The Twelve Kingdoms: The Shore in Twilight

obviously knew he was secreted somewhere in the camp. The young retainer was pulled out of the ranks and cut down without a word. "Don't interfere," the captain warned her, but Risai didn't doubt that she would meet the same fate en route to Kouki.
    The air cavalry covered her like a wet blanket. Risai was only able to escape because they'd deigned to let her rid her kijuu, Hien. With Hien's help, she was barely able to get away. Risai had any number of old friends and associates in Jou Province she could turn to. Her immortality played a part as well.
    Every since that day, Risai had been an outlaw.

    She wanted to weep. There could be no worse slander than being labeled a traitor to one's kingdom. Her name muddied beyond reason, she sought cover wherever she could find it and survived day by day.
    Many of her old friends believed her and sympathized with her plight. But others accused her, asking how she could commit such a crime. Worse, there were those who tried to turn her in. And a portion of those who didn't were tried for the crime of sheltering her, and as parties to "high treason," their corpses were strewn in the muck at the executioner's gate.
    "For a year--more than a year--I did nothing every day but run and hide. While I was living as a vagrant, Asen was consolidating his power and fortifying the Imperial Palace. At length, it became clear to the people as well that Asen was a usurper. But by then it was too late."
    At the same time, Eishou and Gashin vanished from Bun Province. Many of Gyousou subordinates dispersed across the kingdom and concealed themselves or were secretly murdered. Nobody knew what was going on inside the Imperial Palace. Some did come forward and criticize Asen, but their fate was to be struck down or disappeared.
    "Asen would not permit the slightest criticism of himself, or the slightest respect paid to His Highness. In Tetsui, where Asen had first conspired against His Highness, Asen's army razed every building and burned the city to the ground. He scoured I Province as well, surrounded His Highness's duchy of Saku County, and lay siege to it. I heard that over the subsequent winter, most of the residents there died."
    Youko was aghast.
    "Asen hated the Royal Tai that much?"
    "Apparently so. I don't understand it myself. I have never seen personal animosity drive anybody so far and to such lengths. Although he kept it hidden, his loathing must have been deep. Furthermore, scorching the land, depopulating the villages and leaving them to the mercy of the winter--this wasn't left only to the territories connected to His Highness. The lands of anyone who opposed Asen or criticized him met a similar fate."
    "Just a minute." Having listened to Risai silently up to now, Shouryuu, the Royal En, raised his voice. "He is destroying the realm. He's rustling the flocks of the Royal Tai only to kill them."
    Risai nodded. "It seems that way to me too. It would make sense if Asen assassinated His Highness and usurped the throne in order to reign in his stead. However, that's not what it looks like now. It looks like Asen has no interest whatsoever in ruling Tai."
    Risai did not believe he had risen up to plunder that which was Gyousou's out of bitterness. Nor did she believe the opposing theory for his motives. According to some rumors, one of the two "jewels in the crown" had become king and Asen was resentful at being made the subordinate. This theory struck her as too simplistic. That's why nobody had been suspicious of Asen. His motivations weren't that obvious.
    Rather, Risai felt that Asen was acting out of a hatred for Tai itself. Asen himself was not in the least aware that he was destroying the kingdom he ruled and consigning the people he governed to extinction. Consequently, he had placed himself beyond anybody's reach.
    "When there was a rebellion, Asen didn't attempt a strategic approach, dispatching troops to suppress it, or staring down the opposition and waiting for something to develop, or anything like that. He'd send his whole force at them. Without a word of warning, he burned and pillaged the villages and slaughtered the inhabitants. He wouldn't even bother chasing down those trying to escape. If it happened again, he'd simply do the same thing again."
    "But there's no way that such a kingdom could continue to exist."
    "So you would think, but--"
    She didn't understand how things had come to this state. While conducting himself in such a manner, he showed no signs of