CHAPTER 1: THE SOLEMN TALE OF YOU AND ME
At the front is Tsukiren. His voice is calm. Too calm.
“…The girl must die.”
I tighten my grip on my sword. My hand feels heavier than it should. I am tired in a way that doesn’t go away with rest anymore. My body is already starting to break down in small ash-like pieces, falling away without noise.
“I’ve heard that line before,” I said.
My voice sounds distant, even to me.
“I’ve obeyed it four hundred and ninety-eight times…”
I pause. My breathing slows, then breaks again.
“…but not this time.”
I feel Yura looking at me like she is trying to understand something I have already decided. She doesn’t know me well enough to understand what I am risking.
I turn slightly. She is still behind me. Still holding on.
I smile, but it is not strong. It is tired, like it came from somewhere deep and worn out.
“If I fail this time…” I lift my sword a little, “…then at least it was me who failed trying to save you, Yura.”
The moonlight touches the blade. And then they move.
The Order charges.
Everything inside me pulls backward, like my mind is slipping through something it has already lived before.
…
Five Hundred Years Earlier…
I remember when the streets were not silent like this.
Nanshi Kingdom was alive. People everywhere, voices mixing, footsteps, laughter. The smell of food drifting through open stalls. Children running without looking over their shoulders.
I am riding through the city on horseback.
They call me Emperor Kuero Neko.
I don’t wear a crown. I never did like how it feels on my head, like it is reminding me of something I didn’t ask for. My hair is tied back, my clothes simple for someone who is supposed to be a king.
I lift my hand slightly and greet them.
“Good morning.”
Someone shouts from the side. An old woman. Loud enough that even the guards hear her.
“Your Majesty! You still owe me money for steamed buns!”
I stop for a moment. I cough, trying to think of something that sounds like a good answer.
“…I was testing the royal treasury,” I say.
The street bursts into laughter. I hear it from everywhere.
“You forgot your wallet again!” someone else calls.
A small girl runs forward through the crowd.
“Big Brother Kuero!”
I get down from the horse and crouch in front of her.
“What happened to your knee?” I ask.
“I fell,” she says simply.
I sigh a little.
“You need to be more careful.”
I take out a wrapped candy and place it in her hand.
“Don’t tell General Ron,” I say.
She nods quickly. “I won’t!”
People are still watching. Still smiling. They don’t look at me like I am above them.
They just look at me like I am there.
…
The palace is never quiet. Even when nothing is happening, it feels like something is always about to happen.
I am inside the meeting hall when General Ron walks in. His steps are heavy enough to make it obvious he is not happy before he even speaks.
“Your Majesty!” he says. “You skipped military training again!”
I move slightly behind a pillar without thinking.
“…No, I didn’t,” I say.
“You are hiding behind a pillar!”
“I am strategically repositioning.”
He stares at me like he has heard this too many times.
“You are thirty years old!” he raises his voice.
The ministers in the room go quiet in that tired way they always do when this happens.
Minister Zhao rubs his forehead.
“Our king defeated three kingdoms before twenty-five,” he says slowly, “won every major battle, lowered taxes, expanded trade, built hospitals…”
He pauses. Everyone is listening now.
“…and yet he acts like this.”
I shrug a little.
“What can I say? Life is short.”
General Ron looks like he wants to argue more, but he doesn’t. He just sighs.
Nobody says what they are really thinking. Not out loud.
And I don’t either.
…
The garden is the only place that feels like it is not part of the palace. Flowers move with the wind. White petals fall slowly, like they are not in a hurry to reach the ground.
I sit under a tree.
Across from me is Yue Xin.
Lady Yue Xin. Noble family, calm voice, steady eyes. She treats me like I am not a king, and I don’t think she ever tries to remember that I am.
“You skipped your duties again,” she says.
“I completed half of them,” I reply.
“You signed three papers.”
“That counts.”
She smiles a little, like she is not fully agreeing but not fully arguing either.
I find myself watching her more than I should.
“You know…” I say quietly.
“Hmm?”
“I think I like hearing you laugh.”
She pauses. Then her face turns slightly red.
“You say embarrassing things so easily, Brother Neko.”
“Only because they are true.”
For a moment, neither of us speaks. It feels normal.
Then she asks something that makes me stop for a second.
“Why do you always look sad when you are happy?”
I look at her.
“…Do I?”
“You do,” she says.
I look away, toward the sky above the garden.
“I think…” I pause, searching for the right way to say it, “…I’m afraid good things never last.”
She doesn’t answer right away. Then she reaches for my hand and holds it.
“Then let’s make them last,” she says.
I don’t reply. I just stay there a little longer than I usually do.
…
Deep underground, inside an abandoned temple, candles are burning even though no one remembers lighting them.
The Black Veil Covenant gathers there. Once a kingdom. Now only shadows of what it used to be.
A man sits on a throne of dark wood. His eyes are calm, but not in a normal way. It feels like calm that has been practiced for too long.
Lord Morvane.
A servant kneels in front of him.
“Your Majesty, the wedding preparations have begun.”
Morvane smiles slightly.
“Good.”
Another servant hesitates before speaking.
“…My Lord, Lady Yue Xin truly loves King Kuero.”
Morvane’s smile does not fade. It changes.
“Exactly.”
The servant looks confused. Morvane leans back slightly.
“Hatred creates enemies,” he says slowly.
“But love…”
He taps his fingers on the throne.
“…creates tragedy.”
A quiet spreads through the room.
Morvane stands.
“Kuero took everything from me,” he says. “My kingdom. My future. My name in history.”
He walks forward, past the candles.
“But death would be too kind.”
A dark mist begins to spread under his feet, crawling across the floor.
“I want him to live,” he continues, “to hope, to love…”
The mist thickens.
“…so I can watch him lose it all.”
His voice stays calm.
“The wedding night will begin it.”
…
That night, the capital is bright. Lanterns fill the streets. People celebrate without knowing why the air feels heavier than usual.
The palace is full of noise.
General Ron is crying loudly.
“My king is growing up!”
Minister Zhao looks at him with disbelief.
“You saw him yesterday. He forgot where his bedroom was.”
“It is emotional!” Ron shouts back.
I stand on the balcony above it all. Yue Xin joins me quietly.
“They really love you,” she says.
“I don’t deserve it,” I reply. “You do.”
She leans on the railing beside me.
“Do you regret becoming king?” she asks.
“No.”
“The wars?”
“No.”
“The responsibilities?”
“No.”
She smiles a little.
“Then what do you regret?”
I look at her for a long moment.
“The only thing I’d regret…”
I take her hand.
“…is losing you.”
Her fingers tighten around mine. Her expression changes for a moment, like she wants to say something but cannot find the right words.
“I…”
She stops. Then lowers her head slightly.
“…I’m sorry.”
I blink.
“Yue Xin?”
She forces a smile.
“Nothing.”
Fireworks rise into the sky. The city cheers. And no one sees the way her eyes don’t match her smile.
No one notices how quiet the future just became
