Sea of the Wind, Shore of the Maze, Prologue

mountain.
    Is a kirin who cannot transform able to choose a ruler?

Chapter 4
    Taiki absent-mindedly wandered around the small paths, not looking at where he was going at all. In  addition, Taiki was still essentially unfamiliar with the roads outside of Rosen Palace. However, since  Sanshi was with him, he didn't worry about getting lost.
    He was walking aimlessly like this for a while when he suddenly saw a gate in front of him,  obstructing the path. The door was shut tightly, preventing Taiki from going any further.
    This was the outer perimeter of Houro Palace. It probably took him a while to walk here from Rosen  Palace, which meant that he had already been lost in thought for a long time.
    "..." Taiki sighed. The bolt for the gate was on this side, so it would have been easy to open the gate,  had he wanted to. However, the nyosen had told him before that he absolutely could not take one step out of  this gate.
    But Taiki didn't feel like heading back, so he turned around and raised his arms toward Sanshi, who  had been quietly following him.
    "Sanshi, can you take me up there?"
    Sanshi nodded her head and picked Taiki up. At Taiki's current age, it wouldn't be easy for most  women to lift him, but ever since he returned to Mt. Hou, he was no longer as heavy as he looked on the  outside. Since he now had an immortal body, he was extremely light, so Sanshi didn't expend the slightest  amount of energy to pick him up. Only two or three jumps and she arrived at the top of a cliff.
    Looking down from the top, Houro Palace looked like a maze. The roofs of the palace structures that  were scattered everywhere reflected a greenish light. At the edge of the maze there stood a snow-white tree,  which at that moment was bathed in sunlight.
    Taiki held on to Sanshi as he stared in the direction of the tree.
    Gazing at it from above, Houro Palace appeared to be in the shape of a fan. The Shashinboku was  situated beside a cliff wall on the terrace furthest east, which was also the eastern boundary of the palace.
    The top of the enormous, strangely-shaped crag could not be seen, and the bottom extended into a gorge of  an unknown depth. Most people could not walk its complex, intertwining terrain.
    On the inner side of the terrace, there was a gradual slope, the area of which was wider the closer it got.
    At some point, it diverged into a countless number of small paths, and at another point it converged into one  path. This path was cut off firmly by the gate that Taiki had just seen at the end of the maze.
    A steep mountain peak stood on the northern side of the maze. The cliff wall of the steep mountain, as  well as the soaring peak that extended past the clouds included no easy way to climb, even for Sanshi.
    The eastern and northern sides were protected by towering cliff walls, so those who wanted to visit  Houro Palace must first enter through that gate, and then walk the correct route through the maze in order to  reach their destination.
    Taiki left Sanshi's embrace and, standing on the crag, he looked back behind him.
    On the southern and eastern sides outside of the maze of the palace, the confusing terrain continued.
    The inside and outside of the maze formed a single gigantic labyrinth. Even with Taiki looking at it  from above, he wasn't clear where the border between the two actually was.
    However, the terrain on the outside did look slightly simpler than that of the inside. The small paths  were wider and the open areas were much bigger. If someone walking in the middle of it mastered the  direction of the sun, they should be able to reach Houro Palace.
    Taiki was thinking these things as he looked around, when he saw an emerald green glimmer coming  from somewhere a far distance down the mountain.
    "Sanshi, what's over there?" Taiki asked as he pointed. Sanshi looked in that direction with her round  eyes.
    "Hoto Palace..."
    "There are palaces outside of the gate?"
    Sanshi nodded. "Outer palaces."
    "Oh..."
    In this way, Taiki was looking at the maze, when a strong gust of wind blew at them. He looked around  and saw no oceans around, but the wind had carried with it the smell of the sea.
    "What's wrong?" Sanshi couldn't help but ask, seeing Taiki stare into the distance as he stood in the  wind. Sanshi did not speak up to ask him questions very often, so that meant that he appeared to be  completely lost in thought.
    "Sanshi, did you have to transform in order to look like you do