JnK Tower Prologue part 2
Julius: ............
Alice: ............
J: .............
A: ..........
J: ............
A: ...........
The silence continues.
It's not that we're fighting.
The time we spend not saying anything isn't uncomfortable.
(...........)
J: ........You're in a good mood.
A: ............Eh?
J: You're in a sunny mood that doesn't fit this cold season.
Did something good happen?
Julius is meticulously assembling a clock, without stopping to rest.
Julius Monrey.
He is the watchmaker.
Though he self-deprecatingly calls himself a mortician, his job is to oversee life in this world.
He's a taciturn, hard-working, serious man.
A: ............Nothing.
Nothing had.
Nothing in special.
I am here, and Julius is here.
That's all there is.
There's nothing special about that.
It's not special.
That's, like.....
(......Ah)
(.........What?)
My eyes are getting moist.
(Why am I.....)
(.............)
(................)
(.........It's cold)
It's cold, so I can't think very well.
Although it's indoors here, it's still cold.
.....The cold has numbed the inside of my head.
I can't think properly about what's going on.
However, I know something important.
Julius is here.
He hasn't disappeared.
Knowing that alone is enough.
A: Nothing, but.....
A: ....... I was thinking that I like winter.
I like this season.
Right now I really like it.
Since the tower is made out of stone, the lower levels are cold.
The corridors and the steps are especially cold, and going from one place to another chills me to the tips of my toes.
However, one of the doors in the tower is linked to Julius's workshop.
That was enough to make climbing the freezing stairs worthwhile.
Since Julius always shuts himself up in his room, it's always warm.
When I open the door, I'm always welcomed by warm air.
J: .........Hmph, you're strange.
Most people hate winter.
A: Julius, do you hate winter?
J: I think it's a good season for shutting yourself indoors.
I can work at a good pace.
If that was so, then I'm likely to like winter even more.
Winter keeps Julius inside.
A: ..........Did you see Ace?
He might come to see you here.
J: Yeah, I have some work for him, so I sent a message.....
J: You know him.
His arrival........... who knows when that'll be?
While he was sighing, his expression, as he were saying 'he's hopeless,' was somehow gentle.
(Julius)
A: Julius.
J: .........Mm?
A: .........It's nothing.
A: Ah.
Even though it's Ace, if you have business with him, shall I go and get him?
J: No, it's fine.
I'll wait for him to come.
A: Th-that's true.
Ace hates to be guided....
Though he often agrees to be guided by me.....
There was no need to rush.
He could come to see him at any time.
J: Yeah.
Since he probably especially is enjoying travel during the April Season.
A: !
That's right!
I wanted to ask you about that.
A: What's the April Season?
J: The April Season isn't something which especially needs to be explained....
What do you want to know about it?
A: It's because I don't know anything that I came to ask you.
I haven't heard of April Season before.
(The name makes it sound suspicious......)
A: April makes me think of April Fool's.
Or is that not the same?
J: You know about April Fool's Day?
So there is that kind of stupid thing in your original world.
A: ........Even I know about April Fool's.
Leaving aside whether I've actually taken advantage of it or not, it's well known.
J: Really?
There's April Fool's in your original world too?
I had wondered whether he would make fun of me, but I'm satisfied by Julius's words.
I don't know the general knowledge of this world.
He doesn't know the general knowledge of my world either. [revise, sounds awkward]
A: There is.
It's a day when lies are allowed.
A: It's pretty fun.
J: If you know, then this will be quick.
Now it's the same sort of season.
A: ???
A: What do you mean?
J: You don't get it?
.....I mean that it's a season when lies are allowed.
A: Lies.....
(.........)
(........Then, why has it become winter?)
Grey: Excuse me, Watchmaker.
A: Grey!
What happened?
J: ......Lizard?
What's your business here?
G: It's not what you'd call business.... but I brought some cocoa.
J: Cocoa?
Why did you bring something like....
A: He made some for Nightmare and me before.
It was good.
G: That's good.
I made a lot, so there was some left.
G: I thought you'd be here, so I brought some.
.....If you like, have some too, Watchmaker.
J: .........Thanks.
A: Hehehe, have some, Julius.
Thanks to this, I was really warm.
It might be too sweet for Julius, who's used to coffee, but its warm sweetness spreads through the body well.
(What is it.... it's chilly when these two are here.)
It's easy to spend time with them alone, but when Julius and Grey are both here, it's somehow cold.... or how should I say it, artificial.
They kept their distance in conversation, while preserving a certain level of politeness.
Sometimes they start to retort at one another with dislike.
A: When it's winter, since it's even a little cold inside, warm drinks are good.
J: It's the fault of your clothes.
If you show that much of your arms at this temperature, you're obviously going to be cold.
A: I've been told that....
I know he's saying this because he's worried, but it's not only my fault.
A: It got cold all of a sudden.
Winter.... generally, up until now haven't there not been any seasons?
Only the times had changed irregularly.
(.....Wait a moment)
(The times of the day were all random?
Could the seasons....)
G: Ah, that's right.
You've got good instincts, Alice.
It must have come out on my face.
Grey had read my thoughts correctly, like Nightmare.
G: During this time, the seasons change.
J: As you can see, here it's now winter.
(Here?)
Certainly, I can see from the window that snow is falling.
The sky is also somehow dark, and has an oppressive feeling.
From what I can see, this is a winter landscape.
Here....
(.............)
(....And elsewhere?)
G: Yes, it's winter.
This is also the season Nightmare-sama is the weakest to.
.......I feel down.
G: Well, even so, it's better than the other places.
If it were too easy to experience, Nightmare-sama would escape, and the work wouldn't get done.
A: Than other places......?
J: Certainly, considering his pattern of behavior, other places would be unendurable.
Just thinking of your noisiness..... makes me feel tired.
A: .....Definitely, in this cold, Nightmare is going to wrap himself in a blanket and not come out.
It's like he'll literally have become a bagworm. [check]
I can easily imagine him like that.
It some how suits him.
Actually, I recall that when we had only met in dreams, he would often be wrapped up in a blanket.
G: That's true.
He'll shut himself in.........
G: It's terrible when he won't come out of the dream world.
.....Pulling him out of there is the hardest of tasks.
A: It would be great to be able to go into the world of dreams in one's body.
If he finished up his work, though, I wouldn't care how much he went there.
G: Ahh, really.
He's always setting aside his work in the middle of doing it....
G: .....Sigh.
A: ........Sigh.
J; .......What's with you guys?
It's depressing.................
G: .......I don't want to be told that by the Watchmaker.
A: Yeah, we've become depressing.....
Julius probably didn't know this, but we were always busy fussing over Nightmare.
(Right, Julius doesn't know, but.......)
(...............)
(Something's strange..... It's only a feeling though.)
I feel there's something strange.
However, I don't really know what's strange.
There's something important I can't remember.
It's so cold I can't think.
A: .........Someow I feel tired even thinking about it.
Maybe I'll take a walk for a change of pace.
J: ...........I think you'll get even more tired.
A: ............
A: ..........But, I'll go looking around once.
I'm curious.
Though I had been told it was different from 'moving,' I'm concerned about how it had changed outside.
From what I had heard before, it seems that the other places have also changed a lot.
J: ........Really.
You truly are a curious one.
J; You should be mostly able to imagine even if you don't go.......
G: Well, if you go, you should go looking around soon.
Make sure you go out wearing something thick so you don't catch a cold?
Outside it's winter.
I had known it from looking out of the window, but outside it's an entirely silver world, and the atomosphere has changed too.
As usual for winter, the cold chills me to the core.
My breath is white.
It's cold.
I haven't felt like this until now.
It's always been a comfortable temperature.
In exchange for it being neither hot nor cold, there wasn't any sense of there being seasons.
The never changing seasons, and the times of the day, which randomly change.
Will the seasons change this time like the changing time zones?
(......Then my health would break down)
It's easy for people to get sick when the seasons change.
Could I stay in this world which had transformed once again?
Note:
Man, I feel like it's been established FIFTY TIMES that it is WINTER YOU HEAR and it is COLD and Alice needs to put on a sweater already, does she have no sense?