Dawn of the Asius Army
If Anima were to name the brightest chapter of her life, it would be the days of her youth — the years she spent at Piviola Academy beside her dearest childhood friend.
"Yuuri!"
"Anima, you're here. How was today?"
"Academy life is academy life. Same as always."
Even among her peers, Yuuri was already something of a celebrity. Piviola Academy ranked among the three most prestigious academies in the Aingard Empire, and Yuuri — a prodigy of rare talent — was already counted among its most distinguished names. She was the sole daughter of the great House of Asius, and she never once treated Anima differently for her humble birth. Where Anima was little more than a soldier's daughter who could handle a sword, Yuuri was gifted in every direction. Simply being known as Yuuri's childhood friend was, for Anima, a source of immense pride.
"Yuuri. You've gotten even better."
"Thank you, Instructor Epinel."
Epinel Rosencross, a young instructor at the academy, was one of those who kept a particularly close eye on Yuuri.
"What do you say — want to study combat arts a little more seriously? The world seems to think you're destined to become one of the empire's great ministers, but from where I'm standing, your physical instincts aren't half bad either."
"I'm grateful for the offer, but I don't have much confidence when it comes to fighting."
"Is that so? Feels like you're being too modest to me… Well, if you ever change your mind, I'll back you all the way. Just say the word."
"Yes, ma'am!"
Then, one day, word arrived of the emperor's sudden and suspicious death. Having died without naming a successor, the entire nation was thrown into uneasy turmoil. And not long after that, news of a far more shocking kind reached Piviola Academy.
"They say Orlando Brans — once one of His Majesty's closest confidants — has raised a rebellion at Anel Castle?"
"What? Rebellion? Why the hell would he declare independence? Has he lost his mind and decided he wants to die?"
The news that Orlando Brans, a man who had effectively held power second only to the emperor himself, had taken up arms sent a fresh wave of unease through the academy. At the time, though, everyone assumed it was nothing more than a brief flare of unrest. Not a single soul recognized it for what it truly was — the opening shot of an age of chaos.
After all, even without a designated heir, wouldn't the eldest son, Algot von Aingard, simply take the throne, restore order, and quiet the turmoil before it could spread?
But the reports that followed were not of Algot's coronation. They were of an entirely different kind.
News of the Ohana forces rising in the south. News of the Walnut forces rising in the west. And beyond them, one after another, men who had held high office in the empire declared themselves feudal lords and raised their banners, each determined to carve out a nation of his own across the continent.
The beginning of the chaotic age. The Aingard Empire, which had once unified the entire continent, was fracturing beyond any hope of control.
And the flames of that chaos reached even here, to Piviola Academy. An imperial force of unknown command, fully armed, launched an assault on the academy itself.
Conspiracy theories swirled — that the headmaster had been aligned with Algot von Aingard, and that one of the other imperial siblings had ordered the academy purged to eliminate a rival faction — but Anima and Yuuri, mere students, had no way of knowing the truth.
No matter how gifted the academy's students, no matter how capable a handful of instructors might be, they could never stand against a properly trained imperial army. It was a one-sided massacre. The imperial soldiers began killing everyone enrolled at the academy — without regard for gender or rank.
"Yuuri! We have to run!"
"B-but… I still haven't found Seira…!"
"It's too late! We have to get out of here now!"
In that moment, a soldier in imperial armor began advancing toward them.
Damn it…!
There was no clear path of escape.
"St… stay back!"
Yuuri's cry drew no response. The soldier's bloodstained helm hid even his expression from view. Anima gripped her sword in her right hand and scanned the surroundings for any route of flight, staying close to Yuuri. Even two against one, they stood no chance of defeating him. Objectively speaking, neither of them was particularly skilled in combat.
At the very least, I have to make sure Yuuri can get away…!
The thought had barely formed, her grip tightening on the sword, when the imperial soldier's blade came at them with terrifying speed.
"Hngh—!"
They barely managed a few exchanges before Yuuri's weapon was sent flying.
"…!!!"
The soldier raised his sword high. Death flickered in the depths of Yuuri's eyes.
And in that instant—
"Yuuri!!!"
Anima threw herself forward on pure reflex.
After that, Anima had no idea what happened.
"Huh…?"
When her senses returned, the world before her eyes was rapidly fading. An impossible agony was flooding through her body. Beside her, Yuuri was clutching her and sobbing.
"Anima…! No — Anima…!!!!"
And watching over them both was their instructor, Epinel.
"Instructor Epinel…?"
"Are you with us, Anima?!"
Ah. Right. After I threw myself in front of her… not long after that, Instructor Epinel drove a deep wound into the soldier's gut. And before that…
Urgh…!!!
Pain surged through me again, and I slowly turned my head. My right arm — the arm that should have been holding a sword — was nowhere to be found. Or rather, more precisely: far off to the side, an arm lay discarded on the ground.
"…!!!!!"
What I thought after realizing that, looking back now, I can barely remember. Only fragmented scenes remain.
"First, let's get somewhere safe to hide! There should be medicine there too."
Instructor Epinel hid us for a time in a cellar deep beneath the academy buildings. There, with what little emergency treatment she could manage, we somehow survived without dying. That was all.
"Hic… Anima, I'm so sorry. Because of me… because of me."
"Yuuri…"
When she first lost her arm, Anima had wondered, honestly, how she was supposed to go on. But if the cost of that arm was Yuuri's life — then honestly, she could live with that.
"Anima. I'm sorry. This is all the treatment I can give you…"
"Please don't apologize, Instructor. You saved my life. Thank you."
They waited out the quiet. And when they finally emerged, what met their eyes was—
…Dear God.
The countless corpses of the academy's instructors and students, piled into mountains — a scene straight out of a painting of hell.
"Those damned Aingard bastards… What the hell is happening out there?!"
Epinel spat the curse in fury, but rage changed nothing. For reasons they would never fully know, Piviola Academy had been marked — and marked for elimination.
"Hic… everyone…"
Yuuri fell to her knees and wept for a long time. There were no other survivors.
They stood among the bodies in a daze, time slipping past them — until a voice cut through the silence.
"Lady Yuuri!"
From a distance, a woman and a man were hurrying toward them.
"Emma… Ernandof…!"
"You're alive, Lady Yuuri…"
Emma and Ernandof. Faces Anima knew as well. Retainers of House Asius — that much was certain.
"What about home? My father… and my mother?"
"…"
At Yuuri's question, Emma and Ernandof could only lower their heads in silence. Understanding what that silence meant, Yuuri's eyes went blank, and she collapsed to the ground once more.
"…Ah… ah."
And so, in a single moment, Anima and Yuuri lost everything. The quiet daily life they had taken for granted. The fruits of their efforts. Ordinary happiness. All of it was swept away in the empire's karmic fire.
In the days that followed—
"Yuuri."
"Anima… hic, hngh…"
Every time she looked at Anima, Yuuri's face crumpled with sorrow, and she could do nothing but weep. Was it guilt over the arm that was gone? Or pity for the two of them, who had been helplessly swept along by the current of history? They could accomplish nothing on their own, surviving only by clinging to Emma and Ernandof for the bare necessities of life.
Anima, for her part, knew they could not go on like this. House Asius had been dealt a near-fatal blow, but Yuuri — who carried its blood — was still alive, and two of its retainers had survived as well. Nearly everyone at the academy was dead, but three of them remained: Anima herself, Instructor Epinel, and Yuuri.
Five survivors. They had lived. And they would have their revenge on the empire.
In an age when feudal lords were rising in every corner of the land, they had Yuuri — the rightful heir of House Asius. If others could do it, why couldn't they?
"Yuuri."
"…"
"Snap out of it, Yuuri!"
Anima seized the sniffling girl by the collar with her left hand.
"How long are you going to sit here like this?!"
"B… but, Anima… you — because of me, you… hic."
"If you're truly sorry, then stop sitting here and move forward."
"…What?"
"We're going to found a nation. With your own two hands."
At those words, Yuuri's eyes went wide and empty. Anima did not look away from those trembling pupils. She held her gaze, pouring into those two eyes every ounce of the hunger that had carried her through everything she had lived — and everything she had survived.
"The Aingard Empire is finished. You've seen it yourself — countless lords carving the land into pieces. A new age has begun."
"I… I can't—"
"Yuuri. We can do this. No — let me say it properly."
Anima cast her mind back. The easy, peaceful days at the academy. It was time to step out of that unreachable dream.
"You can do this."
"Me…?"
"And—"
From that moment on, Anima Ingram entrusted her fate to the childhood friend standing before her.
Even as Anima drew forth those memories — now little more than stories of the distant past — she spoke as though every moment still stood vivid before her eyes.
"Yuuri. Epinel. Emma. Ernandof. And myself… five of us. From that moment on, we became siblings bound by blood, beyond age and station — and each of us carved the name of Asius into our hearts."
That was the dawn of the Asius Army.