With the coming of the New Year, I offer my sincerest wishes for your continued good health.
Thank you truly for visiting someone such as myself the other day. I am deeply sorry that I could not offer you proper hospitality, nor could I meet your expectations.
However, please forgive me. It is only fitting that I live out my days quietly in this land. Though it is no longer even a shell of what it once was, I have no intention of leaving the village of Kyougetsu.
Much less would I consider moving to the new capital... I do not believe there is a place for me there, nor do I believe I am wanted.
Of course, I believe I understand that you were thinking of my well-being. It is with that understanding that I wished to humbly ask for your forgiveness, which is why I have taken up my brush to write this letter.

You would clear our disgrace. That is what you said, yes I have also read the book you gave me.
I feel it leans somewhat too heavily on flowery prose, with many inflammatory words, but...yes, quite good indeed. In particular, I believe your analysis of Rindou-sama's temperament hits the mark.
She was a person of exceptional integrity. So pure that no fish could live in her waters... That is precisely right. Bound by her destiny as head of the samurai, renowned for nobility, she seemed to have forgotten even how to breathe.
Therefore, she constantly questioned what noble duty truly meant, and there were those who could not endure her waters. That is entirely true. In those days, even from our perspective, Rindou-sama was nothing but a heretic. I do not deny that we regarded her as someone beyond our understanding.
However, no—perhaps I should say precisely because of that.

Myself, my elder brother, and Habaki-sama loved and respected Rindou-sama from the bottom of our hearts. Of course, I believe Soujirou-sama, Yakou-sama, Ryuusui-sama, and Shiori-sama all felt the same.
You praise them as noble martyrs and heroes, while the world calls them traitors and villains. But whatever the truth may be, now that they have already become historical figures, it no longer matters.
Forgive me for saying something presumptuous. I do not make light of your aspirations. You wish for the young people who will bear this country's future to learn the true past. That is truly a lofty ideal.
But consider this. Are your students so hungry they worry about tomorrow's meal Are they freezing under this cold sky with nothing but a shabby kimono Are they trembling in solitude, without even a home, let alone parents
No, surely not. I have heard that no one is discriminated against based on birth or bloodline. It was none other than you who told me this country has become such a place.

If that is so, then I am satisfied. I, Kyougetsu Sakuya, have come to know that the dream I wished for in my girlhood has been fulfilled.
To put it plainly, we have already been saved. Being led by Rindou-sama, our participation in that Eastern Expedition was solely due to childish infatuation... that alone was what drove us.
I do not deny that we sought fame and fortune. But that was in order to survive. Because I believed it was necessary for one born as a Distorted to obtain at least ordinary happiness. This was especially true of my elder brother. He loved this Sakuya, and...
No, let us stop there. An old woman's prattling about love is nothing but unseemly.
In any case, what I wish to say is this the world we sought in days past now exists. From your perspective, living in the present, there may well be dissatisfactions, but those are problems for the current generation to solve. It is not something to foist upon the elderly.

And yet, I find myself thinking. Those radiant days, those unfading scenes, the golden memories more precious to me than anything else...
Even taking into account that they contained such intensity, such horror, such tragedy one would turn away from—when I look back upon them, I still find them beautiful... I think they were joyful, happy, like a dream.
Therefore, if you would be so kind, my gentle friend. A friend from a generation far removed. Would you not indulge this Sakuya as she tells her tale of dreams
You must not smirk as though you've gotten exactly what you wanted. For this is a story that no one living in this age would believe.
Yes, even you would likely furrow your brow, dismissing it as malicious fabrication. That is how far removed from official history this fantasy is. A tale colored by apocrypha—this is a story of Kegai.

As material for a tale of the fantastic, it would be suitably excellent, I should think. If you possess such talent, you might consider making it into a book. When that time comes, I would happily read it.
Now then, are you ready This has already grown long, but from here it shall become an even lengthier text.
Yakou-sama was exceptionally skilled in this sort of thing, but I too am one who often left my elder brother at a loss for words with my long-windedness. I cannot help but worry whether you might give up partway through.
Shiori-sama or Rindou-sama would likely summarize it in just a few lines. Ryuusui-sama was one prone to complaints, so I wonder if she would quickly lose the thread What about Soujirou-sama Habaki-sama would surely turn it all into a humorous tale.
Ah, truly—how beloved and proud were my comrades.
I just said I would not prattle about love, and yet here I am... Please forgive me. Right now, Sakuya's heart is returning to her girlhood.

Yes, when I stop my brush, I hear it—the sound of snow falling, accumulating deeply. And I feel a sense of déjà vu. Yes, déjà vu. At the time, I knew nothing of such a thing, and to speak precisely, the concept itself did not exist in this world.
Are you perhaps taken aback You must be tilting your head in confusion. But if you find yourself unsettled by merely this much, following what lies ahead will prove difficult.
For example, reincarnation; for example, the Asura realm; and then the Heaven of Sorrowful Thought(#N1), the Eight Great Hells... The destination of man, the conclusion of the soul. From your perspective, all of these should fall within common knowledge as examples fitting the concept of an afterlife, regardless of their veracity.
But when we lived, none of these existed anywhere.
Try to imagine it. A lawless world where neither punishment, nor salvation, nor rebirth—nothing at all—exists. That there was no Law(God).

Death was simply darkness. It was avidya, and thus faith could not be born. Fear was nowhere to be found.
There was none of the latent piety that human beings ought to possess by nature. The absence of any shackle to restrain one's actions for fear that some higher being might be watching. That only oneself could discipline oneself.
To put it plainly, perhaps I could say that everyone was falsely claiming to be a god. I myself was no exception—I lived with the universe of Kyougetsu Sakuya alone as my absolute law. You surely understand how dangerous that is.
Narcissistic personality disorder... I am told that is the name given to such a pathology these days. I am genuinely impressed that you analyzed us as such in your book. For at the time, that was simply how humans were.
As Yakou-sama put it Tengudou. This is the story of us who lived in such a world.

That mean-spirited, stylish, pure yet terribly murky onmyouji... He, who among us seemed most adapted to the world of tengu, said this
God is unnecessary.
And Rindou-sama said this
Humanity needs a god.
Shiori-sama and Soujirou-sama said
Just let some random guy become god already.
Absurd, isn't it Our opinions on this matter were truly all over the place—Ryuusui-sama didn't even join the debate until the very end.
Though her attitude of whatever conclusion you reach, I'll go along with it was, well... rather adorable even in my eyes...
I shall keep what opinions Habaki-sama and my elder brother held secret for now. And of course, my own as well.

When you have finished reading this letter, I would be grateful if you could share with me your impressions.
From here, I wish to unravel this labyrinth. Yes, it was the time of the New Year. Just as now, it began in the snowy capital of Hotsuma.
Our meeting. Our fate. Looking back, perhaps everything was decided in that moment.
Just as this snow will vanish when spring arrives. Like ephemeral flowers in wild bloom(#N2), scattering in an instant...

#N1
非想非非想天 (Hisō Hihisōten) — Heaven of Neither Perception Nor Non-Perception. Shortened to 非想天, but 非 (non-) is changed to 悲 (sorrow). Likely refers to to (Paradise Lost spoilers I think) httpsshinza-bansho.fandom.comwikiZoar_(Shrine)

#N2
狂い咲く (kurui-zaku) — Literally mad-blooming; refers to flowers blooming out of season (at the wrong time) andor blooming wildlypassionately. Non-ideal, but wild bloom kind of captures both.