Chapter 62 Sharing Happiness

Kajima left the dining room for a moment and returned with an ornate box with a familiar emblem on one of its sides.

Shizu and Azi recognized that the box was from the well-known pastry shop in the village. Azi perked up and asked.

"No way, is that what I think it is?"

"You would be correct, thanks to Rulu. We were able to get plenty of your favorite dessert."

Setting the box down on the dining table, Azi turned to Rulu and asked.

"How did you get one? They are usually sold out since you can only get them if you reserve an order and the amount it costs to do so is incredibly high for just one."

A bit fluster, Rulu explained.

"Well, when I went to the shop with Kajima, they recognized me and gave it to me as a gift to celebrate my arrival to Shisayama."

Azi was amazed by Rulu's simple explanation, he had gone several times in his free time in an attempt to get one but every time he was unsuccessful. Yashimu then informed Azi of Rulu's popularity in Kujyuri.

"Our sister is quite loved by our people, so it's no surprise that they treated her in high regards."

"Why is that?" Asked Azi. "I remember that Rulu isn't an ordained knight, does she have some unofficial title that makes her famous?"

"In a way, but it's mainly due to our father's action." Answered Yashimu.

Yashimu then explained Rulu's situation to Azi. That she was forced to stay in Kujyuri for the most part of her life, her poor childhood health, and the support the people of Kujyuri had for her.

Azi listened in silence and felt saddened by how tragic Rulu's childhood was but was relieved that she was now able to move a bit more freely. But Azi felt as if he had heard this story before and tried to recall his recent memories.

His mind again clicked as he remembered that this was the story of the girl from one of his visual novels he once played. Still unable to remember the name or any other finer details of the visual novel he felt as if something strange was happening in his mind but snapped back to attention when he smelt the aroma of dark chocolate.

"Like I promised you Azi, here is your dessert. This box of desserts is yours. I hope this makes up for both Shizu's and my own blunder in the past."

In front of Azi was his favorite dark chocolate tasting pastry. It was a rectangular pastry that was dark in color and had lines of dark syrup running back and forth across its entire surface in a criss-cross pattern.

Seeing that there were still plenty of pastries left within the ornate box, Azi opted to share his dessert to celebrate Rulu's first time out of Kujyuri's capital. He sorely wanted to eat them all but held himself back as he wanted to share what he had with others.

"Thanks Kajima, but could you help me serve one to everyone? I would feel a bit lonely if I ate this alone."

Giving Azi a knowing smile, that saw through the lie in the latter part of his statement, he proceeded to hand everyone a single serving of the pastry on plates.

With the pastry in hand, everyone thanked Azi for his kindness before they began to indulge themselves in the dessert's flavor.

Shizu was the only one to grimace from the bittersweet taste, which made her ask as she licked the syrup from her fingers.

"Azi? Why do you like this dessert so much? It's expensive for a dessert so why choose something so bitter?"

Finishing off the last of his dessert with a gleeful smile, he answered.

"When I first ate this, it tasted familiar. I think where I came from had this as its signature dessert." Said Azi whose tone of voice started to become nostalgic. "It is bitter but it is also sweet and I prefer those two flavors together since, I....."

He paused and began to look at the now empty plate in front of him. He felt a sadness twinge at his heart a bit which caused his lip to quiver a bit. He could begin to feel a bit of moisture forming in his eyes.

Noticing that he was losing control of his emotions, Azi recomposed himself with a cough and continued his statement as he hid his emotion away with a mask of laughter.

"Well I don't really remember. I guess my amnesia really got me stumped on this. Hahaha."

Shizu gave Kajima a knowing look of concern with her eyes which Kajima returned with his own look of concern as well. They both knew that Azi's amnesia had caused him sudden bouts of sadness or feelings of loneliness.

Azi had previously talked about his lack of friends in his past memories which was concerning as they believed that the boy had a lonely past.

They didn't know what they could do to help in this situation as they thought the dessert would make him feel happy but endeavored to think of another way to make him feel better. As the two had their minds racing to think of a way to cheer up Azi, everyone else gave him their supporting words.

"You'll remember, one day Azi." Said Rulu.

"Rulu is right, and you have your whole life ahead of you. So don't give up trying to find out who you are." Added Yashimu.

"Indeed, and don't forget you have the present to enjoy not just the past to look back on and you have the future to look forward to." Said Ougi.

"Umu, my brother is right, but if you do want to find out about your past you could visit the nation of Shaho. I heard that the main ingredient in this dessert is found in that nation. Maybe you can find a clue there." Commented Nosuri.

Azi's eyes widened as he had found a possible hint to his past. Looking to Kajima , he asked to confirm Nosuri's words.

"Kajima? Is what Nosuri said true?"

"Yes. I did want to allow you to travel around the empire one day to find out about your past. So I thought to send you there one day but...."

"But what?"

"You aren't ready, you are still adapting to your new surroundings and I didn't want to get your hopes up. Also I enjoy your company here."

Kajima chuckled a bit at how cheesy his last words were, but Azi felt no annoyance from his decision to keep him here in Shisayama. Azi had to agree, he was still unprepared to travel on his own. He may be a good fighter and smith, he had no idea how to navigate while traveling long distances. He chuckled as well and agreed with Kajima.

"Yeah, I guess you are right. I also enjoy my time here as well. I'm also sure that a certain spoiled cat would miss me too much."

Kajima laughed at Azi's subtle teasing as everyone else wondered who this spoiled cat was.

In an attempt to get back at Shizu from this morning's "incident", Azi teased Shizu and began nuzzling his head into Shizu's neck with the back of his head. This caused Shizu to feel a tickling sensation that irked her a bit as she could not prevent Azi from stopping as he was holding her hands in place against his abdomen.

As she was about to move her lips to whisper into his ear to try get a rise out of Azi, Shizu was unprepared when Azi suddenly turned his head to kiss her on the cheek. This made her freeze for a moment as her face began to turn a bright red from all the blood that was running up into her head.

At this point, everyone knew who Azi was referring to and as Nosuri was about to ask for clarification a loud sound rang out.

*Slam*

Looking over to the loud sound, everyone saw that Yashimu had hit his head against the table. Everyone besides Rulu was confused by what was happening, so Rulu had to explain to everyone at the table.

"Well, umm you see. Our sister Shizu has an aversion to men and loathes them. It seems that Yashimu was surprised by this and needs to cool his head off. Come brother, let's get you to bed."

Helping her brother from the table, Rulu lent Yashimu her shoulder to help him walk to his room. As he got up, he muttered.

"He tamed the man killer, hahaha, he actually did it, haha."

Kajima looked at the departing pair and turned his attention to the still red in the face Shizu and chuckling Azi in her lap. Sighing, he then told them.

"It's best you get to bed to recover more from your fever. It may be gone now but it can relapse on you if you aren't careful."

Nodding in agreement, Azi got off of Shizu's lap and grasped Shizu's hand. He then guided her to his room while she was still reeling from his antics.

After leaving the dining room, Kajima had Nosuri and Ougi help with the cleaning. They talked about Azi and got to know each other more as they cleaned up the dinner table.

"So are Azi and Shizu in love?" Asked Nosuri. "I know they are betrothed to each other, but from Azi's words it seemed like it wasn't love that binds them."

"You are somewhat correct, they are betrothed but only if Azi passes Shizu's trials. If you want the details on that you'll have to ask Shizu. Concerning how they feel about each other, I can say for sure at this point that Shizu loves Azi but doesn't realize it due to her past history with men and her duty as a knight. Azi is a special case as his amnesia affects is understanding of common sense and his own emotions."

"Sounds complicated." Added Ougi. "But I wonder, just how will this pan out?"

"No idea, but I just hope they live full lives rather than be haunted by their pasts."