Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta

Synopsis

In a flashback, Kal-El recalls his time when he was still the crown prince of Balsteros, Karl La Hire. Later that night at dinner, the students meet the seemingly unfriendly Ignacio and wonder why he's even attending the school. The admiral has the students practice dogfighting and shooting, despite the protests of the nobility students' instructor Sonia Palez that they're not ready yet. Nanako tells the others she heard a rumor that Karl La Hire was on the island and had a revenge plot against Nina Viento, but everyone jokingly dismisses the rumor, but it clearly makes Kal-El uncomfortable. More flashbacks reveal that six years prior, Balsteros was the victim of a violent revolution against the monarchy, where rebel forces overran the capital and the Priestess of Saint Aldista, Nina Viento, was able to destroy the fleeing monarchy ships using her ability to manipulate the wind. The captured royal family is forced to humiliatingly bow to the new rulers of Besteros and Nina, and Kal-El's father, the king, is beheaded while he and his mother are imprisoned. While imprisoned, his mother tells him to never hate and forgive when he can, before she is beheaded by the newly formed Besteros Republic. Distraught, he falls into a depression and is adopted by a sympathetic airplane mechanic who convinces the prison warden to pretend that Karl is dead. The next day, while on a training mission, Kal-El and Claire are separated from the rest of the squadron and are forced to make a water landing after getting lost.

(Source: Wikipedia)