Accompanied song: Together Forever (Hey! Say! JUMP)

The Outer Palace was unusually crowded. There were so many colors; so many unfamiliar faces; so many voices. It was too loud for his liking. Didn’t they know that the king was dead? Shouldn’t they be quiet and sent prayers? Why there was so much laughter in the gloomy day?

He smiled bitterly at himself. He forgot that that was just the way the palace should be. He should have used to the contradiction.

The palace…

He had used to its coldness, yet why lately it turned colder and colder by every passing day? Was it because the king was not here anymore?

The king had already dead… his father had passed away…

He did not love him, but he did not hate him either. So it was just understandable if he could not shed a tear, right? But something felt missing… something felt wrong…

“Thank you for seeing me today.”

That was his father’s last words for him. And that smile… He used to hope to see that smile, yet with the course of time, the hope had faded away. But that day… he just realized the hope never disappeared. Why should his father show him the smile that day? Why should his father leave him confused? His father had stopped loving him since long time ago, right? So, why the smile returned?

“Ryosuke,” he heard a voice called. He knew it well. It was Yuto’s voice.

“Ryosuke, the last guests have departed.”

He turned to look at Yuto. “Thank you. You can rest.”

“Do you need a company?”

“No.”

“Oh, alright. Then I’ll return to my post. Good night.”

“Aa.”

Yuto walked away and he stared at Yuto’s back. His mind drifted to his minion who also his company for the past ten years. Yuto too… had started to glide away… had doubted their friendship by hiding a part of his life… even best friend cannot always be true…

The breeze flowed through, rustling the leaves and causing a short noise.

Somewhere around… he thought about Yuri. Chii… why did Yuri hesitate to answer him that night? They had always been together, literally, since he was nine years old. Yuri should have been the best to understand that he would never ask Yuri to do what he inquired. Even my shadow will dissolve into the night…

He looked up for the last time to the starry sky. Mother… his mother’s smiling face flashed in his eyes.

In the end, everyone is going to leave. Having attachment will only instigate agony.

Shrugging his thought off, Ryosuke returned to his chamber.

**********

It had been a week since Mirai returned to the Outer Palace. It had been a week since the funeral. Guests from the other kingdoms had come, stayed and left, giving their condolences over Hakumei’s lost. Mirai never attended a royal funeral before, thus she did not understand what to do. But Ryosuke had told her, guiding her to pay the last respect as the king’s family.

She had seen Keito’s eyes were a bit red, a sign that he just cried or might be sleepless. He lost his father after all. Yet, as she turned to Ryosuke, she almost shivered. His gaze was hard, almost piercing, and dry without any trace of tears. She could not help but to wonder, how could Ryosuke not cry? Because… even she who just knew the king for a short time felt the tears welled up to see the march of the palace knights sending their king to his last bed; and when the chorus of death sonata rang out adding the grim in the air, she could not stop her tears from flowing. How could Ryosuke not even shed a single tear? She kept asking herself throughout the ceremony.

King Yamada Shohei… she never thought that their first talk would be the last. Despite all she had been through, the king was the one who brought Ryosuke into her life; the one generated chance of her falling in love; and a little or more, also the cause of her first heartbreak. The king had played important roles in her life without her realizing until just now. Rest in peace, father-in-law.

For the last week, Ryosuke had been quiet, the type of quiet that different from the one he used to display in his stoic stance. His eyes often wandered upward, as if he was searching for something in the sky; and though he still played an accommodating host to their guests, he would immediately retreat once the guests turning their backs around. He withdrew into his solitude… just as the king said.

Now, after the mourning period had been lifted from the kingdom, the new king would soon be crowned.

“My lady, His Highness has waited before the main gate,” Yuto came to pick her up.

“Alright,” she followed after his steps with Miru closed behind. Miru had returned a day after she stepped back into the Outer Palace.

Ryosuke did not say anything. Once she arrived at his side, he straightly started to walk toward the Inner Palace, where the coronation would be held a moment ahead. She soon stepped after him, Yuto followed, while Miru stayed behind at the gate

The moment they reached the throne chamber door, Ryosuke offered her his arm in silent. He did not even tip his head in the slightest to look at her, only his voice in low tone muttered , “Bear with me a little longer.”

…before we put an end to this marriage. It was as though she could hear his unspoken meaning; and she still shivered up remembering just how cold he declared their break-up, yet…

“I will toughen up!” She chanted in her mind.

The door opened for them and she walked into the room, holding his left arm. Through the corner of her eyes she could see the nobles lined up at both side of the aisle and caught a picture her father, brother, and uncles stood in their black kimono, Shida crest embroidered on the left chest. She remembered that in the coronation, only the head of the clan and the head of its branches were allowed to attend. That meant there would be only three women attendee in the room: herself, Nami-san, and Queen Yumi.

Everyone wore dark kimono, only the clan’s crest differed one from the others. It had always been like that in every royal ceremony, black or dark color, ever since the start of King Shohei’s reign, as she recalled what she learnt about Hakumei’s history, due to the king’s aversion of seeing the disturbing large gap of appearance among the nobles, in which the riches one would overshadow the poorer.

She herself wore a navy blue kimono, matching with Ryosuke’s kimono, with Yamada’s crest embroidery: a thistle. Ryosuke’s attire added with a war fan slipping in his waist tie, accompanied by his sword. No one except the royalty allowed bringing any weapon in the ceremony.

Ryosuke stopped to stand beside Queen Yumi at the dais higher than the rest of the floor, just before the stairs of the throne, giving the queen a bow; and she obediently followed.

A moment after the loud voice bellowed the arrival of the soon-to-be-king. The chamber engulfed in silence immediately. Keito stepped along the red carpet, done in his king robe; the royal cloak flapped subtly behind his back. Just before Keito started ascending the stairs to the throne she caught Keito tilted his head a bit to look at them, and she was not sure if it really was guilt in his eyes when his gaze fell on Ryosuke. Once he sat on the throne, the master of ceremony invited the priest to begin the crowning processions.

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