Flying in the Wind [Genshin Impact]

Chapter 19. My eternal gratitude

Chapter 19
My eternal gratitude

Kazuha didn't need too much explanation or prompting from his hostess to start speaking. Some of the words he would pronounce he had repeated several times in his head over those eight years, not knowing for sure if the day would come when he would have to pronounce them. But the day had indeed arrived; strong, forceful, and inevitable.

"When my father died, my uncle had to take the clan's leadership since I was too young to do so," he explained in a firm and solemn voice. Ayaka, still sitting right in front of him, was listening intently. "That did not prevent him from explaining to me in his own way the situation we were going through and telling me that it was my responsibility to do something to solve it. Back then, I... could only understand part of what was happening. They had already told me before that things had not been going well since my grandfather's time. And trying to recover somehow, my father got involved in several businesses that did not turn out well. I don't know if his gambling addiction came as a result of his failures, or maybe it was the other way around. Anyway, needless to say, that didn't help either. Instead, he got involved with bad people and he ended up owing large sums of money to them; even after his death..."

Kazuha lowered her eyes a little and let out a short sigh; maybe of tired, maybe of embarrassed...

"I was just a kid," he pointed out apathetically. "I did not understand at all any of those topics my uncle talked to me about, nor everything they actually involved. It is even possible that I do not fully understand it even today. And, of course, much less did I know how I could solve any of it. My only alternative was to trust my uncle and that he would do what was best for our family and me. And it was then when he managed to get your brother to consider me a viable candidate to be your husband."

Hearing that, Ayaka instinctively turned her face to the side as if she didn't want him to look directly at the emotion that had drawn on her. Was it anger? Was it sadness? She wasn't sure, but it wasn't a nice one.

"To be honest, even now, I don't know how he did it," Kazuha added right after. "And I especially don't know how he hid the real situation of our family from the Kamisato clan advisors."

Maybe he didn't know it, but Ayaka was present that day to witness her brother's anger, and she knew from that moment that he did have a theory about it. He obviously didn't share it with her back then, but Ayaka found out about it through other means.

"My brother has always believed that your uncle somehow colluded with his advisors to deliberately withhold that information from him, taking advantage of the fact that he had just become head of the clan and was not yet soaked in the entire situation of our vassal clans. Perhaps he did it through bribes, or perhaps with other types of promises in the future when the marriage took place."

"I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case," Kazuha replied with bitterness in her voice. "Anyway, all I knew at the time was that I had to impress you and your brother to accept the engagement, and so I did. Because they had convinced me that it was my responsibility as the future leader of the clan."

"But you didn't want to, did you?" Ayaka asked. And although she received no verbal response, the boy's silence was enough. "So... it was all just about the money? From the beginning...?"

"For my uncle, it was," Kazuha said quickly, looking up again as confidently as he could. "All I wanted was... to somehow fulfill my supposed duty to my family. But, Ayaka..."

Kazuha leaned his body forward, planting one of his hands on the ground for support and inching a little closer to her. Ayaka was slightly shocked to see that his gaze had turned firm and determined, very different from the sense of defeat that seemed to grip him just a moment ago.