"Fuyumi Ono - Juuni Kokki Novel - Sea Of The Wind, Shore Of The Maze" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ono Fuyumi)

uncultivated. The complex terrain is made up of only trees, rocks, water, and a wind that never stops blowing.
There is a small palace on the middle section of Mt. Hou, called "Houro Palace." This is the only place in not just Mt.
Hou but the whole of the Five Mountains where people live.

"Oh? It's a poppy."
Teiei mumbled to herself as she squatted down for a closer look.
She was drawn to several poppy flower petals on the surface of the spring water.
Youka, who had been walking behind Teiei, also stopped. The radiant red flower petals floating on the crystal clear
surface of the water was such that it drew people's eyes to it.
"Are they from the poppy garden?"
Teiei nodded her head in reply to Youka's question and extended her hand again to pull some petals out of the water.
"The wind probably blew them over here. The wind feels a little bit different today."
Youka nodded her head in agreement and then lifted her head and looked around.
Interesting rocks can be seen everywhere on Mt. Hou. The green moss that grows all over the surface of the rocks
turned the perimeter outside of Houro Palace into a maze, especially on the high terrace where Houro Palace sits.
The crags are really worthy of their reputation. The surface is rugged and goes in and out as if the towering rocks
will collapse at any time. Even the smaller of the rocks are three times the height of a person. In addition, the small
paths that weave through the rocks are so narrow that they only allow two women to pass through at one time,
walking shoulder to shoulder.
Teiei was now walking on a small path, stopping en route to gather the poppy petals drifting around on the surface
of the mountain spring water.
She was a nyosen who looked as if she were eighteen or nineteen, but a nyosen's age could not be determined by
looking at her appearance. Neither how nor when she became a shousen are clear even to her. This meant that she had
arrived at Mt. Hou a very long time ago. Out of the over fifty nyosen, Teiei had lived on Mt. Hou the longest.
Opposite to her, Youka had just become a nyosen not too long ago. Only 16 years of age, she was originally a girl
from an ordinary peasant family. However, not knowing why she was totally incompatible with the common customs,
at the age of 13, she took the shousen oath, and from then on, did not eat grain. She spent three years at the shrine of
Seioubo living a pious life, and she finally attained purity just recently and was summoned up to Mt. Hou.
Thus, it had not been long since the day Youka arrived at Mt. Hou. She had just moved from living on Mt. High Su
to Houro Palace only half a month ago, but even she felt as if the wind that day did not blow as it usually did.
Ordinarily, the wind calmly whisked through the small path, but this day, it was both strong and urgent. At one
second, it blew powerfully up the crags into the sky, and at the next, it scraped the edges of the cliff walls downward,
curling into a gusty whirlwind. Even the sky was looking murky. Since there was only a thin layer of clouds, they didn't
know why it gave off such an oppressive feeling.
"Is this some sort of omen?"
Teiei tilted her head to contemplate the question Youka had brought up.
"It shouldn't be. This morning's Eight Diagrams divination symbol didn't show that anything would occur. Come on,
let's hurry and draw water out and then get back."
"Yes."
Youka tossed the bucket that was in her hands into the spring water.
This pool of spring water is called "Kaidou Spring." The spring water gushes endlessly from the base of the crags,
and a great sea paulownia (kaidou) tree covers the tops of the crags around the pool.
Of course, the spring water of Houro Palace doesn't come from just this one pool. No one has been silly enough to
count how many springs there are in all, but the number is many, so it follows that they had to name every spring lest
they confuse them.
On Mt. Hou, there are no differences in the seasons. Flowers can bloom throughout the year. For instance, right then
there were a few little fluffy white sea paulownia flowers floating on the surface of the spring. Because the fragrance of
the flowers had permeated the water, though it was not known when it started, the wooden water bucket also gave off
the scent of the sea paulownia flower.
The scented water in the bucket is for an offering at Taishin Shrine in Houro Palace for the patron goddess of Mt.