Chapter Text
“Your Highness. Your subject, Chris, has come to seek audience.”
Takigawa Chris Yuu entered the palace hall at an even, measured pace, a scroll in hand. With the arrival of the Crown Prince’s tutor, the eunuchs and palace maids who had been cleaning and attending the hall swiftly withdrew without a sound. The doors closed behind them, leaving the vast chamber to master and disciple alone.
Layer upon layer of wisteria-yellow curtains hung heavy from above. Rubies adorned the ends of the beaded screens, glowing a deep, smoldering red in the wavering candlelight.
Chris made his way through the outer hall with practiced ease and entered the inner chamber. There, before a small shrine set apart in one corner, he found Sawamura Eijun kneeling on a meditation cushion.
“You’re here?”
Sawamura completed one final bow before slowly rising to his feet.
“They’re all here.” Chris unrolled the scroll little by little. Twenty or thirty names were listed upon it, a handful circled in red. “His Majesty’s intention is that you choose from among the marked names. You may consider it a reward.”
“When it’s only the two of us, you don’t need to use honorifics, Master Chris.”
“Etiquette must be observed.”
Chris smiled with quiet elegance, his gaze gentle as it rested on Sawamura.
Only before him would the young man briefly set down the burdens he carried. But Chris could not indulge him too much. There were far more than one pair of eyes watching him.
He was, after all, the Crown Prince.
The Crown Prince who had been forced to face impossible questions from such a young age; the gifted young man now held in the highest favor. Chris had watched him grow, step by step, into the person he was today. He could never allow Sawamura to make some careless mistake because of him, only for someone with ill intentions to seize upon it and drag him down into the mire.
He could not allow it.
Never.
The candle flames swayed, making Sawamura’s eyes seem emptier still. His gaze hovered vaguely over one of the names circled in red.
But that was only natural.
Anyone asked to choose their future Crown Princess from a list of unfamiliar names would surely have no idea where to begin. And given the peculiar customs of the Great Yan dynasty, where marriage between people of the same sex was permitted, the scroll did not even mark the candidates as male or female. There was nothing but their names.
“I had Seidou make a few inquiries,” Chris said. “Unfortunately, Prince Yong was prepared this time. Every candidate family was placed under watch. Not so much as a whisper leaked out.”
“Then it seems Seidou still can’t compare with Komadai at His Majesty’s side.”
Sawamura’s tone was flat, betraying no obvious emotion.
“I’m supposed to choose from the red circles, correct? Ōran... Chen Baiyuan... Tanaka Tomohiko... Esaka... Miyuki.”
At that familiar sound, Chris’s fingers tightened around the scroll.
Sawamura made his decision.
“Then I’ll choose this Esaka Miyuki. When will she come to the Eastern Palace?”
“Within the week.” For once, unmistakable disapproval crept into Chris’s voice. “Are you certain you want this one? There is still time to change your choice.”
“I know what you mean, Master. But since the choice of consort has been left entirely to me, then Esaka Miyuki will be the Crown Princess. What matters most now is not who the Crown Princess is, but what we do after the choice has been made. I believe His Majesty is thinking the same.”
“As you command, Your Highness.”
Chris carefully rolled the scroll shut. His expression gave nothing away as he continued, “Her Majesty the Empress is gravely ill. His Majesty departed for the northern frontier not long ago to repel the enemy. At present, the only people in the palace capable of presiding over affairs are Your Highness and the Empress Dowager, who will soon be returning to the capital. The Swallow-Bone Pendant will be delivered to the Eastern Palace the day after tomorrow. Once the Crown Princess enters the palace, the ceremony can be completed.”
Sawamura’s large golden-brown eyes blinked at the shrine.
Only after a long while did he give a small nod.
“I have other important matters to attend to. Allow me, then, to offer my congratulations in advance. May Your Highness have a harmonious marriage.”
Red silk hung high above the streets.
From far away came the piercing cry of suona horns, carrying all the way from the bridal procession. Chris could even make out scattered auspicious shouts among the noise—
“May the Crown Princess soon bless the house with an heir!”
Chris reached down to soothe the fine brown horse beneath him. From a distance, he cast one last look toward the Eastern Palace. Then, before his companions could urge him onward, he pressed his heels into his mount and galloped straight toward the imperial troops gathered beyond the city gates.
Everything has to go well, Sawamura.
The music inside the Eastern Palace was grander and weightier than that of the bridal procession.
The newcomer climbed the steps outside the palace beneath the burden of exquisitely embroidered wedding robes, their splendor somehow lending the figure beneath them an air of fragility.
The Crown Princess wore a brilliant red bridal veil. Perhaps because the ceremonial crown and hair ornaments were so elaborate, the figure appeared half a head taller than the Crown Prince himself. Yet not once did the sound of ornaments striking together disturb those measured steps.
Surely, everyone thought, she must be a noble lady of impeccable upbringing.
The music slowly faded.
The solemn-faced Empress Dowager sat high above them, watching the newlyweds below with an icy gaze. At a signal from the senior attendant beside her, the master of ceremonies began to chant the blessings and lead them through the rites.
Everything went smoothly.
The only surprise came after the ceremony was complete.
Before the eyes of the assembled guests, Sawamura slowly lifted the Crown Princess’s veil.
A striking face was revealed—handsome, sharp, flawless enough to draw every gaze in the hall.
The Crown Princess was taller than the Crown Prince.
The Crown Princess was a man.
The Empress Dowager gave a cold snort and left without another word.
The Crown Prince and Crown Princess followed soon after, leaving the increasingly noisy guests behind to help themselves to the wedding banquet.
“Esaka Miyuki is a man? You could never tell from the name...”
“Keep your voice down. You mustn’t address the Crown Princess by name.”
“I heard His Highness the Crown Princess has always been sickly and has never appeared in public. I never imagined he’d be taller than the Crown Prince... I suppose that face is the only thing he has going for him.”
“Prince Yong has truly done His Highness the Crown Prince a terrible turn this time. If he had still been allowed to choose from the Five Great Houses, he never would have ended up with a Crown Princess who has a man’s body and a woman’s name.”
“But Prince Yong’s objections were hardly unreasonable. Five Great Families have controlled the inner palace for decades. Everyone under heaven knows it. If things continue like this, when will families like ours ever have a chance to rise? Can any of you truly say your sons will be able to enter official service generation after generation?”
“Don’t even mention sons. Just thinking about that brat of mine makes me furious. He’s barely old enough to read, yet instead of studying proper principles, he spends every day trying to pick beggars off the streets. Says he’s imitating the legend of the god ‘piecing together the swallow’s bones.’ I have no idea where he gets the confidence!”
“Brother, yours is already better than mine! My boy—”
Rare delicacies streamed endlessly into the hall, borne in the hands of beautiful palace maids.
It could easily be called the most festive day the Eastern Palace had seen in nearly twenty years.
Yet at that very moment, neither of its two masters was in the bustling front courtyard.
After seeing off the Empress Dowager and dismissing the attendants, Sawamura walked all the way back to the familiar inner chamber before finally releasing the Crown Princess’s wrist from his left hand.
Without the slightest courtesy, he flung the other man onto the bed embroidered with auspicious wedding patterns. The red-and-gold robes spilled across the mattress in graceful folds.
“Our Crown Princess is certainly bold. You didn’t so much as flinch beneath the Empress Dowager’s pressure. I can hardly imagine that a jewel so polished was somehow left undiscovered outside the Five Great Families.”
“Your Highness flatters me.”
The Crown Princess slowly sat up and began picking the peanuts out from beneath the wedding quilt, one by one.
“To be able to serve at Your Highness’s side is already more than your humble wife could ask for.”
“You’re a man, and you can still call yourself ‘your humble wife’ without blushing?”
Sawamura stared coldly at the Crown Princess.
“How about this. From now on, refer to yourself by name.”
“Your name is Miyuki, if I remember correctly.”
His gaze sharpened.
“Isn’t that right, Miyuki?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Miyuki lowered his eyes.
“Miyuki understands.”
Judging by the words alone, it ought to have been a straightforward display of power and submission.
Yet neither of the two people involved behaved that way.
Two pairs of remarkably similar golden eyes observed one another without retreat, their vigilance and wariness displayed almost openly.
In that respect, at least, one might say the two made a rather fitting married couple.
After the strange silence stretched on for a while, Miyuki was the first to move.
With the ease of someone who had done it countless times before, he removed the ornaments from his hair, neck, ears, and wrists. Then he walked leisurely to the newly built dressing table on the other side of the shrine and placed the gold, jade, and jeweled pieces into a dish.
Afterward, he returned soundlessly to Sawamura’s side, his manner almost impossibly gentle.
“Please allow Miyuki to help Your Highness change.”
Sawamura had imagined their reunion countless times.
Never once had he imagined it would happen beneath identities like these, or that he would be looking down at Miyuki’s lowered eyes from this angle.
“No need. You only have to play the part of Crown Princess in front of others. I won’t concern myself with anything beyond that.”
Sawamura raised his left hand and lightly pinched the bridge of his nose before turning toward the outer chamber.
“Make do with the bed for tonight. Tomorrow, I’ll arrange a separate courtyard for you.”
“Your Highness.”
Miyuki removed the jade pendant hanging at his waist and stopped him before he could leave.
“The Swallow-Bone Pendant is far too precious. Please take it back.”
“I think it suits you rather well. Keep it.”
Sawamura’s footsteps paused.
He turned his head slightly, his voice cold.
“It is a sacred relic. If you damage it, even I won’t be able to protect you.”
“Miyuki.”
His eyes settled on him.
“I have very high expectations of you.”
With that, Sawamura fled the inner chamber almost as if escaping. His figure disappeared from sight in moments, leaving Miyuki alone with the Swallow-Bone Pendant clenched uselessly in his hand.
Miyuki Kazuya murmured to himself.
“The Swallow-Bone Pendant? It suits me? Just what does His Highness think I am?”
He swiftly stripped off the heavy wedding robes and collapsed straight onto the bed amid the scarlet silk.
The circular jade pendant spun deftly between his fingers, catching a faint gleam from the candlelight.
There was a legend known to everyone in the Great Yan dynasty.
Long ago, when the god was still human, his mother fell gravely ill. The boy went alone into the sacred mountain in search of medicine, but his strength failed him and he tumbled from a cliff.
The guardian beast of the medicinal herbs took no pity on him.
Only a swallow was moved by the boy’s filial devotion.
Risking its life, the swallow carried two stalks of medicinal herb back to him, only to fall broken before his eyes.
The boy did not take one stalk for himself, heal his own injuries, and carry the other back to his mother.
Instead, he first gathered the swallow’s shattered bones and pieced them together.
He chewed one stalk of the herb into a poultice and laid it over the swallow’s body, praying that once it recovered, it would take the remaining stalk to his mother and leave him behind.
Upon hearing his plea, the swallow rose into the air with a stalk of herb in its beak.
It wheeled above him, circling up and down, before transforming into the Swallow-Bone Pendant—a sacred jade capable of curing a hundred illnesses.
It fell into the boy’s hands.
There were countless interpretations of the legend.
Some swore that the sacred Swallow-Bone Pendant was merely an unusual stone with no healing powers whatsoever.
Others claimed the story had been embellished by believers under pressure from the royal family, and that the sacred relic had never possessed such powers in the first place.
There were even those who said that the god’s swallow had in fact been his lover. But because a god was required to love all people equally, he had recorded the one being he favored above all others as an animal instead.
To Miyuki Kazuya, however, the Swallow-Bone Pendant represented something much simpler.
A weak creature.
A creature that believed a completely unsubstantiated plea.
A creature willing to give everything it had for a stranger.
The Swallow-Bone Pendant suited him?
Miyuki silently tightened his grip around the jade until the knuckles of his fingers turned white.
His Highness the Crown Prince probably had no idea how much one casually spoken decision of his would alter another person’s life.
And he almost certainly had no idea how much Miyuki himself had sacrificed to make it this far.
“Piecing together the swallow’s bones” no longer suited the Miyuki Kazuya of today.
“Treading on swallow bones” was far more fitting.
And yet—
Miyuki thought back to the Crown Prince’s face, the childish softness now gone from his features, the first sharp edges of adulthood beginning to show.
Despite himself, the corners of his lips curved into a sweet smile.
Considering how closely the Crown Prince resembled the way he had always imagined Eijun might look once grown, perhaps the days ahead would not be quite so dull after all.
His gaze upon the Swallow-Bone Pendant slipped out of focus for an instant.
But Eijun could not possibly be the Crown Prince.
It was nothing more than a beautiful coincidence.
Hey, Eijun.
How am I ever going to find you?