CHAPTER 1: THE LIE THAT COVERS A WAR

News of the SSFA battalion’s complete annihilation spread through Central Command like a shockwave.

The old officer in charge slammed his desk, eyes wide with disbelief.

“What? Impossible… all of them?!”

His voice trembled, anger and fear mixing in his throat.

“Damn you, Resistance… I’ll make you all pay for this! I swear it!”

A cold voice echoed from behind him.

“So… you are Kazuma Arakawa?”

He turned sharply.
A woman in a tattered black cloak stood in the doorway, her face hidden behind a skull-shaped mask.

“Y-you… where did you come from?”

“Good question,” she replied calmly. “Why don’t you ask the ones already sleeping on your floor?”

Kazuma looked down—his guards, all of them, lay dead with bullets cleanly through their skulls.

His legs buckled.

“P-please… forgive me! I’ll pay anything—anything you want! Just spare my life!”

The woman tilted her head.

“Forgive you? After everything you people have done to us?”

Her voice hardened.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

She struck him across the face with her silenced pistol, blood running from his nose.

“P-please… spare me…”

A single shot ended him.

She took the master key from his corpse and descended into the underground holding cells. Behind thick bars, dozens of women and children—starved, trembling—stared back at her.

She removed her mask.

“You’re safe now. I’m getting you all out of here.”

The locks snapped open one by one.
When the prisoners stepped out, they embraced her, their cries filling the hallway.

She raised her fist.

“Viva La Resistance!”

The entire cell block roared back at her, a cry of the desperate reclaiming hope.

Meanwhile, in central Tokyo, ARK watched the morning broadcast on the massive videotron.
Official news claimed the old harbor had been demolished for redevelopment—no casualties, no battle, no Resistance.

A lie repeated with royal certainty.

The King of Sanctus Veridian spoke proudly, covering up the massacre and silencing the last witness along with his entire family—including the children.

ARK’s jaw tightened.

“Tch.”

A voice approached him.

“A beautiful lie, isn’t it?”

He turned.

A woman with snow-white hair, crimson eyes, and aristocratic Saint attire stepped beside him.

Masahiro Yuki.
First Princess of Sanctus Veridian.

“What are you talking about?”

“The harbor incident,” she said sharply. “He overestimates his ability to hide an embarrassment like this.”

Before ARK could respond, her bodyguards shoved him aside.

“Move, boy. You’re standing too close to the Princess.”

Yuki ignored them and looked at him again.

“You have interesting eyes. What’s your name?”

ARK put on a casual smile.

“My name is Kamito Ryuga. I’m on my way to work.”

“Then I’ll see you around, Kamito-kun.”

She left in her armored vehicle.

A voice snickered behind him.

“She’s gorgeous, Kamito-san. If she ever joined the Resistance, I’d marry her on the spot.”

It was Sento, another Resistance member disguised as a newspaper seller.

“Focus on your mission,” ARK muttered.

“You’re so cold, Kamito. Oh—did you hear? The Saintless Front wants to work with us. They’re asking for an alliance.”

“I don’t involve outsiders. Especially amateurs.”

“H-hey! They’re not that bad—”

“Finish your job, Sento. Or I’ll give your food rations to your cat.”

“…Understood!”

They split up.

Inside Yuki’s vehicle, the Princess clenched her jaw. Losing her elite unit humiliated her far more than the public would ever know.

“Tch… useless, all of them.”

The convoy stopped at a prestigious university. Her younger sister, Masahiro Suzuki, greeted her with a hug.

Students whispered:

“They look so alike…”
“What a perfect pair of sisters…”

As they returned to the car, Suzuki vented about her campus life.

“So many fake faces. People come near me only for status.”

“Even so, they’re still your friends, Suzuki-chan,” Yuki replied.

“Friends? They approach me because I’m the King’s daughter.”

Yuki smiled faintly at her honesty—until the convoy halted again.

Police checkpoints.
Dozens of officers dragging people into transport vans—anyone suspected of ties to the Resistance.

“What’s happening?”

“My apologies, Princess. Police are conducting a mass arrest.”

“I don’t have time for this.”

Then they saw him:
A starving boy, weakly reaching for a piece of bread… only for a security officer to kick it away, mocking him like an animal. The boy tried again, only to be kicked himself.

Suzuki’s expression twisted.

“What are you doing?!”

“Princess Suzuki, my apologies. The child keeps resisting arrest.”

“At least let him have the bread. He’s starving.”

The boy took a trembling bite.

But the bread vanished before he could finish.

Yuki’s magic crushed it into dust.

“Suzuki,” she said coldly, “I told you never to pity the Impure. Have you forgotten what happened to Grandfather because of them?”

“B-but… he’s just a child…”

Yuki’s stare silenced her.

The car began moving again.

The boy was dragged into an alley by a guard holding a pistol.

“Face the wall, brat.”

The child bowed his head, shaking.

A gunshot echoed.

DOOR.

The guard collapsed.
Another.
And another.

ARK stepped from the shadows, lowering his silenced pistol. He knelt, offering real food to the boy.

“Eat. Then leave this place.”

Sento arrived moments later.

“Kamito—wait, what was that explosion?!”

In the distance, the prisoner transport truck erupted into flames, torn apart by a planted bomb.

They had never been transported to a camp.
They had been executed.

ARK’s expression darkened.

The lies were over.