Even though the palace tended to be crowded by many nobles, the majority of these nobles did not have lodging in the palace, so the palace was much quieter during night time. Chitose was one of those who enjoyed this rarer opportunity since he lived in the palace, as well as working during night time.

The emperor has given him a task this evening: the date of the marriage was finally going to be decided, and he had to first work out what would be the suitable days.

If there were any suitable days.

"You should have warned us that Princess Yuu's arrival would actually be rather troublesome," Kenya said, referring to his cousin's match with Kite.

"I didn't know that! I am not a fortune teller." Chitose said lightly as he continued to work on his calculations. "The stars didn't say that there was anything really bad about her visit."

"That is true, but problematic events should be mentioned as well. But what about Princess Rachel? Don't you think that she is causing troubles for Shiraishi?"

"Anyone can foretell that." Chitose laughed out. "After all, Shiraishi is in an either or situation. He either has to be nice to all women, or ignore all of them to prevent accusations of favouritism."

"I don't think he was treating Princess Rachel in a way that goes beyond basic courtesy although Shiraishi did seem to have paid her special attention by escorting her around. But then she is a foreign princess, so he couldn't just ignore her. But it is not as if he is giving gifts to her like Kintarou and Sakuno."

"Or writing to her. An told her brother and I that Akiko's reading and writing skills are actually improving due to the amount of practises she has."

The arrival of the foreign princess actually made Chitose rather worried as the pattern of the stars become rather strange. He felt as if they had the potential of suddenly altering their path.

What was it that was causing this? There has to be a reason.

"Good evening! Lord Kenya, Chitose." Rachel called out as she and Yuu took a seat beside them.

"Princess Rachel and Princess Yuu, we were just talking about you two."

"About us?" The two women said at the same time.

The rumours seemed to have surprised Rachel, while Yuu started to laugh.

"I really didn't realise this." Rachel muttered. "I hope I didn't case any problems."

"People are simply oversensitive." Kenya said simply.

"The same thing can be said of your cousin." Yuu commented. "Whenever I walk beside him people see that as a possible sign of us being engaged."

"But do you seek something other than marriage?" Kenya asked in puzzlement.

"I do not think that you will be able to understand my answer as you are a man but not all actions performed by a woman are done to secure a husband."

"None the less my cousin has become quite attached to you." Kenya began. "To tell the truth, Princess, I think he is serious for the first time in his life.

"It is not as if I am playing around but as I said, my decision of talking to him is not a sign that I want him to be my husband. Therefore," Yuu continued with a slightly angry voice. "The same thing can be said when I happened to be in another man's company. If you see your cousin then tell him that I can spend time with whoever I want so he might as well stop being stupid and not do what he did this morning."

She might have gone on if Chitose did not suddenly stand up, and as a result, knocked his ink stone over, while his brush rolled to the ground. In addition, he also seemed to be muttering.

"Chitose, what is wrong with you?" Kenya muttered, relieved that he managed to dodge the flying ink stain.

"What? Oh, I am sorry." Chitose muttered out, but they could all see that he was still very distracted.

"Do you have to make such a big fuss due to a mistake?" Kenya said.

"A mistake?" Instead of protesting at any insults towards his skills, Chitose actually said: "I really hope that it is a mistake."

He didn't even give them any time to react as he suddenly excused himself by going back to his room to finish the calculation. Chitose's lodging in the palace was the tallest tower that was always given to astrologers due to it providing the clearest view of the stars.

There has to be a mistake somewhere, Chitose reasoned out. Because what would happen was surely impossible. Why would the emperor's young bride die of an unnatural way when there was no indication of any other problems?

Most of all, why was Shiraishi involved? Why would Shiraishi impose some sort of self exile on himself due to Ashita's death? What was going on?

These events would not happen until some time later but the result seemed rather firm. Every path, although there was still the possibility of something suddenly causing this to alter, although Chitose still did not understand why this possibility exist or how to make it happen.

But he wanted to go to his room as he might be able to get a clearer understanding of everything.

"Even though you know that there are things which cannot be changed?"

"Lord Masaharu?" Chitose examined out in surprise.

"It is not hard to work out what happened. You saw something that you do not like and so want to get a clearer view by going to your tower. But Chitose, you should know that death cannot be altered other then its form of arrival."

Chitose felt that the man who called himself Masaharu was very strange although he could not really explain why. If he was forced to then he would say that it was because he felt that the man had the power to cause something that only he could do.

In addition, he seemed to be truly free of anything, even though he acted as if he was confined to the rules like everyone else.

"Who are you?" he asked this before he realised something even more significant. "Can you read the path of the stars as well?"

"I can see that there will be something drastic in the kingdom but I don't exactly know what it is. I don't know when exactly, but I suddenly noticed that the stars tend to look a particular way whenever something major happens- such as the death of a ruler or a major rebellion or even a war." At this he chuckled rather bitterly. "After so long you started to notice these things without meaning to."

"After so long? Who are you?" Chitose demanded. "I know that there is something strange about you- it is a very uncomfortable feeling."

'Masaharu' smirked and clicked his fingers once, allowing 'Niou' to appear.

"Men are a weak and rather cowardly creature." He said. "They tend to feel uncomfortable around those who can alter their belief and life. You are not that different because you have an automatic dislike toward me since I can mess up all these careful calculations that you do."

"It seems that I asked you the wrong question." Chitose muttered. "What are you?"

For a very brief second Niou had a very strange expression on his face-it was a slight sadness. Although he quickly replaced this with a smirk, the was sure that the following words were accompanied by that sadness, not that really carefree tone he used.

"What am I? I cannot answer because I really don't know. I exist with knowledge and abilities that are more and less than the others." He said before he pointed to the sky. "I am different from all of you because I am not there."

"Not there?"

"Come, you are an astrologer, are you not?" Niou laughed out. "You should know what the stars represent: mortality. That is why they are always changing."

"But you are not the gods, are you?"

"Do you think I am?" Niou laughed out. "Of course I am not. I won't be so cautious and careful if I am. No, I am those in between."

"I have heard of such beings- they are not as powerful as the gods because they are still subjected to the gods, yet they are more powerful then humans as they do have supernatural powers. In addition…they do not age.

"But why are you here?"

"Because I want to." Was all Niou would say. "But don't worry, it is not my nature to do something completely drastic."

"Yet you can change our fate." Chitose said seriously.

"It is true that I might be able to change something but what I do is the picking or tangling of threads that are already laid out. But tell me, what do you plan to do?"

"I?"

"You saw something that you don't like and want to get a clearer view because you want it to alter, don't you?"

"I…yes." Chitose muttered. "I only allow myself to care for a few people as I am too afraid of what I might end up seeing one day. But for the first time I saw something that involves a person close to me. I think you are not that much different from me."

"But why bother?"

"Because we are mortals- we only have one chance." Chitose said before he turned away and left.

"But who said that I have more then one chance?" Niou muttered to himself as he glanced back at the direction where Rachel was.

Despite his efforts, Chitose did not gain any more clues of what would happen. What the stars told him remained the same. He never minded not being able to do something before because he usually didn't care.

But now he was torn between what he should do- should he break the unspoken oath that all astrologers has made? Besides, it was possible that his interference might worsen things, because death was inevitable. Maybe he would be the agent.

Could he live with being directly responsible instead of just knowing that something might happen?

"Oniichan! Oniichan!"

"Miyuki, why do you have to visit now? I was just going to sleep." He muttered.

"Oniichan, you can stay up a bit longer!" his sister said simply as she ignored all his protests of how he had to wake early the previous night in order to see the emperor.

"I want to see the foreign princess." Miyuki said, "Since that is what everyone in the city is talking about."

"Ask Tachibana to take you. I want to sleep." He muttered.

"What kind of brother are you?" Miyuki protested, her voice a bit too loud. "I came all the way to see you and you tell me that I should go away and let you sleep!"

"Yes Chitose, what kind of brother are you?" Tachibana said as he entered with An. "Besides, Kenya told me that I have to drag you up no matter what in order to apologise to Princess Rachel for almost staining her clothes with ink."

"Alright, alright, I'll go. But Miyuki, you should really think about dressing more formally when you come to the palace." Chitose muttered.

His only sister was now thirteen years old and she was still rather boyish- what had always been a big problem. When she was younger she would chase after her brother and his best friend in their games, getting her clothes dirty and even torn. Chitose felt that she actually haven't changed that much, unlike An, as Miyuki remained unconcerned with her appearance other then making sure that she was presentable enough.

"What is wrong with my dress?" Miyuki muttered.

"No, nothing." He decided. But she was only thirteen years old, still rather young. For someone in the gentry, that was not an age to consider marriage yet.

Although thirteen was an age where she could start to seriously like someone.

Tezuka had been reading in a quiet corner of the palace and instead of answering the person's greeting in a way that would result in them leaving without him being seen as rude, he actually put down his scroll in order to give his full attention to that person.

"Lord Tezuka, do you come to the palace often? I don't seem to see you very often." Rachel began- very surprised at his actions.

"Quite often, but I am usually doing work in my office or reading in the library during my free time." Tezuka said in a very matter of fact way.

"This must be a chance meeting then." Rachel smiled.

A silence lapsed and even though Tezuka showed no indication of picking up his scroll, he didn't say anything else.

"The scroll," Rachel began, "It is rather unusual to see these kinds of scrolls instead of books."

"This? This is actually a very early record of one of your people's first visit to my country. It is recorded in wooden scrolls as paper had not been invented at that time." Tezuka explained.

The interruption made Rachel both regretful and grateful, because even though she was given a rare opportunity, she wasn't very sure how to use it.

"Ah, it is the thief-oniichan!" Miyuki said with a grin.

Both Tachibana and An were trying to not laugh due to Tezuka's expression, being a bit more polite then Chitose.

"Oh yes, the thief-oniichan!" Chitose said with a grin as he gestured to the scroll near him. "I hope that is not your latest theft!"

"Of course not!" despite his stern words and very solemn expression, Rachel felt that Tezuka was not that angry. She was not very sure who the young girl was but her instinct told her that she was special.

"Miyuki is Chitose's younger sister." An introduced her.

"And she met Tezuka through an act of theft." Chitose added.

"It wasn't theft. I just happened to pick up the book she was reading." Tezuka protested.

"You picked it up and walked away with it." Miyuki pointed out.

"I wanted to sit down first."

"As I said, theft." Miyuki concluded with a slight shrug of her shoulders.

"Your sister is a very spirited girl." Rachel told Chitose with a genuine smile.

But this made Miyuki rather angry, and her initial good mood at seeing Tezuka was shifting due to seeing how close Tezuka and Rachel were sitting, and Tezuka was even leaning a bit toward her.

She didn't know why but she didn't like this at all.

"I am thirteen years old, I am not a little girl!" she almost snapped out.

With the exception of close family members, Tezuka was very rarely in any woman's company, but for some reason he had never minded the young girl who would often borrow the books he had if she see him by saying that he was obliged to do this due to that so called theft long ago.

Miyuki knew that it really was just an accident but she continued to call him that as it seemed a way to allow her to be special.

She did think that maybe things might change when she is older but she now wonder whether things had a chance of changing.