Dragon Slayer

After Prince Karl Styner of the Geysir Empire suddenly went into seclusion, Chancellor Beradin became regent and began ruling the empire as he pleased. Under Beradin's command are the Four Heavenly Kings, a group of the Empire's most skilled individuals, with Karls Brandt as their undisputed leader. Many whisper and point fingers at Karls, who once served the Black Prince and is now Beradin's closest confidant — but Karls simply and silently carries out Beradin's orders.

Karls prepares to head to a newly discovered ruin — a pyramid out in the desert — as per Beradin's command, but he seems unusually lost in thought, as if something is weighing on his mind.

Karls visits Trisis on this mission from Beradin, where he meets Kasim, the desert's Great Chieftain and one of the Empire's Seven Knights — not a new acquaintance, but an old comrade the two of them fought alongside many times in the past, including together at the Battle of Gratias. After a brief reunion, Kasim scolds Karls for his loyalty to Beradin, but Karls decides it's best to drop the subject and end the conversation.

Kasim tells Karls the location of the God of Destruction statue and says there's a reason he called Karls there, warning him about a troublesome "Guardian" protecting it — but after seeing the Guardian for himself, Karls thinks this is something Kasim could easily have handled alone, and grows suspicious.

Karls and Kasim finally arrive at the statue's location. As Kasim quietly gazes at it, he remarks that Beradin surely doesn't have the leisure to go around collecting statues like this, and wonders what he's up to. Karls brushes off the question, saying that His Excellency must have his reasons. As they prepare to transport the statue, a giant golem appears and blocks their path.

As Karls and Kasim emerge from the pyramid, an Imperial soldier waiting outside delivers a message: Beradin is waiting for Karls at the oasis. Karls immediately heads there. Watching him go, Kasim is troubled, wondering how his old comrade ended up as Beradin's right-hand man.

Upon arriving at the oasis, Karls receives Beradin's order to assassinate Bernstein — Bernstein having been secretly meeting with Arcia, leader of the Cutis Resistance, and suspected of plotting anti-Empire activities. After Beradin leaves, Hanzo appears and asks Karls if he really intends to kill Bernstein. Karls replies that he never intended to kill Bernstein in the first place — instead, he asks Hanzo to disguise a fake corpse as Bernstein and help the real Bernstein escape.

The staged "assassination" plays out publicly in the next chapter — the truth behind it, laid out here, is known to the reader well before it's known to Cutis.