Chimper #574
What good is a simple story in a palace built of cold marble and blinding gold? When Gousuke was summoned to the capital, they believed their knowledge of ancient folklore was finally valued. Instead, they found themself ignored, a rustic scholar whose gleeful eyes and love for a good meal were out of place among ambitious courtiers. They were a fish gasping on a gilded floor. So, they built their own pond. In a forgotten alcove, Gousuke installed a small clay hearth and began cooking simple, fragrant stews for themself. Soon, guards and kitchen hands, drawn by the warmth, began to join. They came for the food but stayed for the stories. The nobles sneered, calling them the teacher of the “low hearth,” but the name stuck as a badge of honor. Gousuke had found their true classroom, a small circle of warmth in a city that had forgotten how to feel it.
