Merely Existing

Chapter 20: The New Lord Accends

Beleth's POV

"There are no words to describe our pleasure upon your return."

"This is truly like being in a dream. No, this is only the start of our long awaited dream!"

"A miracle! God has brought us our lord, our daimyo back!"

"Welcome home..."

"Lord Alyrius Lorues Tsuijin."

The name resounded in my ears, disturbingly familiar. It wasn't particularly hard to accept since it had come to me almost naturally.

It was after all....my name.

The very name that had brought back my forgotten memories from a thin thread, pulling forth what once slept dormant inside my head one by one, creating a steady flow.

At that time when I was searching for our hidden enemies, the ones I found were indeed snipers of the Cavarone famiglia as Blacky had anticipated. However, there was one more party in the hiding whom I sniffed out pretty quickly. The fact that they were Zeraphian assassins wasn't difficult to guess since I had already encountered with a similar bunch. It didn't seem like they were conspiring together with the Cavarone or anything, they were just carefully observing how the situation would turn out from a distance. Only when I had taken care of the Cavarone's men, they stepped out, probably to eliminate me.

But that didn't happen.

No, instead shock and disbelief coloured their faces as they stood frozen in front of me.

Until one of them cried out that name.

It hit me like punch in the stomach. I felt a buzzing in my head, throbbing as it got louder, deafening until I couldn't take it anymore.

I watched as the assassins went down on their knees one by one, bowing their heads to me and---

Inviting me home.

It didn't take me long to make a decision. The memories kept flooding in, some might be blurry and others yet to surface, but one thing was clear to me.

The answer was obvious. I couldn't refuse. I had to go.

There was something I need to do. Something only I can do.

It took a two day journey. Yet everything seemed to happen so fast, and now here I was...

Sitting on the high chair of the Tsuijin palace, I watched as various people bowed down before, uttering nothing but flowery praises with false smiles. None of them were speaking those words to me. It felt like they were looking past me at something that laid outside my being.

They were supposed to be strangers, I was supposed to have nothing to do with them. And yet my mind had come to recognise them. They were the three Counts of Zeshar that served the Tsuijin house, my mentors when I was young. Not only them, but I had come to remember more about this land and myself. Those accursed memories...

Even now images were pouring into my head, filling up a long forgotten corner in my mind. It was as if there was a leak that nothing could cover up. Now it had become a giant hole with everything simply cascading into my head in torrents.

I hadn't had the loveliest of childhoods, being surrounded by people who only cared for name and appearances, but nevertheless it was mine.

I was Alyrius Lorues Tsuijin, son of one of the four great daimyos of Zeraphus, Zeshar Dravain Tsuijin. I hardly considered that to be a name, it was nothing more than a title, brandishing my status like a neon sign. Rarely was I called by my given name, much less did anyone treat me as a single little boy.