A friendship was formed between Yuu and Rachel and this was seen in various ways. Sengoku told her sister that this was a great way for him to get closer with the foreign princess, a rather different reaction from Minami, who actually considered the effect of this on his kingdom.

"To be honest I don't think it will help that much since your kingdom is not that powerful to provide any lasting benefits." Watanabe told him bluntly, analysing the situation for him. "But Minami, don't see everything in the ways of politics! Don't be so serious! You and Shiraishi both need to enjoy life a bit more."

"I think our personalities are the type which does really badly in such a situation." Minami admitted. "We tend to be too extreme- forgetting the other factors."

"By the way, has Shiraishi suggested anything that seems to be bothering him?" Watanabe added. "He seems rather troubled lately."

"Well, I did hear many rumours…"

"No, it can't be that. I won't say that he is used and immune to these rumours despite being gossiped about for so much, but he no longer gets that upset about them."

Watanabe hated seeing his foster son like that as it seemed a reminder that he could never make amend in the more important areas.

"I will try and get some information out of him when I visit the barracks this afternoon." Minami decided. "Sengoku wants to go to have a sword match."

"Tell Shiraishi…" at this Watanabe shrugged. "Just tell him that I will always be on his side no matter what. So if he has some sort of problems then he should come and talk to me about it."

Even though men did not gossip like women, this did not means that they were always straight forward. After all, many of them were members of the aristocracy who had to go to court at certain occasions.

This was why the gossips of the court did reach the barracks as well. Because this was a time of peace, soldiers had time to let their minds be occupied by such a thing.

The main topic in conversations was still Echizen and those who played against him, and many were debating whether Echizen could beat Kintarou as Kintarou has beaten him again.

However, many soldiers who were in the aristocracy- especially those of high and medium nobility- would be talking about Kenya. They say that Kenya was just like his father since he seemed to entertain a fondness for peasant girls as well.

"But then he is a peasant himself." Someone said in distaste. "Yet to think that the emperor favours him so much more over Deputy-commander Yuushi due to his friendship with Shiraishi."

At one hand, Kenya's relationship with Akiko was not surprising, yet the nobles were still rather angry that Kenya openly preferred a girl like that over their own kindred.

But they could do nothing about it. Akiko was clearly a favoured maid of the future empress and any insult to her would be seen as an insult to the empress. In addition, Kenya was regarded as being infatuated with Akiko so he would likely be vindictive.

The reaction of his kindred, however, was rather surprising. It was known that Kenya and Yuushi were constantly bickering with one another, and often criticised the other's character and attitude. They were just like their father's.

However, both Yuushi and his father had answered any insult with a strong sense of family loyalty.

"If you have that much spare time then I can assign you two some extra duties." Yuushi said to the two men in his division, who were just saying how Kenya's taste was exactly like his father's.

"But then that's probably the only type of meat he can manage." One of them had said crudely.

"Deputy-commander Yuushi!" the two of them yelled out at the same time.

"You two better not let me hear you criticise my family again." He told them grimly. Even though his voice did not seem to alter, the two men suddenly felt a great chill. "It is not your place to do so."

Yuushi admitted that his cousin had a natural talent for irritating him. He enjoyed his reputation of being calmed and collected but Kenya could actually make him lose his composure- such as the time when they were talking about their division. The originally calm discussion ended up being like a bragging contest. His cousin could make him being too caught in his own rashness and become too emotional.

Due to this he was often irritated by his cousin and he tended to deal with this by throwing mockeries at Kenya.

Yet he would get rather angry at hearing others insult, or even just mock Kenya.

He supposed it was like what his father said about his uncle: "Family bonds are not always logical."

"Yuushi, is there something wrong with you?" Kenya asked as he walked pass and find his cousin deep in thought, his dizhi raised but not played.

"I think there is something wrong with you when you still don't know how to talk to people properly." Yuushi said rather sarcastically. "Who starts a conversation this way?"

"Shiraishi told me that there might be something wrong with your playing on the night of the foreign princess' arrival."

Yuushi naturally frowned at this. He was a bit snobbish due to their family background and even though he did not see Kenya as a peasant since they were cousins, he was not so generous as to extend this to Shiraishi.

He was like many others by thinking that it was not fully right for a peasant boy to be so close to the emperor.

"Shiraishi does not even play an instrument so I don't se why he thinks he can judge. Besides, Kenya." Yuushi continued, preventing his cousin from interrupting him. "I will be more concerned about yourself if I were you."

"What for?"

Yuushi was really tempted to openly roll his eyes at this ignorance that he suppose only his cousin would display.

"Everyone is talking about you and the new maid of the future empress since you are so attached to her.

"Let them talk, I don't care as long as Akiko won't get hurt." He said simply. "So what if they talk? I've heard such a criticism ever since I was a kid due to my mother and the area I live in. In fact, I don't see why they get so upset when I am merely doing what they expect me to do.

"Besides," Kenya added, "It isn't that bad for me."

Another victim of gossip was Shiraishi, but unlike Kenya, people were more willing to openly say what they desired.

"You seem to find the foreign princess very interesting." Someone said to Shiraishi. "But I wonder which bit about her makes her so appealing."

"Well, Princess Rachel is from a powerful country, isn't she?" another man added, and Shiraishi recalled that he had a younger sister.

"Tachibana and I merely escorted Princess Rachel when we happened to see her." Shiraishi said very calmly.

He guessed that such an incident would spread but he didn't realise that it would end up being this bad.

"I did what any one would do in that position." He continued. "It was anyone's duty."

"Of course." The agreement from Atobe was quite shocking as Shiraishi knew that the other disliked him quite a bit.

"Of course Shiraishi was merely doing his duty, because what else could he possibly be doing?" Atobe said very pleasantly.

The tone made Atobe's words very clear- Shiraishi could only be doing his duty because he was a peasant, and a peasant had no chance of being connected to such a high positioned woman. Ultimately, the boundary of rank could never be erased.

"Atobe, Atobe!" Jirou yelled out as he ran toward them. Not only was he awake, he seemed to be full of energy. "You will never believe that is happening!

"Yuushi is having a match against Kite! It's such a long time since I saw Yuushi having a match."

Any commander and deputy-commander having a practice match was very worthwhile sight, but there were some who had less practice match compared to others, such as the two in question right now. This was why there was a rather large crowd, as this gave the others an opportunity to analyze their skills.

"But why Kite?" Shiraishi muttered. "Yuushi tend to have practice matches against Atobe or Kenya."

"Apparently it has something to do with Princes Yuu." Zaizen informed him. "Everyone knows that Deputy-commander Yuushi is interested in her, but commander Kite seemed to have spent some time with her the other day."

"Zaizen, if you have time to listen to gossips then you might as well…" Shiraishi began, but was stopped due to Zaizen's defence.

"Commander, common knowledge is not the same as gossip."

Kai, who was Kite's deputy, gave them a glare before he spat out: "You lot has always been picking faults with our division due to where some of us are from."

Both Kite and Kai were from the region which was once the country that the late empress came from. Even though the majority of both sides all saw themselves as being in a similar nationality due to growing up when the country was already conquered, or realised that their new ruler was much better, there were still those who saw that region as a separate entity.

"All Kite did was to escort her to some part of the palace, that is anyone's duty." Kai continued angrily.

Even though Yuu told Yuushi that she doesn't care what he says, Yuushi didn't let what happened be revealed since he was still concerned about the effect it would have on Yuu. That was why the truth was still unknown.

There was something about the match that made some of the commanders a bit worried, because they could see that there was more at stack then winning and losing. The sword match was to let both men find an answer.

But what was the question? Neither Kite nor Yuushi could answer this.

Yuushi had been about to play the dizhi when he suddenly saw Kite in front of him. The question did not need to be asked, nor did the answer need to be given.

As their swords clashed from the first time, they knew that the other felt the same emotion towards Yuu. It was ironic that they knew this when they were not sure of their own feelings.

Their expression was similar because they were both thinking about Yuu.

Yuushi knew that he was very fond of Yuu but he didn't know how deep the emotion really was. He supposed that he was no better then some of the girls he ended up harming. They approached him out of curiosity only to find themselves really falling in love.

Kite was confused as well- the initial curiosity seemed to have changed. He was in this match because he wanted to let Yuushi know that he was not just going to give up, even though he wasn't sure what he actually wanted.

"Why is everyone crowding here instead of practising? This is much too slack." Sanada muttered.

"What a pity then, it seemed that Echizen's match will not be the highlight this time." Yukimura said cuttingly.

As their swords met to clash once more, both men asked themselves what the end would be.

Luckily, they did not find their answer.

A third sword appeared, forcing them to pause.

"Sengoku?" Yuushi examined out in surprise. "What…"

"Are you two done with this foolishness?" Sengoku snapped his tone and voice very serious. It was even rather hard. "My sister is not some form of object so stop acting as if she is one. If your problems involve her then don't think that you can solve it without her."

"This is not really about your sister, Prince Sengoku." Kite said bluntly. "This is about Lord Yuushi and myself."

"And what is the outcome? The winner being the one who can court Yuu?" Sengoku snapped. "As I said, my sister is not an object so don't treat her as if she is one, she is capable of making her own choice."

But her other brother suddenly chuckled at this and muttered under his breath: "Now you are the one being foolish, Sengoku, because we are objects."

Fuji thought the same thing as well. He was observing all this from the corner and mentally recording everything down to discover who will be the most useful object for him to use in order to avenge his brother's death.