A Shin of the Pleasure District

Two years earlier, Taya Kingdom.

As usual, Aramaki was patrolling the docks. The setting sun painted the sea gold and crimson as a merchant ship from the Pleasure District unloaded—or rather, more than a dozen young women filed down the gangplank. Most wore revealing clothes and professional smiles.

Aramaki had intended to walk straight past as usual.

But then he saw her: the pleasure woman named A Shin.

(PS: The name A Shin came from that Japanese film that served as the model for Ryokugyu's appearance. She happened to be the woman paired with Ryokugyu's prototype in the film.)

She stood at the end of the line, her long black hair tied into a simple ponytail, several loose strands stuck to her smooth temple with sweat.

Unlike the other women, she did not smile. She merely surveyed the unfamiliar docks calmly.

She was not tall and had a slender frame, but her back was held perfectly straight.

To Aramaki's senses, she was neither as delicate as a noble lady nor as rough as a dockworker.

She gave off a unique resilience, like wild grass growing from cracks in stone—seemingly fragile, yet able to survive in the harshest conditions.

"Are you interested in women like that too?"

Seeing Aramaki stop, the dock manager leaned over and whispered in his ear,

"I hear they're all employees of the Pleasure District, sent to Taya to expand their business. Their base is a tavern in a small town outside the royal capital."

Aramaki nodded absentmindedly, but he remembered the place.

Over the next week, he happened to pass that tavern far more often. Sometimes it was during morning patrols, sometimes after work in the evening. He would always glance at the two-story wooden building from afar, occasionally seeing her hanging laundry at the entrance