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sasaranomiya · 6 months

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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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