Little En, Little You, Little Ni

Actually, this would not have meant much to Klein under normal circumstances—he had long grown used to Alice suddenly going off on tangents.

But Klein was not normal at the moment. What Alice mentioned seemed to have stirred up certain associations in him, and his expression immediately became embarrassed as he stammered:

"Oh? I-Is that so..."

Alice paused. She finally realized that teasing Klein at a time like this was absolutely not a wise choice. After grinding her teeth, she sighed.

"...Forget it. Let's go."

She shook her head and looked toward the main gate ahead. Colin and the others had already stopped, watching the gate warily without any intention of opening it first.

Alice lifted a leg, stepped onto the final stair, and raised her head to inspect it.

The gate was dozens of meters tall, covered in golden nails. Alice looked up at its highest point and felt her neck begin to ache. She shook her head and turned back to ask:

"Is your shadow inside?"

"I think so," Klein answered as he climbed the stairs.

As they spoke, the astonishingly tall "Silver Knight" behind Klein strode forward and plunged the greatsword in its hand into a crack in the ground.

Then, the "Silver Knight" lowered its body, stretched out both hands, and pressed them against the main gate, which was dozens of meters high.

Amid the heavy sound of a door opening, the gate studded with countless golden nails slowly swung open.

At that moment, the "Sun" high in the sky flickered, freezing the entire Giant King's Court in orange-red dusk light.

The massive gate opened faster and faster, gradually exposing the scene within to everyone's eyes.

Beyond the gate were grayish-white stairs bathed in orange-red light. There was no way to tell how many steps there