Cecil Palace.
The brilliant midsummer sunlight streamed through the broad crystal glass windows into the long corridor. Summer insects chirped one after another from the courtyard, and the slanting sunlight fell across Gawain's shoulders. As he passed an open window, he could not help stopping and staring absently in the direction of the chirping.
Midsummer... In this season of thriving life, the courtyard welcomed its liveliest days of the year. The unceasing chorus of insects proclaimed a tiny world full of life, hidden among the shrubs, trees, flowerbeds, and beside the fountain. Countless insects, ants, and small animals multiplied within it, hurrying to reproduce during this season of abundant food and plentiful rain.
That glorious, blazing giant sun in the sky brought abundant energy to those tiny creatures.
Yet the splendid lives of summer insects were brief. Especially here in the Northern Kingdoms, the energy brought by the giant sun would gradually fade over the next month. Temperatures would fall, rainfall would lessen, vegetation would lie dormant... The "tiny world" amid those shrubs, trees, gardens, and flowerbeds would soon meet its own demise, losing all life through the harsh winter ahead—until early summer of the following year, when everything began anew.
Gawain stood by the window for a long time, imagining what changes might be taking place in that tiny kingdom built by insects and ants. He imagined that if there were a thinking sage among them, who by some chance learned the secrets connecting sunlight, seasons, rainfall, and the "end of the world," how would that sage view the world in which they lived? How would they try to save the fate of their kind? Or perhaps... would they calmly face the changing seasons, lower their heads, and accept the end of midsummer?
There was clearly no answer to