EnCoffin Me Chapter 93
Translated by Q the Panda (ko-fi)
Chapter 93
As night fell, golden torches lit up the Carnival Plaza. These were not real flames. In order to avoid any danger, the fire and fireworks displays tonight were all done using holographic projections, a convenience brought by modern technology.
But Alexio was very pleased. He was reminded of the massive torches that had floated high in the sky ten thousand years ago.
“Just like those!” He tugged at the lunatic's sleeve, looking like he was about to start bouncing. “Exactly the same!”
Lucius was checking tickets after entry. He showed their special passes to the ticket-checking robot, which wasn't surprised or excited by their identities. Instead, it displayed a bright smile on its electronic screen.
“Access granted. Wish you both a happy Carnival!”
Lucius gave a slight nod to the robot, then gently pushed Alexio through the security gate and followed right behind. Seeing Alexio still swept up in excitement and not watching where he was going, he helplessly reached out to cup Alexio's face and gave it a gentle squeeze.
Alexio's non-prescription glasses began to slip down his nose. The glasses softened his sharpness, making him look like a lively teenager. Finding himself momentarily restrained, Alexio struggled a bit but couldn't break free.
“Still want to see ‘The Girl and the God of Death’?”
“Yes!”
“Then we'd better start earning points now. There are lots of booths to check in at, so there's plenty for you to do.”
During his years at the Holy Temple, Lucius had developed a strong sense of planning. He was used to preparing everything thoroughly before starting any task. So, for this Carnival, he had naturally made all the arrangements well in advance. Moreover, since the event was being hosted by the main conservation center where he was also a participant, he naturally had insider access to every aspect of the arrangements. Simply by making rounds during his free time, visiting the venue and checking in with various departments, he was able to gather more than enough information.
“There are over thirty check-in spots in total. With twenty-five check-ins, you can exchange for a theater ticket, limited to one per person.” He led Alexio, who kept looking around, further inside. The venue was lively but not overly crowded, and there were no long lines for any of the activities. “I've planned the route so we can visit almost all the booths and earn enough points…”
Halfway through, he noticed Alexio wasn't moving anymore.
Lucius turned and saw Alexio standing still, his eyes fixed intently in one direction.
There was a large cluster of balloons there, each one exquisitely made, with a big star in the center surrounded by scattered smaller stars. Filled with safe, harmless, and light gas, they floated plumply. Many parents with children were buying these balloons, and soon the whole park was dotted with colorful stars drifting in the air.
Before Lucius could say anything, Alexio spoke up first.
“You're staring at them.”
“……”
“Do you want one?”
“……”
“Dad will buy you one. Here's the money, go ahead.”
So, who exactly wanted it?!
There was no way Alexio would squeeze into a crowd of kids to buy a balloon, so he effortlessly framed the lunatic. The lunatic gave him a speechless glance but reluctantly went ahead.
“Get the colorful one!” Alexio called out to his retreating back.
“…Okay.”
Alexio watched the lunatic stand among the children. This sight could no longer be described as a crane standing out among chickens, but more like a stalk of wheat twice as tall as the others, stiff and glaring. There were no robots in the area. The balloon sellers were volunteers in mascot costumes. When Lucius came to buy a balloon, one volunteer froze for a moment and quickly explained, “Sorry, balloons are only sold to children… Uncle.”
“???”
The Holy Temple hunter, willing to do whatever it took to get what he wanted, quickly returned with a balloon, leaving the volunteer looking utterly bewildered, never expecting an adult to go this far. Seeing the balloon, Alexio's eyes lit up. Just as he reached out, he suddenly remembered something, cleared his throat a few times, and put on a deliberately benevolent expression.
“Alright, you have your balloon now.”
Lucius looked at him without expression.
“I bought the balloon, so I want to see it the whole time we're walking around,” Lucius said, and announced, “I'm going to tie it to your hood.”
Alexio's jacket had a hood. Before he could react, the lunatic had already tied the balloon in place with quick, practiced movements. Watching the balloon bob behind Alexio's head, swaying whenever he turned, Lucius smiled. Alexio immediately tried to take it off, but—
He couldn't reach it.
After a few futile attempts, Alexio gave up.
When would this dog-eat-dog revenge ever end?!
“Where are we going first?” There were so many booths and costumed street performers walking around that Alexio was starting to lose his sense of direction. Fortunately, the lunatic was extremely reliable and knew exactly which booths offered points.
The balloon-popping booth was close to the entrance. It was fairly difficult, but it was Lucius' top choice. When they arrived, there was already a crowd gathered, most of them just watching. On this festive day, many people didn't seem too concerned about earning enough points to enter the theater. Instead, they cheerfully gathered around the booths, watching others play the games. When someone hit a target, they cheered, and when they missed, they sighed.
“So close!”
“The balloons move too fast!”
With a balloon floating behind his head, Alexio squeezed into the crowd and saw a small mini track in front of the booth. A volunteer stood nearby, smiling as they handed out flat-tipped darts to participants. With technology so advanced now, the darts were intentionally blunt for safety. The custom balloons were embedded with high-precision sensors that could determine whether the balloon needed to burst from the inside based on the impact location and force.
On the track, each balloon rode a small cart, zipping by at high speed. The participants wore frustrated expressions, unable to hit a single one as they wasted all ten darts. Of course, there were a few skilled players who managed to pop one or two. When a balloon burst, golden confetti rained down, mixed with a small handful of Carnival-exclusive candies. Many people joined the game just for those treats.
While Alexio was completely absorbed in watching, Lucius had already taken both their tickets for verification, receiving two sets of darts, totaling twenty.
“Want to give it a try?” he asked.
“Yes, yes!” Alexio was confident. After watching for a bit, he figured out that the game had three difficulty levels. Without hesitation, he waved his hand boldly. “Set it to hell mode!”
The crowd stirred, and the volunteer didn't hold back. The balloons on the track began flying by so fast they left afterimages. Holding the darts, Alexio didn't pause for long. He just squinted slightly, then threw the first one.
Bullseye!
The seemingly casual throw hit its mark dead on. Confetti and candies scattered down and were quickly delivered to Alexio. One after another, he threw all twenty darts and landed all twenty hits. A pile of candies began to stack up on the table beside him.
He grabbed a handful and stuffed them into Lucius' pocket.
“Take some, I'm sharing the rest.”
Remembering that Lucius liked sweets, he picked out the prettiest candies and stuffed them into Lucius' pocket. Once he was sure there was enough to last the night, Alexio generously handed out the rest to the watching crowd.
“Wow! Thank you!”
“Thank you, handsome, thank you! Huh…”
The girl who kept thanking him after receiving some candies was one of the administrators of a special site. She knew her CPs like the back of her hand, and although he was disguised, she felt that this dart-throwing ‘handsome’ looked a bit familiar.
Alexio hadn't expected to be recognized so soon. Just as he was about to come up with an explanation to avoid revealing his identity, the lunatic moved. Alexio instinctively tilted his head toward him, only to feel a light kiss land gently on his forehead.
“!!”
“Impressive,” the saint praised with a smile, subtly pulling Alexio into his arms. Then he turned to the young woman and asked, “Is something wrong?”
This was clearly a couple! Her ship hadn't even sailed yet! The girl immediately dismissed her earlier suspicion. She had nearly embarrassed herself by making a false guess, so she shook her head quickly.
“No, no! Thank you for sharing the candies with me!”
“You're welcome. Happy Carnival.”
The close call passed without incident, but Alexio still couldn't relax.
“You…”
“We've already earned the points for this booth. Let's head to the next one,” Lucius said with a calm smile. Then, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, he took Alexio's hand. “This way, almost no one will guess.”
So… they were pretending to be a couple now?
Alexio felt like something was off about that, but the lunatic gave him no time to think it through. He simply led Alexio toward the next booth, casually asking, “Want some ice cream? There's a stacking game over there where we can earn points too.”
Alexio was pulled along, absentmindedly touching his forehead. The sensation still seemed to linger, his brain briefly freezing up.
“You can keep all the ice cream you stack, no matter how tall it gets.”
That brought Alexio back to life. He immediately took the lead and dragged the lunatic.
“Then what are we waiting for? I'm stacking forty scoops!”
But the tower started to wobble at eight.
Alexio stared at his ice cream with frustration, as if sheer willpower could force the scoops into a straighter line. Next to him, a couple had sweetly stacked over a dozen scoops together. Watching them only made Alexio more dejected.
Not only did he have to watch couples showing off their affection, but his ice cream was shorter than everyone else's. What kind of earthly misery was this!
Lucius had gone to register their points. When he returned, he found Alexio's metaphorical cat ears practically drooping. Beside him, the couple's towering stack of ice cream scoops only made the contrast worse. Lucius felt like Alexio was seconds away from meowing in misery.
Cat whimpering.jpg.
Lucius rolled up his sleeves and calmly walked to the stand. He ignored the couple dispensing dog food, wrapped his arms around Alexio, propped himself on the counter, and whispered, “How many scoops do you want?”
“Forty!” Alexio straightened up immediately, his confidence restored now that backup had arrived.
“……” This was the reaction of the couple next to them, now force-fed a higher-grade dog food.
One scoop after another, the tower grew taller and taller. Onlookers began to gather. Even volunteers from nearby booths came over to watch. The booth volunteer clicked his tongue in amazement. The saint kept a straight face the entire time, using a hover-lift to stack the scoops. Although he clearly could've gone higher, he stopped as soon as the fortieth scoop was placed.
Alexio had asked for forty. So forty it was.
Alexio gazed up at the towering ice cream stack. According to the rules, no matter how high it was, it was theirs to keep.
Wait a second…
Alexio suddenly remembered a crucial problem.
How were they supposed to take this thing home?
“Sir? Sir!” A volunteer interrupted Alexio's thoughts with a bright smile and a polite request. “We'd like to keep this ice cream as the booth's display piece. In return, we can offer you double the points and two deluxe ice creams. Would that be alright?”
Since transporting it would be nearly impossible anyway, Alexio took a quick photo and happily accepted the booth's generous offer. His replacement was an oversized ice cream piled high with chocolate crisps and sweet blueberry sauce, topped with a candy figurine of Starry Night Xi. Alexio stared at it for a while, reluctant to take the first bite. Just as he was hesitating, someone else moved faster.
One bite.
“Ahhh! Spit it out! Spit it out now!” Alexio shook Lucius with one free hand. Lucius clamped his mouth shut and refused to budge no matter how much Alexio shook him. The candy, made from melt-in-your-mouth sugar, quickly dissolved on his tongue. After happily eating both his own and Alexio's candy figurine, Lucius was very obliging.
“It's already melted. Want me to buy you another ice cream?”
Alexio was still angry, but… a little tempted.
“The candy was small. The ice cream is big. It's a good deal.”
Alexio's response was to angrily chomp off half the chocolate stick from Lucius' ice cream.
There were just too many booths. The conservation center had gone all out for this festival revival. Volunteers roamed through the crowd, and visitors freely explored the activities that caught their interest, bursts of laughter rising here and there. Points didn't matter. Winning didn't matter. The joy of the living was the one constant theme of the day.
When they left the lottery booth, the stall owner had already been thoroughly defeated by Lucius. Their prize was a selection of crystal trinkets in all sorts of designs. Alexio's attention soon shifted to a barbecue stall where visitors could grill and eat their own food. The catch was that the ingredients had to be won by ring toss, which led to people roasting some truly strange combinations. He personally saw a girl lovingly feed her boyfriend a grilled slice of ginger.
“I'll do the ring toss, and you eat?” Lucius offered to take the task. Since everything he landed on had to be eaten, Alexio warned him that if he dared to toss a ring onto ginger or green onions, he'd tie Lucius to balloons and let him float away.
“I value my life. So… chicken?”
“Yes!”
“Fish?”
“Also yes!”
“You're really not picky.”
That was right!
While Lucius was tossing rings, Alexio noticed this area had an especially high concentration of street performances. Many people who bought food stayed to watch. He saw a particularly ridiculous skit about vampires in full swing. The actor playing the vampire wore a black cloak and fake fangs, grinning menacingly at the human character.
“I'm going to suck your blood!” the vampire shouted.
“Of course! Yes! No problem! Please, just start already!” The ‘human’ looked so overjoyed it seemed like they might faint. The crowd burst into applause. They felt this actor perfectly captured the reaction of someone encountering a vampire.
Alexio: “……”
Then the vampire walked over to the props table and picked up a giant syringe taller than a person. The human's expression changed instantly, and they took off running.
Alexio nearly collapsed from laughing.
Joy, happiness, inspiration, and love… It all felt the same as ten thousand years ago, yet also completely different. Beneath the golden torchlights, the free theater slowly rose, and black bat wings along with pure white feathered wings unfurled gently behind the theater, signifying an era that was quite different.
A better era.
Alexio stuffed a loose eyeball back into the hollow socket of a haunted house actor, dusted off his hands, and cheerfully left with Lucius.
Haunted house actor: “……”
Much appreciated!
Alexio had started out walking quickly, but it soon turned into a jog. Lucius let himself be pulled along, still finding time to glance at their points card.
“We have ten extra points in total, so we might be able to redeem something.”
“Redeem the gifts for the children.”
“Okay.”
They entered the theater. As expected, the extra points could be exchanged for gifts. Those who had rushed over the moment they hit the threshold score were now filled with regret. But reaching this point at this hour was already impressive. Not everyone had Lucius' planning skills, and not everyone could breeze through the skill-based booths as quickly as Alexio.
Alexio browsed for a while and redeemed five exclusive music boxes from the theater. When opened, a girl in a white dress and the God of Death danced to the melody of Praise the Stars from ‘The Girl and the God of Death.’ The theater offered a delivery service. Even though the destination was nearby, Alexio opted to send them directly to the children's rooms. That way, once their duties ended, they'd receive their Carnival gift right away.
At 8:50 PM, the audience began to enter the venue. Outside, the plaza was still lively.
Back inside the darkened theater, Alexio felt as though memories from ten thousand years ago were resurfacing. He glanced subtly at Lucius, only to find the other man was already watching him. Their eyes met, and under the glow of the stage lights, Lucius' gentle sky-blue eyes shimmered faintly.
A holographic projection unfolded across the stage. A fine rain began falling over the audience as a bard took his seat beneath an ancient tree, harp in hand, leaning forward as if listening intently.
And so the song of the nightingale broke through the veil of rain, drifting gently toward them—
【Wandering traveler, will you hear my song?】