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of Taiki." After saying this, Teiei turned to Youka, who had been standing to one side. "Take Taiki  back to the palace. It should be better to take him to Rosen Palace."
    Teiei knew that up until now Youka had been preparing Rosen Palace for Taiki's return. Youka looked  gratefully at Teiei for a moment and then vigorously nodded her head.
    Youka walked slowly to Taiki and kneeled down so that she and Taiki were at the same height. Taiki  looked straight at her.
    "Your servant wholeheartedly welcomes your return."
    Taiki felt the arm, which Sanshi had laid upon his shoulders in order to protect him, loosen. Sanshi  gently pressed him forward, closer to the kneeling Youka.
    "May I ask who you are?"
    "I'm called Youka."
    "Lady Youka..." He had only said this much before the nyosen that surrounded him burst out again in  laughter. Youka's face carried a smile upon it as well.
    "Please just call me Youka. You only need to address Genkun as Lady."
    "Genkun?"
    "She is Lady Gyokuyou."
    Taiki looked at Sanshi, and Sanshi nodded. Thus, Taiki accepted this way of speaking.
    "Then... Youka, who are you? Why do you call my arrival a return?"
    "I am a nyosen who lives here on Mt. Hou, and you, Taiki, are the master of Mt. Hou. In fact, you were  born here!"
    Taiki's eyes widened and he stared at Youka for a moment.
    "I was born here...?"
    "Yes." Youka nodded. "You could also say that this is your homeland."
    "But..."
    Youka shook her head to stop Taiki from continuing.
    "We could not find you because a change occurred in the world and you drifted to another place. We  really searched for you for a very long time." An expression of both joy and uneasiness crossed Youka's  face. "We were all so worried, because we didn't know where you were or what kind of life you were living.
    You've finally come back, which is something that we are all very happy about. We truly welcome your  return."
    Taiki only stared blankly at Youka.
    So he wasn't the child of his parents.
    When this thought occurred to him, it was as if all his uncertainties had been resolved. He now had a  very good explanation for why his grandmother disliked him so much and for why he never felt like he fit  into his surroundings.
    In truth, he had never really gotten along with his family. That wasn't what he had wanted, so he had  tried hard to improve relations with his family. However, it seemed like they always had a chasm between  them that was too wide to jump over.
    Like many children, he thought about all the ways that he was not similar to other people. He wouldn't  have thought that his feelings were right.
    "Then...is Sanshi my real mother?" He looked back and forth between Sanshi and Youka and saw them  both shake their heads.
    "Sanshi is your servant. It is her personal responsibility to take care of you. And I am a nyosen. My  responsibility is to handle a few chores so that your time at Mt. Hou is even more comfortable."
    "Then where is my real mother?"
    Youka looked up at the tree. "You were hatched from a fruit that grew on this tree. This is Tentei's  blessing."
    Taiki also looked up at the white tree. Not only was there no fruit on the tree right now, but there was  also not one flower or leaf. Taiki still understood too little about the creation of life, so he didn't have any  difficulty in believing any of the things that Youka had said.
    Taiki imagined that when season arrived for the fruit to grow, that tree would certainly be full of red  fruit. And the fruit must be very big if he had first jumped out from one of them.
    Though he did feel that using this method to arrive in the world was a little strange, he had always  thought that he had been different from most people. He understood now that it all had to do with how he  had been born.
    (So it had all been because of this.)
    It was all because he had been taken in from the outside that his grandmother hated him. He probably  also created a problem for his mother. Because he had