Saiunkoku Monogatari - Chapter 1.1

Shuurei stood on the small mountain her mother was buried on, gazing down at Kiyou. By the time she had returned from Ran Province, summer had ended and her mother`s death anniversary had passed. Seiran had cleaned the grave, and given an offering of handpicked flowers and incense.

Shouka, with whom she had come here together with, had gone home ahead of her, leaving only Seiran and Ensei standing by her side. Shuurei had smiled slightly at the two of them, but she hadn’t said anything. Since then, she had been merely standing in that place, staring down at Kiyou below. She didn’t speak to the pair with her, and she had quite honestly forgotten the fact that they were even there.

After so much time had passed that the shadows had grown long, Shuurei abruptly spoke.

“Hey, do you two remember? Two years ago, on a day just like this we came together to visit the grave.”

Ensei looked as if he was asleep by the base of a tree. His eyes flew open. Seiran quickly raised his head as well. They turned to look at her, but they could only see her side profile, arms folded.

Shuurei didn’t look at the two, keeping her gaze fixated on Kiyou.

At that time, Ensei was the government of Sa Province, and Shuurei was running around, disguised as a man to work as a page in the Ministry of Finance.

She’d wanted to take the national exams, but women weren’t allowed to take it. Even so, she hadn’t given up, and had received tutoring from Kouyuu every night. Shouka and Seiran had made onigiri for her, and she had told Ensei, who had brought them, her story bit by bit.

It was only two years ago, but it felt like the distant past.

That summer, women became able to take the national exam, and Shuurei had become an official.

Standing before her mother’s grave, she had decided to take the one chance she had been offered.

And, one other person–

The person in the place she had sworn to definitely reach. The person she chased from behind.

The person who had granted Shuurei the path which should have been impossible.

She had learned from that person, and thought that she wanted to chase after him. As she frantically rose to the top, he said he would wait, always.

Always.

Shuurei closed her eyes.

“Seiran, is what you said before true? Has Kouyuu-dono truly been imprisoned?”

“Yes. A little while before you returned home, Ojou-sama.”

“After Ran Shogun, it’s Kouyuu-dono. It`s sure busy–”

Shuurei run her hands through her hair at Ensei`s words.

She understood why Seiga had looked at her and laughed before she’d left for Ran Province.

They were struck one by one preemptively, without mercy.

“–I`m heading to town now.”

Translation notes:

1. The chapter title is a bit of a play on words using the Kou family’s name. A direct translation would be something along the lines of ‘crimson flash point’,  but obviously I took some artistic liberties here to make it flow more poetically like the original Japanese intends.

2. Shuurei’s POV tends to run more towards… stream of consciousness, I suppose? It’s difficult to explain, but I hope I’ve managed to convey that somewhat here. (It’s actually rather interesting how each character’s POV tends to have a different tone in writing, it might be interesting to expand more on that in a separate post). 

Whalin thoughts:

Shuuuuuureeiiiiiii *heart eyes*