The Twelve Kingdoms: The Shore in Twilight

him all the more.
    "While I do not deign to read the Taiho's mind, I can see how the decisions His Highness have made could appear as an abandonment of the Taiho. I can't help thinking that this is true of all His Highness is attempting to do."
    "Lady Kaei."
    Kaei smiled ruefully. "Well, it looks as if all I did was complain. That's the way I see things. His Highness will take only those of his retainers who trust him unquestioning and push through his reforms at top speed. The same way the feelings of the Taiho will be set aside, so will many other things as well. Or so it seems to me."
    What other things will be set aside, Risai meant to ask, but she got the feeling Kaei was not up to answering that question.
    Perhaps Kaei was perturbed only by the rapid pace of change going on. This wasn't to mean she could provide physical evidence to support her feelings. Her anxieties about Gyousou were really her sense of panic at riding the whitewater that he had created. Many people felt the same way. Nobody liked rapid change. No, far from it. There were plenty of people who embraced their fears instinctively. And people who quailed at Gyousou's resolve and lack of indecision. And people who opposed him merely for the sake of opposition.
    Squeaky wheels in search of grease.
    Opposition to His Highness under normal circumstances was related to dissatisfaction with the way one was being treated, misgivings about the competence of the government, or was born out of some disagreement with the king's personality.
    Yet Kaei expressing concerns about the way she was being treated didn't mean she questioned Gyousou's competence. Her complaints sounded more to Risai like a disagreement with Gyousou's personality, but that was probably not the whole of it. The root of the problem lay in Kaei's irrational fear of rapid change.
    A brilliant light shining in the darkness. This wasn't Gyousou's fault, and nobody was finding fault with him directly. If so, this would all be easy to understand. Easy to read. Such problems could be tended to in advance.
    Risai didn't know where and in what form such sentiments were lurking. This opaqueness was what she found frightening, Risai thought, as she bid Kaei goodbye.

Chapter 14
    R isai and Kaei grew closer after that. Risai wasn't as much of a newcomer as Kaei, and wasn't technically one of Gyousou's retainers. They were both women, but the one was a civil official and the other a military officer. Perhaps being as different as they were alike explained why they got on so well together.
    Kaei wore a worried expression on her face as she always did. Taiki was headed to Ren and the winter hunt had begun in earnest, leaving her all the more depressed. She felt herself engulfed in uncertainty.
    Government officials of all stripes were being hauled into the dock to answer for their sins. It was up to Kaei to decisively assess the charges and hand down the verdicts. Already the cry was being raised by the bureaucrats that her sentences were too light. Even when she hardened her heart they called her a softy from the shadows.
    With one voice, those who knew nothing of these people or their circumstances assailed the Ministry. Would these corrupt officials who had done as they pleased while serving the previous king be all but ignored? Be allowed let run free without reproof? The bitter criticisms rained down.
    The assaults ate away at her mentally and physically.
    "Why am I in charge of the Ministry of Fall? Risai, I can't comprehend what His Highness could have been thinking." Kaei sat in her office at the Ministry and wept. The daily grind of her job had all but made it her second home.
    At a loss for consoling words, Risai left for the Outer Palace. It was night. The world above the Sea of Clouds should be warmer than the world below, but the gardens at night were cold enough that frost had started to fall. A gentle breeze was blowing. Risai almost thought she could smell blood in the air. In fact, there should be no reason for such an odor to linger about the Imperial Palace.
    Civil servants were arrested and handed over to the Ministry of Fall, and then hauled off to the gallows. Depending on the circumstances, Risai and her colleagues had the responsibility of surreptitiously disposing of the bodies. Because of the necessity of acting in a covert fashion, Risai employed only a bare minimum number of subordinates. She ended up having to dirty her hands as well. She'd been reduced to grave digger on