When the battle at Cold Dew Villa came to an end, unrest and chaos were spreading and gathering beneath Rushta's night sky. December Plaza was packed with people. At the center of the square stood a statue of Duke Durot, astride his earth dragon, Lone Fire, with a longsword in hand—the sword Cuckoo pointed straight ahead.
Beneath the indifferent gaze of the stone statue of the demon-slaying knight, every ambitious schemer in Rushta's night was itching to make a move. It was as though a grand performance was about to begin, waiting only for the curtain to slowly rise.
As if to provide a commentary on it all, someone was loudly preaching in the distance. The harsh voice sounded like two files scraping against each other, shrieking like metal beside one's ears.
"The exalted Master shall surely return to this world and save and cleanse all this filth!"
In Azure Poem, the epic that described the hero, the angel Aeroma, wielding a holy sword, slew the evil god Fodri before perishing alongside the Twilight Legion. After her fall, her blood flowed into a lake. Twelve centuries later, someone retrieved one of her shields from that lake. Gilt, King of Flames, used it as the basis for founding this city. In the Cruzian language, Rushta represented holiness, justice, and victory.
The Secret Society Cultists claimed that the empire was brutally unjust and that, a thousand years later, Aeroma would surely return to this land and punish the evil Her Majesty the Queen.
The rumor, which hid its source and showed only its tail, had no basis in fact. Yet under the queen's rule, it spread far and wide. People seemed to hypnotize themselves and actually believed it without question.
Sethi mingled with the crowd. Hot air surged in from all directions,