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all this get-up to ever bow his head to anybody."
    "Oh, give it a rest," said Rakushun, looking up at her. Rakushun was a hanjuu, meaning that he was half-human, half-beast. In his case, a rat. When in rat form, he was about as tall as a human child, so he had to look up at her. "I'm just saying she doesn't have to thank me. It's because of Youko that I was able to attend university in En, that I got to know the Royal En. I'm the one who should be saying thanks."
    "That's not something I can take credit for."
    Rokuta laughed again. "Come to think about it, Rakushun has done quite well for himself. He can count two kings as personal friends. If his chums at college ever found out, they'd have a fit."
    "Point made, Taiho."
    Shouryuu said, a smile in his voice, "But weren't you dragging your heels a bit, Youko? Joei's rebellion has been over for two months, already."
    Youko smiled wryly. "To tell the truth, I wanted to put it off even longer. The province lords insisted I get it done with by the winter solstice."
    It was the king who calmed the heavens and the earth, who propitiated the gods. Of the rites and rituals, the most important was the Festival of the Winter Solstice. The king's role during the winter festival was to travel to the southern district of the city and there make offerings to Heaven and pray for the protection of the kingdom. This ceremony was called the Koushi.
    "Why put it off?"
    Youko sighed. "Because I haven't yet decided on the Inaugural Rescript."
    The Inaugural Rescript was the first proclamation of a new king. All laws were promulgated in the name of the king. However, a law was not even submitted for the king's approval until proposals from the bureaucracy had been considered, the affected ministries had been consulted, and the consent of the Minister of the Left, the Minister of the Right, and the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal had been acknowledged.
    It was not intended that the king write the laws and run the kingdom all by herself. The ministers were appointed for this purpose. Laws promulgated upon the king's own initiative were known as Imperial Rescripts.
    "What did the Royal En decree?" Youko asked.
    "I came up with what is called the rule of one-in-four."
    "And that is?"
    "For every four ares (400 square meters) cultivated, a homesteader is given one are (100 square meters) of land for every four ares (400 square meters) put under cultivation. This was due to the shortage of arable land."
    Youko said with some chagrin, "The ministers want to make the royal color red. They say red because the Late Empress had chosen green."
    Rokuta nodded. "I agree."
    "You think so?"
    "Wood creates Fire. Red follows green. After all, the Late Empress abdicated so that a better reign might follow."
    "There are so many customs I don't understand at all."
    "Don't be impatient. It'll be second nature to you before long."
    Youko managed a smile and nodded. "But this all seems beside the point. From what I've heard, the Inaugural Rescript is supposed to clearly lay out what kind of place I intend to make of this kingdom."
    "And yet you can't even agree on which color is best."
    Yeah, Youko said, hanging her head. A self-deprecating smile came to her lips. "I still don't know what it means to rule a country. I say I want to make a great kingdom, but what kind of a kingdom is a great kingdom, anyway?"
    "Hard to say."
    "I want my kingdom to be wealthy. I don't want the people of Kei to go hungry. I suppose that if Kei were wealthy, then people wouldn't go hungry. I was born in a wealthy country. But as to whether that made it a great country, I don't know. All that wealth can distort a lot of things."
    The thought went through her mind, Why couldn't I have been a bit more interested in political science and stuff like that? I honestly never even understood how the Japanese government worked.
    She said, "I've been entrusted with the weight of a whole country and I can't begin to know how best to balance that burden. How