The four years period once more ended, which could only mean one thing, and all of the people across the land knew. The Queen's Blade would start once more, the gathering of many women from all across the land to fight and compete against each other in combat until only one was left, which would be crowned queen of the land until the next Queen's Blade happen. But the winds of change were blowing, and as they did, a hooded figure walked down a empty road at the early of the morning, a sword strapped to its back as the figure continued to walk, the steps were showing a bit of exhaustion as a inn approached at the distance, not far from the figure.

The door of the inn swung open as the somewhat cold wind of the morning came in together with the hooded figure, who quietly sat down on a chair and placed the sword on its back on the floor aside the chair, and after it was on the floor, the hood was removed, revealing a boy, his age seemed to be nineteen from his appearance, his eyes wandering around the inn as he took out a small paper from his pants pocket, his eyes looked at it, small bag under his eyes could be seen as signal from his small exhaustion.

-Queen's Blade huh… For what I heard, some time ago, there was a huge rebellion against the queen at the time. But times have changed, and it is time a king appears.

He said to himself, smiling softly at the thought of him being king. It was to most nothing else than foolish dream, but he thought that for a change, instead of a queen, a king should appear and rule. Not long after his arrival, he was served a small cup of coffee by the inn keeper, who smiled softly while doing so and quietly left him to his thoughts as he drank the coffee slowly, enjoying the silence and peaceful air around the inn, the only person sharing the room with was a woman with green hair, eating quietly.

But not long after the boy finished his cup of coffee, the door was kicked open by a bunch of bandits, shouting and waving their weapons around as they sat on some tables, ordering drinks to the poor innkeeper that shivered a bit, her eyes wandering around the group before pouring the ordered drinks on some cups and walking to the table, placing them there and quickly going back to the counter and looking very cautious to the group, who got a small glance from the woman and the boy, who resumed his thinking until one of the bandits stood up.

-Let's wreck this place people! And while you people are at it, the cute innkeeper is mine!

He shouted as his band flipped the table they were at and held their weapons at hand, which quickly made the boy stand up, his sword still on the floor aside him as he walked to toward the bandits, looking at their leader closely before sighing a bit.-Look, don't do anything stupid alright? And besides, it is still morning, so go ruin some tree or something got it?- The boy said, smiling softly and patting the guy's shoulder softly before turning his back and start to walk to his seat, but quickly ducking and rolling to his sword, dodging a axe swing that was directed to him.

-Who do you think you are to tell us what we can do you idiot?!

-Who am I? Roi Kakumei, simple as that. And you are idiot I assume, nice meeting you.

Roi said, smiling and grabbing his sword on hands, pulling it out of its sheathe and pointing towards the bandit leader, who had a angry expression on his face and commanded two of the bandits to kill Roi, who quickly got into a fight stance and charged towards the bandits, dodging their swings easily while slicing them, making sure that they could not move again for a while. Now there was only two other bandits and the boss, the three staring at Roi, who just pointed his sword at them, all the while being watched by the woman, who had a small smile on her face as she watched the other two bandits rush towards the boy, who deflected their weapons easily before kicking one of them straight on the face, making him fall down.

-Well well, it seems it is two to go now. Say, you guys will pay for my coffee and the damage you caused right?

He said, looking at them before the bandit leader make his minion try to hit Roi, who quickly jumped over the club, narrowly dodging it before landing perfectly and using the chance to throw a punch straight on the bandit's face, making him stumble while disoriented before being finished by a spinning kick from Roi on his jaw.

-Alright! Now it is your-

Roi sentence was disrupted by a loud noise of something hitting the floor, and when he turned to see what happened, he only saw the woman a snake like sword on her hand, yawning softly as she bent down and pulled out a bag of coins and threw to the innkeeper, who clumsily managed to catch it and smile to the two that had just saved her inn and her.

-I could have taken care of that guy without a problem, but thanks lady.

- I just did what had to be done kiddo, besides; you would have lost to this low life was I not here.

- Say what you want lady, but I know I could have taken him down without any effort.

-Oh keep talking; I will pretend I am listening.

She replied coldly to the boy, who started to feel a bit mad, but those feelings quickly vanished when he looked at the woman once more. She had dull green hair with whitish bangs on it, her top covered her breasts and half of her belly, she wore shorts that covered until her thighs, with the rest being covered by her thigh high that had a greenish color to them, and that snake like sword could only belong to one person.

-Lady, or should I say, Echidna.

-Oh? Seems the kiddo knows my name, I fell a bit flattered. But now I am off, I have more things to do than chat with a kiddo.

-I challenge you outside for a fight.

Roi said, making Echidna stop at the door for a second, a somewhat evil smile appearing on her face as she gave a small nod to the boy, who held his sword tightly on his hands, a bad felling running through him as he followed Echidna outside, taking his place in front of her and getting in a fight stance as he watched her place her shield on her left arm, and as soon as it was placed, Roi charged to her and tried to slash her once, but his sword bounced on her shield, which made Roi quickly draw his sword back and try to stab her, but it was just as futile as the slash attempt. This time, she easily caught his sword and pulled him closely, making both of them stay just fingers away from each other, and on a single moment, he felt a bite on his left arm, making him wince a bit and look at it, only to see a snake, Echidna's snake, biting him.

Quickly jumping back, he could feel the pain of the bite starting to surge through his left arm. When he looked back at Echidna, she only had an evil smile on her face, her snake wrapping around her neck as a necklace, which Roi had seen before, but paid no attention to. But now the poison was surging through him, and he could feel the pain that it was creating through his body, leaving his reflexes a bit dull and giving the Echidna a window of opportunity to throw a dagger at him, who managed to catch it on the last second before hitting his chest.

-You are a bit surprising kiddo. Not fainting from Keltan's poison and even able to catch my dagger. Pretty good for someone so young and stupid.

She said, a sinister giggle escaping her lips before charging towards him, who held his sword a bit shaky on his hands as he braced himself for the attack. One after the other, her slices came quickly and without mercy, making him narrowly escape some, but still take some on his body and sword. Not even whole ten minutes passed, and the fight was as good as over in the opinion of Echidna, but Roi was still standing, bleeding and poisoned, but still there. A smile once more formed on her lips as she walked towards him. However, she was halted on her path by a dagger thrown toward her by him, who used the same dagger that was thrown towards him to try to hit Echidna, who quickly deflected the dagger with her shield, leaving a tiny opportunity window to the wounded Roi to make his move, and with his last burst of strength, he charged towards her with a surprising amount of speed as his sword gave a faint gold glow before he used all of his remaining energy to attempt to slash her, but it was futile as she dodged it, but still received a small cut on her cheek.

And with that, that one sided fight was over, Roi on the floor as the poison had taken control of his body, Echidna rubbing her cheek a bit and allowing a smirk to form on her lips as she approached the defeated boy, looking down on him as she pulled out a small bottle of her clothing.

-Tell me kiddo, what is your name?

-Roi Kakumei.

-Tell me Roi, before you die, why you thought you could even stand a slim chance against me.

-I…I needed to know if I was strong enough to join the Queen's Blade tournament to become the first king, simple.

He replied, a small hint of hope on his voice as he finished his sentence, which made Echidna let out a laugh and uncork the small bottle and forcing the liquid down Roi's mouth, making him drink it before he finally passed out.

As a new morning came, the first rays of the sun shone through the window of the inn and straight on Roi's face, making him wake up and grunt a bit, rubbing his eyes before sitting on the bed that he was laid on, rubbing some of the somewhat fresh cuts on his body and looked around, seeing a small note on a table with a small bag aside it, and he quietly grabbed the note and looked at it: ''You should train more Roi, maybe you can have a slim chance of giving me a small scratch. I am leaving you some money for you to get a decent weapon. Maybe we meet again kiddo.'' And by that he already knew who had left the note.

A small smile appeared on his face as he quickly adjusted his hooded coat and shirt on, placing his sword on his back and bag of coins at his belt as he left the inn, leaving some money to pay for his stay and left, his wish to become king burnt more than ever as he now aimed to go to the capital of the kingdom.