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sasaranomiya · 2 years ago

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Koukyuu no Karasu Volume 4 Chapter 1 - The Silkworm God (Part 3)

Alright here's the end of the first chapter

Ok tbh now that the official version of volume 4 is out i am not sure what to do with this translation. im pretty sure i said before that i would drop it once the official translations catch up and i do still mean it (especially now that i have so much on my plate) but i don't want to abandon this blog. Maybe i'll post summaries for the later books? idk yet

thanks to everyone who supported me so far!

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After a while, Shuuji arrived, looking fearful of her surroundings. Her face was pale.

“La…Lady Raven Consort, I told you to forget about the ghost��”

“Were you threatened by the ghost?”

Shuuji’s eyes widened. “You know?”

“Did it tell you that you’re cursed? Don’t worry, it was lying.”

“Is…is that true, Lady Raven Consort?”

Shuuji, looking like she was about to burst into tears, tried to cling to Jusetsu. Onkei stopped her. “No need,” Jusetsu told him, then took Shuuji’s hand. When Onkei let go of her, she crumpled down on the spot. She cried as she squeezed Jusetsu’s hand.

“Lady Raven Consort, I’m scared.”

“What scared you?” Jusetsu asked, soothing a sobbing Shuuji.

“Yesterday…it happened yesterday evening. After finishing work, I was walking in the outer corridor when something rolled down at my feet. When I stopped and looked, I saw that it was a cocoon. And then, more cocoons fell down, and just when I was wondering what was going on, I saw a shadow on the nearby lattice window…” Shuuji trembled. “It was dark inside, so I couldn’t see them very well, but they seemed to be a palace lady. She was standing beside me, facing me. Then, she spoke. If you meddle in my business any more, I’ll put a curse on you. It was a terrifying voice. I lost my nerve and ran into the room where everyone else was. When I told them that I saw a ghost, they said that we had to investigate, so I went back with them even though I didn’t want to. As might be expected, the ghost was nowhere to be found, nor the cocoons. I was just so scared and didn’t know what to do…”

So, she went to Yamei Palace again and told Jusetsu to leave the ghost alone.

“Hmm,” Jusetsu, who was listening with her head tilted slightly, nodded.

“By ‘terrifying voice,’ what kind of voice was it specifically? A high voice or a low voice? A thin voice or a thick voice?”

“Specifically…? Well…” Shuuji closed her eyes, as though to remember.

“It wasn’t a high-pitched voice. It wasn’t deep either…yes, it wasn’t a young voice. It was hoarse, like there was something wrong with their throat, and that might have been why I was so frightened. Because it wasn’t the voice of a young palace lady at all.”

“Do you recall hearing that voice before?”

“No, I haven’t—oh, but…” Shuuji put her hand to her mouth. “Now that I think about it, I feel like I’ve heard it… No, but I’m not very sure.”

“You said you ran into the room where everyone else was. Who is ‘everyone’?”

“The palace ladies… I think they were all there, but I was also upset and don’t remember clearly.”

“Hmm, I see,” Jusetsu peered into Shuuji’s face. “Listen, that was not a ghost. The reason is that my barrier extends here. Ghosts won’t appear within it. It’s impossible.”

Shuuji was staring intently into Jusetsu’s eyes, as though drawn into them.

“Y-Yes…, Lady Raven Consort!” Shuuji nodded vigorously, her cheeks flushing. “Ah, then someone did something like that…? Who is it?”

“Most likely someone who doesn’t want to be investigated.”

The ghost that threatened Shuuji and the ghost that stole the cocoons were probably the same person.

Jusetsu had said that there were two ghosts, but one of them was fake.

“May I look inside the room?”

Before she heard a reply, Jusetsu went up the stairs and entered the room where the palace ladies were working. There was a fishy smell and steam enshrouded everything. Large cauldrons with boiling water were placed in two kilns. The cocoons were being boiled inside them. Palace ladies standing next to them were picking up boiled cocoons, quickly finding the thread end, and pulling out the thread. They were incredibly fast. The pulled-out threads were winded around thread reels.

After removing the material that would become silk thread, there was another palace lady who removed the cocoons with transparent larvae from the cauldrons, another who changed the water, and another who removed the thread from the reel. The palace ladies’ cheeks and hands were red from the heat, and sweat was beading on their foreheads and necks.

They were all silently engrossed in their work and didn’t even notice Jusetsu’s entrance. Jusetsu’s eyes landed on the kiln containing cocoons at the edge of the room. Even to an untrained eye, she could tell that there were some dirty cocoons mixed in. These were probably the bad cocoons that had been sorted out. Jusetsu immediately left the room so as to not disturb the palace ladies’ work. “Are those the bad cocoons you have at the edge of the room?” she asked Shuuji, who was waiting in the outer corridor. “Yes,” Shuuji answered.

“Are you going to throw them away?”

“No, we can’t present them to the emperor, but we take the thread and make them into palace lady uniforms or cotton.”

“Have they been kept there since yesterday?”

“Yes. The good cocoons are kept under strict guard in a separate room, but the bad ones are…”

“Then those must be the cocoons used to threaten you yesterday.”

Anyone who knew where they were could easily take them out.

“Then, who was the palace lady who pretended to be a ghost and threatened me?”

It’s not them, Shuuji said, looking towards the room where steam was leaking.

“If it was one of my friends, I would know who it was even in the dark. Even their voice…”

Jusetsu watched as the steam unraveled and disappeared.

“I think it would be quicker to have them come out before us than to find out who they are.”

As the evening approached, Jusetsu changed from her eunuch uniform to her usual black robes and headed to the mound with Onkei. She walked around the old moss-covered mound and looked up at the trees.

She had known that someone had been visiting this place from the last time she came here. She knew because the undergrowth had been trodden on.

“Niangniang, they’re here.”

At Onkei’s whisper, Jusetsu hid behind the mound. Onkei hid among the trees.

Under the dim shade of the trees, there was the sound of someone’s footsteps approaching. They were light. They were probably a slender person, not very tall. The person seemed to stop in front of the mound, but then slowly approached a tree, making sure that their footsteps were concealed. It was a large old tree with hollows everywhere. When he put his hand there, Jusetsu called out to him.

“The cocoons are no longer there.”

The man jumped and turned around, his hand still reaching inside the hollow. Jusetsu stood up, and Onkei also appeared from the trees.

“Do you remember my face? We talked behind the mulberry storage room today.”

He stared at Jusetsu’s face and let out a small “Ah.”

“You’re not a eu…”

The man who said this with a pale face was the young eunuch who had told Jusetsu about how they used mulberry branches to make dyes and firewood as he tied them together.

“I hear your name is Rijou.”

She had Tan Kai look into the eunuchs who worked at the cocoonery. Everything from their identities to finances.

“I know exactly what you did. You pretended to be the ghost of a palace lady, sneaked into the cocoonery, and stole the cocoons.”

When it became clear that someone had pretended to be a ghost, it became obvious that the palace ladies had nothing to do with the matter. If it had been a palace lady who stole the cocoons, they wouldn’t have needed to pretend to be a ghost. Just as Jusetsu had once suspected, one only had snatch some cocoons while working and claim that a ghost had appeared.

Rijou had a small stature and wide eyes. He could easily transform into a palace lady by putting on makeup. If he made himself look like a woman, it would be difficult for even those who knew him to notice. Just like how at first, even Shuuji didn’t recognize Jusetsu when she was dressed as a eunuch.

“Ah…ugh…”

Rijou’s face was pale, and he was trembling. He didn’t seem to be the most daring person. He backed away a step, then suddenly tried to run. Onkei moved quickly, but before he could do anything, Rijou tripped on grass and fell. Onkei grabbed his arms and pinned him down. Rijou struggled, but Onkei’s arms didn’t budge.

“N-No…I…”

Rijou began to cry. He was not yet twenty, a young man who seemed able to do both good and bad things with ease.

“I know this wasn’t your plan alone. You were probably instigated by the eunuchs in charge of taking the pupae outside. Did they tell you that you would make money?”

She asked him this, thinking that he would confess if she asked in this way. Rijou nodded readily.

“Yes…that’s right. But it wasn’t for money. At first, it was just a game between friends.”

“A game?”

“I would disguise myself as a palace lady and see if I get found out or not. It was…a bet.”

Jusetsu had heard that many eunuchs indulged in gambling. This was because there was hardly any entertainment here.

“So, have you been sneaking into the cocoonery since before?”

“No, at first I just wandered outside and bet on whether other eunuchs or palace ladies would recognize me, but it went so well that I was told that it wasn’t a bet anymore, so they told me to pretend to be the rumored cocoonery ghost. But doing only that would be boring, so we bet whether or not I can take a cocoon…”

Perhaps the prank went too far.

“I was planning to return the cocoons right away, because there was no point in keeping them. I thought I should drop them in a corner of the room and return them that way. But when Mr. Sekian learned about my plan…”

“He’s the eunuch in charge of transporting pupae. Is he not your friend?”

“He is my superior. Mr. Sekian told me that I should sell the cocoons to a silkworm farmer. That was scary, so of course I told him no, but then he said he’ll reveal that I stole the cocoons…he threatened me by saying that it was a serious crime…”

Rijou started sniffling. He looked very much like a child when he did that.

“Mr. Sekian said that because of his job, he was acquainted with carp merchants and knew of silkworm farmers who might be willing to buy cocoons. He said he would talk to them and sell the cocoons the next time he brought the pupae outside, so I should hide them until then.”

“So, you hid them in a tree hollow until the time came to go outside to deliver the pupae?”

“I knew this place because I come here to get firewood to use in the cocoonery. I thought that this tree hollow would be perfect.”

Keeping them close at hand could be dangerous in case someone investigates. Therefore, Jusetsu had the idea that the cocoons were probably hidden somewhere else, and this was the place that came to mind. It was supposed to be a place that no one went near, but there were signs that someone had been here. After looking around, she found a cloth bundle that had been pushed into a tree hollow, containing the two cocoons.

The thread was retrieved from the cocoons today, and the pupae would be delivered to the carp merchants tomorrow. So, Jusetsu deduced that he would be coming here today.

“You were the ones who threatened the palace lady, Nen Shuuji, yesterday.”

“I was told to pretend to be a palace lady again and to just stand there, so that’s all I did. He said that we were just going to scare the palace ladies a little. I thought it was just a prank. It was Mr. Sekian, not me, who dropped the cocoons and threatened her with a fake voice.”

As for Sekian, Tan Kai should have had him tied up right now.

In any case, it was good that the cocoons hadn’t been taken outside, but there was the danger that the Saname silkworms leaking out into the world. After informing Banka and Koushun, she had to leave the handling of the matter to them.

Jusetsu left the mound with Rijou tied up by Onkei. It was already completely dark. She suddenly stopped and turned around. The area in front of the mound became slightly brighter. There was a palace lady standing there. She turned towards Jusetsu and bowed once. Then just like that, she faded away and disappeared. Jusetsu stared at the mound, which had sunk into darkness once again.

She probably wasn’t a palace lady who died from the silkworms’ curse.

In fact, it seemed like she even loved silkworms.

Jusetsu wondered if she showed up in the cocoonery because she truly just wanted to take care of the silkworms.

After that, Jusetsu lifted the barrier around the cocoonery, but the ghost didn’t appear again, perhaps because this year’s silkworm cultivation was over.

“In a book written in the previous dynasty, there is a story about a woman who loved the silkworms so much that she refused to marry and was executed,” Koushun said. “It’s written as a story that circulated throughout the public, but it might have been something that actually occurred in the inner palace.”

“Then, by refusing to marry, do you mean that she rejected the emperor’s advances?”

That would probably be why she was executed.

“The fact that you knew such a book existed is astonishing,” Jusetsu said with some admiration.

After a moment’s silence, Koushun answered, “I learned about it from Shiki.” He was an honest man.

“Shiki knows most of the books in Koutou Academy.”

Reiko Shiki was a scholar of Koutou Academy. Before that, he was a deputy inspector in Ga Province.

Jusetsu had visited Koutou Academy before. It held a large number of books, from bamboo strips to paper scrolls. If he already grasped them all, then he truly was a talented man.

Jusetsu stared at the surface of the pond that spread out in front of him. A distorted moon was reflected on the rippled surface of the water.

The two of them were standing by the pond at Yamei Palace. Ei Sei was standing a little distance away, so no one could hear their conversation.

“You’re friendly with Shiki, aren’t you.”

Her murmured voice seemed to glide over the ripples.

“I wouldn’t call it friendly,” Koushun’s voice was tinged with perplexity. “He is my vassal, after all.”

He wasn’t just a vassal either. Shiki was probably the one person who could understand Koushun’s darkest depths. They both kept the cold flame of revenge burning in their hearts. It was something Jusetsu simply couldn’t understand.

Every time she thought about it, Jusetsu felt a feeling like smoldering embers. It was like she was being enveloped in fog or sinking into the deep sea. She felt insecure and restless.

“…What’s wrong?”

Koushun’s hand reached out and touched her cheek, then immediately pulled away. She looked up at him. He said that he would find a way to save her. Find a way to free her from Wulian Niangniang. If there was such a path, he wanted to choose it.

He heard Jusetsu’s silent cries for help.

When she heard that, Jusetsu had unexpectedly burst into tears. Koushun wiped them for her. Since then, she no longer put herself on guard when he touched her. And he also touched her naturally, without hesitation or indecision.

Some kind of barrier had been removed—completely removed.

Jusetsu wanted to ask Reijou, the previous Raven Consort who raised her, this question.

Is this okay?

Of course, I won’t get a “yes.”

The water's surface swayed. The distorted moon was hidden by thin clouds.

After a while, Jusetsu heard a new rumor from Jiujiu. It was said that the palace ladies of the cocoonery had begun visiting the mound. It was now a common rumor that the ghost of the palace lady was a guardian deity of silkworms.

This seems to be how gods are created, Jusetsu thought.

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#translations #koukyuu no karasu #raven of the inner palace #shirakawa kouko #koukyuu no karasu 4

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sasaranomiya · 2 years ago

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Koukyuu no Karasu Volume 4 Chapter 1 - The Silkworm God (Part 2)

The theme got updated apparently

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That night, there was an unusual preliminary announcement.

“Dajia will be arriving here shortly.”

A boy eunuch came to Yamei Palace to inform them. It was still the first watch of the night (seven to nine pm).

Jusetsu found it bothersome that Koushun would be go out of his way to send her a message beforehand, but since there was no point in telling the messenger that, Jusetsu simply replied, “I see.” The boy eunuch noticed Ishiha, who was feeding Xingxing in a corner of the room, and had an “Ah” look on his face. Ishiha made a similar face. “Do you know each other?” Jusetsu asked Ishiha. “We were together at Gyokou Hall,” he said. For a time, Ishiha worked as a servant at Koushun’s residence.

The two were smiling. They were probably good friends. It was adorable. Seemingly remembering his position, the boy eunuch hurriedly bowed and said, “Excuse me.” He was about to leave when Jusetsu took some boiled chestnuts on the tray and put them in his small hands. If he made Ishiha happy, then it might be a good idea to have him serve as the messenger in the future, she thought. At the same time, she asked herself if that was what a Raven Consort would do. Her heart was uncertain.

Jiujiu ran to the kitchen to prepare tea, and Ishiha retreated to his room. Koushun must have waited for the right time to come, since the tea was just ready when he arrived at Yamei Palace.

“There are no changes?” Koushun asked quietly, taking a sip of the gently steaming tea. His voice was quiet but held a hint of warmth, like the winter sun.

“Nothing has changed.”

Koushun’s expression remained unchanged by Jusetsu’s curt reply, and Ei Sei, standing behind him, only frowned. When she turned to look at him, he suddenly turned his head away. Normally, he would stare at her with a biting gaze. She was fine with it as long as he didn’t scowl at her.

On the table, there were the lotus seeds preserved in sugar brought by Koushun. They were Jusetsu’s favorites, which he often brought. After popping a seed coated in white sugar into her mouth, she looked at him.

“…What about you?” she asked quietly.

“Me?” Koushun looked back at her in surprise.

“You asked me, so I’ll ask you too.”

“I see. Well, as for me…”

He looked down a little thoughtfully. It was just like him to seriously think about his answer.

“I’m having a difficult time talking to the Owl.”

The Owl.

The executioner from Kakurenomiya who tried to kill Jusetsu. He was also the Raven’s brother. The Raven imprisoned within Jusetsu—

“…What do you mean by difficult time?”

The Owl said that he was currently imprisoned in Kakurenomiya. Apparently, it was because he had broken a prohibition against interfering with them. In prison, the Owl used a large conch shell as a messenger to deliver his voice. Only Koushun, who was injured by him, could hear him.

“It seems to depend on the tides and waves. It’s not a guarantee that his voice can reach me when I’m near the shell. But I can’t carry it around with me either.”

It would be acceptable if it was a small shell, but it was a large conch shell. It would raise questions if people saw him walking around with it, and moreover, talking to it. They might suspect him of being insane.

“…In the first place, the Owl approached us to find a solution, so there may not be a need to inquire further.”

Display your wisdom, the Owl had said. He told them to think of a way to save the Raven without killing Jusetsu.

“I don’t think so. There must be things that he knows that we don’t know. I would like to have more conversations to confirm that, but…”

“You ask me, but I wouldn’t know such things.”

“You were the one who asked, so I answered.”

“That’s not what I asked you about.”

“Then what is it?”

Jusetsu was at a loss for an answer. What is it? What answer did I wish to hear?

“…I asked about you, so your answer should be about yourself.”

“I believe I did do so.”

“I didn’t ask about the Owl.”

“How particular you are,” Koushun replied dispassionately, but spoke after thinking it over in silence for a little bit. “I am the same as you. There hasn’t been anything unusual. I’ve been sleeping well lately, and I am in good health.”

“I see.”

Jusetsu didn’t really know what she wanted to ask, so that was all she said. However, after hearing his words just now, she felt relieved. Perhaps that was what she wanted to hear from the start. Koushun didn’t talk about himself voluntarily.

“The head of the Saname clan will be arriving here from Ga Province soon, so there are many things to worry about, though.”

“Saname Chouyou is coming here?”

“Yes. He is presenting silkworm eggs.”

“Silkworms from Ga Province? He’s presenting eggs instead of raw silk?”

“It’s part of his compensation for the previous incident.”

He was referring to the incident in which the uncle of the family head, who had been living under house arrest, had plotted to regain his interests. In the end, his past injustices and murders were soon exposed, and it was said that Chouyou himself beheaded his uncle. Because they had doctored the rice taxes that they were supposed to pay to the central government, the Saname clan had to receive a very severe punishment.

“I desperately wanted the Saname silkworm eggs, but they are never taken out of the province. I couldn’t forcibly take them away. I’m glad I was able to unexpectedly obtain them due to this incident.”

That meant that he used this incident as a pretext to make the request. Koushun’s expression remained cool, though.

“Is it because the raw silk from Ga Province is such high quality?”

“The quality of the luster is excellent, and it is durable. The cocoonery in the imperial court have been conducting research on it for a long time, but we just can’t get that luster with other silkworms. The silkworm eggs presented by Saname are the highest quality among their silkworms. I want to use them as a base to make further improvements and eventually standardize the silkworm varieties of Shou.”

His tone was calm, but he seemed to be extremely ambitious and motivated. It’s unusual for him to talk for so long, Jusetsu thought. At the same time, what caught her attention was the fact that he desperately wanted the Saname silkworm eggs.

The Saname silkworms are worth more than I expected.

“There’s a cocoonery in the inner palace as well.”

Jusetsu was inwardly startled at Koushun’s words. Of course, the cocoonery ghost and the loss of the cocoons were a secret from him. Especially if the cocoons were worth that much.

“The silkworms currently being raised there are Saname silkworms. The Crane Consort is in charge of it.”

“Huh,” Jusetsu didn’t say anything more and simply made a sound of acknowledgement.

“Apparently, the Crane Consort also took care of silkworms when she lived in Ga Province. She is also very knowledgeable about their ecology.”

“Huh…” She remembered that Jiujiu had also said something about that. “Is that so?”

“You didn’t know? I thought you two were close.”

“We haven’t seen each other lately.”

Jusetsu didn’t go to other palaces unless invited. Before, she often received invitations from Banka, but recently they had stopped coming.

“I see. It seems like she hasn’t been feeling well for a while now. I should go visit her.”

“Is she sick?”

The curse incident crossed her mind. Was that still having a lasting effect? However, Koushun denied it.

“She appears to be depressed. It’s suddenly getting colder. It might be because of that.”

“You didn’t go to visit her?”

“I have. We’re exchanging letters as well.”

That was right, Koushun was a conscientious person.

“I’m about to go there today as well.”

“Then you should go quickly. You need not visit me.”

“I didn’t mean to stay too long, but I wanted to see your face.”

Sometimes, Jusetsu felt as though she was standing there motionless at Koushun’s words. In such cases, she couldn’t respond.

Koushun stood up. Even when she looked at his face, it was as expressionless as ever, and she couldn’t read his emotions. When he was about to go to the doors, he turned around.

“I just remembered something. About Hou Ichigyou…”

He was an old man who was an imperial sorcerer in the previous dynasty. He was being pursued on the charges of sending the Owl’s tsukaibe, Shougetsu, into the inner palace, and was arrested in the entertainment district recently.

“His fever has subsided and he’s on the mend. You’ll be able to see him soon.”

Perhaps it was because he had got caught in the rain for a little bit when he was arrested, or perhaps it was due to stress, but Hou became bedridden with illness. Due to his old age, he couldn’t brush off even a minor sickness. He was moved to the inner court for monitoring and nursing.

Jusetsu was relieved to hear that he was on his way to recovery. She had so many things she wanted to ask about sorcerers and the Raven Consort.

“I’ll come again.”

After saying that, Koushun left through the doors. Jusetsu stood up, opened the doors slightly, and watched him and the eunuchs as they left. The sun set, and the lanterns held by the eunuchs were flickering dimly in the darkness.

Jusetsu stood there for a while, watching the lights becoming more and more distant. Suddenly, she noticed a light approaching from a different direction and stared at it. It was the figure of a palace lady that stood out against the light.

Shuuji.

Jusetsu descended the steps and went to her. Shuuji hurriedly knelt when she spotted her.

“L…Lady Raven Consort.”

“What’s wrong? Did the ghost appear?”

“No, that’s not it. Um…”

Shuuji’s face was so pale that it could be seen even in the dim light, and her voice was trembling. Something strange had clearly happened. However, the words that came out of her mouth were completely unexpected.

“Please just forget about what I requested of you.”

“What?”

“Please leave that ghost be. Please—”

Jusetsu frowned. “What exactly is going on? Tell me what happened.”

“No, nothing happened. Please forgive me.”

After repeating “Please forgive me” over and over again, Shuuji finally ran away. Jusetsu silently watched her receding figure. It couldn’t have been nothing.

What happened?

The next morning, Jusetsu once again dressed in a eunuch’s uniform and headed to the cocoonery. Even if Shuuji asked her to leave it be, with that frightened appearance, there was no way she would withdraw herself.

Before she headed to the cocoonery, she had some trouble deciding who to accompany her.

“Yesterday was Onkei, so please take me with you today.”

It was because Tan Kai had said that. Jiujiu couldn’t stay silent when she heard that.

“If you’re willing to take someone like Tan Kai with you, then take me as well.”

“What do you mean, someone like me? You can’t be a bodyguard.”

“I’m worried about you because you’re lazy.”

It seemed that Jiujiu didn’t get along very well with Tan Kai. Since they were arguing, it didn’t look like they would be able to go out. “I’ll bring Onkei with me,” Jusetsu decided. “If it’s Onkei, then it’s fine,” Jiujiu immediately backed down. Tan Kai complained until the end.

“My apologies. I will scold Tan Kai later,” Onkei apologized as they went to the cocoonery.

“I don’t mind adding him, but three strangers would be too conspicuous, wouldn’t they?”

“I’ll try not to stand out, then.”

A voice suddenly came from nearby, and Jusetsu stopped. Tan Kai appeared from between the trees.

“Did you follow us?” Jusetsu asked, somewhat taken aback.

“Tan Kai,” Onkei called out to him in a subdued voice. Jusetsu could tell that his reprimand was strong enough to be held back so much. If Ishiha was called in the same way, he would probably cry.

“My role is to protect you, Niangniang. But there’s no point in leaving me behind so many times. It’s lonely to be left alone.”

When Tan Kai said he was lonely, Jusetsu felt like she had done something bad.

“…As long as you don’t attract attention, I don’t mind if you follow me.”

“Of course, Niangniang. I can be useful.”

“Tan Kai…”

Onkei’s stifled voice turned colder. However, Tan Kai walked alongside them with an expression of feigned ignorance.

Tan Kai was faithful to his own desires. This was all the more so because Onkei was a self-restrained and overly modest servant. He was the type of person who had never been around Jusetsu before. Tan Kai was clearly aware of his desires to do this and want that. That was something Jusetsu didn’t have. She wasn’t used to it, so she had a hard time dealing with him, but at the same time, her interest was piqued. She thought that Koushun and the others should imitate Tan Kai’s free-spiritedness to some extent.

“Onkei, what have you found out about that mound?” Jusetsu asked him as they walked.

“A veteran eunuch knew what it was. It’s a silkworm mound.”

“A silkworm mound?”

“It used to be a place to discard the silkworms that died during the rearing process and the carcasses of pupae created during silk production. However, it seemed to have turned into a mound where the silkworms are enshrined.”

“So it was a grave for silkworms?”

“Yes. Now, we sell the pupae to carp breeders, so there is no need for a place to discard them.”

“Carp breeders?”

“They say they make for good bait. Every time, the pupae carcasses are stuffed into bags and taken outside by the cocoonery eunuchs.”

She didn’t know silkworm carcasses could be used for fish food. It was much better than just throwing them away.

“The ghost of the silkworm mound, huh,” Jusetsu murmured to herself. She dwelled in the mound and took care of the silkworms in the cocoonery. Was she cursed by the silkworms even after death?

All things considered, she was a tranquil ghost.

She was a ghost with no stagnation, resentment, or bitterness within her body. She simply took care of the silkworms silently and returned to the mound once she finished. A quiet ghost.

“…What about the other matter?” Jusetsu asked Onkei to investigate one more thing in addition to the mound.

“There are fifteen palace ladies working in the cocoonery, and five more are added during the busiest periods. All of them are ladies of Hakkaku Palace, and when they aren’t looking after the silkworms, they return there.”

“They aren’t from Ga Province, are they?”

“No, they are all daughters of imperial capital merchants, wealthy farmers from neighboring villages, and scholar bureaucrats. The main caretakers are the daughters of farmers. Many of the farmers also raise silkworms, after all. Apparently, they learned how to raise Ga Province silkworms directly from the Crane Consort.”

“I see. You did a good job, researching all of that in only half a day.”

She thanked him. Onkei smiled slightly.

“Haha. Niangniang, are you thinking that the palace ladies are suspicious?” Tan Kai interjected. “The loss of the cocoons was the work of a palace lady, not a ghost. Isn’t that right?”

He was perceptive. Jusetsu had Onkei investigate the backgrounds of the palace ladies who worked at the cocoonery.

“If that ghost had been stealing cocoons, then the rumors should have been about that in the first place. However, that wasn’t the case. The ghost only appears to take care of the silkworms. Also…the silkworms of Ga Province are of high value. It would be reasonable to assume that someone took advantage of the rumors of the ghost to steal the cocoons.”

“You’re saying that it was a palace lady taking care of the silkworms who was able to do that?”

“The cocoons disappeared while the palace ladies were taking care of them. It would be difficult for anyone else to do it. They said that the room and clothes of the ladies were searched at the time of the loss, but there must have been some way to hide the cocoons. It is more reasonable than thinking that an outsider did it.”

“So, you’re going to go cross examine the palace ladies now?”

“I won’t do something like that. There is a palace lady I must question first.”

“That Nen Shuuji girl?”

“No. –Onkei.”

Onkei nodded as though he knew what she was thinking. “I know who the palace lady was who said she saw a ghost on the day the cocoons were lost.”

Jusetsu smiled. Onkei understood very well.

“That palace lady stole the cocoons?” Tan Kai asked.

“If it was the palace lady who stole the cocoons, we can blame it on the ghost who appeared,” Jusetsu replied.

“But the ghost does exist, so it wouldn’t be strange for it to appear that day. It’s also possible that another palace lady took advantage of the ghost commotion to steal them—oh, did that palace lady say that there was a ghost because she knew that the cocoons went missing?”

That doesn’t make any sense, Tan Kai answered his own question.

“Precisely. If one were to take advantage of a commotion, one would make a scene at the moment the ghost appeared in order to divert everyone’s attention. However, in reality, such a commotion didn’t occur. It was only after the loss was discovered that she claimed to have seen the ghost.”

“Then, they were trying to steal the cocoons and pass it off as the work of the ghost?” Tan Kai said.

“Perhaps,” Jusetsu replied. She then asked Onkei, “What is the background of that lady?”

“She is the daughter of a wealthy farmer.”

“Then, she must also have connections to sericulture farmers.”

If she didn’t, then there was no point in getting her hands on one or two cocoons. She wouldn’t be able to make them emerge or breed.

“We don’t know the sexes of the lost cocoons, but if they crossbreed them with the silkworms from the sericulture farmers, they could create a silkworm breed that is descended from the Saname silkworms. Or, if the cocoons are a male and female pair, then the breed will be pure Saname. The closely guarded Saname silkworms will be leaked out into the outside world.”

“…It’s become serious, isn’t it?” Tan Kai scratched his head.

“It’s very serious. We’re preparing for the visit of Saname Chouyou. It would be very bad if the cocoons have already been taken outside.”

But this was the inner palace. There weren’t many opportunities to have contact with the outside world. The cocoons were probably still hidden somewhere.

“I think it would be better to inform Dajia—no, the Crane Consort first.”

“I’ll do it once we find out if it is the work of the palace lady. I’m also concerned about Shuuji.”

“She suddenly told you to stop investigating the ghost incident.”

“Yes. What do you think?”

“Yeah, that’s how it always goes,” Tan Kai said with a faint smile. “She must have been threatened.”

In front of the cocoonery, Jusetsu and the two eunuchs split into two groups. In order to avoid Shuuji’s notice, they had Onkei first ask for that aforementioned palace lady. Jusetsu and Tan Kai decided to wait for her behind an inconspicuous building.

Unlike yesterday, they went around the back gate and entered where no one could see them. Eunuchs were still working in the back building as seen from the front gate. They seemed to be cleaning with all the doors open. Some were carrying mulberry branches outside, while others were sweeping the floors with brooms.

“Was this the mulberry storage room?”

“Yes it was. They’ve finished taking care of the silkworms, so I guess they’re cleaning up.”

Jusetsu called out to one of the eunuchs who was tying mulberry branches together with a string. He was a small-framed, young, and quite good-looking eunuch. The eunuchs who worked at the consorts’ palaces were usually chosen for their looks. He seemed to think that Jusetsu was a fellow eunuch, as he wiped his sweat and casually replied with “What?”

“Are you going to throw away those branches?”

“Of course not,” the eunuch said with wide eyes. “You can’t waste even one thing in the inner palace. Everything belongs to Dajia. These can be used for dye or firewood.”

“I see. The pupae are also used as carp bait, yes?”

“Yep.”

The eunuch carried the bundle of branches and moved them next to the gate. There was a pile of branches there. While thinking about how these branches could be used for many purposes, Jusetsu went towards the cocoonery building. There was no one around the room where the silkworms were raised, because there were no more silkworms. On the other hand, she could hear the sounds of people working from another room.

“Now that the cocoon selection is over, the next task is to retrieve the threads.”

Hearing Tan Kai’s words, Jusetsu stopped. “Do you know much about silkworms?”

“I wouldn’t say I know much, but the family I was born into also raised them. It’s common for large mansions to build their own cocooneries and procure silk, in our dom…I mean, region.”

He was about to say “our domain.”

Jusetsu stared at Tan Kai’s face. She heard that before becoming a eunuch, he had been a bandit. But she didn’t know who he was before becoming a bandit. When he was captured by the constables, he was made to become a eunuch because of his good looks. Not only that, but there was an elegance to his features.

He might have come from some prestigious family. She wouldn’t pry into it unless he himself said anything, though.

“…When you say retrieving the threads, do you mean taking the threads from the cocoons?”

Jusetsu went to the back of the building.

“They boil the cocoons in hot water and look for the thread end. Then, they pull out the thread. I watched them do it when I was a child, and it’s really an expert skill. They boil the pupae inside to kill it. There is another way to kill the pupae by drying the cocoon, but that doesn’t produce the unique luster, apparently.”

Indeed, steam was coming out from the lattice windows of the room. As she peeked into it, a voice called out to her.

“Niangniang,” It was Onkei. There was a palace lady standing behind him. She must be the one.

“This is the palace lady who saw the ghost on the day the cocoons disappeared, but…” Onkei said, but he looked a little confused. Jusetsu wondered why. “She says that she wants to tell you about the ghost.”

Hmm? Jusetsu tilted her head. What is the meaning of this?

“My name is Man Jakusui,” the palace lady introduced herself and bowed. Jusetsu had seen her in the cocoonery yesterday. She was an unassuming-looking girl with slanted eyebrows. Her cheeks were as white and smooth as a cocoon.

“You want to talk to me about the ghost?”

“Yes,” Jakusui straightened herself. “Um…yesterday, I was hesitating over whether or not I should tell you right away.”

“What is it?”

“It was different.”

“What’s different?” Jakusui wasn’t getting to her point.

“So, um…” The reason Jakusui was stumbling over her words so much was because she didn’t know how to put it into words. Jakusui gestured frustratedly and repeated her words.

“It’s the ghost.”

Jusetsu was silent for a minute.

“The ghost was different. In other words, are you trying to say that the ghost you saw and the ghost from yesterday are different people?”

“Yes, yes,” Jakusui nodded several times.

What does that mean?

“When the cocoons disappeared, we were in the process of checking the conditions of the cocoons. We observed the progress of each cocoon on the holders and recorded it down. These records are important at every stage of rearing. They will be used as reference for producing more good-quality cocoons during subsequent rearings. As we were concentrating on this task, I suddenly noticed that the palace lady across from me was different from the one I was used to seeing, so I looked up. Then…”

It was a face I had never seen before.

“I heard that the cocoonery is haunted, so I thought, Oh, this is the ghost. I don’t even remember the details of her outfit or hair, but the ghost from yesterday had a completely different face. It’s more, well…childish, I feel. She had a cute round face and wide eyes.”

Also, she added. “Although it was faint, it looked like she was wearing makeup. We don’t wear makeup. This is to avoid accidentally contaminating the room and the silkworms, especially when the cocoons are formed. If the cocoons get dirty with white powder or rouge, they will be ruined.”

“But the ghost was wearing makeup.”

“Yes. I was busy, so I can’t stop working even when I think I see a ghost. Also, I was so scared and surprised that I couldn’t even make a sound. I guess you could say that I was afraid of raising my voice and being noticed… That was how I felt at the time. I tried not to look at her too much, but I tried to catch it out of the corner of my eye, and the ghost quickly moved from its spot.”

“Moved? It didn’t disappear?”

“She disappeared from my sight. She didn’t vanish into mist. Everyone around me was working busily, so once it disappeared from sight, it could get lost in the shuffle. But then, once we found out that some cocoons went missing, there was a big panic.”

Jusetsu pondered. If this palace lady is the one who stole cocoons, there would be no need to talk about this. All she had to do was to say that she saw a ghost, and that it was definitely that ghost. Because Jusetsu had no way of determining whether or not that was a lie. All Jakusui needed was to have the guts to stick with her lie, and if she didn’t, she would be coming clean. She didn’t need to talk about this unnecessary stuff.

“…Why didn’t you tell me right away yesterday?”

“I was wondering if I was imagining things, and what if the ghost cursed me too for telling someone about—”

“Cursed? What do you mean, you too?”

“Oh, um, there was a ghost commotion last night.”

“A ghost commotion…”

She suddenly had a realization. So that’s what that was about?

Jusetsu turned to Jakusui. “Can you call Nen Shuuji over here?”

“Yes, it’s no problem.”

Jakusui jogged back to the cocoonery.

“Are you letting that palace lady go?” Tan Kai asked doubtfully.

“Yes” was all Jusetsu said.

“Then, Niangniang, you think her story was true. That means…”

“There are two ghosts.”

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#koukyuu no karasu #koukyuu no karasu 4 #translations #raven of the inner palace

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sasaranomiya · 2 years ago

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Koukyuu no Karasu Volume 4 Chapter 1 - The Silkworm God (Part 1)

hey guys im back~~~ this chapter was supposed to come out way earlier but i got sidetracked

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The moon sank into the sea and became two gods:

One the god of shadow, one the god of light

Eight thousand nights they spent at the sea.

The first god secluding in the black palace

The second god cavorting in the palace of the moon

And thus, one became Kakurenomiya

And the other became Sasaranomiya

Another god became the port of Kakurenomiya

This was the Great Sea Turtle God

The god had sinned, and was thus rent into eight parts

The flowing water carried them away from the palace

Its head was Jie, its arms were Bahuang, its legs were Gulu

Its carapace became canyons, its blood transformed into rivers

Its eyes became swamps, its breath became a maelstrom that called the tide

Ears of rice ripened in its rotting flesh and degenerated into seeds

The mulberry tree grows, the silkworm grows, and mankind grows

Its bones were made one once again, and the white turtle god was formed

His name was Gou-no-Kami

This god calmed the violent seas to protect ships

The descendants of these gods began

The bloodline of the white king, the emperor—

――From a ritual song of wubangs

There were bundles of raw silk packed in a wooden box in front of Banka. The milk-colored raw silk, resembling morning mist, had a moist luster. Her father, Chouyou, had sent her some of the finest raw silk from Ga Province.

Ga Province’s raw silk was considered to be of the highest quality in the nation of Shou. The province’s sericulture industry began with the silkworms brought by the Saname clan when they migrated here from Kakami, and it had the reputation it developed today after Chouyou devoted himself to selectively breeding the silkworms. Banka had been taking care of the silkworms since childhood under his orders. Spring silkworms, summer silkworms, autumn silkworms, late-autumn silkworms…everyday, she picked mulberry leaves, fed them to the silkworms, cleaned, moved the place where they made their cocoons during their maturing period, sorted them based on their shells after they became cocoons, and repeated that year after year.

Banka liked listening to the sound of the silkworms eating mulberry leaves. When she sat in a corner of the cocoonery and listened closely to the sound of silkworms feasting on the leaves, she felt calm as if being enveloped in gentle rain. It was the sound of life itself.

That was why, when she watched the sorted cocoons being boiled in hot water and their threads taken out, she felt a cold shadow in her heart. The sound of boiling water was the sound of life being torn away. However, the threads spun in this way shined coldly and was above all beautiful.

Whenever the silk slid over her skin, there was always a blue-black chill, like a winter shade.

Banka picked up a bundle of raw silk from the box.

The bundle was tied with paper. Banka stuck her finger in there. Unscrupulous merchants would cheat the weight by rolling in lead or scrap iron into the bundles. Of course, there were no such tricks in packages from her father, but there were other tricks. Banka’s finger felt for the paper string pasted to the back of the paper. Unlike ordinary letters, letters he didn’t want other people seeing were always delivered in this way. She removed the paper string and opened it carefully. A short sentence written in her father’s handwriting was on the thin strip of paper.

“Don’t get involved with the Raven Consort.”

Banka’s breath caught.

Why?

Her father’s written orders never contained reasons. Banka simply obeyed his words. That was why she informed him about everything that happened in the inner palace, and let him know how the emperor looked whenever she was near him. She could do these things only because she thought it was for the best interests of her father, and by extension, the Saname clan.

That was why she wrote about Jusetsu’s secret in her letter. The fact that she hid the color of her hair.

She told him the secret of Jusetsu, who saved her life, who she even wanted to be friends with.

After much hesitation, she weighed Jusetsu and her father, and in the end, Banka chose her father.

She didn’t know why her father, who knew Jusetsu’s secret, ordered her “not to get involved with her.”

However, she didn’t need to be ordered to do that. She didn’t know what kind of face she should make when she saw Jusetsu from now on. They could no longer be friends.

Banka stroked the raw silk. It was cool, but she felt a heat that bounced off her hand as she stroked it. It was the heat of life. Of harvested life.

I’m sure I don’t hold a heat like this.

Banka recalled the sorting of cocoons. It was the work of sorting the good cocoons from the bad ones. Among the bad ones, there was the so-called dead cocoons. The moth had died inside the cocoon and it rotted. A rotten, mushy cocoon.

I’m the same as them.

Unbeknownst to anyone, I rotted on the inside, and now I’m dead on the inside…

“I heard that there’s a ghost in the cocoonery.”

Jiujiu didn’t talk about that rumor until nightfall. As the weather got cooler day by day, the sun set earlier. As usual, Yamei Palace was quietly plunged into darkness without any of the lanterns lit. The sound of insects could be heard in the distance. The only people in the room were Jusetsu and her attendant, Jiujiu. Even though Jusetsu told her it was fine, Jiujiu stayed up with her until late at night. This was because of the guests who visited the Raven Consort at night. They relied on the black-clad consort would accept any request from searching for lost items to curse killings, so the people of the inner palace hid away from prying eyes in the darkness of the night and came here.

“Where?” Jusetsu asked back at the unfamiliar words.

“The cocoonery. It’s the place where the silkworms are raised.”

“There was something like that in the inner palace?”

“Apparently, there is a mulberry grove north of Hakkaku Palace. It’s located there. It was also there during the previous dynasty and the reign of the emperor before the last. The previous emperor’s wife disliked silkworms, so the cocoonery was demolished, but His Majesty built a new one. You see, the Crane Consort’s family runs a thriving sericulture business.”

“Banka’s family…the Saname clan?”

“Yes. The cocoonery was built for the Crane Consort. Apparently, she also helped raise silkworms back home. It’s the palace ladies of the Hakkaku Palace who work in this cocoonery, though.”

This is where we come to the main topic, Jiujiu said.

“People are saying that it’s haunted.”

“Oh? Is it a silkworm ghost?”

“No, it’s the ghost of a palace lady.”

According to Jiujiu, this was the story.

During the previous dynasty, there was a palace lady who worked in the cocoonery. One time, she accidentally stepped on a silkworm and killed it. But she kept silent without confessing her crime. After all, she would be punished if she did. That night, however, she suddenly began to suffer in pain and started to vomit silk from her mouth. The raw silk kept coming out without ever ending. Her body wasted away as more silk came out. When one of the palace ladies hurriedly cut the silk with a pair of scissors, she collapsed and died. Her hair had become white like raw silk.

“It’s the silkworm’s curse,” Jiujiu said fearfully and pressed her hand to her cheek. Jusetsu tilted her head to the side.

“Then is that not a story about a palace lady who was cursed and killed? I don’t believe it has to do with the ghost.”

“That’s where the story begins, Niangniang. The ghost of the palace lady who died from this curse is said to haunt the cocoonery. It’s said that she would appear there from time to time and take care of the silkworms while mixed in with the other palace ladies. She blends into the group while no one is paying attention, and once someone realizes that she’s there, she disappears. They say that she also showed up during the reign of the emperor before the last. The cocoonery didn’t exist during the previous reign, so it seemed that she never appeared, but—”

“After the cocoonery was rebuilt, the ghost appeared again.”

“That’s right, Niangniang,” Jiujiu nodded deeply.

“She didn’t seem to have harmed or cursed the other palace ladies, but the Hakkaku Palace palace ladies are terrified.”

“Did you hear that from them?”

“No, from a palace lady at Enou Palace. I heard it when I went there to get scrap paper for Ishiha’s writing practice.”

Yamei Palace’s boy eunuch, Ishiha, was currently learning to read and write, and he needed all the paper that he could get. That was why they asked for scrap paper from many people.

Every palace had chatty palace ladies, and Jiujiu gathered gossip whenever she went on such errands. She got useful information, as well as trivial ghost stories.

“If it didn’t come from the people involved, then there is no way to know how true it is.”

“Shall I ask a palace lady from Hakkaku Palace, then?”

“You need not go that—” Jusetsu stopped and looked at the doors. Xingxing the golden bird was flapping its wings. They had a visitor.

“Niangniang,” the voice that came from the other side of the door belonged to her bodyguard eunuch, Onkei. “I’ve brought a palace lady who got lost in the woods.”

Yamei Palace was surrounded by a lush forest of laurels and rhododendrons. The forest, which was dim even during the day, was even darker at night when the moon was covered with clouds like today. One could lose their way if one wasn’t careful.

When the doors opened, Onkei brought with him a petite palace lady who had an anxious expression on her face. She knelt in front of Jusetsu and bowed. Onkei went back outside after saying, “Tan Kai will slack off immediately if you take your eyes off him.” Tan Kai was her other bodyguard eunuch. Contrary to the taciturn and austere Onkei, he was chatty and often lazy.

“Lady Raven Consort, I have come to ask you for a favor.”

After saying that, the palace lady prostrated herself in front of Jusetsu as kowtowing towards her. Her feeble voice sounded strained. She seemed to have an urgent request.

“I cannot hear you very well from there. Come here and sit down.”

Jusetsu pointed to the chair across from her. The palace lady stood up, looking somewhat puzzled, and hesitantly walked over.

“Your name?” Jusetsu asked bluntly.

“My family name is Nen, and my given name is Shuuji. I belong to Hakkaku Palace, but I mainly work in the cocoonery.”

Jusetsu met eyes with Jiujiu, who was standing next to her. She knew that even without going to Hakkaku Palace, if something really happened, someone would come here. But she never expected them to show up at such a convenient time.

“Is there a ghost haunting the cocoonery?”

“You knew about that, Lady Raven Consort?”

As expected of the Raven Consort, Shuuji said in awe, but Jusetsu corrected her. “No, I merely overheard the rumors.” It would be troublesome if people thought she could read minds.

“I heard that it’s the ghost of a palace lady.”

“Yes. Apparently, it’s the ghost of a palace lady who died from the silkworm’s curse in the previous dynasty.”

Shuuji’s story about the ghost was the same as the rumors Jusetsu heard from Jiujiu.

“Before I knew it, that ghost was in the cocoonery. When I was carrying the mulberry leaves and feeding the silkworms, I was so busy that I barely even glanced at all the palace ladies’ faces. Then, when I suddenly looked up, I saw an unfamiliar palace lady giving mulberry leaves to the silkworms. I cried out in surprise, and she suddenly disappeared. There are others who had seen her besides me.”

Shuuji said that since, the ghost had often appeared in the cocoonery.

“But if that was all, I wouldn’t have come here to consult you, Lady Raven Consort. Taking care of the silkworms is a busy job, so we honestly don’t have time to worry about one or two ghosts. She appears suddenly and disappears just as suddenly, and she’s harmless, so everyone soon got used to her. We were more focused on successfully raising the silkworms and making them into good cocoons.”

But then…Shuuji’s face clouded over.

“Someone has been harmed?”

Shuuji nodded. “Yes. But no one has been sick or injured. No, it’s more worrisome than that.”

With a pale face, she lowered her head.

“Worrisome?”

“Cocoons have gone missing.”

Jusetsu was somewhat disappointed. “That’s worrisome?”

“It’s very important to us. The silkworms raised in that house belong to the Crane Consort, and by extension, His Majesty. We must not let even a single one die in vain, much less letting them go missing.”

“How many are missing?”

“Two as of now.”

“How do you know that only a few have been lost? You must be raising a lot of silkworms in the cocoonery.”

“It would be almost impossible to tell when they are larvae, but when they are matured silkworms, that is, ready to make cocoons, they are moved to a cocoon-making area made of straw called the cocoon holders. We put one silkworm in there each morning, so we would know if the cocoons that have formed there are missing. The missing cocoons were the ones that had been completed and all that remained was to remove the fluff, but yesterday, when we suddenly took our eyes off them, they were gone…”

“Are you saying that’s the work of the ghost?”

“Of course, at first, we thought that maybe they had fallen out of the cocoon holders for some reason, so we searched not only the floor, but also the entire room. We even searched the palace ladies’ clothing. But we couldn’t find them. In the midst of all this, one palace lady mentioned something. She said that the ghost had appeared right before the cocoons went missing. She thought it was the aforementioned ghost, so she let her be, just like everyone else… I have never seen the ghost take a cocoon, but there is no other way. After we entered the house, no one left until the loss was discovered. Even so, the cocoons weren’t found in the room or the clothing. So it cannot be that one of us took them. In the first place, we are the ones who will be punished if a cocoon goes missing, so there is no way one of us would do something like that.”

“Indeed, your logic is sound,” Jusetsu nodded.

“Because the cocoons have yet to be collected, the cocoon numbers haven’t been reported to the Crane Consort yet. So, we all decided to claim that the cocoons died. …Um…”

Shuuji glanced at Jusetsu.

“I won’t tell the Crane Consort.”

After Jusetsu said that, Shuuji looked relieved and continued talking.

“However, if the ghost appears again and takes more cocoons…starting tomorrow, we will have to collect the finished cocoons. After collecting them and sorting them into good cocoons and bad, if some of the good ones disappear, it will all be over. They are counted, so we can’t cover it up.”

Punishment would then await them. That was why Shuuji called it worrisome.

“The ghost of a palace lady who died after being cursed by the silkworms is now taking their cocoons…” Jusetsu murmured.

“Even if you cover up the loss this time, it would difficult to do it again in the future.”

“Yes. In the Crane Consort’s cocoonery, we raise silkworms three times in spring, summer, and autumn. I feel my body wasting away when I think of the possibility of this happening again.”

Shuuji covered her face with her sleeve. Hmm, Jusetsu pondered.

“If it really is the work of ghosts, then we would be one step behind if we take our time investigating the ghost’s circumstances. For the time being, I can create a barrier in the cocoonery to prevent the ghost from appearing…”

“Can you really do that?” Shuuji raised her head.

“I cannot say anything unless I see the ghost.”

“Yes, by all means, please go ahead.”

Shuuji looked overjoyed enough to clasp Jusetsu’s hands, but her expression immediately darkened again.

“Lady Raven Consort, I have another problem.”

“What is it?”

“It’s the missing cocoons. If it’s true that they are completely gone, then it’s fine, but if the ghost took them somewhere else, that would be a problem.”

“Why?”

“The silkworms in that house are Ga Province silkworms. They are not local. In the event that those silkworms emerge and cross-breed with wild or domestic silkworms in this area, that will cause great problems. It will ruin their breed.”

“Ah…I see.”

Problems like that exist? She thought

“Then, do you want me to find the location of the cocoons?”

“The moths emerge from their cocoons after about ten days. We have to find them before that…”

Shuuji covered her face. She seemed overwhelmed by this sudden disaster.

“I think it would be a good idea to explain the situation to Banka—the Crane Consort. I don’t think she would give you a severe punishment.”

“…That may be true for the Crane Consort, but…” Shuuji trailed off and looked down. “Her father…”

“Banka’s father? The head of the Saname clan?”

“Yes…” Shuuji’s gaze wandered. “The Crane Consort’s father is very strict, and she cannot go against him. If he tells her to hand down a strict punishment, she will obey him.”

He’s the man who told Banka to choose between her own life or the life of her adopted sister.

The Saname clan was cursed by a god to have the youngest daughter of the clan head to die at fifteen. In order to circumvent that, a girl younger than Banka was adopted into the clan. Banka begged her father to save her sister, but he told her that she herself should choose to die instead if that was the case. As a result, the adopted daughter died, and Banka lived. Jusetsu wondered what kind of man Saname Chouyou was for forcing his daughter to make such a choice.

Shuuji covered her mouth with her sleeve.

“I’ve said too much. Please forget it.”

Jusetsu promised to go to the cocoonery tomorrow, and then Shuuji left.

“The Crane Consort seems to be an easygoing person, but her father is very strict. Even the palace ladies are afraid of him,” Jiujiu, who had been standing by in silence, opened her mouth like she couldn’t wait to speak. “The behavior of a consort will probably reflect the inclinations of her family to some extent…”

Jusetsu turned her face to the window. She couldn’t see Hakkaku Palace from here.

If Banka—Hakkaku Palace was at the will of Saname Chouyou, that was something to think about.

Koushun probably already knows about it.

The face of the inscrutable young emperor appeared in her mind. Neither his consorts nor their families were something for Jusetsu to worry about. From the start, the Raven Consort had nothing to do with the outside.

“…”

Jusetsu narrowed her eyes at the melting darkness of the night outside the window.

A lush green mulberry grove could be seen on the other side of Hakkaku Palace.

“Is that it?” Jusetsu muttered. “Yes, niangniang,” Onkei answered from behind her. He was accompanying her to the cocoonery this morning.

“The mulberry grove has been around since the previous dynasty, and it was still maintained even when there was no cocoonery.”

“Why are silkworms raised in the inner palace?”

“It’s more the imperial palace rather than the inner palace. There is also a cocoonery in the outer court. They say that breed improvement and research are being conducted there. Originally, raw silk for the emperor and imperial family were produced there.”

“So, the cocoonery in the inner palace is for the consorts?”

“Yes. I heard it used to be quite large.”

Since Onkei said that, Jusetsu imagined a small hut. However, the cocoonery that appeared before her was quite a respectable building. It certainly didn’t have the magnificence of a consort’s palace, but it had three buildings roofed with blue-glazed roof tiles, and it was encircled with mud roof walls. From the front building, they could hear the sounds and voices of the palace ladies busy at work, and in the back building, they could see eunuchs coming and going with bundles of firewood.

“The mulberry storehouse is in the back, and the cocoonery is in the front.”

Onkei explained. He was sent here as a spy on Ei Sei’s orders, so he knew most of the things here, which was helpful. He was a beautiful eunuch with cool eyes and a single scar running across his cheek. He was a skillful guard, but he was also a very capable servant, with his attention to small details, a shadow-like unassumingness in all things, and his efficiency in carrying out tasks.

Jusetsu headed for the building in front. Before she could climb the steps, the doors opened and a palace lady hurried out. It was Shuuji.

“My deepest apologies for not noticing your arrival, Lady Raven Consort. I was watching the outside, but I thought you were a eunuch…”

“That’s fine. It would be unfavorable to me if I were recognized from a distance.”

In order to not be recognized by Hakkaku Palace, Jusetsu came here dressed as a eunuch. It really was convenient. Although Jiujiu, who wanted to dress her up, complained about it.

Jusetsu peered into the cocoonery and saw that the palace ladies seemed to be collecting cocoons. When they heard that the Raven Consort was here, they stopped what they were doing, got onto their knees and bowed.

“Continue your work. Other people will suspect something.”

The palace ladies obediently returned to work. There were rows of shelves and long tables, and on top of the tables, there were bellows-shaped objects woven from straw. When she saw the cocoons hanging from them, she thought that they must be the tools called cocoon holders that Shuuji talked about last night. The palace ladies removed the cocoons and placed them on trays.

“Right now, we’re collecting cocoons. After this, we will remove the fluff stuck to them and separate them into good ones and bad ones. The difference is whether or not they are suitable for turning into thread or not. Double cocoons consisting of two silkworms becoming one cocoon, thin cocoons, cocoons with holes, cocoons with rotting dead moths inside, cocoons soiled with urine and other bodily fluids, cocoons with marks left from the holders…they will all be removed,” Shuuji explained. “Furthermore, the good cocoons are divided into those that will be used to make thread, and those that will be made to emerge to lay eggs. The thread will be offered to the Crane Consort, and after that, she will present them to His Majesty.”

“Once the good cocoons are selected, not a single one of them will be lost, right?”

Yes, Shuuji lowered her eyes. In other words, there could be no deferment. Jusetsu put her hand to her hair and realized that she didn’t have her usual flowers there. Even though she dressed as a eunuch often, she kept forgetting about it.

She held her hand out forward and gathered heat in her palm. A light crimson haze flickered, tangled, and intertwined. The haze transformed into petals, one by one, and formed a peony flower. Jusetsu blew on it.

The flower turned into smoke and scattered. It floated around, swimming between the palace ladies.

The pale red smoke gradually gathered in one place and began to take the form of a person. It was the figure of a woman. A simple hairpin was tucked into her chignon, and her pale, slender face had well-shaped eyebrows that looked as if they were drawn with a brush and thin-lidded eyes. The long robes that enveloped her thin body weren’t in the current fashion, but her modest yet elegant appearance gave her the look of a court servant.

Shuuji let out a small cry and covered her mouth with her sleeve.

“T-That’s the ghost of the palace lady I saw!”

The other palace ladies had also stopped what they were doing and stared wide-eyed at the ghost.

The ghost suddenly moved amidst those stares. She soundlessly went towards the door. Jusetsu leaned back halfway and made way for the ghost. The ghost disappeared as though sucked into the door.

She went outside.

“L-Lady Raven Consort—”

“We’re going after her,” Jusetsu interrupted Shuuji and called out to Onkei. He quickly opened the door.

When they went outside, they saw the ghost from behind about to leave through the gate. Jusetsu followed her. There were no sounds of foodsteps or rustling of clothes, but the ghost’s gait was similar to that of the living. What was different was that the hem of her robes didn’t flutter and her sleeves didn’t sway. If such ghosts were to simply stand still among the palace ladies, even the people next to them wouldn’t realize that they were ghosts. Among the many courtiers in the inner palace, there might be ghosts mingled in with them, pretending to be the living.

The ghost left the cocoonery and headed further north. That was the outskirts of the inner palace. It was a neglected area with unkempt, overgrown trees, and there was no one in sight.

Jusetsu, who had been chasing the ghost, came to a slightly open space and stopped. There was something like a small burial mound covered in dense moss and grass there. The ghost had stopped in front of it. The sun shined down on the mound, and the moss glistened faintly. As they watched, the ghost seemed to melt into the mound and disappeared.

What is this mound?

It couldn’t belong to the ghost. It was difficult to imagine that a mere palace lady’s burial mound would be located inside the inner palace.

“Whose mound is this?”

She turned back to Onkei, but even he had a rare unknowing look on his face.

“I shall look into it.”

“Please do so.”

After that brief exchange, Jusetsu looked around. The area was surrounded by trees. There were old trees with ivy entwined around them, young trees lush with leaves, and trees that had already rotted and fallen. It was quiet. Judging by the trampled undergrowth, it seemed that it wasn’t completely unvisited by people. Did they come here to visit the mound? After checking the surroundings, Jusetsu returned to the cocoonery.

Shuuji was standing alone in front of the room from earlier, looking like she had nothing to do. Apparently, the other palace ladies moved to another room to remove the fuzz from the cocoons.

Jusetsu told her about the ghost disappearing into the mound, but Shuuji didn’t know anything about the mound either. In fact, this was the first time she heard about it.

“The outskirts of the inner palace are frightening, and as a woman, I can’t go there unless I have serious business…”

That did seem to be true.

“It would be easy to keep that ghost out of the cocoonery, but…” Jusetsu cut herself off there and pondered for a bit. That wasn’t enough. The cocoons must be found.

“I ask for your assistance,” Shuuji bowed to her. Jusetsu wasn’t a god, so being begged like this made her extremely uncomfortable.

“…Very well. I’ll create a barrier for now. Then I’ll see what I can find out about the mound.”

She took out a spindle wound with thread from her breast pocket. She went out to the outer corridor and asked Onkei to hold the end of the thread, then ran it along the floor, making a circle around the cocoonery. Finally, the barrier was created once she tied the ends together. It was a spell she used many times before. It wasn’t the Raven Consort’s spell, but a sorcerer’s spell.

She had learned it from Reijou, the previous Raven Consort, but in the previous dynasty, when sorcerers were able to frequent the inner palace, this kind of work was probably their job. They must have been valued.

No, it probably went beyond that.

She recalled the words of Ui, the keeper of the treasure room.

It was for protection against Wulian Niangniang, just in case

He told me that he couldn’t feel safe without the power to fight back…

There was probably a good reason why sorcerers were so highly regarded during the previous dynasty.

“Avoid stepping on the thread as much as possible. Though, as long as it doesn’t break when you step on it, it doesn’t matter.”

After giving Shuuji those warnings, Jusetsu left the room. The palace ladies were waiting outside, and they all knelt upon seeing her. Jusetsu was perplexed.

“Thank you very much, Lady Raven Consort.”

“I didn’t do much. Don’t make it to be more than it is. You were the ones who said that it would be all of you in trouble if outsiders learn about it.”

Even so, the palace ladies didn’t rise until Jusetsu passed through the gate. It seemed that the palace ladies of Hakkaku Palace held the Raven Consort in particular reverence, especially after the incident in which she saved Banka. Despite the fact that she really hadn’t done much.

“And there’s also the cocoons…”

After leaving the cocoonery, Jusetsu stopped once and looked back. The gentle green of the mulberry trees shone in the morning sun. Here and there, there were sections where branches had been cut, probably for feeding the silkworms.

I’m good at looking for lost items, but…

It was different when it came to cocoons. Because they had no owner. Tracing lost items from their owners wasn’t difficult. However, cocoons were…

“Onkei,” Jusetsu called out to him while still looking at the mulberry grove. “In addition to the mound, there is something I want you to investigate.”

Yes, came his short reply.

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#koukyuu no karasu #koukyuu no karasu 4 #shirakawa kouko #translations #raven of the inner palace

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sasaranomiya · 2 years ago

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Thank you for translating volume 3 of Koukyuu no Karasu! I love your work 🖤 Will you be translating volume 4? I'm very curious about what will happen!

Yes i will be starting it this week! One of my favorite characters is introduced in it so i cant wait to get into it!

#ask #sasara speaks

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sasaranomiya · 2 years ago

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Hello, are you planning to translate "Wadatsumi no Musume"? Thank you!!

Uh....maybe? But it will probably be after I finish the main series

#ask #sasara speaks

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sasaranomiya · 2 years ago

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Interview with Shirakawa Kouko in Musashi 2019-12

Here it is, the long awaited interview! Luckily for me, this magazine has e-versions and you can still buy old copies

Fascinated by tragedy and forbidden love

The main character of the Koukyuu no Karasu series, the Raven Consort (Jusetsu), lives in the inner palace, but maintains an aloof assistance and doesn’t perform night duties. She’s a very mysterious existence.

She is a woman with the blood of the previous dynasty, and a consort destined to be executed if her true identity is discovered. In the series, the current emperor, Koushun, is the one who goes to her to seek peace of mind.

Why did you decide to write this kind of work?

I’m afraid I might be misunderstood, but ever since I was little, I have loved stories about girls with unhappy upbringings. It wasn’t until I was in elementary school that I became aware of stories of tragedy and forbidden love, and it all started with Prince Otsu, who was arrested on suspicion of treason and conferred with death. When I discovered this poem in the Manyoshu, I was greatly impacted.

Today, taking my last sight of the mallards

Crying on the pond of Iware,

Must I vanish into the clouds!

I was deeply moved by the feeling of regret conveyed in this poem. Since then, I had come to love tragedies, and in this work as well, the Raven Consort isn’t allowed to have feelings for the emperor, and she is forced to bear the harsh fate of not even being able to go out of her residence.

As the past of the Raven Consort, whose mother was brutally murdered and who was then adopted and imprisoned within the inner palace, gradually became clear, I found myself thinking, “Shirakawa-san, you’ve done a terrible thing.”

The Raven Consort and Koushun are in a forbidden relationship where the two of them weren’t even supposed to approach each other in the first place. I fundamentally like Cinderella stories and happy ends, but this time I’m thinking about how to end this story.

Koushun also has a painful past in which his mother and friend were killed by the empress dowager, so the two of them resonate with each other in that aspect. What kind of thoughts did you put into his character?

He was also influenced by Prince Otsu, but I like to write about young men in unfortunate circumstances. Koushun is a quiet and emotionless young man with a dark shadow, but he holds a storm in his heart. I write him so that we can sometimes catch glimpses of that. What I like most is writing scenes that show glimpses of the instability and fragility of a normally calm young man.

And that’s why the men Shirakawa-san portrays are close to the hearts of modern women.

A staunch lover of ghost stories

The Raven Consort deals with those who died leaving their feelings behind in this world. She takes away the sorrows of those who become wandering ghosts. It’s quite a scary story.

Ever since I was a child, I have loved strange, slightly scary stories and ghost stories. That’s why this story is something I wanted to write one day. China has many ghost stories, and there are even many Japanese classics that are patterned after Chinese ghost stories.

Chinese ghost stories are bloodier than Japanese ghost stories, aren’t they?

In Japan, the yuu in yuurei (ghost) means “fleeting,” which gives off a transient and ephemeral image. However, in China, ghosts have vivid and strong characters.

Also, I was surprised that there are many Chinese stories that have no logical connection or an unclear cause and effect. Perhaps it is the national characteristic.

How did you come to like ghost stories?

There is a temple behind my childhood home, and on Monday mornings there was time to read sutras before going to school, and in summers there were tests of courage, so ghosts and religion are things that are familiar to me.

In Volume 3, a new religious organization called the Eight Truths Sect also appears.

That is a religion I created, but the myths and beliefs in the work take reference from those of Japan and other island nations. The story takes place on a large island, and the sea is a key word in the story. Some Chinese myths also have themes of the sea and rivers, which are also very interesting.

I love mythology, but when it came to write a Chinese-inspired story, the hurdles were high and it was difficult to take the first step.

There are a lot of things you have to study in order to write a story that uses China as inspiration, such as the systems related to the eunuchs that appear in this series.

Eunuchs are castrated males, and their position varied widely depending on the era. There are cases where it’s a punishment, but it is also a way for commoners without backing to get ahead in life.

Even though it’s a fantasy, I can’t even compose a story without studying the history, culture, and systems of the country that serves as the background, and I’m still studying as I’m writing.

Okamoto Kido was the catalyst

What inspired you to start writing?

The first was Okamoto Kido’s Collection of Chinese Bizarre Stories (中国怪奇小説集). I fell in love with Okamoto Kido after reading The Curious Casebook of Inspector Hanshichi, but then I got hooked and ended up at Chinese Bizarre Stories. When I started writing Koukyuu no Karasu, I read it again, and if I hadn’t come across this book, I might not have been able to write the Koukyuu no Karasu series.

Okamoto Kido was translating Chinese stories, wasn’t he?

That’s right. Okamoto Kido’s writing was good and concise. But, he would casually mix in beautiful expressions. His writing isn’t difficult, but it isn’t easy either. Even if the times change, they will never get old. I could feel the depth of his education.

People of culture in the Meiji era had no choice but to read foreign books in their original form, so they had to be proficient in foreign languages. They also had to have a good grasp of Chinese poetry and other works.

You’ve written a lot of series that are structured as a collection of short stories.

Since I took Okamoto Kido as my role model, I also like short stories. There’s also the fact that I’m not good at long-form stories (laughs). That’s why I try to finish each series in about five volumes.

The Raven Consort’s model is Fan Bingbing

The beautiful Raven Consort always dresses in black and has a strong visual impact. Do you have any stories or people you modeled her after?

There was a drama about the life of Empress Wu Zetian called Wu Zetian, and Fan Bingbing, who played the empress, was very beautiful. The story was set in the Tang dynasty, and the costumes were wonderful. Although Wu Zetian didn’t dress in all black, the character of the Raven Consort was inspired by her.

The story is a fantasy, but you wrote it with the Tang dynasty as inspiration.

Yes. The Tang dynasty is my favorite. If I hadn’t watched that drama, I don’t think I would have settled on the Tang dynasty.

I think the reason why people who aren’t familiar with China can easily read the books is because the characters are well-defined and easy to visualize.

Since I myself do not know much about China, I have taken care to write these books in a way that even those unfamiliar with the history can understand.

The story has a strong element of fantasy as well as mystery.

I love fantasy and have been reading it since I was young. Among foreign authors, my favorite is Patricia A. McKillip. She is a fantasy writer who has written works such as the Riddle Master trilogy and Winter Rose.

For domestic authors, it’s Miyabe Miyuki. I stared reading mainly her contemporary mysteries and fantasy books when I was in high school, and I’ve of course read her ghost story series Hyakumonogatari.

Since you debuted with Cobalt Bunko, you’re strongly associated with light novels, but what kind of works do you plan to publish in the future?

I recently published a Japanese-style fantasy called Mikazuki-tei Hana Zukan. The main character, a detective, opened a detective agency in what used to be a daimyo’s garden during the Edo period, but encounters mysterious things there. I would love to write horror and historical novels in the future.

I’m looking forward to it.

#koukyuu no karasu #Raven of the Inner Palace #translations

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