Spirit Hotel

Translated by satellite of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Even if it was just gaming, the three of them still stuck to a strict schedule. They got out of bed at seven, and gathered together at eight. In addition to three meals a day, they also had a two hour afternoon break. It was really quite comfy. At nine in the evening, Hughes would come to pick Gin up, and Layton would obediently follow them back home- right on time, even more punctual than the end of a kindergarten cla.s.s.

These strict but indulgent days lasted a full month before the three of them finally gave in. The three computers were abandoned in the corner of the room like dirty dish rags as the three of them fled into the cafeteria.

Feisha said, "I feel like throwing up just seeing a computer right now."

Gin said, "I feel like throwing up just hearing a computer right now."

Layton said, "I feel like throwing up seeing just about anything right now."

……

Feisha said calmly. "You have it."

Gin asked calmly. "Whose is it?"

But the calmest one of all was Layton, whose expression didn"t change in the slightest as he replied. "I guess it"d be considered eating too much stir-fried pork this morning."

……

A bright white light suddenly pa.s.sed over the window of the cafeteria like a searchlight. Feisha and Gin bounced off their chairs at the same time, crawling over to the window to look over at the front desk. A yoyo-shaped aircraft had landed right at the front desk, the white light shining through from its cabin.

"I wasn"t notified of any guests coming." Gin frowned.

"That means I didn"t miss anything important by nodding off or s.p.a.cing out." Feisha said.

"Could it be the Liberation Resistance again?" Layton asked. Since he was still feeling rather nauseous, he hadn"t climbed onto the windowsill.

Feisha replied. "If it were the Liberation Resistance, then they"d have to be sending some kind of human bomb." Judging from the size, the aircraft seemed more like an ejected rescue pod. Unless it was housing an army of insects, it was unlikely to fit more than a single person inside.

Gin saw Hughes appearing at the front desk and immediately ran downstairs. Feisha followed close behind. Layton struggled deciding whether to follow before finally collapsing back into his chair. Gin and Feisha arrived at the front desk only to find that the aircraft was still suspended mid air.

Feisha stared at it. "Are they waiting for everyone to gather and offer up flowers or something before they"re willing to come down?"

Gin replied, "Well they"ll be waiting forever then."

Feisha asked without thinking. "Why"s that?"

Gin replied. "Can you imagine Isefel offering up flowers?"

Feisha couldn"t imagine it. It was too terrifying an image to consider. (1)

Hughes explained. "They probably don"t have a travel pa.s.s since Isefel hasn"t let them through."

Feisha muttered quietly. "I think the likelihood of this being a human bomb is even greater now."

"Did they say anything?" Gin asked.

Hughes shook his head and said. "I think they might not know how to fly the aircraft."

"Why?"

"Because since it flew in "til now, the aircraft"s already spun around countless times. But the doors haven"t opened yet."

Feisha spoke solemnly. "So not only are they trespa.s.sing illegally, but also driving without a license?" (2)

Gin saw his rather grave expression and couldn"t help but ask. "And so what?"

"Driving without a license, barring serious consequences, will still incur a fine of two hundred to two thousand RMB and up to fifteen days in prison. If it is part of a more serious charge, criminal and civil liability are subject to further investigation in accordance with the law." Feisha solemnly recited, pausing before he added. "According to Article 99 of the Traffic Road Safety Laws of the People"s Republic of China."

Gin raised his eyebrows. "Then what about illegal trespa.s.sing?"

Feisha stared blankly for a bit before replying. "I"ve never been been hit with that one. I guess…you"d probably be deported from premises."

Hughes suddenly said. "The door"s opening."

Sure enough, the doors to the aircraft were opening slowly, and a pet.i.te figure cowered near the door, looking timidly down at them.

"Huh? It"s a dwarf." Feisha was quite surprised. And it seemed like it was dainty, adorable little dwarven girl. (3)

Gin snorted disdainfully. "What else would it be? Did you think a t.i.tan would fit in there?"

Feisha shot back. "What if this was the latest model of a t.i.tan baby carriage?"

Gin sneered. "And what would a baby carriage be doing here?"

Feisha thus naturally concluded. "So they really were driving without a license."

"……"

Hughes smile and greeted the girl gently. "h.e.l.lo, could I ask why you came here?"

The little dwarven girl grabbed the side of the door with both hands and stared at them nervously. Finally, after a long while, she finally managed a sentence. "Is Layton here?"

Asking about Layton?

This was an affair!

A spark lit both Feisha and Gin"s eyes at the same moment.

Hughes turned around and pinched Gin on the arm. "Hurry up and go find Layton."

Gin immediately vanished right where he stood, then not two seconds later, reappeared with Layton in tow. The dwarf was right in the middle of sticking a plum into his mouth.

"Layton?" The little dwarven girl"s eyes grew bright.

Layton was still halfway through biting into his plum. When he heard her, he simply looked up blankly.

"Layton, don"t you…don"t you recognize me?" The little dwarven girl"s eyes dropped as she pouted in disappointment. A world-shaking storm seemed to be brewing, about to be unleashed upon the world. Layton suddenly had a flash of realization as he called out. "Amantha?" (4)

"You remember me now?" Amantha"s face suddenly lit up bright with happiness.

Layton frowned. "Why are you here?"

"I came to find you." Amantha"s little cheeks turned just a little red.

Feisha asked Gin. "What do you see?"

Gin replied without thinking. "I see a shameless middle-aged bachelor who strung a little loli lover around, and now the consequences have finally caught up to him."

Feisha said. "I was thinking it"s a bit more complicated."

"?"

"I see a shameless middle-aged bachelor who seduced a beautiful, alluring middle-aged woman, and captured the heart of her cute loli daughter while he was at it. Thus, now that the girl has grown up and realized the truth of what happened back then, she"s come to chase him down with love and hate both intertwined in a mess of complicated feelings.

Gin nodded along. "That truly is complicated."

Layton couldn"t take it anymore. "Shut up. She"s my fiancee."

Feisha asked immediately without hesitation. "Fiancee number what?" (5)

"……"

The aircraft suddenly sank down automatically. Amantha shrank back in terror.

Layton rea.s.sured her. "That"s just Isefel, don"t worry."

Feisha asked quietly. "Are you sure she knows Isefel?"

"……"

The corner of the aircraft landed safely on the front desk.

Layton walked up to the hatch and called out. "Amantha?"

After quite a while, Amantha finally peeked her head out slowly. She looked rather like a frightened little puppy, but as soon as she saw Layton, she immediately rushed over.

"So shy outside but pa.s.sionate within, a sweet and loving child." Feisha praised.

Hughes thought about it for a bit before he said. "If I remember correctly, Layton"s fiancee is the niece of the Dwarf King, and she"s only two hundred years younger than him."

"……." Feisha was left speechless. If she"s two hundred years younger, just say she"s two hundred years younger. Why did he have to add "only" in there !?

—

Noah"s Ark saw a lot of people coming and going, and there were plenty of couples attached at the hip. But this was the first time one of them included a girl. Out of respect for the lady, Feisha and Gin both tactfully kept their hands to themselves and didn"t take out their Domino earpiece either.

Watching Layton and Amantha sitting at the bar and whispering, Gin and Feisha took careful note of their every expression and lip flap, trying to piece together what they were talking about from behind the counter.

"Why is it that from this angle, they look so much like Mario and Princess Peach?"

Gin"s hand paused in the middle of wiping down the countertop. "Then who"s Bowser?" Since this was the unfortunate couple of Super Mario, there had to be a bad guy right.

Feisha didn"t even have to think it over. "Baal."

"You have quite the imagination." Gin said.

"Well it"s his fault- just like Bowser he"s impossible to kill."

Gin watched Layton"s expressions a bit longer before saying. "I"m thinking that right now he must be saying…"You have to believe me, in all these years, I"ve only ever loved you!""

"……"

Gin continued "Do you want me to cut out this heart of mine to prove it to you?"

Since Amantha"s back was turned to them, Feisha could only rely on his own guesswork as he replied. "No, please don"t do that! Don"t you know that any wound of yours hurts me just as much? Oh G.o.d, just thinking about it, my heart already feels like it"s breaking apart.

"Ugh!" Both Feisha and Gin lost hold of the countertop and made a motion of vomiting.

"They"re arguing about whether or not to return to the dwarven world. Miss Amantha snuck out on her own." Hughes" voice suddenly sounded behind them without warning. Feisha and Gin froze in surprise at the same time.

Feisha quickly recovered and held a hand out to him. "Welcome to the gossip group." He felt an invisible hand placed on top of his palm, and thus they shook on it. With Hughes" recruitment, the gossip group had just redoubled in power.

Gin asked. "Is Layton leaving?"

Hughes replied. "Not for now, he"s very determined to stay. But Miss Amantha is also very determined to stay with him."

"So this is Noah"s Ark version of an infatuated woman"s "Thousand Mile Search For My Husband"?" (6)

Feisha stared at Layton"s angry face for a while, then shook his head and sighed. "I always thought was more of the meek submissive type…never thought there"d be the day I"d see the sc.u.mmy dominant side of him, dumping a girl like this." (7)

"……" Gin and Hughes were both left speechless.

After getting his fill of gossip at the bar, Feisha very happily went back upstairs to his room. Isefel just happened to be walking out of the bathroom. Feisha immediately pulled him over and told him every little detail of what happened in the bar, making sure he hadn"t left out a single thing. After he was done recounting, he didn"t forget to include his own conclusions as well.

Isefel"s face remained perfectly blank as he listened on, and it was only when he mentioned his conclusions on "meek submissiveness" and "scrummy dominant" that his expression changed the slightly bit. (8)

"Then what am I?"

Feisha thought for a bit. "A sc.u.mmy dominant."

"And you?"

Feisha was about to respond with "meek submissive", but somehow felt that he really wasn"t quite delicate enough to fit the description. And he wasn"t quite satisfied with any other description either. After thinking it over, picking and choosing his words for quite a while, he finally came to a decision.

"A wise submissive." (9)

"Because you"ve got a wisdom tooth?" Isefel asked.

Feisha rubbed at his wrists. A cold sense of humor was still humor, he just had to get used to it. Isefel continued staring at him, his eyes wandering smoothly up and down.

Feisha felt his heart stirring under that gaze. His a.s.s had recovered long ago, and besides, even if it hadn"t, he wouldn"t feel any pain anyway. Could it be that Isefel was finally ready again? He pursed his lips a bit, not wanting to seem too eager.

Isefel slowly spoke. "Let"s…."

"Mm, yes." Feisha did his best not to let the smile form on his lips.

"Let"s go down to h.e.l.l together."

If he was remembering correctly, wasn"t that the line that an enemy usually said before taking the hero down with him?

—

Translator Notes

1. The original expression for "terrifying" used was "太雷了" (tai lei le), literally "too thunderous." It"s internet slang, probably deriving from the cartoon flash of thunder when a character is suddenly shocked/terrified.

2. The term for driving without a license is "无证驾驶", literally "to operate [a vehicle] without a license." In Chinese, it"s not a term specific to the vehicle like "drive/pilot/fly/etc" which is why Feisha"s joke here makes sense even though they"re operating an aircraft, flying without a license rather than driving without a license. Couldn"t find a nice way to localize that into English though.

3. The term that they use to describe the little dwarven girl in Chinese is "小美女" (xiao mei nv), literally "pretty little lady/girl." It sounds a little creepy in English so I didn"t translate it literally, but it"s a cute way to refer to young girls.

4. Her name is "亚曼莎" (ya man sha). There"s no exact English transliteration that uses those specific character, but similar ones are used in English name "Samantha" so I went with "Amantha."

5. Feisha asks "第几号", literally "what number." I believe he"s basically asking how many fiancees Layton actually has (fiancee #1, #2, etc lol).

6. Gin asks if this is Noah"s Ark"s version of "痴心女千里寻夫记", literally "a crazy infautated woman searching thousands of miles for a husband." There"s also a webnovel under the t.i.tle of "千里寻夫记" (thousand mile search for a husband/my husband) so I"m not sure if Gin"s referring to the general phrase or a specific t.i.tle.

7. Feisha uses two terms on Layton here. He says he always thought Layton was more of a "弱受" (ruo shou, literally "submissive acceptor") and never thought he"d see Layton being a "渣攻" (cha gong, literally "sc.u.mbag aggressor") instead. These terms usually refer to a man who plays a girl for convenience then throws her away afterwards, so I"ve translated them in that sense.

The "受" and "攻" are also the terms used in Chinese for the uke and seme respectively in BL. So in a way he"s also saying he always thought of Layton more as the bottom than the top, which is the part Isefel catches onto at the end lol.

8. This is a direct reference to the note above and how Feisha described Layton.