The Wings of Dreams

worth searching for, why not go with Kiwa in the first place?”
    “That’s a problem of a different sort.” Rikou smiled. An amiable smile, to be sure, though Gankyuu was beginning to think it belonged more on the face of a scoundrel.
    “I met Shushou in Kyou. The fancy struck me so I helped her out. When I heard she was going to Mt. Hou, I somehow knew that if she made it to Mt. Hou, she would become empress. Perhaps the youngest in recorded history. Like I said, that’s why I came.”
    “To see Shushou become empress?”
    “Well, that’s the boring way of putting it. To tell the truth, before Shushou was chosen, I was curious to see the Yellow Sea for myself and learn what kind of journey the Shouzan was.”
    “So that’s what it comes down to,” Gankyuu said with a sardonic smile.
    Rikou laughed aloud. “Sorry, Gankyuu. Whatever you’re thinking right now is probably wrong. I’m not a man motivated by such simple self-interests.”
    “Sure, sure. You’ve got reasons of your own.”
    “That is correct. I’ve got plenty of ulterior motives up my sleeve. As you said yourself, I’m a man who deals freely with suugu. I do not need an audience with an empress to raise my status or expand my wealth.”
    “Yeah, sure.”
    “But I did wish an audience with Shushou.”
    “Why’s that?”
    “Haven’t I explained myself already? It wasn’t my specific help that was critical in this equation. It was that she specifically happened to meet me. And because I was the one she happened to meet, rather than parting ways, I thought it’d be more interesting to forge a friendship out of that happenstance. That’s what it comes down to.”
    “An explanation as clear as mud.”
    Rikou only grinned. “Sure. That’s what I mean by having reasons of my own. But if Shushou doesn’t become empress, my actions in that regard would be rendered meaningless. Whether to continue on with the koushu or join Kiwa seems to have become a turning point as to whether Shushou will ascend the throne.”
    “If she isn’t chosen, it wouldn’t have mattered one way or the other to her.”
    “Like I’ve been saying, you’ve got that backwards. If she isn’t chosen, then it has no meaning to me. I came to the Yellow Sea with a set of expectations concerning Shushou. Her ascending the throne will impart substance to those expectations. If she doesn’t, it reduces them to a flight of fancy. I’m not about to lose my life to a flight of fancy.”
    “Now that makes sense.”
    “But I still don’t think you get it. I’m speaking of duties particular to me alone. Like goushi charged with protecting those going on the Shouzan. The kind of thing that can’t be cast aside on a whim. It is in the nature of such things that, once you have taken them on, the burden must be borne, no matter what. Don’t you agree?”
    “Probably.”
    “So if Shushou does not become empress, my own safety takes priority over hers. But if she does, then a slightly elevated risk is worth it.”
    “Nope, that doesn’t make sense.”
    “I guess not,” Rikou laughed. “Shushou stupidly quarreled with you and ran away with Kiwa.”
    “That was so stupid?”
    “Idiotic! If Shushou is destined to be empress, then picking a fight with a shushi would be the last thing she should do. The safety of the liege takes precedence over his vassals.”
    “You do like to blather on.”
    “It’s the logic of the world that we wish to be ruled by a sovereign. You may see Kiwa as a cold man for abandoning his retinue. But if he becomes emperor, then such means will have been necessary to the ends. Because the life of even a hundred of his subjects does not compare to that of the emperor, not when the fate of three million rests upon his shoulders.”
    “However true, it’s still pretty loathsome logic.”
    “Is it? Does it not fall into the same category as the goushi and their employers? The goushi is willing to sacrifice others in order to preserve the life of his master. A world that requires each kingdom to have a master follows the same reasoning. Kyou has no master. If sacrificing a few hundred here saves the lives of tens of thousands later on, then so be it.”
    “It doesn’t make the reasoning any less rancid,” Gankyuu spat out.
    “I’m not saying it isn’t. That’s the reasoning of a world in want of an emperor. And that’s the reasoning a ruler in such a world must overcome.”
    “Eh?”
    Rikou said with a wry grin, “It is the