At the summit of the towering temple, a single bell was positioned.
The bell toll that announced noon symbolized that the grace of the heavenly god Arus was spreading from the sky to the ends of the earth. How trivial and insignificant is human life, that one must look up at the bell tower to find the source of that sound.
For this reason, temples always boast grand and majestic forms.
So that humans can be humble before the gods.
However, even such bell towers were nothing more than human creations. There have always been those who dared to aspire to their sacred summits.
In fact, some wielders of power have monopolized this place.
One of them was standing before me now.
The Empire’s Second Princess Iris.
Her cool silver hair fluttered in the wind of the open sky. The woman’s eyes, staring at the landscape beyond the railing with her back to me, were deeply submerged.
It was a place where only a very few, excluding the bell keeper, could ascend. Nevertheless, in that gaze…