Rakusho no Goku #27
2011.09.28(Wed)Juuni Kokuki — 十二国記
(The Twelve Kingdoms)
Rakusho no Goku — 落照の獄
(A jail of the declining Light)
By Ono Fuyumi — 小野不由美
Translated by o6asan
Eiko(瑛庚) took his eyes off her. He understood what she wanted. He was prepared for being considered as tyrannical and was going away. The man voice ran after his back.
”My son is dead. Why is that man still alive, sir?”
The voice was cracking. Was it because of shouting himself hoarse or becoming a slave of passion?
”It was very near of me. But I couldn’t save my boy. He must have cried for help to us. But, I couldn’t hear him. How suffering he was! What he thought and what he felt? Why did the man kill my son, why he? I have no idea. I never stop thinking about it because of having no idea. My only idea is my son never returns. And yet, the monster is still alive.”
He wanted to refuse to listen to him, but he never did.
”My son suffered very much. We are still suffering. Despite that, why is that man no suffering? There is no worth of our suffering? For officials like you, do we, the ordinary people, have no worth you look back on even if we suffer very much?”
Eiko(瑛庚), controlling himself, didn’t look back at him.
The servants who rushed in let the couple back to Shiso(芝草). Though Seika(清花) objected, Eiko(瑛庚) gave them careful instructions that they made the man and the woman go home definitely and strongly ordered them not to let the people involved come in his residence. At the same time, he sent for the lower officers and he let them shut the gate and guard it so that the same thing would never happen. After that, he visited Seika(清花) to persuade at her room but she never opened the door.
”Enough. I’ve understood you and I’ve known what you think of me.”
She told him to slam down from the other side of the door and never answered again. Eiko(瑛庚) could do nothing except standing in the corridor.
Seika(清花) might leave him the same as Keishi(恵施). — It can’t be avoided, he thought.
If it’s her will, there is nothing he can do about it. But, he wonders what Seika(清花) depends on for a living after that. It’s possible Eiko(瑛庚) pays for her support or gives her work, and, she , as a citizen, can be provided Kyuden(給田) again. While Seika(清花) living in the official residence, 12 years passed in the lower world(下界). The 12 years brought Seika(清花)’s mother and father death, and siblings old age. Her acquaintances also were spending 12 years. He wonders if she adjusts gradually to it.
Thinking so, Eiko(瑛庚) smiled wryly.
Such a long time which made all her relatives die didn’t pass. Recently, their touches to each other became rarer, but, some years ago, she kept in frequent touch and visit with them. They would be able to mend their long silence. — Unlike Keishi(恵施).
When Keishi(恵施) left him, she had lived with him for a little less than 6 decades. Her parents, of course, her siblings already passed away. Moreover, even their children weren’t alive anymore. Keishi(恵施) became an ordinary person again, didn’t have any relatives or a friend in the lower world, and what she thought and what she felt.
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