This novel covers the part where Shuurei and Tei Yuushun, along with Sai Rin and Sa Kokujun go to Kiyou for New Year’s. So, read on ONLY if you want to be spoiled for both current events in the anime. ^_^ (Actually, it covers quite a bit of the stuff from the ending part of last season: IMHO, there actually are quite a bit of changes, although probably they don’t make that much of a difference, in terms of the general plot)

Something I was wondering: do the seven great families predate the founding of the nation?



The last novel ended with Shuurei and Eigetsu’s installation as co-governors. The next one starts with Eigetsu’s past. Eigetsu’s family was starving, so his parents conspired to kill and eat their youngest child, Getsu (for people who don’t know Japanese, getsu=moon, ei=shadow, you=light.) Eigetsu realizes what they’re planning, but he’s resigned to it. Yeah. His dad was about to get him with the hatchet, but Eigetsu unconsciously moves, and so the blow he receives doesn’t kill him. Later, his entire family slaughters each other, and Eigetsu creeps outside, thinking that he wants to live, and someone finds him. Going out of order here, but later, we find out that it’s the doctor in charge of the local temple. He’s kind of a saintly dude, etc. Later in the book, Eigetsu discusses his past with Ensei, who is rather D: to find out about it, especially because Eigetsu speaks of it in such a light tone. He realizes that the doctor is dead because Eigetsu refers to him in the past tense, but he fails to notice that Eigetsu also refers to himself in the past tense. (cue ominous musics!!!) Here is where I fail at the Japanese. I knew that the doctor was dead, well, cause he died in the beginning of the book, but I failed to notice where Eigetsu improperly referred to himself in the past tense.] Anyway, at the end of the book, Yougetsu informs Kourin that Eigetsu’s time is running out. I felt this point was a tad hammered in, but possibly this is only because the book is written for young folk and thus something like this needs to be?

Then there’s a scene with the head of the Hyou clan musing on Shunki’s marriage. Anyway, he’s annoyed that Eiki was hiding the existence of Shunki’s supernatural powers, but he says it has no meaning now that she’s married and presumably, no longer a virgin. The introduction of the Hyou clan leader occurs later in the anime, IIRC. At the end of the book, the clan leader shows up and bothers Shou Taishi and Dr. Tou, who are discussing ominous Eigetsu stuff. (the next two books are called the Eigetsu arc.)

Later, Shuurei and Eigetsu wish they could find Ran Ryuuren, because they feel bad about having chased him off (they did so so they wouldn’t end up using his influence). They worry whether he understood that they weren’t doing it because they hated him or something, but because of their esteem for him, and that they might have hurt his feelings (aww…). But, like in the anime, Ryuuren shows up and comforts Shuurei, and also warns her to beware of silver-haired men. (Is… Sephiroth showing up?) Just how does “Ran Ryuuren” know all of this random stuff? (What is the real meaning of being Ran Ryuuren? It’s implied there is more to this than just being the probably next head of the clan.)

I can’t remember if this part was in the anime, but on the way to Kiyou, Kokujun spazzes out and says that Sai Rin is so much more manly than him that they ought to switch, that she can be the head of the Sa clan and he can be Tei Yuushun’s wife. I don’t know, Koku, Rin is hotter than you anyway, and you admit she’s manlier also…. Yuushun also mentions that they will need to get the approval of the Public Works department. The head of this department is named Kan Hishou, and he’s also a member of the Nightmare Exam Group (the same year Kou Kijin passed). He was opposed both to Shuurei’s taking the exam and her being sent to Sa province. His chamberlain is named Ouyou Gyoku, which Kan Hishou shortens, much to his second-in-command’s displeasure, to Ougyoku.

Later, Sai Rin tells Shuurei about her past. The Sai family opposed the Sa clan’s activities, and so became poor. Her mother died of an illness brought on by their poverty, and their father continued to stubbornly oppose the Sa clan, but was a powerless official. So, Rin and Shou decided to become merchants instead, and their father was very angry, even though the reason they did it was because they wanted power to help him. Then, Rou Ensei and Tei Yuushun arrived, and made their father the mayor of Kinka. The twins swore to support them in their campaign to suppress the corrupt Sa clan.

As for Kan Hishou, he loves to drink and has a vast capacity for liquor. He has a rather rough and informal way of speaking, and Ougyoku complains about serving him and goes into a speech about how he’d like to work under Kou Kijin instead and be near his exalted face and compose poems and would even put up with being renamed. Uh. Anyway, Kan Hishou also borrows money for his booze from Ougyoku, which also annoys him. They enjoy arguing with each other while going through the paperwork. Anyway, Shuurei climbs into their office, and is eventually acknowledged by them after a drinking bout with Kan Hishou, in which she shows her determination. Afterwards, Ryuuki takes Shuurei back to her house, where they talk after she wakes up.

(The scene where Tei Yuushun and Sai Rin visit Kou Kijin is oddly touching, as Kou .. er, Houju offers his sincere congratulations (he was worried for some reason), and then Tei Yuushun tells Houju that he’s thought he would eventually get over being dumped by Yuri-hime for Reishin, but it seems that over these past ten or so years, he’s just been wearing that mask. At first Houju is irritated at this, but is mollified when Yuushun thanks him for being a good friend.)

The scene where Reishin and Shouka talk, is not really located where it is in the anime, and is kinda long and split up into several parts, and I think in the anime it’s several different conversations. They’re just at Shouka’s mansion (the party scene doesn’t occur in the books), and Shouka talks about how Ryuuki is isolated, because even though Kouyuu and Shuuei have sworn their loyalty, they’ve only known him for two years, and during the New Years, they left him alone to do his work and hurried about on their family business, which shows that when push comes to shove, they’ll support their houses. If they had known him as a prince, it might have been different, but right now there is hardly anyone who knows him as “Ryuuki,” not the “king.” It is later noted that they don’t understand the nature of this boundary between them and Ryuuki. Even Shuurei, if she were to have met him at this point, would see him as such (it only worked the first time because she didn’t see him as king). So, as mentioned in the anime, it was a dream that he shouldn’t have had (in the possibility sense), and now that he has such feelings towards Shuurei, he recognizes his situation for what it is; if he hadn’t met her, he wouldn’t have realized this. (So, perhaps in a way it would have been better?) So we see here that Shouka pities Ryuuki, but it looks like he can’t help him and sees no solution for him. Because Ryuuki himself realizes this, it was why he avoided seeing Shuurei (in other words, why he strangely didn’t make an effort to see her until now), because he was afraid of losing the “dream,” yet now needed to confirm its existence. (This is different from the anime, where Shouka sends Shuurei. Here Shouka just pretends to be ignorant of the fact that Ryuuki is hanging around his house.) Anyway, they have a long conversation, in which is generally explicated simply by what Shouka says, so I won’t talk much about this scene.

Reishin and Shouka continue their conversation. Shouka continues feeling sorry for Ryuuki, but Reishin is pitiless (“It’s okay if she calls him by name, but not marrying him!”), and when Shouka says “but what if you were in love with a woman and she said ‘let’s just be friends'”, Reishin says “hey, what’s wrong with that? Friendship is a beautiful thing.” Anyway, Shouka goes on to say that this is kind of like the relationship between himself and his wife: she turned him down many times, even after saying she loved him, saying it would be better to be friends. (I get the feeling that there is something Shouka is not mentioning as a reason for her refusal.) Eventually, she agreed to marry him. Reishin is shocked by this, because he always remembers them being rabu-rabu. Shouka speculates that Shuurei may decide to get married for political reasons, which horrifies Reishin, who rejects all the candidates (among them Ran Ryuuren, Kouyuu (because he wants Kouyuu to be free), and Hakuyuu (he’ll probably have already run off with some other girl), and disturbingly, says he himself should marry Shuurei (uh, disturbing). Shouka reminds him that he’s already married, and Yuri-hime is about the only person who could handle being married to him, and it’s thanks to her that Kouyuu grew up to be such a fine young man. This rather upsets Reishin, who tells him to stop gossiping. [I actually wonder about Yuri-hime. It was shocking to find that Reishin was married, but even more shocking is the fact that he’s STILL married. ]

(Hmm. And another thing, isn’t Shouka also similar to Ryuuki in that he also pretended to be an idiot? Except, Shouka was actually successful because he’s a better actor and because there was someone else to take up the duty, which left him to live the life he wanted, choosing his own loyalties and associates, which in a way, perhaps makes him more like Seiran. And that also perhaps explains the reason why he chose not to have Shuurei raised under the influence of Kurou (for obvious reasons) or Reishin (okay, maybe because Reishin is in general perhaps a bad influence XD). On the other hand, Shouka seem to feel that he was unfair to Reishin, although he does feel some guilt towards Kurou. I can’t help but think, given Kouyuu’s attitude of gratitude towards Reishin, that it’s a case of “do as I say (or imply), not as I do,” considering that the only things that Reishin seems to care about are Shouka, Kouyuu, and Shuurei. (well, and also Kou Kijin and Tei Yuushun, as Shouka mentions, although Yuushun has not appeared in a scene with Reishin yet. Anyway, I get the feeling there is a lot of stuff about the Kou clan that has not been explained.)

Another thing is, Shouka and Seiran talk in a different place about how Shuurei doesn’t really need them anymore. So, I kind of wonder what Seiran wants to do with his life from this point on. At the end, there is a scene where Seiran is thankful that Ryuuki now has Shuurei, and he thinks it is the beginning of his life as a military officer. Seiran knows very well Ryuuki’s isolation, but I don’t know if he’s come to the same conclusion that Shouka has, that Ryuuki might very well lose her. Seiran thought that he would just support Shuurei, but he’s finding that that can’t be his purpose, that he has to find his own path in the army.

As for the scene where Kurou visits Kouyuu. It’s stated that Kouyuu has not had many opportunities to meet Kurou. Kurou’s two kids are Hakuyuu and Sera. Um… I actually find Kurou’s behavior somewhat mystifying. It would seem that the person whose objections would be the strongest to his plan would be *Shuurei,* not Kouyuu, because it’s not as if Kouyuu is considering marrying anyone else. Kurou is pointful, though. Shuurei must, for the sake of her principles, achieve high position. She can’t marry Ryuuki because she would have to quit politics. The empress interfering in politics is a huge taboo, and the rest of the clans wouldn’t stand for the Kou family doing that. Seiran, whatever he was before, is now only a military officer, and he can’t help her. So Kurou explains that he always saw Kouyuu as the natural leader, and apologizes for not doing anything about Kouyuu not being given the family name. He explains that even if they don’t have a violent passion between them, they can help each other in life, have common interests, blah blah, and they will eventually fall in love with each other. He ends by telling Kouyuu that he should realize that he’s the most suitable suitor for Shuurei’s hand.

Hmm. The most interesting thing that happens in this volume, to me, are the conversations between various characters. The thing about the Public Works dept is sort of repetitious, and the stuff about Shuurei and Ryuuki’s relationship makes much more sense when Shouka talks about it. (I guess he talks about it to Reishin because even if Reishin doesn’t really like Ryuuki and doesn’t really care much about him, he’s the only person who Shouka can discuss this with? ) In any event… I’m actually really wondering how the author is eventually going to deal with the Ryuuki-Shuurei relationship, because the barriers are honestly convincing.