The final battle with Kata’s incarnation deployed had ended. The succession war concluded with complete and perfect victory. Duke William was scheduled to come to Arsha to celebrate this. Nominally, it was a celebration.

To greet William’s visit, holy knights lined up in rows at the corners of the road, and among them stood Prioress Gabriella and Tybalt. It was hard to find the joy of victory in their faces. At a glance, they looked expressionless enough to seem bored.

“He’s arrived.”

When Duke William descended from the tower, Gabriella muttered with narrowed eyes. The duke’s face emerging through the sleet looked less like a victor’s leisurely ease and more like a venomous snake.

William gripped both of Tybalt’s shoulders before he could offer a greeting.

“You’ve worked hard, Tybalt. Where is Rome… no, Kata’s incarnation?”

“……I heard he just arrived. He should be waiting at the temple.”

“Let’s go right away.”

At the uncertain tone, William clicked his tongue briefly as if understanding.

There was a reason he’d come timed to when Kata returned to Arsha after finishing the final battle. Since he completely ignored all envoys and telegrams, the only way to see his face once was to come at the right time.

‘Anyway, that crazy b*stard……’

According to transmitted theory, after Romeo became an incarnation, his original personality should have disappeared.

But this Kata incarnation, Romeo, hadn’t changed. At least as far as William knew.

At this rate, he could be called a human with special abilities rather than a god. But since he’d been given even a god’s name by others, his influence was truly tremendous.

Weap*ns could be discarded after war ended, but a living god couldn’t be discarded. Yet he was impossibly difficult to use in the right place at the right time.

“What do you plan to do?”

Tybalt asked quietly. Low enough that the attendants and knights following them couldn’t hear.

“I’ll have to bring him. Hold a triumph ceremony, have him show his face at the coronation.”

“……I don’t know if he’ll obey willingly.”

William nodded in agreement. A sigh circled his palate.

William’s enemies who could be killed with swords and spears might have disappeared, but the politics requiring more than that would now begin in earnest.

He hoped Kata would continue obediently following William’s words like now, but his nature remained as inscrutable as before, making it impossible to see even one step ahead.

‘Though he was honest about the woman problem.’

When in Valher, the man had been fretting over a woman, so William had tossed out a few words. He’d listened greedily like biting and chewing. Back then he’d seemed ill-tempered and young like a greenhorn.

Arriving at Arsha’s temple with an anxious heart, Israil and Raphael were waiting from the entrance.

William stood before them with a broad smile.

“So you’re the ones at Kata’s side on the battlefield. I heard you accommodate his sensitive temperament well.”

Israil and Raphael stiffly froze and only nodded. He’d heard they were attendants from humble families who’d become knights through this war. They had killers’ eyes—too much to call them simply young, yet had fresh corners not quite worn-down adults.

They didn’t seem particularly special, but……

“You certainly have charm. Figures who could captivate Kata.”

“……Good heavens, it’s really not like that……”

Words like charm or captivated seemed to make the siblings cringe in unison. They didn’t dislike special treatment but seemed burdened.

“Kata just said strange things. That we don’t fear him.”

Israil hastily made excuses.

“So he keeps us close……”

When William stared, she squeezed her eyes shut.

“No, we’re wronged too. He’s really scary.”

They certainly seemed to have more indifference and annoyance than the coexistence of awe and fear toward a god. In other words, they feared life’s suffering more than the absolute being before them.

This also meant there was room to make them William’s allies.

“Is Baron Lowfella doing well?”

“Father is… yes, well… he worried but now has high expectations.”

Israil scratched her hair as she spoke. She really couldn’t say he was doing well. The baron was a landless noble with only a title.

Trying to profit from his children, he’d sent both as attendants to a margrave, then war broke out before they received knighthood. Trying to use this as an opportunity, they ended up assisting Kata who supposedly killed people at the drop of a hat. The baron probably had expectations as great as his worries.

“There will definitely be compensation. But Kata won’t give you the compensation you want.”

At William’s words, both their expressions twisted oddly.

“The sun is the master of the world, but doesn’t own land or gold.”

Meaning William himself was the one who owned land and gold and could give them. He smiled with satisfaction seeing another spark ignite in their eyes.

“Then let’s go in.”

But William’s smile didn’t last long. The moment he stepped into the temple, an unidentifiable object fell right before his nose. Thrown by someone, the well-sealed silver box had a refined appearance, but stench leaked through gaps inside.

Nevertheless, William knelt on one knee and opened the box as if entranced. His trembling lips swallowed a hollow laugh.

“……Well now.”

Inside the box was the deposed crown prince’s severed head. Throwing a human head before even seeing his face—truly an insincere greeting. He cast an indifferent glance at the face of his other sister and the deposed crown prince.

Strange business.

Now that he’d reached this position, he could understand the deposed crown prince who’d tried to seize interests using blood relatives. He’d wanted to leave because he hated being bound, but now that he’d climbed here, there was a self trying to suppress everything.

Greed he hadn’t known existed spread like fire in a rice field.

“This is what you wanted, so lighten your expression.”

A voice he’d truly wanted and not wanted to hear these past months rang through the temple. William slowly raised his head.

An endlessly high ceiling, a relief of the sun symbolizing Kata embedded sharply and magnificently on the wall above the altar. And below it, Kata’s incarnation sat leaning sideways on an altar decorated like a throne.

A splendid appearance completely ignoring the temple’s virtue of frugality, arrogance stemming from an attitude that didn’t fear others, sloth visible in a posture wrapped in indifference.

He who had no sense of reality opened his mouth as if bored.

“……I greet the sun descended to earth.”

“Enough with greetings.”

Kata spoke indifferently.

“You came all this way for the triumph ceremony.”

“……Will you attend?”

“If not, will you kill me?”

Kata giggled. A joke only he found funny with no one else laughing. He gripped the rim of his cup and drank wine. Gold rings on his index and ring fingers sparkled catching light.

“Duke. Don’t you want the highest position? But only the sun is there, and since you can’t become the sun, you must readily use even the light descended to earth.”

Kata telling him to use his body like a tool felt like a double-edged sword he’d stab himself with. Dangerous to grasp. But too tempting to simply release. If he grasped a sword that willingly offered its neck, couldn’t he become an absolute being as if truly possessing the sun?

William forgot the flames the sun created and grew his greed even more.

“Since you say so, I must go to the highest place for your sake too.”

Romeo nodded faintly and drank from his cup again.

William was flustered. Until moments ago he’d seemed cold as usual, but now couldn’t hide his anxiety and anger.

Why? Only then did William notice the woman standing beside Kata.

She was in shadow, impossible to notice without looking carefully. Where she stood was dark, so only her pale brown eyes shone faintly like the moon on a cloudy day. Her expression wasn’t clearly visible, but she didn’t seem particularly happy.

‘Was it Rosaline?’

He’d heard from Tybalt that she was a woman with complicated circumstances. But what mattered to William was that she was at Kata’s side.

Romeo, who’d been utterly cold on the battlefield, had acted foolishly in Valher fretting—all because of that woman.

Yet even in Arsha, Kata couldn’t release his grip on Rosaline. Honestly, he’d thought Kata would kill her or at least not keep her close even if she lived.

Having a woman was an act that could make people doubt Kata’s divinity. Thinking it might be an opportunity, William had tried to bribe Rosaline using Tybalt, but the woman didn’t budge.

So he’d thought their affection was solidly watertight, but seeing them now, that didn’t seem to be the case either. Kata couldn’t hide his anger even with his lover beside him.

Why?

Let me test it.

“The umbra is in shadow. I know they’re forbidden from entering temples. Will you bring her even to the triumph ceremony?”

“Where there’s light, there’s shadow—I’ll have to take her everywhere.”

A crack formed in Kata’s emotionless brow. His gaze slowly turned to Tybalt standing beside William. William was shocked. Good heavens, jealousy. Meanwhile, Tybalt fearlessly gazed at Rosaline.

After a silence that seemed ready to explode continued briefly, Tybalt couldn’t hold back and opened his mouth.

“Kata, how about giving light to Arsha’s umbra for the triumph ceremony?”

Kata sat up straight without blinking once. As if telling him to keep talking.