Hortus Arcanus planēta

ACT 2

Golden Tower

I quietly turned transparent and followed after Al.

Perhaps because it was midnight, the palace felt cold and utterly silent.

In the night sky, there was only a light that looked exactly like the moonlight from the night El had cried.

That moonlight alone felt as though it were silently watching over us.

As I continued following Al, before I knew it, we had arrived at the outskirts of the palace.

In complete contrast to the palace itself, an old towering brick tower rose high into the darkness.

Yellow flowers bloomed wildly across every inch of its bricks.

When Al stopped before the tower, he spoke toward me.

“You can come out now.”

I held down the feeling of my heart about to burst, took a deep breath, and revealed myself.

“Hey, Al… what’s here?”

“This is the tower east of the palace.

What lies here… see it with your own eyes. Come on.”

With that, Al walked around to the very back of the tower.

I hurried after him, and as I caught up, Al quietly spoke the words:

“Golden Tower.”

At that very moment, light burst upward from the ground, and before I realized it, we were already inside the tower.

“A-Al… was that magic?”

“Yes.

This kingdom’s most important secret.

That magic.”

Only a handful of people know about it.

Everyone else lives in a world without magic… even within this world.”

As he spoke, Al’s eyes carried a faint loneliness.

Then he lightly tapped something resting upon the golden music stand before us and said:

“If you look at this, maybe you’ll understand something.”

I slowly stepped closer to what he had pointed at.

Resting upon the golden music stand was a single book.

When I picked it up, I realized it was that very same fairy tale collection.

But something was different.

Only the spine was the same.

When I opened it, instead of stories, the pages were filled with strange illustrations and diagrams.

“Al… this mark… what are these drawings?”

“You recognize this mark, don’t you?

It’s the same symbol as the button you carry.”

Al continued quietly.

“The fact that this is placed here means there’s something you alone must do.

Something you have to do.

Call it a mission, if you want.

This book contains the materials and the steps needed to fulfill that mission.”

Then Al pointed somewhere else once more.

“And over there… look.”

When I turned toward where he was pointing, I saw a wide window beyond the golden music stand, overlooking the entire landscape below.