Volume 1 Episode 9
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"Arietta."
She opened her mouth. To a guy who doesn't even like Arietta and even wants to kill her...
"I really loved you."
What is this feeling? Remorse? Sympathy? Or, guilt?
Is it because she took Arietta's body, so she was sorry? She couldn't figure out why she was doing this, even though she was committing it. But she didn't want Arietta to be forgotten like this, so casually. She may be Arietta now, but the Arietta before her was also Arietta.
"You're talking like you're not Arietta right now."
At Mikhazen's reply, which sounded drowsy and fresh, she felt a cold sensation in her blood. Yes. Just this kind of reaction. Such a dry response that is neither surprising nor desirable. She let out a laugh inadvertently. Yes, she knew this would be his reaction. However, she still said it, even though she knew it already. Because she wanted to say it out loud even just once. The words that Arietta couldn't say until she died.
It's painful, her heart hurts so badly.
Arietta. Her Arietta. Dear Ari. She thinks she cared too much about her, who was just one of the characters in her novel. She feels like she's going to cry.
The Emperor will continue to go crazy like this. And it culminates in Arietta's seventeenth birthday, when Edel fell here from Earth.
In this world, there is a place called 'God's Hill'. It's kind of like a sanctuary, and there's a temple there. The so-called 'Garden of God' was a place where the 'threader', who interpreted the future he saw around the 'Son of God', and the Son of God, who saw the future with God's eyes, lived together.
When Panian was founded, the priests who unraveled the future for the Emperor tasted the power and soon suppressed the Emperor's power with the power to see the future. However, that didn't work for Mikhazen, who overthrew Panian and became the Emperor, and thus the garden was increasingly being pushed into a corner. The 'flower garden' makes an offer to Mikhazen as their last negotiation.
"On the day of embracing the returning light, His Majesty's destined person falls from the sky."
It was an unspoken threat to make the fallen person the Empress and to quietly acknowledge the authority of the garden. Of course, Mikhazen refused. He laughed at them and mocked them. However, on the day the light really returns, Edel falls from the sky. In front of the Emperor...
That's how this novel started.
"Arietta?"
She stared at the Emperor, who called her, without a word and with a quiet gaze.
Arietta hated Edel, but the Emperor loved him. When the gardener made a plan to kill the Emperor, it was all Arietta's fault that they ripped it apart and persuaded it to turn the target to Edel instead. However, Edel did not die, and in the end, he was captured by the Imperial Army and stood before the Emperor. And the angry Emperor struck Arietta on the head.
For a moment, she felt disgusted.
Recognizing that, she raised her hand and covered her mouth. Tears were no longer shed. All that remained was hatred and compassion. The poor Arietta loved the Emperor even until that moment.
She died at the hands of the Emperor like a flower that he would never look back on. She loved and cared for him so much, and calmly accepted everything until the end.
Rather, she comforted herself that she was glad to die at the hands of a loved one.
......
...So Edel resented the Emperor. Because he can read people's minds and can see the future and the past, Edel knew everything about Arietta. Edel mourned her death and could not accept the love of Mikhazen, who killed Arietta. So, he rejected Mikhazen, who barely realized that he loved Edel, and Yuan cleverly dug into the gap.
Ah. Again, she realized how cruel she had been. Even though it was just a novel, no, it IS a novel, she killed a beautiful girl so casually with her own hands. In just a few lines.
"Yes."
After some time, she answered. Mikhazen looked down at her arrogantly, who kept silent as if it was just interesting.
"You are talking as if you are not Arietta now."
She agreed. Yes, she's not Arietta. Standing on Arieta's feet, breathing through Arietta's lungs, looking at him with Arietta's eyes, but she is not Arietta. She can never imitate that noble child.
"The Arietta you knew doesn't exist anymore."
The Emperor frowned, trying to understand what she meant. He's probably thinking that this is some kind of symbolic word. But it was the truth.
Arietta is no longer there. She doesn't know if she was absorbed by her, or that she went to another body, but she only knew one thing.
Arietta was no longer in this body.
"She's dead."
"......"
"Inside me."
And yet she loved the Emperor. And yet she forgave the Emperor.
She wanted her to be happy.
Poor child, the Emperor you loved is no longer in this world.
Ari, who lost her mother, first met Mikhazen at the age of six. A young lady mourned for her mother's death by holding her breath in the corner of a fancy party. It was Mikhazen who comforted her.
At that time, Mikhazen was a young boy at the age of thirteen. He was simply the sixth prince of the Emperor. He was a prince that is not very noticeable. Half a year later, he was deposed at the hands of the hateful Emperor.
After that day, the kind boy that Arietta knew died. All that is left of him is a man full of hatred for his father, full of madness.
"Even when Your Majesty hated the imperial blood that flows through Arietta's, Arietta loved even your madness."
Because of one small hand that comforted her, she swallowed back her words and shut up. It's sad right now, but when she wakes up, she'll completely forget it. Because she's that kind of person. But as a last courtesy to the girl she loved, she wanted to tell this story even if her throat was strangled.
The words in her heart, which Arietta never conveyed until her last moment.
"That's..."
After a while, Mikhazen opened his mouth. He had a pretty serious face. Those red eyes were too dark.
"Do you mean you hate me now?"
Does she hate Mikhazen? No, she didn't mean it that way. She understands all Arietta's feelings from Arietta's point of view, but at the same time, from Mikhazen's point of view, she also understands all of Mikhazen's feelings.
That's the dilemma that arises because she's not from this world. It was a dilemma because she made both him and Arietta. What a sad dilemma.
A faithful understanding of everyone who can't stand on the side of anyone. She was a writer. A being who created all these situations by moving only the pieces on the chess board.
But out of that position, she realized how cold she had been.
Tragedy happened only because of the divergence.
Arietta was pitiful. She thought Mikhazen was bad for not accepting Arietta. But what about Mikhazen? What about the man who witnessed with his own eyes the murder of his mother by his mad father, who was imprisoned and assaulted by his father, and who has to grow up in a cursed forest where humans could not live because of his hatred?
Can she really say that Mikhazen is not pitiful at all?
"I don't know."
Mikhazen is hateful, but she doesn't hate him in that way.
It was more like love and hate. Because Mikhazen was definitely her child, who she loves and cares about. In fact, it was safe to say that she was to blame for all the twisted life of Mikhazen.
Does she deserve to hate this man from that point of view?
Oh, it's difficult. She is an infinitely optimist and an easygoing person to the extent that other people are annoyed, so the reason she is seriously considering this is probably because all of this was born from her own hands.
"So, what's your answer?"
She looked up at Mikhazen without a word. She wondered how thick the nerves of this man were after hearing what she had just said. In the end, she pondered on a question that she had no choice but to answer.
If it's Arietta, she'll accept it. But she is Arietta now, though she's not the real one. The Arietta inside her, she just sent her away.
Together with all of her feelings she had for this man, and her heart that she gave to him.
"Please hold it for a moment, Your Majesty."
She bowed her head and asked him . In her gentle manner, the Emperor raised a corner of his mouth.
"Until when?"
Until when? In her opinion, she'd say 'until I die'. But if she answered that way, today might be the day she will die. After much deliberation, she came to the conclusion that she wanted to avoid it somehow until the day Edel arrived.
"Until the day I celebrate my seventeenth birthday."
Her answer seemed a bit unexpected. Well, that would be very surprising. The Emperor does it have to be on her seventeenth. It must be because that's the standard for adults back then. But she can't just tell him to wait until then because a magical gay will come, right?
"So after your seventeenth birthday, you're going to give me permission?"
No, she guessed she'll have to find another way.
It's not because of Mikhazen. It wasn't because she was Edel's main opponent. It was a matter of her conscience.
Mikhazen was the one she bullied the most and dropped the most into the abyss. So she is sorry. Even though she was just confronting him like this, the various scenes she wrote in the novel suddenly came to her mind and made her suffer. A number of events that have not happened yet, but are about to happen, have already scratched her nerves.
"You're not answering me."
Looks like she has been keeping her mouth shut for too long. Mikhazen sent a strange look and pushed for an answer. Did he ask if she would graciously allow it after her seventeenth birthday?
"Yes."
Well, right now, she was in a position of infinite weakness, so she decided to be docile. Well, actually, if she said 'no' to Mikhazen here, he'll just decapitate her throat. Oh, how did she get into such a sad position? Of course, it's good that her shiny Oppa wants to get engaged to her. And she's happy and excited.
"All right, I'll give you permission."
Mikhazen, who she thought would say no, for some reason, kindly agreed.Her eyes widened.
Oh, has our Mikhazen changed?! Are you trying to be a good kid from today?
"However..."
That question was broken in less than a second. That's right.
"On condition that you'll come to the Imperial Palace every Sunday and have lunch with me."
What?! She looked in his eyes right away.
What? Lunch? You want me to do this every week?! Oh, my. Oh, my.
"How about this, isn't this an unconventional offer?"
Without knowing how she felt, Mikhazen smiled. Oh man, he's so pretty. But not really, that's not outrageous. Her hands were shaking because she couldn't say it was conventional.
"Yes, Your Majesty. It's so outrageous. It's so unconventional that I think my heart is going to burst."
She was sarcastic with all her sincerity, but it didn't work because he seemed to be the other person. The boy responded with a mischievous smile on his face.
"Really? That's great."
What's great with that, you son of a b*tch?
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After the stormy day, she lived as well as she always did. Still, she has spent every day in a storm of regret that this world is an 'Everybody's Homo' world, admiring her life with joy every morning and evening, watching Siden's face. Just one thing that has changed is that, even in her mind, she no longer calls Siden by his name.
Now he's completely stuck in her mouth as 'Dad'. She was surprised at her tremendous adaptability, but at the same time, she was easily convinced.
That's what she does. An extreme optimist. She thought that once she passed the CSAT and became a college student, spring was going to come in her life. But instead, because of her friend who was trying to commit suicide, she was the only person who got frustrated for falling into the gay world. She'd be dead in that world, wouldn't she?
It would be more surprising to say that she was still alive.
"Well, the breeze is nice."
The gentle wind tickled her cheek. She's glad she sat by the window.
Right now, she's in the academy's class, taking the liberal arts subject 'Etiquette ', which all 3rd graders must take. Some classes were worth listening to, and some didn't matter at all. Among them, 'Etiquette' was such a subject. After all, there are only Pass and Fail subjects as all students are taking subjects. So, when it was time for this class, she would sit by the window in the back and watch the campus outside.
"Oh my, are they gays?"
In an instant, she saw two men, who were walking hand in hand on the way back from the garden, and looked at them with envy. While someone here is only fifteen years old now, and is going to live the rest of her life without a man, the both of them are already dating.
Oh, that's sad.
"...So what do you want to say now, student Jerdine?"
Suddenly, she turned her head to the sound of a roar.
What's going on?
☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°