SETP Vol. 2 Prologue

Prologue

The war in the Afillis kingdom was over, but soon enough I — Fay Hanse Diestburg — saw myself accompanying my older brother Grerial to the “Kingdom of Water” Rinchelle, a country our Diestburg was closely related to.

The slothful lifestyle I was known for far and wide, which earned me the nickname of “Trash Prince”, was getting farther and farther away.

During our visit in Rinchelle Grerial and I had a private audience with the kingdom’s second prince, Welles May Rinchelle, who suddenly revealed his plans for invading another country.

According to what I heard when I happened to eavesdrop a hushed conversation between Welles and my brother Grerial, the invasion’s goal was to retrieve a medicinal herb called the “Rainbow Flower”. For that reason, waging war on the kingdom of Saldance, the only place where the flower bloomed, was unavoidable.

My brother Grerial seemed to support the idea of retrieving the flower, but the location where it bloomed was a den of monsters, like one you’d find in fairytales. Grerial apparently had no intention of taking me there, so the discussion proceeded without me.

Nevertheless, I trusted my instincts and decided to make my own preparations to help my brother.

“I don’t want those important to me to go to a dangerous place. I know how that feels, painfully so. But…it’s complicated.”

“…what are you talking about?”

I mumbled to myself while looking up at the silver-colored sky. The response came from the boy I had just met. He was a mercenary assigned to take care of the “store” I visited.

“I’m sure he doesn’t want me to get hurt, but for me too…no, nothing, never mind.”

Leaning against the filthy wall of the back alley, I had been speaking my thoughts aloud. When the boy’s reply made me realize it, I quickly changed the topic.

A few minutes had passed since I said that I would wait until the person I was looking for — a powerful merchant named Dvorg Tsarrich — arrived, and the boy curtly told me to do whatever I pleased. There was no actual conversation: time simply passed.

“I can only hope I’m worrying for nothing.”

My words were simply carried away by the wind.