Still dressed in his court robes, Gekkei repaired to the palace annex. With an unsettled air, he took his seat at the foot of the table and waited for the diplomatic mission to arrive.
The emissary was escorted in by the undersecretary. He was wearing rather plain ministerial dress, and his entourage appeared to be ordinary civil servants. Yet he identified himself as a general of the Palace Guard.
"This is not an official visit. I am here at the personal request of the Royal Kei."
With that announcement, the general refused the offer to be seated at the head of the table. "My name is Sei Shin, and I bear correspondence for the Marquis of Kei from Her Highness."
The man handed him the letter. Gekkei looked back and forth between the letter and the Kei General. "Please excuse me for asking this question, but are you sure that I am the intended recipient?"
Sei gave him a perplexed look. "I was instructed to deliver this to the Marquis of Kei."
"To me personally?" Gekkei pressed. "Not the kingdom?"
Sei answered, a skeptical tone creeping into his voice, "We had gathered that this kingdom was being governed by the Marquis of Kei. So the one would be the same as the other."
p. 84
Gekkei sighed softly. "In that case, I cannot accept." After instructing the undersecretary to go get Shouyou, he said, "Please, make yourself at home. The Chousai will be with us presently."
"Ah," said Sei with a nod, though the conversation to this point had clearly befuddled him.
"I am nothing more than the Province Lord of Kei. Surely the general understands that a marquis is naught but a marquis."
"Yes, well, that would be true." The troubled look on Sei's face did not diminish.
Gekkei could understand his confusion. An kingdom deprived of its king needed somebody to lead it. If a king simply lost the Divine Mandate and abdicated, the customary practice was for the remaining ministers to inaugurate a provisional government and appoint a provisional leader. If there was Chousai, then as the chief minister he would assume the throne. This would not be in name only. The Chousai would climb the dais and rule as king. Though the usual enthronement ceremonies would be omitted, the Chousai would in actuality occupy the throne.
In any case, a real throne was not the name of a chair that a king happened to occupy, but was the seat of power of he who led the kingdom.
p. 85
If a king had not lost the Divine Mandate, then his replacement was a pretender. Kings who had not yet exhausted the Divine Mandate had previously been toppled by those with their own designs on the seat of power. Gekkei and his fellow conspirators could be counted among them. And there were certainly similar cases to found elsewhere of patriots committing acts of high treason in order to remove a wayward king, and with no thoughts of usurpation on their minds.
It'd always been the case that the chief architect of such schemes had been chosen to sit upon the vacant throne. It was the logical consequence of treason and regicide. Any person who could decide for himself that the king had strayed from the Way and deserved to be replaced by himself was in the very thought committing treason.
"Then I take it," Sei tentatively offered, "that the Marquis does not intend to stand as the provisional king?"
Gekkei drew his brows. The words struck at his heart with a force he hadn't expected. "This would be no reason for a provisional king. There exists no provisional court, you see."
No man who sat upon the throne as the result of revolution could boast of the Divine Mandate. The king with Heaven's blessing had been replaced by one who lacked it, and thus was labeled a "pretender." A pretender's court was a counterfeit one.
"As much as I hate to say it, you would best call this a counterfeit court. The intent was never to replace the king."
The general nodded. He started to say something, and then quickly thought better of it.
"What was that? There's no need to hold back on my account."
p. 86
"Well, if you wouldn't mind me saying so, I had good reason to believe the current King of Hou was the Marquis of Kei. Her Highness was operating under that assumption as well. The letter Her Highness entrusted to me is intended for His Royal Highness, the Marquis of Kei. It is not within my authority to deliver it to the Chousai instead. The state of affairs that you describe had not occurred to us."
Gekkei smiled bitterly. "Yes, I guess it would be natural for he who stole the king's life to steal his throne as well."
Sei shifted with obviously discomfort. "I wouldn't go that far—"
"I fomented the rebellion and murdered the king. But that does not mean I did so with any desire to rule in his stead. I am fully aware of the gravity of my sins, just as I know that this unworthy body of mine cannot be allowed to defile the throne."
At that moment, Shouyou hurried into the room. Gekkei continued, "I see the Chousai has arrived. If you would be kind enough to excuse me—"
He bowed and departed, brushing past Shouyou as he left the hall.