As they rode toward the area that Shiraishi was born in, Kenya noticed that there was a large pyramid that was made from many white stones. But he didn't get to ask his friend for an explanation as Shiraishi suddenly jumped down in order to kneel in front of it.
Shiraishi did not cry, but his expression was filled with a great sadness.
"What are they?" Kenya finally asked.
He did not kneel down beside Shiraishi but he got down as well in order to grab the rein of Shiraishi's horse.
"A monument for all those from this village who were executed in the conspiracy ten years ago." Shiraishi said very softly. "My father was one of them.
"Their bodies were exposed and we were not allowed to bury them or give them gravestones. Although it would have been rather difficult to do so as they were decapitated.
"The emperor was taking me to the palace when we saw villagers building them, he told me to join them for the sake of my father.
"This is the first time I have been back to this spot since that day." Shiraishi said before he turned away. "I am so sorry…father…I really am."
He did not want to come back as he could still see the images from ten years ago- the last proper image he had of his father was when he was about to place his head on the chopping block.
Suddenly, he felt tears coming and he begun to cry for his birth father once more- just as he did ten years ago when he woke up to hear that he was now an orphan.
This place was like his father's grave and that was probably why it was so difficult to be here. Passing his old home wasn't that bad as it was only a rather distant memory, but this place was the reminder of how his birth father died, how the life he knew changed so drastically.
Strangely enough, it was this place that made him recollect the brief affection his father showed him. Such as the night the tattoo was done- his father had held him and rocked him throughout the whole night, understanding how scared the little boy had been, as Shiraishi had been taken into a room without any explanation and had these needles pierced into him.
"I am so sorry, but who are you?" a new voice asked him.
A woman who was about their age was approaching them with a slightly younger boy beside her. Judging by the clothes that they wore, they were most likely natives of the village.
There was a strange prettiness around the girl due to her simplicity and Kenya felt that he could understand why his father once said that he was first attracted to his mother due to all that the others condemned about her.
"My name is Shiraishi." He said, not caring about the tears that were still appearing, let along their reaction. "My father was the village leader when this took place."
"You are the boy who the crown prince took and raised up as his own son!" the boy yelled this out, almost as if he was meeting some sort of mythical figure.
"Yes, that is who I am. This is…"
"Kenya, I am Kenya. I am one of his friends." Kenya butted in, just in case Shiraishi planned to announce his heritage. They would most likely have heard about the gossips of his parents but he doubt that they would know his name.
"You are a noble then." the young woman stated.
"I am." Kenya admitted. "But will this be hold against me?"
"No," she said very shyly. "Because you are different from what they say as you are obviously wiling to talk to us. Oh, I am so sorry for being so rude by not introducing us earlier! My name is Akiko and this is my cousin Kentarou- his father is the current village leader."
"Kintarou?" the two of them pronounced this wrongly due to the similarity.
"Kentarou." Akiko repeated again before she went to place some wild flowers in front of the stones and explained her actions with the following words: "For my father."
They returned to the village with the pair of cousins and both Shiraishi and Kenya felt that it was probably more accurate to describe the place as a community instead of a village.
There was more then one empty hut along with large stripes of deserted lands, which was probably why they were allowed to stay and help the others.
"People say that we were punished for what we tried to do." Akiko explained very softly when she led them to an empty hut that would be their lodging while here. "After the execution, we suffered a disastrous harvest and the harvest next year was equally bad. I heard that many other parts of Tanako were affected as well."
Shiraishi knew these things as Watanabe had been very concerned about all this, but his father refused to give any aid to the region openly, while the new lord of Tanako was much too ashamed to ask for aid.
Much to everyone's surprise, Shiraishi and Kenya actually did all the tasks that they were given without any complaint. Though they did not excel in their work, they did not need to repeat their tasks.
"Do you secretly plan to become peasants as well?" Kentarou asked Kenya when they were about to eat their well deserved dinner.
Everything being in one bowl was a novelty to Kenya, while Shiraishi recollected how he didn't use to eat meals with separate foods until he arrived at the palace.
No…there was a very special occasion when different plates of foods were laid in front of him.
"I am afraid that I am still too spoiled to continue this hard work." Kenya said truthfully. "But farmers have my ultimate respect now."
"As they should have had ages ago." Kentarou said this with good humour, as he had ended up being a bit close with the two of them, since the land they helped with was his father's land.
His cousin, who was orphaned, was naturally looked after by his parents so she would deliver food to them along with her aunt.
"Akiko certainly seems to be very friendly with you." Shiraishi teased when they were alone in their temporary home.
"I do not know what you are talking about." Kenya said, a very slight blush appearing. "But Shiraishi, how did you manage to live like this? I know that this is very snobbish but…"
"I know, it is too different from our current life style. But this is because we became too used to luxury." Shiraishi admitted. "Sleeping on a bed used to be like a special treat for me since I rarely get to do so, but now I find this bed really uncomfortable."
"Surely you weren't abused as a child by having to sleep on the floor!"
The concern in his friend's voice made Shiraishi more then a bit guilty at lying to him. He didn't think that he still needed to lie about his unintentional involvement in the conspiracy now that Watanabe was the emperor, but he did not really want to explain everything just yet.
"I…I often wondered around and got lost when I was a child. That was why I tended to sleep outside my home, so rarely slept on a bed." He quickly said, although this was not really a lie.
Unlike his friend, he welcomed the toils because the labour distracted him and allowed him to sleep with relative ease.
Ironically enough, he was to be haunted on that very night.
He was a child again because he could see everyone busily organising the annual feast for the harvest- some thing that he was not allowed to participate in again as his father had ordered him to go 'wandering' once more.
Not that the feast would be much fun this year, as they were using the white stones as an offering instead of actual wheat and fruits, a sign of a bad year. But the young boy would still have liked to join. He did once and the memories he had was very happy.
There were no adults to shoo him away so he took a step forward.
There was a river in their village that produced these pure white stones which they regarded very highly of, even though it had very little value outside their village. It was this stone that they used as offerings if they had a particular bad year.
Shiraishi was named after these very stones.
It was not really hard to find these stones in that river and the children of the village were fond of gathering them and then throwing it right back into the river and see how many times the stone would jump back up before they returned home.
It would not be hard for him to find some from that river, yet he suddenly stretched out his hands and secretly pocketed three of the stones that were meant to be offerings.
He gazed at the alter rather defiantly, waiting for someone to stop him. Seeing that no one would come, he went away with his hands in his pocket- his fingers closing over his new toys.
The grown up Shiraishi could recollect having done this but he wasn't sure exactly how old he was, although he couldn't have been that young as he was no longer frightened of being alone in the deserted plains or forests.
He could feel the smooth surface of these stones as the younger him juggled with all three. This was a fun game to play at night time because these stones would glow under the moonlight.
Much to his dismay, a sudden trip caused the three stones to be thrown in three separate directions. He started to search for them without any other reaction because he knew that no one would come to his aid.
The first two stones were found without any problems, but the third one remained missing. It didn't really matter as he could easily find a replacement, but he was determined to find it.
A faint light gave him hope and he ran towards it, but despite having run for quite some distances, that light was still at a similar distance.
Intrigued, he bent down and used one of his remaining stones to carve a line on the ground, finally noticing that he was standing on a very narrow path.
Logically, he decided to stay near the path as he continued his search.
A hand suddenly patted him on the head and he quickly turned to find that person, only to discover that this person must have turned around with him as well.
"Are you always going to follow the path that you think you should follow?" the mysterious person whispered. "Look, there is a place that you would want to go to."
Going there meant leaving the path he was on and risked getting lost, but Shiraishi did not care because he saw his father…he saw both his fathers.
The man who was his birthfather was amongst a line of men, some weeping, some groaning and some were even cursing. But all were clearly in despair because of what would soon happen.
His foster father was only the crown prince then, and he was surrounded by guards.
Guards who certainly did a very bad job because Shiraishi was able to run past them and grabbed onto the crown prince's clothes.
"You can stop this, can't you?" he pleaded once again. "And I know that you want to. You look sad too."
Watanabe halted the guards who reacted a bit too late by raising his hand, before he crouched down in order to be on the same eye level as the little boy.
"What make you think that I have the power to stop this?" he asked gently and the sadness was something Shiraishi hoped to never encounter again.
"Because you are the crown prince." He answered simply, gesturing to all the tell tale signs. "Please save my father."
"I would save everyone if I could but I lack the power to do so. Your father is a traitor of the country along with all these others. How ironic it all is." Watanabe muttered bitterly, addressing himself instead of the little boy in front of him. "I, who caused all this, can not stop it."
"But he is my father, I don't have anyone else in the world." Shiraishi reasoned once more. He did not plead for his father's innocent as he long worked out that his actions were part of something else- only that the full seriousness of everything remained beyond his comprehension.
"I am not able to, even now they continue." Watanabe whispered. "My father prevents me from saving your father."
He then picked the boy up and held him with his face buried in his rich robes as he sat back to complete his grim task.
Shiraishi found the grip extremely tight because he was not allowed to turn around.
It should end soon, he thought to himself, this jumbled up dream.
Watanabe stayed in the house of the late lord- whose dead body did not escape the punishment that had caused him to choose a cowardly death. In addition to this, the officials that accompanied the crown prince were carrying the last part of the punishment by taking way the family's wealth.
Shiraishi did not meet any of the three siblings but he could recollect hearing a very hysterical sob that must be Aizuki.
Watanabe had picked him up and then set him on his horse. He should be doing that!
No, this wasn't what happened! Shiraishi yelled out mentally as he felt himself turning around, even though Watanabe was trying to prevent this.
He couldn't even scream- the sight was simply too horrible, especially for a child his age.
The eight year old boy saw the decapitated corpse of his father with the separated head only a few paces away.
Shiraishi sat up and realised that he has actually been thrashing quite a bit as both his pillow and blanket were on the floor. His clothes were also rather damp due to sweat.
Without even thinking, he jumped out from the window and ran to the stone pyramid.
Shiraishi could understand why his mind and consciousness lied to him for such a long time, as the sight of his dead father gave him such a fright that he actually passed out.
Yet it was also this sight that woke him up.
What haunted him the most was not just horror, but guilt.
The eighteen year old man saw and understood what the eight years old boy did not: his father's expression was very serene. He now knew that this was because his father understood that his only child would be looked after.
His father had performed his role much better then him. He was content with his death due to knowing that his son would not be left alone with his death, but the son almost completely forgot all about his father as he did not return to his grave until ten years later.
"Forgive me, father." He whispered. "Forgive me for abandoning you for all these years. Forgive me for doubting about whether you loved me."
Later on, he would wonder whether what he felt was sent as a punishment due to him failing his duty as a son. If he had gone back to the place of his birth earlier then he would have been able to meet Ashita much earlier.