“Are you really all right? You don’t look well.”
Yes I am, Rokuta nodded, and sat on the bed.
“Taiho, if you feel tired, please use the bed.”
“Okay, thank you.”
Rokuta lay himself on the bed. It was an ordeal to just walk to the corner of the room.

“Taiho?”
“I seem to get sick by all the blood. I am sorry, but please lend me this bed.”
“...Blood.”
“Ekishin (亦信)... He was dead...”
Ribi’s eyes opened wide.
“Ekishin, wasn’t he the one under Seisyou...”
“Yes... I have done one regrettable thing...”

Ribi absentmindedly put the sleeping baby on a table. Walking to the side of the bed, she excused herself as she extended her hand. The forehead bound by the white stone was fiery hot.
“A fever...”
“Yeah. But I am just getting sick by the blood.”
“Do you feel any pain?”
“I can bear with such a small amount.”

“Excuse my rudeness, but are Taiho and Syashi (射士, lit. the archer) acquaintances?”
Syashi, Rokuta mumbled, and remembered that Kouya had become the head of bodyguards for the provincial lord. The head bodyguard of the emperor is called Syajin (射人, lit. the archer), and the head bodyguards of the provincial lord and others are called Syashi. The officers under Syajin or Syashi who actually executed the protection are called Daiboku (大僕).

“Kouya... He is the Saishi, right? He has earned a name, hasn’t he.”
“He has the amazing power to have tamed a youma.”
“He doesn’t tame it. In fact, that youma is raising him.”
“--Pardon?”
“Sorry, may I explain later? I am so asleep.”
Understood, Ribi nodded, and Rokuta closed his eyes. His guts seemed to have turned inside out because of the stench of gore.

***

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