High summer, Minguo Year 86 (1997).
Although the island had successfully completed its first direct presidential
election, this subtropical isle remained steeped in the same summer atmosphere as in years past, entering the season of scorching heat.
×× County, Kanlai Township.
Once famed for the gold rush, this small township contains within it a mountain town called Kakuto, backed by the hills and facing the sea, covering less than a single square kilometer.
As urban development brought greater convenience to everyday life, chain restaurants, a roller-skating rink, shopping centers, and even skyscrapers began to appear in Kanlai. Kakuto, however, remained unchanged, with its tar-paper roofs and stone stairways, continuing a life bound closely to the land.
...Having successfully blocked the sugar company’s plan to redevelop the gold mines, the rulers of this golden land tightened their grip on power all the more. And so, unlike Sanhsing City across Chingchuan Creek——that sleepless city of glitter and excess——this side remains a place where local custom and old tradition still endure.
「Fuhui Festival」
It is a lively folk observance held around the Chung-yuan season, lasting for an entire month.
Each year, it is hosted by the nine great families rooted in this land, with the main house of a different surname taking the lead——a ceremonial tradition that has been passed down for centuries.
“Opening the Lamps,” “Opening the Shrine Doors,” “Raising the Lantern Pole,” “Presenting the Offering Lanterns,” “Setting Forth the Colors,” “The Dipper Lantern Procession,” “The Water Lantern Procession and the Releasing of the Water Lantern Head,” “Chung-yuan P'u-tu,” “Sending Off the Lonely Spirits,” “Closing the Shrine Doors,” and “Passing the Hand Brazier”——only after all of these are completed does the festival come peacefully to an end, and the townspeople receive their blessings.
At least, it was only ever supposed to be a rite as simple as that——
Welcome to the world of August 1997.
Through the eyes of the protagonist, you will
experience — or perhaps relive — that chaotic age.
The protagonist, Hsuan-yu Hsia, left Taiwan as a child and returns to this land eight years later.
Though unsettled by an apartment he does not remember and by old friends who feel strangely unfamiliar, he has already resolved to begin this new life——unfamiliar, and yet somehow familiar all at once.
But at the same time, you too must be prepared to shoulder a duty——
『The Kakuto Order』
— an Ordinance of the Absolute Ninefold —
It is the system laid down by the Absolute Ninefold——the nine great families that hold Kanlai Township in their grasp.
It exists as an extra-legal body, unconstrained by formal codes or by law itself... in other words, an immense authority that stands above all else and rules this place.
Through it, “they” set the town’s rules, distribute benefits, reconcile factions, and manipulate local elections——
And now, as the head of the Hsia family, one of the Absolute Ninefold, you have returned here after many years away. It is your duty to learn the customs and character of this land, its culture and history... and even the secrets unknown to the townspeople, and to make careful decisions in council.
But once power is in your hands, you begin to sense that something is wrong.
...This place is brimming with the inexplicable——
A Series of Bizarre Deaths in Kanlai
(1989–1997)
...The conflict surrounding the gold-vein redevelopment plan escalated into a riot known as the “Mining Rights Resistance.”
The inexplicable deaths that had continued since the early 1990s are now beginning anew——
——Every year, on the night of Chung-yuan, one person dies, and one person disappears.
Those still before your eyes are, in truth, already gone.
Those long dead still wander here.
The one you met last night was not among the living.
And the one left behind——are they truly alive?
The forbidden subject buried during the lull that followed the exhaustion of the mines and the town’s decline thirty years ago is now rising to the surface once more —
...And beyond that, all manner of rumors are growing louder.
A random killer.
An unknown pathogen.
Human sacrifice.
The curse of KAKUTO.
A scarlet elixir——
This summer, the whispers spreading through this small town are slowly becoming something utterly unlike what they once were...
Is it a conspiracy? A chain of coincidences? Or is it Wang-yeh, punishing evil and bestowing blessings?
——The truth will be yours to decide.
