Over about half around a thousand years ago when the conquest of conquering ended unifying the western central continent and the defeated neighboring kingdoms. It succeeded well to develop but the conquest to unify the nation was not created out of 'no blood' pleasantry of a perfect innocent 'conquer' because the 1st emperor's sword was tarnished with the blood of every single royal family of the western central continent.
It was a battle worthy of the bloodshed amongst thousands of civil war victims. Children, women, an old man, and men were involved in this nasty conquest and they lost their lives in that conquer of the 5 elite swordsmen that had stayed by the 1st emperor.
The Five Great Elite Swordsman's who has no status from an unknown origin become the empire's most prompted noble families of the empire. One said that the other Three Elite Swordsman vanished under no wealth beneficial to them from fighting for the unification of the great Rosemary Empire.
The Two Elite Swordsman's left was to fulfill the dying wish of its master, the 1st emperor. The deep restored historical records from the past had written that the reason the 5 great elite swordsmen resolved to vanished was the cause of its master's greed for more power than anything he could ever acquire.
They lounged to see that the histories are written must remain secret under Byrne's footsteps. Ever since the 1st emperor give both of his 2 knights the wealth and privilege they deserve. A man name 'Raol' was tasked to raise the young prince who will soon take over the empire into the greatest leader, one that knows his mistake and one that knows that power is not an answer to any happiness.
That man, 'Raol' was one of the two elite swordsmen who have never hesitated to lay his life for his master. Raol was an orphan, left by a disfigured woman and a drunkard old geezer. He was born out of contempt, not from love nor duty. He was an accident created from an unpleasant incident, that is why he left the orphanage at age of 10 to search for his mother in order to clear up his concerns.
Yet despite his struggles, the child born by accident lost his mother before he could meet her. A group of bandits, miserable, cruelly, and violently murdered her in front of the child she once abandoned.
Raol left the village and was taken by a group of mercenaries. He was trained, refined, taught, and shaped into the mercenary he was destined to be.
Before he joins the special army, the 1st emperor has created. The Elite Swordsmen. He was a wonderer mercenary who kills for wealth, the pleasure of screams and obeying a nobles plea. He goes by the name 'Steel Lark' a mercenary whose mercy is above monstrous. He was a devil himself. Many knights had tried to capture him but with a lack of skills and levels that may equal with him, they are nothing but an ant to a man who has no moral thinking of living.
However, he is still a human, and no matter how powerful you are if there's still above stronger than you, then that power will be challenged in wit and strength to survive.
A knight, enough to make him annoyed, with his overconfident smile, his arrogant way of speaking, and his moral thinking. Raol was pissed. He didn't like him just by the glance of his instinct.
Therefore, he decided to test him. They fought and fought but the more they fought. He realizes the difference between a knight and a mercenary if talking about swordsmanship.
He and he are equal partners in strength, technique, and even his ability as his skills. The strength of the two fighters will only be wary if one realizes the insignificant gap between them. One will see this as less useless while others acknowledge both the gap and both of its ability and skills that are above him in many perspective ways.
Both of them surrender at this point. That's the reason most people seem to have seen both of them as a partner and crime. That knight comes to be the prince and soon he was crowned king. He was able to create the special force and recruited 5 great swordsmen who he has encountered.
The second person who has stayed by his side. 'Haleha' is a woman who's less great with swordsmen but greater with leadership. Despite being a woman in that group, and she receive countless discrimination, she didn't let them insult her swordsmanship. She showed them that despite the lacking, no one should be discriminated against because of a person's gender, and her leadership within the war made her name the 'Conquest Princess' and she was the reason why the conquest prediction has its accuracy tactics.
Her knowledge had once influenced other noble ladies who have not been recognized for their own independent thinking. Many joined Haleha's force to fight alongside her project 'Swordswomanship' where she also insulted some of the nobles who once discriminated against women to be equal to any man.
Just like Raol, she has beaten thousand of knights in a fight between wits and strength. She had also proved to the 1st emperor that woman is far useful in any matter regardless of the war. Then she challenged the emperor in a swords fight.
She had not won but she has the equal skill as Raol. She's an equal opponent that was given a chance at the spot of the elite swordsman seat. She was given the choice and chance to prove that despite her gender, she will be an equal partner just like any man who wields a weapon.
The third member of the elite was named 'Narcus'. He was just like Raol, but he was a mage warrior. He didn't have specific information written in the history book but he was the one who surrenders to the emperor and became his knight.
While the two remaining members were a war hostage, a prince, and his knight. Both of them was the remaining force of Rectar Kingdom, they fought in order to survive but in the end, the Rectar Kingdoms king had betrayed them in the midst of battle.
They become a war hostage, a sign that the Rectar Kingdom has surrendered themselves. The betrayal of his kingdom made the prince frustratedly berserk in the empire's training ground, fought the elite swordsman who has beaten him in wits and strength.
The prince and the knight was soon been recognize and they become the fourth and fifth member of the elites.
After the war ended, the elite swordsman was disbanded. For the reason that the prince and his knight with Narcus, they've left without saying any words, and thus they have not been found since then. The information said that Narcus married a farmer, while the prince and his knight become teachers. No one knows what happens to them nor what causes them to leave, but many believe because of the 1st emperor gone mad.
Yes, he had gone mad for more power. His people, the empire needed no power but he thinks he's doing this for his people. Many believe he lost his senses after the conquest of conquering. However, no one had believed that alcohol had changed his ways of thinking and perspective.
He's greed that was created, he's torn from the shock, his body that had not been able to survive, and his mind that fell into the temptation of his inner demon. The reason for him drinking alcohol was because of the guilt that has lingered on his soul since the day he killed those innocent people for the unification of the empire.
He did not show the disgust on his blade, he made from massacring an entire existence of human beings. No one had noticed, not even his knights nor maids. No one had thought that he's suffering from trauma and nightmares of the souls he had not taken mercy upon. The ghouls hunting his entire existence broke him into what he had become after the war.
A greedy tyrant...
He died in an illness of alcoholic overdose. He then left his son in Raol and Haleha's care. Though Haleha was given the noble status 'Duchess' as Byrne, she still helps raise the royal prince into a better emperor who has made him into a fine leader.
Raol married Haleha giving to him the title of 'Duke' then they had children.
Raol and Haleha who was a former elite swordsman member is also the ancestor of Kiana Bryne that's why she was born with extra talents and knowledge. The fact that she might be Haleha's incarnation as per the fact of her overwhelming knowledge and abilities.
The Duke's eyes shut close, then he slowly closes the book that he had just read. He looked at the empty old library with the dust and spider webs around the bookshelves that are far older than him with the shuttered pieces of papers messing around the floor and the candle beside him.
"Oh great, Haleha, what have I done wrong to deserve such cruel punishment? " The duke plead.