Darius's mother committed suicide by jumping from the window… then she died. She could no longer endure the repetition of that scene—the scene of her husband, Baritos, beating her son for many years. The sight of her son being unable to eat, study, play, or make new friends… his condition seemed to her as if he were just a common child, not from a noble family. She could no longer bear her husband's complaints about people mocking their family, calling them foolish dreamers chasing glory and a mythical power that does not exist, nor his complaints about people not respecting him.
Her husband, Baritos, rushed downstairs to check on his wife, shock all over his face, running outside the house, only to find her covered in blood, her neck, legs, and hands broken. He kept calling out:
"Marisia, please wake up… why did you do this? Don't leave me… I need you so much…"
He kept calling her, but there was no answer. She was already dead.
While the father was holding his wife in his arms, Darius and his sister came down to check on their mother as well. Shock was on Darius's face—he had become like this days after his father beat him, as if he were a traumatized mad child, no longer able to understand what was happening before him. His sister, meanwhile, was crying intensely, calling out:
"Mom… Mom… what happened to Mom? Why is Mom covered in blood and not answering?"
Days passed after the mother's burial. Darius was under the care of a palace maid who tried to feed him with her own hands, but without success.
The maid said:
"Please, young master Darius, eat something. If you don't eat, you will become very ill."
He replied, his eyes without any light, as if they were dead, his awareness absent, while at the same time the father entered the house.
Darius said:
"I want my mother… she is the one I want to feed me."
The maid began to shed tears, feeling pity for the state the boy had reached, while the father heard what his son said.
He said to him:
"What a fool you are… days and days have passed and you are still unable to understand anything."
He approached him, holding his face with both hands:
"Boy, do you truly not know what happened to your mother?"
Darius, still shocked and unaware of what was happening, listened to his father speaking.
His father said:
"You killed your mother, you idiot. You are the cause of everything—the destruction of this family, the loss of our dignity. Everyone speaks badly about us, a crazy family dreaming. They called your mother insane… but do you know who the mad one is here? It is you, you fool. Look at yourself."
Suddenly, something changed in Darius's eyes when he heard the sentence: "Your mother has died." It was as if his awareness had returned to life. He began to understand all the mockery and harsh words that followed.
Darius began saying to himself:
"What… my mother… my mother is dead… dead?"
His father replied:
"Yes, you fool. You are the cause. You are the cause of all disasters."
Darius began to feel a fire in his heart, and anger started forming in his eyes as he looked at his father. All the painful memories—the beatings, insults, and abuse from his father—passed through his mind. An aura in the shape of fire formed, igniting Darius's body, yet he did not feel burned. It was like a flame of anger, ignited from his heart and spreading through every part of him. He began to scream as he burned.
The maid fled, carrying Darius's sister with her, while Darius's flames quickly burned the entire house.
The father looked at Darius in shock, then smiled:
"What… what is this? Impossible… it's real… it's real!"
He shouted like a madman:
"This is the beginning of our family's glory… this is victory!"
He screamed like someone who had won a battle, while the entire house burned, the servants and Darius's sister escaped, and people began gathering around the house. Darius looked at his father, screaming, engulfed in a burning aura.
"Let yourself go, my son! Scream! Burn everything! You are the chosen one… you are the exalted one! Even if your mother died, even if I die, even if the whole world dies—this is worth it, this moment is worth it!"
As Darius heard these words, his anger turned toward his father. He wanted to burn him, to kill him, to take revenge for what he had done—but something stopped him.
The father understood his son's desire for revenge for what he had done to him in recent years—beating, insults, and abuse. He embraced him despite the burning flames surrounding his son and said:
"Now I can die in peace, knowing that my son has saved our family from shame and denial by the common people, from being mocked as liars. But now the truth is within you, my son. I belong to this fire. I am sorry for what I did to you, my son… truly sorry. I am proud of you, my son. And without a doubt, your mother will also be proud of you for what you will become and for who you are."
While he was embracing Darius, the flames consumed the father in a dramatic scene. Darius listened carefully to his father's words—for the first time, he was speaking to him with respect, for the first time in his life. As he heard words of pride from his father, and that his mother would be proud of him, the flames surrounding Darius extinguished.
The father died, burned by the flames along with the entire house, reducing everything to ashes.
Darius returned to his awareness in that darkness that had brought back those erased painful memories. Tears fell from his eyes as he returned to reality, waiting for Sazaki to bring him water, holding that sword which had caused his lost memories to return.
To be continued in the next chapter