It was nighttime, the wildly arrogant man looked silently at the reflection in the water.
“ Long live the emperor!” At the enthronement ceremony, he glanced at all the ministers bowing down.
Looking at all the faces with pretending awe, he issued a despised smile from the bottom of his heart.
The gentle former emperor was merely a puppet. These people would not show respect to the royal family who had last their power.
In this high position, he needed to be prepared to sacrifice.
To survive, he could only kill them all.
No matter it was the top five families on a roll or the monopolistic General family.
Looking at the people from the General family, her figure was not there.
Of course, because she became a hostage for the top five families, as his weakness.
It was a pity, some things were already unavoidable.
“ Kill her.” He said that to the people who came to threaten him.
“ Get rid of them.” He said that to the subordinates he roped in.
“ Kill her.” He said that to himself.
Gradually, the Konoe family, the Ichijou family, the Nijou family… all the people who threatened him were killed one by one.
“ Master Mizunoo, the subordinates failed to assassinate General Tokugawa, please convict us.”
“… Never mind, you may leave.” He sighed.
He was still soft-hearted.
“ I sent some trash to kill you, remember the defense! Idiot.” Every time he sent out his killers, he could not help but wrote her a message.
Because he could not.
Because he did not want to.
She only thought this was terrible care, but not knowing this was his cruel cowardice.
Actually, she was damn right.
He really was a downright bastard.
Time might have passed a little, Jianxue slightly regained her composure.
“ Feeling better?” He asked softly.
“…Um.” She left his hug, and then finally started to observe around: “ Strange, why is it so quiet? Mr. Natsu should have started…”
“ Natsu? What did he do?” He caught the key point keenly.
“ Ah… No… Nothing…” She said hesitantly, but he only reassuringly touched her head.
Although he wanted to know what happened, in her state, it was better not to ask any more questions.
The castle was still calm and peaceful, without having a trace of commotion.
It should be safe for now.
She was slightly relieved but worried after.
“ But… you took me away in front of everyone, people are going to misunderstand again…”
After all, from other people’s perspectives, he was taking “ the General” away.
“ It’s okay.”
“ Um?”
What he meant was… he did not care if others think he was getting close to Iemitsu?
She could not help but started thinking wildly, her mood became low again.
“ Master Iemitsu, where are you?” Eikou’s call came from far away.
“ Anyway, just find me if anything happens, I’ll try to solve it, um?”
“… Um.” He pushed her back, so she left in Eikou’s direction.
“… How can I just watch you become someone else’s.” He looked at her figure and whispered.
“ To save the princess even at the cost of being misunderstood, impressive, impressive.” A ridiculing voice came from his back. He looked back with sharp eyes.
“ Natsu.” He changed his gentle voice, questioning Natsu seriously: “ What did you do to her?”
“ Nothing only negotiated a deal with her, it seems to fail.”
“ What deal?”
“ If she appoints me as the Principle Husband today, then I won’t expose her identity.”
“… You threatened her?” His tone suddenly rose.
“ No, just slightly persuaded her.” Natsu ignored his anger, floating contemptuous smile.
“ Give up the idea of exposing her.” He no longer detoured with Natsu but said straight to the point.
“ I refuse, what’s the benefit to me doing this?” Natsu still does not change his calm expression.
“ Snow can leave the Edo Castle safe and sound.”
“ Will that benefit me?” Natsu’s eyes were suddenly cold down.
“ Yes.”
“ Stop kidding, it’s none of my business whether she lives or dies. Or is that all you mean by ‘ I’ll try to solve it?” Natsu’s eyes were like ice needles, staring at him.
“ No, you know clearly, that I don’t plan to be Iemitsu’s Principle Husband.” He said unequivocally, he did not take his eyes off Natsu at all: “ If Snow can leave there safely, you can treat me as a tool to let you become the Principle Husband, use me as you want.”
“ So you want to be my tool instead of the Takatsukasa family’s?” Natsu walked closer towards him.
“ You hate Ooku, right? How can I trust a guy who will run away at any time.” Natsu inspected, his expression became unusually serious: “ If you really care about that woman, then make me trust you.”
“ What do you mean?” He emerged suspicious expression.
“ You’re here right now, swear that you’ll spend the rest of your life in this castle.”
“…” His eyes flashed a trace of struggling expression, but Natsu still started with a straight face.
Silence came to suffocating air.
The one who spoke first was Takatsukasa.
“… I got it.” The words were clear as if branding an imprint in his heart: “ I swear.”
“ Deal.” Natsu smiled satisfied, backing away: “ I’m impressed that you can do this, only for a woman who will abandon you and leave.”
Takatsukasa silenced, leaving without a word.
On the other side, Jianxue walked towards Eikou’s call.
“ Master Iemitsu.” Seeing her figure, Eikou straightway ran over.
“… Sorry.”
“ No.” She thought Eikou would blame her, but he only smiled: “ When Young Master Takatsukasa took away General, you should feel relieved, right?”
Hearing the words, she raised her eyes and looked at Eikou.
Eikou saw through her mood.
“ Now, it’s okay to stay like this. One day, the moment when you really have to choose your Principle Husband will come. You only have to make the decision when the time comes.” Eikou looked back at her eyes, smiling calmly.
After, she finished her work as always.
Even Kasuga was the same as usual, calm and making her flustered.
Yes, Takatsukasa said, that he would help her if something happened.
Was not that just words of comfort?
Maybe she should ask him…
However, thinking of finding him, she started to be nervous.
It did not happen before.
Since receiving the letter, she started to be funked about the moment leaving him, but every time she saw him, she felt incomparable happy. She fell into a grotesque contradiction.
“ Snow.”
“ Takatsukasa? Why are you here?” When she was hesitating about whether should go to Ooku, the one she was thinking about calling her.
“ I think you might be worried about.” He smiled: “ It’s okay now. Natsu won’t expose your identity.”
“ What did you do?” She asked. Natsu would not give up so easily…
“ Uh… it’s alright anyway…” He stroked her head, kneading her hair as if wanting to rub away her worry: “ So, you can spend the rest of the time, and then leave, um?”
“… Um.” She could only nod.
Yes, when the agreed one month ended, she would leave.
She would leave forever, and he would not know.
His words seemed to plainly throw this truth in front of her, making her feel affliction.
“ Takatsukasa, thank you.” But she could not say any more except this.
The morning sunlight sprinkled. She looked at the cold facial features in the mirror.
She seemed already used to life as a substitute, integrating with the castle’s environment.
However, her heart was clear, that these would come to an end.
She would abandon him and leave.
She whispered to the figure in the mirror over and over, trying to catch back that eroded cold. Because if not doing this, those wishful thinking would constantly ravage her.
“ Iemitsu.” Takatsukasa’s call came from the side of her ear.
“ What?”
A few days have passed since he pulled her away from the Yuling corridor.
Without knowing why, after that incident, even if there was someone else around, he would initiative talked to her.
Every time to called her “ Iemitsu,” her heart would feel very uncomfortable.
He really… did not care about being misunderstood anymore?
“ No, nothing special.” He continued: “ Are you going to work later?”
“ Kasuga arranged me to learn ikebana with Eikou.”
“ Just you two?”
“ Yes.”
“ I’m joining.”
Again.
He completely did not care that her identity right now was Iemitsu, even not tabooing being close with “ Iemitsu,” making her feel unusually irritable.
“ No, don’t you hate that?”
“ Ah? Hey!”
She seemed to leave as if to flee, and sighed heavily in no one’s corner.
She again rejected him for no reason…
At first, she could think of a reason to refuse calmly, but then became more and more distraught, even left directly like this time.
He wanted to be with her. This made her very happy, but she also felt scared at the same time, scared that she did not dare to leave this castle.
She knew her greed towards him.
However, it seemed strange to keep rejecting…
“ Wait.” His voice came from her back, making her heart pound.
Takatsukasa…
“ Why are you hiding from me?” His eyes gazed at her tightly.
“… I’m not.” She held back her almost trembling voice: “ You also, why you talk to me in public?”
“ You ask me why…” He paused, but his eyes did not look away from her.
“ Don’t we have to… keep that ‘ promise’ anymore?”
That original promise,
That promise to stay away from him,
That was her final trump card,
Letting her go back to the abyss, the last card.
“… Um.” He nodded: “ You don’t have to keep that promise anymore.”
His words chopped up her dream as a sharp sword.
He did not care about being misunderstood. He did not care about being with Iemitsu.
He didn’t care He did not care He Did Not Care HE DID NOT CARE HE DID NOT CARE!
“… Okay…” She hold back her inner confusion, but her tone still leaked out letdown.
“ Do you hate?” He still has not changed his serious look: “ I want to talk to you, I want to be with you, and that makes you hate me?”
His sad voice shook her heart.
How could she hate him?
But, no.
If continuing to stay with him, she would not be able to kill all the fantasies.
“… Yes.” She steeled her heart, feeling him stop at the same time.
“ Okay.” He only whispered, and then stepped away.
She could not chase after. She could not call him. She could not look at him.
She refused the light.
She was a cold-blooded devil.
“… Master… Master Iemitsu.”
“… Um, sorry.” Kasuga’s voice made Jianxue’s mind come back. She moved her eyes back to the paperwork.
It still worked time. It was better to not think about other things.
Two days have passed since she started to be estranged from him.
She always felt like a hole had opened in her heart after that incident. Voices were coming from time to time around, but she felt like everything was dead.
Just like that bloody night.
“ Being in a daze when working, you really act more and more like Master Iemitsu.” Kasuga’s unsatisfied, cold voice stabbed.
“ I’m sorry.”
The agreed deadline was getting closer. She had to get through it without a hitch. She could not make a mistake at the last moment.
Stepping out of the study, and meeting Takatsukasa in the corridor, she was still overwhelmed by that inexplicable emotion.
But he only passed her by silently, did not even look at her.
It has been merely two days, and their relationship was already down to the freezing point.
“ I heard that Young Master Takatsukasa has not attended the Daily Summon from two days ago,” Kasuga said.
“ Really?” Although she pretended to answer without knowing, she actually already noticed.
The familiar red kimono did not appear in the line in the Yuling corridor.
“ What happened?”
“ Nothing.”
“ Don’t try to fool me.” Even though she posed obviously that she did not want to talk about it, Kasuga still refused to let her go.
But, how could she speak?
Said she took the initiative to distance herself from him because of personal feelings.
“ Since we have announced that the Principle Husband will be elected, if there are rumors that the General and the candidate for the Principle Husband are not on good terms again, it may lead to further arguments among the top families.” Kasuga said with a straight face, looking at Takatsukasa’s leaving direction: “ But look at Young Master Takatsukasa, even if I force you to stay with him, it won’t work either.”
Kasuga thought for a moment, and then showed a disgusted expression: “ Seems like I can only use that thing.”
“ After today’s Daily Summon, stay with Kujou, do whatever you want,” Kasuga ordered.
So she came to Kujou’s room obediently.
“ Sunny day — ”
“ Uh… um.” Listening to Kujou’s leisurely voice, she could only nod.
It turned out that the “ thing” that Kasuga said was Kujou…
Reasonable, after all, Kujou was also from the top families, a candidate for the Principle Husband.
However, what should she say?
“ Kujou, what do you usually do?”
“ Me? I — walk around, take a nap, and eat some desserts.”
Um, living a free life in general.
Without knowing why she felt relaxed inexplicably beside Kujou.
She would not feel embarrassed, no need to stay alert at all times.
Was it because he looked like he did not care that she was a General?
It felt like even if Kujou knew she was a substitute, he would only reply with an “ Oh —. ”
She suddenly got curious: “ Kujou, if I say I’m a substitution, what will you do?”
She was asking randomly, but Kujou changed his face in a moment: “ If you are joking, I will beat your ass.”
The sleepy eyes turned cold as ice. His leisurely voice also sank down.
Feeling different made her speechless.
Kujou?
Seeing her being like this, Kujou smiled softly: “ If it’s true, then I’ll protect you.”
That smile made her have an illusion as if the seriousness never existed.
“ Oh… I understand.” She did not know how to respond but only echoed.
“ But — General is a hard job — ”
“ Um?”
“ Because you’ll get kidnapped, then someone wants to kill you.” Kujou counted everything that has happened so far.
Kujou knew.
“ And like this, forced to be with others, don’t you hate that?” Kujou seemed only to feel puzzled simply.
Hate?
“ Yes, I feel the pain.”
But…
She again thought about the past.
“ Why do you always have to constrain yourself?”
“ I’ll go with you.”
“ I mean… if you are afraid because of what happened last time, then I’ll stay by your side until you are not afraid.”
But, every time she was upset, it was him who stayed by her side.
It was because he protected her.
He was always near her, cared about her, listened to her dejected words.
Seeing her in silence, Kujou showed a puzzled expression.
“… But I know, that I’m not alone.” She continued.
But she hurt him.
“ Thank you, Kujou.”
Seeing her thanked suddenly, Kujou was a little confused.
“ Thank you, for letting me know what I should do.”
“… I don’t know what happened, but, hurray — ” Kujou bent a childish smile, she also smiled with him.
She wanted to see him.
Said sorry to him… and that, she liked him.
Before her death, she also hoped she could do something for him.
“ Young Master Takatsukasa, may I talk to you for a second?” On the other side, Ogata came to Takatsukasa’s room with a worried face.
“ Mr. Ogata? Why are you looking for me?” Seeing Ogata’s unusual expression, he also frowned softly.
“ Miss Yang’s recent mental state is not good.”
“…” He did not answer, but his body trembled slightly.
“ Young Master Takatsukasa, why are you avoiding her? Still following the ‘ promise’?” Ogata could not help but said with a blamed tone.
“ We don’t follow the promise anymore. I told her already.” He said and explained what happened that day.
“ Why?”
“ It’s not the time to care about other people. I want to be with her. That’s it.”
Ogata raised his eyebrows slightly.
“ But… she hates me.” He paused: “ I don’t want her to feel uncomfortable because of my feelings.”
“ These words, did you tell her clearly?” Ogata said seriously: “ Did you tell her your ‘ feeling’ you said?”
“… Mr. Ogata?” He was a little wondering, but Ogata still continued.
“ I don’t know what Miss Yang is thinking, but, if only receiving some refuse will let you quit, then she will of course hate you.”
“ Wu.” he gasped slightly.
“ But if that’s not the case…”
“ Mr. Ogata.” He interrupted Ogata’s words, his face already recovered to a smile unconsciously: “ Thanks.”
“ Ha, go.” Ogata nodded.
He left immediately, and Ogata recalled what he said, even his eyes were smiling.
“ My little girl finally gets jealous.”
She walked towards his room in a hurry, and just as she turned the corner, a powerful force knocked her to the ground.
“ Sorry… Snow!”
“… Takatsukasa?” He immediately squatted and checked if she was hurt. The familiar tenderness made her almost cry.
“ Takatsukasa… I… Wu!” She has not said anything yet, he already held her tightly in his arms.
She did not know what to do for a moment, but only reminded: “ Takatsukasa, someone will see us…”
“ It doesn’t matter.” His arms were still tight around her, as if afraid that she would leave: “ I… don’t want you to leave.”
“… Wu?” She raised her head a little blankly.
“ Even if you don’t want to see me, I won’t let you go.”
“ I can’t stand you with other people.”
“ I want to be with you.”
His arms were loose, his clear eyes looked at her.
“ I know what I say is selfish, but, I want you to not care about that promise anymore.”
“ I like you.”
[ To Be Continued ]
Mizunoo
Starwings' Instagram
@starwings_flute
