The man with the midnight blue hair withdrew his hands from Lotte’s face and offered a hand to stand up. Lotte hesitated. He had a different aura around him than the other souls she encountered, almost the same one the giantess and her servant had.
Something enthean.
The man wore finely designed silk clothing with a deep red robe wrapped up to his left shoulder, white pants and a black waist cloth. His golden jewellery around his neck and wrists shone brightly as he mowed with ease. It fit for a ruler, but his facial expression suggested otherwise.
There was no regal confidence in him—or if there was one to begin with was long gone. Even his smile betrayed him. He looked like a man in mourning whose heart shattered a long time ago and never recovered.
“Don’t be afraid. The Alu have left.” The man’s smile wavered at Lotte. He then turned to leave, disappearing into the alleyway without another word.
Lotte just sat there, dazed and shaking in fear. Her hands clutched the rags of her clothes. She heard a loud sound echoing from nearby and imagined the creatures returning, prompting her to run after the man.
One turn became two, then four, then eight until Lotte stumbled and fell into the sand surrounded by the passing dead. They stopped in their tracks, turning to her. It was the first time they reacted to anything other than the giantess, and Lotte was all the more surprised when they helped her up without a word.
“The dead rarely interact like that.” Lotte turned to the man from before standing behind her. “Sometimes they act as they did in their past lives. Like moths to a flame, the emotions of the living attract them.”
“I am alive?” The words were barely audible, her voice hoarse and speaking for the first time in forever, but enough for the man to understand them.
He kept his smile flat and his eyes consoling. The man didn’t need to give her an answer to this question because he had none that would make her happy.
“Let us return to your abode and not dwell in the streets.” He turned on his heel. Lotte remained still until the shades pushed her forward so that she followed the finely robed deity.
Passing by several more shades, Lotte noticed how all of them were regarding them with utmost curiosity, which vanished the further they were away. Lotte felt unnerved by it and quickened her gait, trying to stay close to her guide.
She didn’t notice they had already arrived at her ‘home’. The dinky house of clay was as desolate and lonely as she left it. A depressing sight for sure, but not that it was much different from the others.
She wondered how she could have ended up here? Where did it all go wrong?
“Let’s take a seat. I’ll brew something up,” said the man, entering the house without further ado and ignoring the mess Lotte created before she left.
“I’m sorry,” mumbled Lotte, feeling unwell to enter the house. “I broke the table and the tableware and-”
With a wave of his hand, the man’s red light filled the room and brushed over the broken furniture, mending it back into proper form so they could sit down.
“Magic,” she realised, or more akin to a force of nature.
“Drink up while it’s warm,” he offered Lotte a large cup with what seemed like muddy water. Her face scrunched up, and her stomach turned.
However, her guide didn’t seem bothered and took a sip of the muddy brew. He didn’t bat an eye and continued drinking. Lotte kept her eyes down as they sat across from one another. She was sitting in front of a literal god. Despite his plain expressions, the impression his light and aura manifested made him undeniably look divine.
A question surfaced in her head to pass onto him, anything to fill the silence. “Who are you?”
There was no response. He was taking his time to search for an answer to share. “No one important, not anymore.” The silence persisted. Lotte lost the desire to ask further.
It seemed as if he didn’t want to talk about anything regarding him before he said the following, “Though I guess keeping quiet will be counterproductive for either of us—despite how much time we have on hand.”
Lotte locked eyes with him. She disliked how much they resembled hers.
“Lotte,” he began, “you are in the domain of our Queen Mother.” His voice was stoic and held a fierce seriousness to make her obey. He was far from sorrowful or friendly. “As long as you stay here, you will answer to me, who’ll be the Judge of your Soul in our underworld, Irkalla.”
— ☾ —
The celebrations ended abruptly.
Red coloured the old cobblestone streets and the formerly pristine wedding dress. Angry passersby shouted and threw rotten eggs and fruits at the newlywed couple as the wedding guests tried to form a defensive wall, mitigating the situation from escalating any further.
It didn’t make sense to Lotte how it could have spiralled so out of control. Just a moment ago, everyone was so happy. The couple looked so beautiful in their outfits. A moment so joyous it was broken just as quickly as the one Lotte remembered all too well.
Lotte wondered, “Why do good things never last?”
“Hey, what’s going on here?” exclaimed Liara, approaching an elderly woman in the crowd. “What did they do to deserve this?”
“Why?” The woman asked with a scowl of self-assured confidence. “Pah, they’re the very things we should not allow in our country. We must make things right if no one else does it.”
“Of course, it was like that. It always was. People like that existed back then and even now.”
Lotte held her breath, unable to make a sound as she watched them throwing more rotten fruits, eggs, and garbage paired with insults and curses. She wanted to do something; she wanted to help the previously happy couple so badly. It could have been her in their place. The couple did well to hold their own against this mess, but Lotte couldn’t see herself doing the same. She didn’t have the confidence for.
“Hey, stop that,” yelled Liara, and stopped the older woman from throwing more.
Lotte’s heart skipped a beat when she saw Liara putting up a resistance even though she was surrounded by more people than she could manage. It was dangerous, knowing how bad it can end to face a mob like that. Yet it somehow gave Lotte hope, even for a brief moment before it all shattered.
“Mind giving me one? The nastiest one you have if you would, please.”
“Huh?” Liara's words left Lotte dumbfounded.
“Oh, sure, here you go, sweety.” The older woman delightfully handed Liara two rotten tomatoes from her basket. “As the saying goes, ‘Prepare for trouble, and make it double.’”
“How true, thank you,” replied Liara with a comprehensive dark grin. “Yuck, extra nasty too.”
Lotte only had one thing on her mind at that moment. “Why?” How could she have been so terribly wrong about her best friend? The very person she loved?
When Liara turned around, Lotte expected her to turn back the moment she saw Lotte’s distraught face. Instead, she kept her smile and waved at her with two mouldy and putrid fruits.
It was too bizarre for her. Lotte wanted to run away as fast as possible. Her legs refused as all her energy went into producing tears.
“Go away. We don’t want you here!” The elderly woman moved between the crowds, agitating the mob further, raising their anger to a boiling point and directing it all at the wedding guests and the couple. “You are a disgrace to society!”
“You sure are,” Liara’s expression then turned serious. She was very much furious as she sprinted before the agitators and stood before them. “How dare you ruin someone’s wedding!” Liara shouted and splattered the rotten tomatoes into the very agitators who handed them to her. “You are the disgrace here and should be the ones to disappear from society!”
“H-how dare you- oof!” Taking hold of their basket, Liara overturned its contents in their direction, smearing it on their clothes before she bolted towards Lotte.
Liara took her by the hand and pulled her away. “Don’t just stand there. Let’s make a run for it!”
“I’m so glad. I didn’t mistake her,” thought Lotte in relief when Liara squeezed her hand. She wasn’t mistaken, of course she wasn’t. She could never be wrong about Liara!
“Yes!” Lotte joyfully cried out and picked up speed until both of them were fully dashing away from the angry mob tailing after them. “What’s your plan? Not like we know this place, or else riling up an angry crowd would have been pretty stupid.”
“...”
“Oh goodness, you don’t have a plan, do you?”
Liara winked and simply offered a weak grin, the usual one to feign her confidence. “If they catch us, we’ll do it like that pair of heroes in your book.”
“And what would that be?”
Liara grinned and vertically swung her right arm up and down. “Fight them with swords, spears, axes and bows!” She laughed. “Not literally, but you get the gist-"
“There they are! Get them!”
“Are you kidding me? They are following us!?” The girls exclaimed in shock at how aggressive the crowd became in their pursuit.
One woman intercepted them and attempted to lunge at Lotte with a literal metal pipe. She would have hit her face if Lotte didn’t drop to the ground and slid away as nimble as she was after years of sports and club activities.
“You can’t be serious, can you!?” Liara angrily kicked the woman into a trashcan and helped Lotte up. “This isn’t the States. Why are they so aggressive!? Are they nuts?”
“We should be thankful we’re not in the States, or else they would have come guns blazing,” commented Lotte, brushing off the dust of her leggings and jacket.
“Ok, that would have been worse," admitted Liara nervously. "My mother warned me to be careful when I see a violent mob. She’s in the military. I should have listened!” groaned Liara in frustration before laughing again and picking up her broken sunglasses. “I’ve to admit, it was exhilarating to put one over these people.”
“Please, let’s not make a habit out of this," Lotte laughed in response. "Did your mother teach you anything about what to do next when you end up backed into a corner with highly pugnacious bigots?”
Liara paused, shrugging her shoulders. “Run and hide?” Liara tightened her grip on Lotte’s hand, rubbing it. “Should we run while holding hands or-?”
Lotte instinctively pulled her hand away the second she realised she was still holding it. Her mad blush was obvious even from space.
“Not that I didn’t mind it,” Liara grinned at her and quickly became solemn when she turned her attention to the woman that almost hit Lotte. “And you, what the hell was that?! You could have seriously hurt my friend. Are you daft in that head of yours!?”
“Shut up, you b#i&h!” the woman snapped at them sharply, throwing the trashcan lid at Liara. The girls took a step back. “This is exactly where this couple, you and your girlfriend, will end up. IN HELL!”
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
— ☾ —
“M-my judge?” stammered out Lotte in disbelief, shaking before the deity. Judged for what? Her sins? Her mistakes in life?
“What did I do?” Lotte covered her mouth, the words stuck in her throat. She could barely remember the last moments of her life until she woke up in this place. In fact, it felt like she was losing all her memories except for small figments. Like her moments with Liara. What was happening to her?
“What do you mean by being my judge? Am I dead? Am I in hell?” Lotta sobbed, failing to articulate her words as tears dropped into her previously cold cup, heating it as the fire inside her heart stirred.
“Listen to me, Lotte.” the man reached out to Lotte’s burning hands, clasping them tightly. He didn’t care how much they burnt him—he wanted to reach out. “This isn’t hell. Don’t think about whether you’re dead or alive. I’m here to help you, as your judge in this place-”
“Don’t touch me!” Lotte flipped and pulled away, instinctively throwing the cup of steaming mud water at the man’s face. “Oh, no.” Lotte covered her mouth in shock. “I-I’m so sorry, I-” Lotte ran out of the dinky house.
The deity smacked his lips together, the hot brew dripping down his scruff. “I guess I deserved this. Siduri warned me to be more sensitive.” He took a sip from the brew. “Still, this girl needs to get a lesson. She can’t behave as she does now, or she did in the past,” he paused, his enthean black eyes brimming with magic. “Or else she will doom her future.”
“Get away, move!” Lotte pushed through the crowd of souls that stood in her way. “Don’t touch me. Get away from me!”
Her scream reverberated in the underworld. The ashen ground churned aggressively and threw back the spirits—their bodies slowly whisking out of reality from the impacts.
“Oh no, what did I do?” Lotte propped up the soul against a wall. His lower body was gone, shattered like a clay brick. She trembled from fear of her actions, although the soul comforted her with the touch of his hand on her cheek before he was gone.
With his body returning to the earth, the fire in his chest extinguished.
The souls flocked around Lotte, cradling the crumbled body. It caked her hands and clothes in dust and mud. She expected the souls to retaliate, but instead, they all formed a protective wall around Lotte as they all felt a dark aura approaching, cutting into their very skins. Lotte hugged her body from the frigid pain.
The presence of the demons suffocated the surrounding air. Sharp, elongated fingers scratched the ground as eerie footsteps gained after Lotte. She recognised the cunningly icy feeling.
The dark spirits returned. The Alu were on to her.
In a spur of a moment, one of them lunged at the crowd and shredded the men, women, elderly and children to pieces. Their flames dispersed in a hollow blue light, and their bodies crumbled to sand.
One Alu grabbed a spirit’s head with its sharp foot and used them as leverage to propel itself towards Lotte. It suspended itself into the air like a puppet pulled up by strings and fell like a corpse with the threads cut away. They descended on their prey and skewered another soul with their sharp claws until they were covered in blue powder.
Flinging the vanishing soul out of its way, the Alu encroached upon Lotte. She tried to get away, but the Alu didn’t let up. No matter how much she ran, she couldn’t escape them.
“Please, go away,” whimpered Lotte to the Alu blocking her way. It tilted its head in interest to Lotte’s words but snapped its claws to attack her, regardless. “Get away from me!”
Lotte’s eyes went red; the flames inside her heart ignited. Pushing her hand against the Alu, the flames left her body and enveloped the demon, eating away at its very being as it slumped down to its knees without making a sound.
It wasn’t dead yet. It slowly turned its head to Lotte, regarding her curiously and lethargically. The Alu reached out to Lotte. She instinctively took a step back.
“Hey you, run over here!” Lotte turned to where the voice came from. She spotted two shades waving at her from an alleyway. “Come here before the Alu catches you. Don’t let them scratch you or you won’t be able to move!”
With lifeless, dim eyes, the demon spirit stared after Lotte. It tried to reach out to her with its clawed hand, but she slipped away, far away from where it could see her. Its body gave up.
“Rough life, huh?” The Alu turned to the deity. It eyed his golden axe suspiciously. “Don’t worry, you’ll find your peace and solace under our Queen Mother’s watch,” then the deity let his axe fly and decapitated the Alu. Its gaze settled one last time at Lotte before it vanished.
“You won’t be able to do what you want.” He turned to the rest of the Alu, who decimated dozens of souls just to catch Lotte. Many of them still resisted. The deity rested his axe on his shoulder; an old fierceness returned in his eyes. “Bow before me, as I am one of the Seven Judges appointed by our Queen Mother. You’re under her jurisdiction. Follow or perish.”
The Alu hesitated. They were shaking to their very core, but the presence of Lotte still lingered in their head. Spasms filled their bodies. They lunged at the deity and he raised his axe for battle.
“Come this way!” Lotte followed the voices that instructed her on her way. She turned several ways, from one alleyway to the next. Between clay house after clay house, she was completely lost but didn’t stop running.
Her feet hurt, her throat burned, but Lotte kept on running. Looking behind, she imagined one of the Alu spirits creeping after her, but she wasn’t sure. Maybe her overwhelmed mind made her see things.
“Too far!” Two sets of hands grabbed Lotte and pulled her inside a house. They were both women, dressed in the same rags as Lotte was, and with the same blue fires of the other souls beating inside their chests. However, unlike them, they seemed alive, like Lotte. Their faces and eyes were brimming with a warm light.
“You are safe here,” they assured her, giving her a comforting smile.
— ☾ —
“So this is what a detention cell looks like from the inside, huh?” wondered Liara. The small room included two cushioned benches, a TV, a sink, and a barred wall and window—and one picture of a cat hanging behind bars with the inscription ‘Hang in there.’. “Neat, no idea what my mother and uncle were making such a fuss about. It’s not that bad.”
“You do know we aren’t in the States where they focus on quantity and dehumanisation of the incarcerated?” Lotte commented, exasperated. “The door is not even closed. Besides, what prison would offer hot chocolate?”
To make a point, both girls slurped on the hot and sweet brew they received from a friendly officer. How they ended up in a cell was easy to explain.
The pursuit of Lotte and Liara got too heated and caused a lot of property damage to the city as the rampaging crowd grew even fiercer. The police were called to dissolve the crowd and take in all the troublemakers.
They also received a tip from the newlywed couple that two teenage girls were currently running away for their lives from a fraction of the crowd when they stood up against them. Fearing the worst, the police immediately went to find them. However, little did they expect to discover many of the rowdy individuals unconscious in various corners of the alleyways.
They found Liara and Lotte defending themselves with nothing but brooms, the lid of a trashcan, and a few loose brick stones. Not the sight the men and women of the police imagined finding—two teenage girls standing before a pile of defeated hooligans as if they were ancient heroes in a modern world.
One officer even took a picture of them as amazed as the officer was.
“You will not get anything out of us!” boasted Liara to the officer, who was taking their story into account and watched them drink their hot chocolate contently.
Lotte let out a defeated sigh and nudged Liara. “Snap out of it. Don’t sound like a criminal. She’s here to ask us what happened.”
“But what if we go to an actual prison? We are too beautiful for prison!” whined Liara. Lotte had a hard time keeping her face straight. Liara called her beautiful.
“No one will put you in prison, yet,” reassured the officer. She clicked her pen. “Taking into account what the wedding guests and witnesses said, it was a case of self-defence, though by what we had found, I wouldn’t be so sure.”
The eyebrow of the officer twitched on remembering the sight. She still couldn’t believe how those two nonchalant and love-struck-acting teenagers took out dozens of men and women while the officers had trouble containing an entire crowd.
“Don’t drink too much of it,” chided Lotte.
“But it’s so tasty!” Liara whined again, taking a large sip and immediately started coughing as it got into the wrong pipe. Lotte giggled in response.
“Yap, still can’t believe it.” The officer smacked her lips. “We’ll need your IDs, and we need to contact your parents.”
“No, anything but that!” protested Liara, jittering. “I prefer prison, please. My mother will kill me!” exclaimed Liara, jumping up and down.
“What’s with her?” the officer pointed at Liara running in circles.
“Sugar rush,” Lotte put her hand on her cheek and watched Liara slurping on her hot chocolate with quavering hands and eyes darting like crazy. “I don’t think we can provide our IDs. Our phones and wallets are in our bags,” Lotte paused, “which we left behind at the docks.”
Providing as much information as possible, Lotte sighed in defeat. That was not how she imagined their day to end. Witnessing a disaster of a wedding, running away from angry people and eventually ending up in a fight.
Lotte’s parents berated her to no end about this since elementary school.
“A girl shouldn’t fight.”
“A girl should Always behave.”
“Do as we say. We know it better.”
Lotte had no chance to do as they wanted her to.
Liara protected her throughout her runaway from those people but was about to be seriously hurt. Lotte had snatched up a nearby broom, and for the first time in a long time, was furious. She fought, unleashing her accumulated anger and skills from her clubs.
Their parents sent her to pole-fighting just for exercise and to get fit—and do some kind of exotic sport. Same as with archery and track. Neither would have imagined for her to use it to beat up people.
Liara used a trashcan lid to shield Lotte from a brick stone, and Lotte would retaliate by hurling back bricks and cans at their heads. Both girls were screaming from the core of their bodies, fighting together and protecting one another.
Lotte wondered, “Was I always such a troublemaker?” There was something exhilarating about it when she and Liara stood side by side, their backs pressed to one another, and trusting the other without exchanging a single word.
“Fight like the heroes in your books,” said Liara before, not knowing how much truth it brought with it. It was liberating. It was only the two of them with no worries except for what was before them.
“Maybe it wasn’t so bad after all.”
Liara drawled as she let herself fall on the bench of their cell, slumping down like a worker after their late night shift. “I feel groggy, ergh,” groaned Liara, crashing from sugar withdrawal.
“You really should take your sugar intake into consideration.”
“Please don’t berate me,” groaned Liara, lying on her back and rubbing her eyes with the back of her hands. “I know I have a problem, but don’t blame me. A warrior needs their strength.”
Lotte chuckled, sitting down on the bench next to Liara’s head and smiling fondly. “So what, you’re a great warrior now?”
“With the way we fought?” Liara blushed at how Lotte’s hair fell over her shoulder. She couldn’t suppress a wide grin. “Totally, both of us are. Best ones that ever existed and twice as good looking.”
A thin smile formed on Lotte’s lips, quickly replaced by a frown. She tugged a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “Liara, it’s time we talked about this.”
Liara’s mood visibly slumped, shoulders sinking. “I suppose we do,” she propped herself up. They both sat in silence with the occasional talk of officers nearby. “I didn’t mean to delay it for so long. My first idea was to confess it when the moment was perfect—when it was right, but there was no right one. Now our trip is coming to an end, huh? How sad.”
“I know.” Lotte let her head sink and rubbed her legs. Her tights were torn. “Wish it ended on a better note.”
“Honestly, I don’t think it could have ended better than this.” Liara smiled meekly with a frown on her face. “I mean, what’s the perfect moment, anyway?”
Lotte cocked a brow. “What are you trying to say?”
“Hell, how often does it happen you stand side by side with the person you trust the most while fighting off a bunch of bad guys?” Liara laughed. “It’s like out of a story… so this makes it all the harder what I want to say.”
“Liara,” Lotte mumbled, her heart ached harder.
“We’re like heroes of the ancients reincarnated, don’t you think?”
“Liara…” Lotte’s voice was more of a whisper now. How much longer could she endure being silent?
“Who just fought one massive battle and had each other’s backs all the time,” Liara went on and on, articulating every single word that was in her head. She wasn’t noticing how she kept on talking without a stop.
Her face was plastered with sweat, nervously talking, and her eyes darted between Lotte and other random details in the cell. She couldn’t stop—she didn’t know how. Her mouth was like a waterfall, able to say whatever came to mind but failing to say what she truly wanted to say.
It was the same for Lotte. Everything was a whisper out of her mouth. She let her head sink. Both girls couldn’t say what they truly wanted. Only one thing stopped this madness. A kiss. Lotte sealed Liara’s lips with hers to make her stop talking. An action she wanted to take for a long, long time.
And it worked. With her eyes wide open, Liara stared at Lotte, unable to process anything and having all her focus on her.
She didn’t expect a kiss, nor the now crimson face of Lotte, who bashfully parted away from her lips. “I’m sorry,” she apologised. “This… this was too wayward. I- I shouldn’t have done that.”
“N-no- it was- uh, huh?” Liara was speechless.
“This was long overdue, Liara.” Lotte wrapped her warm hands around Liara’s hand, squeezing them gently as she moved in closer to her. Her heartbeat became all the more audible about how fast it was beating. She had enough of hiding her feelings. “Liara, I love you! I always did and can’t hide it any longer!”
Lotte’s confession travelled far in the entire police station, as loud as she was. Any nearby person held still as they saw the young teen confess her feelings.
It was the first time Lotte was this honest with someone. Liara was the only person she trusted this much. The only person she loved so much to go against everything her parents or anyone else taught her what was right or wrong.
She loved her friend and needed to let it out, no matter what—even if nothing would ever remain the same.
“Lotte,” Liara whispered, wrapping her hands tightly around Lotte’s and squeezing them. She dipped her head as hot tears rolled down her face. “I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”
“Sorry?” Lotte worried, not wanting to conceive an ill idea or misconception of why Liara was crying and apologising. She caressed Liara’s cheek and whipped away the tears with her thumb. “What’s wrong? Please don’t be sorry.” Lotte cried as well. “It’s ok.”
“No, it’s not,” Liara’s face was stern, tears dry but eyes still wet. “I’m sorry to say this so late and under these circumstances, but,” Liara took a deep, very deep, breath as she tried to force out the words stuck in her throat. She reached far into the corner of her heart, getting out those ill words she was unable to tell.
Words Lotte didn’t hope to hear.
“My family is moving. We won’t be able to see each other again.”