"Ahem! Your Majesty, I only saw it once... That dagger really did have your name on it, and it was 'Xolot,' not 'Xolotl.'"
"Also, that span of 'ten years' was what Chieftain Alan said with her own mouth... Judging from her age, I'd guess she isn't much different from Your Majesty... Ten years ago, she really should have been just a little girl..."
Seeing the king's reaction, Mekat's brows twitched wildly, and the corners of his mouth spasmed. His arm hurt badly from being squeezed, but what terrified and unsettled him even more was his heart. It seemed he really had learned something terribly important. He wouldn't be silenced, would he?...
"Main God! Looking at His Majesty's reaction, and that Chieftain Alan's reaction... Ah! Captain Chiwako really saw things clearly!... One male and one female leopard—if they weren't biting wildly, they were calling out... There really must be adul—oh, hidden circumstances!..."
"My name... three characters?... A little girl from ten years ago... Me, ten years ago..."
Xolotl stood where he was, his head dizzy and muddled, perhaps because he truly had drunk too much tonight... Shock, daze, and an uncontrollable longing for the past mingled on his face... He recalled the captive-taking campaign from ten years ago. That was the first time he had walked out of the Butterfly Palace in the Holy City.
He thought back to that first long journey then, the first time he killed someone, the first time he saved a pretty little girl... It was as if he once again saw that self of his, once innocent, kind, lost, and curious...
And back then, how old had he been? Twelve? Or thirteen? His emotions had risen and fallen, his heart lost and uneasy, as if he had been a mature yet pure child who had