Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Mr… Skeleton, I’ve bought the tickets, where are we going now?”
“We’re going to Babus, making a detour, and taking an airship to head over to the Exotic Kingdom of Hollyma!”
“Why are we going there?”
Alice was a little scared, but she felt a little more curiosity than fear when she was looking at Adenos. The world had been peaceful for a long time. For most people, the legends of the undead and Ghost Wizard belonged to centuries long ago. Wizards, the undead, demons, and devils belonged to their great-great-great-grandfathers… that was what they had gone through.
Adenos was wearing a wig, mask, gloves, and top hat and was reading a local daily newspaper. During his long hiatus, the world had undergone tremendous changes. The wizards had disappeared, the gods had sanctified the Divine Kingdom, and supernatural power was seen everywhere. Even ordinary people could use the divine artifacts of Magic Crystals and alchemy devices to exhibit extraordinary power.
Adenos, who was freed from the Song of the Undead and the erosion of innumerable dead spirits, he had recovered his senses from his previous madness. Back when he was in hell, as the master of the Styx, it had some effects on him too. After he had retrieved all his memories, he had become more composed and restrained.
Adenos looked at Alice and said as if amused by her naive question, “Why? Because! The master of the night is now at his weakest!”
“But that’s God, an eternal God!” Alice felt that what Mr. Skeleton said was a little dreadful. He sounded like a devil that was going to bring extinction to the human race, just like one in an epic novel.
“Only those who die completely will truly be eternal!” Adenos sneered.
Adenos discovered that the girl who had activated his undead identity was actually a member of the Monar Family. She had the same face as Adenos’s sister, Esha Monar.
It was her blood, which had the same origin as Adenos’, that stimulated his soul and awakened it from its deep sleep. But the present Monar Family had declined and faded out of its place of prominence. The royal family of the Union of the Mara Kingdom no longer belonged to the Monar Family. The Monar family since Adenos’s sister, Esha Monar, had become the Queen had taken a sudden turn for the worst.
“They’re indeed a bunch of good-for-nothings. They even lost the throne!” Adenos crossed his legs. He had a cold look on his face as he stared indifferently at the historical records of the Monar Royal Family.
Alice felt that Mr. Skeleton liked to brag. Every single time when he spoke, he always talked about the royal family, the gods, the ancient mythological heroes, and most importantly, that all of them were insignificant in his eyes. He labeled them as worthless and good-for-nothings.
“Excuse me! Mr. Skeleton, it’s not right to speak ill of our ancestors behind their backs!”
Adenos looked up at Alice through his white mask. Alice swallowed her saliva and dared not say another word.
“That was scary!”
They took the Steam Locomotive all the way to Ollie City, and then they took the Steam Train to Babus City, the capital of Mara Kingdom. After stopping in Babus City and making a big purchase, Alice followed Adenos onto an airship which crossed the Kingdom of Rosa d’Oro and the Black Forest and arrived at the Kingdom of Hollyma in the Exotic Kingdom.
Alice, who had never left her hometown, felt that to travel like this was a once in a lifetime adventure. Mr. Skeleton looked terrible, talked terribly, and he was really harsh and indifferent. But she felt that Mr. Skeleton was a good person.
Mr. Skeleton seemed to have been an esteemed noble in his lifetime and had left behind many treasures. Alice had never seen so many gold and silver treasures, nor had she ever thought that one could be so rich that he could afford to buy the whole world.
They were in a first-class seat on the most luxurious Platinum Train traveling along the coast. Alice was enjoying the red wine and beef from St. Sarl City and admiring the view of the sea.
The dreamy capital of the Mara Kingdom, Babus, and the excessive purchases left Alice dizzy. Although Mr. Skeleton said he wanted her to help him buy books, all kinds of history books, books about gods, the history of various churches, the history of other continents and national records, he didn’t restrict Alice from buying other things. Hence, Alice was excitedly buying all the clothes, skirts, and hats she wanted.
“Ah! It feels so good to be rich! Long live Mr. Skeleton!”
Alice felt that she had never been so happy in her life. It was as if gold coins were constantly raining down before her eyes.
She accompanied Mr. Skeleton to the church of the Goddess of Light in the Mara Kingdom to pay their respects. Although she thought it strange that a skeleton was worshiping the Goddess of Light.
“Even if he’s a skeleton, he might have been a believer in the Goddess of Light before he died. In that case, doesn’t it all make sense?”
But Adenos didn’t mean to worship the Goddess of Light at all. Instead, he stood in front of the archangel, Faross, for the whole day.
It was Alice’s first time riding on an airship. When she looked down from above, she could feel her wobbly legs. She lay on the window for almost half a day and couldn’t stand up. She had been worrying the whole time that the airship might fell from the sky, until Mr. Skeleton scornfully said, “What a fool.”
Alice rested stubbornly on the window, and then she went to the airship’s sky corridor for a walk which allowed her to overcome her fear of heights.
The Kingdom of Hollyma was a country in the Exotic Kingdom. Its customs, architecture, and beliefs were very different from those of the Kingdom of the Church of Light. They liked to build with boulders. Because of the hot weather, they liked to wear simple, short, and comfortable clothes. However, with the advent of the Magic Crystal Era and the dramatic development of trade and commerce, the situation there was also changing. It was gradually homogenized by the outside world.
People here believed in the master of the night. They believed that night was the symbol of god. They were used to praying in the night, they liked the color black, and symbols of the moon were a common sight.
On the first day of Adenos’s arrival, he entered the Night Temple of the master of the night. The statue that was once broken had been rebuilt, but there were no longer the spiritual tension and divine aura it once had.
Adenos didn’t behave as he had at the church of the Goddess of Light. Instead, he spoke to Alice in front of the statue of the master of the night.
“You know what? In our times, there were no gods!”
Alice didn’t believe it, “What? There were no gods? How is that possible? All gods have been worshipped by human beings since ancient times, and they’ve been passed down from the past!”
Adenos laughed, and his laughter sounded as if his teeth were clattering, which was a little dreadful. “Of course, because there was only one real faith at that time, called the Church of Light, and there was only one God who really proved the existence of God!”
“He was the Great Angel of Balance, Faross!”
When he talked about it, Adenos suddenly had a profound fear and dread revealed his eyes. He didn’t know what he was afraid of, whether it was the name or the truth behind the name.
It took Adenos a long time to recover from his fear, and he scoffed at all the gods that came up later, “None of you know the naked truth of this world, that everything in this world was made under false pretense; everyone lives in a game of fraud!”
“I want to leave this world and advance to another Kingdom, the Abyss World! I need to break away from the shackles down here! But before that, I need to offer sacrifices to it. Even if I become a demon, I must be the strongest one! I’m Adenos. This sacrificial offering, of course, it must be… a little more grandiose.”
Hidden behind the mask, Adenos’s fleshless mouth was split and cracked into a frenzied smile.