A Great Distance in the Wind, the Sky at Dawn - Reminiscence Chapter

A Great Distance in the Wind, the Sky at Dawn - Reminiscence Chapter (風の万里 黎明の空 転章, Kaze no Banri Reimei no Sora Tenshou) is the thirty-first episode of the Twelve Kingdoms anime series. It is the tenth chapter of the third arc of the series, based on the fourth novel, The Twelve Kingdoms: Skies of Dawn.

The episode is a partial recap of the first half of A Great Distance in the Wind, the Sky at Dawn.

Summary
Shoukei and Rakushun arrive in En, where Rakushun continues to teach Shoukei about the responsibilities and consequences of being a ruler. When she reminiscences about how her father, the ruler of Hou, was disposed and executed, she admits that her ignorance was inexcusable and that she is still having difficulty adjusting to being a commoner. Rakushun assures her that she has been fortunate to be given another chance and reveals how his friend, the new ruler of Kei, also suffered greatly before she ascended her throne because she had been hunted in Kou as a kaikyaku before Rakushun saved her.

However, though she has become the monarch of Kei, she has been struggling through with an untrustworthy court and lack of knowledge regarding the Twelve Kingdoms. Shoukei confesses that her original intention to go to Kei had been to steal the new ruler's throne out of resentment and jealousy for the ruler's sudden rise in fortunes, but after meeting Rakushun, she only hopes to see the country that the new monarch will create. Rakushun encourages her to see more of the world and sees her to the border between En and Kei.



Meanwhile, Ikuya Asano, Youko Nakajima's missing classmate, recalls his meeting with Suzu, a girl who had escaped after one hundred years of servitude under Riyou, a flying sage from the kingdom of Sai. She had been traveling with a boy named Seishu with the intention of going to Kei and meeting its new monarch, believing she would solve all of Suzu, Seishu, and Asano's problems. Asano, steadily losing his sanity, he agrees to aid Shoukou, the corrupt governor of the Shisui Prefecture in the Province of Wa in Kei.