When you lived on a cluster of floating islands like Sky Archipelago, earthquakes tended to happen every once in a while. Since the islands drifted in the air, occasionally they would collide with each other and send vibrations quaking across the bedrock. Sometimes, large chunks of rock would break off and deep fissures would open in the ground.

27-year-old Lucia Winters was very familiar with earthquakes, especially since she lived on the Archipelago her entire life. Some of the larger islands were protected with magical barriers, but many of the smaller islands were vulnerable to collisions, and earthquakes could be extremely dangerous.

When the ground started shaking on an ordinary summer day, Lucia initially assumed it was just a regular earthquake.

She was indoors at the time, so she did the very sensible thing of ducking underneath a desk. You never knew if the building would collapse on top of you, so Lucia found the nearest table and crouched underneath the wooden surface.

There were screams outside, and Lucia's co-worker named Chantilly came running in through the front door.

"Lucia! Oh heavens! In the sky! There's an enormous hole in the sky!" The mouse girl blabbered hysterically.

The ground was still shaking, so Lucia pulled Chantilly underneath the table with her. The poor girl was wide-eyed and completely nonsensical, and at first Lucia thought she had gone mad.

"A hole in the sky?" Lucia said in disbelief. "What do you mean by a hole in the sky??"

"The archipelago fell through a hole!!"

"...But ...That doesn't make sense..."

"It's true!! The island was isekai'd! The entire archipelago was sucked into a black hole!" Chantilly exclaimed fearfully.

Lucia genuinely thought that Chantilly had gone crazy. This was obviously impossible. There was no way that entire islands could be transmigrated to another world. Sky Archipelago was huge! While it was certainly true that one or two random individuals might occasionally fall through a wrinkle in a time and space, Lucia couldn't believe that there was a dimensional portal that could swallow up hundreds of levitating islands. As far as Lucia understood the world, that was absolutely ridiculous.

"Chantilly... you probably just saw a big cloud... islands can't get isekai'd." Lucia insisted.

"No! It was a hole! It was definitely a hole!" Chantilly retorted.

A bookshelf came toppling down at the moment, and the mouse girl squeaked in fright. The ground seemed to groan and creak, as if the island was bearing an incredible amount of stress. The vibrations from the floor seemed especially intense, and for a moment Lucia wondered if she had ever experienced an earthquake as intense as this one in her entire life.

Whichever the case, this was definitely an earthquake for the history books.

The shaking suddenly stopped. 

Chantilly was still quivering underneath the table, muttering incomprehensible things to herself. She was clutching her own tail in her hands nervously, and the mouse girl looked as pale as a ghost. There was a look of despair on her face, as if she genuinely believed the world was somehow ending.

Lucia sighed and rubbed her head. 

At least they weren't hurt.