Shouka felt the presence of someone, and in the still dim garden, he caught sight of the king, walking slowly there.

“Ryuuki-sama….did you have trouble sleeping?”

The king raised his face with a start, and when he saw Shouka, let loose a long sigh.

“……why is it….. that Shouka always understands me better than I do myself?”

Shouka’s eyes widened at these words which he had heard somewhere else before.

“Shouka…..thank you for always staying in the palace.”

The king, terribly pale, said this in a low voice.

“I thought you might stay with me….so I could hang on..”

Sa Province was not the only part of the kingdom. Holding his heart in pieces, each day, he had to carry out his duties a usual. Although he was afraid of sleeping, he no longer dragged someone to his bed like before. His nightmares were no longer those of his past, which vanished once he awakened, but a reality which had to be confronted.

“…You should sleep. Your body will break down.”
“….”
“Until you go to sleep, I shall stay by your side.”

Relieved, Ryuuki nodded. Shouka took him by the hand, and he obediently followed him. Just as he had when Ryuuki was a child, he held his hand until they arrived at his bedchamber, and then he put Ryuuki to bed.

“Shuurei and Seiran are okay.”

Then whispering, the king shut his eyes.

“It is harder….for Shouka.”
“It’s the same for everyone.”
“Shouka…”
“Yes?”
“Will you play the biwa for me sometime?”

Shouka was unable to respond smoothly to this surprising request. Not even Shuurei had asked him that. The king shouldn’t have known—

“….Why, that?”

The king was drifting into sleep.

“My father….said something to me. Shouka’s biwa playing is splendid. But because he’s so stubborn, even when I asked him he refused to play. So much so that I even threatened that damned brat, and eventually got him to play in exchange for the lives of his younger brothers. While I am alive, the day when you will hear it, will probably not come. But, after you become king, someday the day where you ask him to play, and he will, may come. “
“May come?”
“He said, ‘if there comes a time when Shouka is so free that he can just casually play the biwa, that will be proof that you have become the greatest king in history. If you want to hear it, work hard…. “

Probably the king would not remember having said that when he awoke.

…..The brutal, cruel conqueror.

However, he possessed an oppressive charisma that made all, beginning with the three elders of the court, kneel to him.

If that had bothered him, there were a lot of ways he could have smoothed things over and not had himself called a bloody monarch, but

….he had remained merciless up to the very end.

He had been cold to his consorts, but he was always observing the princes. While snorting at Seiran for being ‘naïve’ for being brought down by the concubines, he ordered Shouka to pick him up, if he felt like it. Although Ryuuki didn’t remember it, actually he had also come in place of General Sou to the archives and crossed swords with Ryuuki, making him cry. He also watched the other princes in such a way.

Yes—whether they were superior or corrupt, he just watched them without doing anything.

Perhaps he thought that just as he had, they would smoothly walk on the path by their own will and with their own feet. Just as he had always said, don’t expect anything from me, do something yourself.

However, that was also just Shouka’s hypothesis. After the previous Black Wolf, who had understood everything, had died, that blasted old man Shou Taishi never would say anything.

His glance moved from the sleeping Ryuuki to his own hand. —a hand stained with blood.

The daughter of he, who had stolen more lives than anyone, and his wife, had rushed off to Sa Province proclaiming that she wouldn’t let a single person be killed.

“…It’s strange.”

“I want to see the day, someday, when someone can honestly stick to their ideals.”

The wish of a kind woman.

“Your wish is finally beginning to come true….”

His daughter and the others, to save a tiny village, had moved the country, used money unstintingly, exerted authority recklessly.

He had wanted to see it. Just for a tiny bit, the moment when idealism was permitted.

Even so, he could not play the biwa.

“Shouka.”

The moment Shouka turned with irritation at the sound of Shou Taishi (in his mind his mortal enemy), something came flying.

“Instead of ‘probably okay,’ here’s this.”

The moment he had reflexively taken it, Shou Taishi suddenly turned back.

While he was wondering what this was all about, he broke open the vermillion seal of the document which had been thrown to him.

—-The epidemic in Sa Province is coming to an end. Both of the governors have returned safely to the provincial offices.

Having scanned these words, Shouka closed his eyes.

He slowly let out the breath he had been holding.

(….For Shou Taishi to be this kind is too strange…. What happened?)

With the corners of his mouth turning up in a smile, Shouka began to wake up the king, who had just fallen asleep.

After that, Shouka planned to tell Shusui and Reishin too.

******

“What were you thinking about when you left your house?”

To Hokuto’s artless question, Shouka, without thinking, returned this answer.

“Because the older of my younger brothers doesn’t believe in fairytales anymore, but my youngest brother still does.”
“Fairytales?”

Next to Shouka, who was picking out some souvenirs for his younger brothers, Hokuto was playing with a toy barrel.

If you stuck the short sword of the toy in one of the holes, from the inside a head would come flying out. Although he was older than Shouka, Hokuto was broadly smiling and absorbed in playing with it. Oddly, no matter how much he thought, though, he always made mistakes in picking out souvenir shops.

Shouka, turning his head, and suggesting why not something more serious, suddenly saw a small biwa paperweight and picked it up. Partly while playing the biwa, he had told his brothers many fairytales.

The endings of happy fairytales always went like this.

“Then, everyone lived happily ever after.”

…..But for how long? Reishin had come to not believe in fairytales, but Kurou had begun to try desperately to believe in them.

“It’s good that the people were living in peace. Hey, Kurou, the brothers who got treasures from the immortals fought, and then killed each other, and after that, their children disputed over the inheritance, and so in the end, whoever was left died alone without a word. “
“T-that’s not right, Rei-aniue. The brothers lived happily ever after together. They gave the treasures to the poor villagers, and everyone was always thankful to them.”
“Idiot. Try seeing what happens. Probably the villagers stripped them of everything and then killed them.”
“I..I would never, ever kill my brothers. I would live happily together with them. I don’t need anything like treasures. Right, Shou-aniue?”

In the end, Kurou would always cry and cling to Shouka, and Reishin would abruptly come near them.

It was when the members of the clan with certain designs were beginning to approach each of them. Reishin looked at reality, and Kurou at the appearance, so perhaps one could predict that they would eventually be caught up in the struggle for the inheritance.

Fairytales that ended happily ever after. Shouka himself, who had been born first into the Kou clan, knew that such things did not exist.

“….Even so, Hokuto, I wanted my younger brothers to believe in fairytales.”

The biwa paperweight made a sad noise as he returned it to the shelf.

He had thought that something like happiness wouldn’t just happen without a price. But then his brothers were born. After Shouka had seen them for a moment and properly picked them up, before he knew it, these strange living things were toddling after him.

…..He didn’t think that there was something in the world that would give one happiness for free. So, if there was even one thing that could be given in return….

“I thought that if one is protected, then one will want to protect. So just this one fairy tale, might somehow come true.”

There were many fragile things that would be broken if they weren’t protected. But, if he protected them to the end, they might continue to exist in reality. So he thought he must do that.

“That’s why I left my house.”

He had told many lies. He had also broken many promises. Even now, and from now on, Shouka would continue to tell many lies. Right now Kurou was giving up on his elder brother, who broke his promises. Because his conduct, which continued to wound the hearts of his two little younger brothers, could not be justified for whatever reason, Shouka felt that this was probably simply his own self-satisfaction.

That was why Shouka smiled and lightly added:
“Probably.”

Hokuto made the head of the toy fly again.

“Huuh. Then so what kind of thing is this fairytale that you, who is such a realist, believe in?”

…..Shouka was silent. Next, quietly taking up one of the toy drums lined up on the shelves, he struck the back of Hokuto’s head. The drum broke apart, with a great boom which continued to echo, and besides that, the head which Hokuto had placed back in the barrel also went flying out and rolled into the main street, so a child who had been passing by saw it and burst out crying.

“Damn you, what the hell are you doing?”
“I don’t to want to tell a primitive animal who lives by his instincts. Ah, I’ll leave the cost of the repairs to you.”

Shouka coolly turned away and began to walk out. Then from behind, he could hear the voice of the shopkeeper, who was screaming “what did you do there?!?!” while pursuing Hokuto.

“Then, the three brothers all got along well together. Happily ever after.”

Only one fairytale.

If he could protect this fairytale till the end of his life…

It might become one of the few “truths” of his lying, calculating, cold self.

“….that’s right, Hokuto.”

He would come back to his house with both hands full of presents, making Hokuto carry the luggage.

“I wanted to believe in them too.”

But, because it would annoy him to reveal everything to Hokuto, he definitely wouldn’t tell him that.

Epilogue:

“Welcome back, Shouka…”

Looking at Shouka, who had returned to the Kou house after about a year, his great-aunt smiled, and strummed her biwa, for the first time in awhile.

“I have been thinking that it will be any time now. The next master of the Kou clan will be you. Certainly, Reishin is intelligent, but regrettably, he doesn’t think of the Kou clan like you.”

The glance of the beautiful, refined noblewoman was suddenly twisted with dark joy.

“That barbarous king…. Thinks that the Kou clan is obediently following him, so now is the best chance. With you, we can confront that king. Tonight, I shall put the family in order. Soon it will be a good time for you to show your wisdom to all. If Yuri and you are here….”

Gyokukan noticed the white blade Shouka had in his hand, and her hand stopped playing the biwa.

“What are you doing, Shouka?”
“Great-aunt…..that is why I have returned to the Kou house.”

Shouka’s glance fell to the blade in his hand.

“For a while, I have known about what you have just said. For that reason, even when you told me to protect the Kou clan, I could say nothing in response. You have been the one protecting the Kou clan up till now. However, if I obey these words of yours, the Kou clan will be entirely destroyed….”

He sighed. This child of only ten had a wise expression like an adult’s.

“Why do you think up till now the king has just left the Kou clan alone? It was so that he could smoke out those like you, and create a reason for making the Kou house powerless….and so the king did nothing and waited.”

Gyokukan opened her eyes wide.

“…..So, I left the house. To meet the king, so I could choose the road by which the Kou clan would not be crushed. For that, I have come here. “

Gyokukan’s hand was slightly shaking.

“I am not at all thinking of protecting the Kou clan. What I want to protect is a much simple thing…however, you existence threatens it.”
“—You fool! I’ve favored you, and you side with the king?”
“Yes. You cannot defeat the king. Great-aunt…..you are correct. I am certainly, the man who epitomizes the Kou clan. I can cut off and throw away my feelings.”

I liked your biwa, Shouka calmly said, and poured some hot water into a nearby cup. He then dissolved some powder in it.

“…If you live until tomorrow, it seems the king will attack right away. Make no mistake, he will crush the Kou clan until nothing in left, until it will not even recover for fifty years. So therefore, take this.”

It is your loss, Great-aunt, Shouka was clearly telling her. Gyokukan then burst out laughing at the boy who casually proffered a cup of poison.

“…my forecast was definitely wrong. When you showed absolutely no interest in power, I should have realized. —Shouka.”
“Yes.”

Gyokukan took the cup.

“After I die, what will happen to the Kou clan? Your father, that nephew of mine, will he become the head?”
“At the very least, there is no need to worry that the king will place his eyes on him for having, like you, too much ability, resourcefulness, and ambition. Probably, the Kou clan shall undergo a transformation, in keeping with these times, and continue to maintain its position as the leading clan, along with the Ran clan. It shall receive more than sufficient honor, fame, and respect, and shall have a great influence in politics. I promise, as long as I live, the Kou clan shall not decline.”
“—Very well.”

Gyokukan smiled bewitchingly, then drained the cup of poison in one motion.

In her youth, she had mastered the arts of intrigue and power within the dazzling Inner Palace, as the glamorous Biwa-hime, glorying in the favor of the king and her splendor.
Wise, cultivated, gifted in knowledge, she loved the Kou clan, and though proud, knew when to pull back.

Shouka, definitely, had loved her.
Gyokukan pointed at the biwa.

“Play, Shouka. Enough to see me off to the grave.”

Shouka obediently took up the biwa, and began to strum it, but then—-was startled.

Gyokukan, who had remained seated with her eyes closed, had a small, strange smile.

“Sound does not lie…. Shouka, that is your sound. Exactly like mine, a sound which continues to kill people, but because of that, an extremely beautiful one. That is just what the secret of Kou clan, the biwa of death is….”

After Gyokukan had breathed her last, Shouka continued to strum the biwa. Anyone would have thought that that it was Gyokukan playing the biwa alone that evening.

In the end, Shouka sealed his biwa.

….Because if anyone heard the biwa of a killer, they certainly hate it.

*******

Reishin had a small secret.

“Rei-aniue…”
“Quiet, you idiot.”

While listening to the biwa through the folding screen, Reishin held Kurou between his knees to stop him from crawling over to Shouka.

Kurou puffed his cheeks out angrily.

“Why didn’t Shou-aniue go over to us first? Great-aunt is already an adult, so she doesn’t need a lullaby.”

His unmoving great-aunt must have been sleeping. An eternal sleep from which she would never awaken.

“A beautiful sound, Kurou.”
“Yes. Very…..but it sounds like it’s crying.”
“Elder brother isn’t crying. And if you let him hear that, you and I will make him cry.”

Taking up all the burden himself, he had saved the clan. The stupid clan had no way of knowing that it was all thanks to the eldest son, whom they sneered at as a fool, that tomorrow they could unconcernedly go on living.

“Did we do something bad, to make Shou-aniue cry?…”
“It’s because we’re week. While you were making teruteru-bozu carefreely, Aniue was going forth to the mountains and cruel, evil monsters, and battling them.

Reishin had without a doubt, said something fairly correct. Kurou’s eyes widened.

“And so, Shou-aniue couldn’t keep his promise.”
“That’s right. Because you and I are weak, aniue couldn’t keep his promise. It’s alright if you do it while making teruteru-bozus, but become stronger. So that someday Aniue can always stay home.”

The violently beautiful biwa of death. What was he thinking of, the eldest brother, as he, without even noticing them, played on single-mindedly?

“….Remember this, Kurou. That sound is a sound for our sake. You and I have made Aniue play.”

His elder brother would not cry. He would tell many lies. He would break promises, and absolutely never tell the truth. Now, and from now on. Forever.

“….Kurou, do you like Aniue?”
“Yes, I like him very much.”
“Then, except for the biwa, forget all about today. It’s too troublesome to explain, so don’t ask why. If you don’t forget by tomorrow, it will mean you have decided to hate Aniue, so Aniue will be mine alone.”

Although this was an absurd sort of logic, Kurou swallowed it, and nodded seriously.

….Until the dawn broke, and the sound of the biwa died, the two of them listened behind the folding screen. The next day, within the uproar at Gyokukan’s sudden death, Shouka popped up, bearing gifts in both hands.

“Welcome back, Shou-aniue.”

Serious Kurou had truly forgotten everything by the next morning. It seemed that “you’re choosing to hate Aniue” had been quite effective.
(Huh….having him all to myself will be postponed)

“I’m back, Reishin, Kurou. Sorry for breaking the promise.”

His elder brother’s smile had not changed.
Yes—The eldest brother, no matter what happened, would keep everything in his heart, making a calm face, as if drinking water, hiding everything.

To protect them so that they would not change.

That’s why he had made Kurou forget. Because each time he left the house, his elder brother must have wanted to protect his younger brother, who knowing nothing, innocently made teruteru-bozu while waiting for him.

And that’s why he remembered. What would his elder brother do to protect them, what would he continue to sacrifice?

How hard was it, to smile “like always”?
….For whose sake was it that his elder brother told so many lies?

That was why Reishin, no matter how much he was lied to, would never, ever hate his elder brother.

That was why, even now, Reishin thought that perhaps just one fairytale would surely come true.

Advertisement