Through the Eyes of the Dragon

Chapter 28

Chapter 28 - Confrontation

When he next opened his eyes... they were surrounded by a band of rather unhappy looking nobles and Acquan royal guards. Having been spared a night of dreamlessness, the new Aerosian lord felt strangely at ease and rose to greet the men, doing his best to look somewhat presentable that early in the morning.

"... Bonjour, monsieur. Comment t'appelles tu?" The noble up front inquired patiently, his gaze kept calm as to not alarm their guests with hostilities.

Exchanging a worrying glance with a sleepy Norishige, Tatsuya stepped forward and gave a small bow. “Ah... Je m’appelle Tatsuya Namikawa. Uhm... You don’t... happen to speak the mainland language, do you? My Acquan... has become poor over the years,” he greeted carefully, furrowing his brows when he realized speaking in his native language had become difficult. For the past ten or so years, he was either speaking in the mainland Sengokuan or conversing with monolingual Aerosians.

"... Namikawa? As in, the Dragon's Left-eye?!" one of the other nobles exclaimed, bounding forward to get a better look at him. Tsunamoto, however, instinctively slid in his way, preventing him from getting any close.

“Indeed, I along with some of my people managed to escape Oda’s raid... though, at a price. You may formally acknowledge me as the new lord of Aeros, I suppose...” Tatsuya sighed, waving his general aside. Though Tsunamoto looked a bit confused by his action, the lord still felt very awkward about his change in rankings and would prefer if his comrades just continued to treat him the same as before. Perhaps that was why Masamune used to always yell at him about using honorifics…?

Bowing slightly, the nobles then turned to chatter amongst themselves, speaking in hushed voices so that even Tatsuya could not make out their words. Once they came upon a final verdict, the man up front nodded his head to the group, gesturing for them to follow.

“Hey, Nao, it’s time to go!” Yui murmured groggily, crawling over to nudge the man awake. He moaned a few times in reluctance, but soon complied when Natsuki began to join in and tottered over to cling to his eldest brother’s side.

“Motooo... was that... daddy?” Nao mumbled as he clung to Tatsuya’s arm.

Slightly alarmed by his question, the lord shot cautious glances at the surrounding Acquan guards, and sighed with relief when they did not react to his words. “Daddy? ... Are you referring to our father or...?” he murmured, leaning in to hear him better.

The young shipbuilder shook his head tiredly, blinking his eyes slowly. “Err... I can’t tell... so sleepy...” he mumbled before shutting his eyes again.

‘I guess all those visions really do take a lot out of him...’ Tatsuya thought with a deep frown.

Since they were awoken somewhat early, the trip to the docks and across the man-made lake to the capitol took only about an hour, where they unboarded and began to make their way through the city towards the palace.

“Whoa... just look at this place! It’s like Aeros... but like, instead of being separated into circular sections and such, there’s all these random roads and alleys. So many shops, so much life!” Natsuki beamed, poking her head to peer at all the stalls they passed. Though the guards tried to stop her at first, her boundless energy soon lead them to give up, and soon the whole group had evolved from potential prisoners, to full-out tourists.

“Everyone’s dressed so nicely and are speaking so... um... sophisticatedly! I feel so out of place!” Yui squeaked after they had paused by a cheap bakery for lunch. Ignoring a pointed look from one of the nobles, Yui skipped over to check out the cool trinkets Natsuki had picked up, as the two had become close during their short shopping trip. Luckily for them, Acqua now accepted currency from all five kingdoms, making purchases easy.