The air in the inner palace changed the night Kagetora told her he would not visit her room again. Changed—or rather, peeled away. The cold indifference from before had at least meant "acknowledging her existence." But from the next morning onward, the eyes of the castle women who saw Hikaru walking the corridors held the look of someone observing an insect. "[cold]A woman laughing alongside an enemy ninja, and yet she calls herself a concubine," The voice was not hushed. She was speaking loud enough to be heard. Behind Hikaru by three paces, the women of the corridor continued in whispers. "[cold]We don't even know whose bloodline she comes from. The lord certainly has peculiar tastes," Hikaru did not stop walking. She thought that stopping would mean losing. But the words lodged in the back of her ears, refusing to be dislodged. Tae still brought her meals, unchanged from before. But the contents had changed. Cold barley rice in a single bowl. Thin salt broth. That was all. N