The Twelve Kingdoms: Dreaming of Paradise

idle life of the bourgeois.
    Or perhaps he left home and wandered about the Twelve Kingdoms—even knowing of the dangers that awaited him— because he had grown tired of it. In fact, whenever he left he did so with no thought as to where he would go or when he would return. Sou and Seikan Palace and his family were the furthest things from his thoughts.
    Deep down in the recesses of his mind, he might even contemplate leaving and never coming home.
    But he always came back. In time, the other kingdoms turned desolate and cold. Kingdoms were fragile things. No matter how firm the ground might feel underfoot, the people were always standing on thin ice.
    No dynasty lasted forever. That fact was all too self-evident.
    Here, though, and now, the world was all right. And it'd be all right as long as they were there to hold each other up and watch each other's backs.
    Rikou glanced over his shoulder. This was probably why he always came home again. To make certain that much was still true.