Vol 1 Prologue (2/2)
And the thing that was covering the man’s head… the boy really wanted to call it a war hel at the man’s waist, it wasn’t a stick Possibly a sword? Are was this? Or considering everything else, should that have been the least of his worries?
When the ar htly, and a heavy sound reverberated throughout the roo up slowly The stone of it sunk away and a rectangular hole appeared in its place
“Get out,” the ar his chin towards the other side of the opening
Silver-Hair went first, followed by Gaudy-Girl Everyone else followed in succession, as if being pulled along, stepping outside OUTSIDE This time, they really were outside Was it dusk or dawn? The dimly sky stretched on endlessly in all directions They stood on a e tower soared aloft Was that the building they had been in only moments before? Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that they had been underneath it…
Counting the nu Silver-Hair, Messy-Hair, and hi Gaudy-Girl for a total of twelve in all It was still dark so he couldn’t quite make out everyone’s features, but build, clothes, hair styles, and general facial features were visible The boy didn’t recognize a single person here
“That looks like a city,” someone said He had silky hair and a slender physique He was pointing to so beyond the hill
Looking in that direction, the boy could see buildings clustered closely together A city It certainly looked like one, at least It had to be a city Surrounding it was a tall fence—no, not a fence A towering, sturdy looking wall
“It looksblack fralasses said
“A castle,” the boy whispered to himself Why did his voice sound like it was not his own?
“So… where is this?” a petite, shy seeirl directly behind him inquired, nervously
“No use asking me, dunno,” the boy replied
“Ah, sorry Does anyone know? Where are we?”
No one knew anything Unless everyone was conspiring to give Shy-Petite Girl trouble or was hiding the inforhtest idea
“Seriously?” Messy-Hair said, sifting his hands through it
“Ah!” said another boy wearing a striped jersey, as he clapped his hands together He had a sort of happy-go-lucky air about hiuard?”
Everyone turned their attention to the door It was then they all noticed The dooras getting narrower and narrower Stone was rising fro off bit by bit
“Hold on a—” The Happy-Go-Lucky boy rushed over to it in a panic but didn’t make it in time The doorway disappeared and it was now impossible to tell it apart from the rest of the wall “Hold on, how’s that possible? Whoever’s doing this, just quit it already…” he said, brushi+ng his hands over the wall’s surface, banging on it with both fists Nothing happened
Soon, he gave up and sluround
“This can’t be good,” a girl with long hair tied into twin braids said She pronounced her words slightly off, with the accent on the wrong syllables
“Is this for real?” Messy-Hair was squatted down, head between his knees “Seriously? Seriously…?”
“And, there they are, perfectly on tiirl’s shrill voice echoed around them
Who was that? There were four girls Gaudy-Girl, Twin-Braided Girl, Shy-Petite Girl, and finally a girl even smaller than her, probably less than 4’9” The shrill fe to the Gaudy-Girl, Twin-Braided Girl, or the Shy-Petite Girl It probably wasn’t Super-Small Girl’s voice either
“Everyone appeared, huh, came to visit, huh Where, you say? Here, I say!”
“Where?!” Happy-Go-Lucky shouted, ju to his feet
“Doooon’t rush, doooon’t shout, doooon’t let your hair down, doooon’t pull your hair out!” For so from behind the tower “Cha-lalalalalaaan, cha-lalalalalaaan, lalan…” Huirl poked her head out from the side of the tower Her hair was tied into bunches, in a kind of country-girl fashi+on
“hello How are you Welcouide Pleased to meet you Nice to meet you too? Kyapeeeee—”
“The way she talks pisses me off,” a boy with a buzz cut said, his jaws clenched so hard his teeth ground together
“Wah!” Hiyoain “Very scary Very frightening Please don’t be thaaaaaaaat mad Okay? Okay? Okay? Okay?”
Buzz-Cut boy clicked his tongue at her “Then don’t piss me off!”
“Unnnnnderstoooooood—!” Hiyomu leapt out from under the tower and curtsied in front of everyone “Hiyomu will mind her manners from now on! Carefully mind her manners! Is this okay? This is okay? Kyoheee—!”
“You’re doing that on purpose!”
“Oops, they figured it out! Whoops, oops, please don’t get mad, please don’t hit, please don’t kick, Hiyoeneral she wants to be treated kiiiiiiiiiiiiindly So, can I go on with the conversation? Can I do my job?”
“Hurry up and get on with it,” Silver-Hair said in a low voice Unlike Buzz-Cut boy, he didn’t look obviously angry; however, the sound of his voice was rather threatening
“Well then” Hiyoet on with my job, okay?”
The sky was getting brighter with every passing hter than just ht was turning into dawn
“For now, pleeeeeeeeease come with me Or I’ll leave you behind—”
Hiyo from side to side as she walked towards them A road led from the tower to the bottom of the hill To either side of the well-trodden black dirt road were clureat nuround Their quantity was excessive and they looked like they were organized into some sort of pattern, like someone had purposely placed them there
“Hey, are those…” Messy-Hair pointed to the rocks “Would those happen to be gravestones?”
The boy shuddered Now that Messy-Hair had mentioned it, it did seem that there were letters carved into the stones Some stones even had flowers placed in front of them Graves Could this entire hill be a cemetery?
Hiyoroup, didn’t bother to turn around to look at hiled “Maybe Who knows But no worries now, no need to worry now It’s not anyone here’s tiht? Ehehehehe…”
Buzz-Cut boy clicked his tongue at her again and kicked at the ground He looked pretty angry, but see the behind her and Glasses-Boy, Gaudy-Girl, and Super-S
Happy-Go-Lucky shouted, “Oy! Oy! Me too,after Silver-Hair, only to trip and fall
It didn’t look like there was any other option but to follow, but where was Hiyohed and turned his gaze towards the sky “Wha—” He squeaked
What was that?
It was hanging pretty low in the sky, but it couldn’t have been the sun It was too big to be a star and besides, it had already begun to wane The shape was so of which, e too…
“…It’s crimson”
The boy blinked several tiain No matter how many times he looked, it was the hue of red ruby Behind hiasped He looked back and saw that she was gazing at the moon as well
“Wha—” Twin-Braided Girl seemed to have noticed too She forced herself to blink a few times then chuckled softly “O moon-sama, you’re so crimson red~yan So very beautiful”
The silky-haired boy looked up at the cri in the dawn sky and his expression turned to one of amazement
“Whoa,” Messy-Hair said with a wide-eyed stare
An excessively large but seerunted in a low tone out of admiration
The boy didn’t knohere this here he was fro related to that But there was only one thing that he was absolutely certain of Where he was from, the moon wasn’t crimson A place that was not here
A moon that was crimson was… unearthly