Legacy of the Kingdom

With Pandragon broken and Dark Armor's conquest of the whole continent within reach, the Empire poisons itself from the top. Two figures matter here.

Karl Steiner, the Black Prince — the Empire's crown prince and unstoppable champion. He fights behind a black helmet, so almost no one alive knows his bare face — a detail that looks trivial now and turns out to be the hinge of the entire saga.

Beradin, the Imperial Chancellor — outwardly the Black Prince's right hand. Secretly, he engineers the prince's assassination together with the prince's own fiancée, Irene Sardes: as Steiner returns from a tour of Gratias, Beradin's agents blow his airship out of the sky near Bifrost at an altitude of 3,000 metres. The Black Prince falls and disappears; Beradin tells the world he has "gone into seclusion," seizes real power, and turns the Empire's energy away from conquest toward a strange obsession — collecting ancient ruined statues and exploring ruins. So the conqueror everyone fears is already gone, and the Empire is now run by the man who betrayed him.

The survivors of fallen Pandragon take refuge in Dagal, a Silver Arrow member state, and form a government in exile. Two siblings carry it.

Iyolin Pandragon — the eldest daughter, who takes command of the resistance and its order of Holy Knights. Age 23 at the story's opening, 174 cm tall. Her grief hardened into a vow of vengeance so absolute the Imperial army came to fear her as "Lady Vengeance" (Nemesis). Underneath the armour she is far gentler than she lets anyone see — before the war she was a shy, sweet girl — and she deliberately walls that part of herself away.

Lacid Pandragon — the youngest prince and now effectively the heir. At this stage he is the opposite of his sister: timid, overprotected, untested. Everything that follows transforms him; right now, he is the person the resistance is trying not to lose.

The Paladin Order learns that the Scepter of Glory is being transported to the Empire, and sets out for Moonshade Forest to reclaim it. Along the way they run into a goblin horde — a detour that costs them time before they even reach the Imperial convoy. Iyolin is displeased that Lacid, still just a child, has to stand on the battlefield at all, but the operation can't be stopped for his sake.

The raiding party: Durant Rembrandt — Paladin Captain, a benchmark swordsman and the veteran spine of the order. Siren Woodvile, Locarno Stanley, Kevin Hastings — Paladins of the Holy Knights. Cindy Roseley — a Paladin with blue pigtails and freckles; a particularly close friend of Lacid's. Haya Belle — Royal Wizard and a prized disciple of Cameo Beaufort, head of the Pandragon Royal Magic Corps. Koon Greer and Michael are her fellow disciples under Cameo — classmates, not master and student. Cameo divided the legendary Triple Elemental Blast technique across the three: fire to Haya, lightning to Michael, ice to Koon Greer.

Arriving at Moonshade, the Paladins ambush the Imperial convoy as planned and reclaim the Scepter. Durant argues that further fighting is meaningless and suggests a retreat, but Iyolin — already earning the name Lady Vengeance — orders the remaining Imperial remnants eradicated instead, pushing herself harder than usual to see it through. Shortly after, a monk named Dennis appears and witnesses the Scepter; a small detail the game plants about who knows what and when.

As the Paladin Corps makes its way back toward Dagal, the Imperial Seven Knights — Vincent Bernstein and Kashutar Gunther — spring what looks like a trap, forcing the Paladins to abandon a breakthrough attempt and flee toward the neutral nation of Bifrost instead.

Kashutar Gunther — a relentless member of the Seven Knights and an apprentice to Karls Brandt. When his force catches sight of Iyolin, he remarks on her beauty in a tone that reads as ominous rather than admiring, before issuing orders to take her. His pursuit is personal as well as professional.

Vincent Bernstein — Captain of the Seven Knights and the trap's architect, but also its safety valve: he does not actually want to report success back to Beradin, so this dangerous-looking chase is one he's planned to end in the Paladins' escape rather than their capture. He is the honourable face of an empire that does not deserve one.

Rain begins to pour as the flight continues; sensing an opportunity in the weather, Iyolin quickens the pace and leaves May Plain behind — still believing, wrongly, that safety is just a matter of reaching Bifrost, when in fact the whole route is part of Vincent's plan. Just as they escape the Seven Knights, the Imperial Dark Mage Corps appears — a separate threat outside Vincent's control, forcing him to commit more troops of his own even as he's still trying to let the Paladins go. Also encountered and defeated in this running fight: the Imperial dark wizards Adele and Swanhilda.

It costs them. Just before breaking free, Kevin Hastings is struck down by a Geysir soldier's attack. Knowing that trying to save him could put the whole Corps in jeopardy, Iyolin makes the painful call to leave him behind — believed dead by his own comrades. He isn't: taken prisoner rather than killed, he turns up alive among the rescued captives during the Castle Cutis hostage rescue in Chapter 9.

The fugitives break free of Moonshade's aftermath in a driving rain, carrying the recovered Scepter north — with nowhere left to go but the cold neutral duchy of Bifrost, no idea yet who they'll meet there, and one comrade short of who they started with.