Chapter 15: Volume 1 - CH 4.3

At last, the truth behind the Raven Consort is revealed! I was debating whether or not I should combine this with the next part but I think this makes a nice section on its own. There will be a total of five parts for this chapter.

——How should I send Princess Meiju to paradise?

At Yamei Palace, Jusetsu was lost in thought. The tea Jiujiu made had cooled down a long time ago, but she didn’t enter the room to pour a new cup in order to not disturb Jusetsu.

——And then, there is Hyougetsu.

He was also a ghost she couldn’t ignore. She had guessed that he would appear in front of her again, but there was no sign of that so far. However, there was a strange unease in her heart. Was that because she didn’t know Hyougetsu’s goal? What exactly did he—.

Sensing a presence, Jusetsu lifted her head.

“You came here again?”

She opened the doors with a flick of her fingers, thinking that he wasn’t someone who was idle so often. Koushun was standing there.

“I already went to Gyokou Hall’s treasure room. That ghost is Princess—”

Before Jusetsu could finish her sentence, Koushun strode to the table. From the doors, Jusetsu could see Ei Sei a little further off in the distance. He seemed to be hurriedly chasing after Koushun. Usually, he was the one leading the way.

“Show me the Soutsuten.”

Koushun’s voice was quiet, but it was unusually rough. This was the first time Jusetsu had saw him talking like that. His breathing was also rapid. Was it possible that he ran all the way here?

“I heard about it from the Winter Minister. You have the other Soutsuten. He told me to ask you to show it to me. That man is—”

Koushun’s expression was grim. This was rare for him, who always only showed indifferent expressions.

“That man is not my retainer. He is your servant.”

Jusetsu looked up at Koushun, still sitting.

“…He is the servant of Wulian Niangniang. Not mine.”

“He said that he follows the Raven Consort’s commands.”

Jusetsu thought back to Ui’s face. He told her that he would be happy to fulfill any request from the Raven Consort. The servants of Wulian Niangniang wore grey garments.

“The Winter Minister also said this. He said that you must also feel the movements of the stars. I am from the Ka clan, and you have winter in your name—what is the meaning of that?”

——Curse that Setsu Gyoei.

He had revealed that much and left the rest to her? Jusetsu bit her lip.

“What are you hiding?”

“Why do you seek to know what is being kept from you?”

Jusetsu spat out. She knew it would be a bad idea. She shouldn’t have gotten involved with the emperor—.

Koushun stared at Jusetsu intently, and then opened his mouth.

“Because I felt pity for you.”

Those words froze Jusetsu to the core.

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“You’re forced to be alone in order to protect a secret, correct? But you don’t want to be alone, do you? In fact, you’re getting along well with your atten—”

Jusetsu unconsciously seized her tea cup and splashed the contents onto Koushun with great force.

“Pity me? How dare you…!”

Ei Sei, horrified, was about to run over, but Koushun held up his hand to restrain him.

“I apologize if my wording was bad. But it’s true that I feel sorry for you. Does that bother you?”

Koushun looked into Jusetsu’s eyes, the cold tea droplets dripping from his hair. Jusetsu glared back at him and put the tea cup on the table. She wordlessly turned her back on him and went beyond the curtains. She took out a box from beneath her bed. It was a rosewood box. Holding it in her arms, she returned to Koushun.

“Look over this and say the same thing you said before. If you can.”

She opened the lid and took out what was inside. It was a scroll of bamboo writing strips bound with string. Jusetsu tossed it in front of Koushun. At that moment, the string binding the writing strips broke, and the bamboo strips scattered on top of the table with the dry sound of bamboo rubbing against each other.

Jusetsu gasped and stared at the scattered bamboo strips. She had been told by Reijou to be careful with them because they were old.

Koushun picked up the strips and arranged them one by one. Jusetsu snatched them from his hands and pulled them, along with the ones that had fell onto the floor, towards her.

“…Only I can rearrange them. I read them enough to be able to recite them from memory.”

Jusetsu put aside the pieces of string that hadn’t been torn off and rearranged the strips from one end to another. Koushun watched her in silence, the only sound in the room was the sound of the bamboo strips being placed on the table.

“Reijou showed me these a year after I arrived here. I could not read or write, so I learned from her. I could not read these immediately, so she read them to me.”

That was why it was etched more deeply into her memory by Reijou’s narrating voice than by the written words.

“——Eight thousand and one nights after flying from Kakurenomiya in the west, Wulian Niangniang found this island where temple junipers grew and rested her divine wings in the branches. Here, she chose two from the people and made one the Summer King and the other the Winter King…”

The words spilled out from her mouth without her even needing to read the strips. Jusetsu looked at Koushun.

“Do you wish to hear it?”

After a short pause, Koushun slowly nodded.

“Let’s hear it.”

Jusetsu let out a deep breath and closed her eyes. She began to speak.

—

The male Summer King was in charge of governing, while the shamaness queen, the Winter King, presided rituals. The Summer King was succeeded by a male lineage, while the Winter King was always a young girl who was chosen by an oracle. The Winter King received power from Wulian Niangniang and imparted her words. For more than five hundred years, the country was ruled peacefully by the two kings, from generation to generation, until war broke out. The Summer King, Shou, who was at that time a young and hot-blooded king, killed the Winter King, a maiden named Sui. The reason for this was not clear. There are stories that claimed it was because Shou fell in love with Sui and she rejected him, and stories that claimed he hated that his younger brother and Sui had formed an intimate relationship. Sui was said to be a maiden with a translucent beauty that seemed to radiate a refreshing light from within. Shou loved Sui, it can be said. To the point of wanting to kill her.

For the next several hundred years, the army centered around the head priests under the Winter King and the army that sided with the Summer King fought each other. There had been several Summer Kings taking over from each other, but no new Winter King emerged. Wulian Niangniang was silent. The country was devastated, and soon the Winter King was forgotten and the Summer King also lost his name. Several dynasties arose, only to be quickly destroyed. One day, however, an army appeared from the provinces, breaking through the gates with irresistible force and heading towards the capital. It was the army of Ran Yuu, called the Silver General because of his unusual silver hair. He was a young lion-like man, not yet thirty years old. Ran Yuu was accompanied by a young girl marching in the army. Her name was Koushou, and she was a twelve-year-old girl. Ran Yuu had given her that name. She was once a slave, so she didn’t have a name.

Koushou was the Winter King chosen by Wulian Niangniang. Ran Yuu was guided by a golden bird to find Koushou and rescued her from her slave master. Koushou used her power for Ran Yuu’s sake and helped him. With the Winter King on his side, it didn’t take long for Ran Yuu to gain supremacy. He was twenty-eight years old when he became king. After nearly a thousand years of separation, the Summer King and the Winter King were together once more.

Ran Yuu understood. The loss of the Winter King was what started the war. The Winter King is someone who must not be missing. Without the Winter King, the Summer King would perish. It was the existence of the Winter King that made the Summer King king. The long silence of Wulian Niangniang was said to be a punishment for the Summer King who killed the Winter King. The country was devastated because it had lost the protection of Wulian Niangniang. The Winter King must not be lost, in order for him to remain the Summer King. Ran Yuu took this deeply to heart.

However, Ran Yuu didn’t let Koushou call herself king. He said that having two kings would be the cause of war once more. It is unknown whether or not this was out of a desire to monopolize all the power to himself or if it was truly out of concern for another war. Ran Yuu had a palace built in the inner palace and confined Koushou there. He separated her from her priests, took away her authority, named her the Raven Consort, and counted her as one of his consorts—of course, he never had her wait upon him in her bedchambers. After all, he knew it was love for the Winter King that triggered the war.

Koushou agreed to it. She made a covenant. She accepted to being confined and silenced. Because she loved Ran Yuu. For Koushou, Ran Yuu’s words were everything. She kept Wulian Niangniang under this palace and became the keeper. Since then, the Raven Consort has guarded Wulian Niangniang at Yamei Palace, and existed to enshrine the Summer King’s position.

Ran Yuu compiled an official history. He created a false history book where there were never two kings. The names of the Summer and Winter Kings were buried here. The White Smoke switched the origins of the Raven Consort. She was made to be a mere descendant of the priestess who worshipped Wulian Niangniang. That was the Winter King’s will.

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