Sorry for the slow release, it's been an incredibly busy and exhausting week on my end, to the point that I did not even have the time to write during my lunch breaks, something which I normally do.

Special thanks to Dandarious for proofreading!

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The forest gave way to an expansive field filled with potatoes and the greatsword that was supposed to be in his right hand had been changed to a rake. Staring at the field and rake in hand, Zaran's expression started becoming ever so confused as his memories started to disappear.

Zaran looked at his left hand and felt something was off. Opening and closing it, he formed a tight fist. A strange gaze filled his eyes. Slowly his lips parted and he confusedly murmured. "Something feels off... I feel like I am forgetting? No... what was I thinking?"

Soon, all Zaran remembered was his name... And that he had to tend the potatoes.

Hours passed as Zaran worked the field and the rising sun was replaced by the shining moon. Still, Zaran had not stopped working the field and tirelessly continued his work.

A distant voice rang out across the field. "Zaaaaaraaaaaaaaaaaaan?"

Huh? Someone called me? Zaran thought as he stared in confusion towards the direction of the sound.

A few moments later a petite woman with titian hair came running over. Seeing that Zaran was still hard at work in the middle of the night, she cried out in astonishment. "Zaran, it's the middle of the night! Why are you still working?"

Zaran stared at the woman. "Who are you? How do you know me?"

The petite woman mouth fell open at Zaran's question. "Are you playing with me?!?! You say don't know ME?"

"Eh no, should I?"

A vein popped on the petite woman's head. "OFCOURSE YOU SHOULD! I AM YOUR WIFE, FLORANCE!"

Surprised, Zaran stared wide eyed at the petite woman. "I... I... I'm sorry I just cannot remember. All I can remember is my name and that I absolutely have to tend the potatoes at all costs."

"You... you really don't remember?" Florance said with a downcast expression. She stared at Zaran in deep thought and after a few awkward minutes she suddenly cried out. "I got it, I'll ask the vilewood king! The vilewood king is a really virtuous man and he always helps those in need. If anyone is able to restore your memory it is him!"

...................

As said was done and a few days later a beautiful carriage arrived in front of Zaran and Florance's crude little shack that they called home. The doors of the carriage creaked open and a young man with a crooked back and an extremely long and peculiar nose stepped out of it.

Seeing the crude shack's door wasn't locked, the young man frowned, but still politely knocked on the shack's door.

Seconds later Florance stuck her head from the opening of the door and upon seeing who it was she quickly withdrew her head, grabbed Zaran's hand, opened the door and dragged him out of the house.

"Milord Vilewood king!" Florance politely said as she did a deep bow, nearly slamming Zaran in the ground due to how quickly and how lowly she bowed.

"You may rise, there's no need to bow in front of me." The Vilewood king said, urging Zaran and Florance to raise themselves. He immediately focused his attention on Zaran and took his pulse. "Hmm... interesting" The Vilewood king murmured before taking out a needle and a vial and drawing some of Zaran's blood. After adding some unknown powder to the vial, a white liquid separated itself from the blood.

The Vilewood king's expression turned serious. "You are both coming with me to my castle. This is a far more serious case than I thought! Quick, in my carriage, there is no time to lose!"

Zaran, Florance and the Vilewood king quickly entered the carriage and set off to the king's castle.

...

A while later the three of them arrived at the castle and were quickly brought by the king to the alchemy room. The king drew some more of Zaran's blood, shut himself in the alchemy room and made Florance and Zaran wait outside of the room.

With nothing to do, Zaran wandered around the castle and looked at the various armour sets and weapons that were on display. With every weapon or armour set that he looked at he got this feint gnawing feeling in his head. Somehow, the weapons felt familiar to him but he could just not recall were he had seen them earlier.

Frustrated, Zaran did another tour around the castle and examined the weapons more closely this time, hoping to regain some more of his memories. "Hmm? Wasn't this door closed before?" Zaran thought as he stared at an open door that had not been open the previous time he passed this corridor. With just a single glance he could see that the room housed a large amount of display cases with a lot of peculiar shaped weapons.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Zaran looked around him and seeing that there was no one nearby, he slipped into the room and started examining the display cases. Among them was a one meter sixty long, fifty centimer wide greatsword that he could not keep his eyes off. After examining the weapon for what looked like a long time, Zaran finally read the weapon's name and description.

Gigenkai

Former blade of a terrifying warlord. At the age of sixteen, the Vilewood king killed this terrifying warlord and the blade has been on display ever since.

"Huh, this is the last weapon?" Zaran murmured in surprise. All the other weapons that were in display cases were from when the king was younger. Every time he killed a great warlord, king or bandit leader he had taken their weapon and had put them in a display case.

...

While Zaran was looking at the weapons, the Vilewood king had finally finished concocting a potion to combat Zaran's memory loss. Walking out of his alchemy room with a small vial that held a black-green coloured liquid, he looked surprised as neither Zaran or Florance were present any longer.

Surprise quickly changed to anger as the king cursed. "Damnit! I should have had them guarded after all!"

The king ran forward and started searching his whole castle for Florance and Zaran, telling every guard on his way to aid him in his search.

...

Oblivious of the king's search for him, Zaran still stared at the greatsword. It gave Zaran a great sense of familiarity. The longer he gazed at it, greater the longing in his gaze became.

Finally, after what seemed an hour of staring at the sword, Zaran struck out with his fist and grabbed the sword. Memories that he had forgotten came back and with it the realization what had happened after he got struck. "This is all a hallucination!" Shock filled his eyes and he wondered what to do. How do I break this hallucination? I don't seem to have any mana or ki that I can use... Hmm? Wait!

Zaran looked at the greatsword in his hands and focused all his being onto it. Very feintly he could still feel the connection to his greatsword. I might be able to use this connection to get out of here!

To make sure that the sword would hear him, Zaran roared as loud as he could. "GIGENKAI, INTENT!"

Hearing Zaran's roar, the Vilewood king smashed the wall next to him and yelled "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

The small vial that was in his hand shattered due to the impact and the black green coloured liquid dripped onto the floor, burning large holes in the marble.

~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile in the real world the king was closely examining Zaran's changing expression and a curious expression appeared on his face. By now his spell should have long reached its maximum effect but nothing had happened just yet. Had something gone wrong? The king shook his head as he rejected that notion. Nothing could have possibly gone wrong! A thousand test subjects and not a single one had been able to resist his hallucination.

Still... It should be done by now. A faint, alarming feeling rose within from the king. Instead of ignoring it, he followed this instinctual sense and raised himself. I cannot let this man live any longer! 

He stepped forward and straightened all the fingers on his right hand, preparing himself to slash down with all his might. With each passing second the king got closer to Zaran and Zaran showed absolutely no sign of awakening.

Right as the king arrived in front of Zaran, Zaran's greatsword started to emit a terrifying aura. Ki rose up into the sky and the air started to tremble at the enormous power the sword was emitting. Even the king was slightly affected due to the vibrations in the air.

Without a second thought the king stepped back and started to flee at his maximum speed. Should have killed him when I had the chance! The king cursed as he quickly ran from Zaran.

Voom! With one last tremble in the air, all the power left the sword and a bright flash of ki spread throughout the area.

A fifteen meter long, three meter wide and half a meter deep sword scar was carved upon the earth right in front of Zaran.

The Vilewood king's eyes nearly popped out of his head as he noticed the burning sword scar in the forest ground. The ki had erupted so violently that the earth had been died pitch-black. Warily he looked at the man in front of him, unsure as to what to do. While the man still had eyes closed, that previous eruption of ki had left him terrified.

Yet what the Vilewood king had never expected was that suddenly Zaran's body would lifelessly drop to the ground...