Heaven and Hell / Two Beasts

This Herrscher has an unexpectedly deep obsession with candied apples.

Living peacefully with inhuman monsters? Lin Cong thought of such a thing, but at this moment, under the forceful control of his corrupted consciousness, he could only walk side by side with the Herrscher of Erosion to the water park he had visited many times before.

On the way, Lin pondered how to break the contract with the Herrscher of Erosion... No, he didn't even know what this so-called "contract" was. It was highly likely that she had used her powers to corrupt Lin's consciousness and body, and had modified them.

So Lin tried to talk to the girl who kept walking forward. "What's your name?"

"Name?" The Herrscher was completely confused by this unfamiliar word. "What does it mean?"

"... is a word used to address other people."

"Just like when I call you 'human'?"

"I have a name, my name is Lin."

"I remember now, you called that strange-tasting thing Theresa, and she called you Lin. So what's my name?"

You're asking me this?

However, Lin already understood that the Herrscher of Erosion had no name, and she didn't even have the concept of it. After all, in her worldview, the only classification of living beings was her and other living beings. Even Lin was only counted as "human," just like ants, mosquitoes, and bees could be summarized as insects.

"Human, who gave you your name?" The Herrscher of Erosion was intrigued by the word, and she tilted her head cutely as she asked Lin.

But Lin knew that this was just a disguise of her momentary curiosity. Once she grew tired of it or it didn't suit her taste, she would eliminate it without hesitation.

"I... I don't know." A strange light flashed in Lin's pupils as he answered calmly, "But it must be the name my parents gave me."

"Um... but I don't have parents."

The Herrscher of Erosion didn't care about Lin's emotions. She didn't care how her familiars or playthings would react. She only cared whether the other party would do as she wanted. She thought for a moment and muttered, "Then give me a name."

"I?"

Yes, you.

Lin couldn't think of a name for this abominable monster; when he saw the Herrscher of Erosion, he could only think of Theresa.

What are Theresa and Kallen doing now...?

"Didn't expect that?" Seeing Lin's long silence, the Herrscher of Erosion assumed he couldn't think of a name. "Then I'll also be called Theresa, after all, she and I are..."

"No."

"..."

Lin decisively refuted the Herrscher of Erosion's words, and unusually, she didn't speak to herself, but was just curious about Lin's reaction.

He calmed himself down and told her, "You shall be called 'Moon'."

Moon, a name befitting her identity, also implies that in Lin's eyes she is a false reflection of Theresa's "light".

"Moon..."

The Herrscher of Erosion... or rather, the Moon, had no objection to this, or perhaps she was quite satisfied with the name; she even walked with a lighter step.

Lin continued to extract information, trying to find out why he killed humans.

"Why? Didn't I already say? If I want to kill, I can kill. Since there's no difference between killing and not killing, why can't I kill?"

Using the same old story, she walked among the crowd. When other pedestrians heard her and saw that she was a cute little girl, they couldn't help but smile and think that this little one was really lovable.

"Since there's no difference between killing or not killing, can't you just not kill?"

"Sure, I haven't killed them yet, have I?"

Yue nodded, but how long this "tolerance" would last was unknown.

Soon, they arrived at the water park. Yue walked through the queue without a care and headed towards the entrance until she was stopped by the staff.

"Little sister, you can't cut in line," the staff member said to her with a smile.

Yue simply raised her head, her bewitching blood-red eyes like a knife piercing the staff.

"Smack!"

A hand pressed her head down just in time; otherwise, the next second, the staff member's head would have exploded like a smashed watermelon, scattering everywhere.

"Okay." Lin nodded expressionlessly to the staff member who didn't know what was going on, then pulled Yue and walked to the back of the long line.

Throughout this process, Yue remained completely silent.

Chapter Forty-Eight: Heaven and Hell

You lied to me.

Lin crossed his arms and muttered something indifferently in a low voice.

"You were just about to kill him, weren't you? You promised you wouldn't kill anyone as long as I became your retainer."

"..." Upon hearing Lin's words, the silver-haired girl instinctively wanted to refute them, but just as she was about to speak, she wondered why she should refute them.

Yue fidgeted with the hem of her clothes with her small hands. After a while, she looked up at Lin and said, "You are my kin. What I say goes."

Sure enough, in the end, she still resorted to irrational methods, relying on fists and domination to speak, and breaking her promises was perfectly normal for her.

After all, only those who hold guns deserve bread, jam, and maids.

However, Yue did not go on a killing spree in the end. Instead, she obediently followed Lin in line this time. When they arrived in front of the staff, he smiled and nodded to Yue, saying, "Little sister is very well-behaved. Don't cut in line next time."

"..."

Lin quickly pulled Yue inside to prevent her from becoming murderous. Fortunately, Yue lacked common sense and didn't care what the staff said.

"Let me go buy you some rock sugar apples first, this way." Lin carefully led Yue by the hand, not because she was afraid she would get lost, but because she was afraid that Yue would wander off to a place where she couldn't see her and then bare her fangs at the people here.

"The one we played before..." Yue Guili's ruby-red eyes swept over the drop tower, and after pausing for a moment, she said, "Why would humans scream up there? Nothing was happening, and it wasn't even going very fast."

"Because humans are afraid," Lin replied.

"Scared? Then why did you even sit on it?"

"Because they enjoy the thrill of being scared."

"... Are you both afraid of actual danger and enjoying the feeling that danger might occur?"

"Right."

Yue stared at the drop tower that was emitting screams that echoed throughout the amusement park, "Strange humans."

"Humans are such contradictory creatures." Lin saw that there were quite a few people queuing in front of the food stall, and he became nervous again, protecting Yue behind him... or rather, isolating her from the others. "That's why they invented those exciting games."

Last time, he protected Theresa and prevented her from getting separated from him. But things are different now. The same appearance and the same actions, but with different purposes.

He's like a tightrope walker; one wrong move and the water park pool could turn red.

"I see."

Yue replied casually, her eyes still fixed on the drop tower. Lin, who had been observing her, also noticed her unusual behavior. Recalling that she had been staring at the drop tower since their first meeting, a strange idea popped into his head.

"Do you... really like riding drop towers?"

After hearing Lin's words, Yue's eyes darted around, and she murmured, "Do I like it? Hmm... I guess so. But it would be even better if it were ten times higher."

The passenger either suffocated while playing or caught fire due to friction during the descent.

Maybe she'll like skydiving?

Lin thought this was a good way to calm her down, so he said, "Then I'll play with you in a little while."

"Alright." Yue's eyes didn't even move, and it was clear that she really cared about that game that went up and down so much that it was too exciting for many people.

After buying the candied apples and handing them to Yue Xin, whom she had longed for even after killing Lin hundreds or thousands of times, Lin felt that she and Theresa were somewhat similar when a light shone in Yue Xin's empty eyes.

But it's only at times like these that she acts like an ordinary young girl.

"Human, aren't you going to eat?" Tsukimi Rin asked casually, her hands empty as she had already eaten half of what she had.

"I don't need it."

Lin doesn't really like sweets; he prefers spicy food.

That's right. Don't be fooled by his seemingly indifferent attitude. He does have taste preferences, at least when it comes to food. He has a particular fondness for strongly flavored foods.

For some reason, the strong feedback made him feel happy.

At this moment, Lin suddenly had an idea. He pulled Yue's hand and made her look up at him. He said seriously to Yue, who was licking the candy coating, "Yue, if you destroy humanity, then there will be no more candy apples and drop towers."

"...oh."

"..."

"Then what?"

Yue bit into the fruit, puzzled, her cheeks puffing out adorably as she chewed, waiting for Lin to continue.

"You like eating candied apples and riding drop towers, right?"

"Um."

"What if you can't eat or play anymore in the future?"

Yue finished eating the remaining fruit, spat out the pit, and then...

That familiar feeling of inhumanity surged into Lin's heart once again.

"Then I won't be able to eat it or play with it." Yue held up the bamboo skewer left after eating the candied apple, gesturing to the passersby. Her clear voice was like the cold sound of ice shattering. "Anyway, there will always be other new things that I'll like, right?"

"..."

Lin began to loathe her own naiveté.

For a fleeting moment—perhaps a second, perhaps a fraction of a second—he felt that maybe Yue's attitude toward humanity could be changed, that it was possible to guide her to realize the weight of life.

But he was wrong. Herrscher is still Herrscher, and no matter what, she is not human.

"So, I can be replaced at will?" Lin raised his head, looked at the boundless blue sky, and asked coldly.

"Of course, if I find another familiar that I find better, then you can be discarded, and I will kill you then."

The Herrscher, with such nonchalant ease, determined Lin's fate.

Lin had no objection or rebuttal. He even felt that Yue's words were correct, since she had always said and done the same thing.

"However, I will not continue killing until I find a new familiar." Yue seemed a little bothered by what Lin had said while they were queuing, perhaps because her authority as the master had been challenged?

"..."

What should Lin say? Hopefully, she'll find the next unfortunate family member a little later?

He didn't know.

His heartbeat slowed down. Since entering this World Bubble, something in Lin's body seemed to be flowing away. He could feel the changes in himself, changes he didn't know whether to be good or bad.

Like a piece of iron that has been hammered, cooled, and hardened.

"Two people?"

"Um."

This time, Lin was able to get up and walk without any injuries, so he easily got on the drop tower with Yue. He fastened the safety buckle and helped Yue fasten it as well.

"Thump, thump, thump..."

Listening to the soft hum of the drop tower, Lin Mo remained silent for a long time. At the moment he reached the top, he asked Yue—

"Moon, have you ever thought, even just for a moment, that humans are actually different from insects? They can make candied apples and drop towers, they can tell you to queue and not cut in line, they can laugh and cry and be afraid... Have you ever thought about that?"

"Hmm... yes. But so what if it's different from an insect?"

... Yes, what's the difference?

Standing in a paradise on clouds, Lin couldn't tell whether he saw a hell of corpses and blood in the moment of his fall, and perhaps that real hell was not far away.

Chapter Forty-Nine: Two Wild Beasts

"I want to make a deal with you."

"No, subordinates are not qualified to negotiate with their masters."

Yue walked along, eating a candied apple in each hand. She took in everything around her, her Xiao Ke gothic-style clothes attracting the attention of many people, but she seemed oblivious to their amazed looks, not even focusing her gaze on any particular person.

Perhaps, for her, the presence of a group of insects watching was something she didn't need to pay any attention to.

Lin followed Yue somewhat wearily. He could no longer tell whether her curious gazes were of curiosity about human behavior and facilities, or whether she was thinking about how to break them into different pieces.

This Herrscher lacks common sense, yet she is not a truly clumsy child. On the contrary, she is extremely shrewd. She neither accepts Lin's value guidance nor does she have her own plans. All her actions are to satisfy her thirst for knowledge, but she is completely unmoved by human matters.