TWELVE Ch 16

From the moment Timoteo learned that Romeo’s eyesight was poor, he sent him glances that were overtly like those of someone spectating a show; since Romeo was not of a temperament to point out such an attitude, it fell to Gallienus to restrain Timoteo’s behavior. Compared to an officer of the 6th Legion, the position of a Public Security Bureau official was not particularly grand.

“It has been a while since I saw you both, hasn’t it? I thought I might be waiting a long time, but you arrived earlier than expected.”

Timoteo, who had been standing in front of the poster with the two officials, spotted Romeo and Gallienus and greeted them from a distance. The two officials raised their hands in salute, but Timoteo dawdled, saluting belatedly before arching an eyebrow upon seeing the bruise on Romeo’s jaw.

The two officials, seeing Romeo for the first time, stared at him intensely, forgetting their manners, before averting their eyes and stealing cautious glances. The young officer before them possessed a startlingly beautiful appearance.

“Is this the only place where a poster was discovered?”

Romeo narrowed his eyes as he looked toward the inside of the alley and the street. The alley was narrow enough that two people could barely pass each other, and it was lined on both sides with restaurants with low roofs. The smell of food drifted through the alley, and the sound of clattering dishes and voices could be heard through open windows.

“We looked all around this vicinity, and this one sheet stuck here is all there is. I almost passed by without seeing this one, but managed to discover it. Good grief, I wonder when these crackdowns on contraband sales will ever end.”

Timoteo started to sneakily cross his arms, but after stealing a glance at Gallienus, he uncrossed them and looked down at Romeo. The military uniform, with buttons neatly fastened to the neck, was without a wrinkle, and the scabbard at his waist was clean without a single fingerprint. The pupils half-hidden by his straightly worn hat were as exquisite as blue raw ore fashioned into gems, so he felt a sense of doubt every time he saw them. With eyes like those, he is blind?

“I will check the contents, Captain.”

Gallienus peeled off the poster. The following text was written on the poster:

The future the people pursue is a future where the state does not exist.

In the future of the people, there are no rulers, no power, no military, no controlled workers, and no individual ownership or property.

All people pursue freedom, all people pursue equality, and all people pursue liberation. In the land where workers cultivate and share together, there are no rulers, no exploiters, and no masters. Accordingly, there are no subjects, no exploited, and no slaves.

The people possess a longing to continue a dignified life without a state amidst a fair disorder.

Until freedom is reclaimed, Dante’s 12 shall stand in solidarity with the power of the people.

“Do you not need to read it, Captain?”

Timoteo asked, leaning his shoulder against the wall. Being as tall as Gallienus, he raised a hand when Romeo looked up at him.

“I meant, is there no need for me to read it to you? Are you not curious what nonsense those Dante’s 12 bastards have babbled? Shall I read it for you instead?”

As Timoteo cocked his eyebrows alternately in a somewhat insolent manner, Gallienus lowered the poster he was holding and looked at him with a sharp gaze. It was just as Romeo turned toward Gallienus to receive the poster held in his hand. Behind Romeo and Gallienus, who stood with their backs to the entrance of the alley, a man wearing a black cloak passed by. His face was not visible as the hood attached to the cloak was pulled deep over his head.

However, Romeo, who caught sight of the man by chance, saw his complexion turn ashen.

His heart, moving ahead of rational judgment, began to fluctuate wildly.

Thump, thump, thump…

His cheeks and the corners of his mouth distorted randomly as if a convulsion had occurred. The muscles of his whole body contracted at once, and his breath felt tightly blocked as if he were being strangled.

His stomach was filled with a nausea that felt like it would explode at any moment, and Gallienus’s voice, speaking beside him, became jumbled into an unintelligible language. His sense of reality blurred, unable to distinguish whether the man was speaking Lubanese, whether this place was indeed Simonetta Street, or whether the time was truly past noon. He felt the illusion that his field of vision had suddenly narrowed as if a cloth had been draped over his head, and his breathing instantly became rough. As his nape turned cold and goosebumps rose, the tip of his chin trembled minutely.

He felt as if the hands of the man who had raped him had become thousands of insects as small as grains of rice, crawling all over his body.

The words the man had spoken on that rainy night lingered in his ears.

[Hey.]

[Have you ever joined bodies with a man before?]

[Do as you are told if you do not want to die.]

[Do you think I cannot kill you?]

[With it not going in like this, I won’t even be able to thrust a few times.]

“…Ugh…”

He grit his teeth until a clack sound could be heard, but something like a sob leaked through his lips.

Romeo, hearing the sound of his heart beating frantically as if it would burst his eardrums, turned his body as if springing outward. He ran toward the man walking in the black cloak and reached out, snatching the cloak. The man, who lost his balance with a thud and fell backward, let out a short groan and grew angry as he tried to identify who had knocked him down.

“Who do you th— Aaaah, ack!”

However, because Romeo suddenly mounted his body and grabbed him by the collar, his head was thrown back. Romeo struck the man’s face with his gloved hand.

Slap!

The man, whose head turned from the blow to the cheek, sprayed blood on the ground from his torn lip. Romeo pulled the man’s collar hard and glared with bloodshot eyes.

“What on earth is this for! Who are you to, urk…!”

As the man shouted as if in protest, Romeo gripped the man’s collar roughly and slapped his cheek once more. As the man’s head turned with a thwack sound, he raised his hand to strike him once more.

“Captain!”

Gallienus, who had run over quickly, wrapped his arms around Romeo’s chest and pulled him away from the man. Romeo, who had been lifted while mounted on the man’s body, shouted while held by Gallienus.

“Damn it! Let go…!”

The two Public Security Bureau officials and Timoteo quickly ran over and helped the fallen man up. Romeo tried to pull away Gallienus’s hands that were restraining him, like someone who could not quell his rage.

The hair of the man, whose cloak had been pulled back, was black. He bowed his head forward as if collapsing and let out a dry cough.

“Ack, urk…!”

Gallienus stood in his way while releasing the hands that had been hugging Romeo’s chest, but the man, seeing the military uniform Romeo wore, shouted in a loud voice so that everyone on Simonetta Street could hear.

“Why did you hit me? You are a soldier! Why are you suddenly committing an assault against me?”

At the man’s shouting, a housekeeper returning from grocery shopping and a laundrywoman with dried laundry in her arms stopped in their tracks and looked back. A tailor and a customer in the clothing shop across the alley also poked their heads out of the shop to watch this commotion. From a second-floor window of an alley restaurant, a waiter also stuck his head out and looked down.

The man who had removed his cloak had his left cheek and forehead covered in burns. That burn was the reason he had been covering his face. The man pulled the hood of his cloak back on and then pointed a finger at Romeo, shouting at Timoteo and the two officials.

“You all saw that man punching me! What are you doing not arresting him at once?”

Timoteo looked at the man with a suspicious face and then stared at Romeo. Romeo’s face had turned red, and his clenched hands trembled. His breathing was rough.

“Is it someone you know?”

Instead of answering, Romeo clutched the lower part of his chest with one hand before taking it away, steadying his breath as if in pain.

“Haah, ha… haah…”

Romeo, having swept back his disheveled hair, covered his mouth with his hand. His shoulders heaved significantly as his breath flowed out irregularly.

His hands and feet had turned cold as if paralyzed, and a convulsion occurred in his arm muscles from knocking the man to the ground and beating him. Even while knowing he had taken his anger out on an innocent party out of rage toward the man who had raped him, his anger did not subside easily. The moment he saw the black cloak, he had been overwhelmed by sudden rage and fear, feeling the impulse to punch the man until his nasal bone was displaced.