The Holy Vittoria Empire, once great in extension and glory. In its maximum splendor, it had almost the entire human race under its control, and its territory came to occupy a large part of the new continent.
Among its many glories, are the destruction of the great Mazoku kingdom, as well as the expulsion of the Djin from the mainland.
However, in the absence of a common enemy against which to fight, as well as the mediocrity shown by their emperors in times of peace, led to the Holy Empire, a long period of successive civil wars.
Little by little, the Holy Empire was losing control over its own territories, which proclaimed its total autonomy.
The turning point for the Holy Empire came with the loss of the city of Saint Minerva, which deprived him of the title of "Holy", marking the end of an era.
With only 15 territories over which hardly and exerts a symbolic power, at present, the Vittoria Empire, is sustained solely thanks to a delicate balance of power between the low and the high nobility.
Like the rest of the imperial territories, a family of noble blood, the Ludenhaus, governs the Duchy of Luden.
Located on the east coast of the new continent, and under the historical weight of being the first city founded by humans in it, the city of Luden enjoys an enviable beauty throughout the empire.
As if this were not enough, in the center of the city, shines what said to be the most beautiful building in the world the 'Great White Palace'. A beautiful and complex structure that has its own walls, huge white towers, beautiful corridors decorated with hand-carved columns, a masterpiece built centuries ago by men and semi elves.
As old as the very presence of humans on the new continent, the city of Luden, with its tall, thick walls clad in ancient magic could be, considered impregnable, of not having an enormous weakness. Towards the sea, the city is not walled, weakness used centuries ago by Vittoria to conquer it.
In the center of this ancient city, in the courtyards of the white palace, a quite usual scene is born.
"Come on, do not lose the rhythm!"
As every day, early in the morning, Ernest Ludenhaus intensely trained a small group of children.
"You will not have breakfast until you complete two hundred repetitions!"
The loud announcement shook each of the children lightly. Even when they were used to such severity, today's training seemed harder than usual.
Driven by hunger and the desire to finish quickly, the children increased the speed of movement of the heavy practice swords in their hands.
Even if the training regimen was so simple, like carrying the sword from the bottom up, and from one side to the other, the weight of it was such that it seemed to increase with each repetition.
The reason for such heavy training, in children no older than ten years old, was actually quite simple, noble blood. Without distinction between low and high nobility, males are push to the limit to maintain or improve the status of their families.
Under Ernest's stern gaze, most of the children though visibly exhausted, kept up the pace. Being the exception to this, one of the children showed traces of absence of conscience in his eyes, and his hands, while still moving, were unable to carry the heavy sword beyond the height of his shoulders.
"Raymond, it does not matter if it takes you all day to complete the morning training, you will not taste a bite until you complete it!"
On the verge of losing consciousness altogether, Raymond returned to reality by Ernest's harsh warning.
Some faces of sorrow and others of mockery, showed themselves in the rest of the children before the disgrace of Raymond.
Usually, morning training consisted only of performing fifty repetitions, even so, Raymond, with great difficulty, was barely able to complete it.
Therefore, before the huge and sudden increase in repetitions, no one had the slightest hope that Raymond, managed to realize the training today.
Unable to respond due to exhaustion, Raymond focused completely on carrying out the training.
Unable to make another movement, Raymond collapsed on the ground, before the mockery of his companions and the anger of Ernest.
"Keep going!"
At the cry of Ernest, the rest of the group continued with the training.
"Raymond, you are a complete shame for the Ludenhaus! I do not care if you die trying, you will continue until the training today! "
After those words, Ernest, abruptly lifted Raymond, forcing him to continue.
Raymond Ludenhaus ten years old, despite carrying a prestigious and important last name, treated severely by the vast majority of people around him.
Several minutes later, the vast majority of children finished the training, and then retired for breakfast; the exception to this was of course, Raymond.
Left behind by both his teammates and Ernest, Raymond is barely able to stand up to complete the hundred repetitions.
Unable to continue to reach the limit of his strength, Raymond collapsed once more, completely losing consciousness.
Lying on the courtyard of the great white palace and despite being in sight of a large number of people, nobody rushed to help Raymond.
The nobles looked with contempt on weakness, and commoners, they hated the nobles. There would not even be a pity, for the little boy lying unconscious under the hot summer sun.
After almost an hour of lying unconscious on the floor, a bucket of cold water awakened Raymond.
"You're really sorry, Ray, it's not long before they start dad's lessons."
With a certain degree of worry and disappointment in her voice, a little girl came up to Raymond, Diana Von Ludenhaus, ten years old like Raymond, and part of the high nobility.
"I ... I'm sorry, Diana."
"If you really feel it, then try harder."
Despite his harsh words, Diana extended her hand to help Raymond to his feet.
"I hid some food for you under your bed, hurry up before dad's classes begin."
After saying those words, Diana left, leaving the exhausted Raymond behind.
Following Diana's directions, Raymond went to his room, to find a piece of bread, and some soup under his bed. Driven by hunger, Raymond began to devour that little food desperately.
"I knew I would find you here, whenever you fail in training, someone hides food for you under your bed."
Violently, a visibly annoyed woman entered the room and then with a strong slap, knocking down the bowl of soup from Raymond's hands.
"You are a complete useless, an embarrassment to the Ludenhaus. Not only do you not have aptitude for magic, you are not even able to follow a simple physical workout. "
That angry woman was Aurelia Ludenhaus, Raymond's strict mother.
"You're probably so useless, because of your father's blood. Go to your classes and at least, try to stay on your feet this time. "
Visibly disgusted with her own son, Aurelia, she turned around to leave.
The Ludenhaus were one of the oldest noble families not only of the Empire, but also of the same continent. Even so, his greatness had seen better times and lack of resources, the previous Duke of Luden, had married his daughter Aurelia, with a wealthy merchant.
After the birth of Raymond, his father, he had died at the hands of bandits, during one of his business trips.
Given the many quarrels between the nobles and the merchant league, the goods left behind by Raymond's father, did not pass entirely into the hands of his mother, if not remained in the hands of the league, until Raymond, reached enough age to make use of these.
Without aptitude for magic and with a mediocre physical capacity, the existence of Raymond within the Ludenhaus house was a great shame, tolerable only by the great quantity of goods, to which the family would have access in the future.
With the little protection of the Ludenhaus, Raymond it was constantly mistreated by minor nobles, who envied his surname, as well as by simple servants, who retaliated against their hatred of the nobles in him.
The only people who tried to help him, though discreetly, were Diana and Lucretia Von Ludenhaus, the only two daughters of the current Duke, his mother's older brother. In addition, there was also Leonard Ludenhaus, son of Ernest, who occasionally offered him some help with his stalkers, this, most likely out of pity.
In spite of the hard life he had led up to now, Raymond was a child with a heart full of kindness, he loved the company of animals and, whenever possible, he escaped from the palace, towards the outskirts of the city.
"Brother, this is quite worrying."
With a surprised expression on his face, Ernest addressed those words to his older brother.
"Those Urbeckhaus bastards, how dare they try to put their dirty hands on my daughters?"
Deep inside the palace of the Ludenhaus, Ernest Ludenhaus and his older brother, Adolf Von Ludenhaus, Duke of Luden, were discussing some information obtained by some of his spies.
As every year, for the great birthday party of the emperor, each duke, should attend the celebration or at least, send someone from his family in representation.
Since this meeting also served to negotiate and establish marriages between the nobles, Duke Ludenhaus, planned to send his two daughters accompanied by his younger brother, Ernest.
Fortunately, within two days of the trip, the Duke's spies had discovered a plan of kidnapping. Those who were behind that cowardly plan were none other than the archenemies of the Ludenhaus, the Urbeckhaus lords of the Duchy of Urbeck.
Unlike the thriving maritime trade and good agricultural land of Lúden, Urberck was located in a wooded area, with few tracts of arable land. Because of this, the Urbeckhaus had tried for generations to seize the prosperous lands of the Ludenhaus.
Of all the actions carried out by the Urbeckhaus, this was undoubtedly the most vile and despicable. With the daughters of Duke Ludenhaus in their hands, they could from demanding the delivery of land, to force a marriage.
Despite knowing the intentions of their enemies, the plans to carry out the kidnapping were unknown.
Canceling the trip was out of the question and increasing the number of guards, could not be enough, as well as counterproductive, given that the Urbeckhaus, could have a plan to attack Luden.
This was the kind of scenario, which was causing great headaches to Duke Ludenhaus.
"What if we hire mercenaries to increase the guard of the city?"
Faced with the difficult situation of the Ludenhaus family, Ernest, more driven by haste than by reason, exclaimed that idea.
"The mercenaries are not so reliable, as to escort my daughters, or to put in their hands the security of the city."
The irritation was visible in Duke Ludenhaus, canceling the trip, after having confirmed the attendance of his family to this event, would cause a huge loss of prestige before the emperor and the other nobles.
"Brother, there is a Ludenhaus that we can send without worry."
With a mischievous smile on his face, Ernest found a twisted exit for his brother's predicament.
"I guess there's no other choice, we'll have to find a way to negotiate with the merchant's league in the future."
Being forced dispense with an easy road made a huge fortune, Duke Ludenhaus let out a little sigh of frustration.
"We can always remarry our beloved sister, with some other wealthy merchant."
Despite the twistedness of his plans, both Ernest and the Duke laughed merrily.