Chapter 3 (1/2)

Feisha has been caught

Feisha regretted it as soon as the words bird man left his mouth, because he thought of a species that was very similar to bird men. A wise man once said: Not everyone riding a horse is a knight in shining armour; it could be Xuanzang. Likewise, not every winged being is an angel; it could be a bird man.

Feisha feels like he’s been screwed over by that saying a bit too badly; he needs to look into reverse thinking.

Looking at the pair of jet-black irises, a certain phrase surfaced in his brain.

——Fallen angel.

“Err, I was just kidding before,” Feisha said carefully, watching for any changes in the Isefel’s expression. Compared to titans and invisible people, he was more sensitive to the term fallen angel, because it was more widely known and taught, and has much more impact.

Isefel looked at him coolly, showing no reaction, “You’re the new human.”

“If I say no, will you let me go home?” Feisha felt a flicker of hope light up in his heart.

“Noah’s Ark can only stop at the human world once every year, on the 1st of April.”

The flame of hope was still burning. “There’s a thing called reverse driving, you know? Why can’t you just reverse back to the human world?”

“Why?” asked Isefel.

“Because I got on the wrong bus.”

“That’s your own problem.”

Feisha held the eye contact for a very long time, before asking, “C’mon, seeing as we’ve both got black hair and eyes, can’t you make an exception?”

“I am not human.”

His response made Feisha feel very indignant. Because, the tone Isefel used sounded as if he’d said “I’m not a dog” instead. Once a person gets angry, it can be very hard to control their emotions; of course, Feisha was not exempt from this, especially as he had never been big on self-control. Like the straw that broke the camel’s back, all of his pent-in feelings of resentment and terror came bubbling back in the form of a volcano, spitting puddles of scathing words.

“Hmph. No wonder you became a fallen angel, you must’ve committed the sin of pride.” Does the fact that you’ve got wings give you the right to look down on everyone else? Chickens also have wings, but you don’t see them showing off their wings.

——Other than KFC, that is.

Isefel stared at him. “If the sin I committed was the sin of pride, then you’d be meat mince already out there in the fracture of space and time.”

This is intimidation, Feisha told himself, still fuming.

Turning around, Isefel threw a sentence over his shoulder.

“I’ll take you around the hotel.” He smoothly made to leave, completely indifferent to whether or not Feisha was following.

Feisha followed.

His volcano had been frozen solid.

They walked in silence down the long hallway. The wings on Isefel’s back had long been put away; Feisha actually really wanted to take off the jacket to see if there were two holes on Isefel’s shirt to put his wings through.

“This is the front counter.”

The cold timbre brought him back to reality, and subsequently saw him running out onto the big observation deck in shock. The outside world could be seen clearly from the deck.

Up, down, left, right – no matter which direction he looked, the only thing that could be seen was absolute, unmitigated black. The faint glow of the hotel seemed simultaneously luminous and lonely.

“Wh- What exactly is this place?” Feisha stuttered.

Could it be space? Wouldn’t there at least be a few stars shining here and there?

“The gap between worlds,” Isefel answered. “This is the centerpoint of Heaven, Hell, the mortal world and so on.”

“How do you guys get any business around here?” Feisha’s occupational habits resurfaced. To open a hotel, one must first consider the potential flow of customers, the surrounding area, ease of transport… What kind of customer would come to a godforsaken place in the middle of nowhere like this!?

“Every world has a different gas field around them that clash at every dawn and dusk of the human world. The flow of air within this rift is especially violent after the human world, Hell and Heaven all consecutively retain survivors. Other than God Himself and Lucifer, only seraphim can manage to get through safely.”

Wouldn’t that make business even more abysmal? Even if you add them together it’s still only a few people. Feisha finally understood why he hasn’t seen a single guest since he first came to the hotel, whether inside or outside – bad management.

“But with the development of each world, the inter-world communication became more and more important. When the air flow nearly killed some adventurers in their journey, God used one tenth of his power to create Noah’s Ark and saved them.”

At this, Feisha realised that the Great Flood in the bible didn’t actually happen on earth, but was in this rift all along.

“At the approval of all the worlds, Noah’s Ark was left here to become the central hub within the rift.”

Isn’t that monopoly? Or is it charity?

“Who covers the necessities?” asked Feisha. Even if gods and monsters don’t need to eat, at the very least humans do. Tony looked healthy and well looked-after despite going missing for a week, so the food here must be better than his old hotel.

“We charge,” came the reply.

Even with such a succinct reply, Feisha understood Isefel’s meaning. “You mean Noah’s Ark charges its customers for their stay?”

“Mm.”

That’s monopoly!

There’s a thing called the Antitrust Law in the human world, though now that he thought about it, this place probably doesn’t have anything like that. What does that mean for business? It means that the money just keeps coming in, and you can raise the prices to your heart’s desire. During holiday season as well, you can enforce -20% off deals and customers will just have to deal with it.

He suddenly recalled something. “In the recruitment ad, you said that the monthly salary for front desk manager was $1700.”

“It is.”

Feisha felt his pulse quicken. As long as he doesn’t die, then he’d earn more than twenty thousand dollars. What’s even more worth it is that if he calculates according to time flow in the human world, then that’s equivalent to getting an extra twenty thousand in the space of a week, which is basically second prize for a lottery. The gears in his brain started to turn.

“My safety in this year though…” There wasn’t much point to having a lot of money if he wasn’t alive to spend it.

“Noah’s Ark is a peace agreement commonly approved by the leaders of each world. To indicate equality, the hotel must hold one representative from each world at any given time. After Adam died, there was no single leader that could represent the human world, but God was adamant in keeping humans in the loop. This is why Noah’s Ark must have a human before the 1st of April every year.”

To be honest, the humans seem to be having enough fun amongst themselves judging by all the drama going on with their world, Feisha thought. What with stuff like United Nations, NATO and the EU… There is really no need for them to get involved with issues here as well. Especially as their voting methods were totally unscientific.

“Uh, then can I just ask: why me?”

Isefel turned to face him.

Seeing a need to elaborate, Feisha pointed at himself. “Well, in regards to intelligence, physical appearance or academic history, no matter how you look at it I’m above average at best.” Even if you even those out, he’d still probably be right in the middle.

“It’s convenient,” stated Isefel.

Feisha stared at him in disbelief. “Huh?”