"The Kingdom of Celesta," Professor Erwin began, pacing the podium. "Could someone please tell me about the founder of our kingdom?"
"Professor."
Before anyone else could even blink, a hand shot up in the front row. It was Aurora.
Starting from her, I swept my gaze across the massive auditorium.
It was hard to believe so many major characters from the game were gathered in the exact same room as me. But because I also remembered them through Edward's childhood memories, the whole situation felt surreal and disjointed.
"Yes, Miss Aurora," Erwin nodded.
Aurora stood up, her posture flawless.
"The First Apostle of Eden and our First King, Dorian Celesta, founded the Celesta Kingdom following the First Great Holy War 997 years ago. That corresponds to the year 497 in the Eden Calendar."
She's really proud of her ancestor, huh? I thought, listening to the conviction in her voice.
"Correct!" Erwin said. "Dorian Celesta was the name of our first king, and it is also the name of our royal capital. Miss Aurora, would you care to elaborate?"
"Yes, Professor. Our Hero, King Dorian, hailed from the Celesta Tribe. He was one of the main leaders who fought against the Vatra Tribe during the First Great Holy War. At the young age of twenty, he became the supreme leader of the Celesta Tribe."
"Thank you. You may sit." Erwin nodded, clearly satisfied.
The First Great Holy War…
In the game, it was barely mentioned, usually just brushed over in cutscenes like this one.
'Do you know anything about it, Cleenah?'
[
'I see.'
"Now," Erwin continued, scanning the room. "Can someone else tell me about the Vatra Tribe and the root cause of this conflict?"
"I will, Professor."
Alfred stood up.
Did he seriously feel the need to stand up just to match his sister's perfect answer?
What a shallow, idiotic guy.
[
'That's exactly how stupid he is.'
I yawned and leaned back in my chair.
"The Celesta Tribe's power was surpassed only by the Vatra Tribe," Alfred recited. "Both tribes worshipped our Holy Deity, Eden, as the supreme being of the world. However, their interpretations of Eden's will differed drastically. The Vatra Tribe believed they should use the Holy Trinity for their own advancement, whereas the Celesta Tribe trusted in leaving the Holy Trinity alone to receive Eden's blessings naturally."
"Explain the Holy Trinity to your classmates, Your Highness," Erwin instructed, cutting Alfred off before he could launch into a monologue.
"Yes. The Holy Trinity refers to the holiest treasures of our world: The Garden, also known as the Holy Land of Eden; the Sacred Tree of Eden; and the Monolith of Eden."
A collective, quiet gasp rippled through the first-year students.
The Garden. The Tree. The Monolith.
One of the main reasons the Celesta Kingdom was so famous and powerful was because the Garden was supposedly located somewhere in the capital. Naturally, no one except the King knew its exact location.
"Correct," Alfred said, looking around. "The Vatra and Celesta tribes went to war over the Holy Garden. One side wanted to leave it untouched and pray. The other wanted to harvest its power. Worse, the Vatra Tribe wanted to physically uproot and transport the Garden away."
A heavy silence fell over the auditorium.
The students, fiercely proud of their kingdom, were visibly bristling with retroactive anger.
Calm down, guys.
This happened like nearly thousand years ago.
"A brutal ten-year war was fought between Dorian Celesta's forces and Deimos Vatra's army," Erwin took over, sparing us more of Alfred's grandstanding. "There are very few surviving records detailing the actual battles. We only know that Deimos Vatra was ultimately defeated. However, cooperation between Dorian Celesta and Deimos's son eventually led to peace.
"A treaty was established. The Celesta Tribe chose to safeguard the Garden in its original location, where King Dorian built our capital. As for the Vatra Tribe, they relocated to the lands that now make up the Arvatra Empire. Naturally, there were two additional conflicts; the Second and Third Holy Wars before Arvatra officially became the empire bordering us today. But we will cover those at a later date."
Erwin then launched into a much deeper, much drier lecture about the logistics of the First Great Holy War.
In short: it was going to be incredibly boring.
'Cleenah, do you know anything about the Holy Trinity? The Garden, the Tree, and the Monolith?'
She was a Goddess, after all.
In the Celesta Kingdom, and honestly, most of the world—people believed in Eden as a supreme, divine entity. It had no physical form but possessed a will and conscience. The Holy Trinity was said to be the physical manifestation of Eden's will.
And the Guardians tasked with protecting Eden and carrying out its wishes were the Gods, like Cleenah.
[
'Cleenah?'
Right when it was getting good, she stopped.
[]
Her voice had shifted.
The usual snark was gone.
She sounded deadly serious.
'Okay...'
I wasn't an idiot. If a literal Goddess was genuinely concerned to speak about something, I wasn't going to force it.
[
I smiled faintly.
'Don't sweat it. Back to the topic, then, does that mean there are two Edens? Because this world clearly has a Garden, a Tree, and a Monolith too.'
[]
'What was your era like, then?'
I was curious now. None of this lore had existed in the game. What was the world like before the Celesta and Vatra tribes? Before the Holy Trinity appeared?
[]
I couldn't quite picture what she meant.
It might be naive, but I just assumed that before the kingdom was founded, there were just… normal humans. Less developed towns. Less advanced magic.
But Cleenah made it sound like an entirely different reality.
'Did this entity, Eden, create humanity and the other races?' I asked.
If it was that powerful, could it create life?
[<…>]
Silence. She couldn't answer that either, huh.
'You said you lived with other Gods in a separate dimension. Then why did you descend here…? And how did you end up as a Legacy? What is a Legacy, really?'
I didn't ask the questions out loud, but I hoped she could hear my thoughts.
[<…>]
Nothing.
She left me on another cliffhanger.
Honestly, I was starting to care more about the pre-game lore than the actual plot of the next few years.
'What about you, Jarvis?'
[…]
I had this nagging suspicion that the AI knew things even Cleenah didn't. But getting him to talk was like pulling teeth from a stone statue.
Eden.
A Garden.
A Tree.
It sounded suspiciously like the Garden of Eden from Earth's Christianity, with the whole Adam and Eve myth. Though the similarities stopped there. Earth's myth didn't feature a giant Monolith.
Just to check…
'Do you know anything about Adam and Eve?'
[
She wasn't lying on this one. I could feel it.
I sighed.
Still, I hoped no other Earth legends had somehow bled into this reality.
("Nyr, don't you want to live like Adam and Eve? Wouldn't it be lovely?")
"…"
Why?
Ephera had said that to me once.
Why was I remembering it now?
It was probably just a coincidence, triggered by the word Eden, but…
Her smile, the way her eyes looked when she'd said it. It had been so captivating.
Why…
I felt so stupid.
Going all the way to Paris just to confess to her?
A pathetic smile tugged at my lips.
If I had just answered her back then, "Yes, with you" it would have been unbearably embarrassing. But maybe she would still be alive.
Ephera knew everything about me. She knew my mind was a mess, that I was broken, but she stayed by my side anyway. After everything I'd done, everything I'd tried to do, she had been the tether keeping me from completely losing my humanity.
I bit my lip hard, forcing back the sudden, burning sting behind my eyes.
"?"
A sudden, phantom sensation wrapped around me. Like someone was gently hugging me from behind.
It was Mary.
It was strange, but… warm. Comforting.
How careless of me. I'd let my emotional guard down, and Mary had felt my misery through our contract.
She knew everything about me too. She'd seen my memories of the game, the merging of Edward and Nyrel, and even my memories of Ephera. We had to synchronize deeply to forge our contract, so it made sense she'd seen the things I held most precious.
'Thanks. I'm okay,' I sent the thought to her, shaking my head slightly.
I closed my eyes, took a slow breath, and locked the emotions back in their box.
I felt better already.
[
Cleenah spoke up, ignoring my little emotional breakdown. I was actually grateful for it.
'He isn't my bestie,' I snorted.
I looked down at the lower rows. Tyler was leaning over, talking animatedly and loudly to Jayden.
Erwin had already warned him twice, but Tyler just switched to aggressive whispering.
Jayden was nodding along with a tired, long-suffering smile.
…And Milleia.
She was already thick as thieves with Lyra, just like in the game. But she was also occasionally exchanging words with Alfred…
Act like a Prince, you idiot.
Even if Alfred was a genius, ignoring the teacher to chat with a commoner girl was a terrible example to set.
Shit.
My eyes drifted toward the other side of the room, and a cold chill instantly ran down my spine.
The [Villainess].
Layla Tarmias was staring fixedly at Alfred.
It was genuinely terrifying.
The scariest part wasn't the emotionless, dead-eyed stare. It was the fact that she wasn't glaring at Milleia, who had just unwittingly placed herself on Layla's 'must kill' list.
She was glaring at Alfred, the guy she was obsessed with.
I really had to do something about her before she murdered Milleia or did something totally unscripted.
It was my fault anyway. Because of me, Lyra and Milleia had ended up sitting right behind Alfred. They weren't supposed to interact this early.
I didn't know how this shift would affect Layla's timeline.
But I wasn't going to let her kill Milleia.