The Twelve Kingdoms: Dreaming of Paradise

sitting at the desk in the room raised his head. Or rather, the gray-haired tail falling off the edge of the chair was not that of a human, but a rat. He glanced over his shoulder at the window. Spotting the bird, he fluttered his silver whiskers.
    "Come in," he called out.
    The bird flew through the open sash to the book-strewn desk and lit on the edge. He patted his head. The bird cocked its head to the side and began to speak in a woman's clear voice.
    "Hey, it's been a while. How's it going?"
    He laughed and nodded as if she was there in person. Her voice and diction was that of anybody but an Empress.

Chapter 2
    T he bird continued in Youko's voice, "I'm doing okay. The best I can, I suppose. I can't help feeling a little self-conscious sitting here talking to a bird. It's like talking to myself. Though I guess I'm the only one here who feels that way. Well, um—" She paused for a moment before continuing.
    I'm getting used to life in Kinpa Palace. I've managed to make if from the Seishin to the Gaiden without asking for directions. I'm getting used to the lay of the land, like it's someplace I belong. I took your advice, and my explorations seem to have turned out okay. It turned into a big, two-day expedition. Keiki drew me a map, but I still got myself plenty lost.
    The Imperial Palace is so big that two days is hardly enough time to take in the whole thing. There are thirty-two buildings in the Seishin alone! On top of that, there are these little bridges all over the place, and if you go across them, there's this other place called the Koukyuu on the other side—it just makes me laugh! I haven't explored the Koukyuu yet. Make that the Koukyuu and the East Palace. And the administrative offices. I mean, taking a look at the places I'm personally connected to took a whole two days! What am I supposed do with all these buildings?
    Just them sitting there doing nothing seems like an awful waste. I've been thinking of maybe renting out rooms to earn a little extra income for the Imperial treasury. Or maybe using them for refugee housing. Or creating an Imperial hospital. Keiki turns all my ideas down flat. He says such things are absolutely not allowed. If we tore them all down, at least that'd get rid of the maintenance costs. But apparently that's a non-starter as well.
    Illustration
    Kei is plenty poor, and it seem to me that I shouldn't be living in a place like this. But Keiki goes on about Imperial dignity and etcetera. I've got tons of clothing and jewelry that I inherited from all the rulers before me. Selling it all would make a sizable addition to the treasury. Frankly, when people start going on about the "dignity of the kingdom" and the "dignity of the crown," I don't really get what they're talking about.
    Just the other day, I thanked the maids for cleaning my room. Keiki gave me a hard time about it. He says they won't respect me if I'm casual with them like that, but I'm not convinced. Oh, yeah, and no making notes. Most of the stuff that goes on around here I've never seen or heard about before. There's no way I'm going to remember any of it if I can't write it down. So I was carrying a notebook around with me so I could, you know, take notes. Keiki got on my case about that too! He says it makes the ministers uneasy. I'm supposed to be above it all or whatever. So whenever I find out something new, I sneak away someplace and write it down in secret. Though that isn't exactly genius behavior either.
    I'm telling you, Keiki nags me from morning till night. You wouldn't think he could be so annoying, supposedly being chock full of humanity and charity and all. The only kirin I've met so far are Enki and Keiki, so I've really got to wonder sometimes. The end result is, we get into these big arguments. It must really freak out the ministers.
    Though come to think about it, when they treat me with kid gloves, I tend to get overconfident. So Keiki's probably just what I need. With everybody bowing down to me wherever I go, it's easy to think I have everything under control. Him being such a taskmaster keeps me from getting a swollen head. All things considered, I think I'm handling things okay. Though it'd be a lot better if he wasn't so freaking uptight every minute of the day.
    I seem to get along with everybody besides Keiki. But that's probably just because I'm so clueless. Whatever the Rikkan says, my reaction is, well, why not? Once I figure out more about what's going on, we'll probably end