—The disheveled holy maiden headed to the fortress without hesitation to save the king.

Her loyal horse dashed on the land to its limit to answer the feeling of its master despite the foam vomited from its mouth.

Yet, despite the king's life was in danger, her side had neither a knight or a servant.

The generals entranced by the invincible king up to this day must have noticed this by now. Although they once cheered and praised the king for his glory, yet whether they would send help or not is another story.

Likewise, the holy maiden was also walking on a thin line if she could make it in time or not.

The king's execution will be held on today's evening.

And the sun has already set.

At this rate, then by the time she could reach everyone, the king would be decapitated.

Just a little more — just a little more, and she could put an end to this war.

If she can unite the powerful kingdoms under the king's authority, the long war that has ravaged the land for so long would come to an end.

However, if the king was dead, there would be countless claimed as new kings on the old king's territory arise and begin another larger and more chaotic war than before.

And those pa.s.sionately waiting for that moment is too many to count.

If she failed to prevent the king's death, all the roads leading the united kingdom that has been established to this day will be severed.

The holy maiden bit her teeth and glared on the setting sun.

“The sun…! I beg you, just for today… Please, halt the time for setting as much as possible…!”

I will even give you my life just for that could happen.

I will even give you the flame of light in accordance to make the setting sun to be delayed for a second.

The moment the holy maiden exclaimed her desire to G.o.d — an impossible miracle occurred.

＊

“Hey, Al… Are you still reading [The Legend of King Arthur?”

He stood up in a surprised state.

The young boy closed the thick book with extreme speed.

This book, which has [The Legend of King Arthur] written on a beautiful cover, can be easily identified as an valuable object from a glance.

The boy who was concentrating on reading [The Legend of King Arthur] — Al, glared at the bad friend who called him from behind.

“No… That should be my line, Kasukabe. How many times do I have to tell not to call me from behind while I was reading a book?”

“You being full of openings is what at fault here. Not to mention, this back garden was first discovered by me. So, you are the one walking behind my back here.”

The young boy called Kasukabe sat next to Al as he gave out rude remarks.

He is tall for an Asian, even his face shown a mature air that does not match his age.

A group of students who've seen his wild-like appearance called him [Banchou] (1) with a clear sense of respect.

The place where the two sat on is a back garden straight ahead of the small road on the back of the school. The stone statue towering in the center of the garden appeared to be the work of a professional sculptor, its whole body was covered in moss and its torso is mostly entwined by ivy flowers.

But, Kasukabe thought its state was fine and took out his sketchbook and started to practice drawing as a part of his daily routine.

Al peered on the sketchbook and laughed as if he was shocked.

“You're drawing that statue again? You has drawn the same thing for dozens of times already, shouldn't it be the time for you to get bore and move on to another thing?”

“I'm not drawing for the sake of drawing, you know. Just to remind you, I'm now stuyding as a scholars.h.i.+p student. If I don't create anything good in the next contest and the next one after, then I will be sent back to j.a.pan in the next instant.”

“Ah, is that so? The reason why you had an invitation to Florence was because how highly rated your paintings were… *Giggle*. But in reality, your dream is to become a sculptor, am I right?”

The laughing Al, whose hair was fluttering, ask with a bit of malice in his tone.

Kasukabe hasn't lived for two months since his arrival to Florence, the City of Art. As his physique was well-built for his age, there was no need to specifically prepare a school uniform for him, and on rare occasions, there were also days where he wore his j.a.panese school uniform [Gakuran] (2) like today.

His reason to study abroad at Florence, the City of Art is to become an artist on the surface and to acquire knowledge as a sculptor in the back.

“You can't gain something without exchanging for another. And it's not like I hate drawing either. I do work hard on the draft. Just this statue on the back garden is enough. It somehow made my heart beating.”

While shaving his pencil with a knife, Kasukabe watched the statue with a sense of respect.

The statue on the altar was a pair of man and woman.

The emotional act in which the legendary King Arthur embraced the Holy Maiden who would be soon depart from the living world.

It is the most famous and one of rare renowned act that touched countless people's heart and made them to shed tears in sorrow to this day.

“The Holy Maiden who walked into the crowd just to save King Arthur who was about to be executed… In spite of managing to save the king from the imminent death, the Holy Maiden lost her life instead.”

“It was then King Arthur came to know her truth for the first time… That she was his elder sister from another mother. A woman who had shed rivers of blood, endured unspeakable humiliation and supported him from behind just to make him ascend to the status of a king.”

From the moment he pulled out the Crowning Sacred Sword, the Holy Maiden concealed her ident.i.ty and used her resourcefulness to support him from the side.

And until the very end, she even exhausted her life for the king.

Upon knowing that truth, the king's tears kept flowing as he lamented on G.o.d.

“[I beg you, please save her]… right?”

“Yes. However, the king's shout only echoed through the empty plain and the Holy Maiden was no longer on this world anymore. Nevertheless, the experience and the incident back then made the king to yearn for peace… Or so told famous historical interpretations.”

“And that was also your most favorite act. That was the act you are reading today, am I right?”

Hearing Kasukabe's question, Al scratched his cheeks as he wore a bitter smile.

Then, he looked to the statue where the king embraced the Holy Maiden.

“A lot of Florence's statues are about Greek Mythology. It reminded me of my hometown when I arrived here. As a child, I was brought up with admiration for this statue.”

Nostalgia filled him as he continued his admiration for the statue.

Perhaps his hometown was a place where statues are so common that they can be seen from anywhere.

However, there were undoubtedly other feelings aside from nostalgia can be seen in his eyes.

“…That reminds me, it seems they will soon broadcast the [Legend of King Arthur] from Act One.”

“Because the Coronation Day (3) is coming soon. I've heard that would also be an opening drama on the Coronation Ceremony of the ruling king. Surely, your time should be the same—”

—*Swoop*, the wind pa.s.sed by between the two.

Kasukabe refrained from saying meaningless words and turned around slowly.

Al also felt something is strange and lay his hands on self-defense weapons.

The wariness of the two who had another's back rose.

In that moment, from somewhere else, they heard a voice in uncertainty tone.

“I beg you — save her!”

“……!”

“…..Who's there!?”

They can clearly hear the voice just right now.

Kasukabe also took out his self-defense weapon and entered battlemode.

Yet, they couldn't find where was the owner of the voice and sorrowful shout continued to grow.

“I beg you — save her

—The woman who was never saved by anyone.

—The elder sister trapped in darkness from her destiny…….!”

In that instance, the scenery before the two shattered as though they were gla.s.s.

“D — Dimensional Severing!? Not good, contact the Control AI quick!”

“No, it's not connected! Hold tight, Al!!”

Kasukabe grabbed the hand of the falling Al when he lost his footing, Nevertheless, he was also falling and swallowed in the same manner.

The two fell on the s.p.a.ce where countless stars gone by.

For a monent, they experienced an eternal instance when their sense of time was lost, then their vision suddenly changed.

What appeared before the two, are mountains they've never seen before on an enormous plain,

The horses sprinting on the plain have wings, and fountains unfolded in elegance.

In a distant and faraway place, there stood a tower large enough to pierce the sky.

Seeing the mystical scenery before their eyes, both reflectively exclaimed with their eyes wide.

“‘Where the h.e.l.l is the place—!!?”

Alt.i.tude: 3000m.

What summoned the falling two — is the absolute and perfect otherworldly dimension.

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banch%C5%8D_(position)

(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/j.a.panese_school_uniform#Gakuran

(3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronation_Day