The Sun Shines So Bright Today

Amid the ruins of Xilantis, in the wind that had suddenly risen over this scorched land, a phantom appeared—one that looked suspiciously like a present-day resident of Lightwind Harbor.

Both Nina and Morris saw it. It was clearly no illusion.

"There's nothing here..." Morris walked over to where the phantom had just appeared, carefully examined the surroundings, and muttered with a frown.

The sudden development made Nina a little nervous as well. She instinctively lowered her voice. "Why did that thing just now look like a ghost...?"

Morris gave the girl a strange look. "Do you need to be afraid of ghosts?"

"...Right."

Nina muttered belatedly, and the moment her words fell, something else suddenly appeared at the edge of her vision.

It was another "phantom." It emerged amid wind and dust, flashed past through the charred ruins formed by intertwined massive branches, and in that fleeting instant, Nina thought she saw its face clearly... She even felt that face looked somewhat familiar.

It seemed to be the owner of the clothing store in Lightwind Harbor's western district, an elf woman who always wore a smile. Her expression was blank as she appeared in the wind, then scattered away with it.

"Over here!" Nina reacted at once, grabbing Morris and running toward where the second phantom had appeared. Before they could reach it, however, Nina saw something else flash through the mist in the distance.

Phantoms—elf phantoms—began appearing continuously amid the wind and dust. As Nina and Morris ventured deeper into the ruins, the phantoms appeared more and more frequently. At first, they only occasionally flashed past the edges of their vision, but later, no matter which direction they looked, they could see one or two hazy, ghostlike shadows flickering in and out of sight.

Without realizing it, Nina had