God of Knight

Chapter 3 - A Second Childhood

“What’s that noise? Why is it so noisy? Am I already in the afterlife?”

Kazan could faintly hear distant laughter and conversation.

He blinked. A pale green curtain hung beside the bed.

“Do beds like these exist in the afterlife too?” Kazan wondered, looking around.

Shortly afterward, he heard a door open. Kazan, who was still lying down, turned his head and saw a beautiful woman in her late twenties enter, carrying something in her hand.

Her luxurious red dress had a floral pattern along the hem, like a garment worn by wealthy nobles.

“Is this what they call an angel? Why do her face and body look just like an ordinary human’s?” he wondered.

“You’re finally awake. I thought it might take longer! Son, what’s your name?” she asked with a gentle smile, setting down a ceramic basin of the sort nobles owned.

She dipped a cloth into the warm water, wrung it out, and reached toward him.

“Son? Why is she calling me ‘son’?” Kazan raised his hand and saw that his palm had shrunk to the size of a child’s.

“What’s happening to me?” His palms were as small as those of a 4- or 5-year-old, and the sight startled him.

He pulled back the cover. His legs were short, his calves small, his toes tiny.

“What is this? Am I in heaven, or have I been reincarnated?” Frustrated and bewildered, he clutched his head.

The woman set the cloth aside and held out her empty hands.

“Calm down. You’re safe here! The four people found beside you are dead. No one from that fight is coming to hurt you.”

Kazan’s hands stopped moving.

“Impossible! So I’m not dead? I haven’t been reincarnated? Then why is my body so small?” His bewilderment only grew.

She could only mean his four fellow disciples. The soldiers had mistaken even Aira for a threat to the child they had found.

He searched for the familiar movement of Ki in his abdomen. Nothing answered.

“Enjou! Come quickly and bring Doctor Jinbei!” the woman called.

Kazan looked toward the door and saw two men enter—one who looked like a doctor, and another about thirty-five years old.

Kazan recognized the younger man: Haruki Enjou, an important royal official. His small hands began to tremble.

Two officials had once hired Kazan to assassinate him, but the attempt had failed because Enjou was protected by the Golden Lion Sect, a minor faction of the Free Order.

One of that small sect’s knights had met his attack blow for blow.

Their fight had drawn the attention of numerous soldiers and knights. Even with his mask hiding his identity, Kazan had been forced to withdraw for his own safety.

After he returned empty-handed, his fellow disciples had argued with him for months. To them, failure smelled of betrayal.

The quarrel over the book had come later. Enjou’s survival had opened the first rift.

“He still looks frightened and in shock!” the woman explained to the physician who had come with Enjou.

The doctor checked Kazan’s wrist to feel his pulse and found that it was racing.

“This is only natural, Mr. Haruki. He’s still traumatized, so he keeps remembering what happened to him,” the doctor said.

“Will this take a long time?” asked Enjou.

“Not too long. Once he can walk, rest and outings to see new things should help him forget his troubles,” the doctor replied, indicating the medicine on the table.

“Give him that sedative so he can rest again. Remember, administer the powdered medicine only once a day, no more.”

“Thank you so much, Doctor Jinbei!” said the woman.

“Mrs. Haruki, there’s no need to thank me like that—it’s my duty as a doctor! Well then, I’ll take my leave now!” said Doctor Jinbei.

Enjou handed Doctor Jinbei two five-silver coins, and then Doctor Jinbei left Kazan’s room.

Enjou approached Kazan, who was still staring at him in confusion and fear.

“Relax, son. We are good people. You were found beside The Mad Demon’s body, covered only by the Demon Mask’s armor,” Enjou said.

Kazan swallowed. They had found him on the same battlefield; this was no new life in another body.

He remembered Aira’s bottle. Somehow, after drinking it, he had become this small.

But that wasn’t what made Kazan swallow hard.

“I don’t have a single piece of cloth on my body!” Kazan thought.

He pulled the cover closer. Enjou and his wife were young enough to be his children, yet they stood over him as though he were theirs.

“I have to start all over again!” Kazan thought to himself as he lay down after Enjou’s wife finished giving him the medicine prescribed by Doctor Jinbei.

Seeing his eyes close, Enjou and his wife quietly left the room. They shut the door gently so that the noise would not disturb him.

Kazan waited until their footsteps faded. The sedative had not made him sleepy.

Once they were gone, Kazan opened his eyes, sat up, and examined his body.

He stood on the mattress and stretched his short arms. The bed suddenly seemed enormous.

“My arms and legs are such a burden!” said Kazan. Then he got down and walked toward the rather tall window.

He struggled to climb onto the wooden chair beneath it. His short legs made the task difficult, but he finally managed it.

His face was smooth again, untouched by the old burns. He searched once more for Ki, but the reflection in the window offered no answer.

“I’ll have to wait another two or three years before I can start training again,” he grumbled, then went back to bed.

He tested his balance, then stopped. These small bones could not safely endure the exercises he remembered.

He lay back and stared at the canopy. If this was another chance, he would have to choose what to do with it—and with the lives he had once harmed.

***

Enjou’s residence was now receiving a visit from one of the Tsukigawa Kingdom’s War Commanders, Souta Kuroba.