Golden Invite

Shiro Ide Final Days of Winter court 1197

Benjiro looked at his packs once again and shook his head, how did he end up with so much more clothes to pack. He had already doubled his wardrobe to prepare coming to winter court, and now it felt like it had quadrupled. He knew that it was not unusual to have this many outfits for court but it still felt very unnecessary to him. He sighed as he thought how this was very unlikely to change in the near future, while gaining such an important patron as the Yasuki Daimyo was a great honor, it also meant he had to present himself in an impeccable way, Terumasa Sensei had been adamant about it, and one simply did not argue such things with him.

The only consolation was that the servants of Shiro Ide were fast, efficient and far better than him at packing clothes, it left him some time to think back about all the things that happened this past winter, and of things to come. Benjiro had thought that the closer to his Gempukku he was the more confident he would feel in what his place in the world would be. He chuckled to himself at the thought, he could not have been more wrong, and while it seemed that his strategy for court had payed off with the Shogunate, he allowed himself a smile at how proud his parents had been, he had been more successful that he could have hoped, or imagined.

He was invited to the Topaz Championship, he had trained under the head monk of the Togashi Order, Kenji and him had settled themselves in a leadership position with the young Samurai of the shogunate. He was juggling so many things, he wasn’t sure when or if everything would end up crashing down.

And all of this were just the mundane problems he was facing. The dreams of Hida had not stopped and he felt that the next step was getting closer and closer. Something had to be done and while he would get support from his clan, he knew this is something he had to settle himself. He wondered if the spinning coin he kept hearing had anything to do with that, he promised himself he would ask Hida Sokah when he next met him at the Stone Tower Dojo in the capital, surely he would have knowledge of advice that could help.

He continued packing his more personal belongings and as he was putting away the last few things, his eyes fell on mid size package and he broke into a genuine smile. He had thought long and hard about what to send Mirumoto Amae and finally had settled on a puzzle box made of Hinoki wood as the earthy smell reminded him of home, and hidden within the box was a Mon which was a combination of her and his family Mons. He would send it to her as soon as he was done packing. He only had a couple days left at winter court and he still had many letters to write after the one he would delivered with his gift.