.. 

….

……

‘SO BIG!??’

Cyrus thought mentally as they stepped into the house, not being able to contain their excitement from seeing such a luxurious and big house. Left in awe, their eyes started to observe different objects and places inside the house.  

At the end it seemed that Cyrus decided to follow Azrael to his house after pondering about it for a while. Azrael’s house was actually pretty far from the initial town they were in, but riding there with Azrael’s horse made the trip faster to his house; No it was more like a mansion in Cyrus’ eyes. Anyhow the trip though was ‘exhausting’ to Cyrus, was indeed worth it. Everything sparkling from bottom to top, from large rooms with expensive looking furniture to an outdoor space with so much to do! Cyrus was in utter awe but moreover in confusion as to why a loaded knight would let a dirty looking stranger in. Since everything looked so expensive and precious Cyrus didn’t dare to touch anything and just awkwardly stood still near the mansion's entrance.

Azrael on the other hand was looking very comfortable and at home.. Obviously, and after they were waiting at the entrance lounge a butler came in and greeted Azrael.

“Welcome back, Master Azrael.” Said the butler in a calm manner.

Azrael nodded back with a smile, “Claus, please take Cy..- Cyrus..? Yes, Please take Cyrus to the guest room and take care of them.” 

Claus; The butler, bowed down politely to Azrael and gestured to Cyrus to follow him. 

‘Eh..??’ Cyrus thought and seemed a bit reluctant to go along the butler, Azrael quickly took that to attention and reassured Cyrus that he wasn’t going to do anything shady to them and ultimately convinced Cyrus to follow Claus. As Claus and Cyrus were about to leave, Azrael spoke up.

“Ahh.. yes I almost forgot.” Azrael mentions, “I’ll be doing some other work in my room, so if you need something you can get one of my servants to help you. I’ll get you when lunch is ready, okay?” Azrael smiles and waves at Cyrus, then he leaves..

‘...He left just like that..?’ Cyrus felt a bit uneasy but still followed Claus to the guest room.

After a moment of walking up the stairs and down a long hall, they finally reached the guest room. Claus opened the room's door, looking inside, it was also quite large with pretty decor. The moment Cyrus had walked in the mansion they were quite overwhelmed with sparkling walls and decor, that they weren’t really surprised anymore when they entered the guest room. Claus proceeds to tell Cyrus everything they can do in the room like sleeping, bathing and even using the cabinets to store their belongings. Apparently Azrael had also arranged a set of clothes for Cyrus that would be delivered a while later so Cyrus decided to take a bath in the meantime.

.

.

.

*SPLASH*

Water splashes over the bathtub as Cyrus jumps in the bath.

“Aahhh~” Cyrus moans as they get comfortable in the hot water, “Woaaahh the water feels so nice!” 

Cyrus started happily playing with the bubbles in the water but Cyrus’ excitement and comfort that they had quickly faded away. Laying their head on the corner of the bathtub, they looked up to the ceiling, it had a glossy chandelier with gems on top. It had been a while since Cyrus had been alone thus leaving them with their own thoughts on their head for company.. Cyrus sighs and looks at the water they bowled in their hands. 

“This beginning has been quite the trip..” they say with a melancholic look, “I got myself into this but I don’t even know if I’ll be of any help to them…”

“What if…” Cyrus clenches their hand that had water on its palm, “What if.. I make a mistake again..?”

Cyrus looks at the water deep in their thoughts, then something clicked to them ‘Again..?’ Cyrus was confused as to why they were worried about making a mistake ‘again’, because since waking up in the forest they couldn’t remember anything.. So what’s going on now? Confused about their wording, Cyrus closed their eyes and started to focus in hopes remembering something, just a little thing about them and their past.

. 

. 

.

Nothing.

After trying for a while Cyrus still couldn’t remember anything. 

“Aah..” Cyrus lets out a deep sigh, “Well I’ll just give up, I don’t think I can force myself to remember anyways.” They laugh with a saddened smile.

“Well I’ve been here long enough.” Cyrus gets out of the bath to look for a towel in the cabinets that were in the bathroom. 

“Huh..?” They looked confused and started rummaging through the cabinets in the bathroom, “Haaah???!!” Cyrus cries out in a confused tone, “There are no towels!” 

.

.

At the end Cyrus decided to just leave it be and went to the room thinking that, ‘Maybe there’ll be a towel in the bedroom!’ 

They opened the door and felt thrilled upon seeing that the butler had left Cyrus a clean set of clothes as promised. Out of excitement for the new clothes Cyrus picked them up and started looking at them. In the pile of clothes was a white poofy button up shirt, a pair of black shorts and pants, black shoes and even little accessories to go with the clothes. Cyrus felt a little spoiled but was so happy about the clothes they muzzled them up happily on their. Then suddenly knocking came from the other side of the door, and all of a sudden,

 *CLICK!*

..The door clicked and opened…. Someone came in.

“Hey Cyrus about- ..” It was Azrael.. Cyrus was looking at Azrael with a plain look on their face.

How awkward..

“Yes.. what is it?” Cyrus asked with a quiet voice while holding the clothes that they earlier muzzled on their face, the clothes were somewhat covering them up..? 

“Ah..Well..” Azrael started stuttering and looking around but then his eyes suddenly fixated on Cyrus’s waist. 

Feeling uneasy about the situation they were in Cyrus asked awkwardly, “Um.. Is there something wrong..?”

Azrael continued staring at their waist with a disturbed look, slowly he started to approach Cyrus. That alarmed Cyrus but Azrael rapidly told Cyrus to stop moving, he then took out a cloth out of his pocket, “Your wound has opened up..!”

“Wound..? What wound..?–” Cyrus rapidly looked down on their body filled with numerous healed scars and spotted one slightly open scar on their waist, dripping with blood. 

“Wha– What’s this!?” Cyrus exclaims in a panic.

Azrael gently leads a panicked Cyrus to sit onto the bed, “Come on! Stop trying to touch it.” Azrael speaks up in annoyance as he tightly presses a cloth he pulled from his button up shirt's chest pocket on Cyrus’ waist.

Cyrus flinches, “But you’re pressing so hard on it- it hurts..” They say in discomfort.

Azrael sighs, “Sorry, but you’ll have to endure this for a while. How did you even get this many scars like this.. And the size of these injuries aren’t just something you would get with a sword..”

“...” Cyrus shrugs their shoulders and stays silent.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked. Hold this cloth in place, I will go get someone to patch this up.. And a towel for you, okay?”

Cyrus holds the cloth in place and nods. Azrael then quickly runs out of the room. The room was now empty, and silence once more filled the room. Cyrus couldn’t help but feel even more uncomfortable as they held the cloth in place for a wound that was on their body. An open wound they didn’t even notice before this moment. All these scars on their body with unknown origins, Cyrus couldn’t help but wonder what kind of person they were before their memories, let alone what they did to obtain these kinds of large wounds.. That all started to make them nauseous.

Moments pass and Azrael returns to the room with a doctor next to him. The doctor carrying her small bag, puts the bag on the ground and opens it. The bag was filled with different kinds of equipments that Cyrus themselves could not recognize. First thing, Azrael put the towel they got over Cyrus’ body and the doctor kneeled down in front of Cyrus to prepare stitching them up… After a while of Cyrus struggling to stay still, the doctor finally finished stitching Cyrus’ wound. When the doctor leaves the room Cyrus notices that Azrael was still in the room leaning on the wall next to the door.

“Ah.. You’re still here?” Cyrus asks Azrael.

“Mhm.. So, how do you feel now?”

Cyrus looks at their waist and gently touches it, “I.. am not sure? I don’t feel any pain on it nor did I in the beginning..”

Azrael could see that Cyrus was looking gloomy and didn’t ask any question regarding their scars, “You.. Should probably get dressed now. Meet me in the lounge when you’re ready.” With that Azrael left the room. 

“Yeah.. I should really get dressed now…” Cyrus muttered to themselves. Cyrus got up and noticed that they eventually had dried up naturally so there was no need for the towel. They picked up the clothes and put them on. The shirt's sleeves were oversized but fit perfectly, everything fit on perfectly until Cyrus tried to put on the pants. The pants were fine but there was no space for their small tail. Cyrus started to struggle putting them on but it was of no use, then they thought of cutting a hole for the tail.. but they found that it would probably be rude of them to do so. 

So they tried on the shorts that were also given. ‘So cute!’ Cyrus thought, ‘but there is not really space for my tail either..’. Suddenly Cyrus got an idea that might work, they put the shorts a bit lower than their tail and fixed the shirt to go over it.

“Now that should do the trick!”

Cyrus finished getting ready and headed for the lounge that was downstairs. They walked down the halls and was less nervous than earlier, this time they had time to look around the mansion more. The walls in the mansion upstairs were all painted in white and wine red and had a lot of paintings on the walls. One of the paintings caught the attention of Cyrus and stopped to observe it. It was a painting of a complete family with two adults and four younger children. Cyrus could tell apart Azrael from the photo but the rest of the people in the picture looked completely different from him. 

“Huh.. I wonder if the other kids are his siblings..?” Cyrus muttered.

After looking at it for a while they decided to hurry downstairs. Cyrus arrived downstairs only to see that there was no sign of Azrael. They looked and walked around and thought maybe there would be someone to help them.

Claus came into the lounge, “Master Cyrus, this way please, Master Azrael is waiting.” And did a gentle gesture to show the way. 

Cyrus followed Claus to the dining room where Azrael was comfortably seated. Cyrus sat down on the chair next to Azrael’s. The food wasn’t served yet so both of them just sat there silently looking everywhere. It was awkward. 

“S-so...” Cyrus blurted out, out of nowhere. Azrael seemed to be surprised that Cyrus said something.

“..?” Azrael looks at Cyrus attentively waiting for them to continue. 

“I.. Wanted to thank you for what you did earlier.” Cyrus continued, “Honestly, if it weren’t for you I probably wouldn’t have even thought of taking care of the wound..”

Azrael chuckles, “Well, you’re welcome for that.”

“...” Cyrus smiles.

“Excuse me, I have brought the food.” Said a familiar voice. 

It was Claus along with other butlers and maids carrying covered plates of food in their hands. They set the food on the table, and uncovered the covered plates before exiting the room, the servants bowed to show respect and then left. Leaving the two of them alone again. The table was full of many kinds of food but mostly different meats, salads and other side-dishes. Azrael started eating, but noticed Cyrus was nitpicking and carefully choosing what to eat. 

“Is the food not to your taste?” Azrael asks with visible curiosity on his face.

Cyrus looks at him with an awkward smile, then the food, “Ah.. It's just that I don’t eat meat..”

“Oh..” Azrael suspiciously looks at the food, “Hey.. You’re not..–” He gasps in shock. One of the prepared dished was made with deer meat and Azrael had puzzled the pieces together.

“...”, Cyrus nodded with an awkward smile while Azrael looked like he was very troubled. He stood up and bowed toward Cyrus with a pained look on his face.

“I am very sorry!” He exclaimed, “I’m sorry.. I..– I didn’t realize..” He straightened himself but still felt very guilty about the situation. Cyrus felt bad that Azrael was feeling guilty about this but couldn’t help but smile at the fact that someone like him even cared.

“No it’s fine don’t worry, besides I love salads so I’ll just eat them instead.” They comforted Azrael.

Azrael kept still apologizing and Cyrus kept comforting him. A while passed and they had finished eating. They moved to another room that seemed to be another expensively decorated room, apparently it was the living room. There, the both of them sat down across from each other. Azrael had mentioned that he had to talk about something important when they finished eating. 

“So I need to ask you something, Cyrus.” Azrael says with a serious tone.

Not knowing what to expect from this conversation Cyrus was weary of this, but was prepared to answer as seriously as possible.

“Yes..?”

“I honestly don't know you or your skill level, but I took you in because I felt bad for you.” He says with a serious tone, “Moreover I don’t know if you really are capable of being able to handle what we are going to encounter, so I need to know, are you fully prepared for what we are going to experience next?”

‘Ah.. shit.’ Cyrus thought, they actually hadn’t planned this far into the plan. Because of their memory loss, they didn’t know what they were capable of. They could have practiced magic, or wielded some kind of weapon, but they didn’t remember any of that. At this point they couldn’t come up with an answer Azrael would be satisfied with, so they thought maybe telling the truth was the only way to go..?

“Well.. about that.. I–” Before they could continue talking, Azrael interrupted them.

“How are you feeling now? Better?”

“I.. Suppose so? But–” 

“Great, since you seem to be feeling better, why not have a small battle to demonstrate your strength?”

Azrael stands up and pulls Cyrus by their hand, “Come on, I have a lot of magical items if you want to use them, let’s go.” He says in a cheerful tone, he seemed to be excited about this small fight.

“Wait..! Please!!” Cyrus cries as they were pulled by Azrael.

This little deer was obviously not prepared for a turn like this…