Series: His Sakura (Chapter 11)
Title: His Sakura
Pairing: Sakumoto (other pairings may be appearing later)
Setting: Early Edo period. Historically incorrect and purely fiction.
Rating: PG-13
Beta-ed by the lovely
ivenclaire ♥ ♥ ♥
Summary: When Jun ended up in a castle.
Chapter 1 >> Chapter 2 >> Chapter 3 >> Chapter 4 >> Chapter 5 >> Chapter 6 >> Chapter 7 >> Chapter 8 >> Chapter 9 >> Chapter 10 >> Chapter 11 >> Chapter 12
A pregnant silence enveloped the whole room. Not even a single whisper was heard from the retainers. However, a sudden chirping of the birds outside and the sound of them hitting the roof broke the silence.
The sounds of intakes of breath by the people, including Jun, were heard. It was like they just remembered their need to breathe the moment the daimyo entered the room. It was at that moment that Jun realized that he was staring at the daimyo, making eye contact directly without him knowing what he was doing. He dropped his gaze to the floor all of a sudden, feeling hatred, mixed with a certain kind of fear, course throughout his whole body in pulsing waves. He gulped, suddenly feeling breathless, his palms wet with his sweat which now seeped onto his silk kimono. He closed his eyes, chanting whispered words to himself to calm himself down, telling himself that Sakurai won’t attack him even if he wanted to in front of these many people. He regulated his breath, inhaling and exhaling deeply enough until he was sure that the need to run and forget that he was the one who agreed to this was gone from his chaotic mind.
He didn’t hear the buzz that suddenly filled the room. He knew the reason a little too late though.
The daimyo was squatting in front of him without him even realizing when Sakurai had left his seat. Jun was pretty taken aback when the daimyo made Jun aware of his presence by lifting his chin up to make him look up at him. His head cover fell to the back, leaving Jun’s head entirely exposed to everyone. It made the whispers all around him seem louder to his ears.
“It’s the boy!”
“Why is here?”
Those were some of the whispers that were running in the background. Jun would probably be wondering the same thing too if he wasn’t too preoccupied with his own set of problems.
The coldness of Sakurai’s fingers on him froze Jun’s entire body. It was pricking onto his skin painfully, like a combination of ice and thorns woven perfectly together to bring agony to its target.
Jun wasn’t sure why but this time, the pain made his eyes stare at the source of his discomfort without batting an eyelid. He couldn’t read Sakurai’s expression but the daimyo was mirroring his eye movements. He was staring unblinkingly at him, not a single twitch of his perfectly handsome face, something Jun would have to grudgingly admit if he was asked to describe the lord.
“A handsome but definitely a rotten one.” he added crossly in his mind.
Sakurai was too close for Jun to breathe properly. Thoughts and feelings of wanting to slap that fingers away crossed Jun’s mind like wild fire, but before the thought managed to link to his own limbs, Sakurai withdrew his fingers and silently walked back to his seat.
It stumped Jun a little. The sudden feeling of relief was welcome but it made Jun question what was running in the daimyo’s head. He turned his face to the groups of retainers who were whispering loudly among themselves. His eyes landed on Matsuoka who was lowering his head a little towards Jun in a respectful bow. Matsuoka was seated on Jun’s left side, further up from him, near the daimyo’s platform. Jun was about to respond to Matsuoka’s bow when he was nudged quite painfully in the ribs by the maid. Jun looked questioningly at her, or more like glared at her which had no effect on her at all. She whispered in his ear to ask him, no, to command him to bow to the lord. Jun questioned himself whether the daimyo deserves his respect at all. But after he was nudged again for the second time, he grudgingly followed the instruction; doing the half-bow with his fingertips touching the floor in front of his knees. He raised his body again to sit upright afterwards. Internally, Jun wanted to laugh at how formal and proper he is acting right now.
Jun heard Matsuoka clear his throat rather loudly. Unsurprisingly, all the whispers died down in an instant. All eyes were now fixed on Jun and the daimyo. And Jun’s heart began to beat erratically again, making him hate the situation even more, for making him feel so much discomfort. Thus, he kept his eyes down, staring hard at the floor. If his eyes could emit fire, the floor would have had a dark, big hole on its surface already.
Matsuoka spoke, addressing the retainers in behalf of the daimyo.
“As you’re aware, you have been called here to attend this little gathering. Let me emphasize that this gathering is of utmost secrecy. No one here is allowed to breathe even a single word about this outside of this room, not even to your wife or lover. And that is in accordance to the will of our daimyo, Sakurai-sama.”
The room broke into loud whispers. All the retainers must have been shocked to find that this wedding-like ceremony was meant to be a secret among the people attending. It didn’t exclude Jun himself. He stared at Matsuoka hard, wondering what is so secretive about the daimyo having a concubine. Was the daimyo too ashamed to announce to the whole domain that he was taking a slave as his consort? Or is it because he doesn’t want his wife to find out? Or is it due to the fact that he’s a man? Whatever the reason is, it made Jun furious and sad at the same time, knowing that no matter what, his past of being a slave would never be uprooted from his life and knowing that he was a nobody to the daimyo.
Matsuoka didn’t look back at him. Instead, he addressed the servants behind Jun’s back.
“Servants, please bring out the sake for Sakurai-sama and Jun-sama.”
A small cup of sake was put in front of Jun and opposite him, the daimyo received the exact same thing.
“You may drink.”
Jun darted his eyes on Matsuoka again. His face must have shown some of his concerns so Matsuoka silently gestured for him to drink, quietly telling Jun that it was okay to just follow the instruction.
Jun tentatively lifted his cup to his lips with both hands. Admittedly, he has never tasted sake in his entire life.
When his father had his own factory, he was too young therefore he was forbidden to even take a sip.
The liquid burned slightly at the back of his throat making him cringe. He could taste the alcohol's sweetness, mixed with bitterness, but its sharpness overpowered his taste buds. Jun coughed slightly with a hand covering his mouth, not used at all to the taste yet.
Apparently, a sip was enough to mark his beginning as a new consort to the powerful lord. Jun closed his eyes as Matsuoka made his announcement.
“Let me introduce this person to all of you. From this moment onward, Jun-sama is our Lord’s concubine. You are to show the same respect to him as what you’re giving to the Lord. You will protect him as you will the Lord. No one will inflict any harm towards him, do you understand?”
All the retainers chorused a ‘Yes’ loudly that it shook the entire main keep, sending vibrations to Jun’s heart.
For now, Jun took a deep breath, thinking that the ceremony was finally over. But he was dreading the moment onward as he knew that the lord would approach him and demand his service.
And it made Jun shiver and wish that the ceremony would go longer instead.
Apparently, the daimyo didn’t want to end the ceremony yet as he cleared his throat to say something. Jun just stayed silently in his place. He didn’t want to hear the daimyo’s talk but he couldn’t help taking an interest in what he would say. So he listened quietly.
“As what you’ve heard from Matsuoka-san, this gathering is to specially celebrate me and my new partner. You must be wondering how unusual it is to have a special gathering like this and I believe this is the first time it’s being held here or anywhere else. I have no reason for this other than giving you the privilege of knowing that I’m taking a male consort. I’d rather you hear this directly from me than from untrustworthy mouths. You’re to leave my consort alone and to his own whim and to never bother him with your troubles.”
Jun blinked.
“And now I’m making a further announcement…”
Jun knitted his eyebrows, wondering what sort of further announcement Sakurai would make.
“I’m thinking of awarding my consort with a name. It’s an uncommon practice to award such a privilege to man who has done nothing notable to deserve it. But since I’m a little bit generous today, I would like him to be known as Matsumoto Jun from now on. Matsu and Moto are taken from the names of my two childhood friends back in Edo city, Matsuyama and Sakamoto. It’s a good name, don’t you think?” Sakurai declared to his retainers with a wide grin on his face, looking so smug with his shocking announcement.
The murmurs of agreement reverberated across the whole room.
Matsumoto?
A new name? For him? Jun didn’t really know what to feel towards his new name since the whole time the daimyo was speaking, he was being spoken of like he wasn’t there and it really irritated him.
It was like Sakurai could read his internal complaint when all of a sudden, he addressed Jun directly.
“You must be thinking how lucky you are right now that you have been chosen to be my consort. Among the many young men I can have, I chose you. So you must value this once in a lifetime opportunity as you value your own life.”
Jun tried not to crease his eyebrows with every single cringe worthy word the daimyo said.
“You must know that I’m exceptionally generous towards you…”
Oh really? Jun expressed his doubtfulness in his head, totally sceptical of the daimyo’s generosity.
“I reward you with a good name and generously gifted dowries even when you aren’t entitled to. I’ve sent some of the dowries to your family and some are in your house right now. So you must know what is expected from you; for you to willingly show your loyalty towards me.”
Of course he knew what was expected from him other than loyalty. He was to give the daimyo all that he has willingly; body and mind.
Furthermore, those dowries would also bind him to this ‘union’ or whatever this was called. If he was to break it himself, something like a divorce, he would need to return all the dowries to the daimyo. He won’t use the portion that was sent to him but he couldn’t control the portion for his family. He didn’t know what they were either. They were probably just money or clothes. But they would still be hard to retrieve.
And the dowries baffled him actually. Normally, it’s the woman’s side who should give dowries to her husband. But now, Sakurai was doing the exact opposite. Although Jun is not a woman, his position is similar to that of a woman. However, as what the daimyo have said just now, there was no precedence to it. Apparently, Sakurai was doing it out of his own free will.
“Do you have anything else to say?” Sakurai asked.
Instead of answering, Jun darted his eyes towards Matsuoka. Matsuoka caught his eyes but he broke the eye contact after a few seconds, just nodding his head a little after he realized that Sakurai was following Jun’s gaze and was staring questioningly at his man. That damn lord is probably wondering why Jun seemed to seek his right hand man’s approval before answering his simple question. Jun heaved an internal sigh. He wasn’t seeking an approval from Matsuoka. It was just that he tends to seek someone familiar to him for support and it just so happens that Matsuoka was the only person who treated him well before. So it was just natural that his eyes would unsurprisingly always dart towards him.
“I… thank you for your generosity my lord…” Jun drawled out his ‘gratefulness’ just to get it over with.
And Jun did his customary bow.
It seemed that more words were expected from him when he sensed that Sakurai was looking at him keenly.
Jun cleared his throat. He is probably required to state his vow to the daimyo.
“I’ll stay loyal as long as I am required to be…” he said reluctantly, his voice sounded so unenthusiastic.
He bowed again, not wanting to say more and put a foot into his mouth.
It apparently satisfied the daimyo as he smiled radiantly. He was like he’s honestly happy about Jun’s simple declaration.
Things moved quickly after that. Jun was ushered to sit beside the daimyo as many dishes were prepared on trays and everyone had their own, including him.
Although the food looked ridiculously pretty and appetizing, they didn’t tempt Jun. He was too aware of the daimyo sitting beside him on his left side. He shifted his body as much as he could to his right so that the happy daimyo won’t bump into him. A few times, he had to dodge the unnaturally cheerful daimyo when the daimyo shifted his hand like he wanted to grab Jun when he and his retainers were doing the kanpai. Fortunately, since the daimyo was in such a good mood - something Jun didn’t quite understand - he didn’t get angry at Jun for dodging his wandering hand.
They finished the meals pretty quickly, with them wasting some more time with more sake being added to their cups. Jun stared at his plates, he didn’t touch too much. He only took a few bites. He wasn’t really fond of sake either so his sake cup was still full. He was so full of anxiety that his stomach felt like it’s bursting with nerves. He thought of what might happen later. Would the daimyo claim him tonight? Just the thought of it made Jun’s stomach cramp. It was too fast, wasn’t it? Jun wasn’t ready to spread his legs for Sakurai. His first experience with sex was so horrible and it was all thanks to Sakurai. Thanks to him, he feels aversion towards sex and he now generally associates it with pain and misery. But if he will be forced by the much stronger daimyo into doing the act with him again, he probably might have to endure all the sickness and pain alone. It was unfortunate for him, but as what the daimyo said, Jun has to pay back all of his ‘generosity’ with everything that he has.
As he stared unseeingly at his plates again, he ran his new name silently on his lips. Matsumoto. It was a simple name and so easy to pronounce. If someone else had given this name to him, Jun would probably be so excited and grateful. However, it was Sakurai. Jun would never be excited with anything related to Sakurai. The daimyo even thought up the name based on his best friends, who Jun was sure are as bad as Sakurai.
However, Jun understood that his position has shifted a bit. It’s common knowledge that everyone, aside from the samurai families and nobles, were forbidden to have family names. Now that he has one, this means that if someone would hear his name, he would be thought of as someone who comes from a classy family and they won’t bother to dig his past. He doesn’t know if any other concubine has gotten the same kind of privilege. He didn’t know why Sakurai wanted to give him this kind of privilege but he was not in the position to refuse and he wasn’t even sure whether he wanted to refuse. Having a family name would have an advantage far down the line and who knows, it might be useful to Jun someday.
The sun was shining brightly on top of their heads when Jun was escorted back to his house to prepare for the evening feast which Jun predicted would involve some heavy drinking and wasted men. Jun hoped to get drunk as well; disregarding his current dislike for sake just for tonight so he won’t feel anything if Sakurai chooses to sleep with him later.
*Kanpai-cheer for a toast
Pairing: Sakumoto (other pairings may be appearing later)
Setting: Early Edo period. Historically incorrect and purely fiction.
Rating: PG-13
Beta-ed by the lovely
ivenclaire ♥ ♥ ♥
Summary: When Jun ended up in a castle.
Chapter 1 >> Chapter 2 >> Chapter 3 >> Chapter 4 >> Chapter 5 >> Chapter 6 >> Chapter 7 >> Chapter 8 >> Chapter 9 >> Chapter 10 >> Chapter 11 >> Chapter 12
A pregnant silence enveloped the whole room. Not even a single whisper was heard from the retainers. However, a sudden chirping of the birds outside and the sound of them hitting the roof broke the silence.
The sounds of intakes of breath by the people, including Jun, were heard. It was like they just remembered their need to breathe the moment the daimyo entered the room. It was at that moment that Jun realized that he was staring at the daimyo, making eye contact directly without him knowing what he was doing. He dropped his gaze to the floor all of a sudden, feeling hatred, mixed with a certain kind of fear, course throughout his whole body in pulsing waves. He gulped, suddenly feeling breathless, his palms wet with his sweat which now seeped onto his silk kimono. He closed his eyes, chanting whispered words to himself to calm himself down, telling himself that Sakurai won’t attack him even if he wanted to in front of these many people. He regulated his breath, inhaling and exhaling deeply enough until he was sure that the need to run and forget that he was the one who agreed to this was gone from his chaotic mind.
He didn’t hear the buzz that suddenly filled the room. He knew the reason a little too late though.
The daimyo was squatting in front of him without him even realizing when Sakurai had left his seat. Jun was pretty taken aback when the daimyo made Jun aware of his presence by lifting his chin up to make him look up at him. His head cover fell to the back, leaving Jun’s head entirely exposed to everyone. It made the whispers all around him seem louder to his ears.
“It’s the boy!”
“Why is here?”
Those were some of the whispers that were running in the background. Jun would probably be wondering the same thing too if he wasn’t too preoccupied with his own set of problems.
The coldness of Sakurai’s fingers on him froze Jun’s entire body. It was pricking onto his skin painfully, like a combination of ice and thorns woven perfectly together to bring agony to its target.
Jun wasn’t sure why but this time, the pain made his eyes stare at the source of his discomfort without batting an eyelid. He couldn’t read Sakurai’s expression but the daimyo was mirroring his eye movements. He was staring unblinkingly at him, not a single twitch of his perfectly handsome face, something Jun would have to grudgingly admit if he was asked to describe the lord.
“A handsome but definitely a rotten one.” he added crossly in his mind.
Sakurai was too close for Jun to breathe properly. Thoughts and feelings of wanting to slap that fingers away crossed Jun’s mind like wild fire, but before the thought managed to link to his own limbs, Sakurai withdrew his fingers and silently walked back to his seat.
It stumped Jun a little. The sudden feeling of relief was welcome but it made Jun question what was running in the daimyo’s head. He turned his face to the groups of retainers who were whispering loudly among themselves. His eyes landed on Matsuoka who was lowering his head a little towards Jun in a respectful bow. Matsuoka was seated on Jun’s left side, further up from him, near the daimyo’s platform. Jun was about to respond to Matsuoka’s bow when he was nudged quite painfully in the ribs by the maid. Jun looked questioningly at her, or more like glared at her which had no effect on her at all. She whispered in his ear to ask him, no, to command him to bow to the lord. Jun questioned himself whether the daimyo deserves his respect at all. But after he was nudged again for the second time, he grudgingly followed the instruction; doing the half-bow with his fingertips touching the floor in front of his knees. He raised his body again to sit upright afterwards. Internally, Jun wanted to laugh at how formal and proper he is acting right now.
Jun heard Matsuoka clear his throat rather loudly. Unsurprisingly, all the whispers died down in an instant. All eyes were now fixed on Jun and the daimyo. And Jun’s heart began to beat erratically again, making him hate the situation even more, for making him feel so much discomfort. Thus, he kept his eyes down, staring hard at the floor. If his eyes could emit fire, the floor would have had a dark, big hole on its surface already.
Matsuoka spoke, addressing the retainers in behalf of the daimyo.
“As you’re aware, you have been called here to attend this little gathering. Let me emphasize that this gathering is of utmost secrecy. No one here is allowed to breathe even a single word about this outside of this room, not even to your wife or lover. And that is in accordance to the will of our daimyo, Sakurai-sama.”
The room broke into loud whispers. All the retainers must have been shocked to find that this wedding-like ceremony was meant to be a secret among the people attending. It didn’t exclude Jun himself. He stared at Matsuoka hard, wondering what is so secretive about the daimyo having a concubine. Was the daimyo too ashamed to announce to the whole domain that he was taking a slave as his consort? Or is it because he doesn’t want his wife to find out? Or is it due to the fact that he’s a man? Whatever the reason is, it made Jun furious and sad at the same time, knowing that no matter what, his past of being a slave would never be uprooted from his life and knowing that he was a nobody to the daimyo.
Matsuoka didn’t look back at him. Instead, he addressed the servants behind Jun’s back.
“Servants, please bring out the sake for Sakurai-sama and Jun-sama.”
A small cup of sake was put in front of Jun and opposite him, the daimyo received the exact same thing.
“You may drink.”
Jun darted his eyes on Matsuoka again. His face must have shown some of his concerns so Matsuoka silently gestured for him to drink, quietly telling Jun that it was okay to just follow the instruction.
Jun tentatively lifted his cup to his lips with both hands. Admittedly, he has never tasted sake in his entire life.
When his father had his own factory, he was too young therefore he was forbidden to even take a sip.
The liquid burned slightly at the back of his throat making him cringe. He could taste the alcohol's sweetness, mixed with bitterness, but its sharpness overpowered his taste buds. Jun coughed slightly with a hand covering his mouth, not used at all to the taste yet.
Apparently, a sip was enough to mark his beginning as a new consort to the powerful lord. Jun closed his eyes as Matsuoka made his announcement.
“Let me introduce this person to all of you. From this moment onward, Jun-sama is our Lord’s concubine. You are to show the same respect to him as what you’re giving to the Lord. You will protect him as you will the Lord. No one will inflict any harm towards him, do you understand?”
All the retainers chorused a ‘Yes’ loudly that it shook the entire main keep, sending vibrations to Jun’s heart.
For now, Jun took a deep breath, thinking that the ceremony was finally over. But he was dreading the moment onward as he knew that the lord would approach him and demand his service.
And it made Jun shiver and wish that the ceremony would go longer instead.
Apparently, the daimyo didn’t want to end the ceremony yet as he cleared his throat to say something. Jun just stayed silently in his place. He didn’t want to hear the daimyo’s talk but he couldn’t help taking an interest in what he would say. So he listened quietly.
“As what you’ve heard from Matsuoka-san, this gathering is to specially celebrate me and my new partner. You must be wondering how unusual it is to have a special gathering like this and I believe this is the first time it’s being held here or anywhere else. I have no reason for this other than giving you the privilege of knowing that I’m taking a male consort. I’d rather you hear this directly from me than from untrustworthy mouths. You’re to leave my consort alone and to his own whim and to never bother him with your troubles.”
Jun blinked.
“And now I’m making a further announcement…”
Jun knitted his eyebrows, wondering what sort of further announcement Sakurai would make.
“I’m thinking of awarding my consort with a name. It’s an uncommon practice to award such a privilege to man who has done nothing notable to deserve it. But since I’m a little bit generous today, I would like him to be known as Matsumoto Jun from now on. Matsu and Moto are taken from the names of my two childhood friends back in Edo city, Matsuyama and Sakamoto. It’s a good name, don’t you think?” Sakurai declared to his retainers with a wide grin on his face, looking so smug with his shocking announcement.
The murmurs of agreement reverberated across the whole room.
Matsumoto?
A new name? For him? Jun didn’t really know what to feel towards his new name since the whole time the daimyo was speaking, he was being spoken of like he wasn’t there and it really irritated him.
It was like Sakurai could read his internal complaint when all of a sudden, he addressed Jun directly.
“You must be thinking how lucky you are right now that you have been chosen to be my consort. Among the many young men I can have, I chose you. So you must value this once in a lifetime opportunity as you value your own life.”
Jun tried not to crease his eyebrows with every single cringe worthy word the daimyo said.
“You must know that I’m exceptionally generous towards you…”
Oh really? Jun expressed his doubtfulness in his head, totally sceptical of the daimyo’s generosity.
“I reward you with a good name and generously gifted dowries even when you aren’t entitled to. I’ve sent some of the dowries to your family and some are in your house right now. So you must know what is expected from you; for you to willingly show your loyalty towards me.”
Of course he knew what was expected from him other than loyalty. He was to give the daimyo all that he has willingly; body and mind.
Furthermore, those dowries would also bind him to this ‘union’ or whatever this was called. If he was to break it himself, something like a divorce, he would need to return all the dowries to the daimyo. He won’t use the portion that was sent to him but he couldn’t control the portion for his family. He didn’t know what they were either. They were probably just money or clothes. But they would still be hard to retrieve.
And the dowries baffled him actually. Normally, it’s the woman’s side who should give dowries to her husband. But now, Sakurai was doing the exact opposite. Although Jun is not a woman, his position is similar to that of a woman. However, as what the daimyo have said just now, there was no precedence to it. Apparently, Sakurai was doing it out of his own free will.
“Do you have anything else to say?” Sakurai asked.
Instead of answering, Jun darted his eyes towards Matsuoka. Matsuoka caught his eyes but he broke the eye contact after a few seconds, just nodding his head a little after he realized that Sakurai was following Jun’s gaze and was staring questioningly at his man. That damn lord is probably wondering why Jun seemed to seek his right hand man’s approval before answering his simple question. Jun heaved an internal sigh. He wasn’t seeking an approval from Matsuoka. It was just that he tends to seek someone familiar to him for support and it just so happens that Matsuoka was the only person who treated him well before. So it was just natural that his eyes would unsurprisingly always dart towards him.
“I… thank you for your generosity my lord…” Jun drawled out his ‘gratefulness’ just to get it over with.
And Jun did his customary bow.
It seemed that more words were expected from him when he sensed that Sakurai was looking at him keenly.
Jun cleared his throat. He is probably required to state his vow to the daimyo.
“I’ll stay loyal as long as I am required to be…” he said reluctantly, his voice sounded so unenthusiastic.
He bowed again, not wanting to say more and put a foot into his mouth.
It apparently satisfied the daimyo as he smiled radiantly. He was like he’s honestly happy about Jun’s simple declaration.
Things moved quickly after that. Jun was ushered to sit beside the daimyo as many dishes were prepared on trays and everyone had their own, including him.
Although the food looked ridiculously pretty and appetizing, they didn’t tempt Jun. He was too aware of the daimyo sitting beside him on his left side. He shifted his body as much as he could to his right so that the happy daimyo won’t bump into him. A few times, he had to dodge the unnaturally cheerful daimyo when the daimyo shifted his hand like he wanted to grab Jun when he and his retainers were doing the kanpai. Fortunately, since the daimyo was in such a good mood - something Jun didn’t quite understand - he didn’t get angry at Jun for dodging his wandering hand.
They finished the meals pretty quickly, with them wasting some more time with more sake being added to their cups. Jun stared at his plates, he didn’t touch too much. He only took a few bites. He wasn’t really fond of sake either so his sake cup was still full. He was so full of anxiety that his stomach felt like it’s bursting with nerves. He thought of what might happen later. Would the daimyo claim him tonight? Just the thought of it made Jun’s stomach cramp. It was too fast, wasn’t it? Jun wasn’t ready to spread his legs for Sakurai. His first experience with sex was so horrible and it was all thanks to Sakurai. Thanks to him, he feels aversion towards sex and he now generally associates it with pain and misery. But if he will be forced by the much stronger daimyo into doing the act with him again, he probably might have to endure all the sickness and pain alone. It was unfortunate for him, but as what the daimyo said, Jun has to pay back all of his ‘generosity’ with everything that he has.
As he stared unseeingly at his plates again, he ran his new name silently on his lips. Matsumoto. It was a simple name and so easy to pronounce. If someone else had given this name to him, Jun would probably be so excited and grateful. However, it was Sakurai. Jun would never be excited with anything related to Sakurai. The daimyo even thought up the name based on his best friends, who Jun was sure are as bad as Sakurai.
However, Jun understood that his position has shifted a bit. It’s common knowledge that everyone, aside from the samurai families and nobles, were forbidden to have family names. Now that he has one, this means that if someone would hear his name, he would be thought of as someone who comes from a classy family and they won’t bother to dig his past. He doesn’t know if any other concubine has gotten the same kind of privilege. He didn’t know why Sakurai wanted to give him this kind of privilege but he was not in the position to refuse and he wasn’t even sure whether he wanted to refuse. Having a family name would have an advantage far down the line and who knows, it might be useful to Jun someday.
The sun was shining brightly on top of their heads when Jun was escorted back to his house to prepare for the evening feast which Jun predicted would involve some heavy drinking and wasted men. Jun hoped to get drunk as well; disregarding his current dislike for sake just for tonight so he won’t feel anything if Sakurai chooses to sleep with him later.
*Kanpai-cheer for a toast