A whole year—that is how long it took before he could regain the strength he would need to leave Argon, and so he did.
But where would he go? Even he didn't know.
He just wandered aimlessly with nothing but a loose black cloak over some tattered clothes he had found, and the sword, Axon, and a bow at his back.
Getting trapped in caves during rainstorms, enduring the harshest of winters without anything to keep him warm, and crossing miles of desert without any water.
He would undergo all these hardships over and over again, but he didn't stop.
He kept searching.
But for what?
He couldn't say, but he knew that he would recognise it once he saw it, so he kept walking.
This continued for roughly a year. A year of hunting and fighting predators for food, risking his life by eating unknown fruits and berries.
The terrain that he was now in was so different from that of the subcontinent of Magnia. There were so many trees and animals that he didn't recognise, or had only heard of in stories.
And so the gambling became more frequent.
One afternoon, as he was walking, his eye caught a glimpse of a village in the distance.
Knowing that it would be his first interaction with humans since he came out of the shadow realm, he was nervous.
He stood in place for a moment, debating whether to go in or not, but he eventually came to the decision to take a risk, as he always had before.
As he got close to the village, he noticed that it was oddly quiet, so he kept his guard up.
But upon walking in, the reason for the silence became clear.
The village was nothing more than the ruins of a broken home reclaimed by nature.
It bore a spine-chilling resemblance to his home back in Argon, but he could tell from the sheer density of the grass and bushes that this village had been abandoned much earlier.
He tried rummaging around the ruined houses to find anything useful, but he didn't.
Whatever was left behind was either rusted or in pieces.
Looking up at the nearly setting sun, he decided to find somewhere to sleep first, so he started walking around the village looking for the best place to camp for the night.
As he searched, he stumbled across the remains of a house sitting alone past a patch of trees, away from the rest of the village.
His instincts drove him to look around, and that was when he came across two mounds of earth with wooden stumps stuck in front of them.
They were dull and rotted, but on one of them he could make out some writing.
He looked at it for a long time, trying to decipher the kanji written there, but he couldn't.
That was because he couldn't even read kanji, nor had he ever seen it before, so he was simply trying to make a guess.
As for what it read, it wasn't fully clear, but the characters spelled out the name Yuzuki.
He kept staring at it in confusion when he suddenly felt a hand tap his shoulder.
Whoever they were they asked a bunch of questions, but he only heard one.
"Who are you?"
He turned to answer without thinking, and that was when he saw him again.
He leapt back and reached for his sword before saying, "It's you!"
"What are you talking about?" the man asked, but Lloyd could never forget that face.
The face of the man whose actions had brought him so much pain.
He had etched it into his memory as he lamented him over and over again while he was trapped in the shadow realm.
Three other people came up behind him.
One of them asked, "Are you okay, Izumi?"
Izumi?
No, that wasn't right.
He must have imagined it because how could he ever have forgotten that name?
Emios Volgard.
But something didn't sit right with him.
Who was that corpse he had found next to his father's if not him?
He turned back to look at him and, without a doubt, that was the face he remembered.
So why?
"What did you do to him?" one of them with orange hair asked.
"I didn't do anything. He just tried to attack me out of nowhere," the man replied.
Another girl with green eyes reached into her cloak as well and said, "Or could he be an enemy?"
They all took a step back before the man replied, "I don't know. He just jumped at me saying, 'It's you.'"
"Do you know him then?" the one with emerald eyes asked. "What kind of double life have you been living?"
"I haven't been living any double life," he shot back.
"Then how does he know you? And from the looks of it, not in a friendly way."
"I already told you guys, this is my first time seeing him too."
The conversation went on and on, and as it did, the uncertainty Lloyd felt only grew.
Once he took a closer look, he finally noticed one difference.
It was his eyes.
They weren't bloodshot, angry, and arrogant like Emios's had been.
They just seemed confused and genuine.
It was difficult for him to wrap his head around that fact, but then he asked himself:
"Is he really gone?"
He looked at the group of four again, who were bickering among themselves.
"Then who are they?"
He caught a glimpse of their black-and-white robes, and his mind flashed back to a conversation he once had with his father.
"Are we really the only people who exist in this world?" he had asked.
His father had broken into laughter before he could respond.
"Where did you hear that?" he asked.
The young Lloyd had felt nervous to answer, but he did.
"It's just that I've never been out of the city, so I wouldn't know."
"Makes sense, I guess," Aaron replied. "Sorry for laughing at you like that."
"So are there?" Lloyd asked. "More people beyond the city, I mean."
"Of course there are," he replied. "This small city of Argon pales in comparison to how big the world really is."
"Really?!" Lloyd shot back as he crept closer.
"Really," Aaron replied as he patted his head. "Among those people are those who live far to the east."
"What about them?" Lloyd asked.
"They also have warriors who fight to protect them, just like the Nova Knights do, but they're different from us in a lot of ways."
"How?"
"I couldn't say, since I haven't met any of them, but I know that they go by the name of the Ashura Samurai," Aaron replied.
"Their style of fighting and way of life might be different from ours, but we all share a core ideal."
"And what is that?"
"I'd say it is the compulsion to protect our loved ones from the scourge of war and to strive toward a better future."
By then, curiosity had completely taken root in his eyes.
"So what do they dress like?" he asked.
Aaron stopped for a moment to think before saying, "From what I've heard, they wear black-and-white robes and carry a single-edged sword by their waists."
"Wow, they seem awesome," Lloyd said as he tried to imagine what they would look like.
Aaron smiled and said, "Maybe you'll get the chance to meet some of them one day."
"Really?"
"Of course. Nothing is impossible if you set your mind to it," Aaron replied. "And when you do, don't be afraid of being turned away because you're different from them."
"Remember that it is always courtesy to reach out your hand first and introduce yourself if you're the one who approached them."
"Come on, Father, I know that much at least."
The squabbling came to a sudden stop when they noticed him bowing down to them.
"Am I doing it right?" he thought.
The silence was all the answer he needed.
"I'm sorry that I startled you like that," he said, his head still lowered. "I had you confused with someone from my past."
"It's fine," the man replied. "Long journeys can get disorienting, and I was the one who snuck up on you."
Lloyd raised his head in confusion.
"So you don't have a grudge against me?"
"Of course not," he replied. "It was just a misunderstanding after all."
Lloyd stared at him for a moment before the man reached out his hand.
"My name is Izumi Yamada, and these are my sisters, Yuriko and Takae, along with our friend Miyuki," he said, pointing to them. "It's nice to meet you."
Lloyd took his hand and replied,
"My name is Lloyd. Lloyd Iris."
"Lloyd?" Takae asked, confused. "I've never heard a name like that before."
He smiled before saying, "Well, I think it's because I come from a place far from here."
"If you don't mind me asking," he continued, "what year is it?"
"It's 5997 this year," she replied. "Why do you ask?"
"Oh, it's no reason," he replied. "I've just been lost for a while, so I lost track of time."
"So where are you headed?" Yuriko asked.
He remained silent for a moment before awkwardly saying,
"I don't know. I guess I'm still lost."
"If you're going nowhere in particular, why don't you join us?" Miyuki said. "Besides, travelling with a group is much safer than being alone."
"Yeah," Izumi added. "Then you can tell us all about this place that you're from."
"Are you sure?" he asked, his face lighting up.
"Of course. Why would we turn you down?"
"Thank you," he said, smiling. "I hope I won't be too much of a burden."
"Well, the sun is setting, so we should probably set up camp and look for some food before anything else," Miyuki said.
The three nodded and turned to leave.
Izumi stopped once he noticed that Lloyd was still standing there.
"Are you coming or not?" he asked.
"Sure," he replied as he started walking toward them.
Once he reached them, they all started heading away from the broken house.
He lagged a bit behind as he thought,
"What does this encounter mean for me?"
The wind blew past him, sending his long hair aflutter.
He turned his head toward the setting sun and thought,
"Father, I still don't know what it is that I'm looking for, and maybe I'll never find it."
"But for now, I feel like I've found a new path that I can walk on until I do."
"My reason for living."
[ PART 2: THE CREED – END ]