Well damn, I just couldn't help myself to not to write this one as a certain someone inspired me to write a medieval AU of Type-0. Aaaand here you go! First medieval AU of Type-0!

Final Fantasy Type-0 and its' characters belong to Square Enix.

Phantasm of Oriense

"In the history of the land dubbed as Oriense, many stories of epic warriors and heartwarming loves soared inside the tales. And 'tis is but one of it…"

Overture : Waterfalls of Bloods

To say that the Kingdom of Byakko was a peaceful country was no understatement. The prosperities of the land were top notch, the citizens weren't able to find any better heaven than the spot they were landing on, and the militaries were something more than war elites. Needless to say, the kingdom's reputation exceeded every reputations ever held by both living and non-living matter in the world. Under the name of King Godfrey of the House of Kunagiri, the land was certainly the safest haven one could have. Justice was served, and villainy was taken care of.

Until you take into the account that one day, the trail of history changed drastically. The traitorous little brother of the just king had ripped the king's throat literally. The queen was no more fortunate, for she was slain tragically just after another minute when her husband had laid on the carpet lifelessly.

The said little brother was named Cid Kunagiri, born as Cid Aulstyne. The cruel and greedy tyrant was the closest human that was able to be correlated to a demon. Enacting a wicked laugh, the adult kicked the two royal corpses beneath his feet and issued another other: Kill the runaway sons of the Kunagiri.

Fortunately for the younger son, he was able to survive from the ordeal, by sacrificing his older brother. The bigger one, however, had happily done that for the safety of his little angel. Thus, the younger Kunagiri clenched his tearful eyes and mindlessly ran with all his might, towards any places that was not this land with the bloodied soil. No, even that wasn't enough, he had to cover his ears with his hand so that his brother's agonizing scream didn't reach his hearing. Why did he do this? Why did he run away to live on his own when his brother, father and mother were killed mercilessly?

Because he, Machina Kunagiri, was a coward.

With the stamina that no ten years old boy should have possessed, the young boy let his small legs take care of the rest. His journey was endless; the grim scenery, the dying people that he passed through, the hotness of the crimson flames… everything was looping itself in front of his green eyes. Until he reached the boundaries that connected the two biggest kingdoms: The Beast Kingdom of Byakko and The Fiery Kingdom of Suzaku.

And then Machina's tears were depleted, along with his stamina. His body simply skidded down like a used log.

…

Five years later, Machina was slowly raising his ranking in the Knighthood of Phoenix's ladder. It was an unexplainable wonder on how a fifteen years old brat was able to defeat those who ranked lieutenant already. It was very explainable however, if you took the fact that Kunagiri's bloodlines were gods of battlefield, for as long as there were swords in their hands and death by their hearts, into the custody. Machina was no joke, indeed.

After that one tragic day, the young prince was taken into the orphanage of the small village of Kingdom of Suzaku called Makutai by patrolling soldiers. Of course, Machina never told anybody his family name and faked it by stating that he suffered from amnesia, for he acknowledged already that the news of the evil rebellion led by Cid on his country would soon reached the ears of Suzakus. It was a no brainer that that would work as a decent reasoning for everyone, if not for the fact that a boy named Ace was there as well.

Ace was Machina's childhood friend, a young prodigy who mastered the four elemental magic on his seventh birthday. Back then, that talent of his was not left unnoticed by the country's military, and the boy was soon enlisted under them, as magicks were not something that one could find, and fight these days. Ten years old Ace was rather introverted, yes, but when he was put under the direct care of King Godfey, he soon warmed up to everyone else, mainly the two young brothers of the House of Kunagiri. Whether Ace looked at them as a friend or a warrior was not important, for he was terrifically loyal to them either way. His happy days however, was put to an end when the whole member of the House of Kunagiri was massacred brutally, and Ace, still breathing, was thrown to a river by the remaining loyal knights of Godfrey.

It was no attempt to kill him. In fact, it was an effort from the knights to kept Ace survives from this whole blasphemy. He was their mascot, a lonely and cute boy who deserved to have a brighter ending than this. Against Ace's determination to fight, he was harshly shoved to the river that was connected to the sea of the land of Suzaku. He cried in rejection, watched as the Byakko's gentle knights were smiling at him as his body was edged away from them. Ace was no dumb, he could decipher the message they were sending at him with ease despite the situation he was in: They were ordering him to stay alive. Soon, he was drowned on the thick layers of waters, and when he was awake, he found himself in an orphanage in Makutai.

Ace cried for days, weeks even, cursing his liability. Until he found out Machina Kunagiri was still alive, once again in the same room as him.

The two boys didn't waste any time to share a brotherly hug for they had no one else that they recognized at that point. Embracing each other, they promised each other that they would protect each other's back till the end, until that bastard Cid Aulstyne was dead.

Soon enough, report about Machina's skill had gone into the ears of the higher-ups. The king Khalia Chival summoned him and he attended. The moment Machina kneeled before the king under his steel armor, a feeling of nostalgia soon dwelled inside him. He couldn't do any eyes-locking with the king as it was improper for a mere knight to do so with a king, but he could feel the warmness that the king emitted. It was just like five years prior, it's the same warmth that his father used to give him. If Machina didn't wear his helmet on, he was pretty sure everyone could see the single tear that passed his eyes.

Machina wasn't wrong. The king of the Kingdom of Suzaku was no different that his father. He was kind and wise, he was gallant, and he was loved by his people. What made it way more amazing than he was right now, the king even trusted him to be his granddaughter's personal bodyguard.

And it was the day when everything started.

Machina was soon enveloped by the brightness of the gigantic castle of Suzaku as he found himself standing in front of Princess Rem's door for the first time. He gulped nervously, he heard rumors about the young royal's amazing beauty when he was still stationed in the damp barrack. Furthermore, words also aired that she was around the same age as him as well. Despite all his focus on stopping Cid Aulstyne, he couldn't help but let that question swam in his mind.

His question was answered gloriously when the most breathtaking creature he had ever seen opened the door. She had strawberry-colored hair that fell to her shoulders, and seemed to flash with bright gold in the light. Her deep crimson eyes seemed to glow with a hidden light of their own. Unexpectedly, Machina found himself drawn through them into the girl's soul, into the pool of pain and sorrow that resided there. The boy found himself seized with an irresistible urge to hold the slender, delicate girl to his body, and kiss away all the pain from her heart. But he quickly reigned in the foolish thought.

Princess Rem did not consider her life to be anything spectacular... Her parents were dead, and she missed them horribly. She hated the war that happened, even in the places that wasn't her land. And she loved her grandfather, but he was often too busy taking care of the land's prosperity to notice her discomfort, although she didn't really mind that too much. The young princess was always smiling and cheerful, and she always had a kind word for everyone she saw, whether they be a high ranking lord, or a lowly servant. These facts made her life quite spectacular indeed, but spectacular or not there was one thing that was true about her life...It was not the happiest one, though she worked very hard to keep this hidden.

The night before, king Khalia said to Rem already that she was going to have a personal bodyguard on her own. Rem wasn't too happy about this, she was already tortured with the fact that wars were brewing on the other land already and her grandfather decided not to send any troops to help stopping the war.

That was at first, though. That morning, Rem was expecting a fat, burly and old soldier as her new bodyguard, instead she was presented with something way more shocking. The boy was scarcely older than she was, maybe even the same age as her, but he was tall for his age, and well built. And the simple armor he wore made him seem older. But the way his messy dark blue hair fell about his head marked him with a distinctly child-like quality. And then there were his eyes. They were colored with the color of a rough emerald, and they seemed to reflect all the horrors the boy had seen, all the pain he had felt, but behind it all they shone with a hope, the kind of which would never die. At that moment Rem wanted nothing else in the world but to grab hold of him and cry into his chest, sure of the loving embrace that would soon follow. But she took hold of her feelings just as sternly as Machina had, for she knew they could never be anything but a fantasy. She was a princess, and he was a slave, and to even think of such a thing warranted death.

But some things happen no matter how hard you try to stop them, and the princess and the boy who was to guard her life fell in love that day.

And after another five year, this story reached one of its climaxes…

Inspired by a talk with Crystallium after a long, amazing roleplaying. You see, Ace symbolized 'trust' and he gave me an idea of how amazing would it be if Ace is a knight who works under Machina. Without a doubt, he is definitely the most loyal knight one could ever dream of xD. Also, Prince Machina sounds so awesome.

This story is –hopefully- already fully planned. There'll be a lot of romances and actions involved, with some fantasies element here and there. Let's take magick for example, they can do it here, but there isn't a lot of magiteck armor or monsters in general. Unfortunately, I have to give a sad heads-up : Not ALL of Class Zero will make an appearance here. This fic is nothing but the 'prelude' arc. Yes, I've even planned a sequel for this one already, which you can bet all of them will make an appearance there.

Another heads-up, this one is going to have a lot of POV switching. In fact, there're three main characters with three main pairings in this arc. Who are they? Feel free to guess while I write the next chapter.