In Eden, there existed a group known as the Schutzafel. They were the King's right-hand men, his sword and shield. It was through their power that the land of Eden had managed to become the most powerful region on earth. The mere mention of their names put trepidation into the hearts of most people outside the land of Eden.
To the people of Eden, the Schutzafel were heroes. To those outside Eden, they were the most evil humans to have ever existed, vile war criminals.
Sixteen years ago, Vartravius Genesia, the ruler of Eden, intended to hold the yearly anniversary of his coronation. It was intended to be broadcast across the continent, as it was every year.
On the reserved day, the King stood on the balcony of his castle for all of Eden to see. In his hand was a golden sword, and in front of him was an emerald stone, presumably where the sword would be placed into.
Most of the population was somewhat confused. This wasn't something they'd seen him do before, but they assumed it had some special meaning behind it.
Suddenly, the King's head fell from his body, and behind him was the leader of the Schutzafel. The man who commanded his right-hand force had just taken his head.
The cavalryman had been slain by his horse.
This series of events resulted in public outrage for some, while most others were simply left staring in horror.
Before the eyes of the entire continent, their King had been murdered.
In that moment, seven rainbows of light shot forward from the top of the castle to the sky. It broke the veil that divided Eden from the rest of the world and had taken the leader of the Schutzafel, Mephistoles, with it. The other six rainbows were believed to have contained the other members of the Schutzafel.
Using this chance, the allied nations invaded Eden and began the massacre of over nine million people.
Eden had been too slow to react. It was as though the outside world was waiting for it, waiting for an opening to destroy them.
Eden fell, and the Tripartite Alliance proceeded to execute the forerunners of the previous King's regime as criminals.
They had branded them sinners and put them to death for their crimes against humanity.
The rest of the world had an ever-burning desire to eliminate all those who were not considered human. The previous King, Alveron, saw eye to eye with them on that matter, though he intended to go a step further.
After Vartravius took his throne, they were globally humiliated and rejected. They waged war with him and quickly fell to the threat of annihilation. The group he commanded, the Schutzafel, was something beyond their comprehension.
There was no longer anything they could do.
But that period was long gone.
Eden no longer had them anymore. Fate had switched sides.
Mephistoles, Nero the Cardinal of Gluttony, Pharaoh the Second, Eve the Devil's Advocate, the Beyonder, Thessaly of Dreams, and Cain the Murderer.
Someone, somewhere, had successfully managed to curb the threat they held.
The Land of the Moon, the Land of the Sun, and the Holy Olympian Empire couldn't care less how it happened. An opportunity had shown itself, and they took it.
.....
"Yaaah, that was a close one." Elisa heaved a sigh of relief. Her heart rate was still elevated from her risky gamble a few moments ago.
She looked around and saw Wafer staring as if he'd just seen a ghost.
"Just for the record, I'm going to ask: are you really the real Elisa?"
"Of course. More importantly," she turned towards Morian, "you really are Sir Mephistoles..."
"Mephistoles?" Wafer was left confused.
She hurriedly brought something out from her pocket. It seemed to be a folded book of some sort.
"Please, could you sign this?"
"What's that?" Morian asked.
"Oh right, I didn't give you a pen. Silly me."
She began ransacking her pockets looking for one.
Wafer moved close to Morian and began whispering in his ear.
"Seems like she's some kind of obsessed fangirl. Also, is your name Mephistoles?"
"The answer to both your questions is yes."
"There, found it." She pointed the pen towards him.
Morian drew his signature on the cover of her book. He wanted to give it to her but decided to hold on to it and go through the contents.
"Chapter 1. Oh? The Adventures of the Schutzafel? This is Vartra's handwriting. When did he write this?"
"You didn't know? My father kept a diary about all of you guys. He said all seven of you helped him take over the world."
"Helped him take over the world?" Nogartha and Wafer exclaimed at the same time. They clearly had some questions.
Wafer jerked his head towards Nogartha.
"I'm sure someone would have definitely told me eventually, but who's that?"
"Oh, her? She's Nogartha." Elisa went over and held her shoulder. "She's the one who helped me come all the way here."
Morian squinted his eyes before exclaiming in a slow manner, "I remember you."
"It's an honor, Sir Mephistoles." She bowed in front of him.
"Out with it," he sighed. "I don't go by Mephistoles anymore. My name's Morian now."
"Sad," Nogartha began speaking. "I always thought Sir Mephistoles had the coolest name among the Schutzafel."
"Weren't both of you like five? How did you end up becoming fangirls of criminals?"
"They're not criminals," Nogartha and Elisa said at the same time.
"Hmmm? Eve opened a box she received from the devil and brought forth suffering into the world. Thessaly haunts people's dreams. Nero used thousands of people as human research materials. Pharaoh thought he was a god. The Beyonder killed millions of people. I don't see how they aren't criminals."
"Prove it," Nogartha and Elisa again said at the same time.
"What do you mean, prove it?" Wafer asked in confusion. "I mean, everyone knows the legends, right? How exactly do you..."
"Correction—myths. They are myths," Elisa interrupted him.
Nogartha carried on in her stead. "As the old saying goes, you don't know what you can't prove, and you can't prove what you don't know."
"Let's ask him then."
"Ask who?" Nogartha snapped at him.
Wafer pointed at the brown-haired teenager in front of them.
Elisa was the first to speak up. "Sir Mephistoles... I mean, Sir Morian, did the Schutzafel really do all those evil things?"
"I don't know."
"What?" This time all three of them exclaimed in unison.
"I wasn't with them all their lives, so I can't really vouch for what's true or not true about them. Though I do know everything about them, I'm not exactly clear on their past history."
Elisa brought her face closer to his. "And you didn't want to know? I mean, these are the most intriguing people in history, and you didn't ask them about themselves?"
"Hold on," Nogartha chimed in. "You make it sound like he's some average guy. He's their leader, remember?"
"I know, but compared to the others, he's less mysterious. The others just feel like they have too many untold stories to them."
"Um, excuse me. Sorry for interrupting this session of grown women fawning all over a teenage..."
"He's not a teenager! This is an ancient spell belonging to Nero. He's able to reverse time for a body or an object. He's the one who made Sir Mephistoles—um, sorry, Sir Morian—look like a child."
"Wow, you even know ancient spells of some guy you've never seen."
"I've been thinking. You really do have a loud and sharp mouth, Wafer boy. How did you end up in close proximity with Sir Morian? Surely this must be the kind of fortune that blesses the poor after the results of decades of prayers."
"Huh? Who are you calling poor? Oi, Morian, who's this bitch anyway?"
Nogartha gasped. "Are kids these days so uncouth? And watch it, that's Sir Morian to you."
"Alright, calm down, everyone," Morian finally intervened. "Nogartha, was it? She'll be staying in Pandora's Box for a while. A lot of really shady people are going to be after her. If she strolls off on her own, we'll figure it out eventually. In the meantime, there's something I'm not clear about."
"How did you find me?"
"Oh, that. I didn't. Sixteen years ago, one of the people in the castle was ordered by my father to take me to an orphanage. At least, that's what I think, or they were just a really good person. I—"
"They?" Wafer asked. "You didn't see their face?"
Elisa replied with a somewhat embarrassed smile. "I forgot."
"Stop interrupting, you cretin," Nogartha spat. "Continue."
"He left me a book. It contained many things, and for some reason I was the only one who could read the contents..."
"Ahhh!" Nogartha exclaimed. "I know that spell. It's when—"
"Be silent," Wafer shot back. "Continue, Princess."
"He described how he met Sir Morian, how Sir Morian was able to sense a magic circle on the ground. He also wrote how the King's Order would manifest in me on my twenty-first birthday and instructed me to do the same as he did all those years ago. He described the location of the Forest of Silence and the cave. I was to activate the magic circle on the ground and wait for Sir Morian to come. Once he was in a certain proximity to me, I would feel it."
"How does the King's Order work anyway?" This time it was Morian's turn to ask a question.
"I don't know. I guess you just have to want to order the receiver, I guess."
"Makes sense. I didn't actually intend to rip that guy's arm off."
"You ripped some guy's arm off?"
Nogartha replied cockily, "Yeah, some dude that called himself Leopold."
"Reopold," Elisa remarked.
"Yeah, yeah. He was the one that Sir Morian was talking about."
"I'd imagine the fear almost killed you."
"It kind of almost did," Elisa joked.
"Only because you started talking weird. What the hell did you mean by 'go right ahead'?"
"Tee hee." Elisa stuck her tongue out. "I just wanted to look cool, I guess. Hehe."
A groaning sound was heard at the corner of the tavern. A large black bag began moving on its own. A young girl in typical sleeping wear and disheveled red hair had just gained consciousness. Her name was Narvaya Zelinski.
She was Zelinski's daughter.
"Who's that?" Elisa asked.
"She's the daughter of a wine merchant we rescued. I mean, Wafer rescued."
Nogartha began speaking. "I feel like I'm following two timelines of events here. What exactly happened before now?"
Elisa leaped in a sudden burst of excitement. "I see what you mean. So, a few hours ago I began telling people my name is Elisa Genesia. As for why I didn't tell you—well... wait, did I?"
"Don't think you did."
"Well, I needed the higher-ups in Eden to send some people after me. Once I used the King's Order to summon Sir Morian, I'd swiftly defeat—or rather, Sir Morian would swiftly defeat—my attackers, sending a message to them, and basically everything played out the exact same way I thought it would."
Wafer began muttering, "Well, you can definitely see why King Vartravius made the King's Order wait till you're twenty-one to be activated. Not that it made any difference."
"What was that?"
"Nothing."
"He's saying you're reckless, and he's right. You could have gotten yourself killed," Morian said calmly.
"As my father used to say, all's well that ends well."
The red-haired girl suddenly stood up.
"Morian!" she exclaimed and ran towards him.
"Narvaya!" He welcomed her with open arms.
"It's been a while. I thought you were dead."
"How optimistic of you," Morian said sarcastically.
She gently escaped his grasp and began looking around.
"What is this place? Who are these guys... wait, are we flying?" She tried to go outside but was held back by Morian.
"I wouldn't do this if I were you."
"You'd never get anything done if you were me," she shot back.
Elisa and Nogartha both headed over to Wafer and began whispering.
"Who's she?"
"The daughter of a wine merchant that seems to have some sort of strange obsession with Morian."
"A crush? How old is she?" asked Elisa.
"I believe she just turned eighteen a few months ago."
Morian turned towards them. "What are the three of you whispering about?"
"Nothing!" they all yelled.
"By the way, where's Dad?"
It was Wafer's turn to speak up.
"About that.... They've all been kidnapped. Everyone in the village below is, and the Unterdorf village has vanished."
"How'd you know?" she asked.
"When we came here, we saw signs of elf attacks, but those were obviously from months ago. Morian told me to go look for a place that looked like kidnapped people could be hidden there. For some reason, he thought someone inside the village was missing. He instructed me to refuse if Zelinski offered to accommodate me in his house and asked me to look for his daughter because she was close by. I found her and stole her."
"Were the kidnappers Holy Knights or elves?"
"Holy Knights."
All three of them had their mouths open in agape.
"You stole from a Holy Knight!" the three of them shouted out loud.
"You shouldn't underestimate him," Morian spoke up. "If there's anything he's good at, it's stealing. He might as well be the best thief in the world."
"I'm not at all surprised," Nogartha mocked.
"I mean, you definitely were a few seconds ago," Wafer chided her back.
Nogartha suddenly thought of something and voiced her complaint.
"How exactly did you realize she was being held hostage? Intuition?"
"Ever since Elisa revealed herself to me and Wafer, we began being watched. I had a feeling my real identity as Mephistoles had become a subject of discussion, but I decided to ignore it. After reaching the village, I sensed animosity towards me and realized something was off. Even more so, Narvaya didn't come out to see me. She could always tell when I'd come around. Not seeing her come out was strange. She was the type of person to do a certain thing she wanted to do even if the world was burning, so her not coming out was extremely weird.
The people watching didn't take the liberty to attack me in the open, probably because they feared I was actually Mephistoles. As for how they reached that conclusion, I have no idea, but they probably weren't certain and needed to test the waters.
So, as expected, Zelinski came out to meet me and invited me to his house, which was out of character. Wafer followed my instructions and refused, but I followed him inside. This was obviously a plan to put me in a target position. If I was Mephistoles, I'd survive. If I wasn't, I'd die.
Unlucky for them, Zelinski did his best to make it obvious, though, and the assassination attempt failed. I pretended to ask about Narvaya's whereabouts so he didn't inform them about Wafer trying to find her. My assassin, that is. He probably ignored Wafer because they viewed him as an unnecessary small fry that could be taken care of later.
Then the King's Order activated, and you know the rest."
Wafer took over from him.
"As I stole her, I noticed an impending teleportation circle on the ground and rushed back to the tavern. We went airborne. I don't know how, but somehow they had rigged everywhere with it and activated all of them at the same time."
"He has a sharp sense, huh?" Nogartha thought.
"I waited for Morian."
"The teleportation circle led here, as it did sixty-two years ago, so all three of us appeared here. Speaking of which, Narvaya, do you remember your kidnappers' faces?"
"Nope. As far as I can remember, I'm just waking up now. Though I'm highly positive I was drugged. So you're saying my dad's been kidnapped by elves?"
"Yup. We kind of go way back, so don't worry, we'll save him."
Narvaya wrapped her arms around herself and twirled in excitement.
"If it lets me see the captain of the Schutzafel in action, then I'll endure anything."
"She knows?" Nogartha questioned.
"She was the second person I revealed my identity to after the disbandment of the Schutzafel. Even her dad doesn't know."
"Who was the first?"
"Yours truly," Wafer said proudly.
"Tch." Nogartha looked away.
"Now then, now then, now then, we'll be going to save the citizens of Eden."
"So that's what this is, an adventure," Nogartha muttered.
"Call it that if you like, Nogartha."
She reflexively smiled at Morian using her name.
"We're going to Elvia."