writhing bodies.
Since the proper deportment of the young ladies falls within my responsibilities, I was forced to interfere. As soon as the girl was done, I hissed to her, “Cover yourself ! Are you totally shameless?”
She turned quite red and instantly fell to her knees, bending her head to the floor. Apparently the fool had been so flattered by His Majesty’s interest that she had forgotten her state of undress.
“I do beg Your Majesty’s pardon,” I said quickly. “This young woman is still very new, and Your Majesty’s summons found her unprepared.”
He looked angry, as well He might, and snapped, “I said it did not matter,” adding, “You may leave us now.”
I bowed and started to back away. To my dismay, the girl did not move. “Toshiko,” I whispered, angry that she was making things even more difficult than they already were.
“Only you, Lady Sanjo,” said he. “Lady Toshiko will stay.”
Well, I was furious. I had to return alone to our quarters where I was instantly surrounded by the others who wanted to know why the girl had been called so urgently and in undress. If it had been night, they would have assumed that she had found favor, but it was still an hour until sunset and they were puzzled what His Majesty could want with her at that time.
“His Majesty is working on His song collection with an assistant,” I said, “and had a question about the music of her homeland.”
It was probably the truth, but I had seen His eyes widen when Her jacket fell open. Oh ,“ the anguish of my heart!”
I was not surprised when she did not return until the middle of the night. Only a few ladies were still awake and watched as she went to her bedding and lay down as she was, pulling the covers over herself.
We live in a degenerate age.
A Degenerate Age
Even a man who feels his life slipping through his fingers may have a moment of pure delight. In the midst of his disillusionment, mourning all the things that could never be, the retired Emperor had found enchantment.
It left him deeply troubled and confused.
For one thing, the girl who had been pawned off on him was not quite a child after all. This he saw the moment she began to dance. It was not just that the thin gauze of her white undergarment revealed that she had a woman’s body, hitherto hidden by voluminous layers of silk, but even his jaded eyes recognized in her movements the studied seduction practiced by the most adept performers of imayo, by women who sell their bodies to the men they entertain.
For a moment, he had stared in disbelief. The girl’s face, bare of make-up, was as innocent as a child’s, the face of a young girl before she puts on the train of womanhood and applies the paints that hide her features and give her the appearance of a doll. But this girl’s gestures were those of a practiced harlot.
In his first astonishment, he had almost thanked Lady Sanjo -- not only because she informed him of the girl’s singing talents, but because she brought her to him in a state of undress that awakened fires he had thought long since dead. His blood warmed — no, boiled — as he watched that young body gyrate, those small hands inviting him to touch, to take, to ravish. He felt such a surge of lust that he hardly heard her song. Instead his eyes searched those smooth limbs, tantalizingly revealed and hidden as she swayed and bent. Her hair, heavy with moisture, clung to her white neck but swung free below and scented the air with perfume. Alas, he thought, it was a wise man who said that even a mighty elephant may be tethered with the twist of a woman’s hair.
But Lady Sanjo had not planned this at all and broke the spell by hissing a reproof that caused the girl to collapse with a cry -- like an empty doll that has been dropped.
Instantly, the dream
Since the proper deportment of the young ladies falls within my responsibilities, I was forced to interfere. As soon as the girl was done, I hissed to her, “Cover yourself ! Are you totally shameless?”
She turned quite red and instantly fell to her knees, bending her head to the floor. Apparently the fool had been so flattered by His Majesty’s interest that she had forgotten her state of undress.
“I do beg Your Majesty’s pardon,” I said quickly. “This young woman is still very new, and Your Majesty’s summons found her unprepared.”
He looked angry, as well He might, and snapped, “I said it did not matter,” adding, “You may leave us now.”
I bowed and started to back away. To my dismay, the girl did not move. “Toshiko,” I whispered, angry that she was making things even more difficult than they already were.
“Only you, Lady Sanjo,” said he. “Lady Toshiko will stay.”
Well, I was furious. I had to return alone to our quarters where I was instantly surrounded by the others who wanted to know why the girl had been called so urgently and in undress. If it had been night, they would have assumed that she had found favor, but it was still an hour until sunset and they were puzzled what His Majesty could want with her at that time.
“His Majesty is working on His song collection with an assistant,” I said, “and had a question about the music of her homeland.”
It was probably the truth, but I had seen His eyes widen when Her jacket fell open. Oh ,“ the anguish of my heart!”
I was not surprised when she did not return until the middle of the night. Only a few ladies were still awake and watched as she went to her bedding and lay down as she was, pulling the covers over herself.
We live in a degenerate age.
A Degenerate Age
Even a man who feels his life slipping through his fingers may have a moment of pure delight. In the midst of his disillusionment, mourning all the things that could never be, the retired Emperor had found enchantment.
It left him deeply troubled and confused.
For one thing, the girl who had been pawned off on him was not quite a child after all. This he saw the moment she began to dance. It was not just that the thin gauze of her white undergarment revealed that she had a woman’s body, hitherto hidden by voluminous layers of silk, but even his jaded eyes recognized in her movements the studied seduction practiced by the most adept performers of imayo, by women who sell their bodies to the men they entertain.
For a moment, he had stared in disbelief. The girl’s face, bare of make-up, was as innocent as a child’s, the face of a young girl before she puts on the train of womanhood and applies the paints that hide her features and give her the appearance of a doll. But this girl’s gestures were those of a practiced harlot.
In his first astonishment, he had almost thanked Lady Sanjo -- not only because she informed him of the girl’s singing talents, but because she brought her to him in a state of undress that awakened fires he had thought long since dead. His blood warmed — no, boiled — as he watched that young body gyrate, those small hands inviting him to touch, to take, to ravish. He felt such a surge of lust that he hardly heard her song. Instead his eyes searched those smooth limbs, tantalizingly revealed and hidden as she swayed and bent. Her hair, heavy with moisture, clung to her white neck but swung free below and scented the air with perfume. Alas, he thought, it was a wise man who said that even a mighty elephant may be tethered with the twist of a woman’s hair.
But Lady Sanjo had not planned this at all and broke the spell by hissing a reproof that caused the girl to collapse with a cry -- like an empty doll that has been dropped.
Instantly, the dream
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