Laughter

Mrs. Hughes was dead. No, she was gone.

Yet Kallen, who had escaped his predicament, felt no relief whatsoever.

A man knelt before him, along with a woman-if she could even be called a woman;

In short, these two put him under immense pressure.

Kallen knew there had to be some misunderstanding.

But he knew even better that he could not possibly explain it.

Just look at how they had disposed of Mrs. Hughes... Kallen believed that if they wanted to, dealing with him would be even easier.

At a time like this, Kallen had to be grateful for his profession in his previous life and all the bizarre things he had encountered since waking up in this one. In short, his mental resilience was quite good, provided he was not facing an actual moment of life or death.

What counted as a moment of life or death? Something like when Mrs. Hughes had actually raised her knife earlier-then, he had been terrified beyond measure. He was a little better than someone who refused to cry until they saw their coffin; until the lid went on, he could still just about manage a smile.

But,

The awkward thing was,

These two simply knelt before him without saying anything;

And Kallen,

Had no idea what to say either,

Because his chances of speaking were very "slim." One wrong word, and he would be keeping his mouth shut forever.

In accordance with your will, great one.

Kallen began recalling what the man in the red suit had said to him earlier.

Had they mistaken me for someone else?

No, surely not.

Neither the former "Kallen" nor his current self qualified to have these two kneel before him.

They certainly had not mistaken his identity.

What they must have mistaken,

Was his strength.

Complicated problems were best simplified;

They had taken him for some great being. Though he had no idea why, his only option now was to keep acting "great."

But,

How exactly was he supposed to do that?

Kallen desperately wanted to go home. He desperately missed Dis's study;

Oh, damn it, Dis wasn't home today!

Alfred and Miss Molly both remained kneeling.

After a long while,

They finally heard the voice of the great being before them:

"Tired..."

Alfred lowered his head even further, and Miss Molly did the same.

Kallen rose from the bed, moving very slowly because his body still felt somewhat weak.

Alfred shuffled sideways on his knees, clearing the great being's path;

Kallen stepped forward, one pace at a time. In truth, he felt an urge to dash through the bedroom door, run down the stairs, rush through the entryway, race beyond the courtyard gate, climb into that red Caiman sedan, and finally floor the accelerator to "escape with his life."

But,

Looking at the glass beneath the window, shattered with such remarkable precision, and remembering how the man in the red suit had entered, Kallen felt that even with another pair of legs, he probably could not outrun him.

But now that he had gotten off the bed, he could hardly turn around and sit back down again, could he?

In the end,

Kallen came to the pile of Mrs. Hughes's clothes,

Bent down,

And picked them up. Well, they were her belongings left behind now.

Actually, Kallen had thought quite well of Mrs. Hughes. He believed that most of the time, she was still the same Mrs. Hughes-except when she wanted to create art.

Still, he did not linger over his grief. Holding her clothes, Kallen looked through the window at the moon in the sky.

"Lovely moonlight."

Alfred and Miss Molly remained dutifully bowed on their knees.

Kallen did his best to steady his breathing and continued slowly toward the window. His soles scraped against the glass with a faint, grating sound. He raised his head, pretending to be absorbed in tonight's moonlight.

Some sounds came from behind him. Alfred and Miss Molly had turned completely, shifting from kneeling toward the bed to kneeling toward the window.

Come on,

Say something,

How am I supposed to know what part to play if you just kneel there without saying a word?

The hand holding Mrs. Hughes's clothes brushed against a small box. It was a cigarette pack.

At this critical moment,

A thought suddenly popped into Kallen's mind,

A thought that made even him want to laugh and slap himself:

If my act falls apart and I get swallowed the next moment,

Why not have one more cigarette before I'm swallowed?

No, what the hell am I even thinking!!!

Though he was screaming at himself inwardly, "muscle memory" still made Kallen take out the pack. These were Honey cigarettes, slim cigarettes for women.

He tipped the opening of the pack down over his palm,

Tapped,

And tapped again,

Then a cigarette slipped halfway out.

He pulled it free and, with the filter pointing down, tapped it against the back of his hand, then tapped again;

Lifted it,

And caught it between his lips;

Then picked up the lighter printed with a purple rose,

Tilted his face down forty-five degrees,

Click.

And lit it;

He flicked his wrist to shake the lighter,

Took a drag,

Then moved the cigarette away between his fingers, its tip pointing down, and smoothly exhaled a smoke ring.

This was a veteran smoker's standard routine. Or perhaps every veteran smoker had his own habitual sequence; the poses differed slightly, but the spirit was almost identical.

Performing these motions felt as though a soundtrack had begun playing around you. No matter who you were or where you happened to be-on a construction site, in a train station's smoking area, or, like him now, being "watched" hungrily by two "ghosts";

Once you began that sequence, at least for that moment, you stood apart from worldly concerns, gazing upon the world with profound eyes.

The faint smell of smoke spread.

Alfred remained kneeling, as did Miss Molly.

"Heh..."

Alfred's body trembled slightly. He instinctively wanted to raise his head, but restrained the impulse.

Kallen pressed together his lips, which tasted a little bitter,

Then shook out another cigarette,

And, with tremendous self-control, suppressed the urge for his hand to tremble as he said to Alfred:

"Want one?"

Was he,

Asking me?

Alfred hesitated for a moment. Finally, summoning enormous courage, he raised his head.

He saw the great being standing by the window, holding out a cigarette toward him. Moonlight spilled over his body, as though outlining him in gold, sacred and inviolable.

"Hmm?"

"I..."

Alfred slowly rose and walked cautiously up to Kallen. He reached out, accepted the cigarette, and placed it between his lips.

The next moment,

Click!

Kallen struck a flame with the lighter;

Alfred's body was trembling. The great being, the divine emissary, was actually going to... light my cigarette?

Both cigarettes and alcohol carried deeply ingrained toxic customs, embodied in the rituals of offering cigarettes and toasts;

When someone of higher standing performed these gestures, they often moved those beneath them profoundly.

Alfred leaned forward, lit his cigarette, and took a drag with nervous excitement. Then he turned aside, making sure the smoke he exhaled did not "offend" the great being.

Good, very good. He smoked it.

Next, Kallen took out another cigarette and looked at Miss Molly, who was kneeling there:

"Would you like one too?"

Fuck, what the hell am I doing!!!

Kallen cursed himself furiously inside.

Miss Molly stood, then approached with a somewhat bewildered air. Her red high heels tapped out a pleasant rhythm on the floor as she came before Kallen.

She had no hands,

But fortunately,

She had a face.

Kallen brought the filter end to Miss Molly's lips himself. She leaned her face forward slightly, opened her mouth, and held it between her lips.

Kallen picked up the lighter again and lit it for her.

Then,

Miss Molly began smoking.

Could you imagine what Miss Molly looked like smoking? No artist of sound mind could possibly have composed such an image!

Kallen actually witnessed it.

And though Kallen was now utterly terrified and horrified inside, something indefinable about the scene struck him squarely in his sense of humor, making him want to laugh.

Kallen held it in, and held it in, and held it in,

To avoid ruining his image,

He turned around,

And faced out the window.

At the same time,

Alfred and Miss Molly followed suit, looking out the window together.

Three people,

Facing the moon,

Each with a cigarette dangling from their lips.

My God,

What a grotesque scene this was!

Kallen felt his cheeks were about to ache from holding it in,

And instinctively tried to distract himself by smoking,

But after he took a drag, he could no longer contain his laughter. Like floodwaters released through an open gate, it poured out.

"Hahahaha... cough, cough... hahahaha..."

He had choked and was coughing violently, but the laughter would not stop. There was no ending this motion, this process now. Kallen kept laughing, coughing and laughing at once;

He laughed until tears streamed down his face,

Laughed until he thought he must have lost his mind,

Laughed until he thought he had ruined everything and was doomed.

I'm doomed!!!

Still laughing, Kallen slapped the windowsill with his palm in bitter regret, continuing to laugh as he slapped it.

No, I can't keep laughing! I have to stop, rein it in!

Alfred was stunned by the bizarre, uninhibited scene before him, and Miss Molly beside him was too.

The great being before them,

Laughed wildly, laughed without restraint, laughed with utter purity;

Then,

Alfred laughed too. At first he was very quiet, then he gradually raised his volume to match the great being before him.

Beside him, Miss Molly saw the great being laughing, then Alfred laughing too, and joined in.

Kallen, who had just consciously begun to get his laughter under control, lost it again when he heard the two bursts of laughter behind him.

Fuck, what the hell are you laughing at!

"Hahahahaha!!!!"

"Hahahaha!"

"Hahahaha!"

What the hell are you laughing at? Stop making me laugh, damn it! Stop!

"Ha ha ha ha!"

Kallen turned his head,

and happened to see Miss Molly's cigarette fall from her mouth because she had no hands to hold it.

Fuck!

"Ha ha ha ha ha!!!"

Kallen laughed until tears streamed from his eyes.

"Ha ha ha ha!!!" Alfred couldn't stop either.

To ease her embarrassment, and since her cigarette had already fallen anyway, Miss Molly laughed even louder.

Are you two out of your minds?!

Laughter was contagious. Even when there was inexplicably nothing funny, if someone beside you suddenly burst out laughing, you couldn't help getting swept along. Your mind might find it baffling, but your body simply couldn't stop.

Kallen had no idea how long he laughed. In the end, he only gradually stopped when he had almost no strength left and could barely breathe.

"It has been a long time since I last laughed. I had almost forgotten what it felt like."

Miss Molly's voice drifted softly through the room.

She finally spoke.

Kallen immediately perked up and began using the all-purpose line he had used to counsel patients in his previous life:

"Sometimes, only by learning to let go of your obsession can you pick up what you truly want."

At those words, Miss Molly's body-or, more precisely, her two full, shapely legs-trembled;

then she knelt and bowed again:

"Thank you for your guidance. I will keep your teachings firmly in mind."

Just then,

Alfred suddenly spoke:

"The Inquisitor from the Order God Church is here."

The Order God Church? An Inquisitor?

Kallen looked out the window in confusion. A familiar figure had appeared on the road outside the yard gate... Dis.

Beside his grandfather was a small figure, hard to make out in the darkness, but her eyes shone like amber. It was Puer.

Kallen's almost instinctive urge was to shout, "Grandpa, save me!"

But after weighing the distance between himself and the two beside him against the distance to his grandfather, Kallen abandoned that plan.

Still, his grandfather's appearance gave Kallen an immense sense of security.

He stood there, looking at Dis outside the window, and said calmly:

"I live in his house."

Alfred's eyes immediately lit up, and he asked:

"Is this Inquisitor from the Order God Church your retainer?"

Of course. Before every great being rose to power, retainers destined to serve them would appear at their side, protecting them through those first difficult days. Wasn't that how all the religious stories went?

A retainer could be a powerful Otherworldly Demon, or... a powerful human.

No wonder this man had remained in Rojia City as an Inquisitor despite being so powerful. All along, he had been entrusted with such a great mission!

Kallen answered:

"He is this body's grandfather, by blood."

Kallen swore that this was the absolute truth. He hadn't embellished it in the slightest.

The truth was, Kallen didn't dare lie to this red-eyed fellow. He had a feeling that Alfred was extraordinarily perceptive and would notice if you lied to his face.

His grandfather... by blood.

So this was a god who had descended, taking on a human body through pregnancy, birth, growth, and adulthood to fulfill his mission of founding a faith!

It made sense now.

Everything made sense!

This was a true god who had descended into the mortal world. A true god!

That was why he had a language all his own. His existence, the years he had lived, had long since exceeded the reckoning of any single civilization!

That was why he had hymns all his own. He was a god, so his songs were his hymns. He had no need to go from zero to one. He himself was one!

The god had already descended, and he had already prepared everything!

Alfred knelt and bowed again,

saying with reverent dread:

"Please forgive me. My insolence has disturbed your passage from greatness into the light."

"Your sins are forgiven."

"Thank you for your mercy."

But Alfred didn't rise. Instead, he steeled himself and said outright:

"I wish to follow in your footsteps, to be your soaring eagle, your beast of burden, your most loyal and most honored servant!"

Beside him, Miss Molly also spoke directly:

"I will be your legs, if only to witness your great path."

Kallen blinked. The scene left him rather at a loss;

all he could do was turn toward his grandfather standing below

and give him a helpless smile.

Outside No. 128 on Mink Street,

Dis and Puer were both looking up at the second-floor window.

Puer spoke:

"Dis, you regret it now, don't you?

"The Absolute Taboo Ritual summoned a truly terrifying Otherworldly Demon.

"Before,

"your eyes were deceived by his outward appearance, and your heart was blinded by those supposed family bonds;

"look,

"he has already brought these two Otherworldly Demons under his command.

"Look again,

"now that his wings are fully grown,

"he is giving you a defiant smile."