In the lands once ruled by the Balam Empire, where people worshipped Death, taking short journeys in "coffins" was a popular custom. This remained true even in the colonial era, now that Matani Bond, where Pylos Port was located, had been occupied by Intis and forcibly converted to the faith of the Eternal Blazing Sun.
These believers in Death thought coffins brought peace and tranquility and could earn them Death's favor. They therefore lay inside them when traveling, or even at home, using them as carriages carried by several people or pulled by horses.
At the Aurela Hotel, the largest hotel in the port, where Angel had stayed, half the rooms had large coffins in place of ordinary beds. This was not to accommodate local customs, however, but to offer visitors from Intis and other countries on the North Continent something novel—a distinctive experience.
Although she had declined such a "coffin room" when choosing her accommodation, curiosity still got the better of her on her journey from Pylos Port to Tizamo. She hired a horse-drawn coffin carriage and spent two hours jolting along before reaching the town on the edge of the primeval jungle.
As experiences go, it was actually rather nice. The coffin was lined with thick fabric and even had a neck pillow. It must be cleaned regularly, since there was no unpleasant smell. Once the lid closed, the sunlight, heat, and noise outside all fell away, leaving only profound darkness and silence, as though I were gradually approaching death, or being carried toward a cemetery... Angel mentally assessed her second "coffin experience."
As for the first, Arianna had rescued her while she was unconscious, before she could be placed in a coffin and buried in Raphael Cemetery in Tingen City, so it hardly counted as a complete