As a "celebrity" among the nations of the Sea of Corruption, Yupa was a close friend of Deus, the adventure-loving king of the Kingdom of Pejite.
For this journey into the Sea of Corruption, he had arranged to set out with Deus, intending to venture deep into the western forest and explore unknown territory.
But a series of unforeseen incidents kept him from arriving on time.
When Yupa finally reached Pejite months later, weary from his travels, he was met with terrible news.
Deus, an experienced explorer who had established strict rules for expeditions into the Sea of Corruption, had vanished without a trace in its depths along with his finest expedition team.
As if that weren't enough, no sooner had the king disappeared than the Torumekian Empire's conscription officers arrived with orders.
With its monarch and many of its elite guards gone, Pejite was then forced to surrender large numbers of young and able-bodied men, its reserve grain, and its precious ancient-civilization gunboats.
Beset by troubles at home and abroad, the situation in Pejite rapidly deteriorated.
Rumors spread, crime soared, factions quarreled incessantly, and expedition teams suffered casualties time and again...
Some said Pejite had been cursed by the Sea of Corruption, but more pointed the finger at Eliana, the queen ruling on behalf of her young prince.
The clamor of discontent grew louder by the day, and more and more people believed the royal family was no longer capable of controlling the country.
Finally, when the city's largest granary went up in a towering blaze due to "negligent management," the accumulated tensions erupted like a volcano.
Led by an influential expedition team, the angry populace broke through the palace gates.
Perhaps because of long-standing dissatisfaction, or perhaps out of consideration for their own interests, the ministers in power chose to stand by and watch.
The few personal guards the king had left behind were no match for the battle-hardened explorers.
Fortunately, Yupa was staying at the palace at the time. He spotted the danger in advance and promptly led Eliana and her son out of the palace, hiding with them in the chaotic city-state.
The royal family was overthrown, the palace occupied, and a new leader stepped onto the stage.
Just as the people hoped the new order would restore the country to normal, reality dealt them another heavy blow.
A rift opened between the powerful officials who controlled the troops and the expedition team faction that had led the uprising, and a fierce civil war broke out over the division of power.
The two sides traded blows, even deploying heavy weapons such as gunboats and tanks.
In this internecine fighting, with each side struggling to look after itself, the lives of civilians and order in the city-state were utterly forgotten. The whole Pejite City sank into anarchic chaos and an increasingly severe famine.
By this point, whether Eliana and Lucian wanted to leave or not, there was no longer a place for them in Pejite.
Even while hiding their identities in the city, they had encountered several groups of mercenaries who claimed to be "searching for the royal family" but had actually come to kill her and her son.
Neither the rebels, the council of elders, nor even Pejite's own people could possibly recognize a royal family under whose rule the country had nearly been destroyed.
Completely concealing their names and identities and leaving this place was the best outcome for them.
Fortunately, with the people barely able to survive, some had already begun fleeing the country.
Just as the three were preparing to slip in among the refugees and escape, they heard some unbelievable news.
The governor of Ebo City, a city on the Torumekian Empire's northwestern border, had personally arrived in the Kingdom of Pejite with grain and relief supplies.
He set up camp outside the city, distributed food, maintained order, and publicly declared that his army would never set foot on Pejite's territory, but Tolmekia's doors would always be open to refugees.
At this, Nausicaä couldn't help interrupting:
"Would Tolmekia really be that kind?"
She didn't believe the ever-arrogant and selfish people of the empire would do something so unrewarding.
"I don't know," Yupa said with a bitter smile. "But with my own eyes, I saw soldiers from Ebo City using large transport aircraft to organize and escort refugees east."
He didn't trust the Torumekian Empire either, but that was what he had seen.
Taking advantage of the chaos in the city, Yupa and the other two successfully slipped into a group of refugees and left the devastated city of Pejite behind.
Not knowing where to go, the mother and son could only follow the refugees for the time being, going wherever the tide took them.
Of course, they couldn't go to the Torumekian Empire, the country most likely to be the mastermind behind it all.
Fortunately, many others were just as wary. The three traveled with one group of refugees heading north, passing through the Valley of the Wind.
They had ridden bird-horses day and night to get back ahead of them.
Their hope was that the bountiful Valley of the Wind could make preparations to help the refugees.
Even if it couldn't take those poor people in, it could at least give them a place to stop in the vast desert and rest a while before continuing on.
"I never expected the Valley of the Wind to be in such dire straits too. This time, I didn't think things through and acted on my own... sigh."
On the way into the village, he had already heard the complaints about food shortages and people growing restless, and learned of the valley's current situation.
From what he had gathered, the valley was barely managing to survive, let alone take in refugees.
The assurances he had given those refugees had all come to nothing.
"Master Yupa, this isn't your fault. No one could have foreseen these unexpected troubles. As for the refugees... there might be a way."
At that, even Yupa, who had always been confident in his outstanding student, couldn't help questioning her.
"Nausicaä, do you really have a way to handle this? There are over a hundred displaced people. This isn't some little problem you can solve with a few words."
"Of course, but..."
Nausicaä thought for a moment and ultimately decided to ask the Erdtree's opinion.
Only with the power of the Golden Order could she shelter these refugees.
When Nausicaä requested a call, however, Mu En's mind was elsewhere.
Having listened to the entire account of the Pejite incident from beginning to end, he sensed a hint of conspiracy.
"Why does the way the Kingdom of Pejite collapsed sound so familiar?"
"What did you say?"
Nausicaä didn't understand what Mu En meant at first.
"Chaos caused by conscription, frequent accidents, unrest among the people, rumors spreading everywhere... Don't you think you've heard all this somewhere before?"
Mu En's words struck Nausicaä like a thunderbolt.
Would the people of the Valley of the Wind, always kind and upright, really have "spontaneously" spread those rumors?
And those incidents she had thought were "accidents"-had they really been accidents?
The Valley of the Wind had endured hard times when the weather turned against it before, but by standing together, its people had pulled through time and again.
Why was it that this time, of all times, people had become so unsettled?
Once Mu En pointed it out, and she compared it with Pejite's path to ruin, a terrible conspiracy surfaced in Nausicaä's mind.
Then and now were exactly alike.
"You mean someone wants to repeat the tragedy of the Kingdom of Pejite in the Valley of the Wind!"