Graham was woken up by the noise from the street below. He lazily opened his eyes and looked at the clock on the wall in front of him; it was still eight in the morning. The sunshine tried to penetrate into his room but his thick curtain blocked the light.

He unwillingly got up from the bed and stood next to the window, lifting the thick brown curtain a little to see what was going on outside. In the street below, there was a parade going on with people dressed in costumes. Most of them were wearing masks and some only had their faces painted. The theme seemed to be horror since most of the costumes were death-related.

Graham noticed a woman who was dancing in front of a group of people who followed her rhythm. The woman was wearing a headdress made of black roses with several pointy spikes protruding from the flowers. Her face was covered with a white faceless mask with its tiny lips painted red. Her slender body was covered with bandages like a mummy, emphasizing her curves while the bottom half featured a brown dress skirt with more black roses adorning it. She was moving elegantly and mysteriously to the beat of the drum accompanying the group.

"Val, I completely forgot that today is Dodenherdenking," he muttered.

It was the Remembrance Day of the Dead in the Republic of Tulp, celebrated on the 23rd of September every year. People would go out to the street dressed up as dead people and ghosts in solidarity with those who had passed away before them. They would play music and dance in a parade that went around the main streets in each city with the hope to invite the dead to come and dance with them.

"There have been several stories where a dead person returns on this day and celebrate with the living as if they were alive. I didn't use to believe in those stories but now I think they are not completely impossible..." he stroked his chin and then covered the window again.

The loud sound of music still came strong from below but it didn't bother him. It was only one day in a year so he didn't mind it.

Graham walked towards the bathroom and washed his face in the sink. He also brushed his teeth while he was there. After drying his face, he went back to the bedroom and stood in front of his massive wardrobe.

"What should we dress up as this year, Val?"

He opened the wardrobe and looked at his options.

"Last year we were a vampire. This year we should have more options since I can use Order to make our costume,"

He stroked his chin again. His eyes were lit up with excitement.

"Being a real faceless man with your Concealment ability sounds interesting, but that way, other Contractbounds will recognize us right away. And I think Pale Society should be looking for a Shroud right now since we killed their ghoul again last night."

Graham crouched down and started rummaging through his pile of clothes.

"Let's become a Death Deacon today,"

Graham took out a skull mask from the back of his wardrobe and also a long brown robe that could cover his whole body. He also picked up a very long piece of red cloth and laid it down on the floor. He then placed a bottle of golden fabric ink next to the cloth.

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, order the ink to create a mysterious pattern on the cloth!"

The ink magically moved on its own and splashed on the cloth, slowly turning into the pattern that Graham had in mind. The gold-on-red pattern looked both beautiful and mysterious. Once it was done, he put on the dark brown robe and placed the red cloth in front of his chest before chanting again.

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, order this piece of cloth to merge with the brown robe!"

The very long piece of red cloth started to become one with the plain dark brown robe, making it look majestic. There was now a straight section in the middle and also at the bottom of the robe with the golden pattern on them. After that, Graham took another darker colored robe from his wardrobe and made it look tattered with a pair of scissors. He put on the second layer of robe on top of the first one. Now he looked like a priest who had just emerged from an underground church somewhere.

"This turns out better than expected. Now I really want to use your Concealment to cover my face with a mist, but..." he shrugged.

He looked at the skull mask and took out some more bottles of fabric paint from the bottom drawer of his wardrobe.

"I, in the name of the Deity of the Tongue, order paints to turn the appearance of the skull mask into something horrifying!"

The liquid paints rose from their bottles and sat on top of the skull mask, changing its color. Slowly, the white skull mask turned into the color of a realistic-looking rotting skull; reddish-brown in shade with black patches on some spots.

Graham put on the tight-fitting mask carefully and stood in front of the mirror.

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"Wow. Now I really look horrifying. Maybe I should show up like this to the meeting," he said, admiring his work.

Graham indeed looked terrifying in that getup. The majestic robe he was wearing gave off a feeling of powerfulness while the tattered thick robe on top of it made him look mysterious and dangerous. The menacing mask looked very realistic and to enhance the effect, he let his eyes glow red under the mask.

"Let's head out to the black market now," he said.

Graham picked up everything he needed and put them inside the pockets of his under robe and left his apartment. He took a few steps and rang the bell to his neighbor's apartment.

Ding... dong...

There was no response. He pressed the button again.

Ding... dong...

There was still no response, so he waited patiently. After several minutes had passed, he rang the bell again.

Ding... dong...

And then he knocked on the door loudly.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

After that, he waited patiently again. Finally, after waiting for almost three minutes, Luuk opened the door.

"Yes-- what the fuck?" he was startled by Graham's costume.

"It's just me," said Graham calmly while sticking his foot in the door gap to prevent Luuk from closing it.

Luuk hesitated for a second and then opened the door for Graham after his mind fully booted. He still looked sleepy and there was dried rheum on the corner of his eyes.

"You look ready for Dodenherdenking," said Luuk, indirectly complimenting his costume.

"I'm here for my briefcase and we'll go sell some of the stuff today," he said.

Luuk left the man in the living room after turning on the light and went to the bathroom to wash his face. Once he was done, he took off his sleepwear and shouted from the bedroom.

"I'm going to get ready first! Wait there!"

Graham carefully sat on the sofa not to ruin his robes. He then sat leisurely while waiting for Luuk to come out. The living room was even messier than when he had come over the night before with stuff littering the floor and the table. Luuk came out not long after that, already dressed up in his own costume.

He was wearing bandages over his naked torso and a pair of tattered pants that looked dirty. The bandages were tightly wrapped so that they wouldn't come undone, but still loose enough for him to move around without constrain. His face was also covered with bandages and there was a kind of ornamental necklace that covered his collar area. On his head, he was wearing a headdress with crow feathers decoration and his hands were covered with gloves with similar feathers.

"So what are you supposed to be?" asked Graham.

"I'm a tribal death shaman. What are YOU?" asked Luuk back.

"I'm a death deacon," he replied, "How long did it take you to prepare the costume?"

"To be honest, I've been preparing for a whole month," he said embarrassedly.

Graham only made an approving expression with his face but Luuk couldn't see it because of his mask. He then stood up and picked up the stuffed briefcase from the floor. His hands were hidden under the robe even when he was holding the briefcase.

"You made sure to leave exactly ten scales inside Agatha's trunk, didn't you?"

Luuk nodded.

"We'll sell the things inside my briefcase first and also the scales of Tsuchinokos. We shouldn't sell all at once to avoid unwanted attention,"

Luuk opened his backpack and took out most of the stuff there. There were venom glands of Tsuchinokos and some organs of Olitiau as well as the scales of Nhang. He then put back in the smaller scales that belonged to Tsuchinokos and zipped it back. It was now not as bulky as before. Meanwhile, Graham's briefcase was also full of hard scales that belonged to the snake-like creatures.

After they were both ready, they left the apartment and made their way down. There were other people in the apartment who were also going down and they were all in costumes.

Once they were out in the street, the sound of music and chattering became louder. It was very crowded today because of the celebration. The group of people led by the faceless woman had gone away but there were still other groups of people on the road. Motor vehicles rarely drove by that street because they already knew it would be impossible to get past, so most of them would take another route.

"Should we enjoy the parade first?" asked Luuk. His voice sounded genuinely excited.

"Why not?" replied Graham.

They stood by the street watching the parade that was still going on. The music and the dancing people kept the atmosphere cheerful but their horrifying costumes made it gloomy at the same time. There were a man and a woman dressed up as a couple of ghost bride and groom. Their faces were painted pale color and the suit and wedding dress that they were wearing had bloodstains all over them. They were dancing gracefully in the street following the flow of the parade.

"Papa, can I talk to that man?" suddenly Graham heard the voice of a young boy pointing at him.

The boy was wearing a little skeleton costume while nudging his father's hand, who dressed up as a bigger skeleton. The father nodded and took the boy closer to Graham, who looked menacing even under the sunlight.

"Sir, what costume are you wearing? It looks so cool!" asked the boy politely but his voice couldn't hide his enthusiasm.

Graham raised both his hands in a T position with his briefcase still hidden underneath the robe.

"I am the Deacon of Death. My job is to condemn naughty children to eternal hell, so make sure you behave," he replied slightly intimidatingly. His red eyes were still glowing under his rotten skull mask.

The boy was not scared, but rather, felt even more excited.

"It seems my son really likes your costume," said the father.

After admiring Graham's costume for several more minutes, the young boy finally went away with his father.

"He's a precious boy, isn't he, Val?" muttered Graham.

Luuk was still busy watching the parade that he didn't pay attention to Graham's encounter with the child. Graham then looked at what he was looking at and could kind of understand why he was so engrossed.

There was someone in the street that was carrying a torch in one hand and a bottle of hard liquor on the other hand. He was doing a fire show and it had gathered the attention of the people in the street. The man himself was barechested. He had his chest painted with an image of a terrifying skull while his face was covered with a mask that looked like a person's face cut off and stuck to his own. At first, he was only breathing fire with the help of alcohol, but then he started manipulating the fire to make it look like a dancing dragon.

"Is that a Contractbound?" asked Luuk quietly.

"It's possible," Graham replied.

They continued watching as the man spewed out some more fire from his mouth and the fire took the shape of a bird this time. The bird quickly rose to the air and disappeared, leaving the audience in awe. The parade kept moving, so the man slowly disappeared from their sight, but his performance was still remembered by the people there.

"Shall we now?" said Graham.

He and Luuk then moved away from the crowd of people and walked towards the east. Their destination was Erbarmelijk Bazaar.