CW: Explicit language, violence, blood & gore, mentions of mental illness, ableist language.
Lively music commotes along the boisterous chatter, laughter, and clinks of glass. Roses in fluttering gauze robes dance seductively, their spinning and flitting forms like nimble fairies skipping across the floor.
The stage has been turned into a grand dais for the Minister of Agriculture, First Lord Uchida Oda, who sits at a long low table with his son and his sister. The latter also happens to be a high ranking official in the Ministry of Military Affairs, renown for her contribution in the Western reclamation efforts. The table before them is groaning with an abundance of delectable foods and drinks, with the heady incense of dawn nightshade smoking silently in intricate golden censers. The soban tables are under similar duress, set around the temporary dance floor for all the Minister’s guests.
Second Lord Uchida Ken, a handsome youth with a broad face and an easy smile, wraps his arm around his attending Rose, enchanted by the latter’s delicate features. He taps that silver mask with his free hand, smile turned teasing. “Why don’t you take this off for me, little Rose? It’s a shame to cover up such a beautiful face.”
Rin gazes up at the youth with a coquettish look, his sweeping dark lashes fluttering against the gentle curve of his cheeks. “You know I can’t do that in public, handsome. But if you buy a token, then I’ll take off anything you want.” He pours hot windroot wine into Ken’s cup, the lifted corners of his lips trembling ever so slightly.
The hand on his back makes idle strokes over his spine and he suppresses a shiver. “Hm. Now that is a tempting offer,” the second lord husks, bringing his lips much too close to Rin’s ear.
The raven wrinkles his nose as a blast of wine-laced breath puffs hotly across his face. Irritation prickling like a thousand needles, he angles his head away and steals a long swig from the ceramic wine jug. He’s going to need more than just windroot to get through this trifling day.
Ever since the Madame rescued him from his ill-conceived experiment, Rin has been filled with a deep apathy that seems bone deep and impossible to shake. Every client, every job, is an annoyance, and when he’s not working, he’s not truly existing. Aside from pleasing the Madame, it all suddenly seems so…pointless.
Rin takes another long swig, his heart feeling clogged. Ken drags him close and starts babbling about his studies at the Imperial College – but the conversation to the raven’s other side is proving to be much more interesting. He tunes out the youth’s voice and casts his attention to the ruddy faced Minister and his austere sister instead.
“–eating up the West faster than we can recover the land. It won’t be long before we lose the territory altogether.” Uchida Oda slams down his cup and picks up his chopsticks, stabbing at a braised rib with a frown. “Chie, you meet with Kuang Yan often. How does she explain losing Abrijan?”
“There is no need to question the General, brother,” Lady Uchida Chie says calmly, lifting her tea cup to her lips. “She is exceptionally talented and no other is as suited for her role. Though she does need to tread carefully. The Otsukis have an extensive umbrage that easily outrivals our own. Their knowledge about our presence in Abrijan is what led to their victory, not the incompetence of the Dragon Army.”
“Then it is her oversight,” the Minister scoffs, watching the dancers as he simmers.
“Perhaps, but I believe it is a mistake that had to be made. Now that we understand how powerful their umbrage is, we will need to rethink the way we communicate. We will also need to look at our current defenses and redelegate resources. In any case, this is a task for the Tactical Division to handle.”
“Or we can just purge the traitors from our forces and start afresh! We obviously have Devil sympathisers in our midst.”
“Only yesterday you openly criticised the Mother’s decision to send more troops to Ustos. Shall we start the purge with you, dear brother?”
“It’s a lost cause anyway. You know this, I know this! Why pretend otherwise? The Mother should be looking at the coastal cities, not some backwater little town like Ustos. The Governor’s boy has it under control anyway.”
“Ustos is a hotspot for rebel activity. The Mother had made a wise decision in supporting Fourth Lord Hwan Bora.” Chie sets down her cup and flips open her fan, leaning back in her zabuton as she ruminates. “However, it is a guarantee that the West will eventually fall to the Otsukis. The South is already inundated by their influence and they are ever encroaching the North. What we should be focusing on is when they will turn their sights to the East.”
“Bah. I’d like to see them try! The West hasn’t fallen yet and the other territories would rather oust the rebels than anger the Mother. Abrijan was just a minor trading city. Let the Devils have it!”
“That is a very poor mindset to have, brother,” Chie says dryly, her eyes turning hooded. “If they can take all three territories, then they have the ability to snatch the East. Like I said, it is not a matter of ‘if’, but a matter of ‘when’.”
“Doom and gloom, sister, you are always so doom and gloom! This is why you haven’t yet found yourself a husband.” The Minister jabs the end of his chopsticks at his sister, the latter who calmly picks up her tea to take another sip.
“And you? When will you find yourself a new wife? It has been more than twenty years since Fei left you, yes? You reek of desperation.”
Oda’s face burns a deep red and he grumbles into his wine cup, much to his sister’s amusement.
The music slows to a weeping, wistful lull. The dance becomes sensuous, bodies turned liquid and sway like asomatous waters. Bucky and Delilah are amongst the dancers, both as enchanting as the other as they glide and spin in sync. The raucous chatter and laughter dies to a low hum as the guests turn their attention to this ethereal display.
The attending Roses hardly spare a glance at this dance – it is after all, one of the more popular ones that is often requested at these events. So it is with a flicker of interest when Rin catches sight of one of the Roses paying extra close attention to the dancers.
Duri is attending to a particularly stunning lady who has a gently flushed face and a rather coquettish demeanour. But his eyes are glued to Delilah’s swaying figure. Pink dusts his cheeks and kisses the tips of his ears as he watches, completely entranced by the Rose’s visage. He licks his lips and the pearl in his throat rolls several times, clearly becoming restless.
The raven straightens, eyes glinting. He’s not foolish enough to think that this is a simple glance between fellow Roses. It is a gaze full of lust. No, more than lust. He can sense the depths of Duri’s emotions for Delilah, in a way that he knows himself for the golden eyed lord.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
By the end of the dance, Duri is in a state. Sweat beads his forehead and his dark eyes have a gloom about them that no amount of cajoling from his client can alleviate. Rin watches him politely excuse himself and leave the party through the side doors.
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***
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Duri’s squatted by one of the ponds, staring down at the koi in topor with his body hunched over like a boulder. His back flexes every now and then as if he’s hassled by unpleasant thoughts.
“Hungry?” Rin asks, coming to stand by the Rose’s side. He wraps his robes tightly around himself, the fabric too thin to offer much protection against the chill. “You gotta wait till the ice melts though.”
“So you like to make terrible jokes,” Duri huffs, a plume of white bursting from his lips.
Rin hums and rocks back on his heels. “Nothing but,” he lilts.
“Am I needed inside?” The senior Rose angles his head up to Rin, coal black eyes narrowed in irritation. “I just need a moment. If you could tell Lady Oba that I am–”
“No, that’s not it. I just wanted to get away from my guy. He was starting to give me a headache.” Rin squats down beside Duri, imitating his position. He grips his knees, resting his chin upon them as he peers into the pond. Sable locks cascade into his face, hiding his expression — save for those cherry lips pursed in thought.
Duri eyes the raven for a while before following his gaze. “It’s been almost two months now since you’ve debuted. How are you settling in? Bucky tells me your sleep is better.”
“Hm. I’m settling in well enough.” Rin grabs a handful of snow and tosses it onto the frozen pond. None of the topored fish react. “I tried to leave the palace a few days ago.”
“Without permission?”
“Mn.”
“And you felt the panic. You couldn’t go more than a step outside the gate.”
“I wasn’t even off the grounds. I just thought about leaving and it hit me. I thought I was dying.”
Duri grunts, expression darkening. “That is your devotion. The Madame considers love as obsession, possession, and pain. Every time one of us betrays her, it is the pain that we experience.”
“You’re not scared of it.”
“Hm?”
“The pain. You’re not scared of it, aren’t you? Because you’re betraying Her right now.”
Duri shoots to his feet, body rippling and tensing. Heavy breaths roll in his chest and hisses through bared teeth. His jaw creaks.
The raven rolls his eyes and glances back down at the fish, vaguely wondering if they might actually be dead. “If you react like that, then I must be right. I saw how you looked at Delilah in there.” He smirks and tilts his head to the side. “ I mean, you weren’t exactly being subtle.”
“You saw wrong,” Duri growls, sharp lines of anger etched deep into his face.
“How long have you been in love with her?”
“I’m not.”
“Does she love you back?”
“…” Big hands curl into white knuckled fists.
Rin smiles and side-glances the man, hellebores as hollow as his heart. “You should be careful, Duri. I heard they make Roses disappear around here. If you’re lucky, you and Delilah will just be retrained.”
Duri snatches the raven by the collar and yanks him to his feet, twisting the fabric until it cuts deep into his throat. Rin chokes and gasps, tears springing to the corners of his eyes. He scrabbles at the hand holding him captive, but the senior Rose is like an iron giant, rigid in his mountainous fury.
“Calm down, you idiot–!” Rin wheezes, back arching when his chest bangs into the other. He reaches out and pushes against Duri’s shoulders, feet slipping and sliding in the icy sludge below. “Did love make you fucking stupid or what? Let me go!”
“Four months,” Duri gruffs, his turbulent eyes mere inches from the raven’s. “It took you four months to be trained because there is something wrong with your brain. You’re defective. Broken. You can never be a proper Rose, no matter how many clients you fuck. No matter how much you pretty yourself up. And you have the gall to threaten me? You dare threaten Delilah?”
Rin’s frenzied heartbeat stops dead.
Duri narrows his eyes at the stunned raven. The corner of his lips twitch. “You’re walking on glass, Rosebud. If there is anyone who’s going to betray the Madame, we all know it’s you. It’s only a matter of time.”
Pale lips crawl across Rin’s porcelain face like a creeping spider. Empty eyes flit to the other’s, trapping them in their spiny thorns. A red glow blooms in their depths. Inexplicably, Duri feels a chill run down his spine.
“You say that like you mean anything to this place,” Rin giggles, flicking out his tongue to lick those white knuckles. The hand flinches but only tightens in their grip. “Turns out that you’re nothing but broken goods. Turns out, you’re more defective than I am.”
“Even if I’m sold to Blossom or retrained. It doesn’t matter. At least I have someone. Do you?”
“I still have the Madame. You have a bitch with a pretty name.”
A large fist hammers the side of Rin’s face, snapping his head to the side. The world flashes white and a nauseating pain radiates through his skull. He gasps and groans, head reeling.
“You’re a sad, pathetic child,” Duri growls, snatching the dazed raven by the chin. His fingers dig mercilessly, surely leaving behind deep bruises. “How can you call this a life, when you are too scared to live?”
There’s a golden flash in Duri’s gaze. A flicker of another.
“Is that how you want to do this, Duri?” Rin says, coldly. “Think Delilah will be safe if you keep playing this game?”
“I’ll do what I can to survive, Rosebud.”
“Then you’re going to have to kill me.” Vermillion soaks the last vestiges of pitch in his uncanny stare. There’s a keen awareness to them, that penetrates the densest of defenses.
The grip around Rin’s collar tightens. “…Why’s that?”
“Because I won’t be able to control myself.”
Duri’s eyes flinch wide.
“You! Rose! Unhand him this instance!” A sharp voice shatters the tension like hammer to glass, causing both Roses to whip their heads towards the owner.
Second Lord Uchida Ken approaches them with big, purposeful strides. Bold determination squares out his form and brings a heroic air about his person. Of course, neither his presence nor assistance is what either of the Roses need.
A manicured hand lands on Duri’s muscular arm with a resounding smack. That groomed, pompous face is brought inches from the senior Rose’s as Ken makes his threat. “Release him now, boy, or I shall report you to your Madame. Is this how Kahin’s infamous Roses are supposed to behave? How despicable!”
Duri hardly spares this idiot lord a glance, his eyes fixed firmly on the impassive raven. The latter stares back at his captor, unflinching, unmoving. Save for a slight twitch in his cheek muscle.
“Did you hear me? Put down my Rose or you will learn of the consequences!” Ken’s voice gains a shrill edge as he grabs Duri’s offending hand. He twists with surprising strength, forcing Duri to release his prey.
Rin stumbles back, a manic, giddying laughter bubbling to his lips. “Sorry, Duri. Seems like you’re just a little too late.” He flashes the noble a savage grin that fails to reach his red tinged eyes. “My hero. My knight. I never thought you’d ever come to save me.”
The idiot lord’s chest swells and his face gleams with pure gallantry. “I knew something was wrong when you ran off without a word. But worry not, I shall rid you of this villain!” Before said villain can react, Ken widens his stance. He hooks his arm under Duri’s arm, twists his waist, and flips him onto his back in one fluid motion.
But the lord doesn’t account for a counter move.
Duri angles his body against the flip, using his heavier weight to his advantage. He puts Ken in a deadlock, winding his arms around the man’s smaller form. There’s a sharp and brutal punch to the latter’s back, right in the kidneys. The lord shrieks in pain and crumples like a broken marionette. Duri follows up with a knee to the stomach and an uppercut, sending the lord flying.
Uchido Ken crashes into the frozen pond. His skull strikes the ice and there’s a sickening crack. He goes limp. Blood pools around his head like spilled wine, obscuring the disturbed fish below.
Rin and Duri stare at the unmoving body for what seems like an eon. There’s no point in helping the man. Both Roses have seen the dead in their lifetime and they can recognise a corpse when they see one. Gasps and shouts alert them to guests nearby, witnesses to the entire ordeal. There’s no escaping this now.
Duri drops to his knees. His bloodied fist sinks deep into the snow.
Rage sluices off the raven as if his monster were sated by the simple sight of blood. “Well, fuck me,” he says, voice trembling in shock. “You killed the wrong person, moron.”
***
Though the pond is in the distance, he can still see Uchido Ken’s body splayed across the ice. A withered figure staring sightlessly at the leaden sky as his blood slowly freezes over.
Duri had long been dragged inside by the guards, followed by the grey-faced Madame and the Minister, who screamed and shrieked with every staggered step. Of the party, Uchida Chie is left behind at the scene, barking orders at the guards. The rest of the guests are either assisting the official or being ushered off the grounds.
“What happened, Rin?” A thick cloak is wrapped around his shoulders, but it does little to ease the trembling. Bucky sighs and follows the boy’s gaze, her complexion as pale as the other’s.
“Duri and Delilah. They’re betraying the Madame.” His voice is hoarse, a near croak. He licks his chapped lips and tears his eyes away from the grim scene. “I confronted him about it. Tried to…warn him. I guess. And he took it badly.”
Bucky stares at him, pupils ticking as she studies his face. “So he lashed out.”
“And that idiot tried to save me.” Rin smiles, a manic glint in his eyes. “Can you believe that? What is it with idiot lords and saving people? And look at him now. He’s fucking dead.”
She furrows her brow and grasps the raven by the arm, trying to steady him. “Why did you try to warn Duri?”
“…I…don’t know.” He mumbles, head dipping low. Half-frozen tresses fall into his eyes, obscuring his vision. “I knew it was wrong. I knew that he shouldn’t be betraying Her like that. But I also…I didn’t want to see anything happen to him. I had to say something.” He crouches with a huff and buries his head in his knees, blocking out the white desolation around him. “And then he had to make me mad.”
“It’s not your fault, Rin. What happened was an accident.” Bucky pinches the bridge of her nose, feeling a deep throb starting behind her eyes. “I spoke with Madame Kahin. She’s going to negotiate with the Minister and see if she can handle Duri’s punishment herself. It’s going to be difficult. Killing a Minister’s son is punishable by death. But…” She drops her hand and rests it upon Rin’s shoulder. “The Madame has her ways. You know this. Duri will be safe.”
“I trust Her,” Rin breathes, his words swirling in thin white tendrils. “Do you think they’ll be retrained?”
“Duri will, yes. Unless the Madame has plans to send him off with Father Blossom. As for Delilah, there’s no evidence that she feels the same for Duri as he does for her.”
“Will I be punished too?”
Bucky glances down at the boy, her expression unreadable. “No. You did the right thing, Rin.”
“What right thing?” Rin snorts, scrubbing his cheeks with numb hands.
“The one you have in your heart. Who is he?”
He stiffens and shoots a glare at Bucky. “I don’t have anyone in my heart, save the Madame.”
The woman smiles, though it fails to reach her pebble-like eyes. “Little lord, you called him. Is he a noble?”
“Bucky. I’m not betraying Her. I’m not like Duri–”
“I know. I won’t say anything more.” She gives his shoulder a gentle squeeze.
“Duri says that…everyone thinks I’m going to betray Her. Do you think so too?” Pink tipped fingers grip at his chest, vibrating with the violent pounding beneath. “Does the Madame want to discard me?”
“No, Rin,” Bucky says, impassively. “She is pleased with your progress. In fact, you bring in more clients than Delilah does, and she’s been the second most requested for a number of years.”
“Who’s the most requested?”
The woman gives him a thin smile. “Come on. Let’s get you inside.”
When they pass by the pond, Rin can see only a dark film remaining on the surface. The idiot lord, his saviour, having been taken to his final resting place.
After the low budget promotion i miss Jun even more cries
Me: reads Uchido Ken
My mind: oh i didn’t know Barbie’s boyfriend was a Uchiha
Thank you for the chapter!! ❤️❤️
LOLL Ken has transmigrated into this world after breaking up with Barbie V_V Also don’t worry you’ll see Jun VERY soon!!! Thank you for reading Donburii~~ <3 <3 <3
Awawaaaa Duri fucked up 😱 I didn’t feel like Rin was threatening him tho, more like he was warning him? So idk why he reacted so violently 🥲
Ehhhh people get defensive and lash out sometimes V_V But yes, Duri did a Fuck Up. A big Fuck Up. Thank you for reading Clozeeed!!!! <3 <3 <3
Ahhh, Rin, suicide by Rose… not the smartest (or effective) route. >:(
Definitely picked a good Rose. Holy hell! Duri is strong. bites nails in anticipation for the next chapter
Duri is swole af 💀 especially when he hulks out TTuTT Rin has no chance at all! Thank you for reading Curio~~ <3 <3 <3
I’m looking forward to the next chapter!!! Eeey!! <3
LWKWKSKSKKSJDJHDJ WE STAN POWERFUL STRONKKKKK WOMENSSSS IN THIS NOVEL!!!! ah~ but me still wanna kill certain people tho~
LMAO WELPPSS OOPSS~ got busted and killed the wrong guy, pet
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