CH 1.1

Volume 1.1 - Reirin, Switching Places

“You said I’m…who?”

Seeing Reirin, no, “Shu Keigetsu” murmur that in shock, Tousetsu snorted in annoyance.

“What are you playing dumb for? You were unjustly jealous of Lady Reirin and took advantage of the fact that everyone was paying attention to the meteor to push the delicate Lady Reirin out of the tower. Everyone there heard that you even cursed her as an annoying woman.”

“That’s…”

She certainly had heard that.

Yes, Reirin heard Keigetsu dishevelling her hair and shouting as she approached her. But right after that, she felt as though she was being burned all over by the flash of the comet, and before she knew it, she found herself crouching here.

And then—yes, she thought she heard the sound of “Reirin” screaming and the sound of something being slammed against the roof in her fading consciousness.

(In other words…that was the moment me and Lady Keigetsu switched bodies?)

It was difficult to believe, but that was the only thing she could think of.

Reirin gripped the bars and leaned towards Tousetsu.

“Um, you may find this difficult to believe, but I am——”

However, the moment she was about to continue with “I am Reirin,” her breath suddenly escaped her, and she startled. No matter how many times she tried to say her name aloud, her voice would disappear into thin air. Reirin was bewildered.

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(What is the meaning of this…!?)

Even when she tried to at least tell her that “I’m not Shu Keigetsu,” her name still wouldn’t form on her lips. Her throat not only failed to vocalize her name, but also words that could explain the situation, such as 'switched places” and “different bodies.”

Tousetsu’s face scowled in disgust as she watched Reirin open and close her mouth with no sounds coming out.

“Are you trying to say that you had no intention to kill? How ridiculous, not even able to make up a good excuse.”

Tousetsu seemed to have a deep-seated disdain for “Shu Keigetsu.”

(How can I tell her that I’m Reirin?)

Reirin suddenly raised her voice.

“Tousetsu! Tousetsu, you like sweets, don’t you? You especially love mooncakes. Your favorite filling is red bean paste. Your favorite fish is horse mackerel. You’re not good with alcohol, but since you’re in the government service, you have to drink to socialize, so it’s hard for you. Isn’t that right?”

She told her information only Tousetsu and herself could know. Tousetsu, who was known for her calmness and wisdom, would be able to understand the situation immediately.

“You have a younger brother. His name is Kouyuu. There’s a small age difference between you two, so he’s the apple of your eye and you dote on him so much. Yes, that’s right, he’s the same age as me, isn’t he? That’s why, right when you began to serve me at the Nestling Court, you asked me to consider you as my older sister——”

“Be quiet, you rotten, wicked woman.”

However, Reirin was cut off by a voice that was much lower than anything that came before, and she gasped.

“Tousetsu…?”

“Someone like you…a rat with no beauty, talent, or generosity who doesn’t know her place is speaking like Lady Reirin. Listen up. I’ve already heard from Lady Reirin that you snuck into her room a few days ago and stole her diary.”

The rough tone of her voice was one thing, but more than that, it was what she said that surprised Reirin.

(I’ve never kept a diary, though!?)

However, despite Reirin’s astonishment, Tousetsu continued on in a vexed tone.

“Even while Lady Reirin was stricken with a serious fever, she confessed to us about the theft. She told us, ‘I didn’t tell so as not to worry you, but with my diary in Shu Keigetsu’s hands, she might try to harm the people close to me, or try to win them over. I can’t stay silent if it comes to that.’”

There, Tousetsu raised an eyebrow sharply.

“Did you think that by reading her diary and imitating her words and actions, you could become Lady Reirin? You’re sorely mistaken!”

“Whaaaat…?”

Rebuked sharply, Reirin was bewildered.

(But I am Reirin!)

It was difficult to believe, but the soul of Shu Keigetsu probably resided in the current body of “Reirin.” The fact that she would take such an action―a maneuver to prevent her from proving that this “Shu Keigetsu’s” true identity was Reirin―made her feel a strong sense of malice from it. In other words, this switch wasn’t an unexpected accident, but a set-up for her to take the place of Reirin.

“In the first place, it is presumptuous that a sooty rat should be jealous of Lady Reirin, who is like a lovely, wise, and deeply affectionate celestial maiden who has descended to earth.”

“C-Celestial maiden…no, um, that is surely an exaggeration——”

“Trying to mock the pure Lady Reirin!? You dirty rat!”

“Yes, I’m a dirty rat!”

Incidentally, Tousetsu’s intensity, or rather her love for Reirin, was too terrifying. She couldn’t help but repeat her insults with great enthusiasm.

(What should I do, she’s too loyal to notice that her mistress is in danger…)

She thought she was a calm and composed person since she usually wasn’t very expressive, but it seemed that she actually cared for Reirin a great deal. Or was it that she was being beautified with some sort of “frailty correction” placed on her because her body was weak?1

“E-excuse me…”

“In accordance with the laws of the inner palace, you, the suspect, are arranged to undergo the Beast Interrogation Rite, but the victim Lady Reirin must be present there. Lady Reirin says she is uncomfortable with the foul splattering of blood and does not wish to see it…a delicate and compassionate statement.”

“I’m not sure if that is the appropriate impression for that…ah, no, never mind.”

“For that reason, this is a mercy from Lady Reirin. Drink it.”

While she was overwhelmed by the tumultuous outpouring of loyalty, a small pill was finally pushed onto her. Needless to say, it was probably poison.

“Um!”

“I’ve already spoken to the guards. The Beast Interrogation Rite will begin in an hour. Before this candle is extinguished, please reflect on your sins and be done with it.”

Only at the end, Tousetsu regained her calm tone. She took out the candle from the candlestick and handed it to her between the bars, and then immediately turned on her heel.

Reirin, who accepted the candle as a conditioned reflex, lowered her brows, at a loss.

“Am I the one to die for the crime of injuring me…?”

What sort of irony was that?

“Fufu, ahaha! Serves you right!”

It was at that moment that she heard a burst of laughter.

“Eh…!?”

She looked up in surprise, but no, the voice must have come from somewhere very close.

Just when she thought, It can’t be, and turned her gaze, the candle flickered and in its depths, she saw the smiling figure of “Kou Reirin.”

“Are you surprised? This is the flame image technique. Fire is the underling of the Shu clan. If you put your mind into it, any flame can transmit the image of the practitioner.”

“A practitioner…? Are you a Doushi who mastered doujutsu?2 No, more importantly——”

Reirin asked that in surprise, but she reconsidered and moistened her lips, looking at the woman reflected in the flame.

“You are…Lady Keigetsu, aren’t you?”

“Yes, that’s right. Now, I’m ‘Kou Reirin.’”

Keigetsu easily responded, then smirked at the look on Reirin’s face.

“And you’re ‘Shu Keigetsu.’ The evil villainess who tried to kill ‘Kou Reirin.’ How is the dungeon of the nestling court? It’s crawling with rats and insects, and a normal woman would lose her mind in a matter of hours.”

“Why did you do such a…”

She muttered that without thinking, and the other person raised an eyebrow, as though she was disappointed.

“It’s to set things right.”

“Set things right?”

“Yes. Isn’t it strange that you’re the only one who’s blessed? You’re the niece of the empress, who is the most powerful, you’re loved by His Highness Gyoumei, and you’re adored by the ladies-in-waiting. And yet my situation is so horrid——aah, my body is burning. My whole body is aching, goodness.”

Keigetsu brushed up her hair in annoyance and then loosened her collar. It seemed that Reirin’s body was now undergoing a fever.

“The kind but powerless Consort Shu. The unkind ladies-in-waiting. An appearance that isn’t enough to capture His Highness’s attention. I’m fed up with it all. However, I’ve come up with a wonderful solution.”

She quickly pulled her hand from her hair, and a glint appeared in her eyes. With the corner of her mouth lifted up in a smirk of satisfaction, she looked just like a cat in front of a mouse.

“We’ll just have to switch bodies. I’ll take your place when you’ve set the stage for me and are in your best condition. Then, you can experience all the misfortunes I have suffered until now.”

Kuh kuh, she laughed, sounding incredibly delighted.

“You’ve never been hated, have you? You’ve never been belittled or mistreated. You’ve always been protected and loved by someone. …I can’t forgive that!”

After she shouted that in fury, she then whispered in a breathy voice next time, perhaps worried about attracting attention.

“That’s why, you see, I want you to be exceptionally miserable. You will be cursed at, stoned, and no one will trust you. And yes, a spell has been cast on your body so that you can’t express any words about this switch. I’ve also pretended that ‘Shu Keigetsu’ has stolen ‘Kou Reirin’s’ diary. So, you’ll never be able to prove who you are.”

I see, so that’s what happened earlier, Reirin understood.

It seemed that this Keigetsu was quite skilled in doujutsu, and despite her outwardly timid behavior, she was able to use her guile effectively.

However, as expected, she couldn’t manage Reirin’s feverish body, and she began to sway unsteadily.

“Oh, really, being ‘frail’ sounds nice, but you’re not merely weak. How can just a little bruise bring on a fever?”

“Um…why don’t you lie down? I think you should cool your forehead and around the large blood vessels. Specifically, your neck and armpits——”

“Silence! Do you understand the situation you’re in?”

She couldn’t help but be worried and offered suggestions, but Keigetsu raised her voice, rejecting her.

“Okay? You’re going to die soon. I’ll tell you something nice. The merciless Head Eagle Official is in charge of this Beast Interrogation Rite. That means you will most certainly die. Of course, even if you drink that poison I had Tousetsu give you, the coward who committed suicide will be dragged to the site of the rite and have her corpse stoned. You’ll die a miserable death, covered in the scorn and laughter of the crowd.”

She carefully punctuated each word and emphasized them.

“Goodbye, Kou Reirin. You can spend the rest of your short life trembling in fear of death’s footsteps, surrounded by filthy rats.”

As soon as she spat out those last words, Keigetsu pursed her lips, as though blowing out the flame. At that moment, the flame of the candle Reirin had been staring at was extinguished.

Reirin, who was left behind, stared at the candle, following the afterimage of the flame, and was silent for a while.

“…I’m in quite the predicament now.”

She finally murmured.

It was the first time she had seen any kind of doujutsu, so it didn’t feel very real, but she understood that she was now involved in something serious.

“I’ve done something to make Lady Keigetsu hate me so much…”

She then realized that this was indeed the first time she had ever been met with such hostility, and tears welled up in her eyes. She felt like she was going to faint from the guilt and regret.

(…Oh?)

But then she suddenly blinked her eyes.

(I’m…still conscious…!?)

She thought she was going to faint, but paradoxically, she realized she wasn’t fainting right now.

Reirin quickly moved her arms, touching and inspecting every part of her body.

“My knees aren’t shaking…my arms aren’t going numb…I’m not…getting out of breath…my pulse is…an estimated sixty beats per minute!”

Reirin covered her mouth with both hands and let out a small cry.

(How could this be! Until now, I was the one who would faint if I wasn’t careful!)

Not many people in the other clans knew this, but Reirin wasn’t “a little bit frail,” she was 'so frail that it was abnormal.” Ever since she was a child, she had often seriously gotten sick due to trivial reasons such as the heat, cold, tiredness, and going out. However, in the past few years, thanks to her own tireless efforts, she had been able to recover most of the time before her illness worsened.

Yes. Though Keigetsu didn’t seem to notice, the reason why “Kou Reirin’s” body was undergoing a fever wasn’t because she fell from the tower. It was simply that her frailty that caused her to be feverish every three days was the normal result of her neglecting her “tireless efforts.”

“What a healthy body…I’m, I’m so jealous…!”

Reirin gulped.

Forgetting the situation, she inadvertently thought for a moment that she was “lucky to have switched bodies.”

(N-No! After all, a body is a gift bestowed by one’s parents. Until the day I die, I must responsibly live in my own body.)

She folded her hands together, raised her eyebrows tightly, and nodded. To be honest, she was almost tempted.

Perhaps in response to all the noise, a rat in the corner began squeaking wildly.

Almost unconsciously, Reirin clicked her tongue to call it to her and tickled it with her fingertips as it approached. As part of her “tireless efforts,” she was good at getting mice to become attached to her.

(For some reason…)

Reirin thought that with a mysterious look on her face as she looked down with eyes that had grown accustomed to the darkness at the rat running around her happily.

She was told to be surrounded by rats and to be afraid of the footsteps of death.

(Isn’t that a rather easy thing for me to do…)

After all, that was the way it had always been for Reirin, who kept rats to experiment with herbs and got extremely ill whenever she suffered from a disease.

“Oh, I found a latrine bug. I’ll have to get some as food for Mr. Rat.”

Kou Reirin had a reputation as a fragile and delicate young lady who wouldn’t even kill an insect.

Keigetsu seemed to have assumed that if she was put in jail, she would immediately lose her mind, but she had made a grave misunderstanding.

Far from being delicate, Reirin was a woman with nerves of steel who had continually avoided an unusual number of near-death experiences.

These chapters will probably take a while since they’re so long haha

Also, the novels come with color illustrations so I might post them later

Footnotes

This was a bit hard to translate but I think this is basically saying that Reirin’s frailty is sort of like a filter that makes people beautify her a lot.The word used here is Dao (as in the real Chinese philosophy) but I couldn’t figure out what the Chinese equivalent of doujutsu is supposed to be so I just kept it in the Japanese.