Chapter 51 – The Pitiful Japanese Imperial Princess

Content Warning

This chapter deals with sensitive topics including sexual harassment and abuse of power in a professional environment. While the narrative does not contain explicit descriptions, we advise sensitive readers or minors to proceed with caution.

If you or someone you know has been affected by such issues, please seek professional help and appropriate support.

Jingū Kanade naishinnō was born bearing the title of Japanese imperial princess.

"Princess" — a name that modern girls dream of, a title that evokes fairy-tale fantasies. Living in grand and towering castles, wearing gorgeous lace dresses, spending their days carefree and enviable, possessing beauty that astonishes all, and waiting for a prince from a neighboring kingdom to arrive on a white horse and propose.

But fantasy is always fantasy. Fairy tales are just that — tales. Even the Grimms' Fairy Tales have their dark chapters, let alone the cold, real world we live in.

In ancient times, the primary role of a princess was to serve as a tool for political marriages. Glorified under the name of "social harmony," they were married off to ministers' sons, to foreign kings — and the person they married was never the white-horse prince of their dreams. Even if, by virtue of their royal blood, they were seldom abused, their lives were far from the bliss imagined in stories.

In modern society, countries that still maintain royal families are few and far between. As such, girls with the title of "princess" have become rare as phoenix feathers. Even though contemporary values promote the freedom to marry for love, in the true upper echelons of power, genuine freedom in marriage is a luxury many cannot afford.

Jingū is her court title. Kanade is her given name. Naishinnō is her official title of princess — and unlike those daughters of the Emperor's siblings who also receive such titles, her father is the 126th Emperor of Japan himself: Emperor Meigi, the current reigning sovereign. Hers is the most legitimate, most orthodox imperial bloodline.

But alas, the modern Japanese monarchy exists only as a symbolic head of state. Its role is ceremonial — foreign visits, formal signatures of legal documents — with real authority resting in the hands of the government and parliament. And those rulers? They are little more than mouthpieces for capitalist interest groups. In the end, the true powers of a capitalist society are the conglomerates that command astronomical wealth.

Like America's Rockefeller and Morgan families.

Like Japan's Mitsui and Mitsubishi groups.

The wealthiest royal family in the world is the Thai monarchy, which controls assets totaling over 20 billion euros. The Japanese imperial family, having once suffered defeat and occupation by the United States, hasn't been so lucky. The assets they possess are limited, and to maintain appearances — not to mention the annual expenses of various extended royal family members — their own resources are far from sufficient. Each year, the Japanese government must dip into tax revenues to keep the family afloat.

Yet most of those funds go to maintaining the imperial palace and hosting state functions like banquets for foreign dignitaries — all under strict governmental oversight. The small remainder is divided among the entire imperial household for personal expenses. In recent years, even this allotment has been steadily shrinking. Though the royal lifestyle might appear glamorous, in truth it is a struggle. There was even an incident where the Emperor's brother's personal driver quit due to low pay.

In such a situation, the current Emperor has no sway over parliament to increase the imperial budget, nor can he start his own business empire. Left with few options, he could only choose a path that modern people would deem unjust — a political marriage. That is, marrying off his daughter.

This generation of the Japanese imperial family could be said to have been blessed by their ancestors' luck. They gave birth to not just one but two daughters who perfectly embodied the very image of a "princess." The elder sister is gentle, graceful — the epitome of the Yamato Nadeshiko ideal. Coupled with breathtaking beauty and outstanding academic excellence, she was the perfect candidate for an arranged marriage. Even if she were to become nothing more than a housewife or a trophy wife, at least she'd be an exquisite one.

Naturally, such a marriage partner wouldn't be an ordinary man. Only someone from the wealthy elite would be considered. Among them, the Jingū family — one of Japan's oldest zaibatsu — was the top contender. To put it in plain terms: the imperial family was providing "noble" blood in exchange for being supported by a true tycoon.

Kanade Jingū went through elementary and middle school like any ordinary girl. No one knew her true identity. But from the moment she was chosen to be used as a pawn in marriage, she had already lost her future — and her freedom.

Her dream had been to attend the University of Tokyo and become a respected physician. But that dream was now subject to the Jingū family's control. If they didn't want her making public appearances after marriage, she would be reduced to the role of a housewife — raising children, managing a household — just like many Japanese women.

So even when her fiancé, at their first meeting, violently stripped her, pinned her to a luxurious bed, and violated her, she could only shut her eyes, clench her teeth, and silently endure Jingū Yō's lashings and humiliation. The searing pain of her first time, the shame of being defiled by a stranger she had just met — she dared not offer any real resistance. At most, she could respond with passive non-cooperation, a cold stare, and emotional detachment.

Telling her family would be useless. Her father might pity her, but the other royal relatives? They were human too — capable of envy, of cruelty. They would only look at her with mocking, bitter eyes, sneering that even after marrying into a true elite household, she still had the nerve to act like a pampered princess.

All she could do was lick her wounds in silence. Every day, she wore a forced smile. At just sixteen years old, she was already more mature than people imagined. She understood that some things could be said, and others never should. She couldn't act like a normal girl — no room for indulgence, no room to enjoy her youth.

At times, Kanade Jingū couldn't help but think: How am I any different from those women working in the pleasure district of Kabukichō? The only difference was that she carried a "princess" title, and the men who used her weren't average salarymen — they were Japan's so-called elite.

Jingū Yō — that name would be forever burned into her memory.

What happened that night — forced upon her, against her will — was rape, plain and simple. For a sixteen-year-old girl in the prime of her youth, it was a scar that would never fade.

And yet, she had to come here again today.

Because Yō's father — the head of the Jingū family — wished for the two of them to reconcile. For that one simple reason, she had to force down her nausea, suppress her sorrow, and obey.

Jingū Yō was, after all, his biological son.

She… was nothing more than an outsider.