Saiunkoku Monogatari - Volume 1 - Chapter 2

“Unbelievable.”

Looking at the report she compiled after five days, Shuurei`s face twitched in anger. 

“So he was that kind of a person, our Emperor…”

Shuurei`s head fell to the desk. No matter how many times she investigated the Emperor, this was the result. 

“I guess that explains why the payment was 500 gold pieces…”

She remembered Shou Taishi`s frantic expression.

“Please, please turn His Majesty into a proper Emperor!!!!!”

She couldn`t get his heartfelt cry out of her mind.

“He doesn`t do his job, he likes men…what a stupid King!”

If it continues like this, the country will deteriorate. This is a huge problem.

“He`s been hiding like this ever since his enthronement half a year ago. You can really see how frantically Shou Taishi and the others have been working”, she sighed, both amazed and exhausted.

She heard the sound of tiny footsteps.

“Royal Consort Kou.”

Shuurei quickly crumpled up the paper and shoved it into the desk drawer. A lovely young girl, around thirteen or fourteen years old, was standing in the doorway. 

“I`ve brought you some flower tea”, she said.

“Thank you”, Shuurei smiled back gracefully. 

The young girl`s face turned red as she stepped towards Shuurei. Shuurei glanced at the long hem of the girl`s skirts, and had a bad feeling. Of course, in the next moment her fears were realized. Just as she had thought, the young girl tripped over her skirt, knocking the tea cup into the air and spilling half of its contents onto Shuurei`s shoulder. Shuurei didn`t panic, however, and caught the falling girl in her arms.

“Are you…alright?”

The girl nodded her head at the soft question, and turned red in the blink of an eye. Realizing the mess she had made, she fell trembling to the ground.

“H-How could I have done such a thing to Royal Consort Kou…” 

She made a motion to draw out her hairpin and hold it to her throat.

Shuurei`s heart leapt into her throat, but her outside appearance remained that of a sheltered princess. 

“Kourin, please calm down. I`m alright.” 

“I…I…”

“What happened here?” 

Shuurei felt relieved at the sight of the tall woman who came rushing in after hearing the sound of the tea cup shattering. 

“Shusui!”

She was perhaps twenty-seven, or twenty-eight, with dignified features. She understood the situation with one glance, and directed a worried glance at Shuurei.

“It only got on my clothes. Please calm Kourin down, without scolding her.”

“I understand. Kourin, come with me.” 

Crying and trembling, the pale faced Kourin grabbed Shusui`s hand, and stood up to face Shuurei. 

Shuurei smiled at her in an attempt to calm her down.

“When your tears have dried, would you bring me another cup of flower tea, Kourin?”

Understanding, she nodded over and over again with tears streaming down her face. 

When she was alone again, Shuurei collapsed onto a bench in exhaustion. She looked at the heavens and heaved an exhausted sigh. She was starting to get chilly in her tea soaked dress, so she began to search for something to dry off with. At that moment, Shusui returned, carrying a hand towel. 

“How`s Kourin?”

“I managed to calm her down. She swore she`d follow you for the rest of her life.” She smiled wryly at Shuurei`s shocked face, holding out the towel. 

“Your popularity in the Inner Palace is skyrocketing, isn`t it? You look tired, Shuurei-sama.”

“I AM tired,” Shuurei replied, sighing heavily while accepting the towel.

Ahh, what magnificent embroidery. The price of this one piece of cloth could likely feed you for a month. Here, they probably use something like this to wipe the floors. 

“Jeeze, me as a Royal Consort…even now it sounds like a joke! In reality, Kourin`s probably more lady-like than I am, her family`s probably a lot more rich than mine. It`s like I`m a scarecrow masquerading as a person.”

“What on earth are you saying? Your pedigree and blood line is far superior to someone like Kourin`s! In this country, your bloodline is one of the most prestigious, you`re a princess of the direct Kou family line.”

Shusui, being a confident of Shou Taishi, was the only person inside the Inner Palace who knew of Shuurei`s background and circumstances. 

“Status, lineage, refinement, education, etiquette. As a top-notch wife, you`re lacking nothing. As the Chief Lady in waiting in the Inner Palace, I can promise you this more than anyone else, “she laughed.

Shuurei`s parents,  despite having no street smarts and being poor, had lineage, education, and, particularly her mother, perfect manners. 

Even to the Chief Lady of Waiting Shusui, her act of pretending to be a `sheltered princess who never held anything heavier than a needle` was amazingly well done. 

“Fuuu… that`s something that depends on family finances…” 

But out of all the part time jobs, the highest paying one was as a temporary maid. Recruited for banquets and such, the amount they can make in one day is incredibly good. But only rich people who want to save face use them, as temporary maids tend to have poor manners.

But Shuurei`s appearance was one that appeared to have been personally assigned this job. She was able to use her good manners for lucrative means. 

Thanks, Mother.

“Also, your Father is the head of the Imperial Archives. It may be a high level government position, but he doesn`t really have any power in the government. Normally the family of Royal Consorts will try to use that position to gain leverage in politics, but yours has no need for that. Shuurei-sama, you can move freely, as your position won`t have an effect on governing, and you have no ulterior motives. Aren`t you the ideal Royal Consort to tutor His Majesty?”

“Shou Taishi said the same thing…”

The old man started sobbing.

“You`re the only one that can do it! After listening to Shouka-dono`s story, I thought and thought, but in the end there was only you. Someone who knows the town, with education and refinement, who is willing to take action. Someone who will think about the King, without trying to deceive him.” He praised her, while acting as if he would die if she refused.

“Well, there`s a deadline,  reward, and my housing and food is also guaranteed. He`s gay, so I don`t have to worry about my nights, either! It seems like my job is to tutor the King and slap some sense into him…” Shuurei thought very carefully, and decided that it wasn`t such a bad deal after all. It was just best to consider it as taking on a long term part-time job, she forcefully decided. 

Shuurei had a lot of opinions she wanted to express to King, so she had decided to accept this unreasonable request.

`Since I`ve already accepted it, I`ll just have to see it through properly until the end!”

There was nothing she could do about him preferring men, but she should be able to make him properly return to governing. That was Shuurei`s role in the Inner Palace. 

“Now then, how exactly do I go about actually meeting the King?” 

Five days had already passed since she entered the Inner Palace. She hadn`t heard anything from the King at all. 

She rested her chin in her hands and gently sighed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“It`s been five days, huh…”

Inside one of the rooms of the Imperial Palace, Shou Taishi turned to face his two coworkers.

“It seems his Majesty hasn`t visited Shuurei-dono even once.”

“If they don`t meet, she`ll never be able to talk to him,” one of the three advisers to the Imperial Court, the stern faced Sou Taifu, snorted. 

“Now, it`s not like it`s impossible…” The good natured old man with a troubled expression on his face was Sa Taiho. 

Having served the previous Emperor with their astuteness, the three of them were awarded honorary positions. Amongst the senior officials, they were on top. Wielding great influence, it wasn`t an exaggeration to say that they were the most important officials in the Imperial Court. 

“We can`t let it continue like this. We old folk have to do something to remedy this situation, even if we have to break our bones!”

The other two raised their eyebrows at Shou Taishi`s words. 

Breaking old folk`s bones was a really unfortunate way of putting it.

Shou Taishi whipped a piece of paper out of his sleeve. 

“For the time being, if we can get them to meet, Shuurei-dono will do something about it. But catching that meandering Emperor will be the hardest task for Shuurei-dono, right?”

“Well, that`s certainly true…”

“It`s not like we can expect him to go meet her on his own volition, either…”

“Exactly! So it`s up to us to create a fateful encounter for them.”

The other two raised their eyebrows. 

A fateful encounter?

“Alright, how does eating plum manjuu and drinking plum tea in a plum grove sound?”

“Are you stupid?” Sou Taifu grabbed the paper out of Shou Taishi`s hands and saw `plum grove` plum tea` `plum manjuu` written in large characters. 

“How is that a fateful encounter? It sounds like some gathering for old people!”
Sa Taiho also shook his head. 

“Jeeze, it`s because you`re still single at such an old age that you can`t understand what would be a fateful encounter for young men and women these days, Shou. It`s no good at all. This requires something a little more dramatic.”

…Like this, the old officials continued their discussion until dawn. 

While they carried on with their discussion, a girl was preparing tea.

`A fateful encounter`.

  Among the three arguing men, not a single one had realized that such a thing had already occurred. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Early in the morning the next day, carrying an excessive amount of manjuu, Shuurei headed in the direction of the Imperial Archives. Whenever Shuurei thinks about something, she tries to keep her hands busy. Instead of just thinking, by doing some kind of work while you think, you can earn money at the same time. `Kill two birds with one stone` was Shuurei`s motto. 

But inside the Imperial Court, there wasn`t really any kind of job for her to do to keep busy. So for a change of pace, she snuck into the kitchens with Shusui last night to make manjuu. In the midst of her thoughts, she ended up making too many. 

Ahh, I didn`t think there would be that many, but oh well.

Her father, Shouka, had a sweet tooth. He was always happy to eat her manjuu, so she headed in the direction of his workplace. Sometimes officials stop by the Archives to ask him for favors, so maybe one of them likes sweets as well. 

“Huh, how rare. Today there`s nobody here.”

Shuurei peaked into the Archives to confirm that was empty. Her eyes widened in surprise. 

Inside the Court, the Archives were well respected. In Shuurei`s opinion it was outrageous that in the Archives, her bumbling father ruled like a king.

In the morning, usually because of government business, other than Shouka no one was in the Archives. So, spending time with her father in the Archives during the morning had become Shuurei`s daily routine. 

But today, she didn`t see her father anywhere. 

She couldn`t see him, but there was a possibility that he was buried under some books in a room somewhere. 

There are so many great books here. Even I want to abandon reality for them.

Forgetting about the reward money completely, even Shuurei understood that feeling. 

For the time being, she started preparing the tea utensils and boiled some water. Today`s tea had a fruity fragrance. 

When she opened the teapot, the scent of sakura suddenly drifted in from outside. Shuurei raised her head. One of the sakura trees was blooming early. 

Shuurei put the teapot and utensils into a basket and carried it out of the Archives. 

“You`re so free huh, Kouyuu?”

Inside one of the private rooms in the Archives, Kouyuu`s companion, Ran Shuuei, was looking out into the gardens. 

Hearing his name called, Li Kouyuu glanced up in surprise, but didn`t respond.

Acknowledging his friend`s displeasure, Shuuei continued. 

“I`ve been His Majesty`s bodyguard from the start, so it okay for me. But you were transferred to be with His Majesty by Shou Taishi`s request, and you haven`t even met the King once yet, right?”

The vein in Kouyuu’s temple throbbed. 

“Nothing to do, nowhere to be, no job. But you have to come every day, since you can`t really say no to your boss. Even though we`re great young civil and military servants, who should be climbing the ranks quickly, who`d have thought we`d end up as officials who just stare out the window all, huh?”

Kouyuu`s hands began to shake at the sound of Shuuei`s frivolous talk.

Having been with Kouyuu for a long time, Shuuei could tell that the countdown to explosion had started. 

Despite his young age, Kouyuu was renowned in the Imperial court as a man of `iron clad logic`. However, those that knew of his friend`s rather short temper were few. 

Shuuei had taken it upon himself to defuse the situation. There had been few amusements in his life recently. Compared to other distractions, the amusement he got from teasing his serious friend was the best. 

“To think, you`re youngest man in history to take first place on the national exam, who was on the fast track to promotion, working vigorously every day in the Civil Administration department. Now, you have nothing to do and can spend every day in the Imperial Archive reading books. Wow, the Imperial Court sure is peaceful and liberal, huh? Being assigned to accompany His Majesty, it`s basically a demotion, huh?” 

“Shut that useless flapping mouth of yours!”

At the same time of these harsh words, a book that was as thick as four fingers flew quickly towards Shuuei, but he quickly stopped it with his hands.  He whistled. 

“Wow, you could be in the Plume Forest Army with that arm. How about it, quitting your current job and becoming a military officer?”

“Ahhh, being that damn fool of a King`s body guard…he can go ahead and die for all I care!”, Kouyuu yelled, slamming his first on the table.

“And to top it all off, you`re here too! You`re an eyesore. Beat it!”

“How could you say such a thing to your best friend?”

“Who is my best friend??” Kouyuu`s angry cry fell on deaf ears.

“Now, see here. I`ve also been assigned to guard His Majesty, but I have no clue about his whereabouts. I`m just as free as you.”

“If you`re just killing time, go somewhere else.” 

If I`m next to you, it`s not a bad way to kill time, Shuuei`s inner voice murmured.

“One month…”

“It`s been over a month! And I haven`t done anything. “

“Why don`t you just think of it as your boss giving you a holiday?”

“Like he would do that. It`s like he decided to harass me.”

Although it sounds horrible to say, his boss had said it calmly with a smile.

Kouyuu. This is my decision. Do you think it`s harassment?

“`No matter what the result, do it properly until the end. ` So he said, but in the end the result was that I couldn`t even meet him!”

“It would be good if you could say that directly to the head of the Civil Administration department.”

Kouyuu had no response to Shuuei`s words. That`s right, Kouyuu`s boss was his weakness. 

On the surface, Kouyuu complained about bosses` bad personality, but due to various circumstances, Kouyuu had imprinted on him like a baby chick.  When push comes to shove, he would always lose against him. Hence, this time as well, he had accepted defeat, and allowed his boss to loan him out to Shou Taishi. The result of this was reflected in his current situation. 

“Now then, doesn`t it seem like Shou Taishi is also developing a countermeasure?”

“By getting the King a wife!?”

If Kouyuu was a cat, his fur would be standing up ferociously. 

Good grief.

Shuuei sighed.

“I see your deep-rooted hatred of women hasn`t changed. If you aren`t going to make use of your good looks with me, there are a mountain`s worth of men who would change places with you. It`s a waste. You`re missing out on half of your life!”

“If they want to change places with me, I`d be happy to! I have no desire to be involved with women. I can`t understand why you involve yourself with women at all.” 

“To not know the pleasure of spending the night with a woman…I think you`re greatly missing out.”

Shuuei raised his eyebrows at the sight outside the latticed window. A face that he recognized from somewhere was walking down the corridor. 

“Oh. That`s…”

“That`s enough, Shuuei. On top of being annoying, women are tricksters…what, is it one of your subordinates from the Plume Army?”

“Ahh, it`s the man who received a special promotion in the Left Plume Army, “ Shuuei laughed, interested. 

He was appointed directly by the Dai-Shogun. For a twenty four year old, it was an unusual career advancement, but Shuuei didn`t think much of it. 

“Well, he`s pretty skilled. I don`t understand why he was serving in such a low position up until now anyway.  His name is Shi Seiran…”

Shi. Seiran. 

Kouyuu raised his eyebrows. He had heard that name somewhere before. 

“By Shou Taishi`s recommendation, huh. I`ve heard that he`s the family retainer of the new Royal Consort, so maybe he`s going to greet Royal Consort Kou.”

Kouyuu`s eyes opened wide. He recalled Shuuei`s everyday conduct, and his chest puffed up. 

“You…you can`t actually be thinking of laying a hand on her, can you?”

“If she wasn`t Shouka-dono`s daughter, I might consider it.”

“Shouka dono`s…!?”

“That`s right, the daughter of one of the few people you respect,” Shuuei laughed.

“She`s a fairly interesting woman. Even you might think that she gets a passing grade.”

I…. can`t….reach.

Shuurei jumped up and town like frog trying to reach the sakura branch. Just when it seemed like she`d  get it, it would jump out of reach again. There were flowers where her hand could touch, which made it even more annoying. 

She tried countless times to reach it, but failed every time. In the midst of her obstinacy, a hand appeared within her vision.

“…Do you want this?” a young man`s voice came from behind her. 

Having thought that there was no else there, Shuurei was so taken aback that her heart leapt into her throat. Just she turned around to look, a strong wind blew.

Without thinking, Shuurei closed her eyes. She heard the sound of leaves brushing together. Her gathered up hair whirled, and the sakura petals blown by the strong wind fell like snow. It was a dream like scene, but since the sakura were only half in bloom, Shuurei thought it was a bit of a waste.

She suddenly remembered the mysterious person standing behind her.

Shuurei swung around with wide eyes. 

The man standing behind her had extremely handsome features. It was the first time she had seen a man as beautiful as Seiran. 

However, compared to the other court members, his clothing was rather informal. His hair was not tied up, only pulled back. Everything down to his obi looked like expensive. Just estimating the price of his clothing made Shuurei sad. 

Who is he is?

While wondering this, Shuurei realized that he had a small sakura branch in his hands.

“You broke it!?” she spoke without thinking.

“I wasn`t planning on breaking it, but in the sudden breeze, without thinking…”

The man eyed the small branch and looked back at her. He offered the sakura branch to her.

“…Do you want it?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You see, I thought I would float some petals in my tea,” Shuurei laughed.

She raised the box with the tea instruments she had carried from the Archives. Inside was the small sakura branch.

“But thank you. It`s very beautiful. I`ll display it in my room.”

The man smiled with twinkling eyes, but his expression quickly became perplexed, and his eyes wandered. 

Shuurei floated some sakura petals in the tea she had brewed. She pulled out some manjuu from the same box and laid them out on some paper. 

“Please help yourself to some tea and manjuu.”

The man nodded his head up and down, taking a manjuu and slowly stuffing it in his mouth.  He chewed quickly and his eyes instantly widened. He glanced back and forth between Shuurei and the manjuu.

“You…are you Shouka`s daughter?”, he asked.

“Eh? Yes. How did you know?”

“This tastes the same as the handmade manjuu Shouka often brings.”

Shuurei was surprised. 

Then, could the manjuu her rather often requested could have been for this person`s sake?

“These are our…my favorite manjuu.”

Shuurei laughed at his whispered honest praise. It wasn`t a bad feeling, to be praised like that.

“Thank you. I am Kou Shuurei. What is your name?”

“…name?”

“If you don`t have a name, I can`t address you, right?”

The man became silent. Looking deep in thought, he rested his chin on his hand. After a few moments, he muttered his answer.

“R-ran….”

“You`re from the Ran family?”

“Y-yes. I`m called Ran…Shuuei.”

Shuurei narrowed her eyes.

…Ran Shuuei?

That was a name she had heard somewhere recently. In fact, she had heard it directly from the man himself when she has met him.

(“Would you happen to be Royal Consort Kou?”) 

The man that Seiran had brought with him (rather unwilling, it seemed) was a young man who was a senior official. He had left an unforgettable impression on her. Grinning ear to ear, he had behaved casually with her, and hadn`t even bowed once in her presence. 

He was beautiful, but from the impression she received, it was like there was something wild lurking beneath the surface. He had smiled elegantly, and had asked and answered questions enthusiastically. There was no way she could forget him.

Shuurei rested her cheek on her hand. And yet, there was another `Ran Shuuei` in front of her.

“Ran Shuuei-san, huh?”

The man avoided her gaze. He shoved another manjuu in his mouth and changed the topic.

“…Why is Shouka`s daughter in such a place?”

Shuurei choked on her words.

“U-Um, I`m working in the Inner Palace.”

“Working? But Shouka didn`t say anything about that…”

“M-maybe he didn`t think it was something worth mentioning?”

Shuurei broke out in a cold sweat. If she was just lady-in-waiting it would be fine, but for someone with the status of a Consort to be walking around outside in the morning, it would be crazy.

`I`m a Royal Consort! `, there`s no way I could just come out and say such a thing.

“Shouka`s daughter, huh…”

The man stared at Shuurei, but she didn`t realize, looking at the sakura.

“The sakura….they`ve bloomed beautifully, huh?” her eyes narrowed, gazing at the sakura.

Her face looked happy, but strangely, also sad somehow. The man extended a hand to touch her face.

“Huh? W-what?”

The man`s fingers entwined in her hair, and brushed against her temple. Shuurei instantly turned red. When the man pulled his hands away, he was holding a sakura petal.

Oh, so that was it.

“Do you like them? Or do you hate them?” he asked softly.
Shuurei blinked. 

What was he talking about?

She followed his line of vision, and saw he was looking at the sakura trees. She nodded.

“I like the sakura. I love them. But see…the trees at my house…they don`t bloom anymore. So, I get a little sentimental looking at them.”

“They don`t bloom…?”

“Yes…well, it`s not only the sakura.”

Shuurei didn`t say anything more on that topic. 

Shuurei saw that the man was reaching out his hand to take his sixth manjuu, and slapped his hand.

“No more! How many do you plan to eat? That`s six! Six of them! Didn`t you properly eat breakfast this morning? I`ll wrap the rest up for you, so take them and eat them later!”

The man obediently withdrew his hand, and looked at it.

“Huh, what`s wrong, did that hurt?”, Shuurei panicked.

“No…it surprised me.” 

Shuurei stared at the man while wrapping up the leftover manjuu.

The man`s facial expression didn`t change much. Even so, he didn`t look like a cold person. It seemed like he was staring off somewhere in the distance.

He`s a mysterious person.

“But I didn`t eat breakfast. So, give me another manjuu.”

Huh?

Shuurei`s eyes widened. 

“No, you have to properly eat breakfast. I won`t take pity on you just because you`re hungry!”, even as she said so, Shuurei took one manjuu out from the wrapping.

“You should also drink some tea. If you just eat sweet manjuu, you`ll feel sick later.”

His eyes narrowed at the fragrant tea with sakura floating inside. 

“The tea Shouka brews is always so bitter, but I guess it was supposed to taste like this…”, he murmured, obediently sipping the tea. 

Shuurei felt faint. The tea so bitter it could be used as a tool of murder, `Papa tea`. So this unlucky man had been forced to drink it. 

“I`m sorry. Please don`t think of that tea as normal, Father has no skill when it comes to that sort thing. But even though you know his tea is so bitter, you still drink it. That makes me happy, thank you.”

Stopped by her smile, he didn`t know how to respond and quickly looked away.

“Still, you look like child with all that bean paste around your mouth!” she laughed, reaching out to wipe it off. “And you complain like one too!”

“I`m already nineteen. I`m not a child.”

“Oh, is that so? You`re the same age as His Majesty, then.”

`Ran Shuuei` quickly avoided her eyes.

“I wonder if there`s any way I can meet him…”, Shuurei decided to try saying it.

He raised his eyebrows.

“You want to meet the Emperor?”

“Yes.”

“If you meet him, what will you do?”

“Well, this and that…”

It`s no good like this.

They were hiding too many things from each other.

“I should be heading back soon, I can`t stay here very long. It looks like Father isn`t around either.”

Shuurei heaved a sigh and stood up, but the man grabbed her wrist to stop her.

“W-what is it?”

“Nothing…”

It seemed like even he didn`t understand the reason why he had grabbed her wrist. 

Looking back and forth between her slim wrist and face, he muttered uncertainly.

“I know the Emperor very well. If there`s something you want to tell him, I can pass him a message for you.”

“Hey, Seiran.”

Seiran, who had come to the Archives looking for the Emperor, was startled to see the face of a senior officer appear from behind a door.

“Ran Shogun!?”

“Come here for a bit.”

Without saying anything else, he dragged Seiran into the room. Seiran recognized the other young man inside the room. A government official….and quite a high level one too, judging by the jade pendant he was wearing. 

“This is the first time you`ve met, right? This is my old friend, Li Kouyuu. He`s in the Civil Administration department.”

“Who`s your old friend!? You`re just a person that I can`t seem to get rid of!”

Seiran watched Kouyuu `s rapid fire response with a surprised expression.

“You…could you be Vice Secretary Li!?”

“See Kouyuu, I told you you`re famous!”

Li Kouyuu. In the national exam that is difficult to even pass, he took the top rank of Jougen when he was only sixteen years old. He quickly distinguished himself in the central government and was appointed Vice Secretary of the Civil Administration department. He was the man rumored to be the next Prime Minister. There was no one who hadn`t heard about him.

“But, it`s still morning. Don`t you have some department business to attended to? Why are here in the Archives?” Seiran asked without thinking.

The vein in Kouyuu`s temple throbbed.

Shuuei sighed.

“That why, for the sake of official business, I have something I want to ask you.”

The man of `iron clad logic`, Kouyuu, suppressed his anger.

“You`re from Royal Consort Kou`s family right?”

“Well…y-yes.”

Seiran wondered if his closely guarded secret had been leaked amongst the senior officials, but Shuuei`s face showed no knowledge of such.

“Is it true that she`s Kou Shouka-sama`s daughter?”

“Yes, are you acquainted with my master?”

He hadn`t thought that Shouka, having little to do with the central government, would be acquainted with such officials. 

“I know Shouka-sama from the Archives, and I`ve been under his care for various other things…but about the newly arrived Royal Consort…”

At that moment, Shuuei, who had been looking out into the garden called out.

“Hey Kouyuu, look! It`s the person who you haven`t been able to meet in over a month.”

Kouyuu swung around. He pounded his fist on the window frame with enough force to almost shatter it.

“Why that….he ditched the morning meeting to wander around here….that stupid Emperor!!”

Standing beside the enraged Kouyuu, Shuurei raised his eyebrow in surprise.

“How strange, that Emperor who`s famous for preferring men has a woman with him….wait, that girl is…”

“M-mistress??”

Kouyuu`s face hardened at Seiran`s outcry. 

Shuurei apologized. 

“I can`t stay here for very long. But I`m very happy to be able to have tea with someone other than Father. It`s seems like even Seiran is busy these days. I usually come to the Archives for tea every day around this time. So, if you happen to have free time, let`s have tea together again.”

“…Do you have some business with the Emperor?”

“Yes, I do. But there`s no meaning if I can`t directly convey it to him myself.”

“….”

“Are you always free at this time?”

“Yeah…”

Shuurei`s eyes twinkled at his response, but he didn`t notice.

“I see. Well then, I`ll see you tomorrow.”

Shuurei turned around to walk away, but for some reason the man followed after her. She looked back at him.

“…what is it?”

“I`ll walk with you to your chambers.”

Shuurei was startled. It would be bad if he followed her all the way back to the Royal Consort`s chambers.

“I can go back to my chambers by myself, so it`s alright,” she refused.

For a brief instant, an expression similar to an abandoned puppy floated across his normally composed face. But it appeared he had given up, as he nodded his head obediently.

“Hmm.”

Shou Taishi, who had been observing the two secretly from behind some bushes, pouted.

“They already met…and we went to the trouble of thinking of all of those `fateful encounters` too!”

“The person who suggested plum tea and plum manjuu has no right to talk. The one`s who put their heads together to think were me and Sa, right?”

“Sou…`Casually meeting at a martial arts tournament`, weren`t you the one who stubbornly insisted on that until the end?” Sa Taiho complained, sipping on plum tea. 

Sou Taifu tossed some plum manjuu into his mouth.

“Just watching a sword-fight gets your heart beating right? If they were to meet there, they would mistake the beating of their hearts for love!”

“That`s just you, you sword loving idiot.”

“I don`t want to hear that from the old fart who suggests plum tea and plum manjuu!”

“You`re an old fart too, aren’t you!? What`s wrong with plum manjuu anyway!?”

“Don`t worry, both of you are old farts,” Sa Taiho remarked coldly without hesitation. 

Sou Taifu looked the other direction and softly murmured, “Li Kouyuu and Ran Shuuei are there. And…that newly appointed military officer is there too, huh.”

“Oooh, as expected of you Sou, your eyes are good. He`s from Shuurei-dono`s family. I promoted him to the Plum Army myself.”

Sou Taifu ignored Shou Taishi`s boasting.

“Kouyuu looks like he`s so angry he could strangle the Emperor. Shuuei`s attitude is as half-hearted as always.”

“Assigning those two to His Majesty`s side, do you really think anything will come of it, Shou?” Sa Taiho asked, finishing his tea.

“Who knows?” Shou Taishi carelessly responded.

Sou Taifu looked at the sword resting on his hip. The hilt of his sword was carved into the symbol of the daphne flower.

“I wonder if he will bestow `flowers` on them…”

“If His Majesty tried to do so now, in his current state, they`d just laugh and say `I don`t want it`, wouldn`t they?”

“In other words, he can`t give one to them. The two of them can`t even get close to him, after all,” Sou Taifu said, raising his eyebrow.

“Thanks to you, Kouyuu-dono is raging. He was dragged here, but now he`s been left out to dry. Shou, he`ll definitely stab you someday”, Sa Taiho worriedly sighed.

“Hahaha, it`s just adding another youth`s grudge to the pile, isn`t it?”

Shou Taishi laughed heartily at the cool gazes from his coworkers, and gave them a meaningful look.

“Well then, let`s see what Shuurei-dono`s got…”