Father [1]

Early in the morning. The sun was slowly appearing on the horizon, flooding the world with its light and warmth, signaling the start of another day for all living beings.

In the middle of an endless forest with tall dark trees, a strange structure could be seen. In a room within this structure, a boy was sleeping.

As usual, the sun reflected its light through the bedroom window, which was all on the face of the boy sleeping on the bedroom floor. Waking him up.

***

"Yawn." I yawned as I stretched after being woken up by the annoying sunlight.

'Today marks five years since I was born into this new world.'

If my mind is still good, today is my five-year anniversary of being alive in this world. From previous years' experiences, I'm not expecting any childish celebrations or boring presents. My father has never done that before, so I don't think he'll suddenly do it now.

Getting up from my floor-bed, I went to a small pile of black kimonos in the corner of my room and got dressed. After I'd finished, I went outside and started walking around the "house", heading for my usual destination.

As I walked, I found myself questioning again something that I try to understand every day why it is the way it is. My new "house" is actually an abnormal number of corridors connected in strange, labyrinthine ways. Occasionally there are doors with rooms in them, but most of the time they are wooden corridors and that's it.

The only thing different from the rest is that in the middle of it all there is a large open space where the courtyard is. I call it the inviolable area. It's where Father swings his sword and meditates every day. No one can set foot there without his permission.

In recent years I haven't been able to do anything, not even leave the house, since we were in the middle of a forest and I didn't want to risk my life. I just stayed at home every day watching my father from afar or doing anything else to pass the time.

My father is a swordsman obsessed with the sword, he lives and breathes for it, with no time for tears or children. Every day, when the first ray of morning sun appears in the sky, he stands wielding his sword with monstrous concentration until the sun sets or his hands start to bleed. When one of the two arrives first, he sits down and begins to meditate. The next day, he gets up and repeats the process as if nothing else existed in the world.

"I don't think I've ever seen him sleep..." I murmured, a little curious about the fact.

After I was born, he hired a young woman called Kristy to look after his children. Yes, "children", plural. I found out a few days after Kristy arrived that I had an older sister for a year.

And it was in front of her room that I arrived after my long walk.

Preparing myself for what was to come, I took a deep breath before knocking on the door. After knocking many times, I heard the sound of hurried footsteps rapidly approaching the door.

'Here it comes, once again.'

'Uhm... Good morning, Kai! How are you? The sun is beautiful today, isn't it? Perfect for smiling and forgiving each other." My dear sister greeted me with her shaggy black hair, black puppy-dog eyes and a miserable smile on her face.

"Sigh... Emma, you're late." I said calmly, not intending to burst out early in the morning.

"Look, I know I overslept a bit today, but you know how tired I was yesterday, I'm a girl, I need to rest well if I want to be pretty when I grow up! And it's your fault too, why didn't you come and wake me up earlier?!" I heard her spit out her reasons while I held myself back from hitting her on the head with my fist.

'Not today, not today. One day the time will come and that day is not far away.' I kept reciting these words in my mind like a sacred mantra.

Emma, although small, was a very cunning and hateful girl. In these few years of life I've spent more stress here than in my past life because of her.

This obnoxious girl knew no bounds to her mischief. From putting snakes in my room to throwing chopped up chicken shit in my food and claiming it was seasoning, she did everything and more. There was nothing she wouldn't dare to do in this life.

But today is a special day. A month ago, Dad let Kristy go. Telling her that her care was no longer necessary, he paid her a gold coin and sent her out.

That same day he came to us and said in a cold, unquestioning tone: "Next month you'll be six and you'll be five." He said while pointing at Emma and me respectively. "It's about time I taught you about the world, after all, no one can be ignorant for the rest of their lives. From next month I'll be teaching you in person. Be ready and arrive in the courtyard as soon as the sun rises."

When he had finished speaking, he turned and went back to brandishing his sword in the courtyard. That was the only time since my birth that I had heard him speak or do anything other than meditate and wield his sword.

Compared to the day I was born, he seemed much more distant and detached. It was really strange to hear him speak like that when I remember his soft words that day.

Speaking of which, I couldn't figure out what it was that he did to me that day, but I speculated that it had something to do with the "Legacy" he mentioned.

I also tried to force myself to recover the small missing parts of my memory, but I couldn't, there seems to be an unbreakable barrier preventing me from achieving my goal. The part I had of my memories was nothing important.

Basically, I was a social recluse who only went out to buy food or go to work from the age of 18. There was nothing good or bad about my life, it was completely ordinary until the end. Or at least, as far as I can remember, without coming up against the unbreakable barrier.

But that's in the past, I haven't taken on my old personality again. For some reason, I can't accept that the person in my memories was me, our way of thinking and acting were two worlds apart. I just decided to leave it behind and go on as I am now.

After trying unsuccessfully to recover my memories, I began to wonder where my little companion was, but I never found him. I decided not to believe the hypothesis that the God only gave me back my memories and didn't grant my other requests, so I decided to wait until I got in touch with mana before drawing any conclusions.

Anyway, the reason I'm here today is so that we can go together to find Dad, something Emma herself asked me to do because she was afraid of Dad.

'I can already foresee our future.' I thought as I massaged my temples, trying to stay calm.

While I was thinking about the past, Emma had already run into the bedroom and got ready. Her appearance was now more presentable as she left the room and closed the door behind her. She was wearing a black kimono just like Dad and me, making us look like a copy of him.

"Come on, we can't keep Dad waiting for you to be late, can we?" She said with a small laugh as she ran past me.

"This is going to be a long day." I muttered quietly as I anticipated what was to come.