Chapter Text
Once, the world belonged to the dragons.
The world was united under their many tribes, and each tribe took a portion of the globe under their influence. Humanity, still in its natal stages as a population, served under the dragons as slaves.
However, one tribe of dragons, in taking pity on the humans below them, vowed to end the period of draconic dominance in favor of founding a peaceful future with both dragons and humans coexisting. Their view was not shared by all, though, and a massive war broke out between the factions.
The following war killed almost every dragon in the process, with those remaining taking on the form of humans to avoid conflict. These remaining dragons would come to be known as manaketes, and would soon fade into obscurity as the years grew long.
The domains of the dragons, colossal nameless landmasses, drifted apart from each other. It would be a rare event for any form of contact to pass between any two continents. Hundreds of years would pass before any form of civilization to contact would be created in those distant, disconnected lands.
In time, however, humanity built up their kingdoms and raised their flags over different territories. One continent in particular would be the forefront of activity on the planet...
Though such a word as activity would be putting it mildly. Three Empires once ruled over the land, claiming the south, the east, and the western reaches of the continent as their own. They were called Kibougamine, Novoselic, and Jabberwock respectively, after the dragons that fought for humanity in these regions and forever established themselves in the heart of the people.
The Empire of Kibougamine, however, had already broken apart under different kings in the eras directly after the period of warring dragons. These countries would be known as “The Kingdoms Of Hope's Peak”, after the legendary mountain range that embodied the border between them all.
Perhaps “The Kingdoms Of Despair” would have been a better pseudonym...
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Later on, Makoto would see the gathering of all three of them at the same time as some sort of predestined happening. At the time, though...
“Move, plebeian.”
At the time, Makoto just chalked it up to his terrible luck.
“A-ah?” He recoiled, his eyes darting up to where the voice was coming from. The man was atop a horse, with a thin blade resting by his side. He looked expectantly at Makoto, who had been going the opposite way as him. It seemed that Makoto was in his path, apparently. Truthfully, Makoto had not really been paying attention to where he was going... But who used words like plebeian, especially in a village like this? That, alongside his extravagent attire marked him clearly as a noble. Definitely someone Makoto should at least try to be cordial with. "I'm sorry, s-sir...?"
“Sir...?” The man looked askance, and then centered his sights back on Makoto. His entire being emanated a sort of superior nature. “... I am Byakuya Togami. Now, move.” He said his name as if it were some sort of warning. Makoto did as he asked without a second thought. He could somewhat recall hearing that name somewhere before, but decided just to put it behind him. These kinds of people, these nobles and dukes and such were always rude and terrible. This Byakuya person seemed to be no different. Despite thinking that from the start, Makoto still got a strange feeling from the noble... The type of feeling that said, “You will never be on par with me,” or something. Well, he was probably just passing through anyways. Nobody from outside stays in the village for long, usually. The man strode away on his horse, towards the outskirts of the village. Soon, he would be heading out through the woods and be on his merry way. As he left, Makoto couldn't help but think a singular thought out loud.
“Man, what a jerk.”
The village of Naegi was just some backwater town in the middle of nowhere. Not even the duke who owned the land it was on knew of its existence as anything more than tax revenue. It was completely unremarkable in almost every way. If anything, Makoto certainly felt that he represented his village perfectly. Each day it was the same thing. He would get up, work with the animals and tend to them while the... less frail members of his family did some of the harder work around the place. Then, if time allotted for it, he would go to the town square and waste time near the fountain and such. Really, he was just... Normal. Nothing about him was extraordinary, or even somewhat special. Just like the town itself.
Suddenly, he was shaken out of his thoughts by a thunderous sound, along with some sort of bright flash.
“Wha-! What was that...?” The world seemed to have broken apart in that split-second. Something just felt... Off. As if something terribly wrong had happened, and horrible events would unfold because of it. It was that sort of feeling, and Makoto couldn't shake it.
Makoto hastily looked towards the origin of the noise. It seemed to have come from... Directly behind him.
“Oh... Oh no...!”
The same direction that Byakuya Togami had gone. Makoto started sprinting.
He had to know what was going on. Something wasn't right. And besides, even if the guy was a jerk, Makoto wasn't the type of person to let anyone just up and explode.
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At the epicenter of where the explosion happened, was a girl. A light-purple haired girl cloaked in even more purple, lying unconscious in a massive crater. She looked... Like some sort of statue. As if she was simply a fabricated image of what she actually was. Her clothes looked foreign, though Makoto had never seen any cloak of that sort on any other travelers. Surprisingly, she looked to be completely unharmed in any way.
That was the first thing Makoto noticed, when he came upon the site of the sound. The second thing he noticed was that Byakuya was taking on almost an entire group of soldiers by himself. Just a few feet away from the pit was the man on his horse, facing off against an entire band of mercenaries.
And he was doing well. Makoto couldn't quite see him clearly from the distance he was at, but there were definitely quite a few bodies strewn about the floor.
There was no time for that, though. Makoto had to go and make sure that girl was alright. After all, she had probably just exploded. He started making his way down the crater to her, when he lost his footing and simply tumbled down the rest of the way.
“Wha- Oof!” Makoto yelped, as he fell face first next to the girl. That... Was going to hurt in the morning, that was for sure. He shook the thought out of his mind, focusing instead on the girl. She was breathing, which was a good start. Maybe he could wake her up or something? He... Probably wouldn't be able to carry her out on his own.
He probably should have focused somewhat on the battle happening around him as well. Another body flew into the crater with the two, a nameless grunt with merely a bronze sword to his name. Makoto didn't need to look twice to notice the blood trailing from his chest. This... This was horrible. People were dying. No matter what these people had done, they didn't need to die!
“Forget the lordling, grab the girl! Kill the boy if ya' have to!”
Although, getting this girl out of the crater in any way sounded like a pretty good idea right about now.
But...
“Hey, wake up! Miss! Umm... How am I going to get her out...? Is there- Hey, stop!” More soldiers started descending down towards the duo. Makoto, oblivious to the trouble he had involved himself in, called out to the men in an attempt to appeal to their better nature. “Please! You really don't want to do this, do you? You guys are better than- Hey!”
The nearest thug took a swing at him with his axe, while the other went to pick up the girl.
“Hey, that's not cool!” Makoto yelped, only to be silenced by another axe swung in his direction. These guys... They weren't going to listen to him, were they? Then...
The bronze sword from earlier lay by Makoto's feet, tempting him. That was why...
Makoto ducked the next swing, hastily grabbing the sword on his way down. The other thug was having a lot of trouble getting back out of the crater. He was going to be occupied for quite a while, it seemed like. Good... At least, The girl wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon.
The sword in his hand felt heavy. In no way did he feel good about this... But that girl was in danger. That Byakuya guy was in danger. He was in danger. No matter what, he would persevere. He would get through this, and find out just what was going on.
Makoto gripped the sword tighter in his hands, and faced directly towards the swing-happy brigand that kept attacking him. “We don't have to fight, you know... Just put the girl down and-” Another swing came down, Makoto narrowly avoiding the axe by a hair. Makoto sighed, and steeled his nerves one more time.
This was a life or death situation. It's not murder... It was not murder. Not... Murder...
He kept repeating this to himself, as he yelled out a battle cry and brought the borrowed sword against his assailant.
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