Prologue

Genroku 5 (1692), Winter Solstice

“Princess, please watch your step. The ground is rather muddy from last night’s rain.”

The girl climbing the mountain path behind two ladies-in-waiting appeared to be of exceptionally high birth.

“I know. Saki, you worry far too much.”

The girl who answered had glossy black hair arranged in a traditional kōgai coiffure. She wore navy split hakama over a scarlet unlined robe, a purple outer robe decorated with well-frame floral-diamond crests and four-petal flower motifs, and a pale crimson Chinese-style jacket bearing the same pattern. On her feet were leather-toed straw sandals.

Two white foxes accompanied her as well, one on either side as though guarding her. The fox on her right bore a flower-like marking on its forehead, while the one on her left bore a flame-like marking, both etched in vivid scarlet.

“If anything happens to the princess, I’ll take care of it before it becomes a problem, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

A guard of about eighteen or nineteen, dressed in gray Iga-style trousers and gaiters, laughed as he followed behind the girl they called princess.

“Kurogane, I shall soon be fifteen. Do not treat me as though I were some child of five or six.”

“Exactly. And if it comes to that, I’ll gladly lie down and serve as a stepping-stone for you.”

“You too, Natsume? Must you say such things?”

Their easy banter made it plain that, despite being mistress and retainers, they shared a close relationship. With only a short distance left before the summit, they deliberately left the path and headed a little to the left, where the object of their excursion finally came into view.

“Ah, there it is. This is what I wished to see.”

It was a white Japanese camellia standing about six shaku tall. Surrounded by trees that had shed their leaves, it proudly displayed lustrous green foliage and numerous white blossoms. The flowers were small, single-petaled, and slightly tubular, their delicate appearance evoking the image of patiently enduring the cold, while their buds were charmingly round and plump.

“How beautiful. We have only red camellias in the garden at the estate, so I came all the way up the mountain behind the manor to see this one. The climb was well worth it.”

At the girl’s words, the fox standing on her right snorted in apparent displeasure.

“Kaō, I know full well that riding upon your back would have brought me here in no time. But there are sights one can appreciate only after climbing with one’s own feet.”

At those words, the ladies-in-waiting standing a short distance away smiled. Their mistress, Princess Kana, still retained a trace of childishness, yet her beauty was now on the very verge of blooming, and it was easy to imagine that she would soon captivate the hearts of many men.

“You look as though you belong in a painting, Princess.”

Just as the lady-in-waiting called Natsume spoke with a sigh, an unfamiliar pattern suddenly shone white beneath the princess’s feet—and the very space around her visibly warped!

(Damn it, a trap?!)

Thinking so, the guard rushed toward her, but he was already too late.

“Princess!”

“Princess!!”

‘Saki, Natsume, Kuroga—’

Her voice calling out to her attendants faded into the distance along with her vanishing figure…

“It worked!”

“Oh… what a divine presence…”

“Could she perhaps be a princess from another world?”

“Now our kingdom can be saved!”

“Saintess!”

“Where… am I?”

Princess Kana was utterly at a loss. Only moments earlier, she should have been admiring the camellias on the mountain behind her home, yet now she found herself in a completely unfamiliar place. Worse still, the people surrounding her had brown or golden hair, and their eyes were blue or green.

(So many foreigners… Then am I in some foreign land? Yet if I can understand their words… could this perhaps be Dejima? Even so, how in the world did I get here…? And this pattern on the floor. I have never seen anything like it…)

Still seated on the floor and lost in thought, Princess Kana noticed someone kneeling before her. He was a young man with golden hair and blue eyes, and from the splendid white garments embroidered in gold that he wore, she gathered that he must be a person of high rank.

The young man addressed Princess Kana with a delighted smile.

“Welcome, Saintess.”