Kuji Furumiya – illustratör

Irede, the town of fine drink, masterful performing arts, and holy courtesans, was built long ago as an offering to a god. Travelers gather here in droves from across the continent, but unbeknownst to them, shades—creatures who lead humans astray—lurk in the streets.

Sari, a maiden with the ability to bind shades, is the proprietress of a living myth: the courtesan house Pale Moon. And when she meets Xixu, a shadeslayer fresh from the capital, restless shadows begin stirring beneath the town’s surface...

This is a tale of true emotions, unspoken until the end. A tale of marriage between two worlds, of human will and resolve.

Once upon a time, Irede, the town of pleasure, was built in reverence to a god. To this day, the god still lingers there, and the old contract is maintained. Wine, music, and warmth are given and received as sacred offerings.

And in keeping with the contract, Sari, a courtesan and Irede’s singular maiden, must soon receive her one and only guest. Meanwhile, Xixu, a young man who not long ago learned Irede’s hidden secret for himself, is doing his best to fulfill his duty as one of the town’s shadeslayers while striving to support Sari with her own.

Into this delicately balanced world arrives a fresh face, sending ripples of change throughout the town. Soon, little by little, people seem to begin drifting away from who they once were. Xixu thus steps forward, ready to investigate the cause. But who knows what he will discover lying in wait for him...?

“To you, I devote my love in its entirety.”

The contract between a human and a god reaches its conclusion in this finale volume of A Pale Moon Reverie!

Fine wine, music, and warmth. These are the three sacred offerings the pleasure town of Irede dedicates to its god.

Since time immemorial, Irede has remained free of the fires of international conflict, indifferent to the changing of other nations’ borders. Yet the clouds of war are now drifting across the entire continent, threatening to leave none untouched.

In this town of brilliance and color, where powers clash, each to their own motive, Xixu fights in the shadows to protect Sari and her beloved home. Meanwhile, Sari firms her resolve: she will choose her guest—the only one she will take in her lifetime.

Predestined fate stands in our protagonists’ way, demanding to be overturned. What will be the conclusion to this tale of myth and humanity?

Irede: the world’s oldest pleasure town, built as an offering to a god. Here alone, myth has endured the passing of millennia. In a townscape dyed vermilion by the light of hanging lanterns, fine wine and masterful music sate the desires of guests who travel from across the continent to experience Irede’s wonders—and meet its beautiful courtesans.

Yet all is not well here, as shades—supernatural entities born of human desires—lurk in the shadows, their motives known only to themselves, and deep beneath the earth, something primal stirs.

When Xixu, a straight-laced military officer, arrives from the capital to become the town’s newest shadeslayer, he encounters Sari, a young courtesan with hair the color of moonlight. Thus begins a tale of love and conflict, of desire and blood, and of gods and men.

Trouble is stirring in Irede, the pleasure town whose existence traces back to the age of the gods. Shade attacks are happening in unprecedented numbers, causing the streets to run red with blood. Xixu begins a solitary manhunt for the shaman believed to have engineered the recent chaos, while Saridi confronts the evil at its source.

As the danger comes to a head, the truth of Irede is revealed, and the fates of a young man and woman begin to intertwine. Myth, mystery, blades, and betrayal—all pale in comparison to the brilliance of the moon.