“She was one of the palace catalogers, was she not? Does she normally come all this way to request these unceremonious tasks of you?”
Court ladies that worked as kitchen staff and cleaners worked everywhere, with a number of them assigned to each palace. However, the palace catalogers worked at the archives in the inner palace, which was some distance from the Hien Palace.
“It’s not me she comes here for. I think there’s a eunuch here that she exchanges letters with.”
“Oh…”
It wasn’t unheard of for court ladies to be on intimate terms with eunuchs, but Jusetsu couldn’t understand why she couldn’t have stuck to giving him the letter and left the poor girl alone. Perhaps she just couldn’t resist bullying her while she was in the vicinity.
The girl in the light yellow ruqun took another close look at Jusetsu’s face.
“So, which palace do you work for? We haven’t met, have we? You look like you work in the kitchens, but I don’t think I recognize you.”
There was an enormous number of court ladies around, so it wasn’t unusual to come across an unfamiliar face. Jusetsu thought about giving the name of a random palace, but if the girl had friends there, she’d be in trouble. With this being the case, she simply replied, “The Yamei Palace.”
“What? Are you the Raven Consort?! I’ve heard that there aren’t any court ladies there.”
“Why wouldn’t there be?” said Jusetsu.
The girl was right—there weren’t—but a palace without any was almost unheard of, so she took Jusetsu’s word for it.
“What’s the Raven Consort like, though? Is it true that she’s just a young girl?”
“She is sixteen years of age.”
“Really? That’s so young!” commented the girl, seeming surprised. “Is it true that she has mystical powers? Can she predict the weather? And can she really predict who’s going to die?”
Jusetsu expected her to be a quiet girl, but she was surprisingly talkative. She reminded her of a skylark, chirping at the top of its lungs. Jusetsu kept quiet, and before long, the girl suddenly clasped her hands against her mouth.
“Don’t tell me…that you’re not allowed to talk about her?” she asked nervously.
It’d be a nuisance to explain otherwise, so Jusetsu simply nodded.
The girl nodded back at her repeatedly, then changed the subject.
“Still, you’re too pretty to be a court lady. You’re beautiful! What’s your name? I’m Jiujiu.” That was a common name out in the city.
“I am known by the name Jusetsu,” the Raven Consort said.
“You have a funny way of talking, Jusetsu. Not even the concubines talk in that stuffy, old-fashioned way these days.”
“…Don’t they?”
All this time, Jusetsu had been convinced that all upper-class people spoke like that. Having had a rough city upbringing, the previous Raven Consort had been the one to teach her this way of speaking. Her mentor had come from a distinguished family, but Jusetsu didn’t realize that her speech would be so old-fashioned due to her advanced age.
Then, perhaps out of concern for Jusetsu—who was looking shocked—Jiujiu hastily cleared things up.
“But I think it suits you! Yeah. I mean, you’ve got that ethereal beauty thing going on. And you must have had a good upbringing, right?”
Jusetsu silently shook her head.
“Really? Well, you must have been chosen for your looks, then. I’m sure you’re the prettiest of all the court ladies. It’s a real waste,” said Jiujiu. “There are even some concubines who’ve never been called on, so there’s no way a court lady could become a royal mistress.”
Jiujiu let out a resigned laugh. Now that she’d come to the imperial estate, she would have to stay here for the rest of her life. Things might have been okay if she had the emperor’s favor, but that was just a pipe dream for a court lady.
“I wouldn’t want the emperor to summon me, anyway.”
Jusetsu frowned as she remembered his sly, emotionless expression. Jiujiu blinked at her in surprise.
“You’re an unusual one, Jusetsu,” she replied, but the moment she finished speaking, a voice came from the back entrance to the palace.
“Jiujiu! Are you there? What are you slacking off for?”
“Coming!” Jiujiu responded, flustered. She then turned to Jusetsu and added, “See you later, then. And thanks for earlier.”
However, when Jiujiu set off toward the door, Jusetsu started following behind her.
“Huh? What’s up?” Jiujiu asked.
“I am going to help you with your work.”
“What? Don’t you have your own jobs to do?”
“I’m unoccupied for the moment,” Jusetsu said.
Jusetsu hadn’t made this suggestion out of kindness, though—she just thought she might be able to gather some information while she was helping out.
Jiujiu seemed skeptical, but she brushed it off by reminding herself that the Yamei Palace was no ordinary palace.
They stepped inside the spacious kitchen. Several large stoves were positioned along the wall. A number of servant girls were in front of them, lighting them up. Lucky charms dedicated to the god of ovens were stuck to the wall behind the stoves alongside hanging scrolls featuring couplets designed to ward off bad luck. The same was true for the Yamei Palace, but the customs in the concubines’ kitchen didn’t seem much different from those in the city.
Large jars stood lined up in a row along the opposite wall. At the long desk in the center, the kitchen ladies were mashing sesame seeds with wooden pestles and sifting the loose seed dust with a colander.
“Has breakfast not been served yet?” Jusetsu asked.
“Of course it has. We’re preparing dinner,” Jiujiu replied.
This came as a surprise to Jusetsu. This early in the morning? she thought. That would have been unthinkable in the Yamei Palace, where it was just Jusetsu and her maidservant.