"Where am I now?" Toshi groaned as he looked around him and realized he stood in the hallway of a castle.

Toshi walked down the halls of the well-decorated castle and stopped for a moment to look out the windows. The sun shone brightly and cheerily. The city outside of the castle was bustling with its everyday business and commerce.

"What kingdom is this?" Toshi asked himself, "It's extremely prosperous for modern day standards. Not a sign of bandits or corruption anywhere."

Toshi continued to walk down the hallway and soon came to a door. He stopped a moment and heard voices coming from the other side of the doorway, but he couldn't make out what was being said. He raised his hand to politely knock on the door, but as he moved his hand to strike the wood, his hand moved through the door as a ghost would move through a wall.

"What the hell?" Toshi exclaimed while moving his hand through the door a few more times to test out its odd properties. He finally decided to forget manners to simply walk through the door.

The room inside looked like it was a bedroom. From the looks of it the room probably belonged to a member of the royal family. The bed had elaborate white curtains covering its sides and very finely crafted chests and dressers were to be found about the room. Two open glass doors lead to a large outside balcony. On the balcony was a table set with cups and a pot of tea as well as two people sitting at the table conversing.

Toshi walked over to the tea table and attempted to sit on one of the chairs only to find that like the door, the chairs were apparently ethereal. He fell hard on his rump and stood back up grumbling in annoyance.

"Hello, I guess I'm kinda lost. Could you tell me where this is?" Toshi politely asked one of the people at the table, a young woman with shoulder-length black hair and blue eyes. She wore a royal purple dress and a red crown that signified her as a princess.

Instead of responding to Toshi's question, the princess continued to talk with her companion, a man who Toshi couldn't help but to stare at for a moment out of curiosity. The man had turquoise colored spiky hair. His skin was also a turquoise-like color and it looked as though it was made of stone. The man wore a tan cloak with a red jeweled-clasp in the center of his chest.

"It's so peaceful in Seyruun these days. . ." the princess commented to her companion while gently sipping tea from her cup.

"It would seem so. . ." the odd man responded while staring across the city.

"Do you remember the old days when we would always be running around from one place to another doing this or that? I'll bet my daddy was worried about me when I was gone," the princess continued as she too looked at the city from her position on the balcony.

"Yeah. . ." the man said quietly, ". . .but somehow I have a feeling that it won't be too long before those days return to us."

"You think so?" the princess asked.

Toshi studied the princess's features for a moment; she seemed familiar. Then it suddenly hit him.

"Queen Amelia of Seyruun?!" Toshi asked aloud in shock as he recognized her.

If Amelia had heard him she gave no evidence of it. She merely continued to peacefully stare across the city and make casual conversation with her companion.

"But how could that be?" Toshi asked himself after realizing that he apparently wasn't going to get any responses, "Queen Amelia died a long time ago. And besides that, she seems too young now. All the pictures of her I've seen she was at least ten years older and it seems that she's not the queen right now but merely the princess."

"Did you hear about the wedding?" Amelia asked her companion.

"Wedding?" the odd man asked then seemed to realize what she was referring to, "Oh, yes. I remember now. Lina and Gourry, right? I bet they'll make a good couple."

"Yeah," Amelia agreed, "But I wonder how Sylphiel-san is taking it. . ."

"She must have been devastated when she heard. But I talked to her a few days ago and she seemed fine. Actually, apparently Lina has asked her to attend the wedding."

"Oh really? I hope Sylphiel-san will be alright."

"Don't worry about her," a third voice suddenly responded to Amelia's comment, "I'm sure she'll find another man."

Toshi looked at the person who the voice had come from. He hadn't noticed the person before because the person was standing at the side of the balcony away from the tea table.

Toshi's mouth suddenly dropped open in amazement. The third person was a man wearing white robes. That in itself wasn't surprising, but the fact that the man looked exactly like Toshi except his hair and eyes were silver was very astonishing. There was a pattern of a gold wolf and a silver serpent on a long scarf he wore around his neck. It was just like the gold wolf and silver serpent on Toshi's shoulder pads.

The odd man who looked like he had stone skin replied. "I'm not so sure. Sylphiel really seemed to have something for Gourry. Even though she's not showing it I'm sure that she's really hurt."

"She's human," the Toshi-look-alike commented, "She's strong, she'll survive."

"What's going on here?! Who are you?!" Toshi demanded as he walked over to the man who looked like him and grabbed the neck of his robes. Semi-surprisingly, Toshi's hand didn't go through the man, but instead took hold of the robes and roughly held the man.

"Well, now. Aren't we impolite?" the Toshi-look-alike commented.

"What? You can actually hear me?" Toshi asked amazed. He looked to Amelia and her rocky companion to see if they were reacting to his presence now, but both the princess and the stone man had disappeared.

"What's going on here?" Toshi asked the other man in a dangerous tone.

"How rude. How dare you barge into my memories and demand things of me?" the man responded in an equally dangerous tone.

"Your memories?" Toshi asked intrigued.

"Yes, that's why you can't affect anything here except for me. These are my memories."

"Who were those two that disappeared?"

"The woman was princess Amelia Wil Tesla Seyruun and the man was a sorcerer named Zelgadis Greywords."

"Zelgadis Greywords? You mean that chimera in the legends? He was real?" Toshi asked curiously while letting go of his look-alike's clothes and backing off.

"Of course. Why shouldn't he be?"

"Because those are just legends!" Toshi stated as though he were trying to explain a very simple concept to someone who just didn't understand.

"That means nothing. You would be surprised at the number of legends that are true,"

"And why is he with Queen Seyruun?" Toshi continued on.

"Why not? They were good friends,"

"None of the legends ever mentioned that the last monarch of Seyruun had any relation whatsoever to Zelgadis, Gourry, Lina, or any of those other legendary people,"

The Toshi-look-alike shrugged. "I'm not the one who makes the legends, don't look at me. I'm just here remembering the past,"

"Who are you?" Toshi pressed further, "Why do you look like me?"

"The question isn't 'why do I look like you,' it's 'why do you look like me?'"

"Wha-?" Toshi asked quite confused at the rather cryptic question.

"You shouldn't go around asking questions of other people if you don't know yourself,"

"I know who I am," Toshi defensively stated, "I'm Toshi Yokutsu. I'm a sorcerer and the most skilled bandit hunter in the area."

"Is that really what you believe?" the look-alike quizzed.

"Why shouldn't it be?"

"Because it's a lie. You don't understand at all. Let me ask you this: what do you think is your purpose for existing?" the white robed look-alike continued.

"My existence?" Toshi thought about it for a moment before responding, "To live my life to the fullest. . .just like any other person's reason should be."

"Wrong," the man in white flatly stated, "I was afraid that you might have forgotten and apparently my fears were correct. You exist to serve me."

"To serve you?" Toshi seemed insulted, "Why should I serve you? I don't even know who the hell you are!"

"That's because you have forgotten. You must remember your purpose in existence,"

"You're really beginning to bug me with all this cryptic talk. Look, I don't know what's going on here, but I exist to serve myself! Who do you think you are with--" Toshi began but then stopped as he realized that the man was suddenly gone. The room faded and everything was black.

Out of the blackness Toshi heard the man's voice. "Seek Zelgadis. If you find him then you are one step closer to remembering your purpose."