As a reward for saving the kidnapped Princess Flora, Rio has been enrolled in the primary school branch of the Beltrum Royal Academy. However, the students at the academy are mostly the children of royalty and the nobility, and they do not welcome the orphaned Rio. With so many scornful gazes turned toward him, there is one person who worries for him—Celia, a girl of twelve who is nonetheless, at her young age, the lecturer in charge of the primary school. As Rio cannot read, Professor Celia begins privately tutoring him after school.

Five years have passed since Rio enrolled in the Royal Academy. The graduation examination, the outdoor practicum, is quickly approaching. Celia listens with mixed feelings as Rio talks of his plans to go to his parents' homeland, the Yagumo region, after he graduates. On the day of the outdoor practicum, Stewart, wounded in a monster attack, knocks Princess Flora off a cliff. Rio dives for her without thinking, throws Flora back up to safety midair, and falls some thirty meters to the foot of the cliff...!

After bidding farewell to Celia, Rio has left the kingdom of Beltrum and arrived in the market town of Amande in the neighboring kingdom of Galarc. The food stalls near the castle gates sell dishes called "pasta" and "manjuu," leading Rio think that the person who developed the them, Liselotte, might have memories of living in Japan, like he does. After leaving the town and entering the forest, Rio comes across a young girl collapsed in his path... In the moment that he approaches and calls out to her, the girl opens her eyes and thrusts a knife at him!