Sakya Kumara had regained consciousness, and the pain in his body was no longer as severe as before. In fact, it could be said to have begun fading.
He didn't know what Kirani's father had done, but Sakya Kumara was extremely grateful to him.
Thanks to the help of this farming family, he was still alive.
His eyes were beginning to see more clearly, but his body was still too weak to move, leaving him able only to lie still. Sakya Kumara continued trying to remember his past, but there wasn't the slightest image to help him recall who he was—not even his name, which was the only thing he knew. Beyond that, he knew absolutely nothing.
Sakya Kumara saw a beautiful girl smiling at him. This stunning teenage girl was gazing at him. It was the first time he'd ever seen something that made his heart feel so at ease.
“What is this feeling? Why is this girl's smile so soothing?”
“You're awake? What's your name? I'm Kirani Isvara,” she said, introducing herself.
“I'm Sakya Kumara,” the young man replied.
“You don't seem to be from any of the villages around here, do you? It's impossible for someone from another village to end up stranded in such a remote rice field,” Kirani said.
“I must be from somewhere far away... Where am I?” Sakya Kumara asked.
“I found you when I was bringing food to Father in the rice field,” Lastri explained.
“Rice field? What's a rice field?” Sakya Kumara asked, his mind having just encountered a new word he had never heard before.
“Hehehe... I forgot you're not from this village,” the girl laughed, flashing her small, neat white teeth.
Thump...!
Sakya Kumara's heart pounded when he heard Kirani's laughter, which sounded wonderfully melodious to him.
“But how can a young man from the city not know what a rice field is?” Kirani asked again.
“I don't know why, but I've completely forgotten everything about myself except my name, which I still remember! Maybe I wouldn't even recognize myself if I could see what I look like now,” Sakya Kumara said.
Kirani fell silent for a moment, then suddenly laughed again with her distinctive, unabashed laugh. Sakya Kumara felt as though he had found the girl of his dreams and fallen in love with his savior.
“Are you joking, or is your brain actually damaged, Sakya Kumara?” Kirani asked, genuinely confused by the young man she had rescued.
Kirani then left the room for a moment. When she returned, the girl brought something and held it out to Sakya Kumara. This round object seemed to function like his eyes, because whatever he could see with his eyes was also visible when he used this thing, which seemed to store everything it saw inside itself. The object was called a mirror, and its existence in the world where he had been stranded remained a mystery to him, since this was the first time Sakya Kumara had ever seen one.
“Here, look at your own face... You forgot your own face? You're really strange,” Kirani said as she held the mirror in front of Sakya Kumara's face.
Sakya Kumara was utterly shocked when he saw his own face.
He saw a handsome young man, but the face was completely unfamiliar to him.
“What happened to my face? Where is my real face?” he shouted inwardly. For some reason, Sakya Kumara felt that the person reflected in this magical object wasn't his true self.
“Well? Have you had enough admiring your own face?” Kirani teased.
The girl rarely met anyone besides her own father. The reason was still a mystery and remained unclear. Why were only the two of them living in this remote place surrounded by forest, with vast rice fields? Yet not a single villager lived anywhere near them. There was only one house visible throughout this stretch of forest—the house where Sakya was currently lying weak and helpless.
Sakya Kumara didn't answer Kirani's teasing. What had happened to him made it difficult for him to think clearly at the moment. His heart was filled with frustration and anger because no matter how hard he tried to remember what had actually happened, not a single memory surfaced.
“Why do I feel that the handsome young man I saw in that strange object isn't really me? Or am I actually so confused about myself that I can't even recognize who I am?”
All kinds of questions continued to churn inside Sakya Kumara's heart. Panic began to attack him, because he also didn't know who Kirani really was—this girl who lived only with someone she called Father.
But it seemed he wouldn't find the answer now. He could barely speak, let alone ask these two living beings he'd only just met for details, even though they had helped him without asking for anything in return.
But was that really true? Did this girl named Kirani truly have no ulterior motive in helping Sakya Kumara? Were they merely an ordinary farming family, or did they come from a higher class—the level of swordsmen he aspired to reach?
“I'll find out later what is really happening to me and who this mysterious farming family truly is! For now, I have to focus on healing this weak body of mine first... whether it's actually my body or not,” Sakya Kumara resolved inwardly.
Sakya Kumara desperately hoped to restore his body's strength to what it had been before. He also hoped this farming family wasn't evil and wouldn't use him to further their own ends.
“Yes, hopefully...” he whispered.