Chapter XVI (16) - Parade

  Kizu was escorted alongside Aoi to a different, even larger palace on the other side of the city. Aoi and her family all wore golden kimonos while Kizu wore a silver one, apparently that represented an honored servant of the Hon Empire. Normal household servants wore brassy kimonos and scurried around the expansive waiting room, handing out drinks and small treats to those in gold.

  Basil and Sophia stood beside him, likewise, wearing silver robes. Though apparently Aoi had to fight with her father to get them the kimonos while Kizu’s was handed over immediately. Basil didn’t seem to mind, instead infatuated with the silk used, but Sophia resented that fact. She glared at Kizu, as if believing he would steal both her friend and her silver kimono from her back if she let him. Which, Kizu realized, wasn’t completely out of nowhere. Aoi likely had far less time for her friends after meeting him and discovering Owl’s Respite. In a very real way, he was stealing Aoi from her. He resolved to be nice to Sophia, despite her unpleasantness. His brother had given him plenty of practice with people who had sour personalities.

  “You’re Kaga Kizu,” a tall woman in a golden robe stated. Wrinkles contoured her face showing her age, but she stood with a straight back and looked down at him with a slight sneer on her lips. “You don’t look like much.”

  “I am. And I’m not.”

  “And yet, you foiled my son’s alleged ‘assassination’ attempt.”

  Kizu’s eyes widened. The woman’s resemblance to Inari was obvious, now that he looked for it. Her dark parted hair, her cold blue eyes. He opened his mouth, but no words came out. For a moment, he panicked, thinking that she’d stolen the breath from his lungs with a spell, but then snapped his mouth closed and took a deep breath. He still had air.

  “Gensui, leave him alone,” Aoi said, butting into the conversation.

  “Oh.” Inari Gensui turned her attention to Aoi. She eyed the younger princess with distaste. “Kotei Aoi. The girl supposedly so special that my son felt threatened enough to kill. What about you did he see?” Then she fully embraced her sneer. “It’s not as if I can ask him. Not even a body. How…convenient.”

  “Speaking to the dead is illegal,” Aoi said stiffly.

  “Hello all!” a feminine voice boomed from all around them, cutting off Inari’s next comment. “As we all know, this year is a special parade. We’re publicly announcing the new Hon Empress. Yev Lin will be accompanying us all. Please give her a warm welcome.”

  There was polite applause all around them from different nobility and the Hon Parliament members. The servants also tried to clap, but many had their hands full with trays and glasses.

  Without another word, Inari Gensui separated from them and met with a cluster of other women roughly her same age and station.

  “This won’t be the last time you see our new Empress, so please give her space. As is custom, she will be taking the final float, behind the Royal Family’s Inari branch.” The voice began to review the different positions of each of the other floats. The others around him chatted quietly and drank. Kizu began to panic as the list went on. He had no idea where to go. Had he missed his name in the first few floats? Up with the parliament hardly seemed correct. But where else was he supposed to go?

  “You three are all with me,” Aoi said to him, Basil, and Sophia. “We’re going to be in the third royal float, just two behind the Emperor. You just need to sit there and look regal.” Then she sighed, and pulled out a golden flute from her sleeve. “Meanwhile, I’ll be playing this.”

  “Taking requests?” Basil asked.

  “Of course not,” Sophia snapped at him. “There’s a very important melody she needs to perform. At the front line of the royals, she’s given the honor of leading their music. Don’t you ever pay attention to anything other than-”

  “Relax, Sophia,” Aoi said, smiling at her friend.

  Sophia’s mouth pursed into a thin line as she glared at Basil.

  “He’d better not embarrass you,” she muttered. “I’ll tear him apart.”

  “I will sit, wave, and be a good boy,” Basil promised. “It’s Kizu you’ve got to watch out for. Trouble sticks to him like a perfume.”

  Sophia narrowed her eyes at Kizu.

  “I wish people would stop saying that,” Kizu said. “I don’t plan to do anything. Same as Basil. Just going to sit and enjoy the ride. If it was up to me, I’d be reading a book in the library right now.”

  Once the announcement finished, the royals began setting down their glasses and sauntering off in different directions, depending on their position in the procession.

  “This way,” Aoi said, pointing to a door off to the side. “The Royal Family goes last, so we can get a good view of the parade for half an hour before we leave.”

  She led them away from everyone else and up a spiral staircase to an outdoor balcony looking over the city. A few chairs surrounded a small circular table.

  Basil and Aoi immediately sat down and began chatting. But Kizu leaned on the balcony, staring above the city streets and up at the setting sun. Soon the stars would be out. He closed his eyes and connected with Mort.

  The monkey was perched on Anata’s shoulder. They had found a place to sit underneath a blooming cherry blossom tree. Someone had placed a white blossom in Anata’s hair and Kizu felt Mort resisting the urge to snatch it up and eat it.

  Anata and Mae each ate a bowl of fried noodles. And both girls had forgone using chopsticks in favor of shoveling the noodles into their mouths with their fingers. He watched as Mae wiped her fingers on her obi sash’s massive bow. Kizu was surprised Kumiho allowed that, but then he noticed her off to the side, chatting and laughing with some locals.

  He focused, listening to their conversation. They were talking about her fox tail. She was explaining how she was half Kemon and half Hon. Not quite true, as the Kemon were a different race from the Kitsune, the latter being classified as a monster. But it was close enough that nobody balked at the explanation.

  Someone mentioned the parade starting soon and Mae excitedly mentioned Kizu by name to Anata. Kizu frowned. He didn’t really want them spreading around his name to random strangers. Especially when the girl was gossiping about his supposed ‘secret princess girlfriend.’ But no adults paid any attention to her. Only Anata nodded along enthusiastically. And then the conversation blessedly moved on to a slingshot game at a festival they wanted to visit after the parade.

  “Our mistake,” someone said behind Kizu.

  He blinked, his senses returning to the balcony.

  Two men stood behind him. One wore golden kimonos which marked him as nobility. He held an open book that looked tiny in his large hand. The other man wore a brilliant white kimono that reflected light so well that focusing on it for too long made Kizu’s eyes water. Unlike the golden clad man, he was eyeing each of the balcony occupants carefully.

  This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

  Kizu glanced over to his companions and realized all three were bowing low. He scrambled to copy their posture.

  “That’s enough, cousin,” the man in white finally said.

  “Thank you, Emperor Honzo,” Aoi said with deference. “We will depart.”

  “You and your companions had the foresight to arrive before me. You may stay. It’s those who follow after me that I take issue with.”

  “Carrions lurk close. They descend with no caution. They return empty.” The man with the book didn’t look up as he spoke.

  “Thank you for the words of wisdom, uncle,” Aoi said through clenched teeth.

  “You chose your position well,” the Emperor said, moving to stand beside Kizu. “As a boy, I used to spend hours looking out at the city from this spot. I dreamed of truly making the city better.”

  “Emperor Honzo. You have altered the city. Steadily onwards.”

  After the second strange message, Kizu finally realized who the man must be. The first warlord. Prince Zenchi.

  “Why do you speak in haikus?” Kizu asked, curious.

  The man frowned and looked up from his book to look down at Kizu. Suddenly, Kizu regretted grabbing his attention.

  “I spoke no haiku. I said nothing of seasons. Spring was unmentioned.”

  “Haikus technically require a focus on a season. Usually spring,” Aoi explained. “My good uncle is very particular about that. Otherwise it’s just a poem.”

  Warlord Zenchi opened his mouth to reply, but Emperor Honzo cut him off with a gesture down at the streets below.

  “The march begins.”

  A building with a massive bell floated forward. Kizu recognized Wakino’s hooded figure standing in the front. Now that he knew what to look for, Kizu’s spellsense could recognize that she lifted the shrine with a platform of pure force. Behind her, a man dressed in a bronze kimono dragged back a wooden beam suspended on ropes, then released it. The bell gonged as the beam struck its side, the impact reverberating up to Kizu’s bones. He shuddered slightly.

  Then, a few seconds later, it sounded again. It repeated itself as the bell’s building slowly passed through the streets.

  Next, came the members of parliament. Like the man who rang the bell, they each wore a bronze kimono, though each was also accented with a secondary color, likely representing their position within the parliament. Unlike the brassy kimonos worn by the servants, these kimonos glowed with enchantments like the clothes the nobility wore. There were twelve floats, one for each member of the Hon Parliament. The floats were carried on the backs of servants. Kizu was only barely able to make out through his spellsense that the robes of these servants were also enchanted. But he suspected them to have a more utility based enchantment than the nobility and the parliament. Likely something to help them support the massive amount of weight on their shoulders.

  Between each parliament float, a group of musicians played. Most, like the string instruments and drummers, required a float of their own, but a few, such as the flutists, were able to walk forward in rows. They all played in time with the massive bell strikes, still heard at the head of the procession. Around each of the musician groups, a different troupe of dancers swirled and performed. The blend of their kimonos created a mesmerizing display.

  Kizu stared down at the performance, completely enthralled. He let the music wash over him and lost track of time as he watched each of the different troupes.

  “It’s time,” the Emperor said. “Cousin, escort your companions down to their positions.”

  Aoi bowed to Emperor Honzo, then motioned for the rest of them to follow.

  Kizu trailed after his friend across the palace.

  Aoi’s float was incredibly lavish and far taller than most of the others, with a painted image of a heron against a backdrop of a mountain valley and topped off by a golden slanted roof to protect them from rain. Unlike the earlier floats, this one had enchanted wheels. Aoi gestured for them to climb up a ladder on the side.

  “Remember,” she said as she took a standing position at the head of the float. “Just wave and enjoy the sights. Please try not to stand out too much.”

  That last part was definitely directed at Basil. But if the changeling noticed, he didn’t show it as he continued to examine the remaining floats from his new vantage point. Kizu followed his gaze and saw the Empress’s float, still unoccupied, at the far back of the line. Then he looked back and found Sophia scowling at Basil.

  They were aboard the third float in the noble procession. Ahead of them, the Emperor boarded the first float with Zenchi and the float between them carried some of Aoi’s cousins Kizu hadn’t yet met.

  “Why are we so close to the front?” Kizu asked.

  Aoi pulled her flute from her kimono sleeve. “Because they need to space out the royal musicians.”

  Shiroi passed by and waved at them. He wore a glowing golden kimono, but Kizu noticed that a subtle square pattern had been sewed into the fabric.

  “Good luck, sister!”

  Aoi blushed and averted her eyes.

  Then Shiroi boarded the first float alongside Zenchi and the Emperor.

  “Why is he up there?” Basil asked.

  “He’s a candidate for the new warlord position,” Sophia snapped at him. “Try paying attention to more than the next pretty girl that walks by.”

  “He’ll probably get it too,” Aoi added. “Honzo likes him and Zenchi approves of his skill. And those are the only two real hurdles to the position. That’s why Kusatta’s mother is so bent out of shape right now. Her son was brought into the position because of the raw and unforgiving power he displayed against the oozes. Now that we’re in a time of peace, the Emperor cares more for appearances than strength.”

  “He’s definitely a better face than Inari,” Basil commented. “Though that’s a low bar. That man was horrifying in every facet of his being.”

  Throughout his time visiting, Kizu had been working on internalizing and remembering information like that. The headmaster had been clear about the fact he needed to increase all of his current standings before he would be willing to give him information about his sister’s location. That included history and politics. He would have to be a fool not to pay attention to the most powerful political players when they were standing right in front of him. Especially since the alternative was learning from Krimpit’s lectures.

  Musicians swarmed around the bottom of Aoi’s float, each brandishing a flute and wearing a gorgeous kimono of shades of blue. Most looked to be around the same age as Aoi, but Kizu didn’t recognize any from Shinzou Academy. Several of them were playing scales and practicing in their moments before they began.

  Ahead of them, the Emperor’s float started moving. Only a minute later, their float’s wheels began to turn. It was as if each of the floats was being drawn by an invisible rope tied to the float in front of it. Kizu was grateful that, unlike the parliament, magic carried them instead of people. He felt weird enough about being so far above Aoi’s supporting flutists who walked alongside their float. People literally carrying him on their shoulders would have been extremely uncomfortable.

  As they passed through the palace gate and into the town’s streets, Kizu heard the distant gong of the bell, keeping a rhythmic tempo for Aoi’s musicians. Aoi stood at the bow of the float, back straight and facing forward as she began to play.

  Her skill rivaled what Kizu had heard Harvey playing back in his first few weeks on campus. It might even surpass it. Kizu didn’t know if that spoke highly of Harvey’s skill or Aoi’s. Probably both. Aoi weaved magic into her music as well. It was subtle, but Kizu recognized it as something to draw attention.

  And it definitely worked. Kizu examined the crowd and all eyes were on Aoi as they slowly crept through the streets.

  The spectators this close to the palace would be rich merchants and people of influence only a step or two below those in the parade. It’s the sort of place that his parents would stand. They were all neatly dressed and professional as they watched their float. Based on Mort’s current position, it would take at least an hour before they reached the parts of town where he would spot Anata and the others.

  He closed his eyes and focused on connecting to Mort again.

  Wakino’s floating shrine with the man sounding the bell had just reached them. Mae was bouncing from foot to foot while pointing at the bell. Meanwhile, her brother in his fox form at her feet was bristling from the loud ringing.

  Anata gazed at the beginning of the procession with her mouth agape, absolutely stricken by the sight. Kizu felt a warm sensation of pride at the joy radiating off of her. He finally felt like he was bettering Anata’s life. Like he was making the correct decisions instead of all the wrong ones. She currently watched a beautiful cultural spectacle alongside her friend.

  The float under his feet wobbled. A note from Aoi sounded off-key.

  Kizu’s attention snapped back. Basil was craning his neck over the edge to look down at the wheels. At first, Kizu thought that it was maybe an enchantment failing or even something more mundane like the wheel running over a rut in the road.

  Then the Emperor’s float erupted in a ball of flames.

  Ten Blood Curse Academia chapters (5 weeks) ahead of Royal Road.