"Rangyoku, run!" "Youshi..." "Help..." "Save us..." "Episode 35" "{\3cHFFFFFF\4aHFF\fnPoor Richard\b1\bord1.5\pos(191,176)\cH010AF8}A Great Distance in The Wind, The Sky at Dawn, Chapter Twelve." "How is Keikei?" "We don't know if he'll make it..." "The Taiho is also in bad shape." "What?" "He carried the child back to the palace." "Why?" "After all, he is the fastest creature in this world." "Please thank him for me." "The Taiho wishes for you to return to Kinpa Palace." "I have to find Enho..." "Your Majesty..." "I cannot let anyone else get hurt because of me." "If you return to the palace, you may be able to ask your men to look for him." "I don't know about that." "I don't know if anyone will listen to me and go look for the elder of a Rike." "I am a queen, but because of that, there are certain things I cannot do." "Please look after Keikei." "About his wound..." "It's not from a spear nor an arrow, and the area around it is burned." "Burned?" "What do you mean?" "I am not sure." "That man may know where Enho is..." "Lou took off about half a month ago." "He didn't even pay me my salary." "Do you know anyone who worked for him?" "He never talked about his job, so..." "I see... {\3cHFFFFFF\4cH808080\cH23373D\3aHFF\4aHFF\fnPoor Richard\move(215,191,225,192,20,2606)}Meikaku" "Excuse me..." "Who are you?" "I work here." "May I help you?" "I'm here to see Kantai." "Is he in?" "I'm sorry, but is he expecting you?" "I see he's found a nice maid." "I'm Saibou." "Who is it?" "I heard you come from Hou." "Where in Hou?" "Shindou..." "No, I'm from Hoso." "Is that where Youshun Palace is?" "So, do you have any idea what kind of place this is?" "I believe so." "We all want to make Wa Province a better place." "Gahou controls Wa Province and oppresses the people." "We cannot let him continue." "Right." "Technically, it is the Queen's duty to punish Gahou strip him of Wa Province, and the problem will be solved." "But since the days of Yo-Ou, the Royal Court has been run by ministers." "And I don't think the new queen can do much to change that yet." "Besides, she is a Taika." "But if a rebellion breaks out in Wa Province, it might get her attention." "Yes." "We may not be able to defeat Gahou on our own but if we can get Queen to take an interest, Gahou will be brought to justice." "But if the Queen still doesn't see the problem we probably will be killed by the Queen and Gahou." "She once said the same thing..." "That she's foolish." "She didn't know if she should be a queen." "I believe in Queen Kei." "I believe so." "How ironic that a girl from Hou has faith in our Queen." "Don't you believe in her?" "Some people told me to believe in her, so I do want to." "We welcome you, Shoukei." "Thank you." "Kantai." "An elder named Enho disappeared in Kokei." "What happened?" "Someone attacked the Rike, killed a girl, and took the girl's little brother and Enho." "And that night, a horse drawn carriage returned, opening the gate to Takuhou." "Shoukou..." "The other beast that serves Gahou..." "Only Shoukou can open the Takuhou gate at night." "Who is Enho?" "He is a wise man." "He speaks of the morality, and guides people along the right path." "Gahou has been after him." "If Shoukou has really taken Enho, we must raise funds for battle quickly." "We need more goods to be delivered to Lou." "Lou has moved to Houkaku from Kokei." "I hear someone has been sniffing around." "The goods are twenty Touki weapons." "{\3cHFFFFFF\4cH808080\cH23373D\3aHFF\4aHFF\fnPoor Richard\move(285,72,283,82,4,2590)}Takuhou" "Here is the map of Houkaku, and the place we're moving to." "It's all so sudden." "Are you going to be okay?" "I'm more worried about my brother than myself." "He always sticks his neck out for other people." "But I cannot believe he's taking on such a fight for them." "You don't agree with what your brother is doing?" "I didn't mean it like that." "But the people of this town aren't as angry at Shoukou as my brother is." "They'd probably rather put up with Shoukou than get killed." "I can understand that..." "They could just carry on feeling sorry for themselves." "Maybe Shoukou isn't the only enemy we have." "The cargo this time is Touki." "Touki?" "When we get them, at least our skilled men will be well armed." "Okay." "I'll see you later." "They left early this morning." "Everyone is gone." "Did the tall man leave, too?" "You mean Koshou?" "Are you friends with Koshou?" "No, I'm actually friends with a girl named Suzu..." "Oh, the girl with a Sansui?" "They are all gone." "Um..." "I'm from Shikin, San Prefecture of Baku Province." "The goods haven't arrived yet." "Oh..." "They're coming along two different routes so you'll have to wait inside for a little while." "Here she is." "Now we have twenty." "But I can't get money from her until we have thirty." "So can you also wait here?" "I'm Suzu." "I came from Takuhou." "I'm Shoukei." "I'm from Meikaku." "How old are you?" "Sixteen..." "I think I'm about that age, too." "Are you originally from Kei?" "No, I'm actually from Hou." "Really..." "How about you?" "I'm from Sai." "Why did you come to Kei?" "I don't know..." "Well, actually, I heard that Queen Kei is about the same age as I am, so..." "Besides, she is a Kaikyaku, like I am, so..." "Me too." "Really?" "Yes, I wanted to see the kingdom of a girl who's my age." "I see..." "Funny, isn't it?" "Yes, it is." "You shouldn't get to know each other here." "That's the rule here." "People come to see me for certain reasons." "We all have something to hide and it's better for us to mind our own business." "I'm sorry you have to stay here with me tonight." "The rest of the goods are delayed, it's not your fault." "Please take the bed." "I can't." "Don't worry about me." "It takes only half a day on a Sansui." "Oh, my precious doll..." "What's that song?" "My Gosh, were you listening?" "What's the song?" "Oops, I shouldn't ask you about it, should I?" "Let's make an exception." "So you know what's in the cargo?" "Yes." "But what are you going to use the thirty Touki weapons for?" "Well, we are trying to..." "Is it something to do with Shoukou?" "N-No!" "We're hiring mercenaries with the money we make selling the Touki." "Gahou?" "Are we thinking about the same thing?" "It looks that way." "Shoukou killed a boy I was traveling with." "My goodness." "Seishuu was killed for stopping Shoukou's carriage." "But Shoukou is protected by Gahou." "Queen Kei and Gahou support Shoukou so no one tries to accuse him." "That's why we have to do something by ourselves." "That's not true." "What?" "That's what was going on during Yo-Ou's days." "But actually Queen Kei is..." "I met Queen Kei's friend in Ryuu." "She cannot be such a bad person if she has a nice friend like him." "She just became a ruler, so she doesn't understand the system well yet." "That's what I think." "But that's not an excuse." "She is the Queen!" "The song I was singing..." "That was a song from Youshun Palace in Hou." "My father was the king of Hou." "Three years ago, he was killed by his people." "He was greatly despised." "He may have been cruel, but I was still sad when he was gone." "The pain is probably the same as your pain for losing your friend." "Yeah..." "I hate myself for not having been able to criticize him for doing evil deeds." "So I think, what if the people around her are fools like I was..." "My father was chosen by Hourin so I'm sure he wasn't a total scoundrel in the beginning." "But if no one would tell him when he was doing something wrong it could easily allow him to become corrupt." "I was like an ignorant doll." "Queen Kei must feel the same way..." "She's a puppet..." "But Queen Kei dismissed the Lord of Baku, even though people loved him." "That's a favorite tactic of officials." "Someone like him is an eyesore to Gahou and Shoukou." "It must've been easy to set him up." "But..." "Last night, a Rike in Ei Province was attacked and an old wise man named Enho was kidnapped." "A Rike?" "There was a carriage that opened the gates of Takuhou at night." "Shoukou must've done it because he hates those who speak of justice just as he did with the Lord of Baku." "Don't you think so?" "I wonder if Queen Kei is a nice person." "I believe that she is." "Does that bother you?" "No." "I hope she is." "What?" "I've always wanted to meet Queen Kei." "She must be a nice person, so I believed." "Seishuu was very sick, so I wanted to take him to Gyouten..." "But he was killed by Shoukou." "I thought that Queen Kei was supporting that monster..." "So I wanted to kill Queen Kei." "Suzu..." "The boy, Seishuu..." "It's really a shame, isn't it?" "You were right about one thing." "Queen Kei would've saved him if you'd made it to Gyouten." "{\3cHFFFFFF\4cH808080\cH23373D\3aHFF\4aHFF\fnPoor Richard\move(215,192,222,193,38,2457)}Meikaku" "I see..." "You say there are people who are after Shoukou, just like we are after Gahou." "I guess the people of Takuhou weren't all cowards, were they?" "But if they're gathering Touki, they're going to strike soon." "Who is Lou?" "He is friends with Mr. Saibou." "I thought he was connected to someone higher up." "Because it seems like Mr. Saibou is working for someone..." "Woman's intuition, eh?" "You're right." "I am protected not just by Mr. Saibou but also his master." "Lou is his old friend." "What did you do with Enho?" "I thought we were supposed to ask him where the Queen is." "He doesn't know where the Queen is." "Long ago, there was an institution called Shoujyuku in Shishou, San Prefecture in Baku." "It was a school." "Shoujyuku?" "A Sen-nin named Roushou was from the same town." "Or at least so tells the legend but everyone in San Prefecture tries to act like Roushou and interfere with the government." "Shoujyuku didn't teach knowledge, they taught the way of wisdom." "The graduates became officials, or just lived as heroic citizens and helped people on the streets, like Lou does now." "The pupils of Shoujyuku always criticized the system of Gyouten and Wa Province." "I think both Mr. Saibou and his master graduated from Shoujyuku." "Enho used to teach such nonsense to them in Shoujyuku so they were punished, and Shoujyuku was burned down." "You burned it down, didn't you?" "So if they were nothing but intelligentsia, why were you afraid of them?" "When a new queen ascended the throne two years ago the men of Shoujyuku said she was a false ruler." "Well, it turned out that they were right, but..." "The problem was that they were spreading that around." "They made it seem like those who supported her were traitors." "But what about Queen Kei?" "I want to save her!" "You just stay here until Chief Shoukou becomes King Kei." "{\3cHFFFFFF\4cH808080\cH23373D\3aHFF\4aHFF\fnPoor Richard\move(286,73,283,83,13,2433)}Takuhou" "Do we have enough?" "Enough to defeat Shoukou." "He has about 150 guards and there are a thousand of us, and eighty Touki weapons." "Good..." "But if we ran after defeating Shoukou the authorities probably would torture the townspeople to find out who did it." "So we'd have to keep fighting and letting them know we were behind it as we run." "In a couple of days, Gahou will come out with his provincial army from Meikaku." "Then we will be no match for them." "What are we going to do then?" "All we can do is hope the people of Takuhou will rise up with us." "Suzu, you can run if you want." "I won't." "What was that?" "It's from the dining room!" "You are the girl from the other day..." "S-She was asking about Koshou in the town so I told her you wouldn't kill anyone, then she asked me to let her see you..." "A Rike in Kokei was attacked." "A Rike?" "It's true." "Some Rike in Ei Province." "An old man was kidnapped by someone." "What was the old man's name?" "I don't remember..." "Enho." "Enho." "That's it, Enho..." "Enho was abducted?" "Some shady characters were seen wandering around the Rike and I know they were from Takuhou." "And the next morning, they were gone." "You are the prime suspects." "We moved because you came here the other day." "Where were you then?" "I was in the kitchen." "I was suspicious, so I was listening to your conversation from the kitchen." "It must be Shoukou!" "Shoukou must've attacked the Rike!" "Shoukou?" "But why would he take Enho?" "Enho is a graduate of Shoujyuku in Baku Province." "Shoujyuku?" "Lou told me that when he introduced the two of us." "And he told me not to tell anyone because some people are trying to kill Shoujyuku graduates." "But why?" "There are people who don't like those who speak of justice to the people." "Gahou was the first to support the false queen while Shoujyuku suspected her illegitimacy right away." "And what happened to Shoujyuku?" "It was burned down, with many teachers in it." "They blamed a refugee in Takuhou for it." "After a while, one refugee was picked up to fill the position of Shoushiba." "Shoushiba?" "The officer of the town of Shisui is the one who burned Shoujyuku down?" "Shoukou tried to track down all the graduates of Shoujyuku." "They must have gotten to Enho, too." "Do you think Shoukou brought him to Takuhou?" "I don't know if he's dead or alive." "I apologize for causing trouble." "Hey!" "I have to save him!" "Wait Youshi!" "Do you know where Enho is?" "My men are watching Shoukou." "I'll have them find out where the carriage went right away." "Your men?" "We've been watching Shoukou for these three years." "I see..." "That's some sword you got there." "Can you slay Sen-nin with it?" "If it can't, I can't give you one that can kill Sen-nin." "This'll be fine." "I was counting the sands of time without realizing." "In a false dream I became speechless." "{\3cH000000\cH8A7F78}I would stare into the fire... {\3cH000000\cH8A7F78}...as I swore to be true forever." "Let my prayers be heard, I will overcome hardship and keep my oath until the end of the world." "Youko looks around the nodding faces." "They've gathered to accomplish what Youko could not." "The Twelve Kingdoms, episode 36." "Episode 36" "{\3cHFFFFFF\4aHFF\fnPoor Richard\b1\bord1.5\pos(191,176)\cH010AF8}A Great Distance in The Wind, The Sky at Dawn, Chapter Thirteen." "A Great Distance in The Wind, The Sky at Dawn, Chapter Thirteen."