Original record......Bloodstained curtain
The original game’s first part involves the appearance of the Four Demon Beasts and the resurrection of the Demon Lord, Lars. The second part tells the story of the rebellion of the Second Demon Lord, Raymond, and his Four Heavenly Kings. The third part focuses on the war between the Kingdom and the Empire.
The story begins shortly after the rebellion of the Second Demon Lord, when the Kingdom is attacked by the neighboring Empire. The Steria region, facing the border, falls at the very beginning of the story. Due to the devastating losses suffered by the Kingdom’s army after Raymond's rebellion, there was no opportunity to respond, and Steria fell quickly.
Against this backdrop, the protagonist Abel and his companions head to the Steria region to repel the Empire’s invasion. By this point, Abel and his group are strong enough to have already defeated the Demon Lord and the Second Demon Lord, so retaking the region from the Empire isn’t too difficult.
During this, Abel—specifically, his ally, Princess Asteria—delivers a ceasefire proposal on behalf of the Kingdom. The Empire’s response is the sending of an assassin. The one who appears before Abel and his group is the Empire's hired assassin, the "Bloodstained Hat," known as the most dangerous killer.
For Abel’s group, all of whom are skilled magic users, the "Magic Killer" Bloodstained Hat is their worst nightmare. In fact, as soon as he appears without a trace, Princess Asteria, the powerful mage Meirin, and the Holy Maiden Fran are each instantly slashed across the throat, rendered incapacitated in an instant.
The battle with Bloodstained Hat begins as three of the group are mortally wounded. Astoria and Meirin, who do not use incantation magic, are especially injured, their lives hanging by a thread. Fran, the only one who managed to avoid the worst of the blows, retreats while carrying the unconscious two, and the battle against Bloodstained Hat is left to Abel, the sky pirate Lilyca, and the female sailor Farathiana, who take on the assassin in a three-on-one battle.
Bloodstained Hat specializes in stealth and surprise attacks, and close combat is not his forte. Thus, when he faces the three, who excel in physical combat, he attempts to retreat. However, Abel, burning with anger after his companions were injured, doesn’t allow him to escape.
Abel blocks Bloodstained Hat’s escape with a barrier of blue flames surrounding them from all directions. A magical wall—this alone could be destroyed by Bloodstained Hat’s techniques. But Abel’s blue flames are different from regular magic. They are a pure phenomenon that does not require magic formulas. Without a magical formula, even with his magic-penetrating eyes, Bloodstained Hat cannot break the barrier.
Now trapped in a disadvantageous position, Bloodstained Hat must fight the three physical combatants. Despite the overwhelming disadvantage, he laughs and responds. He feels his frozen heart start to beat once again as he faces a worthy opponent.
Bloodstained Hat fights with everything he has: his knife skills, superhuman strength that he rarely uses, and a rapid healing ability that allows him to recover from injuries almost instantly. He sometimes vanishes, using his stealth to deceive and confound his opponents.
However, Abel, Lilyca, and Faratiana are formidable. Their strength is not to be underestimated, having already faced and defeated some of the most powerful enemies, including the Demon Lords. Ultimately, Bloodstained Hat is impaled by Abel’s flame sword, enveloped in blue flames.
As Abel realizes that Bloodstained Hat will die from this attack, he instinctively tries to extinguish the flames. Though filled with anger at his ally’s injuries, Abel doesn’t intend to kill him. This is Abel’s inherent kindness—or perhaps his weakness. Though sometimes this kindness gets him into trouble, he can never bring himself to abandon his desire for peace—a world without conflict, which is his ideal.
But Bloodstained Hat will not allow such weakness.
“—You’re wrong, Abel Carrot. You should kill me now.”
Bloodstained Hat grasps Abel’s hand tightly, the one holding the flame sword that impales him, and tries to pull the blade out. Seeing Abel’s face, Bloodstained Hat smiles as though speaking to a friend.
“I’ve taken many lives for money, I deserve to die. I’ve lived long enough... this is the perfect time to end it.”
Bloodstained Hat smiled gently, and Abel was confused by the expression. This man had tried to kill them without hesitation—that was undeniable. But was this truly the smile of a murderer? Bloodstained Hat's expression was unexpectedly soft, almost kind.
“Why become an assassin... Is there some kind of reason behind it?”
“I don’t care about other people’s lives. The money is just a bonus. Being an assassin is nothing more than a way to pass the time in my long life. Thanks to you, I’ve had a meaningful moment today.”
“You don’t have to die... You should stop killing, and live to atone for your sins—”
Interrupting Abel’s words, Bloodstained Hat laughed amidst the rising blue flames.
“An immortal monster, slain by a hero of flames—this is the kind of story a bard would love, isn’t it?”
“What... Are you really ready to die...?”
“...Who knows.”
Bloodstained Hat quietly closed his eyes, his thoughts drifting. He recalled the way his mother died. She had been consumed by white flames, her entire being erased.
Bloodstained Hat was not purely human. He was a hybrid of an ancient subhuman species—half-vampire, half-human. His father was a human with no magical powers, while his mother was a true ancestor of vampires. Inherited from his vampire lineage, he did not age, and possessed superhuman strength and an extraordinary healing ability.
Because he carried some traits of humans, he was not harmed by sunlight. He was known as a Daylight Walker. He had inherited his lack of magical power from his father.
His father and mother had loved each other beyond the boundaries of their species. At least, that was how Bloodstained Hat had seen it when he was young. But one day, his mother suddenly killed his father. She drained him of his blood until only his bones and skin remained, and then she wept as she held his lifeless body. Bloodstained Hat later learned that his mother had repressed her vampiric hunger while married to his human father.
On a certain full moon night, her restraint reached its limit, and she snapped. Like water overflowing from a bowl, she went on a rampage. Unable to suppress her instincts, she killed the one she loved. After that, she changed. She began to view humans as inferior beings, mere food, and actively sought to attack them.
On a night of the red moon, she was hunted down by humans. She was burned by white flames, unable to heal, and reduced to ash without a trace.
Bloodstained Hat did not harbor hatred for the humans who killed his mother. In fact, he was grateful to them for stopping her rampage. When his mother perished in those flames, she had looked at peace, as if some dark spirit had left her.
Over the countless years that followed, his mind, worn down by time, grew numb. Bloodstained Hat had lived for nearly a thousand years. For his human mind, a thousand years was far too long. Driven by money and, at times, boredom, he took the lives of others. Yet it caused him no pain. His heart had long since shattered, and there was no longer any sorrow to feel.
The monster who had lived through such an endless span of time would, ironically, meet his end in the same way as his mother—burned by flames, bringing his life to a close. How laughable, yet how sweet an end it seemed. It was because of this that Bloodstained Hat welcomed Abel’s flame, that gentle yet warm blue flame.
He felt that no more fitting conclusion would ever come again.
“…Stroa.”
"Eh?"
At the murmured words of Bloodstained Hat, Abel widened his eyes in surprise. Bloodstained Hat smiled wryly, and once more introduced himself.
His name.
“Stroa Endwalker... That's my name. I’d be happy if you remembered it… It was the name my mother gave me, back when she was still kind...”
With those final words, Bloodstained Hat breathed his last. His body, consumed by the blue flames, melted away without even leaving ash behind. His death was strangely similar to that of his mother, who had been the true ancestor of vampires. It was the end that Stroa Endwalker—Bloodstained Hat himself—had desired.
To Abel, Bloodstained Hat had been a sudden, attacking assassin, a hateful enemy who had harmed his companions. There could be no doubt about this. Why had he made such a choice? Did he perhaps feel some sense of guilt for the lives he had taken as an assassin? These questions could never be answered now.
The sensation of Bloodstained Hat gripping his hand remained in Abel’s palm, as if he had been pleading to be killed. Despite the overwhelming sense of helplessness that gnawed at him, Abel lifted his head and faced forward. The appearance of the assassin—this, in itself, was a declaration of the Empire’s intent to fight.
The battle was only just beginning. Nothing had ended yet.
