[The Silmarillion] Romimus

"What exactly is Sauron trying to threaten you with?" Vesper asked Romimos.

"I think he just enjoys the feeling of being able to control me." Romimos gritted his teeth and replied.

"Yeah, but he has to have a condition, even if it's impossible," Vespa said. "He's going to kill us, unless you'll do something for him. Tell me. Well, maybe I'm not as useless as you think?"

She really shouldn't have said that.

Although Romemos said that Vespa couldn't help her in any way, it was not always true. To be honest, the only person she could think of to help her get through the current difficulties was Vespa.

The method is actually very simple, that is, let Vespa serve Farathon on her behalf.With Vespa's rich experience in "imitating Romemos", it shouldn't be difficult to fool Farathon briefly for one night.

The question is, even if Vespa "would" do it, does she really "want" to do it?

If it was 30 years ago, there would probably not be any doubts about this question, but according to Romemos' current understanding of Vesper, she would never be willing to become Farathon's lover if she had a choice.

But then again, what choice did she have?If she doesn't help Romimos, if she falls into Sauron's hands and becomes a tool used to threaten Romimos, she will only die more ugly in the end.

Vespa should also understand this, so no matter how reluctant she is in her heart, she will agree—not to mention that she may not be so reluctant, and it is very likely that she will even agree with joy, not because she has a chance Climbed into the bed of King Númenor, but because she used this opportunity to prove to Romimus that she was not useless for her.

So the problem is not with Vespa, the problem is with Romimos himself.

Obviously she has already come up with the best solution for this matter at the moment, and she is sure that Vesper will never refuse, why can't she immediately ask the other party to do this with confidence and peace of mind?

It is obviously impossible because she felt guilty and sympathetic for the humiliation that Vespa had to bear. Unless her soul degenerates, those things will always be useless and redundant when she really needs to consider the overall situation, because the bigger Benefits always require some individuals to pay a price.

However, Romemos's only conscience was only enough to make her entangled for a while, and when Vesper offered to help, she was almost relieved and agreed without taking half a minute.

As Romemos expected, Vesper nodded and agreed without hesitation after listening to her thoughts. She even complained that Romemos didn't let her do this earlier, so maybe Ilfarin wouldn't have to worry about it. up.

Romemos was not sure if Vesper was as indifferent as she had shown, and she hesitated to ask more, but she felt that it was not very interesting to ask, and it would not help to improve the situation.

"Don't worry about me, Romi." Vesper took Romemos's hand, her palm was warm and dry, just the opposite of Romemos, "I had planned much worse than this. You Maybe I'm used to taking it too seriously like an elf, but I've been married to dozens of men the way you are."

"But that was a long time ago, wasn't it?" Romimos couldn't help asking, "You didn't believe in Vera back then, you know they wouldn't encourage such things, right?"

Vespa was silent for a few seconds, and then shrugged: "I think in this special situation, even Vera shouldn't blame me too much."

"And Isildur, you don't love him anymore?"

"God, of course I love him, but does this kind of wishful thinking still require me to protect him like a jade?"

"But since you love him, how can you bear to be with someone else?"

Vespa laughed, and Romemos could hear a bit of sadness and self-deprecation from the laughter.

"This is again the idea of ​​you Enu and Elves," she said, "and it is not so uncommon for us humans, who do not have endless life and youth to find true love. By contrast, the King's lover is not It's a terrible choice, at least you can have a lot of money, and many people can't grab this opportunity. But... don't you care about it? After all, I did it with your identity, and it may be to you damaged reputation."

"What reputation do you think I already have?" Romimos rolled his eyes.

"But those rumors before were all rumors, and you are not afraid of the shadows. This time... for many people, the rumors are really confirmed. Is it really okay?" Vespa frowned , "Maybe this matter will spread to Central Continent, Lord Glorfindel may also hear about it, and there may be a misunderstanding by then."

"Oh, he won't take it seriously, he has brains." Luo Mimo paused, "Besides, I don't need to take into account Glorfindel's thoughts, he also said that it doesn't matter what I do in the future It's over."

Vespa shook his head secretly.

"But if we can't fool the elves," she had a new worry, "then can we fool Sauron?"

"Who says you're going to fool Sauron?" Romimos replied, "It's fine if you can fool Farathon."

"Oh? You agreed?" Sauron pretended to be surprised, but his eyes were not surprised, "Such an excessive request, are you sincerely willing, Luo Mi?"

"Yes." Romimos said with a gloomy face, "Tell Farathon, just tonight."

"Is that opera house really worth your sacrifice?" Sauron looked at Romemos with interest, like a cat looking at a mouse cornered, "Honestly speaking, I'm very happy." It's hard to believe. Speaking of this, I remember that red-haired lady, she is very good at imitating you, even I was fooled by her once."

"Just take it when you see it, Sauron, it's almost done." Romemos said impatiently, "Do you really expect me to go in person?"

That's not true.As both of them know well, Sauron has no interest in enriching Farathon's private life. He did so only to add trouble to Romemos, but if Romemos really went crazy, Sauron Instead, you have to consider whether you need to stop it. After all, although Maiya has never been combined with humans, judging from the precedents of de facto marriages between Enu and the same kind or elves, Enu and their partners will become one. A true whole, sharing a fair share of spirit, power, and perhaps longevity?Sauron would not really make Farathon so proud.

Sauron didn't really dare to push Romemus too hard. He had already determined that the opera house could be a means for him to control Romemus, but he didn't think Romemus would really sacrifice himself to keep it. If he did too much, Romemos would be more likely to give up here in the end, and become that tricky enemy without any weakness again.

So in the end Sauron made a seemingly tolerant concession, happily accepted Romemos's proposal, and promised to start preparing for the meeting between Farazon and "her" tonight, and promised mercifully that as long as Romemos He obeyed his orders calmly, he would neither reveal this matter to anyone, nor embarrass the people of the Opera House, he would even immediately send the best doctor in the palace to treat Ilfarin's leg.

Romemos angrily accepted Sauron's arrangement, no matter how unwilling she was, she could only admit that she had lost this time in the confrontation game.

But from now on, let her obey Sauron's words, is it right?

Don't even think about it.

Romemos turned around, and even before he walked out the door of Sauron's room, he had already started to make plans for the next step.

However, the plan could never catch up with the changes. To the surprise of Romemos, Vespa was carried out of Farathon's bedroom less than half an hour after he walked into it.

Bloody.

Romemos knew that Vespa would not have a good time tonight, but she thought that the torment would be more psychological, and would not be life-threatening, unless Farathon discovered Vespa's true identity, and this Impossible, unless Sauron helps Falazon break her illusion again.

Therefore, when the familiar pain in the heart came again, Romemos immediately realized that something was wrong. She froze on the spot for dozens of seconds because of the severe pain and disbelief, and then rushed to the palace immediately, and was arrested on the way. The men sent by Lun stopped him.

"His Majesty the King and His Majesty the Master have ordered us to come and take you to meet them, right now," said the men.

Romemos was even more sure that this was something that Sauron had planned in the morning.Alright, that's great, she was swayed by that person again, and now she is forced to watch the victor flaunt her power as a loser.Just thinking about that scene is enough to make Romemos feel extremely humiliated, and no matter how much she wants to punch Sauron in the face now, she still clearly understands that it is almost impossible for her to confront Sauron head-on. There might be a chance, the wisest move would be to leave immediately, and she couldn't even do that.

"Is Vespa all right?" she asked.

Judging from the expressions of those people, they don't necessarily know what happened in the king's room, or who Vespa is, but Sauron told them how to answer this question.

"Alive," they said.

Filled with anger and a little uneasiness, Romemos followed the guards into the depths of the palace, and was taken outside the door of Farathon's bedroom. Sauron had been waiting for a long time.

"You can go and see her first, she's in the next room." Before Romemos could make an attack, Sauron opened his mouth first, his brows were tightly furrowed, and his expression didn't look like he was complacent after proving his superiority. .

Romemos gave him a hard look, pushed the door open and went in.

"Are you okay, Weiss——" Romimos' unspoken ending came to an abrupt end in his throat.

She originally thought that "Vespa is still alive" in the mouth of the guards was a threat, meaning that if she acted rashly, they would kill Vespa, but she never thought that this would be a simple statement.

Vespa was lying on her back on the ground, with only a thin mattress covered with blood under her body. The illusion on her body had been dispelled by Sauron, and her crimson curly hair was mixed with blood and tangles. , her neck and chest were also bloody red... God, she was covered in blood.

"How...how did this happen?" Romemos stretched out his hand towards Vesper, stopped in mid-air for a few seconds, and then retracted tremblingly and dazedly, because just like thousands or decades ago, her hand The pair of beautiful hands, shining with the last light of the Twin Sacred Trees, can make countless handicraft treasures, and is praised by Vespa as the hands that can solve all the problems in the world, and they will never be able to play any role in the face of the passing of life. "Doctor! Where's the doctor? Why didn't they call the doctor? I'll look for it, you stay a little longer, Vespa, just a little bit..."

"It's useless, the doctor has already seen it." Sauron stood behind her, watching the scene expressionlessly, "And you can see that she won't live long."

"You..." Romemos wanted to speak, but as soon as the voice came out, it was suppressed by a fishy sweetness in her throat. At the same time, her damned, it seemed that she would never be engulfed by anger or sadness and left and right reason Remind her again: Sauron didn't mean to provoke her, he was right.

"...Missing..." Vespa's voice was so weak that even the ears of the elves couldn't catch it. Her eyes couldn't focus, and her neck was too stiff to move. In fact, she looked nothing like a corpse. The difference, Romemos also quickly moved his head towards her after noticing that her lips seemed to move slightly.

"What? What did you just say?"

There was a moment of silence, no answer, Vespa's mouth was slightly opened, her face was facing the doorway, her pupils were dilated, a tear quickly slipped from the corner of her eye into her temples, and she died so silently.

Sauron lost interest after glancing at Vesper's corpse, and turned to look at Romimos. He was indeed a little curious about how deep Romimos's feelings for humans were, but to his disappointment, Romimos Mimos's reaction was not as great as he hoped, and she even looked calmer now than when she first entered the door and found Vespa dying.It's hard to say whether she hasn't fully accepted the fact or accepted the fact too quickly. In either case, Sauron will not be happy about it, which means that the one who caused him the most headache has no weakness to threaten Romemus is back again.

"I will send someone to transport the corpse back to the Opera House, and you can arrange it however you want." Sauron said, "But let's put those away first, His Majesty Falazon wants to see you."

Romemos didn't look back, she gently closed Vesper's eyes, her tone was emotionless: "Now?"

"Now."

"Falazon dares to see me now?" Romemos wiped the blood off Vespa's face, "How dare you agree?"

"Aside from her, don't you care about the lives of other people in the opera house?"

Romemos stood up, turned around and walked in front of Sauron, stretched out his hand to wipe off the blood on the other's lapel bit by bit, looked up into Sauron's eyes and said, "This is the last time I listened to you. , thinking that my compromise would bring her vitality."

"Use your brain and think about it carefully." Sauron finally couldn't hold back the annoyance in his heart, "What good will it do me if I kill her?"

"You mean my illusion was dispelled by Farathon?"

"No, I did decipher your illusion." Sauron said, "but after that woman was stabbed by Farathon's sword."

"Where did Vespa show his secrets, and Farathon saw through his identity?"

"That shouldn't be the case. Until I was summoned, Farathon seemed to think it was you."

Romemos felt even more absurd: "Then you mean that I was the one Falazon wanted to kill at the time? How much did he think he had a chance of winning? Or was he sure that I would not fight back?"

"I don't think he intended to kill you, maybe it was an accidental injury. But I don't know exactly what happened at that time. He didn't tell me, he just said that he wanted to talk to you alone," Sauron said in his tone Obviously very displeased, "He also said that you don't have to worry about anything other than chatting in this meeting."

"I'm not so optimistic." Romimos sneered, "Perhaps tomorrow you will start preparing for the restoration ceremony of Queen Miriel, National Teacher."

Sauron's face became even more stinky.The development of the current situation was the last thing he wanted to see, but there was nothing he could do about it.He could not defy Farathon's will, and he lost the most powerful bargaining chip to threaten Romemos.

Meanwhile, in the next room, Falazon waited quietly.

He looked at the man in the mirror, the man who was once high-spirited, arrogant, with ambition in his eyes, and confident that he would conquer the whole world.He also did it for a time. It is undeniable that Farathon was the most powerful emperor of Numenor in the past, and the national power of the Numenor Empire under his rule reached an unprecedented peak. No known ruler could match him, not even the Dark Lord and the Lord of Dusk, two true gods of legend, who are now but his captives.

But to mortals, no glory lasts forever, and no matter how powerful an army, wealth, or achievements Farathon may have, these things will mean nothing to him after his death.

Farathon is now feeling the threat of death.

Many times death doesn’t happen overnight, it’s like a shadow at sunset, it swells up inch by inch, but it’s inconspicuous at first, maybe it’s just a fine line in the corner of the eye, a silver hair on the sideburns, it will never happen to Farason For those who let the voids fill their lives, ignoring them is not difficult.

But apparently it's getting harder.

Over the past few years, except for those appearance changes that are not enough to really cause an impact, Farason has felt more of the loss of energy in his body. In many places, he can no longer behave as easily as he did when he was young, such as In the court meeting at two o'clock in the afternoon, such as the banquet table full of big fish and meat, such as the horse racing track and the martial arts arena, there has been a particularly terrible addition recently: the woman's bed.

Of course, for a supercilious person like Falazon, the first reaction is never to look for problems from himself. For example, he was sleepy at the meeting because the reports made by the useless things below were stinky, long and unnutritive. Indigestion after enjoying a big meal is due to poor kitchen skills. As for the horse racing winning percentage, he has changed five horses in just one year, and for the last thing, he found an explanation for himself: the imperial palace All the women in his house were the same and couldn't interest him anymore.

But he couldn't go on deluding himself with these reasons forever, especially the last one, because until now, he didn't even have a natural heir.Even in the prime of his life and energy, Falazon failed to impregnate any woman, including the queen.

Farathon has been troubled by this incident for a while, but out of self-esteem and secret fear-he is afraid that this incident will be interpreted by the outside world as a punishment from God, which will affect the rationality of the source of his throne. Influence—he hasn't mentioned it to anyone yet.

Until two days ago, someone tributed a painting to Farazon.

The man in the picture is Romimos.

This is not surprising at all. As the undisputed most beautiful woman in Central Continent after the death of Lucian, and the hottest female star in Númenor in recent decades, countless painters have tried to capture the indescribable beauty. On my own canvas, no matter whether it is carefully tracing according to myself or letting my imagination play freely, no painter has ever been able to restore her full demeanor.

The painters expressed dismay that Romimos had an evil feeling about her. Even if she stood there motionless, people always thought she looked much better than the so-called most beautiful moment in the painting.

But the present portrait of Romemus, which is said to be painted by an unknown young court painter, is still three points better than any master's work that Farathon has seen before. However, it can be seen that the painter has an almost worshipful mentality when painting, as if he is not the creator of the people in the painting, but the people in the painting dominate everything about him.

The craziest thing about this painter is that he once refused to dedicate his painting to the king, and even tried to take it for himself. No matter how much wealth, title, and glory he promised him, he couldn't let him go. But he is a little painter, Naturally, it was impossible to overrule the authority of the Golden Emperor, and it was not even necessary for Farazon to speak in person, but countless people would try to get the painting to please him.

It's just a pity that the painter, who could have had an extremely bright future, is not only ruined now, after offending the emperor, there is a high probability that even other nobles will not dare to ask him to paint again. He either gives up this profession completely, or just To be able to paint for ordinary people in the market, maybe you can only earn a salary that is barely enough to eat.

But if it was Romemos, it would not be surprising that such a thing would happen.Farathon knew very well how many people in Númenor had an almost crazy enthusiasm for Romemus. Even he himself was dazzled when standing in front of the beauty of the god, but Farathon would never be like that court painter Kneeling at the feet of Romimos, he only wanted to possess and conquer.

It's not like Falazon didn't have a chance. There was one time when he almost acted on a whim. Fortunately, Miriel came to interrupt him in time, otherwise Romimos would have to cut a few holes in his body , Farathon was also a little scared after he calmed down.

Since then, Falazon has never thought of offending Romemos, and even deliberately suppressed all attention to Romemos on weekdays. For him who has everything, Romemos is very attractive. , but it's not worth risking your life and throwing everything away.

Until now, the appearance of that painting has revived Farathon's mind, which felt that everything he possessed was gradually fading away from him, or in other words, made him pin his last hope on Romemos body.

A proud and inviolable goddess, if this can't make him want to conquer again, what other woman can?

So there is tonight.

"Romimos" was silent, lying upright on the bed.Farazon stroked her cheeks, neck and shoulders with his hands. It was hard to imagine that this body had existed in this world for thousands of years. She looked so young and beautiful. Although the touch of her skin was not as smooth as he remembered, it was getting dry with each passing day. And the hands with many fine lines are delicate enough.

"Romimos" frowned and turned away impatiently.

Falazon suddenly recalled the night when he and Miriel got married, she was lying stiff like this, allowing him to kiss her, please her, and promise how to love her in the future, her expression was extremely cold from the beginning to the end, If she had been more courageous, she should have expressed her disgust like Romemos did.

In the end, Falazon ran out of patience, ignored Miriel's resistance, and unilaterally did what husband and wife should do on the wedding night. Just as he was breathing slightly on her, Miriel collapsed.

His cousin has never been a strong woman. Even if Farathon's marriage to her was against her wishes and was not in accordance with the law, she only dared to express her protest with silence and non-violent non-cooperation, but before that she could at least Forced to put on a cold shell, and now she couldn't even maintain that, she buried her face in the pillow, crying so hard that she almost died.

So Falazon took her in his arms again, and said many kind words in a low voice, and when he kissed her again, she muttered "Don't touch me", but her body was not as tense as before, and her cheeks were not as tight as before. With blood again, she accepted her fate for the rest of her life in this way.When they were reunited, Falazon felt a hundred times more satisfying than he had ever felt from women who were more willing to cater to him.

That was almost half a century ago, and now his wife, who was once more beautiful than silver, ivory, and pearls, has gradually lost her beauty over the years, and presumably also lost the ability to give birth to an heir for him.

When Falazon regained consciousness and saw "Romimos" again, his heart was suddenly filled with anger and jealousy.Why? !Why do human beings have to have the fate of death, face the intrusion of aging and the fear of the unknown emptiness?Why do these gods have immortality and eternal youth?Still teaching them from a high position that human beings should be grateful for death?

Under the double burning of anger and passion, Farason violently lifted the skirt of "Romimos" and stretched his other hand under his body, ready to raise the gun to go into battle, extinguishing all the evil fire in his body. Let it out.

But there was silence, nothing happened.

I don't know how much time has passed, Farason only remembers that the blood in his whole body seemed to rush to his head, and he tried his best. It can't be said that it didn't work, but it was far from enough to let him show his masculinity heartily.

Then even "Romimos" realized that something was wrong. She tried to sit up and asked, "What's wrong?"

And at that moment, Falazon broke out suddenly, he grabbed "Romimos" by the neck, pressed her into the mattress and slapped her hard several times, then he jumped out of bed, pulled out the wall hanging Holding the sword, he stared at "Romimos" with gritted teeth, blaming her and her fellow clan for everything that happened to him, and stabbed her chest with a sword.

Then Falazon destroyed all the tapestries, furniture and vases in the room, and he still waved the sword in his hand indiscriminately, as if in this way he could force back the death that frightened him so much but was invincible.

In the end, Farazon finally slumped down on a chair and accepted the fact that he was beginning to age.He stared blankly at the mess in front of him, "Romimos" was still lying on the bed, covered in blood, motionless.

……

Wait, did he kill her?

Did he, a mortal, kill, a god?

Falazon felt unbelievable. He really lost his mind for a moment and stabbed Romemos with his sword to vent his anger, but he didn't expect that he could kill her. He thought that Romimos could escape and used illusion to pretend that he was injured. Or he can recover quickly if he is really injured. He never thought that he could really kill her.

He walked carefully to "Romimos" and tested her breath with his hands. Her weak and difficult breathing and the smell of blood on her body were so real, and Farathon still remembered that Romimos's illusion could not be deceived except senses other than sight.

An emotion between excitement and panic filled Falazon's brain, and he immediately sent someone to call Sauron for verification.

However, Sauron quickly determined that this person was not the real Romimos after arriving, and he lifted the illusion on her body. Sure enough, there was just an ordinary red-haired woman underneath.

Disappointed, Farathon felt that this was expected.He faced the biggest problem when he just started thinking about Romimos: How can he make Romimos submit, at least not directly kill him?Unlike Miriel's weak resistance, Romimos really had the courage and ability to send Farathon away directly, and the possibility of her doing so was quite high.

But coincidentally, when Farathon revealed his thoughts to Sauron, this time Sauron did not always persuade Farathon not to do that like before. On the contrary, he promised that if Farathon really hoped so, He will make sure that Romimos does not do anything to endanger his life.

Then the problem comes.When Sauron dared to make such a guarantee, did he already know that Romimos would respond in this way?What's more, is this an idea he came up with in the first place?

If the answer is yes, then apart from this matter, is there more things that Sauron has been deceiving him, obediently obediently and secretly contradictory?

"No, I had no idea that she would do this," Sauron said.

It was Romimos who was cheating.This creates a new problem.

Falazon always believed that Sauron and Romimos were the only two remaining subordinates of Morgoth in Central Continent after the War of Wrath. Whether it was because of the bond of faith, the tacit understanding of working together for many years, or the benefit of sharing weal and woe, they There should be an unbreakable alliance or a superior-subordinate relationship of unconditional sacrifice and obedience between the two.

However, today's events made Falasson realize that the relationship between the two may be much more fragile than he imagined.If Sauron really didn't know that Romemos would use illusions to get other women to come here instead, it meant that either he didn't understand Romemos's usual tricks enough, or he thought he could use strong methods to frighten Luo Mi Moss failed in the end, and Romimos was far less loyal or fearful of Sauron than he had shown.

"I'll let Romemos come over now and explain what's going on," Sauron said.

Farathon withdrew his thoughts.

"Very good." He nodded, "Since I'm going to call her here, I want to talk to her alone for a while."