Together, forward or back, sworn on the Moon's Profound Meaning

[No.]

[The gods would not answer the prayers of those who defied them.]

As Princess Yao reached this conclusion, her cold, beautiful face grew a shade paler.

The image of herself prostrate in the icy Shrine Palace, begging humbly in her nightmare, remained painfully vivid.

But all of this rested on one question:

Would the Sun God truly descend into a rage and unleash divine punishment because Lady Himiko married a mortal? And was her nightmare truly a prophetic plea for help from Sun Wheel City?

After all, even a god could not say with certainty how the future would unfold, could they?

Yet after everything that had happened here, Princess Yao could no longer firmly believe that the sun would protect and forgive them all, pretending that everything she had witnessed in her dream had never happened.

Now, she needed only one final assurance from the person working behind the scenes.

"You really haven't deceived me, have you?"

Her earlier question slipped out again, but this time, it carried an entirely different doubt.

Princess Yao stared intently into his sole exposed right eye, as though trying to catch every flicker of emotion within it.

But all she saw was an unruffled calm.

"No."

"I haven't deceived you, and I'll do everything I can to help you."

"Because this is for my own sake, too."

Arata met her searching gaze without flinching, adding a little more to his answer this time.

That brief addition made Princess Yao's gaze tremble slightly, and for a moment, even time and space around them seemed to stand still.

"I believe you."

A short while later, Arata received her answer.

Brief as it was, heaven only knew what inner struggle she had endured before choosing to abandon her faith completely and instead trust a stranger