"According to the tales, our ancestors were refugees from the continent, and exiled across the seas to the Isle of Afterglow. The Archduke refused to accept them, but luckily the dwarves approved them to settle peacefully in the Anine Mountains.

We are called Aninen, though are of the same ethnic group as the citizens of Archduchy, subsisted in isolation from them for generations. As the Archduchy ruled the plains, we lived in the mountains with the dwarves, which lasted for centuries.

Just a few years before I was born, the troops of Archduchy had occupied our homeland. The Archduke was ambitious and conquered the dwarf tribes, thus our villages were annexed to be a part of Archduchy.

We were called fugitives, prisoners, and beggars, and they enslaved six thousand Aninen with the highest taxes and strictest policies. The Aninen took up arms and united by the leader Paudary.

The sunken frigates, dead or dying privates, goats and horses, were common to see in my childhood, from the earliest days I could just remember. Some destroyed villages have not been restored, and blood stains still exist on the ruins."

—— the Memoir by Tico Partner

·

·

The girl Tico Partner is the leading role of this novel. The story begins at the year when she was twelve.

In about the spring of that year, or perhaps in the earlier winter, some ridiculous rumors appeared in the taverns on Isle of Afterglow.

It was seen that some mice are as giant as dogs; pigs walk on two hooves, which was only observed at late nights; crazy horses and cows sneakily eat chicken. Even the plants are demonized. The branches twist like snakes, and whip the innocent passersby...

When alcoholics narrated those weird phenomena vividly, people stared and discussed with each other, but they would never take it seriously. Even a narrator himself, when he worked in the next day, would forgotten what he had said when he was drunk.