Chapter 57 Behind the Darkness

In a secret chamber in Kujyuri's capital, numerous young men were sitting around a round table. These men were the ordained knights of Kujyuri who took part in Ozen's council. While the men here did not make up the entire council, they made up a good majority of it.

A heavy atmosphere permeated the chamber as everyone had grim expressions on their faces. One of those faces being council member Jerome who was in opposition to Ozen. After a recent one on one discussion with Ozen, Jerome was ordered to command a force of 50 mercenaries himself to transport supplies to Shisayama.

He was setting out in a few days, and he loathed Ozen's order. He would much prefer the comfort of his home in the city with his wives, rather than the countryside of a village like Shisayama. Remembering that he would likely have to meet Shizu the Man Killer he sighed in exasperation before he broke the silence.

"So how was the operation in Shisayama?"

"If you mean the one involving the use of cursed bait, it seems we will be unable to proceed with our deal with Great General Dekumo." Said a council member.

"A clue to our involvement with the foreign western nation was discovered by that brat Shizu and an investigation is pending by Ozen's personal forces. Support is also being requested of the Emperor, it is likely that we will be discovered if we continue." Added another council member.

Slamming his fist in anger, Jerome screamed.

"Damn Shizu, if only we had just a bit more time we could have killed Rulu and then the rest of that inferior family would have fallen. I thought we set the events in motion when we poisoned their mother, but it seems we should have been more direct."

Realizing that he was letting his emotions go too out of control he sighed to calm himself, he then motioned the others to continue their report.

"While we may have lost our deal and our chance to kill Rulu by using a foreign power. We did succeed in attaining a large amount of money with our deal with Dekumo. Also, there is an interesting development with that Azi boy."

Perking up at this Jerome, paid more attention.

"During the recent expedition lead by Shizu, this Azi has shown great battle prowess and thaumaturgic skill. If we could get him on our side..."

"No." Jerome interrupted. "That boy is a threat to us and there is no way he could join us. He is still an apprentice to that brat Shizu. If he were to grow any stronger he could possibly bring more prestige to Ozen's seat of power."

"Then what do you suggest Jerome? We can't kill the boy by simply sending an assassin, he is protected by Kajima and Shizu."

Thinking to himself, Jerome remembered a piece of information that he had held intentionally away from Ozen.

"I have heard our neighbors across the sea have been having problems with monsters as well. How about we send him there on the premise of training. I'm sure Ozen would be willing to send the boy away if it meant he could have the boy gain some experience. And when he is away, we can strike in secret and blame it on our neighbor's negligence. Then we can profit from that to bring down Ozen and his inferior family."

The council members murmured in agreement and soon all the young men were clapping in raucous agreement. All of the men in this meeting were descendents of the previous council members, and their ancestors all held the title of Ordained Knight for generations.

After years of constant accruement of wealth, the latest generations were less knight and more merchant. But this accruement of wealth also accrued a misplaced pride which then turned to jealousy at the current King of Kujyuri. Ozen was only a mere peasant a few decades ago, for him to become a king brought him the resentment of those who thought that they were the more "worthy".

Jerome was one of these men and he grinned to himself and thought.

'Just wait you decrepit king. Soon I will replace you and your inferior family.'

*****

Decem 12th of 4831 AS

Azi opened his eyes and saw that he was in a familiar black void. He was about to panic and braced himself for the usual pain, but to his confusion discomfort or mind breaking pain came.

He then took greater attention to his surroundings. While the space was a black void, he could see small lines in what looked like the walls or borders of the black void around him.

These lines were of a blue color and when he thought back to the first time he saw this familiar sight, a sudden small square screen popped up in front of him.

What played out in front of him was the scene of the first breakfast Azi had with Kajima and Shizu. Seeing this caused more memories to come to mind and in response numerous square images began to populate the space around him.

The presence of these images brought a familiar warmth to Azi. This was a stark difference to the usual sensations he would usually experience in this space.

Reminiscing on the memories and enjoying the warmth for what felt like a day, a sudden question came to him.

"Where the hell am I?" Whisper Azi talking to no one in particular.

"Where indeed? My little friend."

Surprised by the apparent voice that rang out around him, Azi responded reflexively due to Shizu's training.

"Identify yourself!"

"hahahaha, She has taught you well. Have you enjoyed it? Your new life?"

Not responding, Azi continued to survey his surroundings for the source of the voice. He then noticed a figure in front of him and was confused by why he could not see him before.

The figure was human-like, but Azi could not make out its face, but he felt that the voice seemed familiar.

"Who are you?"

"Hahaha, I am you, or maybe I am not or I am just your imagination. All I can say is, well, Hello little one. Again. Are you enjoying your new life?"

"New life?"

"Yes, your new life. Free of your memories. Didn't you want this? Wait, you forgot that too? Hahaha"

The figure's voice echoed in Azi's mind which gave him a headache. As he put a hand to his head to get his bearings he said to himself as if trying to remember something.

"Memories?" Azi then thought. 'Does this person know who I am.'

Turning his head up, Azi yelled at the figure. "Tell me! Who am I?! Where did I come from? Why can I remember any details from my past?!"

"Oh you really are such a fool. Don't tell me you can't recognize this at least."

The figure raised his palm and a black bordered image came into view. It was of an old man, an old woman, and two young men.

"That's.... Mom? Dad? B-brother?"

"Oh you do remember, good for you. I wonder do you remember their names"

With a hand on his head, Azi could feel a pounding in his head as he tried to recall the names but all that rang out in his head was static noise. The figure then taunted.

"I guess not, well if you can't remember it must be worthless now, better to get rid of the trash."

An evil grin crept onto the figure's darkened face and he motioned to crush the image with his fingers as they began to dig into the borders of the image.

Cracks formed on the images surface and Azi could feel as if his mind was splitting, in an attempt to stop the figure from doing anything else he dashed forward in the black void of space and reached out to the cracking image.

"No, mother, father, Brother!!!!."

As he was about to touch the image, the black void broke apart as the blue glowing lines suddenly expanded out like lighting in response to his rising emotions.

His vision now turned white, Azi could hear the maniacal laughter of the figure in his head.

His consciousness fading, Azi felt nothing for a few moments. He felt he was close to figuring out who his family was but was a step too late. As that thought passed through his mind, he soon realized that he had regained feeling in his face which prompted him to open his eyes.

Looking around he saw that he was in his room back in Kajima's house and felt a soft hand on his forehead.

Turning his head to the left he saw Shizu sitting at the side of his futon bed with her eyes wide open in surprise. They looked at each other for a while and neither wanted to break eye contact.

Wanting to break the awkward silence, Azi spoke first.

"Umm good morning?"

To this, a single tear slipped down from Shizu's eye and slid down her cheek. Flustered by her reaction, Azi recalled what he could last remember and that was the time he called out to Touma to close the gate.

He deduced that he was likely in Shisayama as the wooden features of the room gave it away, he further deduced that they won the battle and that he was likely wounded from his little stunt of self-sacrifice.

"Umm did I worry yo...u?"

Before uttering the last of his sentence, Shizu crawled under the blanket of his futon bed and began nibbling on his neck with intense fervor. She also gripped him in a tight embrace which made Azi wince a bit in pain.

Feeling a wetness on his neck and a whimpering from Shizu, Azi quickly recomposed himself and began to comfort Shizu as he rubbed her back. He remembered how Shizu had worried about him before on the investigation 2 weeks ago. He was presumed dead and when he miraculously came to Shizu had teared up and hugged him.

Now that they were more than close friends, it only made sense to him that Shizu would react like this when he almost died a second time. Reminiscing on his stunt, he remembered the coldness he felt while outside the wall.

He trembled a bit at the thought of dying and to help calm himself he mirrored Shizu's actions and began nibbling on her neck as he embraced her in a hug of his own.

The two continued to do this for numerous hours throughout the day, both wanted the moment to last for as long as possible due to how the stress from the past few days had weighed heavily on them.

Unbeknownst to them, the door to Azi's room was cracked open as the large group of people which consisted of Rulu, Yashimu, their four brothers, Kajima, Nosuri, and Ougi were crowded around and stacked on top of each other as they peered into the room.

Rulu and Nosuri were blushing furiously at the intimate exchange between the two. Rulu could not believe how indecent the two could be for so long. Nosuri was also embarrassed but nonetheless watched with an intense focus as it made her heart race in an enticing manner.

Yashimu and Kajima could only facepalm silently as they were exasperated by the turn of events. Shizu had been sitting at Azi's bed side since they arrived back to Shisayama. For the two to do something so out of context made them annoyed by how worried they were about the two. Still, they did feel a bit relieved.

The four brothers looked on in amazement, as they all thought collectively like a hive mind.

'Damn just who is this guy. Has he tamed the man killer?'

Lastly Ougi was looking on with interest as he gave the sight a small, entertained smile as if he were looking at an interesting play.