Chapter 18: Volume 2 - CH 1.1

I’m baaaaaack, although I still won’t be updating regularly because of school. Can you believe the anime will be airing next week?? 

In this chapter, Ishiha (my little angel) is introduced! Personally, I think this chapter is one of the saddest “cases” of this series, look forward to it! I’m also thinking of making an epub of the first volume, although it would probably be really unedited and not include the translation notes, but I hope it’ll be useful to some people.

TW: mentions of child abuse, child eunuchs

Translation Notes

1. Rabbit-ear irises or Japanese irises are also written as 燕子花 in Japanese & Chinese, which literally means “sparrow flower”

Deep in the inner palace resided a consort called the “Raven Consort.”

Despite being a consort, she was never visited by the emperor. She was a special consort. She lived quietly in a jet-black palace and rarely went out. Of those who saw her, some say she was an old woman, while others claimed she was a young girl.

It was whispered that the Raven Consort was an immortal and unageing female sage, or no, a terrifying ghost. It was said that she used strange arts. It was chiefly rumored that if it was asked of her, she would do anything from killing a hated person with a curse, invoking the dead, exorcisms, to finding lost things.

A consort who lived in the inner palace but never had her bedchambers visited by the emperor.

And, a consort who never bowed to the emperor.

——That was the Raven Consort.

—

Sensing a presence, Jusetsu looked towards the doors.

“Is something the matter, Niangniang?” her attendant, Jiujiu, asked.

On the other side of the latticed window, the night was a deep indigo darkness that inconspicuously dyed everything in its color. But the garments Jusetsu were dressed in were much deeper than that darkness. Her satin robe embroidered with flower and leaf patterns, as well as her dress embroidered with flower-eating birds, were as black as a raven’s feathers. There were obsidian stones sewn into the black silk that hung from her shoulders, and every time she stirred, it glittered bewitchingly like the stars.

“Someone is coming.”

Jusetsu answered shortly and stood up from her chair. The golden bird at her feet, Xingxing, was restlessly running around. Immediately afterwards, a voice came from the other side of the doors.

“——Lady Raven Consort. Are you within?” It was the voice of a young woman. Her voice was trembling and shrill, perhaps because she was scared or nervous. “I have a matter I wish for you to entertain.“

That was the stock phrase of all those who came here. Every one of them used it like a password. They came here with a request for Jusetsu—for the Raven Consort.

Finding lost things. Invoking the dead. Or, curse killings. They asked her for such favors, out of the sight of others.

Jusetsu stretched out her hand and gently moved her finger. As though tugging on an unseen string.

When she did that, the doors opened soundlessly. The thick darkness peeked out, and the faint moonlight revealed a woman standing there alone. She seemed to be a palace lady. She was wearing a simple ruqun, but her face couldn’t be seen, for there was thin white silk hanging from her head. The woman quickly stepped into the room as though she was afraid of being seen and let out a faint breath.

“What is your request?”

When Jusetsu asked her bluntly, the woman quickly raised her head. Jusetsu could hear her gasp from behind her silk veil. She didn’t know if it was because she was surprised that Jusetsu was a girl of only fifteen or sixteen years of age, or if it was because of her jet-black ruqun.

“Are you the Raven Consort…?”

From her bewildered voice, it seemed that she was surprised about her young age.

“That is the case.”

This kind of conversation was annoying. When Jusetsu responded slightly curtly, the woman fell silent for a while, and then she quickly walked up to Jusetsu’s side without a bow or anything else.

“Please help me.”

Jusetsu drew back a little as the woman was practically clinging to her. Her breathing was getting more and more rapid under her veil.

“I have no other choice but to rely on you, Lady Raven Consort. Please—”

“I asked you what was your request before.”

The woman drew the hand that was extended to Jusetsu to her chest. She squeezed her hands tightly together. They were trembling. Her throat moved with a gulp.

“——Resurrection.”

The woman’s voice was shrill and trembling, just as it had been at the beginning. Jusetsu realized that she was neither scared nor nervous.

——She was completely desperate.

Resurrection. Making the dead come back to life.

“There is someone I wish for you to revive.”

The woman’s hands were quivering. Jusetsu held up her hand to stop her, who was about to argue further about something.

“…I cannot revive the dead.”

The woman let out something that was neither a scream nor a moan. Jusetsu disregarded her and continued.

“What I can do is invocation—summoning a soul only once. I cannot do more than that. ‘Tis not that I won’t do it, but that I cannot.”

Jusetsu spoke slowly and clearly. The woman’s shoulders heaved. Her breathing became wild, as if she was about to cry.

“No…No, that can’t be. Then, then, who should I ask?”

The woman spoke between the pauses of her wild breathing, and her voice quavered.

“No one can do such a thing.”

The woman screamed something and buried her face in her hands over her veil. Sobs slipped out. Seeing her like that, Jusetsu felt as if dregs were accumulating in the bottom of her heart. ——Requests like these were rare. This was the first time Jusetsu herself had received this request, but she had seen it with the previous Raven Consort several times. The previous Raven Consort had given the same response as Jusetsu. She had no choice but to turn back those who requested it of her. Jusetsu also had no other choice. Feeling like she wanted to vomit out those dregs, she let out a small sigh and pointed at the door.

“’Tis better for you to return.”

The woman, letting out quiet sobs, drew back and turned around, stumbling. Upon doing so, the silk veil fell from her head. The woman left the palace unsteadily. Jusetsu flicked her hand to closed the doors. Jiujiu, who had been standing still and holding her breath, blinked rapidly as if returning to herself.

“Will…will that person be okay?”

Jiujiu walked to where the woman was and picked up the fallen veil.

“I know not,” That was the only thing Jusetsu could say.

“Wanting to revive a dead person…the one who died must have been that important to her,” Jiujiu said with a sigh and nimbly folded the silk. She handed it to Jusetsu.

“What shall we do with this?”

Jusetsu stared at the silk. It was a well-made piece with a smooth lustre. It carried a gentle scent. It had been perfumed by burning incense. The scent was refreshing and sweet, like a lily’s scent.

“…Sweetheart incense, huh.”

It was an incense that held a lot of memory for her. The previous Raven Consort—Reijou had it. Nostalgia bloomed in her chest. When she unexpectedly dipped up memories of Reijou in this way, her breath often caught.

“I heard it’s an incense burned for the person you love, and given to the person you love as a gift,” Jiujiu sniffed the veil’s scent. “Shall I put it in the cabinet? That palace lady might come to take it back.”

That most likely wouldn’t happen. Seeing that she came here while hiding her face and avoiding being seen, Jusetsu didn’t think she would come all the way here to pick up a lost item. Though she thought that, Jusetsu told Jiujiu, “I’ll entrust it to you.” Maybe it was the fragrance lingering on the silk that made her do that.

Jusetsu headed for the back of the room. She flipped the sleeves of her black robe. There were several layers of thin silk curtains in the back of the room, and beyond them was her bed.

“Are you retiring for the night already, Niangniang?”

“Mm.”

“Then, I shall help you change—”

“I can do it myself.”

“No, you can’t, Niangniang.”

Jiujiu pouted her lips and went inside the curtains. Jusetsu hadn’t had an attendant until Jiujiu, so she could do things for herself, whether it was changing her clothes or washing her face. Rather, she wanted to do those things alone. However, Jiujiu had gotten miffed and said, “Then, there’s no point in me being here.”

Jusetsu had given up on objecting and left it to Jiujiu to look after her. Jusetsu felt unsettled when she upset Jiujiu, though it was said it was strange for a consort to care about her attendant’s feelings.

——She still wasn’t used to having someone by her side.

Even when Reijou was alive, she didn’t even employ a palace lady, much less an attendant. There was only an old servant woman. After Reijou died, only Jusetsu and the golden bird Xingxing spent time in this room.

Because that was how it was for the Raven Consort.

Now, she had Jiujiu as well as a palace lady named Kougyou. There was also an idle person who visited her often. She always wondered if this was right. Don’t associate with others and don’t let them come near. That was the Raven Consort.

Jiujiu reached for Jusetsu’s clothes and untied her sash. While absentmindedly watching her, Jusetsu felt a mixture of doubt, regret, and relief.

“——Jiujiu, wait.”

Jusetsu suddenly turned her face towards the door and spoke. Xingxing was flapping its wings restlessly.

“Oh, do we have another visitor?”

“It seems so.”

“It must be His Majesty.”

“I don’t believe so,” Jusetsu promptly refuted. “Did he not visit just yesterday night? I cannot have him coming here so often.”

“My, you’re speaking like that again.”

Besides, if the emperor—Koushun—came, Jusetsu would know. This was different.

Jusetsu retied the sash and stepped out of the curtains. A thin voice came from the other side of the door.

“Um…excuse me. Would you please open the doors?”

It was a reserved boy’s voice. Even though it was a boy, this was the inner palace, so he must have been a eunuch.

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“Lady Raven Consort, um, my name is Ishiha. Um…”

Jusetsu inclined her head a little, not able to catch his name very well. “Oh,” Jiujiu murmured. Jusetsu turned her gaze to her.

“I know that boy. He is a eunuch of Hien Palace.”

That was the palace Jiujiu worked at before. Jusetsu flicked her hand and opened the doors.

A small boy dressed in pale grey robes was standing there with a worried expression on his face. He must have been a little over ten years old. There were freckles sprinkled over his deeply tanned skin. His eyes were round as he goggled at the inside of the palace, and there was a certain charm to him. He seemed to be an honest boy with a somewhat unsophisticated air to him. When he saw Jusetsu, he blinked in surprise, but when he spotted Jiujiu, he began to smile broadly in relief. His adorable protruding canines peeked out.

“Jiujiu-san——” The boy almost turned towards Jiujiu reflexively, but suddenly realized what he was doing and hurriedly knelt down.

“M-My apologies, Lady Raven Consort. I am Ishiha. I work at Hien Palace.”

His greeting was halting and awkward. Perhaps it hadn’t been long since he came to the inner palace.

“He’s a Hien Palace chu’er…an apprentice. He is a new arrival who only just came here at the beginning of spring.”

Jiujiu came to the rescue. I see, Jusetsu replied.

“Raise your head. You may stand.”

Yes, my lady, Ishiha slowly stood up. His face was stiff, perhaps because he was nervous. He stood upright, his hands stretched tight all the way to his fingertips.

“There is no need to be so tense. Come and sit down.”

Jusetsu pointed to a table and chair placed in the middle of the room and sat down on the other side. Ishiha was blinking, looking bewildered. It wasn’t the norm for a eunuch to sit in a chair in front of a consort, much less sitting face to face. However, this was Yamei Palace, home of the Raven Consort. The rules of the inner palace weren’t required here.

“Sit.”

Jusetsu repeated briefly, but Ishiha only fidgeted uncomfortably.

“Niangniang won’t get angry if you sit, so there’s no need to worry. Come over here.”

Jiujiu also urged him with a few more words, but Ishiha still didn’t move and hung his head, looking like he was about to cry. He was staring at his feet, moving his thighs. Could it be…Jusetsu thought of something and stood up.

“Are your legs injured?”

When she said that, Ishiha’s shoulders trembled. So I was right, she thought. Thinking back, when he stood up, he had been careful and his face was tense.

“So you can’t sit on a chair because of the pain. Is it the back of your thighs?”

Jusetsu approached him and lifted up the hem of his robes. Ishiha stirred in surprise. Jusetsu, not minding him, pulled up his hem and had Jiujiu help lower his undershorts. His pale thighs, not tanned by the sun, were exposed. Seeing them, Jiujiu covered her mouth.

“How awful.”

The back of his thighs was covered in terrible bruises. The ones near the middle were the worst. The skin was peeling off and blood welled up, becoming red and swollen.

“These are wounds from being hit with a rod several times. Is this from a caning punishment?”

Jusetsu immediately recognized this because she also experienced it. When she had been a house servant, physical punishment was an everyday occurrence. That was how she had an idea of what was going on with Ishiha.

“New eunuchs are always being beaten by the instructor eunuchs. But this is too much…”

Jiujiu paled.

“My language isn’t good,” Ishiha muttered. “All I do is make my shifu angry.”

Shifu was the name for an instructor eunuch.

“There’s no helping it about your language. You must have had a hard time just learning our language.”

“…Where are you from?”

The name “Ishiha”* didn’t come from the language of this region. There were several tribes, large and small, in the country of Shou. If Jusetsu traced back her roots, she also came from a small tribe from the north.

“I’m from the Hatan tribe of Rouko. Rouko is south of Gei Province. It’s next to the sea.”

“That’s quite far.”

“Yes. But, the number of children who become eunuchs isn’t small. Fishing alone isn’t enough to support an entire family.”

To sum it up, they were reducing the number of mouths to feed. Becoming a eunuch meant getting a salary, and if you got ahead, you could become wealthy. There were those who counted on that and became eunuchs of their own free will, but there were also those like Ishiha who had no choice to become one. Becoming a eunuch meant you could no longer be biologically male. Some even lost their lives during the surgery. It was different from simply becoming a live-in servant. Jusetsu wondered what the child in front of her was thinking as he accepted this path.

Jusetsu, who was examining Ishiha’s wounds, directed Jiujiu to bring over the medicine box. And then, she dragged over a small sleeping couch in the corner and had Ishiha lie on it face down. She took out a packet of pu huang from the box and opened it. The bulrush pollen of the pu huang worked well on wounds.

After she rubbed the pu huang on Ishiha’s bruises, she wrapped bleached cotton cloth around them. While she was treating him, Ishiha stayed completely still.

“Finished. You may get up now.”

“Thank…thank you very much…”

Ishiha adjusted his clothes with a timid expression on his face. “It won’t hurt if you sit on your behind so that nothing touches your thighs,” Jusetsu said and had him sit down on the couch.

“Now then,” Jusetsu turned her chair to face Ishiha and sat down. “What is your business here?”

She didn’t believe he came here just to have her treat his wounds. There was a main issue. Ishiha placed his hands on his knees and seemed to be searching for the words.

“Um…”

Ishiha peered up at Jusetsu as though trying to gauge her expression. His eyes were scared, as if he was afraid that she would get angry at him. When she thought that this must have been ingrained in him from the pain he suffered at the hands of his shifu, she felt a stab of pity.

“You must have a request for me. Everyone who comes here do.”

She tried to coax him to talk. Ishiha nodded meekly. And then, he opened his mouth wide.

“There was a child standing there.”

“A child?”

“A boy who looks like he’s about the same age as me, or maybe a little older. He is a eunuch. He is standing in Hien Palace’s garden.”

——So, he saw the ghost of a boy eunuch?

Jusetsu nodded lightly and prompted him to continue.

“There are rabbit-ear irises (1) growing in a corner of the garden. It is a damp and swampy area. He stands there and faces the palace. He doesn’t move. He simply stares at it. He looks very sad.”

But, Ishiha dropped his gaze.

“Only I can see him. I told people around me about him, but they said they couldn’t see anything. Shifu yelled at me, telling me not to say nonsensical things.”

He was most likely beaten for that. Ishiha shrank himself as though the pain had returned.

“Even though he was there no matter how I looked at it, they said there was something wrong with me. Is that true? I don’t know either.”

Ishiha’s cheeks stiffened. He was frightened. He was scared, ghost or not.

“I haven’t heard of a ghost appearing in Hien Palace, but…”

Jiujiu murmured in bewilderment, but when Ishiha’s face slackened like he was about to cry, she hurriedly comforted him by saying, “Around me, all the ghost rumors are about palace ladies and consorts. Maybe I just haven’t heard anything about a eunuch’s ghost.” However, Ishiha began to sob instead. Jiujiu looked to Jusetsu for help. Don’t look at me like that, Jusetsu thought, but she had no choice but to speak.

“Whether or not there truly is a ghost, I will know when I go there,” Jusetsu said simply. “However,” she continued.

“Your shifu said, ‘Don’t say nonsensical things,’ correct?”

“Yes.”

“But, he didn’t tell you, ‘Don’t lie.’”

“Eh…” Ishiha’s eyes widened. “Yes, that…that is true. He told me not to mention it again, but he didn’t scold me for lying.”

“Then, it wasn’t a lie. There is a ghost.”

Jusetsu said easily, and Ishiha looked amazed.

“Is that…so?”

“Mm.”

If one were punishing a child who claimed to see something no one else did, one would tell them not to lie. Not only did Ishiha’s shifu not do that, he also ordered him to keep quiet, which meant that he knew what Ishiha was saying was true. They had to question him.

Ishiha’s face brightened as though a weight was lifted off of him.

“So, what is your request? Do you merely want me to ascertain if there truly is a ghost?”

“No——” Ishiha shook his head childishly. “That boy looks very sad. If I’m the only one who can see him, then I think there’s something I can do. Because he’s a member of the Hatan tribe, like me.”

Tanned and freckled skin, dark and round eyes, smooth features, and thick lips. Ishiha said that just at a glance, he could tell that they were from the same tribe.

“I see.”

Jusetsu stared intently at Ishiha. There was nothing foolish about this boy eunuch that would have led to relentless punishment from his shifu. Rather, it might have been caused by his intelligence and straightforwardness of heart.

“You are smart, but not clever. You are too honest.”

When Jusetsu said that, Ishiha tilted his head as though he didn’t understand her very well.

“I know someone very much like you,” the face of a young man emerged in the back of Jusetsu’s mind. She had seen that face last night as well. A young man as unmoving, severe, and tranquil as a winter mountain. Jusetsu let out a “hmph” and drove that face from her mind.

“You said you think there’s something you can do. You have already accomplished it. Because you came here.”

Saying that, Jusetsu smiled with only her lips.

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