February 13, 1472, Age of the Sea Circle
Thirty-one years ago, a major event was unfolding in the Kingdom of Koldara, in the South Blue: the visit of one of the Celestial Dragons from Mary Geoise.
All the people of the kingdom were extremely excited by this rare opportunity to see a noble of the World Government in person, although not everyone shared that enthusiasm.
For common folk, the Celestial Dragons were almost legendary figures, belonging to the colossal government that ruled the world, and they felt no hostility toward them, only awe. The nobles of the Kingdom of Koldara, on the other hand, who had greater access to information, knew very well that a visit from the Celestial Dragons could quickly turn into a nightmare at the slightest mistake.
Among the nobles of the kingdom, Duke Mario Lysander was particularly worried about the arrival of the World Government's visitors, and the reason for that concern was his beloved wife's extraordinary beauty. Although Mario was not an unattractive man, his facial features were merely average, and despite that, both of his young children had inherited an unusual beauty.
That was because his wife, Bianca, was publicly recognized as the most beautiful woman in the South Blue.
For this reason, Mario had decided that his wife would remain hidden for the duration of the Celestial Dragons' visit, in order to avoid unnecessary trouble.
Inside the study of the grand Lysander mansion, little Lolo, only nine years old, was studying administration under the attentive gaze of his mother, Bianca. Off to one side, Orion's father, Paul—who was only three years old—was happily playing with colorful wooden blocks, without a single worry in the world.
The door to the study opened, and Mario entered with a solemn expression. His appearance was completely different from the one Orion knew, since at this point in his life Mario was a proud and elegant noble who had not yet suffered the greatest tragedy of his existence.
"Papa!" Paul exclaimed, springing up from the floor as if propelled by springs and clumsily running toward his father, who lifted him into his arms with a smile, his imposing image melting away to reveal the expression of a loving parent.
"Father, good morning," Lolo said politely, stopping his writing and standing up to offer a formal greeting.
At nine years old, Lolo was already a noble fully trained for his future role as head of the family, and although it was true that he still had a long way to go in his education, one could already see the kind of serious person he would become in the future.
By contrast, the couple's youngest child, Paul, was simply an ignorant little boy who knew nothing of the world yet and lived happily inside his luxurious mansion. Even during the future years of exile, he would remember very little of these peaceful moments in his homeland.
"Dear… is everything all right?" Bianca asked, looking at her husband with a hint of concern.
She knew Mario well and could tell what he was thinking with just a glance, and right now she could see that he was deeply worried about something, even though he was trying his best to hide it.
Mario hugged Paul a little tighter in his arms and, forcing the most reassuring smile he could manage, said,
"There was an error in the information we received. The World Government's delegation is about to arrive in the kingdom."
Bianca's pupils contracted slightly, revealing the sudden shift in her emotions, though she immediately calmed herself through sheer will. There was no time to panic.
According to their original plan, she would have left the kingdom several days before the arrival of the Celestial Dragons, but according to the information the king himself had given them, that would not happen for another week. Now, however, they had learned that the World Government fleet was about to reach the island, making any escape completely impossible.
Mario stepped closer to his beloved wife and, wrapping an arm around her, gently pulled her against his chest.
"Don't worry, everything will be fine. Go to the secret hideout and don't come out no matter what happens. As soon as everything is over, I'll come get you," Mario said, a note of nervousness in his voice.
Bianca nodded, and after saying goodbye to her young children and kissing her husband affectionately, she hurried away toward one of the family's hidden refuges. Little Lolo, with his prodigious intelligence for his age, observed the entire situation in silence, while inwardly processing everything that was happening and drawing his own conclusions.
…
Inside one of the great halls of Koldara's royal castle, a group of nobles had gathered to discuss important matters of the kingdom. These nobles represented an important portion of the realm's aristocracy, but they were not all of them.
Only the royalist nobles, those most closely tied to the king, were present, while all others—such as Duke Mario Lysander—had not been informed of this meeting.
At the head of the long table sat a chubby man with golden hair, comfortably resting his head on one hand while lightly swirling a goblet of wine with the other, putting on airs of self-importance.
The nobles present in the hall wore ingratiating expressions, trying to curry favor with their tyrant king in order to obtain greater benefits. Suddenly, one of the most sycophantic nobles looked at his king and said with a smile,
"Your Majesty, everything is proceeding according to plan. Soon we will not only earn the favor of the Celestial Dragons, but also rid ourselves of all those annoying dissidents."
The king made a satisfied grimace as he took a sip of wine, but said nothing, wishing to maintain his "elegant" façade. Even so, his expression was far removed from what he intended to project, especially because he was half drunk and wore an obscene smile as he thought about the voluptuous body of Bianca Vespa.
In truth, the king thought it was a real pity that a woman of such caliber had to be handed over to the Celestial Dragons, but there was no other option. He knew that the most important thing was to use the power of the World Nobles to eradicate the dissident nobles of his kingdom at the root.
This king, named Ulrich Klein, was only nineteen years old and had just ascended the throne. He had poisoned his father and murdered his older brother, the heir to the throne, thus managing to become king exactly as he had desired. However, not everything went as smoothly as he had hoped after his coronation.
Several nobles of the kingdom were dissatisfied with Ulrich, due to his cruel personality and his hedonistic and immoral lifestyle—far more immoral than what was considered normal even for a king. For that reason, several important nobles supported Ulrich's younger sister as a candidate to ascend the throne as Queen of Koldara, and the political situation in the kingdom was highly unstable.
The main noble opposing Ulrich's reign was precisely Duke Lysander, who not only possessed great wealth and controlled the kingdom's mining industry, but was also married to the beautiful Bianca Vespa, the seventh princess of the neighboring Kingdom of Vespa.
Ulrich had been deeply worried for the past few months, fearing the possibility of a coup d'état that would overthrow him and cost him his throne to his younger sister.
Just when Ulrich was on the verge of losing his mind from stress and carrying out a suicidal move against Mario Lysander and the other dissident nobles, God sent him his divine help: the Celestial Dragons.
The arrival of the Celestial Dragons was truly like rain in the middle of a fire for Ulrich, who immediately summoned all the sycophantic nobles—most of them low-ranking aristocrats—who were on his side to an emergency meeting.
Thus, they devised a grand plan to eliminate all the dissident nobles, starting with the powerful Duke Mario Lysander. To do so, they only needed to make use of the Celestial Dragons' power, and the best way to accomplish that was to expose the existence of the most beautiful woman in the South Blue to them.
Given the personality of the stubborn duke, he would never surrender and allow his beloved wife to be humiliated in front of him, and that would be precisely his downfall. No one in this world could oppose the power of the Celestial Dragons. That was something even the ignorant King Ulrich Klein knew.
They had learned of the World Government delegation's arrival a month earlier, but the information released publicly had been false. Only the king's allies knew the true arrival date of the Celestial Dragons, while the rest of the nobles were fed misleading information.
Now, at last, the day of their divine aid's arrival had come, and King Ulrich Klein was adjusting the final details with his cohort of flatterers. A great tragedy loomed over the skies of the Lysander family.
…
When the Celestial Dragons arrived at the port, they were greeted with the enthusiastic welcome of the entire kingdom, which had gathered to admire these legendary figures. Hannibal Rosward arrived in the company of his family to this remote corner of the South Blue, in search of distractions.
They had already passed through two other kingdoms, where he had acquired several new slaves and a large quantity of tributes of all kinds. His arrival in Koldara was the final stop before returning to Mary Geoise, so Hannibal was eager to see whether this backward kingdom had anything to offer.
"Daddy, look at all those disgusting humans. Can I shoot them?" suddenly said one of Hannibal's sons, Rosward.
The fact that Hannibal had decided to name his son Rosward Rosward clearly demonstrated the lazy mentality of this Celestial Dragon. Rosward Rosward was his fourteenth child, and to him he held little value, since he would never inherit any important position within the branch of the Rosward family that Hannibal controlled.
Like so many other insignificant Celestial Dragons, Rosward Rosward would grow up like a pig in Mary Geoise, enjoying his wealth without ever aspiring to anything meaningful, with his only pleasure perhaps being the purchase of some high-value slave in the future.
Perhaps this was the only opportunity the young Celestial Dragon would ever have to descend into the lower world of humans to display his authority, since most Celestial Dragons never left their sacred land.
"Silence. Don't cause trouble," Hannibal said, paying no attention to his son.
Rosward lowered his head, somewhat irritated by his father's attitude, yet not daring to say anything about it, while thinking that in the future, when he had children of his own, he would treat them well, spoiling them greatly and giving them everything they wanted.
At last, the Celestial Dragons arrived at the port, disembarking from the Marine vessels that had transported them with great pomp and ceremony. King Ulrich Klein approached the acclaimed World Nobles and knelt before them without a shred of dignity, demonstrating his complete submission.
"Welcome, my gods," Ulrich said with his head bowed so low that it was practically touching the ground, showing no concern whatsoever for how he appeared in front of his own people.
Hannibal Rosward nodded slightly, feeling comfortable with the prudent actions of the king of this insignificant human kingdom, and with a wave of his hand indicated that he could rise, then ordered him to guide them to the royal castle, the only place in the entire kingdom remotely decent enough to be blessed with his presence.
King Klein wore a sycophantic expression, similar to the one the nobles of his own faction usually showed toward him, and led the Celestial Dragons to the castle, while the people continued to marvel at the arrival of these nobles of the World Government.
Once inside the castle, a grand banquet was set in motion, although the Celestial Dragons led by Hannibal Rosward were not particularly impressed by the delicacies presented by Ulrich and displayed expressions of boredom.
King Klein knew he could not allow the situation to continue like this, for otherwise he risked being eliminated by bored Celestial Dragons, so he immediately set in motion the plan he had been preparing for weeks.
"Your divinity… I know it is presumptuous of me to try to understand the desires of a superior being… but I believe the woman I have selected to offer you as a slave will be to your liking," Ulrich Klein said, pulling from his garments a portrait of Bianca that he had prepared beforehand.
Hannibal Rosward had not paid much attention to his words at first, but the moment he saw the beautiful woman depicted on the canvas, his eyes lit up and his desire to possess her took hold of him. Although he was one of the chosen gods of this world, he had not come into contact with many women of Bianca Vespa's level, for she possessed an abnormal beauty.
"Very well, I will accept your gift then. Bring this woman before me at once!" Hannibal said with a lascivious smile, as a noticeable bulge appeared beneath the astronaut suit he wore to avoid contaminating himself with the air of this lowly human world.
Ulrich's eyes shone like lanterns in the night with a malicious glint, while a triumphant smile spread across his face. Everything was proceeding according to plan, and now he only needed to take the final step.
"Hurry, go fetch Bianca Vespa and bring her before his excellency!" King Klein said, waving his hand and ordering his men to begin their act.
The soldiers immediately responded with a solemn salute and rushed off to carry out their orders, though in truth they had no intention of going to fetch Bianca at all. Although Ulrich Klein was a young, hedonistic, and lazy man, he possessed a certain talent for conspiracies and knew that if he truly sent them to retrieve Bianca from the Lysander mansion, he would only put them on their guard.
No, Klein's plan was far more macabre. He would simply pretend that his soldiers had failed to bring back the woman the Celestial Dragon desired, which would constitute an insult to them. Then, given the rumors about how these privileged individuals behaved, there would be no way for the Lysanders to escape the tragedy that would unfold.
While waiting for the soldiers to return so he could enact the final scene, Ulrich Klein approached the Celestial Dragons to continue flattering them and trying to appear as the most obedient dog possible. He knew full well that humiliating himself like this for a day or two could bring him great benefits in the future, the most important thing was avoiding Hannibal Rosward's wrath once Duke Lysander refused to hand over his wife.
Finally, after about twenty minutes that felt eternal, the soldiers returned as planned, having "failed" in their attempt to bring Bianca. They were covered in blood and bearing serious wounds, which made the scene appear all the more convincing.
"Your Majesty… Duke Lysander has refused to allow his wife to accompany us. He says he has no intention of bowing his head before false gods—ah!"
Bang!
Before he could continue speaking, the king shot his soldier in cold blood, his expression somber. This too was part of the performance he had planned, though he had not informed the soldier beforehand that he would have to sacrifice his life for the cause.
The other wounded soldiers trembled in terror, not daring to say a word, while Hannibal Rosward rose to his feet with an aggressive smile on his face.
"Take me to this so-called Duke Lysander. Today, I will make his lineage vanish from this world."
King Ulrich Klein displayed an expression of concern as he nodded solemnly and began guiding the Celestial Dragons, though inwardly he was smiling with delight, thinking that his plan had succeeded. A great tragedy was about to unfold within the Lysander territory.
…
"Hurry, you must escape from here at once!" said Francis Lavender, who had rushed to the scene to inform Mario that the Celestial Dragons were approaching.
Francis Lavender was the next leader of one of the most powerful noble families in the kingdom, a family that had been allied with the Lysanders for many generations. At present, Mario's sister was the wife of the third son of the current Lavender family head, who was Francis's father.
Francis and Mario had been friends since childhood, and they had even arranged a marriage between their two children, Paul and Lira, in order to continue the alliance between their families. Little Lira—who was only two years old at the time—was already living with the Lysanders, since it had been decided that the betrothed pair would be raised together.
The Lavenders' intelligence-gathering capabilities were slightly better than those of the Lysanders, though it was not the strong suit of either family, whose core lay in the military and in mining. Even so, Lavender spies within the palace had informed them that the Celestial Dragons were heading toward Mario's territory with hostile intent, which was why Francis had immediately come to warn his dear friend.
Mario did not want to flee and abandon everything his family had built over generations, but upon seeing the glow of flames consuming part of his land and drawing ever closer, he had no choice but to sigh bitterly and take the children with him to escape.
In addition to his two sons, Lolo and Paul, he also took little Lira with him, who had been raised in the Lysander household for a year. Francis had no objections to Mario taking his young daughter along, since by the traditions of their families, Lira was already considered part of the Lysander family.
Even so, Francis bid farewell to his two-year-old daughter with a kiss and watched as Mario fled at full speed with the three children, heading toward the hiding place where Bianca was taking refuge. With any luck, they would be able to leave the kingdom in time and avoid suffering a tragedy.