In the kingdom of Dival, the king’s health was in rapid decline. With no male heir to succeed him, the king turned to his brother, the Duke — the only person to have had a son with royal blood. But the Duke, in sheer shock at his brother’s request, told him that his son had run away years ago and he had no idea where he went.

  Upon hearing this, the king ordered the Adventurers’ Guild to find Orpheus Fenrir, the son of the Duke. For six whole years, there were no signs of finding Orpheus. The king, hoping his daughters would bear a son, continued to wait. But even his daughters failed him.

  While waiting for good news, the king spent countless coins on medicines and doctors, searching for a cure — or at least a way to prolong his life until an heir was born or found.

  A small adventuring team — four people in total — began their search for Orpheus in hopes of claiming the reward. After talking with the Duke, they learned the reason Orpheus left in the first place.

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  The Duke explained that Orpheus had fallen in love with a commoner named Penelope. They were glued together, always wandering the streets side by side. When Orpheus asked his father for permission to marry her, he refused and told him to marry a noblewoman instead.

  Orpheus pleaded with him daily to reconsider, but the Duke stood firm. Angry at his father’s refusal, Orpheus ran away, taking only a few things with him: some clothes, his sword, and his pendant.

  The pendant was no ordinary piece of jewelry. It held the crest of the royal family — but more importantly, it confirmed one’s royal blood.

  Inside the pendant was his father’s blood and his own, stored carefully. All one had to do was prick their finger on the needle hidden inside. If the blood matched the stored samples, a small gem above the crest would glow green. If not, it would glow red, rejecting the sample.

  With this knowledge, the adventuring team now had a way to confirm Orpheus’s identity. After digging around, one of the members overheard a conversation about a few small villages hidden in the Wolfstein Mountains.

  They were remote, difficult to reach, and would make a perfect hiding spot — close to home but hard enough to find that no one would suspect it. With this new lead, the team set out for the mountains, determined to find the Duke’s lost son.