Boarding School Juliet: Requiem — Lovers After the War
The night before the prefect election, a threatening letter arrives: *Cancel the election, or there will be blood. — Child of War.*
For a year, Inudzuka Romio, head prefect of the Black Dog dormitory, has fought to bridge the bitter divide between East and West at Dahlia Academy. And at the heart of that fight lies his secret—Juliet Persia, head prefect of the White Cat dormitory, the girl he loves and can meet only in the shadows of the library.
But as shattered windows and red-painted warnin
Boarding School Juliet: Requiem — Lovers After the War - Blood at the Bedside — A Warmth Fading Away —
Morning light spilled through the infirmary window, casting fine shadows across the white sheets.
The air was thick with the smell of medicine. Disinfectant, damp bandages, and the faint, lingering trace of something burnt. That smell brought back that night, over and over again.
Inudzuka Romio sat on the round stool beside the bed, and he had not slept a wink.
His short black hair was a mess, his deep brown eyes sunken, and the small scar on his left eyebrow cast a shadow over his exhausted face. Only the red hair ribbon wrapped around his right wrist looked strangely vivid.
Juliet Persia lay sleeping beneath the white sheets.
No — not sleeping.
Unconscious.
Her long blonde hair had been let down and spread across the pillow; what should have gleamed honey-gold in the light now looked dusty and dull. Her clear sky-blue eyes were shut tight, her face as pale as wax. A scab clung to her lips.
Her right leg, from thigh to ankle, was fixed in thick bandages and a splint.
That right leg — the one that had been pinned beneath the collapsed beam.
Romio cradled Juliet's left hand in both of his.
Her fingertips were cold and bony. The warmth that always squeezed his hand back was nowhere to be found.
(Persia...)
He called her name, and there was no answer.
Not even her eyelids moved.
Three days since the fire.
In all that time, Romio had barely eaten or drunk, sitting here without leaving. He hadn't returned to his room in the Black Dog dormitory even once. All his duties as prefect representative had been taken over by Iron Mountain, the dorm supervisor. The election preparations had ground to a complete halt.
No — he himself had halted them.
What did the election matter?
What did reconciliation matter?
When the person most precious to him lay here like this.
Romio tightened his grip on Juliet's hand, just slightly.
Her bony fingers creaked faintly in his grasp.
"...Persia."
His voice was hoarse.
He had barely spoken in three days.
"...Can you hear me?"
No answer.
Only the sound of shallow breathing echoed through the quiet infirmary.
That breathing might stop — the thought had crossed Romio's mind more times than he could count.
His chest constricted.
He couldn't breathe properly.
(If only I'd noticed sooner.)
(If only I were stronger.)
(If only I could have protected you.)
The same thoughts spun round and round in his head.
Regret sank to the pit of his stomach like a heavy stone.
The infirmary door opened quietly.
Romio didn't turn around.
"...Inudzuka, there's something I need to discuss with you."
Dr. Müller was a thin man in his mid-forties. Behind his silver-rimmed glasses, his eyes were always calm, never betraying emotion. A stethoscope peeked from the pocket of his white coat.
Still holding Juliet's hand, Romio finally lifted his head.
"...What is it?"
His voice was flat.
Dr. Müller glanced down at the chart in his hand for a moment.
"About the condition of her right leg — the damage to the bone and nerves was more severe than we initially assumed. The surgery was successful, but functional recovery will take considerable time."
Romio said nothing.
"We'll do everything we can. But frankly, I cannot guarantee she'll walk the way she used to."
The doctor's words seeped slowly into Romio's mind.
She won't walk the way she used to.
The Persia who had raced across the training grounds.
The Persia who excelled in both academics and athletics, who walked with her back straighter than anyone.
"...I see."
That was all Romio said before turning his gaze back to Juliet.
No anger, no grief — nothing rose up in him.
There was only a hollow, gaping hole in the center of his chest.
Dr. Müller looked as though he wanted to say something more, but in the end he let out a small breath and left the infirmary.
The sound of the door closing echoed terribly loud.
Romio wrapped both hands around Juliet's once more.
"...It's all right if you can't walk."
"As long as you're alive, that's enough."
"So please — open your eyes."
His voice trembled.
A single tear fell onto the sheets.
The Black Dog dormitory's cafeteria — the Black Iron Dining Hall — was wrapped in a strange, feverish heat.
It was breakfast time, and yet no one was eating.
Bowls of miso nikomi udon sat abandoned on the long tables, still steaming.
The dorm students had gathered in the center of the hall, hanging on one man's every word.
Maru Chizuru.
His slicked-back black hair was hardened with wax, and his narrow, sharp eyes blazed. The silver piercings in both ears caught the cafeteria lights. On the back of his left hand was a tattoo sticker reading "Towa Spirit."
"You lot still don't get it, do you!"
Maru slammed his fist onto the table.
A crack rang through the cafeteria.
"The White Cats set that fire themselves! They dressed someone up as Juliet Persia to make us look like the villains!"
A stir of unrest rippled through the students.
"That fire was the White Cats' own staged stunt! They torched their own dorm to sabotage the election!"
"...Is that true, Maru?"
"Of course it is! Why else would a fire break out on the very day the election was announced? The timing's too perfect!"
Maru flashed a savage grin.
"Dirty tricks are fine by me — anything goes as long as you win. That's how the White Cats operate. But we're not about to take this lying down."
"Yeah! Retaliation!"
"Let's crush those White Cats!"
The cafeteria's atmosphere boiled over in an instant.
Angry shouts and insults flew, and the students' eyes were bloodshot with rage.
"Let's go! Drag those White Cats out to the neutral courtyard!"
With Maru at the lead, dozens of Black Dog students poured out of the cafeteria.
The same scene was unfolding in front of the White Cat dormitory.
Abi Senior quietly surveyed the students gathered at the entrance.
His silver short hair swept diagonally across his brow, and his ice-blue eyes glittered coldly in the morning light. A small gold earring in his left ear, five rings on his right hand. His flawless beauty was now honed to a razor's edge by anger.
"Everyone, please listen calmly."
Abi's voice was quiet. But that quietness was, if anything, more terrifying.
"This fire was an unspeakably despicable act committed by the Towa students. They set the blaze to eliminate our prefect representative, Juliet Persia, from the election."
A wave of fury spread among the White Cat students.
"Those Towa dogs! How dare they do this to Lady Juliet!"
"Revenge! Let's burn the Black Dog dorm to the ground!"
Abi quietly absorbed the students' anger.
"Yes, I understand that feeling all too well. But if we resort to violence here, we'll be playing right into the Towa students' hands. We should defeat them fair and square."
The corner of Abi's mouth twisted slightly.
(There's no reason not to make use of this fire. Turn their hatred of Towa into electoral power. With Juliet Persia gone, I will lead the White Cat dorm.)
"However — if they struck first, that's another matter. We have the right to defend ourselves."
"That's right! If they're coming, we'll go to them!"
"The neutral courtyard! I hear the Black Dogs are gathering there!"
The White Cat students broke into a run all at once.
Abi watched their backs recede, his ice-blue eyes narrowing.
The neutral courtyard.
A circular plaza thirty meters across, situated at the exact midpoint between the two dormitories. At its center stood an old fountain, designated by the truce accord as an "inviolable zone."
That inviolable zone was now packed with students from both dormitories.
A sea of black stand-collars and a sea of white uniforms.
Across the fountain, the two sides glared at each other.
"You lying White Cats! How dare you impersonate Juliet!"
"Shut up, you Towa dogs! You're the ones who set the fire!"
"Huh? Don't talk nonsense when you're half asleep!"
"You're the ones playing innocent!"
Angry shouts flew back and forth, and the air was stretched so taut it seemed ready to tear.
Someone picked up a stone from the ground.
"Die, you Towa dogs!"
The stone was hurled at the crowd of Black Dog students.
Thwack.
It struck one Black Dog student on the shoulder.
"You bastards! You actually did it!"
Now the Black Dog students picked up rubble and threw it back.
At that signal, students from both dormitories began hurling stones and debris all at once.
Stones flew through the air, the sound of them cutting through the air echoing across the courtyard.
"I'll kill you!"
"Come on, you mangy dogs!"
Students from both sides crept closer to the fountain, inch by inch.
One spark away from explosion.
All-out collision was only a matter of time.
"STOOOOP!!!"
A thunderous roar echoed across the courtyard.
Iron Mountain Takeshi, supervisor of the Black Dog dormitory. A former soldier in his forties. His massive frame — over six foot three — was wrapped in a black suit, and he stood like a temple guardian in the courtyard. His face bore old scars, and his expression was truly demonic.
"Have you forgotten the truce accord! This is an inviolable zone! Anyone who threw a stone will be expelled — every last one of you!"
At Iron Mountain's roar, the Black Dog students flinched.
"...Everyone, please stop."
Madame Orléans, supervisor of the White Cat dormitory, had also rushed to the courtyard. A former teacher in her fifties. Her white hair was tied back, her features gentle, but her voice carried an authority that brooked no argument.
"Violence produces nothing. Juliet would never wish for this."
At Madame Orléans's words, the White Cat students twisted their faces in frustration.
"...But Supervisor! If we let this stand, Lady Juliet's suffering will go unavenged!"
"This is not about vengeance. Juliet is alive. Is watching you fight what she would want?"
The White Cat student bit his lip and hung his head.
Through Iron Mountain's and Madame Orléans's desperate persuasion, the students of both dormitories finally withdrew from the courtyard.
But the anger had not disappeared.
"Who can even hold an election at a time like this!"
"That's right! Cancel the election! There's no way we can hold an election under these circumstances!"
"We demand the election be canceled as well. With Lady Juliet incapacitated, there is no point in continuing."
Calls to cancel the election erupted from both dormitories.
Night came.
The infirmary lights cast a faint, square glow against the outer wall.
Inugami Leon walked quietly along the outside of the infirmary.
Her dyed-black hair melted into the night, and only her amber eyes glimmered faintly in the darkness. Her small frame was wrapped in the Black Dog girls' uniform.
(Juliet Persia is beyond that light.)
Leon stopped beneath the lit window.
The window was higher than her own height.
She pressed a hand against the outer wall, stretched up on her toes, and peered inside.
A white bed.
A blonde girl lying there.
And the back of a black-haired boy, still holding her hand.
(Inudzuka... Romio...)
Leon hooked her fingers over the windowsill.
(To think that man could make a face like that.)
The Romio she had seen in the auditorium on the day the election was announced had been a man like the sun.
He had argued back against her declaration of war head-on, fixing her with eyes full of fierce resolve.
The Romio of now was different.
His back looked small.
As though something were crushing him.
(It's my fault.)
Leon felt her chest tighten.
(Because I said I'd drive the White Cat dorm out.)
(Because my speech lit the fuse for that fire.)
(Juliet Persia got hurt because of me.)
Leon stepped away from the window and leaned her back against the outer wall.
The coldness of the wall seeped into her back.
(No. I just wanted to avenge my mother.)
(The West took my mother from me. That's why I hated the West.)
(So why did it come to this?)
Tears spilled from Leon's amber eyes.
Hot tears tra
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