My personal opinion on Gensokyo

The river of time flows slowly, and I calmly wait for the future of Shang Yang and love...

Volume 1 Heian Past and Present Stories: Chapter 18: Sudden Summons

To the south of Fujiwara no Miyabi, there is a small, nameless palace.

Nearing noon, the winter sun fell through the window into the Xiaoyingqiyin彡二X二咎V貳 palace. On the cypress desk, a thick book was spread out, and a black-haired girl was reading the book with a concentrated look on her face.

The thick title page is engraved with three Chinese characters: "Journey to the West".

This was naturally also the reading material that Shang Yang prepared for Miss Ai. Knowing that the girl had a strong interest in Tang Dynasty books, the young man prepared Journey to the West as a gift for the girl.

As expected, Miss Ai was immediately addicted to it after reading the first chapter, and sometimes she would even get distracted when talking to Shang Yang.

From childhood to adulthood, Miss Ai had never read such interesting Tang Dynasty books.

Rubbing her sore eyes, Ai reluctantly closed the thick book of Journey to the West. Miss Ai loved and cherished this book very much. After carefully checking that there was no footer accidentally folded, Ai picked up the thick book, held it to her chest with satisfaction, stood up, and planned to put the book away.

Suddenly, hurried footsteps were heard outside the door, and the voices of the maids soon came in from outside.

"Your Highness, excuse me for interrupting you. His Majesty wishes to see you immediately. Please prepare yourself and follow us to the inner residence."

His Majesty? !

Ai was surprised by the sudden footsteps and the waitress's words and subconsciously lost her balance.

Bang flow I flag ①② ~ eight thoughts eight times.

The thick book Journey to the West fell to the ground with a loud noise.

"Your Highness?!"

The maids were very uneasy when they heard the noise.

"Is there anything we can do?"

"Oh, no, no!"

The black-haired girl, who was also startled by the falling book, immediately bent down and picked up the thick book. After touching the slightly crooked corner of the book with heartache, the girl immediately spoke out to stop the maids from coming in.

"Nothing, just wait outside, I'll be right out."

"……Yes."

Hearing the maids' still somewhat uneasy voices, Ai breathed a sigh of relief and immediately hid the thick Journey to the West in the closet, then closed the closet, tidied her clothes a little, hid the cotton slippers on her feet, and changed into the tabi clogs that she was now very unfamiliar with. The girl took a deep breath, walked to the door and opened the wooden door.

"I will go with you to see His Majesty."

Fujiwara Palace, the palace road leading to the inner part of the palace.

As she followed the maids to the residence, Ai kept wondering why the current monarch suddenly summoned her.

For some reason, since her birth, the previous monarch and the current monarch have been very averse to her and tried not to summon her. The royal family and ministers were also afraid to see her. Over the years, she was avoided from participating in palace ceremonies and banquets as much as possible. If you count carefully, Ai has not been summoned by the current monarch for nearly two years.

Why on earth...

The black-haired girl was confused as she stared straight ahead at the waitresses who were leading the way for her.

The current ruler of the Yamato court, Emperor Suzuto, is an imperial empress. As an imperial princess, she became the empress of her uncle by virtue of her status as the niece of the previous monarch, Emperor Tenmu.

Before the previous monarch, Emperor Tianwu, ascended the throne, he was appointed crown prince by the court, but was suspected by his nephew Emperor Hongwen who ascended the throne later.

AD 672, the third year of Xianheng in the Tang Dynasty of China and the first year of Emperor Kōbun of Japan.

After ascending the throne, Emperor Kōbun secretly gathered troops under the guise of building a mausoleum, plotting to kill Emperor Tenmu, who had fled to Yoshino to avoid suspicion after ascending the throne, awaiting an opportunity to rise again. However, the plot was leaked, and Emperor Tenmu, having received advance notice, gathered tens of thousands of troops and, starting from Menō, advanced along the Yamato and Omi regions. After a decisive battle at the Yoritagawa Bridge, they captured Emperor Kōbun's temporary palace, Ōtsu Palace. Emperor Kōbun was forced to commit suicide, his title stripped, and his loyal retainers executed. Emperor Tenmu ascended the throne at Asuka Kiyomihara Palace, becoming the ruler of the Yamato court. This civil war, involving tens of thousands of people, became the Jinshin War, the largest civil war in ancient Japanese history.

After surviving the civil war, Emperor Tenmu continued to learn from Tang Dynasty institutions, promoting the Taika Reforms, stripping the power of the old clan nobles and strengthening the imperial family's absolute rule. He went down in history as a wise and virtuous monarch. However, in his later years, the imperial family was plagued by internal turmoil. First, a prince rebelled. Then, two years after his death, the crown prince, who had been a well-established figure in the family, died young. This disrupted the order of succession within the imperial family, causing unrest among all the princes eligible to inherit the throne.

In order to maintain the stability of the imperial family, the mother of the deceased crown prince, the empress of Emperor Tenmu, and the current ruler, Emperor Jitō, ascended the throne as empress according to the old system, and made the son of the deceased crown prince, the grandson of Emperor Tenmu and Emperor Jitō, the crown prince. She tried her best to maintain the stability of the imperial family and continued to promote the institutional reforms of the Taika Reform. However, as the divisions and estrangements within the imperial family deepened, the imperial family who were dissatisfied with the crown prince's disruption of the internal succession order gradually merged with the old family who had been deprived of a large number of political rights.

Over the past ten years, despite the efforts of the capable Emperor Jitō to maintain the situation, the Yamato court was still filled with unrest, and undercurrents were surging beneath the seemingly calm political surface.

Inside Fujiwara Palace, the residence of the emperor.

Miss Ai, who was kneeling outside the gate of the Imperial Palace and waiting for the maid to come and report, was becoming more and more confused. Miss Ai, who had read a lot and had heard about the current situation, knew very well that in this turbulent situation, Emperor Jitong should try his best to avoid summoning Miss Ai, who had become a taboo in the royal family for some reason, so as to prevent the old family and other princes from taking the opportunity to attack the Crown Prince.

Then, Miss Ai's thoughts, which were confused and trying to figure out the reason, were interrupted by the slowly opening gate of the Imperial Palace.

"Your Majesty has commanded," the dignified maid kneeling inside the doorway lowered her brow and leaned forward, kneeling to convey the Yamato monarch's order to the black-haired girl. "Your Majesty is commanded to enter and see the Emperor."

Miss Ai bowed towards the Imperial Palace and received the imperial order.

"I will obey your majesty's orders."

After taking off her clogs and standing up, Miss Ai walked cautiously into the spacious Imperial Palace. When she reached the inner room separated by the imperial curtain, Miss Ai knelt carefully and paid her respects with great respect.

"Greetings to Your Majesty."

After meeting Shang Yang, Miss Ai, who has an extremely beautiful vision for her future life, now does not want any unexpected problems to happen.

"...It's love. Thank you for coming to see me."

Behind the imperial curtain, the elderly voice of the female monarch, who was already in her twilight years, sounded faintly.

"It has been a long time since I summoned you. Please have lunch with me today."

...Why do you suddenly want me to have lunch with you?

The black-haired girl became more and more confused, but she did not neglect the etiquette and leaned forward deeply.

"Thank you, Your Majesty. I will obey your command."

Seeing the black-haired girl's cautious and respectful behavior, the lady behind the curtain was quite satisfied and gave instructions lightly.

"Well, as long as you are willing, come, prepare lunch for me and His Highness Ai."

Following the Queen's orders, the maids in the Imperial Palace all bowed and obeyed, carefully and cautiously getting busy...

Volume 1: Heian Tales of the Past and Present: Chapter 19: The Existence of Darkness

To the south of Fujiwara no Miyabi, there is a small, nameless palace.

In the empty palace, a young man with black hair from the Tang Dynasty appeared in the palace in an instant.

"Miss Lord God, why is love not here?"

After looking at the empty little palace in confusion, Shang Yang asked about the Lady Goddess.

My barrier hasn't been disturbed, which means no one is trying to harm Miss Ai. I'll check...

Miss Lord God also looked up the records of the barrier with some confusion, and then, Ying7镏壹《（三）II児咎尔 she breathed a sigh of relief.

[I found out that the maids came to inform Miss Ai that the current Emperor had summoned her, and she went to her residence with them.]

"...I remember Ai said that both the previous and current emperors tried their best to avoid seeing her."

The young man asked doubtfully.

"There won't be any problem, let me check it out."

As he spoke, the young man used his recently learned ability to use his magic power to sense the situation in the distance and explored the inner part of the imperial palace in the north.

With Shang Yang's magical perception, he clearly "saw" that in the inner palace, a black-haired girl was sitting on the left side of the spacious palace, looking a little restless, picking up food from the pottery bowl on the table in front of her with chopsticks and eating it bit by bit. In the inner room of the palace separated by a royal curtain, the elderly empress also had the same pottery bowl on the table in front of her, which contained the same rice, plums, chestnuts, miso soup and a grilled fish as in the girl's pottery bowl.

"Fortunately, it seems that this generation's queen summoned Miss Ai to share lunch, and on a whim, she expressed her concern for the ostracized princess."

After withdrawing his magical perception, the young man breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't care too much about this era because he lacked concern. Moreover, the young man had confidence in the girl's intelligence.

"Let Ai handle it. She didn't leave me any message, so it should be a situation she can handle."

The young man and the girl agreed that if they needed each other, they would notify each other in a corresponding way. The girl did not use this method, so the young man felt relieved.

"I'll leave a letter for Miss Ai explaining the situation. We'll come back tonight just in case. Then, we'll concentrate on executing our plan."

Shang Yang explained his thoughts to the Lady Goddess.

[Well, that's safe. Let's do as the doctor says.]

The lady of the Lord God also agreed with Shang Yang's opinion.

So, he took out the food box from the cypress table and prepared two days' worth of food for Miss Ai. After Miss Lord God cast a spell on the food to prevent heat loss, Shang Yang wrote another letter that told Miss Ai most of his plans and put it in the secret compartment of the pine food box.

I believe that after reading this letter and knowing Shang Yang's plan to fake his death, Miss Ai will calm down and wait for Shang Yang to come back to find her. Moreover, it is not necessary to use this letter to inform him. Shang Yang also decided to come again in the evening and explain it to Ai in person.

After putting the letter away and hiding the pine wood lunch box, Shang Yang planned to explore the route from Fujiwara-kyo to Mount Yoshino again.

However, just as the young man was about to leave, an unknown life sensation made him frown and stop.

"...Miss Lord God, is there any other "life" here?"

[I don't know... It's better to be cautious. How about I use the power of cause and effect to investigate?]

Miss Lord God gave equally cautious advice.

"I'll be in charge of the search here. Miss Lord God, can you investigate the current time node?"

After thinking for a moment, the young man made this suggestion.

[good. ]

The Lady Lord agreed to Shang Yang's suggestion. The crimson ruby ​​pendant flashed red light, and the Lady Lord operated the causal secret instrument to explore the causal structure of the current time node.

After the Lady Goddess finished her investigation, the young man with black hair also closed his eyes and used his magical powers to explore the inside and outside of the small palace.

found it.

The young man's magical perception locked onto the life sense just now and tracked it. Then, what appeared in the young man's consciousness was...

...a nest of rats? !

The magical perception was located in the corner of Fujiwara Palace, in a small cavity under the foundation. What appeared in Shang Yang's consciousness were two big gray rats and a nest of newly born mice, which were still squeaking.

After "seeing" this scene, the young man was speechless. Then, to be cautious, he once again determined the direction of his magic perception.

The results were consistent. The obscure life reaction that Shang Yang sensed was indeed from this litter of mice. As for the reason for the perception, it was probably because just when Shang Yang was about to leave, the female of the two big gray mice happened to give birth to this litter of baby mice. The sudden surge in life reaction made Shang Yang sense this.

The young man rubbed his hair speechlessly and turned to ask the Miss Lord God.

"Miss Lord God, is there anything unusual at the current time point?"

Everything is normal. The historical structure at this time node is consistent with my previous exploration. I have been continuously observing it. Don't worry.

Miss Lord God replied after completing the investigation.

"That's good."

Shang Yang nodded, then shook his head, feeling that he was being too suspicious.

I'm too nervous...

Then, the young man's figure disappeared in the small palace in an instant.

Silence returned to the small palace.

Then, in the deep unknown darkness, the strange inhuman being once again cast its gaze towards this nameless small palace in Fujiwara no Miyakoto.

The single eye in the darkness quietly stared at the secret compartment where the young man left a message for the girl.

The invisible thread penetrated the secret compartment without any hindrance and attached itself to the envelope.

Then, the invisible dark line and the letter left by the young man disappeared mysteriously.

In the unknown darkness, the dark existence withdrew its gaze from the small palace.

Then, the strange single eye opened again, and this time, his gaze passed through the Fujiwara Palace and through the wall of the Imperial Palace.

He silently watched the black-haired girl who was eating her meal anxiously.

Invisible dark lines emerged from the unknown darkness, among which one was attached to the elderly female ruler in the Imperial Palace's Imperial Curtain Bureau.

Other invisible dark lines extended from the unknown darkness to several corners of Fujiwara-kyo, attaching themselves to the bodies of some court officials in their mansions.

Then, the last three invisible dark lines extended again to the Imperial Palace in Fujiwara no Miyabi.

Invisible dark threads, invisible to everyone, floated down from the Imperial Palace like cotton threads.

Silence fell on the black-haired girl.

PS1: The second chapter is a bit short, but I think it’s best to end it here. (Chest up)

PS2: It is not that Shang Yang or Miss Lord God were negligent. The difference in strength is that Shang Yang and Miss Lord God have limited ability to use the cause and effect secret ritual. Even if Miss Lord God spends a lot of time on cause and effect exploration, it is difficult to find abnormalities.

Volume 1: Heian Tales of the Past and Present: Chapter 20: Imperial Palace Report