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...!

Rio and Latifa have entered a forest in the Wilderness. While she's sleeping, they're surrounded by a band of what appear to be demi-humans. The girls reveal themselves to be People of the Spirits. Rio tries to talk things out with them, but Uzuma, a winged beast person, finds Latifa and assumes that Rio has abducted her. Uzuma swoops down on Rio without giving him a chance to explain. Her sudden attack renders Rio unconscious. In his dreams, a beautiful girl with pink blonde hair appears to him as well as Amakawa Hayato's childhood friend, Ayase Miharu.