Governor's Palace
Rote raised his head, his gaze passing through the narrow window, looking at the howling blizzard outside and the bright radiance falling from above the storm.
"Fox's Fire?" He watched that radiance, slightly furrowing his brow.
The wrinkled animal skin paper was naturally placed aside, and he stood up, looking to his side.
The fireplace was ablaze with roaring flames, the warm firelight crackling in the silent space.
In the places where the radiance could not reach, in the shadows between the walls, the world seemed to be sinking into a dim silence.
Invisible darkness seemed to be emerging from those shadows, waving its monsters, swallowing the dim firelight.
The roaring flames suddenly flickered, as if brushed by the cold wind outside the window, suppressing the firelight.
"Bertha?" Rote raised his head, calling the maid's name into the shadow.
But the entire room remained so silent, as if the eternal night had already descended.
——
