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Later, when Leonardo thought about all this, she came to the conclusion that Magi☆ Mari was to blame for everything.
It all started with Magi☆ Mari, months earlier. And from the unhealthy fascination that Romani had shown with her. Leonardo, though she adored the Doctor and valued his presence, could not help but notice that his behavior was a little too dependent on this online idol.
Even if later, when the specter of the end of the world became more apparent, and talking to Magi☆ Mari became its own kind of therapy for him, Leonardo was of the opinion that it was still an addiction.
Sometimes, however, this addiction had its good points, and Leonardo could gain something from it. Such as the mug Romani gave her on the anniversary of their acquaintance and the discovery of their shared love of coffee. He himself had a matching mug. As the Doctor claimed, Magi☆ Mari said that when friends have matching items, their friendship will be stronger because they will think of each other even if they are far apart.
Leonardo accepted the gift and had to admit that Magi☆ Mari was right. In fact, when she used this mug, her thoughts escaped to Romani for a while.
She treasured this mug and it quickly became one of her favorites.
Although, she had to admit, she would never have thought in her life that this very mug would become the source of her problems.
It all started with a coffee shortage.
Leonardo, though she was a Servant, figured out that it was easy to become addicted to the goods of this world. One of them was coffee, for which she developed an almost unhealthy love. The fact that her best friend was Romani Archaman, who shared the same unhealthy love with her, did not help in the fight against this addiction.
Both of them had long ago given up when it came to coffee. When they faced the specter of the end of the world, the fight against addiction was not very important and was their least concern.
And perhaps that's why that day Leonardo completely missed some signals that should have caught her attention.
Her thoughts constantly fled to the new project she was leading. There were still so many things she should finish.
The lack of coffee forced her to head to the kitchen. As always, she used her favorite mug. When the pleasant smell of coffee hit her nostrils, life immediately became more pleasant. She took a sip of coffee and then headed toward her workshop, finding that her energy would also come in handy later.
On her way back, she passed Queen Sheba.
Sheba's eyes flickered toward Leonardo. They narrowed slightly.
“You have a nice mug,” she said in a slightly cooler tone than usual.
And that probably should have been one of the first signs that something was wrong. If Leonardo had been less distracted, she probably would have figured it out.
“Ah, thank you,” muttered Leonardo. “I like it as well.”
“Mhm.”
Sheba did not take her eyes off the mug.
“Where did you buy it? I would like to gain a similar one.”
“I didn't buy it,” Leonardo admitted. “I got it as a gift.”
“Ah. From whom?” the question, seemingly innocent, was the second of the signs Leonardo had missed.
“From Romani,” she said absentmindedly, putting the cup aside to look for her notebook. She had just found the solution to a problem that had been tormenting her for some time. “For our anniversary.”
Sheba answered nothing to this. She just silently rose and left the room.
Only later, much later, did Leonardo's thoughts return to that conversation and she realized how easy it had been to misrepresent her words.
Well, she concluded after a while, shrugging her shoulders. Romani will manage. She's his woman.
“Solomon.”
“Could you please not call me that way when we are in public?” asked Romani, looking around.
There were others in their vicinity. If it was just Leonardo, it wouldn't be a problem - the woman had long ago guessed who Romani really was. But the problem was that there were others nearby who should not know his identity. Ot, for example, Mash. Or Fujimaru-kun. And let's not mention David yet, who Romani wasn't going to talk to. No. Never.
It was already bad enough that David nearly gave him a heart attack when Romani fell asleep in the command room and found David looming over him, staring at him with a strange intensity that Romani had never seen before.
Romani intended to maintain his true identity for as long as necessary. That was his goal and he was going to achieve it.
“I'll call you whatever I want,” Sheba said, doing nothing about the look Romani threw her way.
The worst thing about it was that he couldn't get angry with her.
He wouldn't say it out loud, but he did like it when Sheba called him that way. He was Solomon, no matter what he looked like now or how much he would change. He wasn't going to give that up; it was part of his essence. He liked it when Sheba said his real name, because it contained in that word some specific feeling that he didn't quite know how to classify yet.
Perhaps he should do so. Romani wrote down in his head to open his long-forgotten notebook and start analyzing his feelings again. He hadn't done this in a long time, but perhaps it was a good time to start re-examining what exactly being human was all about.
“I have a question for you,” Sheba leaned toward him, smiling at him.
“Hm?” Romani became a little more cautious.
This was Sheba, a woman whom Solomon considered an equal in wisdom. This was the woman Solomon respected so much.
If Sheba asked you something, she often had some ulterior motive.
“Did you have any other partners?”
The question was so sudden and so unrelated to their previous conversation that Romani even blinked his eyes in surprise.
“Of course-”
“Not as Solomon,” Sheba put her finger on his lips. “As Romani Archaman.”
He waited a moment until she withdrew her finger.
“No,” he admitted. “I didn't have time for that.”
He spent the last decade looking for a way to stop the annihilation of the world. He traveled a lot. He studied magic, hoping that it would give him answers to his questions. When he realized how cruel Solomon's passivity was and how many people suffered because of it, he began studying medicine.
He had no time for romance. He didn't understand love - or at least that's what he thought until Sheba showed up.
Besides, he wasn’t young per se. His body may currently be young, but his soul was old. He was not going to be interested in young girls. He may have had many wives as Solomon, but that still didn't mean he didn't put some boundaries on himself.
“Mhm,” muttered Sheba. “You were never interested in that?”
“I didn't find the right person,” he said. “Besides, I didn't feel like it was the right thing to do.”
“Well, I am somewhat relieved,” the woman looked at him carefully. “I'm used to sharing you with other women, but I won't say it was something I liked.”
He did not answer right away. Being with Sheba and being in the presence of his other wives was easier. Unlike David, who married for love, Solomon was always pragmatic. For him, wives were a means to make political alliances. They knew this perfectly well and did not expect love from him. It was enough for them that he did not restrict them, that he treated them with respect and was not cruel to anything.
In retrospect, his wives were more like friends to him than lovers - if Solomon could be said to have had any friends at all. Of course, when he needed to, he fulfilled his duties as a husband, however...
Sheba was different. She was the one he enjoyed spending time with and who, in his eyes, was his equal.
“Do you want me to apologize to you?” He asked, lowering his voice so that no one else could hear him. “For the past?”
For the fact that there were other women in his life.
“No,” Sheba said simply. “It's all right. You have never lied to me when it came to other women. As long as you are honest with me, I will be willing to forgive you.”
He was slightly relieved.
Now he wouldn't be able to have the same relationship with his wives as he did then. He didn't think he could do it. Solomon could, but it was actually happening because he didn't care what they would think of him. He wasn't interested in their feelings, as long as those feelings didn't harm his country.
...Looked at from this perspective, he really was a bastard.
“So,” Sheba looked at him carefully. “Don't you have other partners? Lovers? Love interests?”
“As a Romani Archaman, no.”
“I'm glad,” she smiled slightly. “I hate liars, you know.”
Considering that she was saying these words to a person who lied on a daily basis, hiding his identity... it was probably not a good sign, right?
“Hello, Father,” Sheba's sonorous voice rang out from somewhere above him.
David raised his eyes to her, wondering what the woman could have wanted from him.
She’s calling me Father again, flashed through his mind. Sometimes he no longer knew whether it tired him more or amused him.
“Queen of Sheba,” he spoke up.
The woman sat down next to him.
“What can I help you with?” He asked, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye.
Sheba was again wearing rather revealing clothes. Really, sometimes the woman even seemed to want to draw attention to herself. She should be glad that there were people in Chaldea who were rather okay, because if she had been unlucky enough to find herself in another place... David was able to imagine what fate might await her - if she didn't have her Noble Phantom, of course. Servants were more powerful than ordinary people.
“What do you think of them?”
“Them?” David followed Sheba's gaze. The woman was looking at Leonardo Da Vinci and at Doctor Romani. The two were discussing something fiercely. “Ah, about them.”
“I heard rumors that they are a couple,” the woman's tail moved. Perhaps there was some meaning to the gesture; David wasn't sure. “Do you think it's true?”
“It ... would not be completely impossible,” he said in a cautious tone. “The truth is that they are often seen.”
He glanced at Queen Sheba, but the woman did not seem angry that David did not deny her suspicions. On the contrary, she even seemed amused by the situation.
Was it a matter of her being used to having more partners? David tried to imagine the three of them - the Doctor, Queen Sheba and Da Vinci.
It wasn't impossible. Admittedly, Doctor Romani was not David or Solomon, but perhaps he was more like them than David thought at first glance.
Besides, perhaps Sheba desired more partners and the Doctor was no longer enough for her. David didn't know whether to envy or sympathize with him.
“I heard that the Doctor gave Da Vinci matching coffee mugs for their anniversary,” said Queen Sheba. “So this must have been going on for some time.”
“I see,” muttered David.
He didn't know how he was supposed to react. Should he be angry on Sheba's behalf? They weren't that close to each other. David didn't really know her very well.
“He did,” confirmed Queen Sheba. Her tone was still too cheerful for a woman who had just realized that she was ‘the other one’. “ However, don't you think this is strange? Da Vinci knows about me and the Doctor, and yet she never said anything.”
“So are you saying that they are hiding their relationship?” asked David, choosing to ignore the fact that Sheba had practically confirmed that she and the Doctor were a couple.
David knew it, of course he knew it - but it wasn't like either of them had said it out loud. But they all knew.
“Who knows?”
“I was hoping for some more support,” the woman looked at him disapprovingly. “What do you think I should do?”
“Why are you asking me this?”
“You are the man who had eight wives... or maybe there were more? I don't remember exactly. Solomon once mentioned it to me, but I didn't focus on it too much. However, I think you will be able to help me solve my problem. What should I do? You have experience with jealous wives, right? I heard that one of them tried to attack you in the bedroom, causing you to flee naked from the chamber.”
“I don't know where you heard that from, but it's not true.”
“From Solomon.”
David promised himself that if he ever met his son, they would have a rather serious conversation about what it was okay to tell his wife/lover about his father and what not. Solomon was supposed to take care of his good name, not make him out to be some shallow man who surrounded himself with beautiful women and only cared about them!
...Okay, he may have been a man who surrounded himself with beautiful women. But he was not shallow. Definitely not.
“Solomon lied,” David said.
Sheba nodded thoughtfully.
“I'm beginning to come to the conclusion that he was one big liar,” she admitted. “Don't you think this is unfair, Father? I have no luck when it comes to men. First there was Solomon, for whom I was just one of the wives, and now there is the Doctor, who has his mistress and it is not me. And he didn't even tell me about it!”
“I'm sorry...?” David wasn't sure whether he should comfort her or the opposite.
He no longer knew whether Sheba was happy that Romani and Leonardo were a couple or the opposite.
“I would be able to forgive a lot, but not lies! This is cruel to me, don't you think?” Queen Sheba asked. She hid her face in her hands. After a while, she uncurled her fingers slightly. She hid her face behind her hands again. Then she looked at him again. “But you may be able to help me.”
“I doubt that I am a good person to-”
“I am convinced that you can help me, Father,” Sheba suddenly grabbed his hands, looking at him with hope in her gaze. “You will talk to the Doctor. You will ask him to be faithful to me.”
“That ... would hardly be appropriate.”
David was not going to approach the Doctor with his son's eyes. No. Definitely not. He had spoken to him once in his life, and to this day he was unable to forget those green eyes.
He lived well when he officially knew nothing. He lived very well when he didn't think about all the “what ifs.”
Because if David wasn't wrong, then-
“I am convinced that the Doctor will listen to you, Father!” Sheba did not give up. “You will talk to him, right? Just don't tell him that I'm the one who asked you to do it. And don't tell him that I know about him and Leonardo. Knowing him, he will probably try to deny it. No, he will almost certainly deny it. But you can do it, right, Father?”
He could see hope in her eyes. A little too much of hope.
“I don't think-”
“You can do it, right?” Sheba asked. “I am convinced that of all the people in Chaldea, you are the best for the task, Father. Who, if not you, will the Doctor listen to?”
“I spoke to him maybe once in my life-”
“But the Doctor really admires you, Father!” insisted Sheba. “You are the perfect person for this!”
David shook his head, trying to object.
However, deep down he knew that this was a battle doomed to lose.
“How could he do this to me?” asked Queen Sheba in a broken tone, sitting down next to her.
Mash raised her head toward her.
She hadn't known Queen Sheba for too long, but she realized that the Queen Sheba was a rather positive person.
“Who?” Mash asked, not quite understanding the situation.
“The Doctor, who else?” Sheba looked like she was about to cry.
Oh.
Not good. Mash didn't know how to react. What should she say?
“What did the Doctor do?” Mash asked, somewhat uncertainly. Was this here about Magi☆ Mari?
It had to be about Magi☆ Mari here, right?
“Didn't you hear?” Sheba suddenly stopped being so sad. Instead, she looked at her with a strange gleam in her eyes.
“Er... No?” answered Mash with a question.
This was probably the right answer, because Sheba moved closer to her.
“Haven't you heard about it, Mash-chan?” she asked. “I learned about it from King David. Apparently the Doctor and Da Vinci are a couple, and have been for some time.”
Mash would like to be able to say that she was surprised.
She wasn't.
Mash had heard many times the Servants refer to Doctor Romani and Da Vinci as “Chaldea's dad and mom” - not to be confused with True Mom aka Emiya. No one objected to Emiya when he ruled the kitchen.
No one said out loud that anything would connect Doctor Romani and Da Vinci, but people had it in them to gossip. Love and romance was something they liked to gossip about.
Mash blinked her eyes when she realized what Sheba really meant.
“So then...”
“I'll have problems,” Sheba said, nodding. “Me or Da Vinci. Be the Doctor. Who do you think is at fault here?”
Mash was unable to answer her question - once again during this conversation. She should start getting used to this feeling. Probably.
“I don't know,” Mash said.
“I don't either. What surprises me is that Da Vinci didn't say anything when she found out about me and the Doctor.”
“Perhaps... perhaps she wanted to keep her relationship with the Doctor a secret?” suggested Mash. This kind of thought was unpleasant.
She didn't want to think about the Doctor's private life. She preferred not to think about it - and she had been thinking far too much lately, seeing Sheba cuddling up to him as often as she could.
Doctor Romani may not have raised her, but he was by her side for many years. He was the man who taught her so much, even if he insisted that he was not her senpai.
“Perhaps,” Sheba nodded thoughtfully. “Thank you, Mash-chan. You helped me solve some secrets.”
“Em... you're welcome?”
Mash didn't have time to say anything more, because Queen Sheba walked away, leaving her alone.
“Really?” Ritsuka looked at her in surprise. “Do you think it's true?”
“Keep your voice down!” Mash rebuked him. “Don't say it so loud! Someone will still overhear you!”
“Sorry!”
Ritsuka looked around, looking for potential people who might overhear them. When he didn't see anyone, he lowered his voice and asked:
“Are you sure?”
“I'm not,” Mash admitted. “But if King David and Queen Sheba are saying something like that... maybe it's true.”
“Hm,” mused Ritsuka. “In that case, it's not good.”
“Why?”
“I don't think Doctor Romani and Da Vinci are with each other; at least not when Doctor Romani and Queen of Sheba get together. Doctor Romani is not that kind of person. Or at least I find that hard to believe.”
“So then…?”
“This could mean that perhaps Queen of Sheba and Doctor Romani are no longer together, only neither one has said it out loud. Or Doctor Romani and Da Vinci were once together, but broke up and are now back together.”
“Oh,” said Mash. She thought for a moment. “Then what should we do now?”
“It's probably best to do nothing,” Ritsuka stated. “This is probably the safest option. The three of them will somehow solve their problems. I hope.”
David was just in the middle of one of the most awkward conversations he had ever had in his life.
Once, he was having it with someone he almost never talked to. With his own son, whom he had ignored for years.
Two, that he was speaking on behalf of a woman he hardly knew. With his daughter-in-law - one of his son's many women.
Three, that he was trying to speak from the perspective of a proponent of monogamy. Both he and Solomon never were monogamous.
Four, that he had to hide in the process the fact that he knew about the Doctor's hidden affair. Which was not at all as hidden as the Doctor would have liked.
Which means - it was not a pleasant conversation.
Absolutely not.
Judging by the Doctor's face, he didn't like this conversation either.
“I assure you that there is only one woman in my life at the moment,” he said.
In the last few minutes he was able to find at least ten other assurances, each with the same meaning.
“I am aware of that,” said David, not for the first time regretting that he was here at all. He decided to change his approach: “But you know, people are different. One day you may realize that one woman is not enough for you.”
The Doctor's eyes narrowed.
“With all due respect, King David, is there any subtext hidden in this?”
“Mo,” David denied quickly. “Definitely no. I just wanted to say that I know from, ekhem, experience that a person sometimes needs variety.”
Yes, that might have been a good approach.
You have to try to bite it in a different way. The Doctor was loyal to Sheba - currently. Perhaps his affair with Da Vinci was a thing of the past.
But in the future - who knows?
However, there was a way to help Sheba. David could become the Doctor's friend - no, that's the wrong word - mentor in matters of love. If the Doctor understood how great David's knowledge was, he would come to him if he was interested in other women. And then David will be able to warn Sheba. Be to tell the Doctor in what way he should behave, having several women.
Yes, it was a good plan.
Now it just had to be proposed.
“You see, when I was king of Israel, women loved me,” said David. “I also used to think that I would love only one, but that changed. There is nothing wrong with a man loving more than one woman. So if you ever need help - advice, companionship, someone to listen to you - I'm willing to give it to you. I can teach you everything I know.”
The doctor was silent for a moment.
“With all due respect,” what did he have to do with that respect? “But I'm not interested.”
“You don't know what you're missing. I know love quite well, you know. Never yet has a single one of my mistresses complained about me.”
The Doctor stood up abruptly.
“As I said, I'm not interested.”
And he walked away.
David tilted his head to the side.
They’ll probably never get along.
Too bad.
Solomon could take some advice from his father.
“Leonardo, do you have a moment?”
Leonardo uttered something that was hard to understand. The woman was sitting at her desk, going over her latest plans.
“I feel like I'm going crazy,” Romani slumped in the chair next to her. “A while ago David came to me, trying to convince me that it's good to have several partners. For half of that conversation I wasn't sure if he was trying to hit on me or if he was trying to get my permission to court Sheba.”
“Maybe you misunderstood him?” suggested Leonardo.
“I hope so,” Romani hid his face in his hands, knowing full well that the face was turning red just barely thinking about the conversation with his father. “Whatever it was, I don't want to repeat it.”
Mash and Ritsuka looked at each other, watching Doctor Romani and Leonardo from some distance. From their seat, Mash and Ritsuka were unable to hear what they were talking about, but they could see their reactions. Leonardo seemed amused, and a gentle smile danced on her face. Doctor Romani was red in the face and spoke with a kind of nervousness.
“Something has actually happened between them,” Ritsuka stated. “I've never seen them like this before.”
“Neither had I,” Mash admitted.
She had known Doctor Romani and Da Vinci for a long time, but she had never seen them speak to each other in that tone before. Leonardo said something that made the Doctor turn even redder in the face.
Something was going on here. Something had happened between them.
The question was just what exactly.
“Doctor?”
“Yes, Fujimaru-kun?”
“Forgive me for asking this directly, but are you and Da Vinci-san a couple?”
Doctor Romani almost choked on the tea he was drinking - today he changed his favorite beverage.
“No!” he denied quickly. A little too quickly. “Of course not! Leonardo is my friend!”
“Mhm,” Ritsuka nodded. “Forgive me for the stupid question, Doctor.”
“They are a couple,” Ritsuka announced later, sitting down next to Mash. “In my opinion, they are a couple. Or they used to be one.”
“Oh,” Mash looked at him with concern. “That will be a problem, right?”
“Yes,” agreed Ritsuka. “It will be a problem.”
Leonardo was starting to get fed up with it.
People were looking at her.
They tried to hide it by pretending not to look at her at all, however, they did. Their gazes followed her.
Several people congratulated her - for what exactly, they did not say. Others stated that they had always known this to be the case - again, what they meant by this, they did not say. Someone else accused her of getting in the way of true love, someone else said they felt sorry for her.
Something was going on. And Leonardo had the feeling that everyone around her knew what, but didn't want to tell her - as if it was one big secret, at the heart of which was Leonardo. And she should know it.
When she asked others for details, she only received some vague answers. Statements that they didn't want to get involved in her private affairs; that they knew it shouldn't be brought up out loud. Explanations that Leonardo didn't have the slightest idea what they were actually talking about came down in vain.
Something was going on and no one was telling her, which was driving her crazy.
Leonardo had to find out.
“Something is going on and I have a feeling that everyone knows about it, but they won't tell me,” Leonardo announced, entering his room.
Romani raised his head at her from above his laptop. Ever since David found him working after nights in the command room, Romani had greatly avoided being there in the evenings.
Leonardo apparently had no problem entering his room in the middle of the night.
The woman leaned against the wall, looking at him intently, as if she thought he would find the answer to her unasked question.
“And am I the one to tell you this?” Romani asked.
“It would be nice,” admitted Leonardo. “And if not, you could give me some clue as to what is going on.”
“I'm afraid I myself would like to get such a clue,” Romani closed his laptop.
Leonardo raised an eyebrow.
“Could it be that David is still giving you some, ekhem, suggestions?”
“Don't laugh about it, this is serious. That conversation still gives me nightmares.”
Leonardo laughed, not caring for all the unpleasantness Romani might have experienced.
“I’m serious now, something is going on,” the woman said. “And it has been going on for a good few days. People and Servants are really looking at me in a strange way. Maybe something has escaped your ears?”
“I'm afraid not,” he admitted.
He mused, reaching back to remember the last ones. If there was something strange...
“Actually,” he said. “Fujimaru-kun and Mash were acting a bit strange. I remember once they asked me if we were dating.”
“Me and you?” Leonardo couldn't believe it. “They are aware that you have Sheba? Unless...”
“Whatever you're going to say, do me a favor and don't say it,” Romani asked. “Sheba is the only one.”
“Fine, fine, I'm not going to argue,” laughed Leonardo. Romani looked at her with suspicion. He was not convinced that he believed her. “However... perhaps this is the answer to my questions.”
“Meaning?”
“Someone is spreading rumors that we are together. Me and you. Do you know how much trouble I had because of that?”
“I don't have the slightest idea.”
“Not helpful,” said Leonardo. “Not a day goes by without someone throwing some strange comment in my direction. Will you take responsibility for that?”
“I will. At the very beginning you can stop visiting me at night times. Do you want to create even more misunderstandings?”
Leonardo only laughed in response.
Romani felt something that she did not intend to make his life easier.
There was someone with whom he needed to raise a current problem, and Romani knew this perfectly well.
The problem was that he wasn't sure how he should do it.
He had to talk to Sheba - his wife (ex-wife?) and explain to her that he and Leonardo are not together. And he had to do it in a way that didn't make it sound like they really was together and he was the one at fault here.
Leonardo was no help. When Romani raised the issue with her, she merely laughed and said that Sheba was his woman, so Leonardo wouldn't get involved so as not to make the whole situation worse.
Which made a bit of sense, as Leonardo's involvement could make everything worse, however Romani would appreciate her support.
He asked Magi☆ Mari for help, however he did not get good times from her. The online idol only told him to be a man and fight for his woman.
Having this kind of conversation was easier when he was Solomon, really.
Who would have thought that at a moment like this Romani would start to miss Solomon's calmness and confidence?
But. But. One thing at a time.
First, it was best to start at the very beginning. That is, by finding Sheba. Which shouldn't have been difficult.
And it wasn't - there she was. Her ears twitched a bit when she noticed him, and a smile appeared on her face as always.
Romani smiled back at her as well, then let her know that he would like to speak with her privately. Sheba agreed without much problem, incredibly trusting as always.
She looked at him expectantly, no doubt wondering what it was he wanted to tell her.
“So, um,” he began eloquently.
Sheba tilted her head, waiting for further words.
“Yes?” she asked.
“I wanted to talk to you about, em, some... gossip, let's say,” Romani said, not quite sure how he should say it.
Solomon's wisdom, where have you been hiding? Why don't you come to Romani? They were one and the same person, right? Romani should be able to be on a par with Solomon.
“Gossip,” Sheba repeated.
Uh. That didn't sound right.
It sounded as if Romani had heard about the rumors, but the rumors were true, so he figured he would go to Sheba to fool her.
“Gossip,” he said in a cautious tone. “I talked about this some time ago with Leonardo and these rumors reached our ears, so we thought maybe you too...”
He didn't finish. He felt like he was digging a grave for himself. Now he totally sounded like he was cheating on Sheba with Leonardo! Or Leonardo with Sheba.
...At the moment he wasn't sure which of these options was more frightening. Romani wouldn't want to see a single one of these women when he was mad.
“I didn't hear anything,” Sheba said, looking at him with an innocent face.
She wasn't going to make it easy for him, was she?
“Oh,” said Romani. “Well, that's... probably a good thing?”
“I don't know,” the woman shrugged her shoulders. “You are the one who knows the rumors, so you should be the one to know if they mean something bad or good.”
“Ah. Right.”
A silence fell between them.
Romani moved uncertainly. It was beginning to get awkward.
He should tell her everything - only he didn't have the slightest idea how exactly.
“Well...” he spoke up after a while, when he realized that Sheba was not going to speak first. “Perhaps you heard something. Or you may have guessed. No, I'm convinced that it's possible that some suspicions arose in your head... not that they have any basis in reality, I just wanted to say that they could exist... Ah, my explanations don't sound very good, do they?”
“It doesn't sound good,” agreed Sheba. “Solomon, be kind enough to explain everything to me clearly and distinctly.”
“Well...” he hesitated. Fine. He'll tell her once and right. Let her get it over with. “There are rumors circulating. About me and about Leonardo.”
“Is this the moment you want to tell me that you have another woman?”
“No!” he denied quickly.
Her eyes narrowed slightly.
“That doesn't sound like a real denial. Actually... when I think about it, it made sense. You can often be seen close to each other. Leonardo knows who you really are. She is one of the first Servants summoned to Chaldea. That makes sense. You might be connected by something more than friendship.”
“It's not like that!” he protested. “Me and Leonardo are not together! Yes, I value her as a friend, but that would be just that! Just that, I swear!”
Sheba laughed suddenly.
“I knew it,” she said.
“Huh?” asked Romani eloquently.
The wisdom that Solomon was known for had disappeared. Perhaps he never had it.
“I knew you were not together,” the woman smiled at him. “I was the one who suggested to King David and Mash and Fujimaru-kun that you were a couple. I just wanted to see how you would react.”
“Oh,” again, his eloquence reached higher levels.
“Although I have to admit, I didn't think you would seriously believe that I thought you two were together,” she said with amusement. “Admittedly, you are close to each other, but I can recognize your look. I know when you care about someone as a friend.”
Romani let out the air he was unconsciously holding back.
“Ah. That's good to know.”
After a moment, he realized what it actually meant to him to know that Sheba was aware that he and Leonardo were not connected by love.
“Then what was it for?” he asked. “Why create rumors that me and Leonardo would be a couple?”
Sheba did not answer right away.
“Sheba,” Romani spoke up. “What was that for? Tell me, please.”
“Because it was funny,” she said eventually, smiling at him. “I was curious how you would react.”
Romani had to take a few breaths, as long as he didn't start screaming. He didn't want to get angry at Sheba. At the woman who was next to him. Who helped him so much, even if she wasn't always aware of it.
“Aha,” he said, using his newfound eloquence.
“And besides, I was a bit angry,” Sheba said. “Your relationship is very easy to get angry. Especially when Da Vinci spreads to everyone what gift she got from you for her anniversary.”
“For the anniversary? “
“A mug. Matching mugs.”
“Ah,” understood Romani. “That mug.”
Wait.
“But it was for the anniversary of our acquaintance,” he noted. “Not for the anniversary of being together.”
“It sounded different.”
“It wasn't supposed to.”
“But it could have.”
Romani squinted his eyes.
“You are not the kind of person who would fall for something like that,” he said. “I know you well, Sheba. You knew from the very beginning that me and Leonardo do not have this kind of relationship. Despite this, you implicated more people in all this, including my father and Mash and Fujimaru-kun. Why did you want to do that?”
“Perhaps I wanted to force you to talk to your father,” Queen of Sheba shrugged her shoulders with apparent indifference.”
“Makeda,” there was a warning in his gaze when he said her real name.
The woman chipped in a smile.
“Was this supposed to be some kind of game?”
“Who knows?” She asked in an innocent tone.
“Sometimes I really wonder what it was that made me fall in love with you,” he muttered under his breath.
“Well, you were the one who tricked me into just accepting your advances,” she said. “Don't you remember? Our bet that you wouldn't try to seduce me as long as I didn't take anything that belonged to you? Ah, and that feast when you made me give spicy food, and the only water that belonged nearby was yours?”
“Looking back, I really was a bastard,” Romani stated.
He didn't have time to say anything more, because Makeda found herself right next to him. The woman moved closer, close enough that their noses were almost in contact.
“You were,” admitted Queen Sheba without hesitation. “But that's okay. I knew about your plan. I specifically allowed it because I wanted an excuse to spend a little more time with you.”
This was not surprising. It was just what he might have expected from her.
The woman moved even closer to him, stealing a kiss from his lips. It was so unexpected that he didn't even think of stopping her.
“Let's just say that my little intrigue with Leonardo is a payback for that intrigue,” she said with amusement. “I finally managed to get you to admit that you love me.”
Romani shook his head in disbelief.
“What was all this for, Makeda?”
“Yes,” she smiled slightly. Victoriously. “You yourself told me that you knew me. Did you expect something else?”
Romani was unable to restrain himself. He laughed out loud.
That's why Queen of Sheba was Solomon's favorite partner. She always found a way to surprise him, to challenge him. That's what their relationship was - a constant clash, but in a positive way. Makeda matched Solomon's intelligence and sometimes even he could not predict her next moves. They were able to spend long hours in discussions - both political and philosophical. It was never possible to get bored around her.
“No,” Romani said. “I should have expected all this to be just another challenge. Good. I admit, I lost. Me and Leonardo were careless and created a situation where it was easy to create misunderstandings. Is there anything you would like me to give you? Do you have a wish that you would like me to fulfill?”
“I have two wishes,” she said quickly enough for Romani to realize that she had expected such a proposal.
He hesitated. Knowing Makeda, he might have regretted his proposal.
“Provided it's nothing impossible,” he said.
“Oh, you don't have to worry about that,” she smiled at him. “Do you accept the challenge?”
“You know perfectly well that agreeing to a challenge without knowing its details does not show the best about a person.”
Queen of Sheba continued to smile.
“All right,” surrendered Romani. “Speak your demands, my Queen.”
“First, I would like you to talk to your father.”
“This-”
“King David definitely knows who you really are,” Makeda put her finger to his lips, silencing him. “And if he doesn't, he suspects it.”
“If he did, why did he sound like he was romantically interested in me?”
“Oh,” Queen of Sheba was silent for a moment. “In that case, all the more reason for you to resolve this misunderstanding. King David should know who you are. I know that your relations were not the best-”
“We practically ignored each other for most of our lives.”
“-however, when I sometimes talked to him about Solomon, I had the impression that he regretted what had happened. Give him a chance. You don't have to tell him you're Solomon...of course, that would explain a lot, but try to talk to him like a friend. I think you both need this conversation.”
At the moment Romani actually felt like he needed something, but that something was more like coffee, because his head was starting to pulsate with pain.
“All right,” he agreed after a moment's thought. “I don't promise it will end well, and I'm not going to tell him who I am, but I will talk to him. Or at least I'll let him know clearly and distinctly that I'm not romantically interested in him.”
The joy in her eyes was reward enough. Romani was able to survive the conversation with his father. He will be able to. Yes. Everything will be fine.
“Excellent,” the woman said. “And my second request...”
She leaned towards him, as if she was about to kiss him, however, she did not.
“Tell me again that you love me, my King.”
“Why do you ask that? You know this.”
“For the past weeks you have avoided answering this question for me. At our first meeting in Chaldea, you said directly that you didn't know whether you did or not. But today... I want to hear it again.”
Romani grabbed her hand.
Her hand was not the hand of a gentle maiden. Queen of Sheba, even when she was still alive, was a warrior. She was someone who had power and knew how to use it. When she was alive, Solomon saw her powers and knew that it was not without reason that his Seventy-Two held her in greater or lesser esteem.
Makeda was already dead. She was merely a Heroic Spirit, summoned to another century to try to correct Solomon's mistakes. But that was okay. Sheba forgave him for that; more than that, she wanted to stick by him.
Romani placed a gentle kiss on her hand, hoping to convey to her in this way the respect he had for her.
“I think I am currently in a position to say this and know that it is not a lie,” he looked her straight in the eye. “I have no idea yet if this is true love or not... but I think I may be starting to fall in love with you.”
There was delight on her face - and then she threw herself at him, with all her weight, embracing him and not letting go.
“My love!”
Romani tried to say something, but was unable to - her embrace took his breath away - literally.
It looked like he wouldn't be free of her anytime soon.
But that was okay.
As long as Makeda was by his side, everything was fine.