The beginning of "The Story of the Starry Sky".
　It was a ringing of magical power that shook the earth.

　No, to be precise, it was not magic power, but 'demon poison'.
　The word "magic" did not yet exist in this era.

　The "magic poison" that filled the world trembled, and the creaking sound of the buildings echoed around the world.
　A crack appeared on the wall of a huge castle.

　The name of the castle is "Hoozeyer's Castle".
　It is the pride of the small country of Foozeyars, located in a remote part of the continent.
　Surrounded by mountains and forests on all sides, the castle is a natural fortress that has been protecting the authority of the Hoosiers for nearly a hundred years. One of the reasons why the Hoosiers have been able to survive to this day, despite the fact that the country is not blessed with mineral deposits and other resources, is because of the extraordinary strength of the castle.

　Therefore, everyone in the Foozeyards is proud of the castle. The castle is a symbol of the country and a source of pride in their hearts.
　However, if you ask another country why, they might just tell you that it's a tasteless piece of land that's not worth taking away: .......

　To put it bluntly, the Hoosier country is being left alone by the surrounding countries.
　In some countries, the poverty problem is so severe that it is thought that if left alone, it will spontaneously disappear. In effect, the rest of the country's calculations are correct.

　If there had been one more disaster, they would have perished in a flash. If it were not for one more disaster, the country would have fallen apart.

　--But Hoosiers will survive. And it will survive for more than a thousand years to come.

　There were positive external factors. And the external factors that brought them here were so out of the ordinary.

　It was a disaster and a miracle that defied the expectations of the surrounding countries.
　The name of that substandard was 'The Apostle'.
　Three apostles. Their visit to this country changes the fate of this small nation.

　The Apostle 'Diprakra', the apostle of the Lord's knowledge and the heart of moderation.
　The apostle 'Sis', the apostle of the heart of the Lord's love and justice.
　The apostle of the Lord's power and the heart of chaos, 'Legacy'.　

　The apostles will increase the number of substandard people in the land of Hooziyaz, where they have settled.
　The name of the following disaster is 'Gentiles'.

　The name of the first gentile was 'Aikawa Hitaki'.
　And on this day, the second gentile was about to be summoned by the Fooziers.

　The earlier 'Demon Poison' ringing was the aftermath of the summoning of the Gentiles.

　And after the aftermath, under this night sky - this continent is covered by a black mist in the sky, but it's nighttime if you count the time - many soldiers are busily running around in the castle's large yard.

　They are men in heavy armor, making the clattering sound of scraping metal.
　Since there is still no such convenient thing as magic, the equipment of those who serve in the military is basically heavy. And unlike a thousand years later, the male to female ratio is ten to zero. The selection criteria for soldiers are also based on physique and health, so all of them are muscular and huge men without exception.

　The giant men with full plate armor and huge spears let out exasperated voices as they speak.

''Where's the Called Gentile-sama ......!
'Just take your eyes off the road for a minute.' ......!　'He's terribly quick.' ......!
"'I'll make sure you get him and bring him in!　'He is the one whom the apostles called hope!
''This gentile has an eccentric costume, black hair and black eyes!　'Don't look at me wrong!'

　The men call him "Gentile-sama" from the word go.
　It is easy to guess from their conversations that they are desperately looking for this "gentile".
　Furthermore, you can guess that they are trying to treat the seekers politely (・・・・・・・・・・) if you know what they are talking about.

　But, sadly, the reality was not so simple.

　One of the trees at the edge of the yard where the soldiers were running around, one of the trees at the edge of the yard.
　A dark-haired, dark-eyed boy hiding behind a tree muttered in fright.

'What the hell ....... What the hell is this ......?

　The boy still did not understand the language of this world.
　The 'otherworldly language', which was neither English nor Japanese, was hard to hear, as if it had been polished with a millstone.

　Naturally, the only thing the boy feels when he sees the big men wrinkling their brows and muttering incantations - is fear.

　If he was caught, he didn't know what would happen.
　If it's only death, it's still good.
　It could be even more horrible.

　It was natural to think so.
　The first thing the boy was called out to was on top of a magic circle in a basement that could only be considered crazy in his modern sense. It was dark, with only candlelight, and was surrounded by suspicious figures dressed in robes. Furthermore, there were clearly some monsters among those figures that did not seem to belong to this world. Some of them had the appearance of 'elves' and 'beastmen' that frequently appeared in popular stories.

　It is not surprising that he ran away from them on the spur of the moment.

　And the boy who ran away hid his breath under the shade of a tree.
　He moves to avoid being spotted by the soldiers.

　As he walks, he comes to understand that he is in a place that looks like a fortress. This is another place that is terribly out of his modern senses. He has no idea why he is in this place, and he has no idea why he is here.

　The confusion only grows.
　The boy just walks on, unable to even calmly sort out the situation.
　Probably, no matter how many times the boy was summoned, he would react the same way.

　But even though he had no idea what was going on, the boy understood one thing about the situation.
　Something he could feel as he moved around, out of breath.

'Hah, hah, hah--!　--Huh?

　The air is unusually (...) good.
　You can tell in one breath that it's different from that of the city.
　The air is so thick and fresh - so sweet.

　And my body feels lighter.
　I don't think it's the air, but I'm definitely in better shape than usual. It's fair to say that I was able to escape from the soldiers because of this good condition.

　The boy looks around, grateful for his good fortune in bad luck.

''Where, where is there somewhere to hide--!

　I call out impatiently when there are no soldiers looking for me.
　I know that hiding is not going to help. The best thing to do is to get away from this fortress. But first the boy needed a place to calm down.

　A place that would give him time to calm down this mess--

　Then.

---- and ----.
What?

　From a distance, I heard a crystal-clear singing voice.

　Can you sing ......?　It should be good.
　It's like fresh water flowing down from a spring deep in nature - it's a voice that's much more beautiful than the men who were running around earlier.

　The boy stopped in his tracks as he fell in love with the song.
　It still sounded like an incantation, but the song had a strange charm to it, though it still sounded like a spell.
　It wasn't a good one, but it gave him a sense of security that he wanted to listen to forever.

　The boy guessed that she was a young woman, based on the height of her voice.
　Then, as if by magic, somehow the boy walks off in the direction of the song. Perhaps it was because he was chased by men with wild voices all the time, but he was drawn to that high, soft voice.

　Inside the castle, there are multiple towers.
　A tower for watching things and a tower for storing supplies. The towers with various roles are lined up.

　--Various indeed.

　One of those towers.
　A stone tower that stands quietly in a corner of the castle grounds.

　The most peculiar area of the towers of Hooziyaz Castle.
　Towards that stone tower, the boy approaches it, breathlessly.

　After making sure there are no soldiers around, the boy walks through the large garden and reaches the door of the tower. Then, without hesitation, he slowly opens the door.
　Fortunately, it's not locked. However, there was a squeak - louder than he had imagined, so he hurriedly enters and closes the door.

　The door is closed and the boy is locked inside the tower.
　The inside of the tower was even more modest than it looked on the outside.
　There was not a single useless object, just a stone spiral staircase that crawled along the walls of the tower. I suddenly looked up and saw that there was one room on the top floor.

　Entering the tower increased the volume of the singing voice that reached his ears.

　The boy walked out of the tower.
　Whether the boy was still confused or truly spellbound - he didn't know, but he was led on.

　One step at a time up the stone stairs.
　It was quite a few steps, but he was able to climb them without much difficulty.

　At the end of those stairs was a single door.
　It was an old wooden door, like something out of a Western painting, with a single old chain lock on it. The boy touched the lock, wondering if maybe it was a waste of time.

　Then the lock fell to the stairs with a heavy thud.
　It was not too old and decayed. From the beginning, the chain lock did not serve as a lock, it was just lightly wrapped around the door handle.

　Rather than wondering, the boy thought he was being careless.
　He simply decided that if he had forgotten to lock the door, it was common, and he twisted the door handle without hesitation.

　Then, just like the tower door, it was opened with another squeak - and a loud noise.

　The moment the door was opened, a cold night wind blew against the boy's body.
　The wind almost closed his eyes. But the boy did not close them.

　He couldn't close his eyes at the sight in front of him.
　The room was located on the top floor of the tower. Its contents were busy and miscellaneous, in direct contrast to the simplicity of the tower's staircase.
　It was covered with a dark dark dark brown carpet and not a single stone floor was visible. Above it was full of wooden furniture carved with fine carved designs. In the center is a table. There is one rocking chair next to it, and a row of shelves by the wall. And on all the furniture was a large amount of what seemed to be books - bundles of parchment. Books filled the table tops, books were rocking instead of people on the rocking chairs, and on the shelves, on top and next to each other - all books.

　There was one window in the room.
　And right next to the window that reflected the dark sky, there was one wooden bed. A large number of books had been brought into the bed, and to be honest, it was in a state where it didn't seem to be able to function as a bed.

　There was one girl sitting on that bed.
　Her long, shining hair, which was neither white nor yellow to the boy, hung down, and she was wearing two thin layers of clothing. She was a year or so smaller than the boy, and if they were side by side, the girl would have her head around the boy's waist.

　The girl used the plush stuff as a cushion, grabbing the blanket with both hands and pulling it up to her chest, staring in amazement at the boy as he walked into the room.

　The singing had already stopped.
　That singing voice belonged to a girl, and it was interrupted by the boy's entry.

　First of all, the boy was ashamed that he had interrupted that beautiful song.
　It shouldn't have been that bad, but first and foremost, he felt he had to apologize.

'I'm sorry ....... I heard that ...... beautiful voice and I was wondering what kind of person was singing .......

　He lowered his head.
　The girl tilted her head at that and returned the words.

"'Good evening' ......?　'Brother,' 'Why are you here?' ......?
"Well, ...... I don't understand the language over here ......
"'Eh', 'e'?　'Wait,' 'What now?' ......?

　Naturally, they can't communicate with each other.
　The boy and the girl make the same troubled face and try to find a way to communicate with each other.

　And the boy first resorted to body language.
　With a poor gesture, he manages to convey three things: that he is not hostile, that he has been taken away before he knows it, and that he is in great trouble because he is being chased by scary people.

　The clever girl immediately sensed that the person in front of her was trying to convey her will with a gesture. She follows the boy's movements intently, trying to read his true intentions.

　However, his serious eyes did not last long.

''Hmph--''

　I laugh.
　I couldn't bear to gush over the boy's awkward and poorly executed dance, which I could only assume was awkward. I thought it was disrespectful to the other person and endured it for a few seconds, but it was funny because the boy was seriously desperate and desperate and that's why the dance was so funny.

'Yeah, well, you will be: ......'

　The boy blushed a little resignedly as he thought back on his own poor gesture.
　He knew himself that he had tried to tell her three at once when he could have told her one thing at a time, and he knew that he looked hapless.

　The girl's laughter could be heard.
　Naturally, that was because the window in the room was open, so the voice could leak out to the outside of the tower.
　In response to that laughter, a loud voice comes back from outside.

''Princess!''　"Is someone there?"--?

　It was the voice of the soldiers ahead of them.
　The soldiers, unable to find the boy, continued their search under the stone tower.

　Immediately the girl leans out of bed, looks out the window and screams back.

...... 'Nope', 'I was just mumbling to myself like I always do'!　'What are you guys doing?'!

　The girl, who was a born liar, was deceived on the spur of the moment.
　Whether she was just as confused as the boy, or whether she was under a spell - I don't know, but the girl 'chose' the same path as if she were guided.

''That's why,'' ......, ''our guest-dono got lost in the castle, and we're all searching for him.'' ......!
"'We have a guest here' ......?
''Her features are dark hair and dark eyes'' and ''I think you can definitely tell at a glance!

　The girl looked into the room, realizing that the person the soldiers were looking for was the boy who had wandered into this stone tower.
　Out of the corner of her eye, she sees a boy watching the situation anxiously.

　Looking at the boy, the girl immediately makes a decision.

　It was a bit of a whim. But it was also a whim of necessity.
　It was only natural that a girl who had been trapped in this room for more than a year would want to talk to the boy who had wandered in for a little while longer. The girl in this stone tower had the accumulation to do just that.
　Hence the layering of lies.

''Okay!''　'If I see you through this window, I'll call you all!

　The girl shouted a word back at the window and waved her hand wide.

''Thank you!''　Then we will return to our search.

　The soldiers answer and resume their search outside again.

　The boy hears the footsteps of the soldiers moving away, and he understands that the girl has driven his pursuers away.
　The boy brightens, thinking that maybe his earlier foolish gesture was understood.
　He then quickly approaches the girl on the bed and thanks her for her help.

'Well, I don't think you can understand the words ...... but thank you. It helped.

　And the girl tries to smile at him, but

''No.'', ''Never mind.'' ' 'Rather,' 'It's my--' 'Thank you for your--' 'Huh!　"Go-ho," "Go-ho!

　The smile didn't last.
　Suddenly, he started coughing and bent over with his hands over his mouth.

　Immediately the boy looked around.
　He had long experience in nursing, and his response was swift. He searched the room and found what appeared to be a ceramic jug. He also holds the cup provided for it in his hand and hands the girl the water that was in it. I looked for something else, like medicine, but all I found was the jug, so I continue to stare at the girl's changing symptoms.

"'Water,' 'Thank you.' ......

　Painfully, the girl returns the word and takes the water and puts it in her mouth.
　With the water in her mouth, the girl gradually calms down.

　As he watches her, the boy repeats the earlier words in his mind. And he understands that the one now is the one that corresponds to the word "thank you".

　At the same time, he finishes the girl's diagnosis.
　He's not good at looking into other people's faces, but he's good at seeing the symptoms, and he sees that the girl has a little fever.

　It's not like a cold. The girl had accepted the cough she had just had, as if she was used to it. It was as if it was natural for her throat to feel worse when she shouted.

　The symptoms are similar to those of his sister.
　Hence, the boy thought it would be best not to continue to rely on this girl. If it was the same, the conversation alone could put a lot of strain on her.

　The boy saw that the girl's coughing had calmed down, and he mimicked his earlier words in return.

'Well, for covering up for me earlier ...... 'Thank you'

　He tells them 'thank you' for misleading the soldiers and tries to get out of the tower.
　We may be chased by soldiers again, but somehow we'll find someone who can communicate with us. Worst case scenario, we'll have no choice but to escape this fortress. To do that, he would need to make a map of the surrounding area in his mind.

　With that plan in mind, as the boy was about to walk away.

"'Wait'--!

　They called out to him.
　The boy stops, startled by a voice louder than the one he returned to the soldiers outside the tower.

　The girl tilts her head back and asks a little sadly.

"'What', 'why' ......?　'I'm going to go now' ......?

　Even if he can't understand the words, the boy somehow knows what he wants to say.
　He's asking why he's going.

　The boy chuckles and shakes his head, waving his hand gently.
　I can't explain it, but I wanted to tell him that I can't stay here anymore.
　And when he turned his back to me again and was about to leave the room - he was about to leave.

　The boy was prevented from taking his first steps as he heard a large object fall with a clatter.

　The girl had fallen off the bed.
　But she couldn't even stand, and she was sitting on the floor of the room, close to the boy, tugging at the hem of his clothes.

"'Just a little more' ....... 'Just a little bit more', 'Stay with me' ....... 'Just a little bit more.' 'You can hide here for a little while.' ....... -- 'Yeah, right'!　'I'll teach your brother the language of hoosiers!　'Brother,' 'You're the one on the other side of the mountain, aren't you?'

　I know I can't understand the words.
　But somehow the girl spun the words in a desperate attempt to communicate.

　The boy can somehow guess what she wants to say again.

　His grip on the hem of his clothes is strong.
　He is desperately trying to keep her back.
　He's asking me to stay here.
　He's asking me to hide him if he's being pursued.
　He wants me to stay with him and talk to him.
　I can understand that.

　--I know that.

　I've been asked to do the same thing just recently, under the same circumstances.
　So I understand, and the boy will return the same words again.

"'Thank you,'

　The boy nodded in return for any words he could muster.

　The girl's face lights up when she sees it.
　Then, as she sat down on the ground, she happily spoke to him.

''Then,'' he said, ''I'll tell you right away!

　This time I don't know what he's saying.
　As the boy frowns, this time the girl begins to use body language.
　She somehow expresses that she wants to teach him the language of this country, and then she holds a book that was nearby and utters the words.

''This is a 'book'--!

　He smiled and pointed to a book.
　The boy learns that the word is "book". To be honest, the body language was hard to understand, but from the action of pointing at the book and saying one word, he understood that he was trying to teach the word.

"'Sky' --!

　This time he pointed to the sky outside the window and said a few words.
　Was that the window ...... or was it the sky?

　The boy repeats the word he's been taught and smiles at the girl.

''The 'sky,' maybe?　-- 'Thank you'

　I was a little apprehensive, but I pointed out the window, as did the girl.
　Then the girl raises her hands in the air and starts to rejoice.

''Yes!''　'It's through'!

　It didn't get through. It was just a parrot.
　But the girl was delighted.
　As if it was the first time she'd ever talked to someone in this room, as if it was the first time she'd ever taught someone a thing - she was happy beyond normal.

'Ha, ha, ha ......'

　The boy chuckles.

　He was completely troubled.
　After this, I can't leave the room anymore.
　There is absolutely no way I can leave this sickly-looking girl behind.

　Because that's how the boy is made (・・・・・).
　He was not made to leave her here.
　At this point, he had already been made - like a character in a heroic tale - like a character in a heroic tale.

　So the boy decides to compromise a bit and go along with this girl.

　He switches his goal to 'learning the language' instead of 'finding someone who can understand the language'.
　With her help, he learns the minimum language and manages to negotiate with the soldiers.

　Quite frankly, it's a low stakes bet.
　It would be an option he would never choose if the girl didn't hold him back.

　Nevertheless, the boy chose it.
　At this time, he definitely chose 'one girl', abandoning 'all other possibilities'.

' 'This one's a bed'!　'I sleep here every day!'
'Hmm, hmm ......?　Is that a bed?　Oh, maybe a futon ......?

　The boy also sits down on the carpet of the room.
　And he learns the language of the other world a little bit from the girl who points at various things and says the words.

　The girl seemed to be enjoying herself terribly.
　It was truly awful, but ...... this was the best time she had ever had since she was born.

　Of course, the boy is very serious.
　Sometimes he would point and listen to things before the girl, trying to learn the words as quickly as possible.

　Fortunately, the boy was good at this kind of memorization work.
　He liked to study in silence anyway. If he got away from the world and immersed himself in something different, he could forget all sorts of unpleasant things. She had the aptitude to concentrate for dozens of hours.

　And, even more fortunately, the girl was good at teaching, too.
　A talent that had never been demonstrated since she was born was now on display.

　And after a few hours, he finally succeeded in not only teaching the words, but also conveying a grammar that was different from the Japanese of the other world, albeit in a thinly veiled way.

　In a short amount of time, the boy understood the particles and conjunctions of The Otherworldly Language.
　It's a speed that can't be explained solely by the fact that he was trapped. The real horrible reason for this would not be realized until a little later. ...... At this time, the two of them only thought they were so good together.

　Thus, at the end of the day, they successfully introduced themselves.
　Before the suspicious soldiers can climb up the tower, they tell each other.

　In a faltering 'otherworldly language', the boy points to his body.

"-- 'I am Uzumi' ......, 'Aikawa Uzumi'. 'Your name is' ......?
'I'm Tiara' ....... 'I'm Tiara Hoosiers' ......--

　The girl responded by pointing to her body as well.

　They knew each other's names.
　Both Uzumi and Tiara uttered the other's name with a little sense of accomplishment. Slowly, as if to savor it, they bit each other's names deeply, never to forget them again.

''Tiara.'' ......
'Kanami': ......

　The two men stared at each other in the dark tower.
　On this day, they were in a darkness too dense for each other and were surrounded by intense anxiety. They were trembling with fear of what was to come, and were about to be crushed by loneliness.

　But here they found a light.
　In this too dark night sky, we found a star for each other.

　It was such a coincidence that I wanted to believe in the vague word "fate".
　Even if they lived for eternity from now on, they couldn't have been more fortunate.

　After finding the star of hope, they laughed at each other and said the first words they learned.

"'Tiara', 'Thank you' ......
"'Kanami'!　'Thank you too!'

　They thanked each other.
　Then they realized that their faces were too close together, and Uzumi looked away in embarrassment.


"'Kanami'...


　Tiara turned her very feverish eyes to the Vortex Wave.

　It wasn't just the heat of finding a friend.
　It was love at first sight - or rather, for the girl, it was a natural encounter with God. It was also the moment when she learned the meaning of life and how to use her own life 'mission'.

　--This was the 'beginning'.

　A thousand years ago, in the frontier country of Houzouyaz, there was a tower in the castle. There is a tower in the castle.
　The two met there.

　-They met.

　It would have been better if it had been a more humdrum beginning.
　For example, it would have been nice if they found themselves in a remote area alone, or if they had been called into a certain labyrinth, or something like that.

　But it wasn't. It started as if it were a fiction.

　With that overly romantic beginning--all the gears are thrown out of whack.

　This is the cause of the entire story after this.
　Just because the first person Aikawa Uzumi met in the other world was not her sister, Aikawa Yotaki, but Tiara Fuzzyaz--

　The thickness of the book "Tales of the Starry Skies" will be multiplied hundreds of times.
　The fate of the Otherworld would change drastically, and the distortions would spread to the future, one thousand years later.
　She will regret her decision to send the Apostles to earth, and all her plans will be forfeited.

　The turning point is this day--
　This was the day, this time.