Final Chapter: Conviction of Love

Now that my battle with Sepith was over, I could finally breathe a sigh of relief. He’d been stronger than I thought. Unlike the Sepith in the anime, he wasn’t the Guardian Knight. Because of that, he didn’t have the Mystical Sword, one of Daryth’s national treasures. I honestly thought that would make him an easy opponent.

Who would have thought that he’d try to bury me alive by bringing the tunnel down on top of me? To be honest, that actually had me a little flustered.

Inwardly, I heaved a heavy sigh. Fatigue weighed heavily on me as I looked at my surroundings, which had taken the brunt of our battle.

The ground had protrusions and pockmarks all over the place. The ruins of the residential district that surrounded us were almost ghostly with dust that hung thick in the air. It’s almost as if zombies or something equally creepy could pop out of the ground at any given moment. Although the district appeared to be no longer in use, it would still take quite a long time to repair all of the damage done to this place. It’s not my fault that this place ended up in such a terrible state, though. It’s all because Sepith went wild.

“Don’t come closer! Leave this area!” A large group of soldiers raised both their torches and their voices, ordering the townsfolk to leave.

Among the numerous soldiers, I singled out one in particular to talk to. I’d seen him somewhere before. It was a man of tall stature in his thirties, one who had a glamorous medal etched with a lion on his chest. A large scar ran across his face. He’s given orders to a lot of different soldiers here, so this guy is probably one of the commanders. A commissioned officer, if I had to guess.

“Thanks for leaving us to our own devices. It helped me out a lot.”

“Let me extend thanks of my own. Thanks to you, I didn’t need to ask my subordinates to make any unnecessary sacrifices. Though we have a few mages among our ranks, against Royal Knights, they would’ve...” The guy trailed off. “Still, that spell you overwhelmed the traitor with was splendid. Your prowess in magic is awe-inspiring, both when you healed me that day and with that spell earlier.”

“It is the duty of those of us in House Denning to take down the enemy. Plus, magic is the only thing that I can think of saying I’m talented at,” I said with a shrug.

“You are too humble, young master. Not only did you rescue the Cirquistan princess, but it is also thanks to you that I was able to recover so swiftly and return to my job after the incident with that monster. No matter what happened in your past, it doesn’t change the fact that I am indebted to you.”

“You realized who I am?”

“Anyone who’s been in the army long enough will remember the faces of the Dennings.” The man took a look around and changed the topic. “Still, who would have thought that such a place existed under the town? And for people connected to Dustour to know of it...”

Soldiers brought a group of men groaning in pain out of one of the old residences and tied them up. These men were the agents of Dustour who had been in contact with Sepith.

The moment those Dustour guys saw me, they yelped in fear.

I had searched every nook and cranny of town after the day Alicia had accepted Sepith’s proposed plan, and that hard work bore fruit. The tunnels beneath Yoram made up a secret maze that had been used in the anime too, and I’d happened to find a path lit with fresh torches on the walls.

After I left the theater for Silva to deal with, I searched around and confirmed that Sepith had headed towards the tunnels. I then took a shortcut to wait for him at his destination.

I’d been sure that the suspicious path I’d discovered in my search was the one Sepith would use, and I’d headed to the old house in the residential district, which I had scouted out beforehand. I’d found a few people of the empire loitering around there, and so I’d interrogated them very thoroughly and made them cough up the truth about Sepith. Those were some fun times indeed.

“Young master, the Order headed to the theater. The cardinal is currently there as well. Please leave taking care of this place to us and head there to meet with the rest.”

“Hmm. I guess I’ll do that. Ah, I’m sure you know this, but please hand that Royal Knight over to the Order. They’ll decide what to do with him.”

“Understood!”

The soldiers squared their expressions and each gave me a full salute. Such a display was unthinkable for a normal student.

But the Denning crest was etched into the black wand in my hand. I needed only to show them this symbol and soldiers would immediately change their attitude and follow my every order.

How do I put it...? They reacted to me as if I were their commander in chief or a hero they admired. I felt like a pig caught in the headlights under the weight of those soldiers’ admiring gazes upon my back. Feeling rather awkward, I decided to call out to Alicia, who still seemed to be in a daze after coming to.

Basking in the glow of the evening sun, Yoram was abuzz with commotion. Normally, the town was peaceful, and big incidents were almost unheard of in the sleepy town. Today, however, soldiers ran about the town in a rush.

“The Order of Royal Knights has come!”

“Those people aren’t from Daryth, they’re from Cirquista! They’re a group of outsiders who escaped from Cirquista to Yoram!”

This was all because of Sepith. That dunderhead was probably still unconscious.

“Silva came along with the Order! He’s the top contender to become the Guardian Knight, you know! The rumor that a commoner was involved in the Guardian Selection was true!”

Even now, turmoil churned in my chest. The expression on that guy’s face and the words he spoke during our last conversation were completely different from that of the anime Sepith. I honestly didn’t expect the one who would’ve become the Traitor Guardian Knight in another timeline to worry about the state of the theater.

“That’s the Mystical Sword of Light! So they really did give the national treasure to a commoner!”

“Times are changing, everyone! The next Guardian Knight is a commoner!”

And those last words of his... What exactly was he thanking me for?

“Hey, would you listen to me already, Alicia?” Pushing those thoughts aside, I looked towards the princess from our allied country. Her splendid dress that I’d admired earlier was torn and tattered, and displeasure radiated off of her in waves. I could feel that even though she had her back turned to me.

We stood in the central street which led to the heart of the town. Even though she walked with her head hung, her nobility still shone through. Her sullied dress didn’t tarnish her beautiful looks at all, and in fact, it served only to contrast and highlight her overwhelming beauty.

Many curious eyes fell on her, all wondering what had happened to the girl. A good portion of the bystanders walking down this street stopped in their tracks to stare at Alicia. And it wasn’t just the men either; people of every age and all genders stopped and stared.

Part of Alicia’s ire was probably because of her exposure to the nosy crowd.

“You were just unlucky,” I reasoned. “Someone was bound to draw the short straw eventually, and that someone ended up being you.”

“Spare me your pathetic attempts at sympathy. I’m in the worst mood right now.”

I didn’t even need to guess why she was so upset. She’d trusted Sepith with all her heart, and he’d repaid her trust by nearly selling her off as a bargaining chip. In the time she’d spent with Sepith before I rescued her, she’d probably realized how deep the madness ran under Sepith’s facade, judging by her reaction.

Her face was all scrunched up in her misery. She had refused to utter so much as a single word since she regained consciousness, and that backed up my theory.

She growled. “I can’t forgive him. I’m considering kicking him with all my strength one more time.”

“Bad idea. If you cause him any further pain, he might actually depart this world for good.”

“That’d be a small consequence, considering what he did. Does that guy even know who he tried taking advantage of?!”

I hesitated, carefully choosing my next words. “The Order will probably make a formal apology to you later. The cardinal himself might make time for you to do just that. Holding a debt over one of the top leaders of the country is pretty wild.”

“Ugh, I don’t feel up to that. What am I supposed to say to the cardinal? All by myself, no less. Nobody knows what’s going on in the mind of Daryth’s cardinal, and he’s pretty scary.”

“Huh.” I raised an eyebrow at her. “So even someone like you has fears.”

“What do you even think I am?” Alicia muttered grumpily. She walked on in silence for a moment before she stopped and whirled around, pointing a finger towards my forehead. “More importantly! Only terrible things have happened to me ever since you started trying to lose weight.”

Taken as a hostage by No Face, then being betrayed by a Royal Knight... True, she was unlucky, but what did I have to do with any of that?

And in the case of the Traitor Knight, she was just reaping the seeds she had sown. I had kept trying to stop her all the way up until the last minute, just before we headed for the theater. But she’s probably not thinking straight right now, so if I told her that, we’d only end up arguing.

“So you’re saying it’s my fault?”

“I mean...” She trailed off. “It’s just so unfair!”

Her calling it “unfair” was unfair in and of itself, but in truth, her statement might have been spot on.

If everything had gone according to the anime, no one would have attempted to kidnap Alicia and sell her off to the north. It was my interference that had gotten Alicia thrown into terrible, life-threatening situations twice now, despite it being prior to the events that happened in the anime timeline.

The royal beauty had always been protected back in her home country; both of these incidents were probably unbearable for her.

“I did save you both times, though,” I muttered at length.

“That’s... Well...I-I guess...”

Shuya and Alicia were the main characters of the anime; perhaps Alicia being dragged into trouble just came with the territory. Perhaps all this meant that they would become key players even in my own story.

“Huh? Stand still for a minute,” she demanded.

“What is this, out of the blue?”

“Just as I thought, you’re different,” Alicia said as she scrutinized me. “Piggy Slowe, did you do anything special today?”

“I beat Sepith into a pulp and rescued you.”

“No, not that. I’m talking about your weight. Somehow, you seem much slimmer than yesterday.”

“Slimmer? Really?”

“You’re completely different... Your figure is firmer than usual, and your build seems a bit more sturdy too.”

“Maybe it’s because I chugged a lot of Charlotte’s weight-loss potion before I went to the theater. I haven’t been drinking it lately, so that’s the only difference. If you want to lose weight too, I’ll share it with you, Alicia. There’s still half left.”

“I’m fine, thanks. If I drink something like that, it’ll make me sick or something.”

Still...Charlotte’s specially brewed weight-loss potion, huh?

I couldn’t tell the difference myself, but according to Alicia I’d lost weight, and rapidly at that. It sounded silly. I hadn’t even gone on my morning jog the past two days because of the operation. If anything, I’d been eating more than usual, making up excuses that I needed to accumulate strength before heading off to the theater. In exchange for my feast, however, Charlotte forced a large amount of that potion down my throat. Hmm, I guess I’ll have to check myself in the mirror when I get back.

Alicia sighed. “Ugh, this is the worst... But it’s true that you saved me, so...”

“What is it? You’re muttering stuff under your breath,” I said. “Come on, Alicia. Let’s go.”

“Oh, shut up. I need to brace myself for something like this, you know.”

“Brace yourself?”

“Yeah.” Alicia lowered her head at me.

H-Huh? Wh-What?

I didn’t see this coming at all. Just a few days ago, she was shouting curses and hurling insults at me, dumping all of her emotions onto me. I couldn’t believe the same girl was bowing her head at me.

“Whoa, hold up. I only did what anyone else would do in my position. If anything, I should be the one apologizing as a citizen of Daryth, since you experienced such a stressful situation here.”

“But I won’t be satisfied unless I do what I ought to,” Alicia declared without a shadow of a doubt.

Right. Alicia is that type of girl. If someone was in the wrong, Alicia was a noble girl who would call them out on it, even if they were above her station. That was why she ended up with a pure and honest person like Shuya. Sometimes, she’d show her strong will and sense of justice and it’d make me wonder where she got all that energy from, considering how small and frail she was.

Just like that, the main heroine of Shuya Marionette bowed with her natural-born grace towards me, her former fiancé and sworn enemy.

“Okay, I’m ready now,” she whispered.

Ready? For what? But I didn’t get the chance to voice my question.

When she lifted her head, her expression was completely different from the usual sour look on her face. There was a dust of pink on her cheeks, and she looked a little embarrassed.

With the full moon above her, the princess from the beautiful Metropolis of Water—

“Thanks...for saving me!” Alicia said, and she beamed.

I was blown away by her smile. It was nearly enough to make me forget my battle with Sepith. Her smile was so cute that it made me think coming to this town was worth it, if it meant going through all of this just to see it.

I couldn’t utter a single word.

The smile of the main heroine captivated many of the viewers; it was just that cute. I thought that her smile wouldn’t ever be directed towards anyone other than the would-be anime protagonist. Especially not towards me, a scorned human on a one-way track to becoming a pig. I never thought she’d smile at me in my entire lifetime.

This... This is a fearsome ambush.

“Why aren’t you looking my way?! You just received a thank-you from yours truly! It’s a very, very rare honor!”

“Sh-Shut up!” I stammered. “Why would you care?!”

“Huh?! Look at me!”

My heart took a critical hit from her smile. It felt as if someone had grabbed my heart and squeezed it hard. This is probably the charm that captivated many of the anime characters, huh?

That reminded me. Once upon a time, Silva had said that Alicia would definitely grow up into a beauty, so he was jealous of me for being engaged to her. His prediction was absolutely right.

Alicia probably sensed my embarrassment, having felt the full brunt of the smile she had apparently poured all of her heart into, and she marched right up to me. She peered up at my face from below and said, “Come on, lift your chin already.”

Ugh, one moment she’s acting all noble and dignified, but the next moment, she starts teasing me. I’m not one to take things lying down, though!

“Just joking,” I muttered.

“Huh?”

I lifted my head and pointed my wand towards the girl who was unfortunate enough to become the main heroine of Shuya Marionette.

Nearly a thousand years ago, during an age spoken of only in myths, magic hadn’t yet been split into the six elements.

The woman we dubbed the “Founder of Magic” had borrowed the power of beings called spirits, and, according to legend, she could perform just about any feat the people of her time could imagine.

Commoners in Daryth seemed to think that we nobles became omnipotent beings after going through advanced magical training, but that was a huge misconception. For example, a fire mage could only use fire spells, a water mage could only use water spells, and so on. Compared to those ancient days, modern mages were very limited in what we could do.

That was why, on the rare occasion a mage had the aptitude for more than one element, they were given special treatment. If a commoner were able to awaken several elements, they wouldn’t stop at just being treated as a noble, they might even officially earn a noble title. Magic was a lot more versatile when you could work with several elements.

“Did you do this?” Alicia asked at length, looking down at herself.

“Well, it would be pretty sad to leave you in that miserable state, and it might even tarnish my honor walking next to you like that, so yeah,” I said with a shrug.

To illustrate my previous point...I’d used a triple-element spell of wind, water, and earth. Though I couldn’t return the dress to brand-new, it was a huge difference compared to how tattered the dress was up to this point. This mystical power was something very few people besides myself could pull off. I shouldn’t have used it for something as trivial as this on principle, but I decided I’d make an exception, given everything that had happened today.

“You should have done this earlier. How embarrassed do you think I was, walking in such a state?”

“I also needed to brace myself, since you’re like an entirely different person when you’re dressed up all pretty. There’s nothing more difficult than dealing with that, you know.”

Alicia paused. “What do you mean?”

“I’m saying that you’re way prettier than the actress who played the princess.”

“Just what do...you...” Alicia trailed off. “Huh? Me...?”

Alicia went stiff as a board, as if she didn’t understand the words coming out of my mouth.

I paid no attention to the wind spirit near me whispering, “Is this infidelity? Are you cheating?” It was better to give such compliments directly; that was a secret to success I’d learned as a kid. Besides, Alicia was probably used to people waxing poetry about her. It wasn’t a big deal.

But wait. Huh?

Alicia cupped her cheeks, as if to hide how her face had grown red. “Wh-Wh-Wh...What? Y-You...Wh-What did you just say?”

“I said that you are very pretty.”

“P-Pretty? Wh-What’s w-with that...?”

Was what I said really weird enough for her to react like that? Even though she was used to hearing compliments like that, her face was almost as red as her dress.

My former fiancée looked utterly defenseless, something I couldn’t imagine with her considering how she usually cursed me with her sharp tongue. She was kind of cute like this.

Compliments from someone she loathes so much must be so unexpected that it left her in a stupor. Or something like that. If I had it my way, I’d have stayed there and watched, but I needed to get back to the theater as soon as possible and check on Charlotte.

Thus, I briskly walked past Alicia’s frozen form, muttering to her in an offhand tone, “Come on, let’s go. You’re a hundred years too early to be teasing me.”

If we continued staring at each other like that, I might’ve ended up all red myself. I walked on, prepared to leave it at that.

But then—

“D-Don’t you dare try to act all cool. You’re still just a damned pig!!!”

“Ow!” I yelped, feeling something heavy hit the back of my head. I looked down. One of her high-heels sat there on the ground, toppled over where it landed.

Ow, that hurt. I’ll probably have a big lump on my head now. But for some reason, I was reluctant to heal this injury with a water spell.

In the end, we started walking slowly towards the theater, side by side, but we didn’t look at each other the whole time.

●

Alicia leaned against the cool exterior wall of the theater and quietly watched the black-haired swordsman from afar.

“That’s Silva! That’s the commoner who’s the top candidate to become the next Guardian Knight!” a man in the crowd shouted.

“Listen to this: he shook my hand! Yes, that’s the gentleman they based Mayhem of the Blade on!”

After the commoner swordsman appeared, the atmosphere in the theater had completely changed in the presence of such a celebrity. On top of that, the Order had stormed the theater and immediately subdued the bandits. Or so Alicia had heard.

Still, it’s been a while since I last saw that man. He looks quite mature. How old is he now? Alicia started counting his age on her fingers. I’m sixteen, so he’s probably just past his mid-twenties. Oh, he is an adult now. Alicia nodded to herself.

“Just as I thought, you really have lost quite a bit of weight, milord! Ha ha, when I last saw you, you were like the child of an orc! You’ve really changed!” the swordsman at the center exclaimed.

When she was young, the older boy who’d often played with her on Denning lands was unreadable. As a child, Alicia had wondered who that boy was. She knew better now; that boy was one of the two knights specifically chosen to protect that guy in the past. The commoner was named Silva, and he was one half of the Knights of the Twin Wings.

Now he was a candidate to become a hero. He donned a white cape, and that man waved towards his former master.

“I heard that you’d started taking things seriously and had come to Yoram, milord, so I couldn’t help myself. I left the Order in the dust and came straight here!”

“Hey! There are way too many people around you! Why are you more popular than me?!” the boy whined in reply. The man was bombarded by people from all sides. The crowd’s roaring excitement still hadn’t died down either, it seemed.

He’s very popular. I guess he’d have to be, considering that it’s unheard of for a commoner to enter the Guardian Selection. Alicia shrugged.

“Your Highness, it is nearly time.”

“Please let me stay here for just a little longer, Mister Oliver,” Alicia replied.

“...Understood, Your Highness.”

Alicia had finished dealing with the rush of people headed her way, the Flower Knight at her side the whole time.

A Royal Knight apt at water magic healed Oliver’s wounds from Sepith, so Oliver was able to return to active duty right away. Even though Alicia was a water mage herself, she couldn’t have healed such a serious wound this quickly. The Order lived up to their fame with such great talent in their ranks.

After the Flower Knight recovered enough to move around, he refused to budge from Alicia’s side. This was his job, he said, and he wouldn’t be persuaded otherwise.

There was a sense of melancholy lacing his features. Even when Alicia asked him about Sepith, the man held his tongue.

Once Alicia left this area, she had a meeting scheduled with Cardinal Maldini, at the landlord of Yoram’s home. But even with the current circumstances, Alicia didn’t think she’d be able to bring up any complaints with the infamous cardinal. She would probably just end up signing some kind of documents, going along with whatever the man said.

Ugh, troublesome. That was her honest reaction.

“Ha ha, well, I’m a white cape now, that’s why.”

“I appreciate your help earlier, but nobody cares about what you’re doing with your life now! More importantly, Charlotte! Where is Charlotte?!”

Sick of all the matchmaking meetings for a politically arranged marriage, Alicia had begged her parents to let her have freedom for a while. She’d struck while the iron was hot and pressed on further, saying that she wanted to go to the Kirsch Mage Institute in Daryth. Though she had initially told her parents that she wanted to do so to broaden her horizons, they ended up wresting the truth from her.

“I haven’t settled my relationship with him. That’s all.”

Her parents relented after that, having even encouraged her to go.

She was given three years, the amount of time it would take to attend and graduate from the Kirsch Mage Institute. It was more than she could’ve ever asked for, and she couldn’t believe her ears when they’d first told her that.

Her parents had probably also latched on to what they remembered of the boy they had seen in the past, just as she had.

After all, he had been the Prodigy of Wind once, the one who was said to be the future of the Country of Knights. Even now, Alicia found her eyes glued to the boy’s every movement. The same went for the Flower Knight standing next to her.

“Mister Oliver, may I ask you something?”

“Anything, Your Highness.”

“Would you have been able to capture the man known as Sepith Pendragon without sustaining any injuries on your part?”

The Flower Knight’s silence was more than enough of an answer for Alicia. Even for such a famed knight as the Flower Knight, the Traitor Knight is a foe of deadly prowess, huh?

However, the guy still shouting and looking for Charlotte had managed to accomplish such a feat. He was able to defeat a Royal Knight so nonchalantly, even going as far as acting as if nothing had happened after such a heated battle.

This wasn’t even the first time he had shown unbelievable power. First the mercenary, then the Traitor Knight...

Both times, Alicia had thought that she had nobody to help her, but that guy had realized that she was asking for help. Out of everyone, he was the only one who did.

Whenever the boy met Alicia’s eyes back at Kirsch, he had always looked to somewhere far away, like he was looking past her and not at her. But on that day, and then again just now, he looked at Alicia, and with the same kind gaze he had given her once upon a time.

“There you are, Charlotte! Are you hurt anywhere?! Are you okay?!” The boy rushed over to Charlotte, examining her head to toe for injury.

And that gaze was enough to make Alicia remember one thing vividly: the reason she had been enthralled with him in the first place.

He had been the only one who looked past her royal status and treated her as just Alicia. He scolded her when she did something wrong, argued with her over trivial things, and he even shared wild fruit from the forest with her.

All of it had been so new to Alicia. He was the first person who treated Alica as an equal.

“Wait, what’s that wand?! Huh? You picked it up?! The spoils of war?!” The boy’s voice carried over the din. “Listen to yourself! You can’t do that!”

“Milord, Charlotte also defeated one of the thieves. But, well, she still can’t control her spells...” Silva trailed off, then seemed to chuckle with a myriad of suppressed emotions. “Seriously, I didn’t think I’d meet you two again like this... Today really is a great day...”

Looking back, that had been such a simple reason. She was almost like a newborn chick imprinting on a parent, what with how she clung to him. But when she was a child...such a small reason was enough to send her over the moon, like he was the one saving grace in her life.

Realizing this wasn’t a groundbreaking discovery.

Alicia pretended that she hadn’t realized the truth all this time. The real reason why she had come all the way to the mage school in this country...was because she stubbornly believed that one day, the boy from the past would return. After all, her dreams always had one thing in common: they were all her memories of him from her childhood.

Alicia heaved a heavy sigh. She didn’t know why, but that boy had indeed returned.

The boy once dubbed “the human orc” no longer existed. He was now a person who lived up to his status as a direct descendant of House Denning. If you had to grasp for fault, you could point out his chubby figure, but... He seems to have lost even more weight than ever before, though.

Alicia would know; she’d been living under the same roof as him since she came to Yoram. She wanted to get closer to him and confirm the truth for herself. But in the end, it’s too mortifying to approach him of my own volition...

“Is something bothering you, Your Highness?”

“It’s nothing,” Alicia muttered at length.

There was an engagement ring adorned with crimson and azure in her pocket. Alice felt the hard surface beneath her fingertips. It had been crafted specifically with the colors associated with House Denning and Cirquistan royalty.

“Haaah...”

Once again, she let out a long, deep sigh. In contrast to her sigh, however, her face was full of joy, almost as if a burden she’d carried for many years was finally lifted from her shoulders.

The reasons for that? Well...

Firstly, from the bottom of her heart, she was glad that she had come to Daryth—to Kirsch.

Secondly, she realized that the crush from her childhood was never going to end. If anything, it seemed that it’d been reignited.

“The hero arrives at long last. Maldini, it seems that we no longer need the Guardian Selection.”

Yoram was still in an uproar over the visit of the Order of Royal Knights.

Landowners of the surrounding areas and influential nobles alike gathered at the landlord’s house beside the clock tower in the center of town.

There, a single girl stepped down from a horse carriage as knights of the Order attended to her. Her rose-gold locks fluttered in the breeze, giving her a divine look like that of a goddess. Her drowsy face was arguably her most attractive feature, which stood out starkly in contrast to such beauty.

Beside her stood Royal Knight Commander Johannes Maldini, the one said to be secretly pulling the strings behind the Country of Knights. This girl, who the cardinal served under, was none other than Carina Little Daryth herself, the Divine Light of Daryth.

“‘A major country that lacks heroes will only fall into decline.’ That was what you always said. Well, this is a good turn of events for you. There is a contender for that hero now. His background shouldn’t be a problem, considering you set an example when you put Sepith’s name forward before.”

The Royal Knight Commander nodded silently to the princess’s words. He didn’t have it in him to dispute that. After all, Maldini had been the one who insisted that Sepith Pendragon should enter the Guardian Selection despite the princess’s objections.

The princess turned to face the surrounding people and addressed them. “Everyone, I would like to take this opportunity to make myself clear.”

The Royal Knights all dropped to one knee with the exception of Oliver, who was guarding Alicia. The words of the crown princess were akin to the law of the nation.

“I do not care about family standing, nor about what happened in one’s past.”

The world currently stood at the precipice of an unprecedented war lying in wait. Their enemy was clear: the Dustour Empire in the north. The empire possessed three magnificent heroes whose names would indisputably leave a large mark on history. The superpower in the north watched like a hawk, biding their time for an opportunity to invade the south and unite the entire continent.

To combat the ambition of the empire, the four major countries in the south formed an alliance. Among the Great Southern Alliance, Daryth’s influence had plummeted in recent years, causing endless grief for the country.

The reason for this decline was simple: Daryth didn’t have a hero grand enough to become a symbol of their country.

“No matter how problematic a person’s personality may be, if they have the aptitude to become a hero, then—”

That was why in the anime, a certain boy with extraordinary power had been placed on the pedestal as the savior of the world. Shuya Newkern went on to forge his path to world salvation with the Great Spirit of Fire, Eldred, in the anime Shuya Marionette.

Right now, this savior of the south known as the Fiery Diviner still hadn’t shown any sign of his awakening. Fate waited for nobody, however, and it started turning its gears, moving towards what events rightfully determined this world.

“Even if this means war with House Denning...I choose him as my Guardian Knight.”

A storm was coming. An incident of unprecedented scale was just around the corner, ready to rattle the continent.