Shouka looked with deep emotion at Shusui, who had put her hair up, and appeared to be once again the Chief Lady-in-Waiting.

“Now without you, the Inner Palace can’t function.”

Shusui bowed her head, trying to hide her blushing. Then she quietly spoke.

“…His Majesty.”
“Huh?”
“He’s really endured much.”

There were few who saw his loneliness.

This was because it was thought that due to his position, he could have anything he wished. But Shusui, after Shuurei had become the consort, finally understood.

After Shuurei had left the Inner Palace, Shusui had watched the days pass for the king. Little by little, he was being worn out. Although he tried hard, everyone believed this was just natural, because he was the ting. To be splendid was natural. To persevere was natural. Why? Because he was king.
Shuurei, who had given him many ‘rewards’ was no longer there. Manju, the sakura handkerchief, the sound of her erhu, ‘you’ve worked hard,’ ‘very good,’ ‘aren’t you tired?’—smiling, she made up for the things he was lacking. But that girl was no longer there.

The things Shusui could do were few.

“Now this is just what I’ve been thinking, but if I could just help him a little bit…”
“…Yes. Thank you.”

Shusui remembered Hyou Riou. –At last, her location had been revealed to the Hyou clan.

“Now I do not know how long I can stay in the Inner Palace….”
“I’ll protect you,” Shouka promised.

“I won’t let the Hyou clan get their hands on you. I promised that to my wife. And I’ll also keep Hokuto’s share of the promise.”

For just a second, a tearful smile flashed upon Shusui’s face. Truly, the one that this person loved, was always just that one person.

(But, that’s alright)

Shusui loved Shouka, the woman Shouka had loved, and Shuurei, who had been born from their union.

“Thank you, Shouka-sama. Those words alone are enough.”

Because she knew she was valued, Shuurei could believe that whatever they said, that was enough. Shusui, who had been ‘powerless,’ was happy just to be loved by someone.

“—It’s okay. I can fight.”

Then, Shusui heard the sound of some familiar footsteps. Of course, Shouka did as well.

“Oho, it’s General Ran. Just in time; he can see you to the Inner Palace.”

Shusui turned instantly, and without saying her leave took off as if flying. As expected of General Ran, there was his voice, calling out in pursuit of her, as he had seen her just ahead of him. Since that had happened, Shusui, because she was in her ‘normal’ state, was the weaker.

(What an amazing speed. She’s learned some techniques. But General Ran isn’t losing either.)

Listening to the far-off conversation, Shouka smiled involuntarily.

“It’s good to be young. Don’t you think so, Kai Yu-sama?”

At Shouka’s words, Kai Yu entered the archives from another door, and saw the boy who had succeeded to the title of “Black Wolf” at a young age.

Then the youth who had met a woman of destiny, then after just the slightest time, lost her—

“You are still sufficiently young, so be a bit more aware of that, Shouka. What’s that face you are making?”

When he saw Kai Yu, Shouka could not help but remember the previous Black Wolf.

“Kai Yu-sama…”

Now here was someone who had known both the deceased Previous and himself.
So especially, without thinking, words spilled out of him.

“…..If that person…. Had lived…”

Within Shouka’s emotionless, glassy eyes, had been a person who should not have been lost. Someone who he thought couldn’t die. The first time he could imagine eternity was that moment.

“Stop.”

Kai Yu lightly struck Shouka’s cheek.

“If she had lived, before you had met her, she would have made ‘Bara-hime’s breath stop. ”

Shouka’s throat trembled.

Yes…It was as he said. Ki-hime had been killed by the Hyou clan when she had failed to assassinate Bara-hime. And because she had been killed, Shouka had succeeded as the Black Wolf, and for ten years polished and polished his skills, and met his wife, intending to kill her.

He loved his wife more than anyone in the world. Before he had met that glance, like lighting….

“Are you crying…? I was worried because even though you smile, you don’t cry, but now I am a bit relieved…”

When the Previous had breathed her last, Shouka, for the first time in his life, cried for someone else.

At that time, certainly he had hated ‘Bara-hime,’ to the bottom of his heart. Someday, he would definitely kill her, he thought. So because of that, Shouka had become a greatly skilled assassin.

Until the place where he could directly meet “Bara-hime,” as the second hidden assassin.

…Then with her death, the future of another man had also gone off track.

The cruel, murderous, blood-stained conqueror. In his heart there was only one person, a woman who hung there like the moon in the heavens, and when he had lost her, the king never loved anyone again.

If Shouka had not met with “Bara-hime,” then Shuurei would not have been born. However, if she had lived, then maybe the king would have come to love someone else other than her, and Ryuuki and Seiran, would not have torn apart—-

“Senka….Promise…..Be a good king….a country where….children…..don’t have to cry……”

After that, the king had sat on the throne solely to fulfill that promise. Before, he had been a cruel monarch who only reluctantly listened to her requests. But after she died, it wasn’t necessary for him to put his heart into keeping that promise. So it was just as if he were disinterestedly laying game pieces on a board. To get rid of the bad princes and consorts in one sweep, he didn’t even hesitate to involve the people. He didn’t even look at the consorts who had truly loved him.

Until the very last, he had remained merciless.

So, if she had lived….?

“Were you in love with her, Kaito?”

At these words, Shouka smiled in a strained way.

It hadn’t been romantic love. Shouka had been a child, and she was an adult. The feeling of adoration had been like that for an elder sister.

(And the king was there like the guard dog at the gates of hell…)

But since when? For the first time he had wept for someone else, when the day that he would know the name of the wan feeling of having his heart broken into pieces had come.
Maybe it had been when he thought he would work hard, until he could even manage to cross swords with the strongest, King Senka, for three days and nights. Now, these were all meaningless what-ifs.

“…Kaito, please go to Ryuuki-sama. It seems he can’t sleep.”

Shouka nodded to Kai Yu’s words. …. Truly, today he was not himself.

“…Kaito.”
“Yes?”
“Ka Shin-dono came to see me. He left me a message for you.”

Kai Yu quietly relayed the message.

“He said ‘After this, I leave it to you.’”

Shouka closed his eyes, and next wordlessly put his hand over them.

“….always, I am left here.”

They had met on the battlefield, Shouka and the boy slightly older than him. But they were exact opposites. Shouka killed, and he saved. He remembered his smile, like sunshine.

“Kai Yu-dono….was he kind?”

If you were speaking of kindness, you would point to him, he thought. Compared to Ka Shin’s, his own kindness was a sham.

“’You do not know yourself.’”
When he jerked his head up, for a second, his features appeared over Kai Yu’s face.

“’I know the answer to that, but you probably do not yourself. But, I won’t tell you. Until you know, you must not come ‘here’’, he said.”

Shouka ran a hand through his hair, and sighed.

“Well, I at least know that I am cold.”

Even though he knew of Ka Shin’s way of life, Shouka did not change. He did not turn back. He himself had chosen to continue to walk on that road.

No matter what anyone else said, Shouka himself knew that he possessed a cold-blooded darkness that allowed him to kill others.

********

“Kai Yu-dono…Kaito’s biggest problem is that the range of what he can do is too wide.”

One day, Ki-hime had said this to Kai Yu.

“So, it’s natural that he doesn’t know what kind of person he is. Because his self is too broad, he cannot get a grasp on himself.

Your tea is terrible, Ki-hime complained.

“The tea that Kaito makes is hellishly, incredibly bitter. If analyze it, you’ll see that there’s a mountain of medicinal herbs inside of it. He said ‘The tea is already bitter, so even if I put this in, people won’t notice. This is an amazing thing, because if you drink a cup, you’ll be energetic for the rest of the day, and don’t need to eat either. It’s a special health tea. ‘ Of course, usually that boy would be the most proper boy in history. If we were living in peaceful times, I can definitely say that he would every day sunnily live out of his life reading his favorite books in the archive, not realizing that his “health tea” makes people faint, thinking it’s good to serve it to them.”

She understood the true Shouka.

“For his own sake, he’ll let things slip by lazily, and won’t mind at all drinking bad tea, but for his brothers, he will kill. Even though he can do anything, for himself, he’s okay with anything. That’s why that child doesn’t realize that he’s kind.”

Don’t die, she wept.

“That child is too suitable to be the ‘Black Wolf.’ I thought just in case I would go find a successor, but I did far better than I expected to. Although I thought that I would have some guy like that idiotic, arrogant, shortlived, unlucky, Senka pushed on me….Like this, sooner or later, everyone will rely on Kaito. ……No, that’s not true—
If I kill Bara-hime soon, after that I can somehow alone….”

…..Then soon after that, she died.

That was something it was not necessary for Shouka to know.

Shouka had said ‘if’. If she had lived? Kai Yu himself also wondered about that.

The woman who had known Shouka better than he did himself, a singular person who could protect others. If she had been with Shouka longer, probably something would be different within him.

The boy who succeeded to the title of ‘Black Wolf’ had handled everything well. Killing only when it was necessary, he stabilized the regime, and little by little, the ‘Wolves of the Wind’ had been dissolved.

The boy who had undertaken all of the darkness skillfully, even now thought himself ‘cold.’

“However, Kai Yu-sama,….If someday he has the leeway to look around him, that child will definitely realize it. I want him to see this himself, so until then, please don’t tell him.”

Around Shouka, who had an abnormally large permissible range,[revise] certainly there would definitely gather many who adored him.

One could not always fool others with a feigned kindness.

What kind of person was he?

If the world became one in which he could sometime slowly look around him, then certainly…

The people around him would tell him.

Kai Yu closed his eyes, thinking of the beautiful lady who had continually dirtied her hands, from the time of her girlhood, for king and country.

…..For some reason, Shouka had been left behind. Ki-hime, Hokuto, Ka Shin, “Bara-hime,” the previous king…..all of the ‘adults’ who could go above him had, one by one, died, leaving him alone.

So, just for a little more, if Kai Yu could by himself…..

tags>>otogibanashi|saiunkoku|translation