In the room, which had returned to silence, like the surface of the water after being disturbed, Suou summed up the just the facts of the matter dispassionately.
“…Then, Riou took her to the Hyou clan, as he said it was the only way she could be helped. Actually, I don’t think that his words were a lie, since the medicines of the other doctors didn’t do a thing for her.” Remembering that time, Suou, having spoken, would add only this.
“….the young miss was worrying about the king up until the end. She said that if she didn’t do something quick, your position would get worse and worse. She’d always be doing this, and she overdid it over and over again. She was able to finish her work. Chief Ki has been reported to. That should be enough. Since she was going to enter the Inner Palace, you’re not going to be in trouble without her to help you with your work, right? ….Please let her rest a bit.”
No one was able say a word. What could they say?

Suou took out two envelopes from his chest. He held out one to Ryuuki and the other to Seiran. They were simply some folded papers sealed with wax.
“These are each one of the last documents Kou Shuurei wrote. They’re addressed to the King and to Seiran.”
The two of them were unable to accept them. They stood frozen there, astonished, looking at the letters. He could keep holding them out there for eternity, but Suou placed them on the desk.
“She wrote something to Ensei and me too. Ensei continued on with her work, and entered Kou Province.”
“Cause I promised that I’d let the lady be an official, no matter what.”
Suou closed his eyes. ….Though, he couldn’t do it in a cool way, like Ensei.
“I also have work, so I’ll be on my way. If you guys don’t open your eyes, you’re going to be in big trouble. It’s going to get worse and worse from here. You guys don’t see anything, and Kou Shuurei, who used to help you, isn’t here anymore.”
Suou slowly turned his body around to face Ryuuki again.
“….to be honest, I don’t think you’re as good of a king as Shuurei did. And now, I’m thinking, where is that?”
Ryuuki’s face slightly scrunched up.
Looking straight at him, Suou added, ‘but.” Suou also had decided something.
“…But, you’re the king that Kou Shuurei chose. That’s why I’ll choose you for my king too. Not for your sake, but for the miss who thought till the end that you’d become a good king. Until she comes back sometime, I’ll help you as much as I can. Although I might be wrapped up with some stuff too. Also, don’t expect me to be able to replace her. I can’t.”
Suou combed through his bangs.
“….I’ll tell you what I know. There was something she was investigating since the time of the Undersecretary of the Military’s assassination. The administration in the provinces. The important positions were one by one going to the officials of the noble faction.”
Kouyuu raised his face as if struck.
“…What??!”
“Probably the Censorate set its sights on the murdered former Undersecretary of the Military, it was after he had corruptly put members of his clan in high positions. In that time, she realized something when investigating the administration in the provinces. But, there was nothing corrupt about it. They had steadily gotten to important positions as a result of real talent…. You probably get what that means.”
Seiga had a habit of saying “Corrupt guys are third-rate.” That was right. Nothing excelled rank, trustworthiness, and experience gained by amassing achievements, and gaining real power.

He felt he had a taste of the reason the previous undersecretary of the military had been killed. Wasn’t it that someone was afraid that Kou Shuurei—that the king’s side would learn, during their investigation of the Undersecretary of the Military’s independent corrupt appointments that the important posts in the countryside were gradually being filled with members of the noble faction? If that was so, the it was tied with the final meaning of the words ‘Kou Shuurei should be killed too.’

Actually, even Kou Shuurei had, in the chaos after the trip to Nine Colors Cove, for a time been distracted from the matter of the administration. Since it wasn’t that corruption was going on, even if she investigated, there was nothing to be done. What had been needed was the time for them to climb up the ranks fair and square. While in the capital there were showy battles for official position, the important positions in the provinces were switching over one after the other, important territory was being snatched, and the map of influence had quietly been rewritten. It had only Shuurei who had noticed this, and with quiet dedication, went on investigating.
“….Working in the local administration is less showy than working in the capital, so it doesn’t stand out. But you can get the most trust from the local people that way, so when push comes to shove, they have more authority than the decorated capital officials. The national exam faction are mostly aiming at being promoted, so they don’t like working in such plain places. …..But, if something were to happen in the provinces, the people in key positions are generally the noble faction, so …. it’s turned out that if something happens, in the provinces there’s no one who’ll be the king’s ally.”
A long time ago, Suou had been in the Secretariat, and he had seen the grand power struggles among the nobles and officials, so he had some understanding of these things.
Something cold ran down Seiran’s back. ….He knew of someone whose way of doing things resembled that. This person didn’t work splendidly and showily, but his quiet, steady moves were never overcome–
(Ou Ki-dono—)

In the shadow of the National Exam faction’s rise to prosperity, he aided the sons of the nobility, whom no one else would even glance at, sternly guided them, and sent out well-known, talented officials such as Ki Kouki, Ryou Anju, and Riku Seiga. This way of gradually taking the key posts in the provinces rather than in the central government was like something he would do. It was a first rate frontal attack, and it went along with the saying ‘corruption is third rate.’ Even if they knew about it, now there was nothing they could do.
The last noble.
“And to come to the next point, that’s not far off, I think. Heki Province is in trouble. Probably Kou Province too, although it has a chance of escaping the damage. After, probably, the edge of Shi Province…..maybe. You should get ready for that.”
Ryuuki, now almost like a doll on the shooting range, opened his mouth. Nothing came into his head.
“Wh…what do you mean?”
“Did you hear what I went to investigate when Chief Ki sent me from here in the summer? …..Eh, everything was messed up because of the Civil Administration case, though…”
‘No one told you’: those words stabbed into him deeply.
(….We…weren’t told about anything)
Suou pointed outside.
“The common name is ‘the black storm’”
At those words, the faces of Kouyuu, Shuuei, and Seiran changed color.
“That can’t be right!?”
“I’m sorry, but it’s true.”
“But no reports have come yet!”
“They’re going to come soon. There’s no mistaking it, there’s an outbreak.”
“How do you know that? That shouldn’t be something that can be predicted.”
Suou ruffled his hair violently.
“The Censorate has been taking statistics for some decades, so they’ve got some idea about what are the necessary conditions. After that, it can be confirmed by the color.”
“…the color?”
“I had to look a lot too before I saw it, but they change color before there’s an outbreak. Usually they’re green, right? But they turn a weird black and yellow color. Up till now I thought they were a different species though. Once you see even one, it’s too late. That’s a sign of a gigantic swarm. When they become adult insects, they can’t be change…. So, I thought I’d try going to Heki Province…. There they were. Though, they were only mid-sized. On average it’ll be about a month before they get to be adults….. Pretty soon, it’ll come. ”
What?
As if reading Ryuuki’s mind, Suou’s shoulder’s slumped.
“…locusts. The great army of the black locusts. Also known as ‘the black storm.’ Once they’ve gotten together in one mass, humans can’t do a thing. They’ll move around, eating the crops, eating all the plants until there’s not a leaf left, and when there’s nothing to eat, the swarm can’t maintain itself, and so until it collapses it attacks place after place. Heki Province has on its borders Shi Province and Kou Province. The granary of the nation, Kou province is at the height of the harvest season. …..If things aren’t handled carefully, there will be a great famine.”
It was one of the three great disasters, along with drought and flooding.
It was even said that an outbreak could end a reign.
–’Kougai’: the plague of locusts.

There was a sound from somewhere, and it leaped up.
Shuuei yelled and reflexively stepped on the glistening grasshopper. When he took his boot off of it, it was an ordinary green grasshopper. In the dead silent room, at long last, Suou spoke.
“….I’ll also tell you this. The Censorate has been keeping statistics, but the person who came to tell me that the grasshoppers changing color was a sign when I was packing my bags, was Prime Minister Tei.”

Did you hear what I went to investigate when Chief Ki sent me from here in the summer?
Those words fell heavily into the room, and rolled on the floor there.

********

After Suou left, Seiran was the first to break the suffocating, hard silence.
“….Perhaps we shouldn’t trust Prime Minister Tei too much.”
Kouyuu did not immediately disagree. He simply drew his brows together with a more serious expression than Seiran’s.
“….However, that person is a friend and contemporary of Reishin-sama and Secretary Kou [referring to Kijin], and he was also the Jougen for his year. Since he’s the one who put Sa Province back on track for ten years, he has both real ability, character, and popularity.”
“Looking at it from another direction, perhaps we should consider why Shou Taishi and the previous king did not make such a talented official come back to the capital, rather than sending him to Sa Province.”
At Seiran’s dispassionate hint, Shuuei also ruffled his bangs, as if puzzled.
“…..Well, certainly, that is too long. After the war between the princes, his contemporaries Reishin-dono, Kou Kijin-dono, Kan Hishou-dono, Rai Shunshin-dono all, without exception, rose to the rank of Secretary, and Kyou Bunchuu also arrived at the highest rank of Ran Province Governor. In spite of this, why had Yuushun, the top scorer in the exam, alone gone to the lowest ranked prefecture, Sa Province, and also not even been the governor, but the vice-governor, for ten years?…. Although they were both Jougens, there was a huge difference between him and Kouyuu. When Kouyuu had become the Undersecretary of Civil Administration so quickly, he had been promoted above Yuushun-dono…”
More than anything else, it had been by his title as “National Exam Jougen” that Kouyuu’s appointment as the Undersecretary of Civil Administration at such a young age had been acknowleged. Even within the ranks of those who had been admitted through the national exam, those of the Jougen rank were handled differently. There was a tendency to accept any sort of unusual promotion. So, the treatment of Yuushun, who had been Jougen in the most difficult exam year in history, it was said, was far too negligent. It was almost as if he had deliberately not been allowed to leave Sa Province.
Seiran looked at the documents Suou had left on the table. One was addressed to Ryuuki, and another was addressed to Seiran, but since neither contained a word about this case, he didn’t reach out to take one. Though Seiran saw them, he decided not to let them rise into his consciousness. Fortunately, now there was a mountain of other things he needed to think about. He could do without considering the matter. The administration, the plague of locusts, and perhaps there were other things kept hidden from them.
By someone
Seiran folded his arms, not looking at Ryuuki’s face.
“I tried investigating Yuushun-dono a bit. There is nothing left of Yuushun-dono’s history before he entered court. All the documents he had to have sent in before he took the national exam have been unnaturally lost. It appears to me also doubtful that he is truly of commoner origin.”
This was the first time Kouyuu or Shuuei had heard of this as well. Since he had the ability to pass the exam as Jougen, was Reishin and Kijin’s contemporary, and most importantly, had up till now been largely unassociated with the central government, even Kouyuu, who had been in charge of personnel, had never taken out the documents related to Yuushun. That was why he didn’t even know that they had been lost. It was from that time that Shuuei and Kouyuu’s expressions became truly stern.
“….That’s a bit strange, isn’t it, Kouyuu.”
“Obviously. These are documents related to a Jougen. And also, the first one of commoner origin. There’s no way they couldn’t have been left. Even if they had been erased by someone’s good offices, they had been archived as top secret documents…. Only high officials have access to those.”
Ryuuki, who had been standing there frozen, his head down, quivered, the front of his hair shaking.
Before, Ryou Anju had said the same thing to him.
“How much does your majesty know of Tei Yuushun? You probably don’t know where he was or what he was doing before he became an official. Because that has been erased.”
Because it had been erased.
Ryou Anju had already known then what even Kouyuu didn’t know. Could that be because he, or at least someone close to him, had been involved in the erasure of Yuushun’s past? Come to think of it now, he had spoken as if he had even known Yuushun before the erasure.
The direct superior of the Vice-Chancellor Ryou Anju was, of course—Ou Ki.
And sometimes Ou Ki had come out of Yuushun’s office in the middle of the night. After that, Kouyuu and Reishin had both fallen. Of course, the reason for that had been neither Yuushun nor Ou Ki, though.
If you do what he says too much, you don’t know what kind of thing may happen.
At that time Ryuuki had not even understood his meaning, let alone started to doubt. He felt something cold in the tips of his fingers. Ryuuki slightly opened his mouth to pass on what Ryou Anju had said, but after awhile, he closed it without saying anything.
Not noticing Ryuuki doing this, Seiran uncrossed his arms, and put his hand to his temple.
“…..However, now we can’t do anything about Yuushun-dono. He hasn’t made any particular errors, and he became Prime Minister by his majesty’s direct appointment. And more importantly…. there is no longer anyone else. Reishin-dono and Kouyuu-dono have fallen, and that young-master-ish former general has now been disinherited from the Ran clan, and I’m low-ranking. My master has become the head of the Kou clan, but to look at it from the other perspective, to do that, he had to resign from his office….”
The archives were a marginal position, but in an emergency, through his power, the king could select make someone from there an important high official. However, now that too could not be done. It was especially out of the question because of the disgraceful matter involving the Kou clan.
“If you distance yourself from Yuushun-dono–”
There would be then no one in the court to be Ryuuki’s aid, or to shield him.
–No one.
Was it really that now, out of the close associates of Ryuuki in the central government, there was only Yuushun? Seiran now realized this for the first time. At this time, both Kouyuu and Shuuei saw this, and froze. Secretary Kou and Secretary Kan could only be seen as Yuushun’s allies more than Ryuuki’s. Secretary Ro of the Department of Rites might become Ryuuki’s ally, it couldn’t be said that, in the Six Departments, it was one very important to politics. Rai Shunshin of the Department of Justice was neutral, but ever since Ryuuki had decided to have Shuurei enter the Inner Palace, it appeared that Ryuuki’s stock had fallen in his eyes. Son Ryouou of the Department of the Military was Ou Ki’s old friend, and You Shuu, who was the acting Civil Administration Secretary, when you thought about it, had been promoted through the recommendation of Yuushun and Ou Ki. The Ministry of the Cave of the Immortals was concerned with religion, not with politics, and it was not necessary to speak of the remaining Chancellery and Censorate.

Seiran felt a mass of ice sliding down his back. Gradually, all of the paths were being crushed. For the first time, he realized that since this spring, they had been dealing with enthusiasm with the difficult problems which had erupted one after the other, but behind that, skillfully, soundlessly, and certainly, they had been pushed into a corner. Now it was them who had been made to realize it for the first time. It was a astounding plot, seamless, so quiet it was frightening.

Seiran knew someone who was exquisitely skilled at this way of doing things.
(This way of bringing about a seamless match, like a go endgame….)
Though Seiran had challenged him several times, he never won. However much he read and read ahead, the match had been decided without Seiran even realizing that he was losing. Seiran had said to that person that this was because it wasn’t like a one sided defensive war, nor did he strike when he could. However, when seen from another perspective, it was a dazzling way of playing, which decided the victory quietly, without the opponent noticing–such was Tei Yuushun’s go.

Even if they suspected him, they could do nothing. He had been appointed as prime minister by Ryuuki’s direct request. If they fired him now, how would it look to everyone else? Naturally, Kou Kijin and Kan Hishou would begin to have doubts about Ryuuki once he had distanced himself from Yuushun. From now on, as long as Yuushun didn’t make some kind of incredibly political error, Ryuuki would lose all trust from the ministers after he fired him. At the same time, even if Yuushun made such a ‘unpardonable political error,’ the fact that Ryuuki’s reputation would also suffer because he had chosen him wouldn’t change.

When they thought about it, the fact that Shuurei might have been the king’s last lifeline echoes heavily in their chests.

A censor was the king’s official. Even a low-ranking investigating censor possessed the vast independent authority to lodge an accusation against even the prime minister on their own. Ensei was an assistant censor, and thus didn’t possess a censor’s powers, and Suou might hep them, but he had not to expect of him the same sort of work that Shuurei did, so in the end, who knew what he would do. That was because Ryuuki wasn’t what was most important to him. However, Shuurei would definitely would never betray Ryuuki. She had the power to cross swords with Riku Seiga, and was, like the tip of an arrow, gradually establishing herself with the other officials.

No one said “if Shuurei were here.” There was no way they could say that.

“You guys aren’t seeing a thing, and Kou Shuurei isn’t there to help you anymore.
Seiran desperately shook his head. However, they had no moves left. There weren’t any pieces they could move.
“….We can’t decide yet whether Yuushun-dono is on the other side or not. Thus, if we pay attention to Yuushun-dono’s actions, we should be able to sufficiently avoid the worst case scenario–”
At that time, they felt again a small earthquake beneath their feet. Around this time there had been many small earthquakes. It was as if some giant footsteps could be heard approaching, bit by bit.

Finally, Ryuuki stood silently stood frozen there.

Notes: For more information about the locusts, see here and here. Basically, the nymphs (juvenile form of locusts) are usually green, and this is known as the ‘solitary’ form. But if they have lots of contact with each other, they turn black and yellow, their ‘gregarious’ form, and when they become adults, they swarm.

I left ‘kougai’ in because at one point someone discusses the word itself. In actual Chinese history, locust plagues would sometimes occur, bringing about great disaster.

Commentary: I suppose next volume is going to be filled with grasshoppers.

So to summarize things, basically everyone in the government who matters is a) Team Ou Ki, or b) Team Yuushun.

Translating the go lingo is annoying because I know nothing about go. -_-

tags>>saiunkoku|translation