I'm taking a tour of the mansion with alex. He apparently knows everything about this mansion, the previous owners, the history, how it went to the hands of military, hidden places etc. We are almost done. The building is so big that it took us 3 whole hours to complete the tour. Then he takes me to the most wonderful sight of the whole mansion. It's the 4th balcony of the top floor i.e. the 3rd floor. I remember talking to Tachibana and others on the balcony of our previous house. How time passes! That balcony probably doesn't even exist now. Although this has a lot better view than that balcony. I can see the heads of the sakura trees, there seems to be a small lake in the boundary too. There's birds flying from the trees. The sky is clearer here. There's a line drawn by a jet in the middle of the sky. It's rather quite for a place near military base. You would expect to hear trucks, tanks, soldiers shouting, airplanes taking off or things like that but it's not. It's replaced by birds chirping, leaves moving and nothing else, while the orange shine of the evening sun is adding to the beauty. I smile as the breeze slowly touches me.
"I see you like the view master."
"Yes, I do Alex. Don't you like it too?"
"I used to, master."
"What about now?"
"It rather feels sad."
"Why is that?"
"I was born during the time of our previous master, two or three days after the birth of master's son. As family tradition, I was assigned to take care of this mansion from early age. I was assigned to master Kiteretsu, the son of our master. We were quite good friends."
"Well, what happened?"
Alex looks sad, "He jumped off from here."
"Why?"
"Apparently his parents used to fight a lot. They used to hit each other. He would then come to me for playing, to forget that his parents existed. He would never cry when they got mad. Come to think of it the only time he cried was when he jumped."
"You were with him when he jumped?"
"Of course. I was the only one he got back then. When I saw him standing on this railing right here," he points at a place on the railing, "I started running to him and screamed master Kiteretsu is gonna jump, master Kiteretsu is gonna die, yet they didn't come. His parents were fighting, they didn't have time for this nonsense.", he fists his hand while looking down." When I reached he looked at me smiling, there was tears in his eyes, yet he smiled. Before I could reach him....", Alex couldn't keep his formality anymore. He tries to stop him from crying.
"Hey, it's ok to cry bruh.", I hug him
He couldn't stop his tears after that. He starts crying like a little kid. He is probably crying for the first time after several years. I don't ask him anything anymore, he just keeps crying on my shoulder.
"What!? Why are you here?!", Aiko asks.
"We're trying to save some power consumption, so, I thought couples should sleep together.", says Alex
"But isn't this too sudden?"
"Master Tachibana an Densetsu are sleeping together. So I thought you guys wouldn't mind. Would this be a problem miss Aiko?"
"No, I guess it's fine.", Aiko tries to smile. The embarrassment is visible in her smile.
"That's really kind of you to understand ma'am."
"It's fine."
"I shall be taking my leave now. Have a great night masters.", Alex leaves.
"You can sleep on the bed. I'll sleep on the sofa."
"No! Why?"
"I thought you wanted to sleep alone?"
"No, it's not like that. I want to", aiko looks down as her face turns red, "sleep with you."
"Ow, ok."
"That's all you are going to say!?"
"What else should I say? Good night maybe?"
"Fine!! Sleep all you want!!!", Aiko jumps on the bed turns to the other side and closes her eyes.
I wonder why she got all mad. Women are hard to understand. Ow well, there's nothing sleep can't fix. I lie by her and close my eyes too. It's been such a hectic day. First this huge mansion, then there's the food and then 3 hour long walking, then... Alex. I wonder if he told those to anyone else except for me. It felt like a weight of 4-5 years has been taken of his chest. Now he is finally free. And that cry was the siren of victory. Why did it feel like that. I wonder. My senses starts fading away as I keep falling deep in my dreams.