“What… what is my name again?” My head started to throb and I grunted in pain. The woman who knew Japanese inched closer while the one farther away just showed a concerned look.
I looked down at the language page in my hand and quickly flipped it over. The pain had started when I looked at those characters, and remembered a different language.
“What’s wrong with me? What is this language?” The woman with a cane put her hand on my head and drew me close to her chest.
“It’s okay child. I think you have amnesia.” I looked at her in confusion, and she chuckled before stroking my hair.
“It means you’ve lost your memories. Probably the strain from recollecting an entire language is affecting you physically, just lay down your head and rest. We’ll get you something to eat, so just organize your thoughts. I’m sure you have a lot of questions, but they can wait until you have a full stomach.”
“Oh, I’ve left a robe for you over there, so why don’t you put it on for us? It’s kind of hard to look at you the way you are now.” She pointed to a cabinet on my left, where a beautiful blue silk robe was laying.
She left the room, and the silent girl quietly followed behind her. She turned once in the doorway, and looked me up and down before obediently following the woman with a cane. The door closed and my only thoughts centered around how little knowledge I knew at this moment. There were too many blanks in my memories, and even more questions than those.
My thoughts were suddenly broken by a gurgling noise, and I looked down at my own stomach. I could see my own skin through whatever tatters of fabric I wore that barely covered me. What the hell was I doing before this?
---
Bella stared at her grandmother’s back, a woman she thought was so familiar seemed to be a complete stranger to her now. Despite her having the same demeanor as before, if all those boxes in the forbidden shed were as useful as the one she just brought in, how much of her life could her grandma been hiding?
“Bella?” Bella jumped at the mention of her name and looked at her grandma’s concerned face. “What’s wrong honey? You've had a grimace on your beautiful face ever since we left the room.”
Bella shrugged, and was about to tell her not to mind it, but keeping her feelings bottled up was what led to her exploding at her grandma in the first place, so being transparent was probably the correct call in this situation. Jane turned had begun walking towards the kitchen again when Bella started to speak up.
“I just…” Jane turned around to face her granddaughter, “I feel like I know you less and less as time passes. Before mom and dad died, I only knew you as my eccentric grandma who collected artifacts, but when they were murdered I learned that you traded your status as one of the Coats for my protection.
Jane opened her mouth to respond, but Bella wasn’t through yet. “Then, after we had been run out of town I learned that you used a favor from the king to keep this mansion that you owned. On top of that, you were part of an underground smuggling operation, and used your connections to make sure that no bandits ever entered our territory.”
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“I just-”
“On top of all that,” Bella cut off her grandma once more, “going back in your forbidden shed, I saw hundreds of those boxes all lined up, with what I can only imagine is a ridiculous amount of knowledge and artifacts that most educators would die for. Grandma… just who are you?”
She couldn’t hold it any more, and Jane finally responded by laughing out loud, a clear, melodic sound that hurt Bella to listen to. Seeing the look of sadness on Bella’s face, as well as the tears starting to well up in her eyes, Jane realized her mistake and quickly took her granddaughter in a tight embrace.
“Oh honey no, I wasn’t laughing at you. I was laughing at the convenience of it all. It is without a doubt that the boy has questions of his own, and I thought some of those would coincide with your own, so I thought that I’d just kill two birds with one stone and speak when you are both present after dinner.”
Bella frowned, clearly displeased by the need to wait, but understanding her situation and the inconvenience it would be to answer the same questions twice. “Is that man ok? He seemed to be hurting before we left the room. Also, what language were you speaking, and does he know Azurian?”
Jane shook her head and exhaled. “He said he lost his memories. Apparently he remembered the language when he saw it, which exacted a large toll on his brain. As for the language, it was Japanese, a language spoken by the Gold Continent’s founders. Judging by the fact he didn’t react to us talking about him, he probably doesn’t know our language.”
Bella frowned and visibly deflated. “How am I supposed to talk with him then!?” She was looking forward to having someone to talk to so much? Jane widened her eyes in surprise.
“Don’t worry Bella, Japanese is very similar to Aurian, the language that the Gold continent uses now. I’ll teach it to you later, and if he so desires it, I’ll teach the boy Azurian as well. After all,” Jane’s smile widened, “he is part of my prophecy.”
“For now,” her smile faded and a grin replaced it, “help me make some beef stew, the rest of the answers you seek can come later.”
---
Bella climbed the stairs to the room where they left the man, and shook her head. “He won’t even understand me, will he? Grandma told me how to say that the food is ready, but…”
She opened the door and got an eyeful of the man’s naked body with his back turned to her as he stared at the blue robe.
“Hm?” hearing the door open, he turned around and Bella’s first experience of seeing a naked man’s form in the flesh was forcibly taken from her.
“D-d-d-” She stammered, her face beet red and eyes trying to tear themselves away from his body, but failing to on every occasion, “Dinner’s ready!” She ran down the stairs with a grimace set on her face and pointed ears red with embarrassment.
The man turned back to the robe and rubbed the Lion sewn on it. “Leo…”
---
“Leo, what’s wrong?” ****** took me off to one side and had a worried look while she caressed my face in her hands. “Were you okay meeting that man after so long?”
I gave her a hug and a kiss on the forehead. “Yes… thank you.” She blushed and hugged me back. Damn it, why was she so submissive and kind whenever she had ******? I wish she were like this all the time-
I winced in pain as she pinched my cheek. “You were thinking something rude just now, weren’t you?” She mustered all her self control and was smiling but the crease of her eyebrows told a different story. Instead of confronting her, I just shied away and looked at the room around us.
---
My eyes opened wide as the feelings from my memories poured in. “I have enemies, people I feel uncomfortable around. I have people who care for me as well. That woman’s voice…”
I can’t trust anyone, no matter how nice and caring they seem to be. That’s how I felt at that time. Maybe… maybe now is the same. I can’t be Leo here. Until I have more information I’ll be Leon.” My gaze turned to the forest, part of which was burning, causing smoke to rise up from the sea of trees surrounding the mansion. “Leon Ashwood.”