However, Rosaline sometimes divided the flowers not only on the altar but also in the shadowed back area, and he couldn’t understand why. Thinking he should ask her properly next time, he placed the purple flowers in a vase.

“Father.”

A sister had come from late afternoon on a day without mass. Seeing her, Laurence set down the vase on the altar and went to greet her.

“My, Sister. What brings you here?”

“My daughter left today without even eating… I came because I was worried.”

Rosaline’s birth mother, the Capulet family’s nanny, said while showing the basket hanging on her forearm. The somewhat sharp-featured woman scanned the small temple and smiled.

“But I don’t see her.”

“I sent Rosaline to town to fix a broken candlestick.”

Laurence lied, knowing Rosaline was usually distant with her mother. Though Rosaline rarely spoke, after being together for over ten years, there were things you knew even if you didn’t want to.

Her pale blue eyes turned toward the altar behind Laurence.

“Candlestick……”

She was probably looking at the silver candlesticks diligently placed on the statue and altar. Perhaps because Rosaline polished and maintained them every day, far from being broken, they sparkled like new. Laurence realized his mistake but didn’t show it.

“If you brought food, please give it to me. They’re candlesticks I found while organizing the storage, so there are quite a few and it will take time.”

“…Hm, I see.”

She smiled back at Laurence’s brazen smile and handed over the basket covered with cloth. When Laurence received it, before leaving, she stared at the statue of the sun god Kata and said.

“Father. Kata spoke of price, didn’t he?”

“Yes.”

Laurence answered smoothly and faithfully.

“Just as there are shadows where there is intense sunlight, everything has a corresponding price. Whether reward or punishment. Nothing ever happens for free.”

“Then my daughter should go to a larger and nobler estate rather than this small temple.”

She said with a cool smile.

“Don’t you think so too, Father?”

Laurence knew that Juliet was lobbying to have Rosaline reassigned here. But Rosaline’s mother seemed to think differently. Laurence hardened his expression and spoke neither coldly nor warmly.

“The value of reward and punishment is not in material things.”

“…Ah, is that so.”

This time she seemed to smile sincerely. Those characteristic frozen eyes were similar to yet unlike Rosaline’s.

“Having lived, it seemed like that was everything. I always hoped the child would go to a bigger place. Because there’s nothing she can have by staying by my side.”

She whispered like an unfortunate mother who wanted to give more but couldn’t. Laurence felt the faint compassion he sensed from her sounded sincere.

“I spoke nonsense as someone indifferent. I should come often with Rosaline.”

After making the sign of the cross, she stared at the statue for a long while, then gave a light greeting and went outside. Wind rose from the door she left through. Laurence looked inside the basket with the cloth removed.

There was nothing.

There were times he felt sorry for Rosaline’s small, thin back as she went between home and temple. When he asked if she was okay, he remembered the child who smiled palely saying she was fine. Sometimes the young Rosaline would say ‘Miss Juliet cherishes me,’ and that she didn’t want to disappoint anyone.

To his eyes, Rosaline was a child who needed affection. But she wasn’t ignorant of affection—she didn’t know how to receive it, only how to give it. This was a problem in itself. Even the sea forms from rivers gathering, but if she created emotions for others from the bottom, she would surely become exhausted.

He felt sorry for Rosaline. Because he also knew why her mother kept her own child at a distance, he felt even more sorry.

“Father, I have a confession.”

Over ten years ago, the confession of the tutor who had left the Capulet family was about Rosaline’s mother. Through it, Laurence came to understand why Rosaline’s mother kept Rosaline at a distance. However, the reason he couldn’t rashly speak of it was because, more than a priest’s duty, the truth could hurt both mother and daughter.

‘Perhaps… it might be better for Rosaline to leave. It would be better for her to meet various people in a wider world.’

If Rosaline stayed here, they could build a larger temple with Juliet’s help, but this was enough. Laurence entered the side room to send a letter to the central diocese.

Only the faded scent of violet and silence remained in the temple.

* * *

Going from the old town toward the forest, a long path appears, and following it leads to a gently sloping hill. Except for a giant zelkova tree, there was only green weeds tickling the soles of feet.

The sound of early autumn wind shaking the grass sounded like waves.

“Why did we come here? I think it’s time you told me.”

As if the pastoral scenery were a toilet, a disgruntled sound flowed from Romeo’s mouth. Rosaline, who had been looking into the distance, slowly turned to look at him behind her. He’d seemingly thrown away his hat on the path, he was already showing his face.

The sunlight tilting westward colored his smooth skin and angular jaw, even tickling his blond hair. However, his eyes—his black eyes that looked lonely enough—were like a youthful boy yet like an old man accustomed to resignation. They were eyes suited to a man who seemed knowable yet unknowable.

“Romeo, why did you do that earlier?”

Instead of answering his question, Rosaline asked back. Romeo frowned while keeping his mouth shut. Because there wasn’t just one or two things he could be questioned about. She kindly pointed it out.

“You touched not only Mr. Homan but also a customer. He has a loose tongue. If a real scandal happens between you and me……”

“He won’t remember my face, and he won’t run his mouth carelessly. I’m certain.”

“Did you cast magic or something?”

When he irritably cut her off, Rosaline also widened her eyes and sneered. It came out naturally without even awareness that she was sneering. Romeo snorted, then exhaled a long breath as if being patient.

“If he fears me because of magic, then yes. Let’s say I cast it.”

He said while frowning as if frustrated.

“But you don’t need to worry. He received money, so he won’t needlessly run his mouth……”

“Romeo.”

Rosaline smiled and closed her eyes, troubled.

“I asked why you did it.”

“……”

“Were you worried about me?”

She’d thought about it the whole way here. Though he’d been angry and sullen all day, in the end he’d gotten rid of things that made her uncomfortable. It took a while to think because the form was different from Juliet who showed her kindness, but the conclusion was one.

He was worried about her.

Worried to the point of frustration, he got angry.

Romeo took a deep breath and ran his hands through his hair.

“You can’t stand cigarette smoke, can you?”

He finally spoke as if confessing. Though he left out the part about Homan.

“His had opium mixed in too, so I judged it better to put it out.”

In reality, Rosaline’s bronchial tubes weren’t good, and thanks to that, catching colds every change of season was routine. However, since she didn’t show it, no one knew.

She hadn’t made a fuss, yet he noticed what even Juliet didn’t know.

“…Have we met before?”

Romeo’s poignant gaze held emotions she couldn’t clearly distinguish. Was it longing, was it l*st? When she tried to read his intentions even a little—

“Rosaline, I could tell just by watching you a little.”

He felt sorry for her. Though it was brief enough to disappear in an instant, she clearly read it. It felt like her heart was dropping.

“You kept stroking your throat or pressing your chest from outside the tavern. As if you were already in pain from inhaling smoke.”

He rubbed his face as if he were the one feeling suffocated.

“…You coughed too, didn’t you?”

Rosaline couldn’t understand Romeo. Even Juliet who cherished her, even her mother who bore her in pain, didn’t recognize her condition so instantly. She’d seen plenty of men who lusted after her to the point of being trivial, but she’d never received this kind of attention.

Why on earth? For what reason?

Interest is something that quietly ignites by staying nearby for a long time, keeping an appropriate distance, and treating each other from a suitable position. But like his large steps that suddenly advanced, he invaded her arbitrarily.

As she met the eyes of this man she’d simply thought annoying, she was seized by an unfamiliar and ignorant feeling, and the inside of her chest throbbed. It must be displeasure. As she ruminated on that, her shoulders grew heavy.

“Autumn is fickle. It will get cold soon, so wear this.”