(((((part 8 out of ??? idk if im gonna finish this or if it's gonna die like a lot of my AU projects)))
Eating such a simple meal took Ikkioi back to his childhood. Not from the time before the war but at it's start, back when he was barely a teen. Back when the Sverkat merchant no longer passed through town to trade vegetable but instead came to ravage the farms and take anything of use. Food was scarce then, people had to make due with the bare minimum. He wondered what Andrei was up to back then, was he a son of a soldier who happily feasted on stolen goods? Or was he one of those villager from one of the many nations Sverkayusnia had erased and forced to go to war on its behalf?
"I've been meaning to ask" hesitantly said the alchemist between bites "Where are you from? We've known each other for a while but we never really had the opportunity to know each other beyond our work duties at the castle."
"Hmm? I'm from Khushov… Well technically I was born and spent a few year somewhere else but I don't remember the name. I was too young back then and then my parents died and I was sent to live with my uncle in Khushov."
"Khushov?" The name sounded familiar but somehow not quite right "Do you mean Khashof?"
"Ah, yeah… That's what it was officially renamed to… People in town still called it Khushov tho."
"Hmhmm." Andrei nodded "But don't ask me what the name of the country was before then… Sverkayusnia was able to erase it just like the other countries decades before I was born. The only reasons so many town names remained is that because there were just too many to erase, they tried changing things slightly by swapping a few letters but traces still remained."
"Still… I'm surprised there aren't any records…"
"There probably are somewhere, we just can't read what's written anymore and they made anyone who could read disappear so knowledge wouldn't spread" He stood up to clean his plate "The old folks who were still around and knew were just too scared to share. My great grandfather was taken. Great grandpa had an old family photo that apparently had pictures in front of an old monument with the old country's name written on a plaque in both the old tongue and in latin. His brother told the authorities about it as people were promised 10 gold for every 'info hazard' they reported."
"He didn't get that gold… He was taken as well. Just in case 'he knew too'. Meanwhile my grandpa who was like 14 was left to fend for himself. That's when he met my grandma apparently."
Ikkioi sat with the though for a while. Sverkayusnia really did a good job scrubbing reclaimed territory names from their archives and made it a life risk for the citizen to speak out. But Sverkayusnia had been reduced to just the cold country up north now, people should be able to speak out by now… Were there any left who remembered?
"Don't you guys have your own records anyway?" asked Andrei, completely interrupting Ikkioi's trains of thoughts "Sverkayusnia made the people within the country forget but shouldn't Huánguó and Hikarikagayaku have their own records of the world maps and everything?"
"Eh… considering both country let Sverkayusnia expend the way it did I wouldn't be surprised if the people in power back then simply agree to delete their own record to please Sverkayusnia and avoid a war… Until Sverkayusnia decided they would invade Hikarikagayaku too."
"You're… probably right…" said Honda, defeated "Governments love to play along until the problems are at their doorstep."
"In a ideal world, when Sverkayusnia got defeated we could have had our old countries back."
"Ikkioi you're too naive." Andrei sighed "I know you like to see the best in people but that's just not how things are. Look at how the Emperor was handling the rumors of the cold country wanting to fight back. Rumors. If any of the people of the forgotten countries were to join and rally to get their old land back they would no-doubt be labelled as rebels of the cold country trying to rebuild Sverkayusnia. I can bet on it. Maybe that's exactly what the current rumors are about."
"Someday maybe, but not yet. From my point of view the war is still too fresh and the mind of the people in power are still to volatile. Saying anything now would just get use erased faster, not get us independence." the brunette smiled a little "I know people are still talking. Just like the true names of our cities are still spoken in the quiet streets of rural town, traditions and secrets are still passed down between people that stay close. We're not gone yet, just waiting for the right time to sing again."
It wasn't the first time Ikkioi though about the forgotten countries and how they deserved to be restored but being put so directly in front of the subject - in front of someone who belonged there - it made things different. It made thing more real. He wonder about when his job as a royal alchemist, could he have done something about it then? Probably not as only the word of the advisor like Katashi really mattered. But his old title had some weight still, right? That title was gone either way. He was still technically a noble but not one of any real interest when it came to political matters. He didn't know anything about the topic right now anyway. His expertise was in alchemy and health sciences, not international relations. He didn't even know the name of the people he wanted to root for, he didn't have an idea of how many nor exactly where these people were exactly beyond rough estimates of old vague records. Was it even his place to potentially step in and take charge? He wasn't sure. He wanted to help at the very least, but if Andrei said now wasn't the time then he'd wait. It was Andrei's people as well as a few others, he probably knew better.
The heroic though gnawed at the back of his head the whole time it took to pack up the food left overs, bagging the rest of Andrei's clothes and even as they made their way to the center of town. Looking for a travel service reminded him of the current situation they both were in: his current main objective was to get Andrei away from the capital and lay low so his current condition with the healing stone remained secret. Having him be at the center or just near any liberation movement would be the last thing they needed. For now at least. Maybe in the future when they're both older and the world is a bit kinder, then maybe they could do something about it. Maybe everyone who deserve freedom could stand up and get what is owed to them.
In the carriage on their way to Rafrella, Andrei's train of though was drastically different from Ikkioi. He wasn't thinking about the far future or the state of the world, he though about himself. He still didn't know what was in store for him now. On paper he was going to be Ikkioi's guard still, but in practice it was going to be something different. Ikkioi was going to care for him just as much as he would be as his guard, the alchemist would probably run some test on him due to the healing stone. He didn't know what to expect. Sure professor Honda promised nothing invasive, but was if the early test made him change his mind? No. Ikkioi was just too nice for that. Andrei though back about how he cared for both the mouse and the cat the doctor treated, he was kind and gentle with them. He had put them in nice and cozy cages too. He wasn't the type to push these types of limits even if it could made his research go further faster. Sitting snug in the carriage's cabin with four bags taking up most of the space he glanced at the other man briefly. Ikkioi was nice, his hair smelled nice