A Pale Moon Reverie: Volume 2 by Kuji Furumiya

Author:Kuji Furumiya [FURUMIYA, KUJI]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: J-Novel Club
Published: 2023-09-19T00:00:00+00:00

Four days later, after Xixu had returned from the capital, Thoma had been both astounded and disgusted. “What do you mean nothing’s happened between you two?!”

Xixu felt as though the gazes that Irede’s residents directed at him contained the same question...but he dearly hoped that was just his imagination.

2. Scar

The striking scent of rice wine wafted from the shattered fragments of white porcelain, scattered across the tatami floor.

Crimson thread fell upon the growing stain. Fallen bells, crushed pitifully out of shape, lay throughout the room.

There was no music.

From the beginning, sound born of man had not existed in this room. There had only been the dance. But now, there was no sound at all.

There was a woman with no warmth. Her question fell down upon the man below, cowering with his head in his hands.

“You chose me. Yet now, you would renege upon that choice?”

Her voice sounded like the ringing of a bell, but like the small, scattered dancing bells around her, the quality of its sound was warped and injured.

Moonlight spilled in through the paper sliding door. The man did not raise his head. A long, hoarse exhalation of breath fell upon it.

“You...”

Any further words were drowned within her sigh.

There was no sound.

The cooling air cracked. There was frailty in it, but all the same, it continued to deny eternity.

※

That her sleep was becoming more shallow was proof that the new moon was approaching. Shortly after daybreak, Sari awoke as though surfacing from a deep pool. Her gaze absentmindedly drifted across the ceiling. Her bodily senses still felt quite vague; perhaps because she had yet to fully slip out of her dream. She brought her weightless right hand to her mouth, slightly bent one of her fingers, and bit into it. It was the solid sensation of her teeth, more than the pain, that brought her consciousness back to reality.

“Cold...” Sari murmured to herself. But she didn’t really know why she’d spoken.

It took Sari a considerable amount of time to sit up. It had not been that long since the proprietress of the courtesan house had gone to bed, but she found herself awake regardless. For no particular reason, she pressed down her disheveled silver hair with both hands and vacantly maintained the posture. At a glance, it would’ve looked like she was cradling her head in her hands.

Sari wasn’t sure how long she spent in that position, unmoving. But just as she was about to get to her feet and perhaps take a hot bath, there was a knock at the door, quiet enough that she wouldn’t have noticed if she had been asleep.

“Yes?” Sari called out blearily. “Good morning.”

“Miss Proprietress, you’re awake.”

The maidservant sounded surprised. She must have thought that at this hour, when almost all of the courtesans were asleep, Sari would not be awake either. It was indeed a rare exception, and Sari was still half asleep. She nodded, despite the fact that nobody could see.

“I am. What is it?”

“A shadeslayer has come to request your aid.

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