The topmost room of Neche, which should be most sublime and sacred, was filled with all manner of golden ornaments. The bed piled high with silk was no different.

After his treatment was finished, Romeo immediately called Rosaline. Perhaps bothered that she flinched whenever she touched his body after he’d forcibly probed his wound, he lay down practically sprawled atop her.

Pressing down with his body so she couldn’t even tremble.

His sharp nose bridge pressed her cheek, and hot breath circled her ear. Thanks to their bodies touching without gaps, she felt his sweat-soaked skin vividly.

“You’re thinking of something else again.”

A heavily sunken voice rang out. Rosaline blinked her reluctant eyes several times before asking him.

“Can you die too?”

After a brief silence, an answer fell.

“……I’ve repeated countless lives.”

When Rosaline turned her head toward him, she met Romeo’s smile close enough for their noses to touch.

His smile seemed sick of everything around him, like it would smell of gunpowder ready to burn everything before his eyes.

“And during those countless lives, I held this position. Becoming the sun god they wanted, doing what they wanted.”

His red eyes softened considerably as they swept her up and down.

“But the ending was always the same. When I gave humans one thing, they wanted two; when I gave two, they wanted ten; when I gave ten, they wanted everything. Soon they wanted to become the sun themselves.”

Along with words nearly whispers, his fingers touched Rosaline’s trembling jaw and eyes. Like tracing over them.

“Even if it meant k*lling me.”

Romeo made a short laugh.

“You don’t seem to believe me.”

“……”

“You cast me from heaven to h*ll with just a small voice and frail gestures—wouldn’t there be someone who could kill me?”

He usually felt more aggressive when speaking formally, but today he only seemed sensitive like a beast caught in a trap.

“There were always some. Those who feared me, and those who didn’t fear me.”

“……”

“They killed me.”

He stroked her speechless cheek as if to break it. He seemed to enjoy her pale face. Like stabbing a dagger into himself.

“After I die, the humans who thought they’d grasped the sun walk the path of destruction among themselves. The fate of those who coveted the sun was always thus. Never once changing.”

“……”

“Thus my fate is to become a passage in new mythology, a lesson for the humans who survive to the end.”

Like characters in stories humans created…… The line of his mouth lengthened.

“The role of god is that worthless.”

He’d expected her to be frightened. But her hand stroked the corner of his mouth, then gently held his cheek.

“……Rosaline?”

Romeo’s eyes mixed doubt, confusion, and displeasure. But dull satisfaction also rippled. She carefully touched him like stroking grass that couldn’t even take root, and whispered.

“You won’t die miserably this time… truly……”

Those who didn’t fear gods killed them, he’d said. Rosaline didn’t fear Romeo, so she would surely be the one to kill him. Then she just needed to disappear before Romeo died.

She recalled the well-honed dagger and smiled at him.

Though sad that her existence could only bring pain to whoever she was with, she was truly glad something she could do for her beloved lover had appeared.

“Rosaline, you’re smiling for the first time in so long.”

Romeo muttered in a daze at Rosaline’s smile seen after so long.

“……Beautiful.”

Rosaline tilted her head and moistened his lips with her breath.

If I can’t be your happy love, I’ll remain as one who gave you life, even if only pain.

She smiled wholeheartedly between kisses.

The triumph procession starting from the north was splendid enough to evoke a wealthy delegation. Kata sat in a roofless carriage led by dozens and looked down halfheartedly at the territorial people cheering for him.

But only his gaze was so—all his nerves were focused on Rosaline standing behind. She would be standing in proper posture wearing a cloak showing barely her chin.

From a certain day, she’d grown more smiles.

Despite tormenting her so, she began smiling generously. Each time, he’d react as if absurd, yet caress her cheek while gazing, or suddenly grow angry and kiss her.

Rosaline accepted whatever he did, as always. Romeo was both pleased and anxious about her attitude. But no matter how much he pressed, she only expressed her heart to him. Even when he sharpened his edge, when she blushed and gazed at him, he devoured her like one starving.

Was that why? Though like thin ice, fairly peaceful days continued.

“I could do it myself……”

This morning, while adorning herself for the triumph ceremony, she spoke shyly seeing her reflection. Romeo had forcibly sat her down and arbitrarily decorated her with various ornaments.

Her black hair was up except for a few strands, with long silver threads running along the hair’s grain. So it sparkled whenever it caught light.

She contrasted starkly with Romeo, who wore a gold necklace and rings matching his bronze skin that felt like deep gold at a glance, and an earring hung like a curtain on only one ear. If he was splendid, she was serene. Like the moon at midnight.

Romeo impulsively blurted out.

“……After the triumph ceremony, you’ll regain your name too.”

He’d thought Rosaline would be happy hearing her shackles as an umbra would be removed. Yet he’d planned to get angry if she was simply happy. He knew he was worse than a five-year-old brat. But he couldn’t stop.

Sick of seeing her back to the point of breaking, unable to believe she who only showed her back was now looking at him, wanting to see the limit of how much she’d accept him.

This life wouldn’t be long like the last anyway, so he was being reckless. Convinced this was truly his final life.

— Romeo.

The moment her lips opened felt long as a millennium. Speak. Say you’re grateful, happy to finally be freed from shadow. He’d reached the point where he could only feel relieved if she said she was leaving him. That would be her true heart. Better painful truth than sweet lies.

But contrary to his expectation, Rosaline stroked the back of his hand on her shoulder and shook her head.

— There’s no need. I’m satisfied even as the greatest shadow the sun made.

— ……

— Romeo?

Why were lies so hard to distinguish from truth, why so dazzling?

— You are……

— ……

— You weren’t a shadow to begin with.

A calling sound came from outside. He sighed at reality returning instantly and took a few steps toward the door. But the footsteps that should follow didn’t sound. Gripping the doorknob and turning back, Rosaline stood barely two paces behind. Despite all his decoration, she wore her hood like an Umbra.

Though only her chin and mouth showed, he could tell she was smiling gently. Like the moon shining only at night, like she’d vanish before the sun……

She was beside him now and had nowhere to go anyway. He planned to keep her until death, so she couldn’t leave at least while he lived.

Her fate had fulfilled its duty the moment Juliet abandoned her, so she wouldn’t be toyed with by fate beyond causality anymore.

Yet why this anxiety……

— Rosaline?

— Romeo.

Sunlight from the window illuminated her cloak creating shadow, and her red lips inside the hood curved open. This entire sequence was so terribly beautiful that Romeo was captivated again.

— Those few days with you became everything in my short life.

— ……

— I truly love you, Romeo.

Romeo thought her cruel for making him a fool with a few simple words. So instead of opening the door he should advance through, he turned back and removed her cloak. Deliberately stepping into the shadow she’d made, meeting her delicate eyes.

A fierce kiss followed. Terribly good, yet he wanted to wound her. Perhaps that feeling showed—he tore her lower lip slightly. He wiped it several times without apologizing for being sorry.

“Kata, aren’t you pleased?”

Romeo’s sweet reminiscence broke at William’s excited voice. William continued speaking toward him as his mind returned instantly to the carriage.

“Everyone praises you. Ah… truly……”

He displayed pure joy and unconcealed jealousy as if receiving praise himself.

“You could do anything……”

Romeo looked down at those below shouting Kata. Behind their smiles were thousands of lives, William’s desire, another thousand greeds derived from it, tediously entangled.

Praise? Adoration breeds hostility proportional to its size. Those praising the sun antagonize what the sun blocks, and can be cruel as readily as merciful.

Excess always summons destruction.

The law of mythology, of fate, of humans.

Disgust rose. He withdrew his gaze from the sea of blood-like humans, but the ear-splitting cheers remained. Feeling he’d tear them all to death at this rate, he looked at Rosaline, who both strangled and let him breathe.

On the swaying carriage, she remained in the same posture. Seeing that still body, Romeo suddenly got chills. Such familiar dissonance. Strength seemed to drain from his entire body through his toes.

He slowly stood and approached Rosaline. Someone grabbed him but could only scratch his hard skin, couldn’t stop him.

“Rosaline.”

Amid the noisy cheers, she only stood trembling in place. I’m this unstable, so why won’t you embrace me? Why won’t you call my name with gentle arms and soft voice?