The story so far—

In the Belgarian Empire, there lives a girl named Marie Quatre Argentina de Belgaria—“Altina” for short—who happens to be the fourth in line to the imperial throne. She is a princess who, at a mere fourteen years of age, resolved to fix the corruption plaguing her nation.

“I’m going to become empress,” she tells Regis Aurick. “I need your wisdom.”

Now, Regis is inept with a sword, unable to ride a horse, and apathetic toward the empire he serves. He is a hopeless soldier by all definitions who spends his days buried in books, yet she still enlists him to be her tactician.

Through a duel with the hero Jerome, a battle against barbarians, and the capture of the impregnable Fort Volks, Altina steadily raises a formidable military force. But as the Belgarian Empire shakes under the weight of a power struggle, High Britannia declares an all-out war.

Coinciding with this sudden invasion, the Grand Duchy of Varden launches an attack on Fort Volks. Regis’s scheme sends them running in a single night, however, and a month later, he finds himself assisting the Seventh Army’s retreat in the Battle of La Frenge.

Regis then manages to defy the odds on the western front. Serving as admiral proxy, he leads the Western Liberation Fleet to a swift victory, managing to take out the enemy fleet. From there, he immediately leads the Empire’s Fourth Army to rout the last supply shipment under the protection of the infamous Mercenary King Gilbert.

And so, the Belgarian Army puts a stop to the High Britannian invasion. Latrielle returns to the imperial palace to deliver the news, but the behavior he witnesses is completely unbefitting of a nation-threatening crisis. The emperor spends his time indulging in pleasures, and upon seeing him succumb to such depravity, the prince’s anger finally reaches breaking point. His hand moves to his treasured sword, the Armée Victoire Volonté...

The cause of the emperor’s death is of course falsified: he is announced to have died of old age.

In the liberation of Grebeauvoir, a fortified city northwest of the Belgarian capital, Regis demonstrates his excellent knack for commanding troops. This show of wit, however, also establishes him as a considerable threat to Latrielle’s reign. It is with this knowledge that the soon-to-be emperor makes a solemn declaration:

“Kill Regis d’Aurick.”

Now on the run from the Empire’s First Army, Regis makes a deal with Jessica, tactician of the mercenary brigade Renard Pendu. After entering the capital in disguise, he follows a lead from Carol, a humble bookstore owner, which leads him to Claude, a revolutionary journalist; Bourgine, an infamous activist; and even Bastian, the third prince. After obtaining testimony from Grand Chamberlain Beclard, he has The Weekly Quarry run an issue exposing the truth of the late emperor’s demise.

As this operation continues, Altina, unable to accept word of Regis’s death, appears at Verseilles with the Fourth Army in tow. Soon, the unit most revered for its achievements in the recent war comes face-to-face with the First Army, said to be the strongest in the Empire. Tensions flare, but Regis finally reunites with the princess, and civil war is narrowly avoided.

Latrielle soon takes the throne, after which Altina is appointed généralissime and dispatched to assist the struggling southern front. But as the Fourth Army marches on, they happen upon a most unexpected visitor. She is none other than Elenore Ailred Winn de Tiraso Laverde, Vixen of the South and the daughter of a ducal house.

“Regis, it pains me to make a request like this when we haven’t seen each other in so long... Please, help us.”

As she makes her appeal, a fierce gust of wind sweeps her attendant’s parasol up into the air.