Even Reirin was taken aback by the insults rolling off Keigetsu’s tongue, but she was too stubborn to back down. “Wh-while it’s true that my past record has not been the most impressive, much like vegetables, people will grow with a little time and care. We can all learn to do the things that were once beyond us.”
Keigetsu jabbed a finger at her, emotions on full display. “You listen here! Your terrible acting is not something that can be overcome with a little growth! You fundamentally lack emotional range, so it’s all completely unconvincing! Utterly contrived!”
“Hrk… Perhaps that was the case before, but I can manage it now.”
“You’re full of it! Do you seriously think you can play at being scared?! I can already picture what will happen! The moment His Majesty brings out his sword, you’ll yell, ‘Oh nooo’ in a perfect monotone, and he’ll know something is off!” The more Keigetsu yelled, the more her past anger resurfaced, until she was practically drilling a hole into Reirin’s forehead with the force of her poking.
Reirin tenderly cradled her friend’s finger between her hands. “No, I mean it. Things are different now. I’ve learned what it’s like to be afraid.” Then she pressed those hands to her chest. “It’s true that I had forgotten the feelings of fear and frustration until recently. Thus, I was never quite sure how to go about imitating your emotional range. But you know what, Lady Keigetsu? I truly was scared earlier.”
She flashed back to the torture Akim had put her through. It had been cold and dark. She had been completely alone, unable to speak, unable to breathe. Reirin had found that genuinely anguishing. The blistering pain and fear had been enough to drive her mad.
In hindsight, it might have been the first time she had ever perceived fear so clearly. When she was subjected to the Lion’s Judgment, when Noble Consort Shu held a blade to her throat, when she was kidnapped and exposed to a contagion, she had thought nothing more than I’m alive until the moment I breathe my last or Feeling the fear before I die is nothing but a waste of strength. With how unflinching she had once been in the face of death, she had to wonder when she had grown so weak.
When Kasui attacked her and left her to die in a well, she had developed lingering attachments to life. Or perhaps she had already grown fragile by the time she watched Unran nearly die before her eyes. Either way, it had begun sometime after the switch with Keigetsu. It wasn’t until she had gained a healthy body, come to enjoy life to the fullest, and learned to experience all sorts of emotions.
“I have a feeling that both fear and hatred are derived from holding something dear,” Reirin murmured, tightening her grip around Keigetsu’s finger.
People dreaded death because they loved being alive. People were afraid to be hated because they had opened themselves up to others. People craved attention because they valued themselves and felt hatred when something precious to them was put at risk. The secret to Keigetsu’s abundance of emotion lay in a powerful love—such was the lesson Reirin had learned in recent days.
“I truly believe I can pull it off this time,” Reirin said with the utmost sincerity. “Please trust me.”
Daunted, Keigetsu relaxed her finger.
In the end, the group concluded that taking this approach to persuade Genyou was their best bet. And so, after putting one more preventive measure in place, Reirin would put her heart and soul into playing the part of “Shu Keigetsu.”
I agreed to the plan myself, so I don’t have much room to talk. Keigetsu gulped as she gazed upon the tattered remains of the rope Genyou had cut. But wasn’t this a little too risky?
Her whole body was beaded with sweat. Genyou’s sword had just sliced its way through that gigantic knot. Several hairpins had been stacked inside, yet even that hunk of metal had been moments from shattering. Despite the emperor’s reputation for being gentle, he was clearly as skilled a warrior as any other man of the Gen. One wrong move, and Kou Reirin would have lost her head.
Meanwhile, the target of his fierce strike was completely unperturbed. When the emperor said nothing, she held her head high with dignity and asked, “Shall I take your silence as confirmation, Your Majesty?”
She was probably accustomed to putting her life on the line. The same clearly went for the men, given their experiences on the battlefield. Neither Gyoumei, her admirer, nor Keishou, her doting brother, so much as frowned at Reirin’s reckless stunt, their eyes firmly glued to the emperor.
They had the right idea, of course. Now was not the time or place to be stunned or intimidated. This was just what the world Kou Reirin inhabited was like—what it meant to straddle the brink of death. Overwhelmed by her allies’ sheer resolve, Keigetsu balled her hands into fists and stuffed down a shriek.
“In that case, I invite you to see things this way,” Reirin said softly, giving her words a chance to sink in. “It takes one with a mastery of the Daoist arts to see through a body-swapping spell. If you continue down the path you’re on, you are doomed to repeat your mistakes.”
She refrained from explicitly adding, Like you almost killed me just now. It was clear that Genyou was plenty shaken by this development already. The way he stood there, expressionless, brought to mind a block of ice that adamantly rejected all outside influence. Yet his pallid complexion and quaking hands proved that the ice was quite brittle, ready to shatter like glass at the slightest push.
“Your Majesty, we did not come here to be persecuted. We are here to help you.”
Reirin steeled her resolve, knelt before the man, reverently took his hand in hers, and held it overhead. She was being unbelievably rude, running her mouth at the emperor without permission to speak freely, even going so far as to reach for his hand. Still, she couldn’t go on without making this earnest entreaty.
“I humbly ask that you take this hand of mine. We wish to aid you, and we are the only ones capable of doing so. Please tell us the full story.”
She had no intention of sitting back and getting executed, but she had no desire to fight this man either. If at all possible, she wanted to join hands and get him to acknowledge Keigetsu on equal terms.
“Well, there you have it, Your Majesty,” Akim drawled, his arms folded and his back against a tree. “Your revenge hasn’t gone anywhere for twenty-five years. Why not get some new blood on the case? I mean, thinking logically, what were you even planning to do after catching the sorcerer? You can’t exactly torture him while he’s got your precious brother’s body. It can be a real hassle to inflict pain without causing lasting damage.” He tilted his head to one side. “This girl might know how to remove the sorcerer’s soul from Prince Gomei’s body. She’s clearly a body-swapping professional.”
Genyou said nothing for quite a while, and he didn’t return Reirin’s grip on his hand. But neither did he shake her off and take back his sword.
At length, he heaved a long sigh. “Why ask me to take your hand when you’re already holding mine?”
“Hm? Oh, my apologies! I acted before I could think,” Reirin replied in a fluster.
Something about her response made Genyou’s thin lips twist into a grimace. It was an almost self-derisive smile.
“Dry yourself off.”
Surprised, Reirin attempted to get a look at Genyou’s expression, but he withdrew his hand and spun on his heel before she could.
His back turned to the group, he added, “This is going to be a long story.”