"..."
When Kallen opened her eyes again, what she saw was... the ceiling of the Archbishop's office.
"Yo, you're awake."
Fang Zheng's voice came from beside her. Kallen blinked, then looked around. To her surprise, the entire world seemed different from what she remembered. Bone-chilling cold assailed her body, and crystalline ice covered everything around her.
"What happened here?"
Kallen froze for a moment, then hurriedly got to her feet. She turned to look outside, only to discover in astonishment that the entire city beyond the window had become a world of ice and snow. It was clearly summer, yet white snow lay everywhere outside, and even the buildings had been frozen within layers of ice.
"Oh, I did it."
"Huh? Mr. Yuuki? Why would you do that?"
"A little trouble came up. I'll explain it slowly... Sakura and Rin, come over too."
Fang Zheng waved a hand and gestured. Only then did Kallen notice that Yae Sakura and Yae Rin were standing not far away, freezing terribly as well... though they were somewhat better off by the fireplace.
Next, Fang Zheng did not hide anything and explained their current situation and the nature of this world to the three of them—of course, limited by the era they came from, Kallen and the others still could not fully understand what Fang Zheng was saying, but they at least grasped the general idea.
"So... Mr. Yuuki, you mean that the world we are in now... is merely a fragment? A fragment separated from history?"
"That's right. Like a branch broken off from a tree trunk. You all know that once a branch falls from the trunk, it gradually withers and turns yellow—but Otto accelerated that process. So, to protect this world, I temporarily... froze it. Like... you know how fruit stays