Heian Romance: 21. The Eve of War

21. The Eve of War

Tension arises when warriors and troops all around arrive at the capital. It gets to its extreme when Taira no Kiyomori from the warrior clan leads five hundred horseback troops from the eastern country to the Heian Capital. And so here marks the beginning of the first war after almost a century of peacefulness in the Heian Kyou…

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Yuiko along with other courtiers and royal families who belong to Goshirakawa’s side were bought to Takamatsu Palace as refuge from the war…

If this were to be a song banquet the hundred over occupants in the Takamatsu Palace would turn the place down with their chatter and laughter. However at the eve of war, even the noisiest busybody decided to keep her mouth shut and concentrate in her prayer instead. Everyone gathered here are reluctant about the future, if Goshirakawa’s army was to lose in the war, all of them will be listed as traitors and rebellions, otherwise.

Yuiko and her lady-in waiting Ryoko sit at the far corner of Takamatsu hall quietly facing the garden. As if pending for a heavy storm, the night before is eerily quiet, there are few fireflies waltzing around the garden, however night like this no one would have the spirit to appreciate their beauties…

Yuiko is worrying about Yorinaga, as both of them are in the opposite side; which means one survives the other will falls, especially Yorinaga as the war general his punishment will unmitigated leading only to death…

Yuiko’s thought was interrupted when a footman announced that she has a visitor at a chamber in the west wing.

When she reached the chamber, she saw that the visitor is a monk. The monk is in his travelling cassock which seems that he had just traveled from far, he is in his twenties and very handsome indeed. There are familiarities in this man, but Yuiko couldn’t put a finger into it…