You have to go back in history. Long before the demons arrived, long before the many kingdoms, dukedoms, and merchant city sates north of Saifuddien existed.

To a time when the two empires reigned supreme. One in the east and another in the west.

While the western empire was ruled by a just and fair ruler, the east was under the leadership of a barbaric and ruthless man.

Darken, the conqueror.

His evil personality was probably the result of his childhood. Born the son of a poor count, Darken was often bullied at school by the other nobles for his poverty. It didn’t help matters that his own mother abandoned the family to be the mistress of a duke, nor did it help that his maids always managed to humiliate him in public. While it was not done on purpose, he still bared a grudge against them.

This upbringing sowed a seed of hatred and envy in Darken from a very young age and when his father passed away, just days after his coming of age birthday, he saw it as a sign from the heavens. At least that is how he ordered the history books to reflect, in reality, he killed his father in order to inherit the household.

Darken’s ambition will not be put on hold for smoothing as insignificant as a blood relative. No… His ambition must be fulfilled, no matter whose blood he must spill... and spill he did.

While Darken was not academically gifted, there was a certain charm to the words that he spoke. He was so skilled that he could probably convince a drowning man to buy water. Add to that his natural talent for military strategy and you have a leader destined to conquer...  and conquer he did.

First, he went after his neighboring nobles, quickly absorbing or destroying their assets and resources. His rallying call was simple, ‘all under one heaven.’

For the many oppressed or poor men, that simple message was enough to have them join his army.

Darken quickly expanded his reach. When questioned by one of his generals who wished to know how far his expansion will go, Darken coldly replied, “Expand or die.”

Such a question was never asked again.

With half of the territories under his command, Darken turned his attention toward a Dukedom east of his expanding kingdom. It was the home of his mother and half-siblings.

When his mother sent a messenger seeking reconciliation, he replied with a box which had the messenger’s head inside and note, “A ruler never reconciles with a bitch.”

His words would set a tone for the type of empire he would create and when the day came that he captured and burnt his mother at the stake, he declared the founding of his empire, Reverent.

Any country is divided by hierarchy. While this division will occur in many forms, one, in particular, will always take priority over the rest.

In some countries, it is nobility, others wealth, some value race, while others value those with fighting powers.

In Reverent, as if placing the final nail in the coffin of what was his relationship with his mother, gender had priority.

Men were elevated to a high standard. It was so bad that even a wife of a duke had to lower her eyes in the presence of a man, even if that man happens to be a commoner.

While men generally lived a good life, women found themselves in a toxic environment, and for one particular group of women, that environment could be best described as hell.

With his revenge complete, it didn’t take long for Darken to conquer the other lands in the east before turning his attention south, towards another rising power, Saifuddien.

However, thanks to the support of the empire in the west, Saifuddien didn’t fall. Darken and his empire of Reverent, found themselves fighting a never-ending war. Just as they conquered a town, another one would be recaptured from them.

This situation was in large part thanks to the clandestine work of the empire in the west, which saw this as the perfect opportunity to weaken the powerful kingdoms of the east.

They would support Saifuddien but only up to a certain point. Ensuring that this was dragged on forever.

Darken, enraged and frustrated by the situation, left command of the battle to his generals and returned to his capital where he turned his focus on the other thing he wanted revenge on… Incompetent maids.

In his eyes, there was no room for incompetence for a maid. Perfection was what he expected from not only his but any maid in the empire.

No one truly knows the number of girls who died in the search for his ideal maid.

In Darken's mind, a maid was someone who was always there but never present. A person, who appears and disappears at her master's command.

If assassins hide in the shadows, then a maid hides in plain sight. She doesn’t stand out no matter what. Even a small breeze would be more noticeable than her.

This was his vision and after countless deaths and experiments in teaching techniques, he finally achieved it.
Naturally, this spread throughout the empire and ‘the way of the maid’ was born.

Darken had finally achieved his perfect world. A world that he believed would last for a thousand lifetimes… It didn’t.

‘Hell has no fury of a woman scorned.’

Had he not killed his father at a young age, perhaps he would have been taught this very important lesson.

While it was only a small group at first, as the years went on, it grew and grew until its reach covered the whole empire.

A sisterhood called, fairy maids.

With help from women across the empire… from commoners to noble, this group dared plan the unthinkable. The destruction of their motherland.

With the skills that were painfully engraved into their souls, they moved not in the shadows like assassins or spies, but gracefully in daylight.

Their presence was only noticeable when they wished to be noticed, otherwise, they were more or less a figment of your imagination.

On Darken’s 78th birthday. A week-long wild celebration was being held across the empire. With the empire’s nobility, administrators, and generals intoxicated by the wild celebrations, the fairy maid's struck.

Some were poisoned, some strangled to death in their sleep, while others received quick jabs to the heart as they were served drinks.

The only thing that these murders had in common was the fact that their victims never saw it coming.

Darken woke up the morning after the celebrations had ended, complaining of the headache he had. His bad mood was made even worse when the maids he had ordered didn’t move from their spots. He lashed out at them, and threatened to behead them for their insolence… the fool didn’t even realize that his empire was no more.

It was at this point that the head maid stepped forward. A young girl of 24 years of age stood in front of him. Her maid outfit was stained with the blood of the people she had killed.

It was then that Darken realized what was happening. His anger grew, as he uttered insults at the women. He called for his shadow group to kill all the maids but nothing happened.

He desperately looked to the shadows in his room, wondering why the shadows were not coming to his aide. Just as he was wondering that, the other maids held up severed heads. They were the heads of the members of his shadow group.

Darken went pale when he saw this, “Whoever… Whatever, they are paying you… I will double, no triple… I will make you my Queens… You can live a life of luxury… Just… Just…” he pleaded with the head maid.

The girl didn’t respond to his words… Or rather, she didn’t have the chance. The fool lunched at her with a hidden sword. He thought he could kill them all and make his escape, however, his head was effortlessly severed from his body… ending both his life and his empire.

As the death of Darken was spread, revolts happened all across the empire. Saifuddien, who had been financially drained by the long war, didn’t even think about evading their collapsing enemy.

As for the empire in the west. Its ruler had more pressing matters to attend to.

It was because of these two reasons that the former empire of Reverent was allowed to break apart and form new kingdoms, dukedoms, and merchant states.

A new life awaited the citizens of the old empire… At least for most of them…

The many maids of the once-great empire found themselves unable to adapt to the new reality. Some even killed themselves, unable to over come the nightmares of their former lives, while others migrated to other lands in the west.

One such migrant maid was the girl who killed Darken. Sold to the palace by her father on the same night he killed her mother, she had often considered herself to be a cursed child... Her hellish training further cemented that feeling.

As she traveled from town to town, wondering where or when she would die… she stumbled upon a small kingdom. The kingdom itself was large in size but its overall power was small.

It was in one of the towns of this kingdom that she meet a young lad. He was the son of a noble, but he did not act like the nobles she had met before… in fact, she considered the way the people acted in this kingdom to be strange. There was a sense of togetherness. The sight of of people getting along and helping each other regardless of gender or race made her fall in love with the kingdom.

Of  course this didn't happen overnight and it certainly didn't happen without the help of a certain funny and goofy noble she had met.

“Isn’t she cute?”

“That is the tenth time you have said that...”

“I know... I know, but I can't just get over how cute she is. What should we call her? I think Florence would be a fitting name… Or maybe…”

“Eve…”

“Eh?”

“It was the name that was picked out for my little sister.”

“Little sister?”

“My mother was pregnant at the time she passed away. Before she did… We were picking out names and decided to call the baby Eve, if it was a girl.”

“Eve?”

“It’s the combination of both our names. Elizabeth and Veronica.”

“I see…” Her husband uttered. He watched on as his beautiful wife smiled while holding their third child in her arms. She was clearly fond of the name and he couldn't bring himself to argue with her. If anything, he came up with an idea. “In that case… why not make it a family rule that the first daughter of every second or third generation should be named Eve?”
Veronica was surprised at his suggestion before smiling at her husband and replying , “I would love that.”

***

With determination in her eyes she approached the elf that was coughing out blood.
“Banished elf prince of Everwood, Theodemar Inanala… Prepare yourself to leave for the afterlife.” Eve declared as she attacked once again.