Prologue: He Who Bore the Weight of the Crossed Azure Swords

I

Orsted, Capital of the Asvelt Empire

A fifteen-minute walk south from Listelein Castle, seat of Emperor Ramza XIII, the imposing district—with its thick, towering stone walls ringed by a deeply hewed moat—came into view. Crossing the great drawbridge to the other side of those walls, however, revealed a different world altogether. There stood a fountain encircled by the statues of six black lions gushing crystal clear water, and many statues carved in the likenesses of the gods. Anyone who stood there couldn’t help but be enchanted. Shops selling luxury goods and brightly colored mansions lined the streets of polished stone in neat rows that crossed through Nordrheim—the district of Orsted that allowed only the most elite of the Asvelt nobility to reside there.

Right in the center of the district was a grand estate, its garden blanketed by flowers as pure and cold as the driven snow—the rare winter rose. This estate, which everyone called the Winter Rose House, was owned by one of the Three Generals of the empire—the commander of the elite Azure Knights. This was the home of Felix von Sieger.

The year was Tempus Fugit 999 and winter was approaching. The veil of night settled over the Sieger estate, where the snow continued to cover everything in a blanket of white as it had since the early morning hours. Warm light filtered from the house’s windows, casting a band of scarlet-tinged amber across the ground. From far above, the moon cast its light on the snow to make the whole landscape shine in dazzling silver. Silence reigned in this unspoiled world. Every now and then snow would spill out of a tree, only to be carried away on the breeze. It was like a dream.

Inside the manor, two people sat in the lavishly decorated dining room eating dinner. The first, fine-featured and perfectly proportioned, was Felix. On the occasions where he appeared at balls or dinner parties, he set all the ladies of the nobility sighing and gazing at him with dreamy eyes without fail. The second was a young woman, with features just as beautiful as Felix’s, though she was slighter in build. She had just celebr