her. I think it highly likely that Yuika would dispense with her services immediately and leave the two of us here in the middle of the Seventh Kingdom to find our way back to where ever we pleased. I do not believe that she would even think twice about it. I feel badly now, that I have put Nanami in this situation and I cannot think that I will be able to make any difference at all to Yuika - her needs are beyond me. I do not entirely regret my decision to leave home though and am glad that, if nothing else, I have had the opportunity to see a tiny bit of the Seventh Kingdom.
Yuika herself has said very little to me since I announced myself - If I did not have it on good authority that she has not been smoking opium for some time, I would believe that she was still stoned. She is dismissive of any attempt at conversation and seems to stare vacantly into the middle distance whenever she is not being petulant towards one of her staff. She is no longer the charming, elegant, witty girl of my childhood; I am starting to wonder if she ever was.