The man in front of her had pure golden eyes, black hair, sharp features and a charming smile. However, there was something about his golden eyes that struck a memory deep in Shiro’s consciousness as she remembers seeing these eyes when she was younger as ’Kuromi’.

  "Seems like you’ve remembered me." Nan Tian raised his eyebrows in surprise since Shiro was currently inhibiting Kuromi’s body in his mind and shouldn’t have her memories.

  "Of course I did! I got ’my’ memories back ok? But f*ck! Little beggar, you’ve really changed huh?" Shiro asked in disbelief.

  *PFTTT!!!

  Hearing Shiro call his branch master little beggar, Chen Yu couldn’t help but freeze up in shock.

  ’What did she just call branch master?!’


  "Haha, you’ve even remembered my nickname." Nan Tian rubbed the bridge of his nose with embarrassment.

  "Mn, but little beggar, why did you become a stalker ah? Didn’t I teach you to be better?" Shiro tilted her head.

  "You did. But the elders at the sect kept telling me that I should try to charm woman this way since they like it." Nan Tian replied.

  "Ah, they married?"

  "No." Nan Tian shook his head.

  "Do they have girlfriends or had ex’s?"

  "No." He shook his head again.

  "Then why the hell are you taking relationship advice from them?!" Shiro facepalmed.

  "Well they were the only ones around that could tell me." Nan Tian chuckled. He did try to ask some of the female seniors before he became the branch master but it turns out that they liked him and didn’t need him to make a move.

  "Say, little beggar, if you realised that I’m me now, how did you not realise earlier?" Shiro asked curiously.

  "I had a few run ins with those that looked familiar to you so I was a bit cautious. Not only that, the sect master took me in for training so I couldn’t even go out to find you if I wanted. I had only finished my training recently when I went to New York and found you." Nan Tian replied as Shiro nodded her head.

  "Speaking of which, what do you mean by ’my’ memories? I thought you were a monster that inhibited Kuromi’s body?" Nan Tian asked.

  "Well it’s like this, me and Kuromi are actually the same person in a way. It’s during the recent trial that we kind of merged and I received her memories. Of course, I’m still the dominant personality." Shiro replied with a happy smile.

  Seeing this interaction, the party couldn’t help but feel curious about the development while Lyrica felt alarm bells ring in her mind.

  "Shiro, who is he?" Lyrica called out as the party sat near them.

  "Well I was going to introduce him as the gentlemanly stalker but it turns out that I knew him all along. His name is now Li Nan Tian and as you heard, I knew him as little beggar before." Shiro said as she started to recount her time as Kuromi and how she had met Nan Tian when he was a little beggar.

  ###

  In the Asakura Mansion, a young girl was sparring against her parents. Sweat dripped off her face as the wooden sword in her hands trembled. Based on her appearance, it looked as though she was around 10 years of age.

  Her grip was loose due to the fatigue that she was feeling. Her father, the head of the Asakura family, looked at her with a soft smile.

  "Kuro, even when you are tired, you must push past that fatigue and grip your sword as hard as you can. In a life and death fight, as long as you have your sword, it means you can still fight back. Imagine a fight against a bear, if it knocks the sword out of your hand, you can only rely on your physical strength. But if you have your sword, you can force the bear to plunge itself into the sword through careful footwork and make it kill itself." Her father, Asakura Koji, reminded her gently.

  "Mn! I-I understand." Kuromi replied with a small stutter in her words.

  "Dear, I think you should give Kuromi a break. She’s still young." Her mother, Asakura Mio, called out from the corner of the training hall as she brought some refreshments.

  "Hmm…… very well. You’ve done well today." Koji smiled and patted Kuromi on her head.

  Hearing her father’s praise, she smiled happily before dropped her sword and running over to her mother for the snacks.

  Giving her mother a hug, she quickly scoffed down the snacks while taking the occasional drink to prevent choking.

  "Slow down, no one is going to take them from you." Mio said with a soft smile.

  "I guess……" Kuromi looked down at the snacks and nodded. These were her favourites so she wanted to eat them as soon as she could.

  Thinking about it for a moment, she hesitantly grabbed one of the snacks and broke a small piece off.

  "For you dad." She said while handing him the small piece and quickly eating the big piece.

  Looking at this, Koji couldn’t help but laugh as he took the small piece.

  "How kind haha." He said while eating it.

  "I can only give you this much since there aren’t too many left." Kuromi said while slowly nudging herself to cover the rest of the snacks.

  "Oh? Isn’t there 3 more behind you?" Koji asked with a smile.

  "!!!"

  Quickly turning around and eating two more, she grabbed her drink and swallowed it.

  "I see only only one and that’s for mommy." Kuromi replied while glancing to the side.

  "Pft, haha. Fine, I won’t fight you for the food." Koji smiled before patting her on the head once more.

  After giving her mother the final snack, she was allowed to go around the mansion and do whatever she wanted for the rest of the day.

  Nodding her head, the girl was more than happy since this was a good chance for her to play around. What her parents didn’t know was that she liked to sneak out of the mansion and roam the streets.

  Of course, that was only what she thought. Her parents naturally knew of this but had guards looking after her so that their daughter could have fun.

  Sneaking out of the Asakura mansion through her usual route, she jogged towards the park that she had always played at. She had made a few friends there that didn’t know about her identity as the young miss of the famous Asakura family so she could play without any worries.

  Unfortunately, when she arrived, she was only met with annoyed glares.

  "What’s wrong guys?" Kuromi called out curiously.

  "Go away! Was it fun looking down on us just because you’re rich?" A girl shouted out with a frown.

  "Eh? What do you mean? I never looked down on you." Kuromi furrowed her brows.

  "Don’t lie to us. Go away! We don’t want to play with you anymore. Liar!" Another boy shouted out as they all started to berate her for lying and tricking them.

  "Yeah! You’re the princess of the Asakura’s while we’re just commoners. Was it fun?"

  As she was still a child, Kuromi didn’t know why they were like this and thought that it was her fault. Balling her hands into a fist, she quickly ran away from the park since she didn’t want to be called a liar.

  Running away, tears started to form around her eyes as she realised that she couldn’t play with her ’friends’ anymore.

  Biting her lips, she tried her best not to cry. Sitting down on some crates in an ally, she hugged her legs and tried to stop her crying but the tears kept coming.

  As the quiet sobs rang out, a rustling sound could be heard not too far from her.

  "Are you homeless too?" A young voice called out as Kuromi looked up.

  She could see a young boy with long black hair that reached his lower back. His clothes were ragged and dirt could be seen all over him. His bangs covered most of his face apart from his golden eyes that seemed to shimmer lighten even in this dark environment.

  "I’m not homeless." Kuromi shook her head and quickly wiped away her tears.

  "Then why are you crying?" The boy asked curiously while sitting down next to her.

  "My friends kept calling me a liar and said that I looked down on them." Kuromi replied sadly.

  "Well did you lie and look down on them?" The boy tilted his head in confusion.

  "Of course not!" Kuromi quickly waved her hands in denial.

  "Then I don’t see the problem? Maybe they’re the ones lying." The boy smiled as Kuromi paused.

  This was the first meeting between her and the little boy with no name.