From the "Chronicles of the Kingdom of Astyria" (Year 1▓▓▓)

Once upon a time, long ago—

In a world that once belonged only to humans, powerful wizards were born.

These wizards gained power to protect nations.

When storms came, they calmed the skies; When the earth parched, they brought the rain; When the seas raged, they put the waves to sleep.

Only a few dozen in number, the wizards traveled as they pleased, eventually settling in the lands they favored.

People prayed to the wizards and lived by their grace.

Astyria was no exception, and a single, beautiful wizard made his home there.

In a tower soaring at the eastern edge, lives a wizard loved by no one.

Hair the color of moonlight gray. Eyes deeper blue than a winter lake. A wizard too beautiful to exist in the human world, and far too terrifying.

People called him by many names.

The Man-Eating Wizard. The Monster who devours Mages. The Blue-Eyed Devil who snatches children.

—Those who enter the tower never return.

Do not look up at the tower in the dead of night. If your eyes meet those blue depths, your very soul will be frozen.

Such rumors spread through the land over many years, quieter than the falling snow.

No one knew if the rumors were true.

Because Cordis refused to meet anyone.

When he slept, the snow fell. When he woke, the wind died down.

When he reached out his hand, spring would visit even the frozen earth.

Though the people feared that power, they accepted it as a matter of course.

—As long as that monster is there, Astyria will not perish.

That is what everyone believed.

But one day.

The other wizards cast a single curse upon Cordis.

"He who knows not true love shall lose his magic, and in the end, lose his very life."

—It was a punishment.

A final penalty for the wizard who never sought to be loved by anyone.

From the day he was cursed, Cordis closed the doors of his tower.

As if rejecting everything, the snow at the eastern edge fell harder, colder, and more silently than ever before.

One year.

Ten years.

Twenty years.

The seasons turned, but spring alone failed to arrive.

The wheat withered, the fruit did not ripen, the rivers froze, and the snow buried the homes of the people in white.

Eventually, the people began to whisper.

—The wizard has abandoned the kingdom.

Still, the Eastern Tower stood silently beyond the snow.

As if waiting for that one and only person.