Spirit Hotel

Translated by Rook of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Mani sat on the stool, the protection of the black armored soldiers as impenetrable as if it was a city wall encircling and protecting him, causing his sense of unease, which had previously solidified, to dissipate like smoke.

His gaze swept from Antonio, Locktini… finally falling onto Lanka. "I have already returned Gin, shouldn"t you let Hughes show himself? Show me all the cards in your hand, let my cute guests thoroughly and clearly see everything so they can choose who is the most correct."

He didn"t look at the guests, but all the guests felt the reflection of light from the spears of the black armored soldiers shining icily and sharply on their faces, making it very clear to the guests what were the soldiers" intentions.

Lanka walked forward a step, stopping beside the crystal coffin and asked, "Father, what is the pa.s.sword?"

Mani replied, "Is this question asked by you or by Hughes?"

Lanka said, "Hughes isn"t here."

"Isn"t he?" Mani"s fingers lightly rubbed his chin. "Then why do I feel waves of coldness against my back, as though someone is spying on me?"

He had just stopped speaking when the clerics suddenly began singing and chanting.

Ray after ray of light shone from their palms. All the invisible people present felt their body go numb as their skin began to glow with white radiance.

Lanka strongly resisted the discomfort of his body, looking at the similarly pained Mani, let out a low cry, "Father! You actually allowed them to use the forbidden curses!"

Mani"s face twisted, but joy could be seen from the upturned corner of his mouth. "Forbidden curses… Haha, Brother originally stipulated that these are forbidden curses because they have the power to nullify our invisibility, so we have nowhere to hide… and today, I needed that power."

Since a few invisible people had been beaten up by Isefel, their bodies were extremely weak. Now, being burned by this intense light, their skin quickly began to show signs of aging.

Lanka angrily said, "Father, they"re invisible people! They"re our kinsmen!"

"Let Hughes come out!" Mani patted the arm of the chair, his body becoming more and more see-through because he was so agitated.

The clerics stopped their magic.

Mani urgently said, "Hughes hasn"t appeared yet! All of you, continue."

One of the clerics said tonelessly, "He likely isn"t here."

"Then where is he?" Mani"s eyes whirled in their sockets and then tightly locked onto Lanka. "Just where did you hide him?"

Lanka said, "Father, why must you target Hughes? Before, it was because I found out that you had malicious intentions towards Hughes that"s why I had to send him to Noah"s Ark. Now, his att.i.tude towards Genesis… he no longer has any special feelings, can"t you just let him go?"

Mani"s eyes glittered. "It"s not that I can"t let him go, but it"s because he is the son of a criminal."

Lanka asked in shock, "How can you speak of Uncle in this way?"

Mani waved his hands and said, "There are many things you won"t understand. For example, you don"t understand that everything I"ve done today is correct, it"s for the future of Genesis, it"s so that Genesis can become the real power among the Nine Worlds!"

Feisha finally couldn"t hold himself back anymore. "Great ruler of Genesis, since you are so mighty and powerful, you won"t mind telling us the pa.s.sword to the coffin, right?"

Mani looked at him, lifting a corner of his mouth to laugh and say, "You"re very amusing. If I am willing to tell you the pa.s.sword, then why in the world would I waste my energy putting him in there in the first place?"

Feisha replied, "Maybe you just wanted to test the coffin"s usefulness? Hehe, most people, after buying something new, can"t wait to try it."

"Alright, then I"ll tell you. The pa.s.sword is 123456789. Do you want to try it?" Mani mockingly looked at him.

Feisha asked Layton, "How many times can a wrong pa.s.sword be entered?"

"Countless times."

"Really?" Feisha"s eyes brightened.

"Mmn." Layton said, "The pa.s.sword can be keyed in countless times. But the contents will be gone after just one wrong attempt."

"….." Feisha expressionlessly looked at him and said, "Do you want me to praise your wit?" (1)

Layton flattened his mouth to say, "I only wanted to say, although I created a defect product, it can be recycled and reused."

Feisha turned his head to tell Mani: "Do you want to tell me a more realistic pa.s.sword to mess with me?"

Mani answered, "121212121."

Feisha nodded to Layton. "Very good. At least now we know the pa.s.sword is nine digits long."

Mani stopped paying attention to him and told Lanka, "My dear son, this is the last chance I"m giving you. Do you want to stand by my side?"

Lanka slowly closed his eyes. When he was small, his father"s benevolence and warmth was like a faraway silhouette from a painting, but today, at the forefront of the painting was instead Mani"s face of wild ambition and unscrupulous methods.

"Lanka." Mani increased the weight of his tone.

Lanka opened his eyes and his gaze was clear. "Father, let"s begin!"

The black armored soldiers raised their spears high and charged fearsomely at them. The clerics were shielded by the soldiers, and countless glittering b.a.l.l.s of light flew past the inky-black soldiers (2) like shooting stars and fell in the direction of Feisha and the others.

Isefel casually drew up a barrier, encompa.s.sing Feisha at its center. The light fell onto the barrier, like hundreds and thousands of crushed grains of rice, scattering in all directions.

Antonio, Layton, Lanka and the guards who had previously relied on them ran forward to meet the black armored soldiers. Locktini stood behind them and attacked using b.a.l.l.s of fire. Gin and the coffin jumped left and moved right in the midst of the battle, gradually leaving the battlefield, sliding till they were before Houllier and Asa.

Houllier scrutinized Gin"s face. "Not bad looking. Looks like when Cain was choosing the next generation, he was picky."

Asa looked at the two black wings behind him and his eyes revealed disgust.

"What do you think?" Houllier suddenly turned around.

Asa shifted his gaze aside.

"That thing is ours!" Standing within the barrier, Feisha waved his hand at Houllier. "Can you return it?"

Houllier unexpectedly laughed loudly. "You little thing, you sure are funny. You think that I, as the helper of the Lord of Genesis, will help you?"

Feisha nodded. "Yes."

"Hmm? Why?" Houllier calmly waited for his answer.

"Because even if you take it, it"s useless. Why not do me a favor at a low cost to yourself? Who knows, later when someone hacks at you until you"re half alive, half dead, we might be able to help you stab back." Feisha spoke very sincerely.

Isefel suddenly said, "It"s not bad that Gin is in the coffin."

Feisha was stunned. "Why?"

"At least he won"t be used as a hostage."

"Who said he can"t be?" Houllier leisurely crouched down beside the coffin and said to the keypad. "Maybe I should try my hand at this pa.s.sword?"

Feisha"s face turned white and he stared reproachfully at Isefel. "Why did you remind him?"

Isefel indifferently returned, "It looks like our losses aren"t big."

"Really?" Houllier"s fingers unhurriedly moved nearer to the keypad.

Isefel"s shadow swiftly vanished from his original position, appearing without warning behind Houllier.

Houllier subconsciously turned around, striking with a bolt of green electricity! Electricity tunnelled through Isefel"s body and hit the wall, leaving a deep scorch mark! Isefel"s hand single handedly sucked up the coffin, floating light as a feather back to Feisha"s side.

Houllier looked at the deep scorch mark on the wall and then looked at Feisha, who was hard at work giving a thumbs up and smiled pensively, "Looks like I"ve mixed up the target."

Isefel abruptly turned around, eyes full of severe warning.

Right at that moment, something strange happened!

The black armored soldiers locked in a fight with Antonio and the others where neither was winning turned around all of a sudden, rushing towards Mani. Mani had just started slightly when the spears of the black armored soldiers were right before him.

Delicate and diaphanous sliver lights glimmered again on Mani"s body, like clear autumn water, blocking the razor-sharp edges of the spearheads. Mani"s alarm from the beginning had died down. Lifting his hands, thoughtfully feeling the inverted cross on his forehead, and then seemingly coming back to himself to ask, "Hughes?"

Although the helmet of the black armored soldiers was very thick, the opening before the eyes was very small. Yet, he could very clearly sense that a pair of furious eyes was glaring at him from within the helmet.

"You finally appeared." Mani slowly stood up.

The black armored soldiers and the spears retreated at his movement.

"Hand over the pa.s.sword!" Hughes" voice emerged, smothered, from the black armor.

Mani carelessly stroked his thumb. "When did you infiltrate my soldiers?" He saw that Hughes did not reply and carried on the conversation himself. "Let me guess. In that group that Jesse recommended? Honestly, from the moment that he laid the curse on Lanka, I should have guessed it. Your disappearance was too odd. It was as though someone had sent news secretly and leaked my plans, prompting you to go into hiding. But right from the start, because I thought Lanka had found out my plans, I never suspected it was actually that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Jesse!" Upon discovering Jesse"s utter and thorough deceptions, Mani"s original calm had morphed into blazing anger.

"Jesse never thought that what you did was right." Hughes sprayed fuel onto the fire.

"You are all a bunch of ignorant idiots!" Mani forcefully suppressed his fury. "Then Antonio and Locktini were also hidden by you? No wonder after I sent you out, even they were gone."

Hughes answered, "I only let them hide within Jesse"s circle of warlocks."

"You sure did well." (3) Mani lowered his head and looked at the spearhead, slightly shaking his head. "But it"s a pity. No matter the beginning, you will definitely lose."

Asa suddenly said from a corner, "Do you need my help?"

Hughes"s hand that was grasping the spear tightened momentarily.

Houllier was standing behind Asa, smiling pointedly. The spearheads had been pointing at Mani for so long before he had asked if he could help. Asa sure had a great sense of timing. Next time, who knew if the person would have died by the time he asked if they should see a doctor.

"For now, no." Mani again leisurely walked forward a step, and then looked with satisfaction as Hughes was forced to take a step back. "I am very satisfied with the current situation."

"But I am quite, quite displeased with the current situation!" Following his sinister laugh, a ray of blood-red light shot out from the wall behind Mani, drawing him along with his chair to the wall.

Mani only felt that his stomach had tightened and his chest felt so compressed he almost couldn"t breathe.

His laughter stopped and morphed into cold sneering. "Overconfident faerie!" (4)

Following his voice, the inverted cross on Mani"s forehead began to turn lighter and the silver light on his body gradually faded…

"No!" Mani instinctively shouted.

———-

T/n:

(1) The word "amusing" that Mani used to describe Feisha earlier and Feisha talking about Layton"s "wit" is the same Chinese word, 风趣 Fēngqù, which means charm/humor/wit.

(2) The word used in place of "soldiers" was 偷窥 Tōukuī, which means "voyeur". It doesn"t really make sense in the context so I a.s.sumed it"s a typo and changed it to soldiers.

(3) Not sure if my translation captures it, but in Chinese, Mani"s fury comes across clearly in this sentence. He says: 干得真不错 Gàn dé zhēn bùcuò. It means "you did really well", but in this context, it"s very sarcastic/angry.

(4) The insult Mani uses is 不自量力 bùzìliànglì, which means to overestimate one"s capabilities/be overconfident.