Three years after the duchy of Camellia turned on the crown and its lord Rugis seized the kingdom, Alfred holds a remote corner of Hortensia that his father Fernando died defending. The knight Maurice Baudelaire, who escaped the capital with Fernando's sword and a child in tow, has trained Alfred and his squire Marius ever since. Marius is in truth Princess Mariel, the last of the royal line, keeping to a boy's name until she is strong enough to take the throne back.