Upon our stop, Iro and I continued to walk forward for what felt like several minutes.

“So what type of fighting abilities do you possess? What are you good at, and what do you lack in comparison of your strength?” She said this statement after taking a deep, big breath out, clearing her lung’s airways.

“Well I guess I might be decent with a blunt weapon, like a dagger or a slim blade.”

“Perfect!” She exclaimed as she stopped in her tracks to continue speaking to me, “If that’s so, then I think I might have the perfect weapon for you to carry on your person.”

“What might that be?”

“Oh you’ll see when we get there. More so ‘he’ will understand more thoroughly than that of yourself, so ask him your anxious questions.” She was probably annoyed by my constant fanning of un-interesting and more so less important questions. Questions that would be answered if I had some patience, and waited for the conceding sequences to happen. The way ‘fate’ predestined them to be programmed.

So I waited for the process to happen naturally.

We were walking through several corridors of an empty room, with nothing but large amounts of space; possible treasures buried in an unconcealed or unconventional way. Treasures could be hidden in such a way that they are nearly impossible to spot via the naked eye, and would need some sort of metal detector or an expert at treasure hunting, to find the treasures that could possibly be hidden in secluded sections throughout this space-time fortress.

I continued to rant about the possibilities of secret treasure; hidden for the naked eye, but with help could quite possibly be easily obtained through conventional methods.

I continued this nonsensical topic of focus until Iro stopped at a door, and silently grabbed the modern-ish door knob and opened the alluring room.

This room had many different spectacles, spreaded throughout its entirety.

Some of these spectacles were sparkly gold coins, or even more alluring silver; casually scattered.

Iro and I walked around the large room, completely intrigued about the different treasures scattered around. We were also marveling at the different instruments and pre-modern era illustrations on the walls.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

We continued to grab different objects off of the marble floors, and began to think of a way to take all of them.

Do we just pocket them… or do we only take the most valuable and necessary treasures, and make a run for it; hoping for zero security of this room.

I told Iro of my plan to just book it and leave and she accepted, except one thing.

“We never got your promised weapon. We must do that first.” Then she began to curve her lips in a way that made it look like she was trying to make a very big smile, then said…

“It is imperative!”

Then the room shifted from a glorious bright cubicle, to a pitch black abyss of no return.

I could tell that something devastating had happened. I could tell by the mood changes and swings in the atmosphere.

This was a perk that I had growing up.

I have always been a very questioning type of kid. Always wanting to ask questions to my mother or father about trivial things like…

“Hey mom is school canceled for today, because of last night’s snowstorm, which most of the time she would say yes and that I should back to sleep, because if you want to grow up big and strong like daddy, then you need a thorough night’s rest and a positive attitude in the morning.

She always told me to not talk or go anywhere with an untrusted adult or stranger that I have never met. And was always worried that I would do something that would get me in trouble. Anything that would make my parents think that I’m a dumb child.

That is something that feared me, and something that caused me to have very bad nightmares as a kid. They were almost always about me getting in trouble with my mother, and her yelling at me for doing something that wasn’t smart.

This has caused me to try and physically attach myself to my dear and near mother, so that her son wouldn’t disappoint her in any way shape or form.

This worked until one day I screwed up.

This faithful day was a very memorable, and very unforgiving memory; one that still lingers with me to the present day.

That day I had walked home from school, tired as a grade-school kid could be. I was ready to go inside of my house and eat whatever hot meal that my mom had cooked for dinner.

I wonder if it’s spaghetti or vegetable soup tonight… I pondered in and out of thought.

I had just gotten to the front door of our one floor ranch home that we had happily lived in for as long as I could remember.

Click, click

I opened the front door to our house and was going inside to see what to eat for dinner. I was happy to be home until I saw my mother and father yelling in an argument.

What could they be arguing about at this moment… I was totally stumped on this presumed question, and couldn’t think properly.

Then I slowly and calmly entered the kitchen to see them up close.

“Oh hey, how are you doing Unmei?.” She said in a sweet, childish voice.

“I'm doing alright, but why are you two arguing? Why don’t you just stop yelling at each other, and sit down and relax.?”

“They looked like they were more or less shocked by my response, but thought that it was quite intelligent, and quite possibly ingenious.

That made me very happy as a kid.

But this story switches for the worst after what happens next.

So after the compliments from my two parents, my father asked me a surprising question.

“Unmei, who do you love more, me or your mother?” He asked this serious question to a 9 year old child, thinking he would get a logical answer.

“What do you mean?”

“Who would you rather be around, all day everyday for the rest of your life?” He asked another difficult question for 9 year old me to answer.

“Well I don’t know? I love you both equally. I don’t think that there should be a divide between you two, you should just live happily as a family…” I continued after a deep, agonizing breath…

“We should all live together as one; whole again.”

This for some reason upset my laughably senseless and self righteous father to get a job in a workforce where he wouldn’t have to come home very often.

So he wouldn’t have to deal with us.

The burden.