01 - Beginnings are simple

"The prophetess calls for him, my king... She said she saw something."

Says a hooded man calmly and directly, without emotions, kneeling in front of a throne. On the throne sits a serious-looking blond king with a thick beard and clasped hands.

For a moment, silence hangs in the room until the King rises, passing by the hooded man, his blue cape dragging on the floor. He walks through the corridors of the immense palace.

"The first prophecy in 300 years... I hope it's not like the last one."

The King thinks as he walks towards a wooden door adorned with golden branches. His expression remains unchanged, but his heart begins to race.

Upon opening the door, the King finds himself in a roofless room, like a garden inside the castle. In the center, a young woman of about 25 years old, wearing a yellow dress, kneels amidst a white marble fountain with blue water, holding a red flower.

"My king..."

The young woman says without turning to the man, looking only at the sunny sky.

"Difficult times are approaching on the five continents... A prophecy from a distant past returns through me..."

The prophetess turns to the king; her eyes have an unusual color resembling a starry night. In an instant, her pupils shimmer in a rainbow of six different colors: red, yellow, green, purple, white, and black. Her voice changes from a sweet young one to dissonant voices, and any sound in the castle disappears from the room.

"From the lost jade stone... a beginning unfolds, of the six forgotten, only one does not hide.

From the vibrant green to the fallen, wisdom delivered to ignorance closes amid the trees of lamentation.

In the ashes of profane red, the weak's flame rises in the last guardian memory.

From honor to dishonor, the purple of the forged oath, their deeds... forgotten for the greater good.

Amid the yellow faith hides a truth, a heresy distorted as purpose.

The desire of white initiated the end.

The greed of black ended the beginning.

From eternal essence, a cursed truth; everything ends as it began."

The voice fades, leaving the place in complete silence. Gradually, the sounds return. The king remains quiet. He knew what a prophecy meant—an inevitable future, for better or worse. He would do anything to ensure it was for the betterment of Aldena. He needed to prepare for the prophecy, and the only thing he recognized in it was his first clue.

"From the lost jade stone... I must visit an old friend."

The king turns, recalling a local legend—a statue said to be lost in the Hero's Rest forests, a land protected by his most loyal Duke, and a land where the 500º grand festival would soon begin.

Kromblade.

...

A sharp sound cuts through the air just before an arrow hits the target, embedding near the edges.

"That was good, but it could be better."

Says a red-haired boy with green eyes, dressed in simple peasant clothes — brown pants secured by a tattered belt and a loose white shirt.

Next to the boy, a girl holds a wooden bow. She's an amber-eyed girl with black hair tied in a red scarf around the upper part of her head, forming a long ponytail.

Lowering her bow, the girl lets out a sigh, causing her body to bend, and her arms almost drop the bow.

"Seriously, Clark, how do you manage to hit every time? Of ten arrows, I hit three, and two still caught the sides."

Clark lets out a hearty laugh, placing his right hand on the girl's shoulder and sporting a big smile as she lifts her face to look at him.

"Secilia, it's okay, you've improved a lot. Last month you could barely hit an arrow on the tree."

She smiles, adjusting her body, standing upright again. She moves her right arm, taking an arrow from the quiver on her back, places it on the bow's rest, pulling it until her palm is near her face, then releases it, making the arrow fly through the air, veering to the left and hitting a bush next to the target.

— Ah! What am I doing wrong?!

The girl complains with an expression of anger and frustration. The boy, with a light tap on her back, gives her a shiver. This distracts her, turning her gaze to the boy. With that, he takes the bow from her hand and one of her arrows.

"You can't just release the string when shooting, or it will shake, and the chance of missing increases."

He pulls the string the same way the girl did, but instead releasing the string to shoot, he moves his elbow of the arm holding the bowstring backward, making his fingers slide along the string. As soon as his hand releases it, the arrow is precisely shot into the center of the target.

"See? It's not as difficult as it seems."

Clark opens an excited smile on his face just before turning to the girl, who had her arms down holding one of the arrows. The girl extends her left hand to the boy, opening and closing it with a sulky face.

"Alright, let me try again."

The boy gives the bow to her, she positions herself again to shoot. but, before making the shot, the boy moves behind her, placing his hand between the girl's shoulder blades, making her freeze and shiver completely, releasing the arrow randomly.

"W- What was that?"

Secilia backs away with a red face, holding the bow against her chest, making the boy burst into laughter. But before he could say anything, both hear a female voice in the distance.

"Secilia! Where are you?! Your dad is waiting for you!"

Secilia drops the bow upon hearing her mother's voice coming from the road, where two small houses were located.

"Damm, I should have gone to the other side of town."

She thinks and quickly looks at the boy with a worried expression.

"Go through the forest and around the houses, I'll hold her a bit."

The girl starts running through the forest towards the back of the houses, trying to go unnoticed by the woman.

While Secilia ran, the boy sighed, holding the bow and quiver that the girl dropped. He took a deep breath, thinking about how to start a conversation with the Duke's wife, and he left the forest. Seeing the woman in black in the distance, he waves to her, opening a friendly smile. He puts the arrow in the quiver and holds the bow with the other free hand.

"Hello, Mrs. Laffrey! Are you looking for Secilia?"

The woman with long black hair cascading over her shoulder hears the boy's voice and turns towards the forest, glancing at him while slightly shifting her gaze to her bow. After a moment, she walks gracefully in his direction with a neutral expression.

"Yes, by chance she wasn't with you again, she was?"

The woman's question is accompanied by a stern and inquisitive look directed at the young man.

"No, ma'am, but I saw her walking towards the apple trees."

The boy points to the trees behind the house, where a cluster of apple trees stands, one of the town's main crops along with grapes and the vineyard.

"That girl... I've told her not to come here without Rosaria!"

The girl, after a few moments of walking, reaches the apple orchard. She walks alongside two other villagers who were harvesting apples with an unusual hue, purple at the top and gradually turning blue along the rest of the apple, the Motrika apples. The girl takes one of them, signaling for both of them to stay quiet, and they smile as if it's something she does regularly.

"Darn, I've done this five times in two months; I better come up with a new excuse..."

Secilia thinks after grabbing the apple. She sighs and quickly runs behind the houses, able to see her mother talking with Clark. She takes a deep breath and emerges from her hiding spot.

"I'm here, Mom!"

Secilia shouts, emerging from the gap between the houses, holding the apple, taking a bite, and waving to the woman with her free hand. Her mom crosses her arms, seeing Secilia emerge with the lower hem of her white dress stained with dirt.

"Are you picking apples again?! We've talked about this; leave it to the servants. You have other duties. And as for you, Mr. Clark, I hope the hunt is yielding well, and you're not missing too many shots."

The woman complains to the girl as she approaches. Once the girl is close to her mother, she lets out a sigh, putting her hand in front of her face and looking at the boy with a threatening yet inquisitive expression. Clark notices the absence of the arrows they used for training and didn't have any hunting, the boy worried for a moment, but then responded quickly with a smile on his face.

"They're getting harder to hunt, you know... I think they're getting smarter."

The woman snorted at the boy's excuse and turned away.

"Well, maybe you should hunt more. Heard deer like to hide in the hills,How about asking your friend Olyver for some lessons?"

Says the woman who continues walking. Secilia smiled at him, waving her hand behind her back while she walked with her mother.

"Don't let your father know you were here, much less that you were training with Clark."

The girl lowers her head, listening to what her mom says, letting the apple hang low next to her body, and responds almost inaudibly.

"As if he cared..."

"What?"

"Nothing, Mom, shall we?"

Miss Laffrey sighs for a moment, glancing at her daughter, a faint smile forming on her face.

"How about buying some clothes for the festival? Your father is a bit busy with the vineyard, so he can wait a bit."

"Are you sure? Wasn't he expecting me?"

The woman wears a more visible smile on her face.

"Yes, but if he knows we're getting ready for the ceremony, I think he can wait a bit longer."

Secilia lifts her face with a cheerful smile to her mom, raising the apple to her chest and placing both hands around it as she walks alongside her towards the town center.

Clark stayed behind, watching Secilia walk away; his eyes were fixed on the girl to the point where, for a moment, he sighed and unconsciously opened a sincere smile when the man who was picking apples with his wife approached.

"It's better not to dwell on it, lad. You know well what awaits her; that's the fate of a noble."

"She also... But she doesn't know what awaits her soon."

"There's nothing we can do, Clark. You know how things are; you heard what Melina told us."

Clark turned, heading towards the training area with a serious and closed expression, while the man watched him from afar, releasing a brief sigh before returning to his wife.

...

After leaving the area where the outdoor plantation was, the duo encounters the city gate. Secilia takes a deep breath at the sight of the city wall, which, although not as large as the capital's, is still considered a secure fortress, after all, it's a duchy.

"Aren't the guards a bit slow today? They didn't even see me pass..."

Helena glances inquisitively at the girl when she mentions the guards and shakes her head, realizing that Secilia didn't notice her look and simply continues walking.

Upon reaching the gate, the guards were preoccupied with documents from the merchant caravans arriving at the duchy and didn't notice the arrival of the two women.

"Where are the reinforcements for guard duty and inspection? I thought the duke ordered at least four of you."

The guard reading a document was startled to see the duchess standing in front of him. Before he could respond, the woman continued.

"Send an extra guard to the southern area and find the two... lazy ones who 'disappeared.'"

"The duchess pauses briefly, looking around. The southern area is near a cliff, and a significant part of its plantation is located there. but, for much of the year, there are fewer guards in the region, except during the festival. On the other hand, the northern area is where some Modrika apple plantations are, connected by a hunting forest and the main wall, making it relatively more protected."

"Miss Helena! You don't need to worry that much, we're just traders."

Helena diverts her gaze to one merchant wagon where the voice of a chubby man was coming from. She recognizes the voice as one of the wine-exporting merchants, and with that recognition, she displays a simple but friendly smile.

"Mr. Jofrey, I know the traders themselves don't pose a threat, but we can't say the same about the mercenaries who gather during this celebratory season."

After saying this, she makes a brief bow and calmly walks through the gate, leaving the guards tense and uneasy. The city entrance consists of two bridges over a small river that runs through the city. One bridge is small, used by people arriving without horses or carts, while the other, wider one, is used by carts carrying products, allowing two carts to pass side by side. Just after the bridges lies Riou's main street, the city of wine.