Sa Province–The main manor of the Sa Clan
Hyou Eiki looked up at the path of the star which had appeared, her feather fan in one hand. Her gaze became stern.
“Will that comet fall from Tenki, and go to the Weaver Maiden?…”
Eiki closed her eyes. …. It had been over fifty years since she had left the Hyou clan.
Eiki, who had been born with great supernatural power, had been raised with great care, as Ruka’s successor, as the position had not been decided for a long time. However, Eiki had rejected all of that and ran off. Definitely, she had wanted to be with Enjun. However, more than that, she had not wanted to be in that house. She had not wished to be tied to it. She had wanted, in this wide world, to live as she wished. She had thought it a proud thing, to decide her own life by herself.
The wish of that long-ago girl, had been realized by abandoning the house into which she had been born.
—decide her own life by herself? Absurd. She had run away. As Ruka-sama had said.
From Eiki’s lips came a bitter scoff of self-derision. Even though she had scolded Kokujun for running away.
Now she knew what she should have done.
“…..So has my time come as well?…”
There was someone who had, after Eiki had thrown those things away, continued to labor on in place of her.
The proud girl had flown and flown through her life, with all her energy.
She had but one regret.
Gazing upon the movements of the heavens, Eiki suddenly smiled, with a face like a girl’s.
“….Once that has ended, shall we meet at leisure in the kingdom of twilight? My lord….”
She sensed space warping behind her back. When she turned around, there was a young man standing there. When Eiki saw that familiar face, she did not move her brows a bit, but rubbed at her temples. ….There was another regret.
“Really, rousing yourself at this time. If you needed help, then why didn’t you come earlier?!”
Eiki approached the man. She looked up at his eyes, which were like those of a cat up in a high place, and the man smiled back as he were being made fun of a bit. Eiki snorted. This man had always never straight back at either Eiki or Enjun. He had always idly run off. Eiki suddenly moved her slender hand. Her aged, yet elegant hand affixed itself to the cheek of the man, who was not unattractive.
“Idiot… to lose your life at such a young age….The world is wide, and you were weak. Life and death, love as well, were not what you thought they were….I and Enjun were not able to teach you this while you were alive. Well then, this is the last chance you’ll have for me to do something for you. Tell me your wish.”
There was a beat of silence. The man slowly narrowed his cat-like eyes, and put a long, elegant finger to Eiki’s jaw. He whispered, with an unearthly charm. In a voice which was not a voice.
—-Please give me your life, he said.
Suddenly, magicians of the Hyou clan and “Assassin Dolls” surrounded Eiki and the man, making a circle.
Eiki made her lips smile attractively. She had seen some familiar faces.
“Hmph. Have you come to kill me, and to destroy the Sa Province shrine completely this time?”
Eiki no longer had the supernatural power which had come close to Ruka’s. She had married a normal person, and with the years, both her life and powers had weakened. The magicians and ‘assassin dolls’ had been sent here just in case. It was as if he had predicted all of Eiki’s movements. This way of doing things, cunning, without any gaps. It was like how the young person before her eyes would have done things in life.
Inexorably, the magicians and ‘assassin dolls,’ moving soundlessly, pressed in, shrinking the circle.
She had only one regret. There were still things she had to do. She had thought that she had reached this age so that she could finish this. However, perhaps this was not so. That person she would give her life to.
Eiki glared at the man, who was still elegantly smiling, out of the corner of her eye.
“You fool…. Very well. If you want it enough to kill me—Then I’ll give it to you.”
That would then be giving something to this grandchild whom she had not been able to give a thing during his life.
The wind blew. Eiki’s eyes closed, and from her hand smoothly dropped her feather fan.
…The last thing Eiki saw was Sakujun, his eyes narrowed like a cat’s, and an elegant smile on his face.

*****

Following the Heki Province shrine, the Sa Province shrine was now gone.
–In a corner of his field of vision, he could see a red star suddenly appear and fall through the heavens, dragging a tail.
A star of calamity. The comet fell from the constellation of the Record of Heaven to the constellation of the Weaver Maiden. A great burden fell on Uu Uu’s small body. He was trying with all of his might not to scream. Kiyou was the linchpin of the nation. Especially in spiritual affairs. The Ministry of the Cave of the Immortals in Kiyou and the main house of the Hyou clan presided over all of the seals of the sacred grounds in each prefecture, and at the same time, the power which flowed from the sacred grounds in each prefecture protected Kiyou. If one were lost, then the other sacred precincts would make up for it, and together they would make it so that the seal would be without any gaps.
After Heki Province, now it was Sa Province. And furthermore, the mirror which had been broken in Nine Colors Cove had had its remaking entrusted to Heki Karin-dono, but it was not yet completed.
…..When it was finished, Karin-dono would probably die.
However, the Ministry of the Cave of the Immortals needed to ask this of her.
(It’s done in this way…)
From ancient times, though, there had been things which someone protected for someone’s sake.
There was someone who could enter the sacred grounds and get as far as the enshrined object, and then easily destroy it.
That—in some way or form, could only be someone connected to the Hyou clan.
He ha heard that Ruka had not tried to stop the “Black Wolf” from breaking the mirror in Nine Colors Cove.
“‘The outside’ is ravaged by war. You have gained much necessary wisdom and magic, so you should leave. It is the iron rule of the Hyou clan not to be involved in politics, but we cannot be indifferent. Do not even dream of fogetting this. We protect the people without fighting. When you go “outside,” look at the world and its people, consider well, and at last, you must do as you think right. Do not forget the pride of the Uu clan as one of the Hyou clan’s retainers.”
In the midst of darkness, those words had always been Uu Uu’s guide.
He did not know what had caused her to transform. However, Uu Uu had also probably made a mistake somewhere.
He did not regret his decision to let “Bara-hime” escape, betraying her. However, from that time, it was as if a long, pitch-black shadow had fallen. The shadow had gradually extended in a strange fashion, become longer, and even though he noticed this, Uu Uu had become unable to turn back. The older he got, the more skillful he became at turning his back on his own mistakes. Truly, he did not have the right to lecture the young people.
Gradually, things had come to this. The time to pay the bill had come to Uu Uu as well.
For the young king’s sake, for Riou’s sake, there was something he had to do.
…Before, he had had the “Black Wolf” do it. But precisely because of that, his bad conscience had become a long shadow.
(My hime-sama)
If you do not return once again to your original self…
This time, then, I shall confront you.
As promised, I shall offer up to you all of this life, which has been preserved for your sake.
—Even if I end up losing you forever.

Notes:
Yeah, I didn’t think that Sakujun was Eiki’s grandchild. Maybe she meant it metaphorically, as the ‘younger generation’ or something. /shrug.

Commentary:
Well, it sure seems to me like Eiki died. But it isn’t stated directly in the text. :P

So Uu Uu is going to do something, hmm. (He’s only oh, several decades late) Has he come to a similar conclusion to Riou’s? I wonder if Ruka is aware that this might happen. It seems to me that Uu Uu has a better chance of killing Ruka than Jin or Riou, since he has actual magical powers.

To be honest, the (romantic?) relationship I find most interesting in the books now is the one between Ruka and Uu Uu, so there. XD

So, my final impression of the book: Good character development for Shuurei, and Yuushun had some good scenes, (and finally we got some Jyuusan-hime) and a lot was revealed about the Hyou clan and the supernatural elements, but waaaay more is needed, because there were some seriously confusing parts in there. The things I’m most interested in seeing next book are:

What the heck is Ou Ki doing? (And what is Anju doing? They were both pretty much nearly absent in this book) I want more backstory for Ou Ki. I demand that someone from Team Ou Ki get the Opening of Angst next book, ahahaha.

As usual, what the heck is Yuushun planning? (The author cannot keep stringing us along forever….:P)

What the heck is Ruka doing, and what is she so busy with, besides avoiding assassination attempts?

BTW, there are two things that I wish for: that the author not resolve major problems with divine intervention or insane changes to the laws. So far, a theme of Saiunkoku seems to be that miracles don’t come for free, and that you’ve got to pay the tab eventually.

Anyway, I find I am better at editing my own translations after I have sat on them for awhile, so I expect I’ll edit them and collect them into one file in a month or so.

Advertisement