CH 1.5

After she boiled the herbs Onkei brought back and had Kougyou drink them, her fever went down the next morning. When she was fed gruel with carrots and licorice for nourishment, her color improved somewhat. While they were taking care of her, the sun set and Koushun arrived. Jusetsu had sent word for him to come.

“Do you know the name of the eunuch who ordered you to keep quiet and killed Han-oujo?”

Koushun asked Kougyou. When the situation was explained to him, he didn’t look surprised. Kougyou nodded and wrote down the name on a piece of paper. Koushun glanced at it, then passed the paper to Ei Sei.

“A hanger-on of the empress dowager. Someone of low status. He’s currently in the Palace Servants Bureau.”

I’m glad I didn’t finish it all back then. Only Jusetsu and Ei Sei, who were right next to Koushun, heard him mutter that. By “back then,” he must be referring to the empress dowager’s expulsion.

“Do you know the name of the man who was betrothed to Han-oujo?”

Koushun asked. Kougyou immediately wrote, “Niangniang always called him Juurou-sama,” and then seemed to fall into deep thought. “Juurou” was a seniority rank, and it could only be a nickname meaning that the man was the tenth son in the same generation of his clan.

After a while, she seemed to recall the name and hurriedly wrote it down.

The name Kougyou wrote was “Kaku Kou.”

“Kaku Kou…?” Koushun muttered puzzledly.

“Do you know that name?” Ei Sei asked. Koushun put his hand on his chin, seemingly trying to recall.

“I remember hearing it. I believe it was from Meiin.” Meiin was the imperial scholar. He was an advisor to the emperor. “Kaku Kou is a genius. He passed the civil service examinations in the top spot. He is currently an editor at the palace library.”

""

How well he remembers, Jusetsu thought. Koushun crossed his arms, deep in thought.

“If they were a family of high enough status to enter their daughter into the inner palace as a concubine, then the betrothed must also be a man from a respectable family, so it is reasonable that he would become a civil official, but…”

——What does that betrothed think of Han-oujo?

After his betrothed was taken to the inner palace—in other words, to the emperor, she died.

Jusetsu pressed her hand against the place where she tucked the earring in her sash.

“…Can we not meet this person?” Jusetsu raised her head and asked Koushun. “You?” Koushun asked back. Consorts of the inner palace, unless it was their family, were fundamentally not allowed to meet with people from the outside.

“It appears that Han-oujo pined for her betrothed even after she entered the inner palace. I wish to ask him how their relationship was like.”

If Han-oujo was deeply in love with her betrothed, then it was possible that that was where her regrets lay. If he was in their hometown, then it would be difficult for Jusetsu, who couldn’t leave the palace, to meet him, but it was possible to meet him somehow if he was a civil servant. Although, that depended on Koushun’s cooperation.

“Very well,” Koushun seemed to deliberating on something, but he answered without a moment’s delay. “I’ll arrange for you to meet him.”

Jusetsu studied Koushun’s face for a moment. Although this was his request, the emperor went to the trouble of visiting to listen to a mere palace lady’s appeal and granted Jusetsu’s request readily. She wondered just what exactly that jade earring was to him.

“…I have asked you this at the beginning, but why are you exerting yourself so much? All things considered, it is simply an earring that you found.”

It wasn’t something the emperor did.

Koushun only glanced at Jusetsu’s face and stood up without answering. Indignant at having her question be ignored, Jusetsu followed Koushun as he was about to leave the room.

Right as he was about to leave the palace, Koushun stopped. He opened his mouth without turning around.

“I believe I’ve also told you this at the beginning,” Koushun’s voice was quiet. Jusetsu stood next to him and looked up at his face. “I want to know who dropped that earring.”

“I told you that I cannot—”

“That’s why, if I know the identity of the ghost possessing it, there might be a way of finding out who it was.”

“…So you had me investigate?”

“Thanks to you, I know that this earring belonged to Han-oujo. I give you my gratitude.”

“Even if you knew that, you wouldn’t be able to know who dropped it.”

The person who probably dropped it was a eunuch or palace lady from the previous emperor’s reign to whom Han-oujo gave the earring. They didn’t know how many people fitted that description.

“You never told me why you wanted to know in the first place.”

Koushun seemed like he was answering her questions properly, but he was actually evading them. He was like this from the start. He seemed like a serious man, but she didn’t think he was trustworthy.

Koushun glanced down at Jusetsu from the corner of his eye, and then stooped down a little. “If I tell you, I think it would add to your troubles,” His face was so close that Jusetsu almost backed away, but his voice was even quieter than before, so she stayed in place. This was something he didn’t want anyone overhearing.

“You have already imposed a mountain of troubles onto me.”

“…I wasn’t the one who found that earring.”

Jusetsu looked up at Koushun.

“Then, who?”

“My spy in the inner palace.”

“Spy…”

“The person who dropped it might be a witness to a certain plan. If that’s the case, they would be a great help to me.”

“Dajia,” Ei Sei spoke up. “You do not need to say that much.”

Koushun glanced at him to silence him.

——A plan?

The person who dropped the earring would be a witness to it.

Jusetsu furrowed her brow.

“So, you were working hard for that reason? Not for the sake of the ghost.”

Was saying “I suppose you can call it pity” a lie as well?

“I’ve answered all your questions.” Without changing his expression, that was all Koushun said before he started walking away. Jusetsu glared at his back. ——However.

——Can’t you save her?

Recalling Koushun’s words, the tension dissipated from between her brows.

If all he wanted to do was to reach the person he dropped the earring, he didn’t have to make such a request. However, Jusetsu was at a loss after realizing that. She wondered what it was.

She was sure that Koushun still wasn’t telling her the truth.

“…”

Jusetsu, watching Koushun’s back as he left, stepped forward.

“Wait.” She called out to Koushun just as he was about to head towards the walkway. She approached him as he turned around. “I still need to talk to you.”

“If it’s about the earring—”

“It is not about that.”

Jusetsu interrupted him. There was one thing she had to ask him. She couldn’t leave it as it was.

Koushun looked at her face for a moment and then exchanged a look with Ei Sei. Ei Sei looked at Jusetsu hesitantly, but bowed and stepped away from Koushun. Koushun walked towards the pond. It was a windless night, and the dark surface of the water reflected the moon’s face.

“…Why are you letting me go? I do not understand your intentions.”

Standing by the pond, Jusetsu looked up at Koushun. He was feigning ignorance of her true identity, and she couldn’t read his true intentions at all. What exactly is this man thinking—that was something she had always been curious about.

Koushun looked down at Jusetsu and opened his mouth.

“I have nothing to gain from exposing your true identity.” A quiet and detached voice, like the faint winter sun. No emotions could be read from that voice or his face. “In fact, the disadvantages are greater. If I execute you, we will lose the Raven Consort, and the people will criticize me for being cruel.”

Grandfather went too far, Koushun murmured as he stared at the water surface.

“As soon as he took the throne, he became frightened. His paranoia grew worse with age, and he even killed his sons, believing that everyone around him was trying to steal his throne.”

The emperor before the last had executed two of his sons, who were kings, for treason.

“There’s no need to kill you. It would be another story if you want to kill me, though.”

Koushun turned his gaze towards Jusetsu.

“…I do not wish that.”

When she answered with that, Koushun stared at her, as if trying to determine the truth or falsehood in her answer.

“You don’t hate me? Or perhaps, my grandfather or father?”

Jusetsu let her gaze wander. Moonlight fell onto the water, and it glittered coldly.

“I do not know. I have never thought about hating others. If I do hate someone, then it is myself.”

Koushun’s brows furrowed. “Why?”

“Because I abandoned my mother. When she was arrested, I was cowering and holding my breath. So that I would not be found.”

So that only herself was saved.

“I watched my mother die.”

Muttering that, Jusetsu stared at the moon reflected in the water.

Those were the thoughts that had been tormenting and tearing at her heart. She had abandoned her mother and ran away on her own. She heard her screams, but all she could do was cover her ears and tremble. She only prayed that that terrible time would pass. She foolishly thought that if she just let it pass, everything would go back to normal.

The moment she saw her mother’s head, what crushed Jusetsu’s heart was regret. Why did she abandon her mother? Why couldn’t she jump out back then?

The depths of Jusetsu’s heart chipped away, and there was nothing to fill them.

“…If you are not going to kill me because there is no gain, there may come a time when you will kill me if there is a gain.”

I do not mind that, Jusetsu said carelessly and turned on her heel.

“Jusetsu.”

Koushun called her name for the first time. The sound of it struck her chest in a strangely gentle and quiet way.

When she turned around, Koushun removed an ornament he was wearing on his sash and held it out to her.

“…What is it?”

When she frowned in confusion, he took her hand and placed the ornament in her hand. It was a small fish-shaped ornament made of amber.

“I’ll give you this as a proof of my promise. Take it.”

“Promise?”

“I promise I will not kill you.”

Jusetsu looked between his face and the amber fish. Koushun’s eyes were a deep black, and as clear as a spring.

For some reason, feeling like she couldn’t stare at him too intently, Jusetsu looked away.

“…I do not want it. People would mistake me for a thief.”

Jusetsu thrusted out her hand with the amber fish, but Koushun didn’t take it back and turned away.

“Wa…wait!”

Jusetsu tried to chase after him, but Koushun looked over his shoulder briefly.

“Jusetsu, I’m the same as you.”

“What?”

“I also abandoned my mother to her death.”

Koushun said simply. His jet black and empty eyes seemed to absorb even the darkness. ——There is also something missing in this person’s heart, and there is nothing to fill it, Jusetsu felt.

The moonlight shone on Koushun’s back as he walked further into the distance. The light was also shining on the amber fish in the palm of her hand.

Koushun was ten when his mother died.

He frequently visited his mother, who was prone to depression during that time. His mother was depressed because of the harassment from the empress dowager—the empress at that time.

Koushun was installed as the crown prince, but his mother was made to remain as a consort. That was because she had weak backing. It was, in fact, due to the weakness of her backing that Koushun became the crown prince. The empress’s son died at a young age, and in his place, there was Koushun, who was the perfect choice, as he had no powerful maternal relatives who might butt in.

""

The emperor, a fainthearted man who hated quarrels and had the philosophy of not rocking the boat, was afraid of the empress and her relatives and neglected Koushun’s mother, never defending her. He only thought that if he left them alone, they would eventually get bored. He was a man who didn’t understand people’s pain at all.

In that respect, the empress understood people’s pain very well. In a wicked way. She knew how to make people suffer.

His mother also hated quarrels, so perhaps she and his father were a good match in that sense. He had no way of knowing that now, though.

His mother tried her utmost not to complain about her suffering. Even when she was mocked in front of a full house with her own father, a low-ranking official, used as a pretext, even when she was laughed at after being forced to dance a dance she wasn’t good at, she endured it. As a child, he felt ashamed of his mother, who only endured and never tried to fight back—that was because he didn’t understand anything.

“Please stop coming here so frequently. I’m sure there are plenty of things you have to do at the Eastern Palace.”1

When his mother told him that, he felt like he was being pushed away. Even though he worried so much about his mother, he was being treated like a nuisance.

He had gained some wisdom, but his heart was still immature. Koushun stood up in a huff and said, “All right, I understand. I won’t come here again,” and returned to the Eastern Palace.

——Why did I say such a thing?

That was the last time he saw his mother alive.

After his mother’s funeral, Koushun visited his mother’s now-empty palace. His mother wasn’t there in her room or on the bed. Koushun sat down on a chair in a daze and stared out the door, where he could see the garden.

“The reason why your exalted mother didn’t resist the empress is because she feared that you would be harmed.” It was Tutor Un who admonished him. That was why she told him not to visit her too often.

He heard about his mother’s death just as he was about to visit her.

Every time he thought about the last words he hurled at her, he felt a sharp pain in his chest as if he had been stabbed by a blade, it caved in, and left a gaping hole. He was empty on the inside. In front of the peonies in the garden, Koushun cried.

When he thought about his mother, who couldn’t rely on the emperor, had her son say cold words to her, and died alone, he no longer knew how to atone for it all. The time for atonement had passed. Because his mother was dead.

——That was the moment a shadow fell over Koushun’s back.

“…Who’s this? What’s the matter? Are you crying?”

Koushun remembered that woman, who called out to him in a delicate voice, very well.

“—Dajia.”

Koushun awoke from his doze and looked at Ei Sei. He put his hand on his brow and stood up from the lounge chair. Ei Sei had made him a cup of fragrant-smelling tea, and after taking a sip, his head became clear.

He was lying down in his room in the inner court after finishing the morning’s government affairs. The things he had to do were increasing these days, making him stay up until late at night, and it was getting to the point where it was taking a toll on his body.

——But, this is a crucial time.

He couldn’t afford to make any blunders. He fell into deep thought as he stared at the rising steam. Ei Sei was quietly spooning honey-boiled dates into a bowl so as to not disturb him. After garnishing it with lychees, he presented it to Koushun. He brought the dates to his mouth as he pondered. The lychees were juicy, and the sweetness of the dates soaked into his tongue. It seemed to soothe his fatigue.

“Dajia, this is from Yamei Palace.”

Ei Sei received a letter from an errand-running eunuch and passed it to Koushun. When he opened it, he saw beautiful handwriting on water ripple paper.2 It was probably Jusetsu’s handwriting. After perusing it, Koushun let out a slight chuckle.

""

“Is something the matter?”

‘It’s nothing,” Koushun folded the letter and tucked it inside his breast. He immediately summoned Ei Sei to his side with a gesture. “Have you summoned Kaku Kou to Koutou Academy?”

“Yes.”

Koutou Academy’s official name was Koutou Palace Academy, and it was a place where preeminent scholars undertook the work of collecting and collating books. They had summoned Kaku Kou, who had passed the palace exams in the top spot, there under the excuse of asking him to translate a classic manuscript.

“Prepare two eunuch uniforms and send them to Yamei Palace.”

The letter contained a request to let her meet Kaku Kou as soon as possible. It sounded rather self-important.

“Yes…” Ei Sei complied, but he didn’t look happy.

It would be troublesome for Jusetsu to wear the garb of a consort at Koutou Academy, which was outside the inner palace. Even consorts can go outside if they received permission, but it would be too troublesome and conspicuous just to ask a single civil servant questions.

Dressing as a man was the fashion of the day, and even in the inner palace, there were those who dressed in men’s robes, but Jusetsu would only look like a woman dressed in men’s clothes. He thought that they would be able to just barely pull it off if she was dressed like a boy eunuch.

“Dajia, you are doing things that are unlike you,” Ei Sei muttered. “When it comes to that consort.”

Koushun hated breaking customs. However, he overlooked Jusetsu, the last survivor of the previous imperial family, had her dress as a eunuch and took her out of the inner palace.

“There are times when things like these are needed.”

Ei Sei didn’t look like he was satisfied with Koushun’s answer at all. Even as he was saying it himself, Koushun didn’t understand why he was doing this either. He felt like he wanted to see what that girl would do. It was a movement of his heart he hadn’t felt for a long time after losing his mother and his friend.

Koushun stood and took out an accessory case from the cabinet. He took off the lid and tucked the contents within his breast.

Ei Sei reluctantly called an errand runner and ordered him to prepare two eunuch uniforms.

More information about the anime came out! Man I hope it will be a good adaptation

Footnotes

The Eastern Palace is the traditional residence/title for the crown prince in JapanA special type of paper that is “marbled” with wavy lines and graphics for the aesthetic. It originated from the Tang dynasty.