Sakya Kumara was still lying weakly in his bed. It seemed the severe burns he had suffered made it difficult for his body to recover and return to normal. He couldn't even move an inch. His body seemed numb from the excruciating pain caused by the burns covering it.
The young man was still trying to remember what had actually happened to him. Why had he lost his memory like this? Judging from his name, he clearly wasn't from an ordinary commoner’s family. He most likely came from a noble family, or at least a fairly well-off one.
However, ending up sprawled across a rice paddy embankment with dirty water was also a huge mystery to him—especially since this paddy lay in the middle of a forest far from any inhabited area.
At present, Sakya Kumara saw that Kirani was still faithfully keeping watch over him. Perhaps the girl was only here because she was following her father’s orders. Or perhaps she really liked Sakya Kumara.
“How about it... do you remember who you are now?” Kirani asked again.
“Sorry... I was probably still confused about everything earlier,” Sakya Kumara said, beginning to speak normally so this mysterious farming family would no longer suspect him.
“I found you lying on the rice paddy embankment with terrible injuries, completely motionless like a corpse. I thought you were dead! Turns out you’re pretty tough to have survived injuries that bad! Father said that means you must be a swordsman too,” Kirani said.
“I don’t know why I ended up so badly injured and burned like that... You say I’m a swordsman? I don’t have any internal energy at all! I’m just an ordinary man who seems to have been robbed and burned by bandits! My memory is a complete mess... I can’t even recognize myself,” Sakya Kumara replied, desperately trying to hide his true identity.
Sakya Kumara was still groping for answers and had yet to determine who this mysterious farmer really was—a man with a beautiful daughter who lived in the middle of a forest.
“Then you should get some rest for now, Sakya Kumara! Hopefully your wounds won’t hurt anymore tomorrow! I’ll leave you for now...” Kirani said, leaving him alone.
I have to heal myself quickly so I can get far away from this farmer’s home... If I stay too long, they might become suspicious of me. Besides, I still can’t be sure whether they’re good people or bad people. But one thing’s certain: they’re not ordinary people, he thought.
“Kirani... did you find out anything about the young man we found in the middle of the rice paddy?” her father asked.
“Yes, Father... the young man’s name is Sakya Kumara! He doesn’t even remember his own face... It’s pretty funny!” Kirani replied with a giggle.
“Be careful, Rani... We still don’t know where he really came from! Don’t get too close to him, much less fall for him! Remember... we’re hiding from the Red Lotus Sect, the sect that killed your mother, who was also one of its members,” her father warned.
“I know, Father... I don’t completely trust that young man named Sakya Kumara either! He’s hiding a secret... But I hope it has nothing to do with the Red Lotus Sect,” Kirani said.
“I hope so too, Rani! We can’t let him live if he’s a member of the Red Lotus Sect...” her father said. “If we let him live, he could tell the Red Lotus Sect where we are!”
Her father’s voice began to rise when he mentioned the name of the Red Lotus Sect, the sect that had taken her mother’s life. Kirani also only vaguely remembered what had really happened to their lives, which had consisted of constantly moving from one place to another for no clear reason, at least as far as she knew.
“But... why are we being hunted by this sect if Mother was one of its members? What did Mother do that made the Red Lotus Sect chase her down and kill her... We’re not members of the Red Lotus Sect either, so why do they keep hunting us?”
Kirani was baffled that her father still refused to tell her about the secret her mother had kept—one that had caused the Red Lotus Sect to hunt them and ultimately cost her mother her life.
“Father, you’ve never told me why Mother was being hunted by the Red Lotus Sect? I was little back then, but I’m an adult now, Rani has the right to know the truth!”
The girl kept pressuring her father to reveal what her mother had really been hiding, the secret that had caused members of the Red Lotus Sect to keep hunting them to this day.
Kirani had moved from one place to another several times just to escape the Red Lotus Sect’s pursuit.
All this time, Kirani had simply obeyed her father’s wishes, but now she was tired of spending her entire life in hiding.
They mostly lived in remote areas and farmed just to support themselves. Her father had even forbidden Kirani from socializing with people her own age, so their identities wouldn’t be exposed.
But what Kirani couldn’t understand was why her father had been willing to save a young man who had collapsed on a rice paddy embankment and was nearly dead. Why hadn’t he simply let the young man die? Then they would’ve been perfectly safe. What did her father see in this young man named Sakya Kumara?
What did her father really want from this young man? He even intended to treat him until he recovered. Did Father already know that Sakya Kumara was a member of the Red Lotus Sect? Did he want to heal Sakya completely just to question him about the sect’s current situation? After that, Father might simply eliminate Sakya.
“I can’t tell you right now, Rani!” her father said firmly.
That was the only answer her father gave after Kirani tried to ask about the dark secret surrounding her mother—one she desperately wanted to know.
Was her mother also a bad person? If her mother had been a member of the notorious and ruthless Red Lotus Sect, then she had probably been a bad person too.
“Let’s do this... Keep finding out more about that young man named Sakya Kumara! There’s no way a young man could end up stranded in the middle of a rice paddy with such serious burns... Especially since our home is far from any village. There hasn’t been a fire or any strangers anywhere around here!”
“Yes, Father...” Kirani replied, obeying her father.
“Once we’ve settled things with that young man named Sakya Kumara, I’ll tell you everything. But don’t hate your mother because of what you hear, okay?” her father reminded her.
“All right, Father... Rani promises,” Kirani said with a smile, hoping her father would truly keep his promise this time and tell her about her mother’s mysterious past. Unfortunately, for some reason, her heart felt uneasy whenever she thought that Sakya Kumara might be hurt later...