“Why did I have to land in a filthy place like this? Where do I actually come from? Why can I only remember my name now, Sakya Kumara?” muttered a man whose clothes were tattered and torn all over.
At present, he appeared to be stranded in an unfamiliar rice field.
Dirty paddy water covered his entire body, which had just suffered the effects of severe burns. Serious burn wounds were visible all over the man's body. Even his face was red, as though it had been exposed to considerable heat.
The man still looked young, but he couldn't even move his body. It was still unclear how this young man had ended up stranded in such a vast rice field, so far from any settlement.
There wasn't a single person in sight who could help the young man, who appeared to be on the verge of death. His life was hanging by a thread.
Judging from his severe burns, Sakya Kumara had almost certainly passed through heat resembling hellfire. However, it remained a mystery why the young man had ended up stranded in such a remote rice field.
“What actually happened to me? Why is all my internal energy gone?” Sakya Kumara wondered.
His entire body was in excruciating pain. His clothes were in disarray, partly burned by the blazing fire he had perhaps passed through, but he himself had no idea when or where that fire had burned his body.
Sakya Kumara had truly lost all his memories of the past. Only his name remained in his mind; beyond that, he had completely forgotten everything that had happened to him. But there was one other word that crossed his mind: “swordsman”—a champion of justice who had become the goal of his life.
This place was so beautiful, with its green trees, that Sakya Kumara felt at peace despite all the dirty paddy water that had entered his mouth. He had landed face-down, leaving part of his face covered by the filthy water.
A black buffalo began approaching Sakya Kumara and sniffing him, forcing him to crawl and drag his body a little farther away. He still wasn't capable of standing or walking away from the rice field.
“There are so many different kinds of living creatures here,” Sakya said. “Why do I feel like this is the first time I've ever seen so much life? Where do I actually come from?”
Sakya Kumara continued trying to understand what had really happened to him. But his weakened condition made it difficult even to think, and his head began to spin again.
The pain he was suffering caused Sakya Kumara to lose consciousness once more, with part of his body still covered by water in the rice field. His life force gradually faded as his physical condition continued to deteriorate.
Before he passed out, he caught sight of a beautiful woman approaching him. She seemed like someone he had known for a long time, but he didn't know where they had met.
After that, Sakya Kumara's mind went blank, filled with nothing but darkness.
Had the young man died?
Slowly, Sakya Kumara opened his eyes again after awakening from his lengthy unconsciousness.
The first thing he saw was the ceiling of a house.
“So I'm not lying in that dirty water anymore. Is this the world after death? If not, who was kind enough to save me? I didn't see any living beings earlier except for that black creature that kept sniffing my body,” Sakya Kumara muttered inwardly.
“Father... that strange young man is awake!” He heard the shout of a girl who had been beside him the entire time. His still-blurry vision recognized this girl as the one who had come to him before he lost consciousness and entered a world of pitch-black darkness.
The sound of someone's footsteps approaching came from outside the room.
But he still wasn't fully conscious enough to open his eyes all the way.
His vision remained blurry, and continuing to look through the haze made his head spin.
“Young man... who are your parents? How did you end up sprawled out with serious burns covering your entire body?” asked the man whom the girl had called Father.
Sakya Kumara wanted to answer his rescuer's question, but the only sound that came from his mouth was a wordless whimper. His condition was extremely weak; he couldn't speak at all.
“He's still weak... just let him rest for now,” the man called Father firmly told his daughter.
“Kirani... watch over this young man, all right? I feel sorry for him! I know he isn't a bad person... Maybe he suffered some disaster or was robbed. We'll ask him once he's conscious,” said the man whom the beautiful girl called Father.
“All right, Father... Rani will watch over this strange young man,” the girl replied.
He could hear the conversation between the girl named Kirani and her father.
“I'm lucky they're not bad people... For some reason, I feel like there are many evil creatures around me, but I seem to feel safe in this house,” Sakya Kumara thought, able only to hear and not see for the time being.
After that, Sakya Kumara lost consciousness again. His extremely weak condition made it impossible for him to remain awake for long.
Sakya Kumara had lost everything. Perhaps he had once been a famous swordsman, like the many who existed in the world where he had ended up stranded. Perhaps he was merely a commoner who had just been robbed and thrown into a remote place. Or Sakya Kumara might have come from a village that had just been robbed and burned by a band of the many bandits who populated this world.