By Zephyria 
My breath caught in my throat.
All humans on this continent were beings born of love. They cried and laughed because of love, whether it was between humans and spirits, or spirits and gods. In my past life, I would never have understood this. But now, I was suffering from a more intense fever of love than anyone else, and I understood them profoundly.
Ruben declared he would become Emperor.
And it was love, that damned love, that might kill Ruben, who had become Emperor.
The thought made me impatient. I couldn’t bear to watch that happen. I didn’t know how my rambling words would be received. Nevertheless, I urgently grabbed Ruben’s shoulders and spoke foolishly to his face.
“…I, I wrote a will. I wrote a will. For Ruben.”
“…”
“But that’s not it.”
These were words that had been stuck in my throat like thorns. It was a worry I had suppressed for a long time. I was so afraid of how those words, buried in the past, might reach Ruben, that I couldn’t collect myself.
Ruben looked at me quietly. I looked into Ruben’s eyes.
Even though we were so close, the child felt impossibly far away. My insides felt like they were melting away. My body felt hot and burning. My throat felt parched. Impatiently, I reached for the child’s hand and grasped it.
Ruben’s fingertips were warm, having been held in my embrace all this time. I covered that hand with mine, trapping it, and pressed it deeply against my chest, where my heart was pounding. I wanted the child to understand my true feelings, even a little.
“Whatever is written in there… it’s not my true heart. So, Ruben.”
“…”
“Please wait for me.”
Ruben’s dark eyelashes fluttered down and then immediately opened. The tip of the child’s red tongue licked his lower lip once before disappearing back into his mouth. I couldn’t tell if Ruben’s fingertips were trembling, or if my body, on which Ruben’s hand rested, was shaking.
“Why should I?”
“That’s because I.”
“…”
“I adore Ruben… and I like him… and…”
“Yes. And?”
“…Because I’m Ruben’s lover…”
Ha, the child let out a laugh.
This wasn’t how I intended to say it. Instead of comforting the child who seemed upset, I had only spilled out my own desires. Before Ruben could reply, I pulled his waist into an embrace. I gently pressed my lips against his.
As I lightly brushed against his lips, just enough to touch the thin skin, the child stopped trying to say something.
Keeping his mouth sealed, I whispered again.
“So, Ruben, you must not give up anything, not even a little. So please…”
“…”
Peck. This time, it lingered a little longer before we parted.
Ruben blinked rapidly. Both of the child’s cheeks and his forehead flushed red. A faint smile spread across Ruben’s previously sorrowful face. Sparkles began to appear in his dark eyes.
My voice, now finally composed, spoke my true feelings with a sweat-inducing heat.
“Please don’t get hurt, don’t be in pain, and… don’t be troubled. Just wait for me.”
“…How long?”
When the child asked again, I finally felt shy. The child pressed his nose against mine and asked once more. With a breath that was barely a whisper, he asked, How long do I wait?
After a moment of thought, I replied.
“…Three years.”
“…Three years?”
“Yes. Because Ruben… you promised to change the law in the year you turn twenty-five. I intend to return, no matter what happens before then. So Ruben…”
At that, Ruben put his arms around my shoulders.
His cheeks felt like they were on fire. I knew the color of my burning cheeks without looking in a mirror. My lower jaw trembled, and with every swallow, my chest felt unsettled.
Ruben looked at my face quietly. With the same expression he had when gazing at chocolate decorated with beautiful tsuil, he whispered softly.
“Do you know, Mika?”
“…What, what?”
“This is the first time you’ve kissed me first.”
“…”
Instead of answering, I captured the child’s lips once more. The sound of laughter echoed from our touching tongues. Ruben’s fingertips gently ran through and stroked the back of my head. Just as he often did when I held him tightly.
Only now, at this very moment, did I deeply realize that Ruben and I had truly become one.
Ruben would no longer doubt my feelings.
And I, no matter what, would return to Ruben’s side.
As our deeply connected lips parted, Ruben gripped my forearm tightly.
Ruben rarely held me with such a strong, constricting force. The child’s face was flushed red all the way to his forehead, and his wet lips panted continuously. The pounding of our hearts, filled with so many emotions, echoed in our chests.
“I’ll wait.”
“…”
“So, please, come back. It’s a promise…”
“…Yes.”
I licked and delved into his lips, which were again swollen and red.
I’m so worried. Ruben never refused my desires.
❖ ❖ ❖
Three days later, midday.
An immense silence, so profound that the fall of a needle on a carpet would be heard, had settled and refused to leave. The children gathered in the drawing-room held their breath, careful with every inhale and exhale. Even Mage Boulder remained silent, his lips firmly shut.
The gazes of those with tense, stiff shoulders were all fixed on the small table.
It was understandable. One of the two people sitting in this drawing-room was a god of this land.
A god with a height and appearance similar to a human, and a human name.
Gano Paquin, the God of Records and Lakes, was seated there.
He seemed uncomfortable in his seat, crossing his arms and legs, tapping his toes. Beneath his curly hair, rectangular glasses slid down his cheek, resting on a gentle slope. His grass-colored eyes stared intently at the table, calm, while his twisted lips clearly revealed his displeasure.
Among them, only Ruben was smiling.
Ruben sat with a serene smile, his broad shoulders straight. His posture was proper, in accordance with all rules of etiquette. He didn’t rest his hands on the table, nor did he sink deep into the chair. Even to me, who knew the child’s tender heart well, he appeared like an arrogant Monarch.
I was concerned whether such arrogance was permissible when facing a god, but the stake Ruben had put up was none other than myself. I erased my expression to avoid showing any worry and stood at an angle beside the table, listening to their conversation.
Ruben spoke first, his tone chillingly cold, unbefitting his smile.
“What did you see?”
“I saw Biban’s… dog-like state. It wasn’t this bad when I was sealed.”
“How can a human seal a god?”
“Because it wasn’t a human who sealed me.”
The child’s eyes deepened and darkened. The tips of his fingers traced the empty table for a moment before stopping. He was about to reach for a pen. When he had something deep to contemplate, the child usually wrote various characters. But that was impossible in front of a god.
The god continued.
“You once asked me through Mika, didn’t you? What is Wesley Kiadris’s true identity?”
“…”
“That’s just a shell. It can no longer be called human… It’s been about twenty years since the youngest started wearing that shell and pretending to be human.”
It was the moment a long-held suspicion solidified into certainty.
Ruben swallowed once and asked in a calm tone, “You mean he was a normal human when he was born.”
“Yeah. A bit sensitive and greedy, but he was a decent fellow. He accidentally provoked the youngest during his most sensitive period and stole his body. Because he had a decent outer shell and status.”
“In the Yuil Mountains?”
“Yes.”
If that was the case, the one who sealed the God of Records was the Ninth God wearing Wesley’s shell.
Ruben’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“How is that possible?”
“How?”
“I’m asking what the restrictions are for the six gods that make such a thing possible. According to mythology, the Ninth God is the weakest god, born last, yet his domain is considered boundless.”
“…”
“The myths and legends written by ‘Gano Paquin’ often deviate from reality. What was the reason for deliberately recording and widely spreading false myths? What is the true form of the continent that the gods desire, that you could not punish the Ninth God and left him to his own devices?”
“I already punished that child once!”
The god’s cry sounded like a shriek.
Ruben waited for the god to finish his words. His attitude was solemn, as if he wouldn’t move on without hearing the answer.
In contrast to Ruben’s rigid posture, the god, who had been nervously tapping his leg, leaned back fully in his chair, resting his entire body against the backrest.
“…On the very day he first tore through dimensions, I personally split him into thirty-six pieces and scattered them across the continent. Wesley Kiadris swallowing the Ninth’s origin was an accident. It’s inevitable that he’s searching for the remaining pieces and gathering more.”
“…”
“The saying that the Ninth God’s domain is love…”
“…”
“It means that all of us, including me, loved that child at first. That’s why I am truly… doing my utmost to stop him.”
All gods in this world possess their own domains.
Just as the god before us claims Records, Memories, Biban, and the Lake of Memories as his domain. The Ninth God’s domain was people and love. A very, very long time ago.
“The love here doesn’t just mean romantic love. Like a parent loving a child, or a child loving a parent. It encompasses all emotions like loving friends, neighbors, lovers. The youngest possessed all of that from the beginning. That’s why we couldn’t help but love the youngest.”
The god adjusted his slipping glasses. With a sweep of his left arm, a book of considerable thickness appeared in his hand. When the god raised his right hand, a quill with soft feathers appeared in it. As he brought the nib to the book, which had opened by itself to a blank middle section, letters began to bloom.
“Memories are distorted, and records inevitably contain the writer’s personal opinions. What I have recorded and conveyed are such things. The world I dream of. Truths reshaped into a slightly more ideal form.”