Prologue
A time before the human and nonhuman worlds were separated.
Before giants and fairies disappeared and became myths—when they lived side by side with humans.
When magic and martial power were intertwined.
There were soldiers who still possessed within themselves magic that most other humans had lost—when was it that they came to be known as “Holy Knights”?
It was said that one Holy Knight boasted the strength of a thousand ordinary knights; they became part of the saying, “Where there is a kingdom, there are Holy Knights; where Holy Knights are naught, no kingdom shall be.” By then their fame was acknowledged by all.
In the Kingdom of Liones, the most powerful in all Britannia, there was once a legendary order of Holy Knights who were deemed the strongest in the land.
The order brought together seven savage criminals, and they came to be known as the Seven Deadly Sins.
Christened with the names of the seven sins that lead people to ruin, each member of the order was believed to possess tenfold the magical and martial abilities of ordinary Holy Knights. However, there were many mysteries about their origins. Some were so mysterious, no man had ever seen their faces.
Their strange origins, coupled with the endless secrets surrounding them, made their very existence fit to be called a living legend.
However—
One year, on the morning of the kingdom’s anniversary festival, they suddenly betrayed the kingdom.
They brutally slayed Zaratras, the Captain of the Holy Knights, and then fled, evading the pursuit of the entire Holy Knight army. They henceforth hid away somewhere and became fugitives.
But someday, perhaps they will return…
Perhaps their betrayal was the beginning of the Prophecy of the Holy Crusade—that legend passed down since antiquity, of a great battle between light and darkness…
At least, there were those who whispered such rumors.
However, there were two people who knew the truth behind what happened that day.
The secret was too big for the two, still young and innocent, and it consumed them and tore at their minds. But for ten long years they would do their best to bear it in silence.
This is the story of one summer during those ten long years.
The story of a beautiful princess and her faithful knight, and the people who knew them.
The story of the seven scars that the Seven Deadly Sins left behind when they fled.