Free The Twelve Kingdoms: Dreaming of Paradise by Fuyumi Ono Page B

you. But the fact remains that if you abandon the Palace because of your crimes, you are more or less implying that those you leave behind are blind to theirs. Neither your equally guilty colleagues nor the people you serve seem to agree with that assessment."
    Gekkei offered Sei the tea. "I hadn't thought about it in exactly those terms, but you may have a point. In any case, I don't see the ministers fleeing the capital in significant numbers. Which is why, as the ringleader, I can take the fault all upon my own head. As the original guilty party, that should be my responsibility."
    "I suppose so." Sei tilted his head to the side. "While I can't argue with your logic, neither do I agree with it. Your argument—that you led the insurrection and so you bear the original sin—doesn't sit right with me."
    "Treason is not a sin? I cannot imagine you making such a claim before the Royal Kei."
    "Not in a million years," Sei said, with a wave of his hand. "I'm not saying it isn't a sin. Just that, considering the late Royal Hou—"
    Gekkei nodded. "His Highness certainly did execute many of his subjects for breaking the law. No matter how trivial the offense, the death penalty was always the verdict, and the grave the end result. No consideration was given to circumstances. Leniency was out of the question. A single infraction was the same as a death sentence."
    "I have heard as much."
    "His Highness was a stubborn idealist. If he was willing to put his life on the line in his pursuit of righteousness, he saw no reason to demand any less of his subjects. He came to categorically believe that no matter how minor the offense, everyone should agree that every sin deserved the death penalty."
    Gekkei smiled painfully. "Prior to the accession of His Highness, I had occupied a position at the lowest rungs of the bureaucracy. During the time that the throne was vacant, the Imperial Court was a cesspool. Only His Highness remained clean and pure. Even when swords were brandished in his face, he made it clear he would choose death over dishonor."
    "That is quite impressive."
    "Earning his trust became synonymous with living a sinless life. Any man with a true heart esteemed that trust over any promise of fame and fortune."
    Those who respected Chuutatsu were elated by his accession. They looked forward to a world ruled according to justice and virtue, to creating a kingdom in governed according to the Rules of Heaven and bound according to the rule of law.
    "We set out to create a world uncontaminated by the slightest speck of corruption. Not even the slightest hint of iniquity would be allowed. Sadly, Chuutatsu was never able to translate this image in his mind into reality."
    "The image in his mind—"
    "Chuutatsu was the kind of man he imagined himself to be. Despite this—or because of it—unrepentant ministers were given a free rein. As long as they deferred to him in the proper manner and mouthed the things he wanted to hear, he convinced himself they must be as righteous as he. As he had no ulterior motives and no hidden agendas, he assumed that those who looked pure on the outside must be pure on the inside. You could call it a noble failing of sorts."
    And the worst of them all was Chuutatsu's wife, Kaka. The face she showed him was one of unbesmirched beauty. Her heart was as black as coal.
    "His Highness had every intention of creating a pure and proper kingdom and became increasingly incensed by the impure and improper world he was faced with. The laws became more draconian, the penalties more severe. And when the Taiho fell ill, His Highness grew even more frantic in his quest to make things right."
    "He was going to make things right with law and punishment?"
    Gekkei nodded and smiled grimly. "Up till the very end, it never seemed to dawn on him that he was going to lose the throne and his life because of the shitsudou. In that sense, he was utterly selfless in his devotion to justice as he perceived it."
    Except that death