Time: 4:00 a.m., March 14th, 895, Black Iron Calendar...
Location: A tower within Iron Ridge Fortress, the Sainer Family's stronghold outside Tokeyi City, capital of the Titanic Duchy...
At this hour, Iron Ridge Fortress lay in the pitch-black night like a rigid monster, sunk into slumber as well...
Inside the deserted tower, in the blink of an eye, a rat appeared out of thin air in a corner beside the corridor wall.
The rat's fur was sleek, as though it had been well cared for. Its entire body gave off an alert, capable air.
The rat that had appeared rose upright like a human. It first looked around, then twitched its nose. The layer of dust accumulated in the air and across the floor, as if no one had cleaned the place for a very long time, seemed to put a somewhat bewildered expression on the rat's face.
The rat did not linger long. After discovering that there was no one nearby and that the surroundings seemed different from several months ago, it swiftly darted along the wall. In the blink of an eye, it slipped to the tower stairway, then raced down the stairs two steps at a time...
There was a hall beneath the tower. The door facing outside stood wide open. Scattered stones and broken debris littered the floor, and everything was blanketed in dust. Half of one wall had already collapsed. The moonlight shining through the hole in that collapsed wall was what allowed the rat to see its surroundings clearly.
There were no lights here, much less people. It seemed the place had suffered some drastic upheaval.
The rat slipped directly from the stairs to the hall entrance. Standing on the steps outside the doorway, it looked at Iron Ridge Fortress before it, and astonishment