The sounds of dripping water echoed through his ears.

His vision blurred in and out, his eyes lids opened and closed. His whole body felt numb, his senses dulled.

“…ah….w…where…?”

With a ragged voice, he tried to call out. But his call came back unanswered. Slowly turning his head, his eyes stared weakly at the room around him.

Bricks of stone stacked over one another, the feeling of isolation creeped into him. The lamp on the far end of the room merely lit a small flame. The creeping shadows surrounded him.

Putting his hand on his head, he slowly rose out of the bed. The soft feeling of the blanket drifted away as it fell onto the cold stone floor.

“…?”

His sights still blurry, he looked around to the room once more. Besides the one lamp at the far end of the room, there wasn’t really anything else inside this room, besides the bed and the door anyways.

Looking to his left, his eyes fell upon the one window inside the room. Although, even with this window, the room inside was still very much cloaked in darkness. Droplets of water ran across the transparent glass panes.

The skies outside was dark. The night sky loomed over the silent kingdom. The stars above glimmered around the moon high above.

He stared out silently in wonder, not realising that the door near to the lamp had opened.

“A-Arthur…?”

Snapping out of his daze, he turned around to see a beautiful woman had just entered into his room. She was wearing a worried smile as she approached him.

“Saya…?”

Without answering back, Saya quickly embraced him, tears flowing out of her eyes. Under the moment, he awkwardly hugged back.

“T-Thank goodness…You’re alive…”

“W-What’s wrong with that?”

Separating from him, she wiped away her tears and explained, his eyes opened in shock.

From what he heard, it seems like while they were operating on him, his blood lost had become so severe that they had to use around 5 blood packs! His heart jumped a beat after hearing that.

But that wasn’t the most shocking part, she said that while they were doing their best to keep him alive, his body began radiating a dark aura, and a strong force began rushing out of him. She said that the force was so strong, that even she felt it, although he wasn’t sure if that was true or not.

The priests became scared of him, and decided to keep him isolated in this empty room, which was supposed to be given to one of the missing heroes.

“That explains why this room’s empty…”

“Yes…But…I really am glad…”

Her voice trailed off as she hung her head shamefully. “Hey, what’s wrong?” Fearing that she was about to hug him again, he put up his arms in defence.

“I…I couldn’t help…even…even when…”

Before she could finish, tears began flowing out of her eyes again. She shamefully covered her face as she continued to cry. Feeling a rising guilt in his gut, he stood up against his injuries and hugged her.

“Shh…It’s fine…At least I’m alive, right?”

“Hic…Y-Yeah…!”

Leaning her body against his, she continued to cry her tears out.

…………

And so, the night moved on.

The stars in the sky faded away as the rising sun illuminated the darkened ground in a new light. Birds were happily chirping along as they flew across the sky.

The streets of [Tordge] grew noisy once again. People of many ages roamed the bustling streets. Merchants desperately tried to attract customers as the people walked along the paved streets. The doors of many stores opened as the day went along.

Although, not one of the citizens knew about what had transpired. The devastating destruction was expertly hidden with an illusion by the kingdom’s mages. But they were unsure how long they could hold it up.

The gates to the castle was completely quiet. Not a single guard was standing guard by the gates. The flowers silently waved in the wind.

But under that illusion, the sight of a devastated castle could be seen. The once proud stone walls were broken down and shattered, held up by temporary pillars on its sides.

“Hah…This really is bad.”

Inside the training grounds of the castle, a fairly tall man stood there with his hand over his face. His blonde hair waved in the wind.

Because today he was surprisingly off his duties, he grew bored of waiting in the castle and decided to take a stroll around the castle. But he could only look in despair at the utter chaos that had occurred, and the fact that he was unable to stop it weighed on him heavily.

All those lives that were lost, was because of him.

“Arthur? Why are you here?”

As he was deep in thought, a voice called out to him from behind. He turned around to see his friend standing there, her eyes staring at him filled with worry.

“Saya? What’re you doing here?”

Right in front of the arch gate leading back to the main castle room, Saya stood there, her heart still wrapped in worry.

To his surprise, Saya wasn’t wearing her usual priestess outfit. Today, she was casually wearing a one-piece silk white dress, with pink frills sewed to the end of her dress. Her long black hair was let down, but he could tell that it was expertly combed.

It felt somewhat unnecessary.

“I’m off duty today!”

“I see…I guess we were let off from our duties…”

“For now.”

“For now.”

They both laughed about it for a moment, before sighing and hanging their heads down in defeat.

I don’t think I need to describe what they go through every day…

That would take a looong time.

“But it’s rare for you to wear those clothes! I haven’t seen those for so long!”

“…This?”

Because he was off duty today, he felt that it would be quite redundant to wear his usual knight captain armour. After thinking about it for a while, he decided to just wear some clothes he still kept in his wardrobe.

After searching for a while, he ended up wearing a plain black T-shirt, with an odd picture of a star sewed into it, and a pair of grey jeans he found at the bottom drawer of his wardrobe. He needed to blow away the dust first however…

“Aren’t you embarrassed to wear that?”

“…Why would I?”

Saya pouted in discomfort and sighed. This was one side of Arthur she always hated!

“Arthur, we’re in the royal castle. Wouldn’t the soldiers laugh at you for wearing that?”

“…So? If they do, I’ll just beat them up and put them into solitary confinement.”

“W-Wah…Scary…”

Shivering slightly, she gave her prayers to those unfortunate enough to meet his punishments. Even though he said it jokingly this time, she wasn’t sure if what he said was truly a joke or not. He has a bad habit of laughing something off…

He’s just the worst at times.

“Anyways, someone’s waiting for you, Arthur.”

“…Who?”

“You’ll know when you see!”

He looked to her dubiously, not really wanting to indulge in any work in his day off. It’s not every day this opportunity arises, you know?

Seeing his hesitation, Saya forcefully gripped his arm and pulled him back into the castle. With a tired expression, he silently followed the happy Saya, walking through the broken halls of the castle.

His expression darkened as he was reminded of his failures.

He grit his teeth unconsciously, not realising that they had reached the main room of the castle. And there, standing by the entrance gate, a familiar face could be seen staring back at him.

“Z-Zed?!”

“Ah! My old friend! It has been quite a while!”

Out of anyone else, to see Zed, an old friend he hadn’t seen in about 5 years, standing there with his arms crossed and leaning against the wall, his mouth was left open in shock.

I mean, it’s Zed!

“How have you been, Arthur? Has life treated you well?”

“You sound like an old man…But yeah, I’ve been better.”

Zed dismissed his comment and looked over to Saya. “How have you been, Saya?”

“I’ve been fine! I promised after all!”

“I suppose so.”

And so, the three went on to talk about random things, and about how they miss the old days, back when they were still learning as a team together in the magic academy. Saya teared up slightly in nostalgia.

After the talk was over, Arthur quickly jumped to the case and asked Zed.

“So, what’re you here for? Please don’t say it’s work.”

“Haha! You haven’t changed, Arthur!”

“……”

“Ugh…I-I mean…Ahem…I have some people who wish to meet you.”

“So it is work.” He said in a sinister tone, his eyes narrowed dangerously, as if he was ready to bite him at any moment.

“No. They are the heroes.”

“?!”

Arthur, and Saya widened their eyes in shock and stepped back. They quickly closed in and began whispering something. As if he knew about their talk, Zed interrupted them.

“Do not worry. I found out myself. There has not been a leak.”

“I-I see…Thank goodness…”

Saya sighed in relief after hearing so. The king had made it clear that no one was allowed to leak the heroes’ arrival, and anyone who did, would be imprisoned for their crimes. Although, that sounded much better than what Arthur would do.

“So, where are they?”

“They’re waiting outside.”

……

Outside the main castle building, the figure of a boy and a girl could be seen sitting together on a wooden bench, placed around a garden of flowers. The mirage of red and yellow blended quite well together.

“Hah…”

Sitting on the right, the boy put his hand over his forehead and sighed. His eyes had black circles piling up under it, and his face looked quite pale. The girl sitting next to him was no different.

These two were Jake and Charlotte!

As he let out another sigh, he failed to notice a group of 3 people approaching.

“Young Jake? Are you alright?”

“…haa?”

With his energy squeezed out, he looked up to see Zed slowly approaching him, this time with two people he wasn’t familiar with.

But then, as they got closer, he immediately recognised these people and stood up. Somehow seeing another person besides Zed had given him a burst of energy. After all, he was drained both mentally and physically because of Zed.

“Y-You’re…”

“Ah. It really is one of the heroes.”

Upon seeing him, Arthur said commented with a somewhat shocked voice, although it sounded more like he was simply uninterested. But Saya on the other hand, immediately rushed to him.

“Thank goodness! You came back!”

“H-Huh?”

“…? What is that supposed to mean?”

Hearing their responses, she looked down grimly and turned around. Zed seemed to understand what she was getting at and stood back, staying silent. With a sad voice, she explained what had happened.

“The heroes…have disappeared.”

“…Pardon?”

“W-What…?”

…………

“Hydrogen?”

Far from the kingdom of [Tordge], where no amount of travelling would ever reach such a surreal place, was a world filled with sky islands, connected by three large water rivers, floating there without any outside support.

Not that other places weren’t surreal, just that this place took it to another level.

“Yeah. If hydrogen gets lit, it’ll burst into flames.”

On one of the islands, the sounds of splashing water echoed through the air. The leaves rustled as the wind flew by.

“I see…T-That’s amazing!”

Sitting down by the lake he first landed in, Alex sat down together with Marie and explained to her about the fight with the 8 moles. She constantly bugged him about how amazing his fight was, and how she wanted to learn how he did such amazing feats.

“It’s not that amazing…I’m sure Jake could do something more spectacular.”

Alex said sincerely as he stared into his reflection on the water. His face staring back at him. They both sat there silently for a while, watching the water fall down from the cliff above.

Actually, how does this waterfall even work?

Ah, whatever.

As he was blankly staring into his reflection, his mind began to wander aimlessly. Random thoughts began cropping in and out of his mind as he watched ripples spreading across the lake, the water from above crashing onto the surface.

Wait…Crashing.

“That’s it!”

With confidence, Alex suddenly stood up on his two feet, his eyes sparkling with a brilliant idea he just came up with to solve an ever-present problem.

“A-Alex?!”

“Marie, do you still have any MP left?”

“Y-Yes…?”

“Come here for a moment.”

Stepping his feet onto the dry soil, he walked away from the lake. In confusion, and a slight curiosity, she pulled her feet out of the water and followed him. After he was about 5 meters away from the lake, he turned around and faced her.

“Can you activate you asteroid thing for a moment?”

“S-Sure…?”

Her MP slightly recovered, she activated her {[Asteroid Belt]}, forming a group of 10 small asteroids to orbit around her waist.

“Can you shoot out one of your asteroids?”

Hearing his request, she hung her head silently and looked down in defeat. Looking at her like this, it seems like the answer is no.

“How far can you move them?”

“H-Huh? W-Well…”

Stretching out her hand, one of the asteroids flew slightly forward, stopping right when it was about 1 meter away. “I see…” Alex quickly took note of this.

“A-Alex?”

Without saying anything, Alex suddenly threw a short metal pole at her. Nervously, she brought her asteroids together and formed a wall. The metal pole crashed right into the asteroid wall, stopping its momentum.

“No. Not like that.”

“W-What do you mean…?”

“Why don’t you try spinning your asteroids really fast? You know, to try and hit away the pole?”

Right after he said so, he threw another short metal pole he conjured as he talked. Once more, she was about to form her asteroids into a wall, but she then recalled what he said, and instead, commanded her asteroids to orbit around her.

Quickly, the asteroids began building speed, and when the metal pole finally reached her 1 meter mark, the metal pole was hit away by the sheer speed of the asteroids, flying away and splashing into the waters.

“W-Woah…”

Although she was the one who did it, she was still very shocked to see the outcome. She would’ve never expected her flimsy little asteroids, to be capable of attacking in that manner, even taking into account her small range.

And so, although the kingdom had suffered many casualties, Marie and Alex were casually chatting along while sitting on a giant floating island in the middle of a world connected by 3 giant water river bridges.

This world sure is weird…