Skia Nerius

"You know, when you have nothing... You can fill that void with anything. There is no future destined for such a person."

- Skia Nerius

Skia Nerius is a princess of the Nerius family and cousin of Erich Nerius. She is known as the Shadow Princess, a role that she was raised into. She's more carefree compared to her twin sister.

Story
Skia meets Nihil Miseria Heine in the hallway of the Prontera palace shortly after he storms out of his family's room. There, she affirms that she is aware of her reputation as the Shadow Princess and expresses that she was raised as the shadow, but it never made her sad nor did she find the lifestyle difficult. She bades the prince farewell and heads over to her family's villa room. Spica and Skia's mother had heard about the adventurer that was invited to observe the Royal Assembly and ordered her daughters to meet with the adventurer in order to learn from him/her. In their villa room at the Prontera palace, Spica explains that their mother is the head of the Nerius family. The adventurer wonders where the Nerius candidate is and Spica supposes that he is in the library looking at blueprints or something. She goes on to explain that Erich isn't interested in the throne and actually didn't have to participate in the Royal Assembly at all. When the adventurer asks why Spica herself isn't interested in the throne either, Spica answers that the Nerius family is matriarchal and has always been known to turn out queens for the kingdom. Had Erich not come forward, then either her or Spica would be chosen as candidates for queenship. Their mother didn't like the idea of either of them becoming queen, so their cousin Erich was chosen instead.

Later, while hanging out in the Banquet Hall, Spica manages to find the adventurer and tells him/her that they didn't realize that the adventurer was one of the heroes that the banquet was being held for. This excited Skia, as it meant the adventurer could hang out with them anytime he/she wanted. The adventurer is embarrassed by the revelation and wishes the two sisters would not mention it again. Spica promises to not bring it up again and points out to Crux that her dear sister wants to hang around quietly for the adventurer's sake. When Crux is unsure of what she meant by that, Spica then playfully accuses Crux of spying on the sisters for their mother. The poor knight becomes flabbergasted as Skia joins in on the banter. Crux tries to defend himself when he spots Nihil approaching them. Skia sees him as well and calls him over to Nihil's embarrassment. Nihil sees that the invited adventurer was with them as well and he starts to regret approaching the Nerius sisters. Meanwhile, Spica is curious as to why her sister and a member of the Heine family are on first-name terms and Skia explains that they met in the hallway since the Heine residential villa is next to that of the Nerius'. Nihil expresses his thanks for the encounter and turns to the adventurer to apologize for his behavior while he/she was visiting the Heine villa.

Just then, a drunken woman comes up to the group and blabbers about how she wasn't surprised that Nihil lost his candidacy for the throne. She then notices the Nerius sisters and accuses Nihil of leaving the Heine family to join the Nerius family. Nihil orders her to stop with the vitriol, but the woman continues her tirade anyways. Crux threatens the woman to stop insulting the Nerius family as he had enough of her blabbering. Spica tells Crux to stand down as she has no desire to hold a grudge against the Heine family for the woman's outburst, identifying the drunk woman as Violetta Collette Heine. She warns Violetta that should she continue her tirade and drag the Nerius family into the drama, she will bring shame to the Heine family. Nihil adds that he will make sure Violetta gets punished as she is a collateral relative. This makes Violetta leave, but not without one last insult to the Heine prince. Skia is curious as to the story behind all that and Nihil apologizes for his cousin's behavior. Skia points out that he doesn't need to say sorry since he's done nothing wrong. Spica clarifies that whether or not Nihil did anything wrong, he is still responsible for any member of the Heine family as he is a head of the family. However, she was surprised that Nihil was being treated badly even though he was a head of the Heine family.

Just then, a banquet attendant comes up and offers some light champagne to the group. Nihil and Skia both take a glass and Nihil takes a sip out of his. He excuses himself from the group and hopes that they can hang out again. Spica offers to officially invite him should there be another opportunity to meet up. As Nihil takes his leave, Spica notices something odd and asks her sister if she could look at the glass of champagne she got. She then sends Crux to track down the attendant that offered them the drinks. Turning to the adventurer, Spica asks him/her to examine the drink as she saw something strange about it. The adventurer points out that Spica was speaking more casually and Spica responds that she's not used to talking formally and only spoke that way with the adventurer out of courtesy. Spica and Skia then see that Nihil was becoming unstable in his step and Crux realizes why Spica sent him to find the attendant. Spica determines that there was no way Nihil could be that drunk since the champagne was light. She asks the adventurer if something is about to happen and decides to go back to the Nerius villa with Crux. Skia doesn't want to leave Nihil alone and Spica gives her permission to do what she will without her. Thinking her sister as cold-hearted to take off like that, Skia teams up with the adventurer to track down Nihil and see if he's okay. They track him down to one of the villa rooms in the palace and Skia asks Nihil how he's feeling. Nihil wonders if he's drunk and expresses that his head hurts and he feels dizzy. Skia asks him how he got to the room and Nihil explains that he had an attendant help him to the room when he suddenly felt tipsy. He doesn't remember anything else, but thinks there was a guest in the room earlier. Brushing it off, he asks Skia and the adventurer why they were there and Skia responds that it was almost time for the Ritual of Blessing. Nihil supposes he should return to his family now that his head was clearing up. He excuses himself and leaves the room. Glad to see that he was okay, Skia also excuses herself and tells the adventurer that they should be getting ready for the ritual as well.

Later in the Room of Consciousness, Skia and Nihil eagerly greet the adventurer to the Ritual of Blessing. Nihil begins to say something about what happened after he left the banquet hall, but he stops himself and decides that it would be best to talk about that after the ritual. He then goes to take his place with his family, as did Skia. The ritual begins with Kronecker leading everyone to chant their blessings upon the chosen candidate Peter Heine.

On behalf of the seven royal families supporting Rune-Midgarts Here is the new appointed representative May the blessing starlight reach the glory of the earth Please allow the power from the source to be granted for all beings The courage to charge forward and strike the enemy The heart to embrace everything in this world The strong will to protect everything within reach The intact pride of justice and faith that never bends no matter what The virtue of looking up to others with a humble mind And the wisdom to see the truth

Before the ritual could complete, an intruder appears and strikes down Peter. The intruder elaborates that he heard that a piece Ymir's Heart was hidden in the Room of Consciousness, but it turned out to be a fake. The adventurer and the royal families attempt to approach the intruder, but the intruder threatens that if they take another step he will destroy the fake Heart of Ymir. Kronecker is surprised that the Heart of Ymir is fake, which causes the intruder to realize that none of the royal families know where the real one is hidden if they were ignorantly carrying out the ritual with a fake. The intruder is frustrated that he wasted his time with a fake and decides to leave without causing more of a scene. However, he quickly backtracks on his word and destroys the fake Heart of Ymir. The royal families are then accosted by more intruders, but they are able to fend them off with the help of the adventurer. The intruders disappear and the royal families evacuate the ritual hall.

Skia disguised as Spica greets the adventurer at the Nerius villa, commenting how he/she is slow to come when he/she has the most freedom in moving around the palace. Suddenly Nihil appears, explaining that his house arrest is only confined to the west wing of the palace's villas. He then wonders why Skia is dressed up as her sister Spica, to the bewilderment of the adventurer. Skia tries to maintain the ruse, but Nihil sees through it easily. Skia finally gives in and reveals herself, wondering if she was a bad actress. Nihil responds that they may be twins, but they still have slight differences. This pleases Skia, knowing that he recognizes her. The adventurer wonders why Skia is wearing her sister's outfit and Skia explains that it's part of her duty as a Shadow Princess to protect her sister, who is to be the next head of the Nerius family. As such, she is the only one of the two that knows how to fight. The banquet is actually the first time Skia appears in public along with her sister. Nihil notes that it is thanks to Spica that Nihil's house arrest wasn't confined to just the Heine villa. He wonders when she will be back as the sudden meeting with the heads of the royal families should've been over by now. The adventurer asks why Nihil is there and he responds that he came to deliver a message. He volunteered to be the messenger because he heard that the adventurer was visiting the Nerius family (and also because the Heine villa was stuffy). Skia wonders what it could be about and Nihil suggests that she asks Spica since she was at the meeting. Nihil then implores the adventurer to meet his father and grandfather. Skia explains that she can't go with them as she still needs to represent her sister while she is gone.

The next day, Nihil and Skia meet with the adventurer in his/her room to talk about their next move. Skia was dressed up like Spica again and explains that her sister needed to investigate some things on her own, which required Skia to be her substitute again. During the banquet, Spica and Crux went off to find the attendant that served them the drugged champagne. Skia adds that Spica has a sharp eye when it comes to things like that.

Spica eventually arrives at the adventurer's room and gets straight to the point. Although Crux had done a great job tracking down the attendant, he was unable to find the suspicious people that the adventurer overheard. The attendant was simply ordered to recommend a drink to a son of the Heine family. The drink that was given was supposedly his favorite drink. Skia wonders why Spica had come without Crux and Spica goes on to explain that they managed to find out that the chamberlain that gave the drink to the attendant lives in Schwarzwald. Therefore she has sent Crux to track down the chamberlain and has already passed by Juno.

Nihil chimes in, saying that if the chamberlain is from Schwarzwald, then tracking him down won't be easy due to the fact that the royal family cannot take official action against him. They also cannot alert the country to the situation either. Spica notes that the heads of the seven royal families are already aware of the issue and called a conference to decide what their next course of action will be. However, each family has a different idea to approach the problem so Spica has taken it upon herself to do as she wished. Nihil thinks the adventurer should meet up with Crux as he thinks the task will be tough for the bodyguard to take on by himself. Skia volunteers to join them and Spica gives her permission to do so, handing over Crux's reports to Nihil. She's not a fan of getting her hands dirty and so decides that she willl do what she can from the comfort of the Nerius villa. Nihil is curious as to why she's putting in so much effort for this investigation and Spica responds that she simply found it interesting and that a change was needed anyhow. She finds the Heines' obsession with ruling over Rune-Midgarts to be rather stuffy and leaves it at that. Nihil notes that whatever her reasons may be, she looks rather happy to help regardless.

With Nihil taking charge of the operation, he tasks the adventurer to join up with Crux to find the suspicious chamberlain. From Crux's report, the chamberlain's name is Bruno. Nihil suspects that Bruno is headed towards Lighthalzen. Bruno won't be traveling by airship as he'll be easily tracked that way. Therefore the adventurer would have to meet up with Crux in Lighthalzen and narrow down their search from what Crux has found out thus far. Skia's swordsmanship skills will be a great asset, so she will also be meeting them at the Lighthalzen airport. The group then disperses with Spica and Nihil going back to their respective villas and Skia going off with the adventurer.

Trivia

 * In classical Greek, skia (Greek: σκιά) is a shade (spirit or ghost of a dead person) residing in the underworld.