**********
[PRESENT]
The young master snapped out of his thoughts, his breath momentarily uneven as the weight of memory receded. The echoes of what had happened two years ago lingered longer than he liked, resurfacing whenever his mind drifted too far from the present. Time had not erased those events—it had merely dulled their sharpest edges.
That incident had been a turning point.
Not only because he had crossed paths with Scarlette Overland, but because fate had placed Taros before him—the Commander of the Azure Covenant from the Temple of Tidespire Sanctuary of the Holy Welkin Empire.
At the time, the title alone had sounded distant and unreal. Only later did its full meaning settle in his mind, guided by the inherited memories that surfaced when the Saint Sigil awakened within him.
