Saiunkoku Monogatari: Kouryou no Yume - Volume 1 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Seien came back to the palace still infuriated, then he heard Ryuuki's crying.

‘The sixth concubine, again.’

Seien parted the bushes with lingering anger, and saw an unexpected scene. Ryuuki, all wet by the pond, crying, and a man with bare arms and chest, pulling Ryuuki’s cheeks to make him cry even more.

“They stretch tremendously like rice cake.”

“Father…!?”

Even Seien could not find anything to say.

He was over forty, but the youthful emperor who did not look his age didn’t show any surprise when he saw Seien.

Opportunities to talk with him alone did not occur often even for Seien. Although Seien was said to be his favorite, in reality, he wasn’t treated differently from his brothers. Receiving his father’s glance, Seien was flustered and lost for words unlike himself.

… Seien was proud of being related by blood to his father only.

The man flicked his finger against crying Ryuuki’s forehead mercilessly.

“… What a noisy kid. You were saved, so don’t cry baa baa. Cry with a sheep.”

Seien suddenly realized when he was looking at his father carelessly wiping his hair and upper body. Ryuuki was soaking wet, too. And this smell of algae, and the smell of the fishy pond…

“You didn’t fall in the pond, do you?”

Ryuuki apologized with a whimper and pointed to the emperor.

“B, but that scary man h, helped me.”

His father, who was praised as the Emperor Sougen reincarnated, was just a “scary man.” It couldn’t be helped since Ryuuki rarely saw his father…, but Seien felt a cold shiver.

Looking at Seien drying Ryuuki’s hair and body in a hurry, his father snorted in blank dismay.

“Strip that rise cake naked and have a dog or something chase it around, and he’ll be dry in no time.”

“If it’s not General Sou’s training, what kind of bullying is it?”

Replying automatically, Seien covered his mouth quickly.

His father only shrugged. Just then, water dripped from the wet, shiny hair.

His slightly wavy hair is the only thing common between them. … Father. Yes, Seien was very unsettled so unlike him to talk to his father not as the emperor. His existence was upsetting but he did not want him to go. It was a strange feeling. Without knowing what to do, Seien directed his attention to Ryuuki.

”Ryuuki, why did you fall in the pond?”

His tone naturally became accusatory. The pond was pretty deep. Why his usually busy father was in the harem in broad daylight was unknown, but if his father had not saved him, Ryuuki would certainly have died.

“… I was trying to pick up the bean bags…”

Seien finally realized it was the pond which the sixth concubine threw the bean bags in. But, with all the things happening, Seien yelled at him without thinking.

“I told you to wait until I came back with the new ones!”

Ryuuki drew his neck in with a start. 

Right then, the emperor held Ryuuki by the scruff of the neck and picked him up with one hand easily as if he was a kitten. He glared at Ryuuki. Ryuuki flinched at the ‘scary man,’ but endured it with tightly drawn lips.

“Hey, rice cake.”

"I’m Ryu…Ryuuki!”

“Ha, talking like an adult? Rice cake is enough to call you with. Give me your hand.”

When Ryuuki held out both hands reflectively, the emperor shook a small old drawstring pouch upside down. Three small, washed-out looking, red bean bags rolled out of the pouch.

Three were too many for Ryuuki’s small hands, and one of them fell off. Seien caught it securely. The bean bags were made from fabric with old-fashioned patterns and looked like hand-made. Seien found it strange because the bean bags were so ill-matched with his father.

“Take these bean bags.”

Ryuuki was puzzled.

"… Aren’t they important to you?”

“Don’t be stupid. There is no way I would give you such important things.”

Ryuuki looked at the bean bags in his hand. These bean bags looked to be taken care of very well just like Ryuuki’s.

“Listen, rice cake. I’m not kind. If you have those bean bags thrown into the pond again, I will not save you. If you want to retrieve bean bags thrown into the pond, become an apprentice to a merman or something. Or think and do whatever so they won’t be thrown into the pond. I also hate idiots. If you have something important to you, protect them yourself.”

He pulled Ryuuki’s chin. Seien thought it was not something a child could understand, but Ryuuki bit his lips and nodded.

“…Thank you very much for saving me. I will take good care of these bean bags.”

“I won’t be surprised if you lose them tomorrow. …Gee, they stretch really well.”

“I, I won’t lose them! And, don’t be cruel. It hurts.”

Seien was surprised. It was the first time he saw Ryuuki talking back to anyone.

The emperor stopped pulling Ryuuki’s cheeks.

“If you have a mouth, say what you want to say like you just did. Or you will be disparaged.”

The emperor put the youngest son roughly, and looked at Seien.

“Seien. How was the forth son of the Ran family.”

Seien was not surprised. Seien himself kept close tabs on other concubines and aristocrats. Seien said clearly.

“Unexpectedly useless.”

“I see. You decide what to do with him. And give me what you have in your inside pocket.”

“What?”

“You have the bean bags you got in town, don’t you?”

Seien stared wide eyed, but gave him the pouch that contained the bean bags he got at a trinket store. He felt strangely embarrassed since it felt like he bought them for his father.

The emperor looked at the pouch, and jut out his chin to the red bean bag Seien was still holding.

“You can have that one.”

Seien felt like his father saw through him thinking he wanted one, too, and blushed. He was too old to play with bean bags…

After thanking him awkwardly, Seien suddenly remembered the assassins who attacked him in town. 

“… Father, is there any movement in the Hyou family?”

The emperor sent him a glance. Seien was startled. It felt like even a stone becomes as precious as a national treasure if his father looked at it. Seien breathed in a little deep in his throat.

“It seems some of them are in action. Someone may have given them orders.”

“… Seien.”

The emperor tossed up the pouch on his palm a few times.

After the forth time, he turned around.

“You should have been born a bit more stupid or smarter.”


After that, the emperor met a man. He was in his late thirty. He was close in blood to the emperor, and has likeness to the emperor, too. He was one of the few aristocrats the emperor had not destroyed.

“It’s you, Ou Ki.”

“… Those bean bags… They were my sister’s, aren’t they?”

Ou Ki’s quiet eyes became subdued a little. But they regained the severity right away. The emperor liked Ou Ki’s eyes that glare at him without hesitation.

Ou Ki stopped with keeping a certain distance from the emperor. He was always like that. Ouki never came closer than necessary.

“Ou Ki, isn’t it too much trouble for the director of administrative inspection? You came to see what is up with Seien and Ryuuki?”

Since Ou Ki became the head of the administrative inspection, he worked behind the scenes and improved the status of the director of administrative inspection, which used to be lower than Assistant Secretaries, to higher than that of Secretaries. He won over the aristocrats whom the emperor abandoned, and was building the biggest faction among the young aristocrats.

“Do you think Seien is suitable for emperor?”

Ou ki gave a glance to Seien, who was playing bean bags with Ryuuki, and plainly denied.

“No. He is the prince whom I don’t want succeed the most. It is too troublesome just to have him in the Imperial Court. It is a real hassle.”

The emperor just said ‘I see.’ As if they were talking about the weather.

“Do whatever you want. It’s up to Seien if he wins or loses.”

“… Your Majesty, those bean bags…”

Ou Ki looked away and muttered.

“There must be another one.”

The emperor took out the last one from his sleeve, and threw it to Ou Ki casually.

“I was going to give it to you.”

Then, the emperor passed Ou Ki’s side.

Lastly, the emperor visited Sentou-shou.*

“U U.”

“Your Majesty. It’s been a while. Welco…”

Welcoming the emperor, U U was about to bow, but suddenly became pale.

“Your Majesty…, what do you have in your inner pocket?”

“Well done.”

The emperor told only the necessary things to him.

“I want you to do a few things, U U.”

The emperor shaked the blue pouch on his palm.

“Take out Kanshou and Bakuya from the repository.”