GC | Prologue

At the edge of the continent, beyond the cold sea, there was an island kingdom where winter fell all year round. The harsh climate, the barren land where people did not easily survive, and the place where ice rain and snow poured down for half the year, all of it was vast.

Beneath that overwhelming nature, the harsh environment was enough to make the people here develop an even fiercer, fire-like temperament. Their cold, ruthless national character seemed to instinctively understand that if they did not do so, they would be swallowed by the cold.

As if they were being tempered again and again between a fiery disposition and a cold that burrowed all the way into the marrow, they were born belligerent and greedy. Perhaps that greed had even sprung from the root of being an isolated island.

On that ice island, where no hope could be found, what they chose in order to escape the cold was invasion.

Their desire for a warmer mainland that was not isolated knew no end, and their longing for fertile land had at some point transformed into the pleasure of invasion itself.

Thus, the decades-long war of invasion finally came to an end when a new emperor ascended the throne, but by then most of the surrounding countries had already been placed under his vassalage.

Back when the emperor was still called the Red Prince, the last country to fall into his hands was a distant land that took a full month to reach by warship from the island.

A pure land that had never once dreamed of being tied to this great empire in its whole lifetime. A sacred nation where the envoys of the gods had first set foot. A people who lived under a mild climate all year round and knew neither cold nor hunger, simple and honest by nature. They had no talent for breaking and seizing things, and they valued protecting and creating above all else.

A thousand years of history burned away in an instant, and at the forefront stood the Red Prince’s little devil.

Always at the very front, never hesitating to rush into dangerous enemy territory, he was then the only legitimate son of the Fourth Prince and the Red Prince’s most cherished nephew. Black hair and armor that looked black because of dried blood were enough to give him the nickname Little Devil.

When he burned every temple in sight and annihilated a country, he was only sixteen. Even at that young age, he had never feared paying the price with another’s life, and together with his father, he successfully placed his uncle on the throne. In return, the enormous reward bestowed by the emperor and the title of Grand Duke granted to the Fourth Prince made this father and son’s power even more secure.

When everyone except the new emperor was wary of this father and son’s excessive power, by coincidence an incident occurred, the Grand Duke was struck by a blind arrow during the imperial family’s regular hunting tournament and lost his life. It was a death with enough suspicious details to make it difficult to dismiss as a simple accident.

The emperor, who had lost his younger brother in this accident, was greatly enraged and tried to uncover the culprit, but there was not enough evidence, nor were there enough witnesses. As always, only the lower palace attendants and slaves were sacrificed to the fury of the powerful.

Having already sent off all eleven of his siblings one by one through various incidents, the emperor had only one sibling from his own generation left, his younger brother, the Grand Duke, and he was deeply heartbroken.

He had hoped that the nephew who inherited the Grand Duchy would stay by his side, but the nephew, worried about public scrutiny, went off to the Grand Duke’s domain and swore that he would become the sword protecting the emperor.

That devil was now eighteen. The ministers secretly watched him as he stoutly comforted the heartbroken emperor, alert to what kind of devious scheme this beautiful devil might be plotting next, but the devil left the capital without the slightest hesitation.

After going to his territory, the Grand Duke shut himself away there for years and did not come out. The emperor missed his nephew so much that he begged and pleaded for more than a year before finally seeing his face, and even then, as if he had buried some treasure in his domain, the nephew quickly left for his own seat again.

Then another three years passed.

The grown Grand Duke, called the beautiful devil, completely took control of that land as a ruthless ruler and sovereign.

And in that devil’s cradle, rumors spread that a disciple of God was living in hiding.