Spirit Hotel

Translated by satellite of Exiled Rebel Scanlations

Feisha couldn"t help but be shocked, especially since the city was so vast he couldn"t even see the edge. Looking out, it seemed like an endless plain of stars, the lights flickering one by one and stretching all the way to the horizon.

Isefel held him tight around the waist, spread his wings, and flew towards this ma.s.sive city.

As they drew closer, rows upon rows of towering buildings came into focus, and the city streets expanded from little black lines into wide, intersecting roadways, on which a few cars rushed by sporadically.

Isefel landed in front of an enormous skysc.r.a.per. A white light shined down from above, bright enough to make the entire area seem bathed in daylight. "This is the Management Center of the first circle." (1)

Management Center?

Feisha stretched his heck and stared for a long while before finally asking, "So it"s like our world"s City Hall?"

"You could say that." Even though Isefel hadn"t been to h.e.l.l, he knew h.e.l.l just as well as any demon lord. "The first circle is the industrial zone. They"re mainly responsible for manufacturing all the various goods and products of h.e.l.l. It"s also the largest city in h.e.l.l, so it"s also the residential district."

Feisha was left speechless. "Residential district?" He somehow hadn"t expected h.e.l.l to be quite this developed.

"Since there"s no sunlight down here, night and day in h.e.l.l are determined by clocks alone. Right now it"s in the middle of working hours. It"s like Noah"s Ark."

Feisha realized that every time he began explaining some topic or other, Isefel began to speak at length, in paragraph format.

"There there are a lot of fallen angels living here?"

A ma.s.sive group of fallen angels taking to the skies would be quite a sight to behold. He was looking forward to it. Back when the armies of angels and fallen angels had come, he had a lot on his mind and was in no mood to enjoy the scene before him. Thinking on it now, it was quite a pity.

"This area"s inhabitants are the natives of h.e.l.l- the oxen-headed race, beastly rams, and others like them." (2)

Feisha pondered this for a moment. It wasn"t like he"d never seen ox-headed or ram-headed demons before. At least in TV, movies, and games there were all quite common. But to see them alive and right in front of him would be a bit…

"Hey Isefel, let"s go buy some soothing cream for Gin?"

Isefel looked back down and gave him a rather meaningful stare.

Only then did Feisha realize that perhaps the place the soothing cream was located might be a bit…awkward?

Isefel took off again.

Feisha spread both arms wide as he began embracing the thrill of flying midair. He swept past tall blocks of buildings and the lights around him gleamed like a sky full of stars, making the city glow especially brightly.

Ah, so this was h.e.l.l.

This was completely different from what he had imagined. But then again, how could Lucifer and the other fallen angels be expected to live in an overgrown wasteland?

The border of the first circle finally came into view. There was railing along the edge, like standing on a high viaduct bridge. And just below was another city!

Countless neon lights flashed across the ground in a mult.i.tude of colors. Compared to the rather serious and grey air of the first circle, the second circle was like a huge melting pot of brightly colored dyes, all mixing together to form an erratic and distorted oil painting.

"There are a total of nine circles of h.e.l.l." Isefel swooped downwards while calmly explaining the structure of h.e.l.l in that leisurely tone of his. "The first to the sixth layers are ring-shaped, each one one smaller than the last, while the seventh is a circular plane."

Feisha placed both hands around his mouth to block out the wind before answering. "So h.e.l.l is actually a ma.s.sive funnel? From the side, it"s a "V", from the front, it"s a circle with six rings around it?" He counted them out to himself. "Then what about the eighth and ninth circles?"

"They"re hidden beneath the flaming lake of sulphur."

Feisha"s gaze was suddenly drawn to the residents of the second circle that they were approaching.

Isefel landed, keeping one hand around his waist.

Feisha turned around and spoke excitedly. "No wonder why people always say describe angel faces and demon bodies…a demon"s figure is really just too good." Just seeing the perfect bodies of any of the women walking around here would be enough to make a human model hide away and die of shame.

"Oh wow, that girl"s not tall, but she has to be at least an F…no, definitely more like a J-cup!"

"You"re very interested?" There was no particular change in Isefel"s tone, but Feisha knew better than anyone else. He could read Isefel"s mood with just a single breath. And he was not in a good mood right now.

Feisha quickly laughed it off. "No, I was just so taken in by all the cultural differences here in h.e.l.l."

Isefel asked. "You"re particularly taken in by body figures?"

Feisha remembered the rather enthusiastic bedroom exercises from before and patted his belly. He couldn"t help but laugh a bit as he replied. "Well that could also be considered a more…personalized preference."

Isefel"s eyes stayed perfectly still so that it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.

Feisha changed the topic. "That"s right, where"s our luggage?" Not only were his precious military jackets inside, but also his laptop and the mobile phone he bought earlier. Even if the phone couldn"t be used to make calls, but it still took some pretty good photos. This was his once-in-lifetime honeymoon in h.e.l.l, and he didn"t want to leave without some kind of commemoration. A memory alone was too fragile- a simple knock on the head, and he would lose it forever.

Isefel replied. "It"s still with the carriage parked in the lot outside the entrance."

The carriage was parked in a parking lot? (3)

Feisha"s mind had to do a couple backflips as he tried to comprehend this, but then he suddenly realized the logic of it all. After all, a horse-drawn carriage still needed to be parked. So the place you parked your carriage could naturally be called a parking lot. "But without our luggage, I won"t have my military jackets. What if it gets cold?"

"Don"t you have my wings to "cuddle up in"?" Isefel suddenly said.

Feisha stared at him for a while in shock until he remembered that he was the one who said that originally. "Oh, you still remember that?"

"I remember everything you"ve said."

Feisha asked very seriously. "Could you at least separate the wheat from the chaff?" (4)

After walking less than two minutes on the streets of the second circle, Feisha suddenly felt like they were being stared at, like a gorilla standing in the middle of a supermarket. Most of them seemed to be focused on Isefel"s face, dazzled gazes filled with something like adoration. A small group was directed at him, their gazes filled with something more like suspicious curiosity.

Wolf whistles, drum beats, and songs of love filled the air, the sound neverending.

"Let"s just…hurry up, buy our stuff, and leave." Feisha was finding all the naked sights in front of him a bit too much to handle. On the road before them was a tall, shapely demoness with heavy makeup and an incredibly ample bosom, dressed in a skintight leather suit that left nothing to the imagination. She sauntered over to them, stopping about three steps away from Isefel.

The fashion here in h.e.l.l really was quite different from the human world.

Feisha, at least, couldn"t find it in him to appreciate her painted face- it looked like a rich palette of colors had spilled all across it.

"You"re…a fallen angel?" The corners of her mouth were sharp, and when she spoke they pulled upwards into a sly grin.

Isefel had long since retracted his wings. He simply gave her a cold glance before wrapping his arms around Feisha and walking over to her. The demoness pulled her shoulders back, emphasizing the heightened curve of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. But just as she completed the motion, she felt a ma.s.sive force flinging her backwards. Her body flew through the air and landed with a thud in the middle of the street.

The clamour of the crowds around them came to a sudden halt. Countless pairs of eyes were locked onto the scene, filled with looks of suspicion.

The demoness stood up slowly. Her eyes, decorated by swathes of colors, began to narrow as she spoke. "Don"t you know who I am?"

Feisha leaned against Isefel"s chest and wondered aloud. "If you don"t even know, how would anyone else know?"

The demoness laughed coldly. "I am Yvonne." (4)

Feisha whispered quietly to Isefel. "Is she famous?" From her att.i.tude it seemed like only someone without basic common sense would fail to recognize her.

Isefel replied. "She doesn"t have an entry in the Records of Famous Citizens of h.e.l.l."

Yvonne"s lips twitched in annoyance. The Records of Famous Citizens of h.e.l.l only contained the truly powerful figures from h.e.l.l such as Abaddon, Lilith…it was only natural that she wouldn"t have an entry inside. But for some reason, the look the kid was giving her made her feel humiliated. It was as if those eyes were saying, "ah, well I guess that"s the level we"re dealing with."

But she quickly reigned in her emotions. Although the short-haired boy looked pathetic enough to be a piece of luncheon meat on the table, but the impossibly beautiful long-haired man beside him exuded enough power to made her tremble. When she was thrown back just now, she didn"t stand a chance to fight back at all. She couldn"t even respond.

But in that moment, Feisha was actually quite innocent. The look he was giving her was filled with sympathetic light. She was a woman after all- not only did she fail to seduce the man she was after in front of this whole audience, she was even thrown back physically. So in an attempt to give her an out, he spoke. "Perhaps she"s just a bit lowkey, keeping away from everyone"s focus."

Isefel replied. "This is h.e.l.l."

So there was no such thing as being lowkey?

Feisha watched as that painted expression didn"t even twitch and was finally forced to admit that maybe he was gloating just a little.

"Heh." A chuckle could be heard coming from the cloud.

As if some type of demonic power was coming through, all of the crowds gathering around moved at once to clear out a path.

If someone else had come around wearing a deep purple jacket adorned with roses at the collar over a slim, silver suit, Feisha would definitely find him overly flashy and a little of of his mind. But on this guy, not only was it not a ma.s.sive eyesore, but it actually complimented him and just added to his incredible good looks.

Luckily Feisha had seen a rather lot of beautiful people recently, especially since he was faced with Isefel"s face every day. So even if he were to see someone comparable, he was good at keeping his awe deep in his heart and not letting it show on his expression.

When Yvonne saw that person appear, it was like a bee finding a flower in bloom, like a hungry wolf that spotted fresh meat. She neither whined or complained, but instead just curled her body into his embrace, her shoulders trembling as she looked up woefully, as if the world had wronged her.

This was what people meant by actions spoke louder than words, Feisha mused.

"Isefel, how come you"re here?" As soon as he spoke, the crowd around them that had been waiting for a good show were rather shocked.

Although Isefel had always been in Noah"s Ark, his reputation preceded him here in h.e.l.l. Abaddon had said personally that he"d rather stay in the ninth circle for a full month than get into a fight with this fallen angel.

Feisha asked Isefel. "You know him?"

Although the saying goes that a dragon shouldn"t bother to stomp on a snake"s head, but if he and Yvonne were working together, this might cause a bit of trouble. But Yvnonne was clearly trying to seduce Isefel earlier. In that case, it would make this new guy a cuckold. (6) If he knew the truth, he may not help Yvonne.

It was just that, looking at his expression, it seemed like he already knew.

…Does he know or not?

Feisha was very torn.

Isefel stared at the man who was smiling brightly at him, and greeted him mildly. "Mammon." (7)

—

Translator Notes

1. The actual term they use is more like "level of h.e.l.l" but it"s pretty clearly a reference to Dante"s 9 Circles of h.e.l.l, so I"ve adapted it to "circle" instead.

2. The demons listed by Isefel are "牛头人、羊魔人", literally "ox-head-people, ram/sheep-demon-people." The first is a creature from Chinese mythology, while the second is likely a reference to how the ram is commonly a.s.sociated with the Christian Devil.

3. This sentence was a lot funnier in Chinese. The term for carriage being used here is "马车", literally "horse vehicle" with the first character being the one for horse and the second one being a generic term for a vehicle. However, when used alone, the second character "车" usually refers to modern cars- you could use the full compound term of "汽车" or gas vehicle, but most people just shorten it to "车."

With that said, a parking lot is therefore called "停车场", literally "area to stop vehicles." It"s only ever used to refer to modern parking lots, but a "horse drawn car" (马车) is still a "car" (车) so, as Feisha points out, it"s technically correct.

4. I realize this sounds a little awkward, but this is actually an English idiom! Not one commonly used in speech, but it"s an almost exact equivalent that actually exists haha. In Chinese, the phrase is "去芜存菁", literally separating the weeds from the flowers. In English, it"s separating wheat from chaff.

5. Her name is "依冯", p.r.o.nounced yi feng. It is a possible transliteration of the real name Yvonne, so I went ahead with that.

6. They actually say "被戴了顶大绿帽" or literally "was forced to wear a big green hat." The "green hate" is the Chinese expression for someone whose partner has been unfaithful, so almost the same as the English "cuckold."
7. Written in Chinese as "玛门" (ma men), I believe this is the transliteration of the biblical demon Mammon, so I"ve translated it directly as such.