Serialized Novel "Furniture Maker Princess" (1)

Prologue
A spaceship navigating through the eternal silence of outer space. Contrary to the silence outside its hull, the level of chaos inside had just reached its peak.

"All hands evacuate! Hurry to the escape pods!"
"I-it's no use! Passageways 4 through 18 are gone!"
"Then show everyone a detour! If we go through 22 to 31..."
"Negative! The contamination level in 22 is off the charts! Even with a correspondence suit, you wouldn't last two seconds!"
"What! Then what about the rear section!?"
"...Signal lost about a minute ago... No sensor response..."
"Damn it...!"

The exploration immigrant ship Perpetual, while on its journey to find a habitable planet with 500 immigrants on board, had suddenly encountered an energy ribbon and was driven into a desperate situation.

Its functions as a spaceship were being lost.
It no longer had the ability to navigate, and while it continued on by inertia, the eerie rotation of the uncontrolled hull had gradually begun.

Calculations showed that at this rate, in less than 900 seconds, the rotation speed would exceed the structural limits of the hull, causing it to fall apart and literally explode.

"...There is no other choice. Let's at least release the newborn pods."
"Captain... that is...!"
"I know! But at this rate, the chance of survival is zero. If there is even the slightest chance, it's better than zero!"
"B-but the only habitable planet in the vicinity is the third planet of the Sol system? T-that's a hell infested with notorious lifeforms! Y-you want to send our children to a place like that..."

At that moment, a warning sound rang out from the remaining monitors that had barely managed to keep their power.

"Warning! Rotation rate rising abnormally! 200 seconds until structural limit!"

"! If the rotation rate goes any higher, the pods will be destroyed upon release! Hurry! Release all pods!"

Thus, pods were released radially one after another from the spinning spaceship. The number reached 20, but the 21st pod could not withstand the gravitational acceleration during detachment and shattered into pieces, and all subsequent pods met the same fate.

The pods that were released safely floated in space for a while, occasionally blinking blue and red signals, but once a direction was decided, they formed a line and began to navigate in that direction.

Just as a blue-glowing semi-circular planet began to appear in the distant space ahead, the end of the Perpetual reached the pods from behind as a white diffused light.

The Old Furniture Maker
This is an old story now, but there was an elderly man known as the old furniture maker. He would venture into the hills and mountains to cut down high-quality wood, and he made a living by crafting and selling furniture and small items under the shop name "Ikeya." His name was Kizo Sako.

One day, when he stepped into a bamboo grove in search of bamboo for a bamboo basket he had received an order for, he found a bamboo stalk with a glowing base. Curious, he approached it and found, inside the glowing tube, a tiny human sleeping soundly with a lovely sleeping face.

"Oh my! This must surely be a sign for us, a couple who wished for children but were never blessed with any, to raise this child!"

Thinking this, Kizo took the glowing tube home and entrusted it to his wife, En, to raise.

"En, look at this lovely child. Since she is so young and small, let's put her in a basket and raise her with care."

When they gave the child the name Kaguya and raised her with care, a strange thing happened.

Every time Kizo went into the bamboo grove in search of bamboo, he would find another glowing bamboo, and when he cut it, he found gold dust packed into every node. Thus, Kizo gradually became a wealthy man.

Kaguya grew up healthy and strong, and in just about three months, she had grown into a beautiful young woman of marriageable age.

They divined a date for her hair-raising ceremony, held the ceremony, and dressed her in attire befitting her appearance.
Kizo and Ohime did not want to let Kaguya go out, but because Kaguya insisted, they let her stand at the shop counter of the Ike-ya. Kaguya's beauty became a great sensation, with people calling her "Princess Furniture Maker" or "Princess Ike-ya," and the Ike-ya became extremely prosperous, making Kizo even wealthier.

Since the furniture Kizo could craft was no longer enough, they built a workshop a little further away and hired craftsmen to make furniture. Kaguya not only tended the shop but also showed the craftsmen furniture designs she had devised herself—functional and unlike anything anyone had ever seen—which also became a great sensation, and customers began to visit from distant lands upon hearing of it.

Kizo and Ohime lived happily and joyfully, entertaining the customers who visited in this way with tea and sweets.

For the next three years, the three of them continued living that kind of life.
Kizo and Ohime felt satisfied with a life of unexpected happiness that they could never have achieved as a couple alone, while at the same time fearing that this dream-like time would come to an end.

During this time, whenever young men who had been captivated by Kaguya's beauty visited and proposed marriage to her, the two would smile sadly, but inwardly they felt very lonely and helpless.

However, Kaguya never once gave her consent.

At first, the two were happy about this, but they began to think that it was not right. Both of them were reaching an old age where they did not know if tomorrow would come, and they began to worry about Kaguya's future.

"If things go on like this, Kaguya will be pitiable. I want to marry her off to a good place while we are still alive..."

Kizo, who had watched Kaguya drive away such young men by imposing impossible tasks on them whenever they visited, asked Kaguya about her true intentions one day.

"Kaguya, my dear Kaguya. It is about time you married into a good home and put our minds at ease. You say you are a person of change, but please, take pity on us who have raised you as a parent cherishes a child, and set our hearts at rest."
"You say that, Grandfather, but all those who have asked for my hand in marriage until now have only looked at my superficial beauty and would not love me as you and Grandmother do. That is precisely why I have dared to set impossible tasks to test that love. Most people gave up and left without facing them, and others brought me fakes. You saw the fire-rat's skin that burns so easily and the branch of the Horai jewel tree that was just a cheap craft on a birch branch, didn't you, Grandfather? How could I entrust myself to such men?"

Kizo and Ohime had no words to reply to this.
It was true that the people who had visited until now did not seem like a good match for Kaguya at all.

However, was there a man in this world who could be a match for Kaguya, who possessed both this beauty and intelligence?

Even if there were, would he ever meet Kaguya?
Thinking of this, Kizo could no longer sleep at night.

One night, as Kizo lay in his futon feeling restless, he began to sweat even though it was not hot, and he felt a strange shortness of breath. When he tried to get up, he immediately felt dizzy and unsteady.

"This is not good."

Kizo had recently been plagued by such symptoms from time to time. This was likely what it meant to be old, but he would become impatient and lose track of what he wanted to do with himself.

At such times, just having Kaguya hold his hand and listening to her voice would calm his heart, and the pain and suffering would subside.

Hoping to have her do the same tonight, he hurried along the veranda to the room where Kaguya was.
As he leaned against a pillar on the way to catch his breath and slowly approached Kaguya's room, he saw something glowing faintly on the other side of the paper sliding door, and he could hear Kaguya sobbing sadly and saying something from inside.

"What... Kaguya, Kaguya. Why are you crying in the middle of the night like this..."

Kizo was so surprised and worried that his own poor health was blown away.

When I slid open the shoji screen and peeked inside, Kaguya was sitting before that glowing tube, covering her face with her sleeve and weeping bitterly.

"W-what is the matter? Won't you tell this old man what you are grieving over so much?"

Kaguya lifted her face from her sleeve and gazed at Kizo with tear-stained eyes.
Her beauty was so brave and fragile that it made even Kizo, who had long since withered away, feel a sudden jolt in his heart.

"I thought that if I told you this, it would only make you and Grandmother sad, so I have never been able to speak of it until now..."

With that preamble, the story Kaguya began to tell was truly astonishing.

Novel "Princess Furniture Maker" (1)
End.

I started writing this as a short story, but it became interesting, so I decided to continue it. Writing it on the fly without a plot...

If you are interested, please bear with me a little longer.