The sky was already bright, and it was nearly noon.
At that very moment, a large group of fully armed people had gathered at the castle mansion of the Karsten family, in the capital of the Dragonic Kingdom, Lugnica.
Crusch Karsten, one of the five candidates for the throne of the Kingdom of Lugnica, was a striking woman with a heroic air and long green hair. Like everyone else, she was fully armed, wearing a suit of ornate plate armor. Resting a hand on her longsword, she was giving a final pep talk to the knights and soldiers from various families who had been waiting in the castle hall.
Of course, they weren't planning to rebel or stage a coup against the kingdom. They were about to do something far more glorious and noble!
The previous night, a band of merchants had been attacked by the legendary evil White Whale near the "Flügel Tree," a several-hundred-meter-tall tree planted by the "Great Sage" Flugel himself. It stood beside the Lifaus Highway, which led to the capital. In the end, only two merchants and two dragon carriages had managed to escape and return, battered but fortunate.
For the time being, no one knew how many people from that merchant caravan had perished in the whale's maw, or how many had died without even leaving their names behind.
According to ancient records, anyone hunted by the evil White Whale in its white mist vanished from the world completely. At the same time, everyone's memories of them were erased. Only a very few powerful people could possibly avoid the effects of that evil magic, such as the Great Sage Flugel?
So, after receiving the news last night, Crusch Karsten—the head of the House of Karsten and a highly respected figure in the kingdom—immediately began