His father did not even brother to answer to that as he continued to work in the kitchen, but his older sister bless her cynical heart at least saw it fit not to let his tale go completely unremarked: "You went though a magic portal and saw a European castle in downtown Tokyo? Sure we belive you. It happens all the time. If it didn't, where would the people who make all those anime get their ideas."
"Not a magic portal — like a magic portal, I said," Ichiro corrected her exasperated.
Why would no one belive him or at least pay proper attention while they disbelieved him?
"There was this office building in Nerima and there was no one there," he began his tale from the beginning again, "so I went up the elevator. The first few stops where empty or it would not open, but then on the fourth floor the elevator doors opened and it was like stepping through a magic portal. I was still in the building. But someone had removed all the walls and floors above the fourth floor to make room for this big castle."
His family looked at him doubtfully, but he continued on: "It was just like in the old pictures that grandpa always shows us. There were Guards in royal uniform standing to attention all over the place. And there were the flags and banners and everything."
Ichiro waved a small Lichtenburgian flag that was part of the restaurant decoration to underscore his point.
"And there also was that naked girl running along the battlements," his sister added showing that she had at least paid attention to that part of his story.
"Yes! But she isn't important." Ichiro tried to move beyond the question of him seeing naked girls under incredible circumstances.
Although he had to admit that seeing her sprint over the parapets wearing nothing but a veil had taken up a considerable portion of his attention at the time.
"What is important is who came next," he explained.
"Louis XIV's twin-brother," offered his sister irrelevantly.
"No," he corrected, "It was this guy and he was wearing an iron mask. and he was wearing a cape with the Lichtenburgian crest and dressed gilded armor and everything. And he was just looking at me without talking. Like he was measuring me up or something. I must have passed because after a few moments he led me back to the elevators and send me away."
"And what about that makes you think that you passed his test?" Ichiro's sister asked contemptuously, unwilling to belive that her brother had managed to actually impress anyone even a character that she did not even believe existed outside his imagination.
"This!" Ichiro exclaimed triumphantly.
He had been waiting for that question and now he showed his family the token he had received.
"A coin," his sister dismissed his prize, "and it's not even real Yen. It's an Euro or something. That's not worth much more then a hindered Yen."
With a flipped the coin around in his hand and promptly earned a gasps not just from his sister but also from his mother and father who had come closer to take a look at their son's treasure.
"A Lichtenbugian coin," his father recognized, "there are not supposed to be many of them outside the old country on account of all these collectors."
But his mother was the first to recognized the true significance of the coin. "That is the royal crest of Lichtenburg — a rearing horse of war at its center."
"Exactly like the one on the cape he wore. A rearing red horse on a sable shield on sanguine ground. Not just anybody would dare to wear that."
"And he gave you this coin as a symbol." His father was slowly catching on in wonder.
Ichiro smiled
"...I mean we have always hoped that one day... ever since the pretender took the throne... us loyalist have kept hoping, but I just can't belive it." His father was still trying to come grips with this new development.
"And this guy choose you to make contact?" his sister still wasn't convinced, "how do you know that he is who he says anyway?"
"Well he wore a mask, that means his face must be pretty recognizable to anyone who had seen pictures of the old Prince. If he did not look like him he would not have to hide his face," Ichiro reasoned.
"We have to contact the others... No, first we have to make sure who in the exile community we can trust. Children we are going to visit your grandparents tomorrow."
"Do I have to come? Grandma is going to make me wear a veil again and everything. She can be so caught up in tradition." Ichiro's sister whined.
"Hush," mother told her, "Traditions are important, especially now that it looks like the true heir might finally have appeared."
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(Posted Mon, 08 Nov 2004 00:31)
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