Chapter Thirty-Seven: Bestowing Beautiful Hopes Upon the World

Is it over already? The fireworks signaled the end of the celebration. Although the Harvest Festival usually lasted three days, the most festive first day had undoubtedly drawn to a close at this very moment.

“Looks like we won’t have to go looking for the parade floats,” Amy hesitated, considering whether to send Yulia home now. Yet, seeing the girl still brimming with delight, something soft within him was stirred. He sighed quietly, composed himself, and asked in a bright, lighthearted tone, “Is there anywhere else you want to go?”

“The procession’s over now…” The girl’s mood was tinged with disappointment, her eyelids drooping for a while before she regained her spirit, waving her little fists energetically. “Let’s go to the festival grounds and make a wish, plant a hope for a bountiful harvest next year.”

“That’s a good idea.” The young Glorious One nodded.

Though he didn’t believe there truly existed a god overseeing the harvest, nor that ancestral blessings could make dreams come true, the boy didn’t mind sowing his hopes at the most important moment of the year, planting his expectations for the coming days.

“Of course!” Yulia lifted her chin proudly. “Who else could have come up with such a great idea?”

“If you stick your chin out any further, you’ll show your cat’s tail,” Amy said, shaking his head in amused exasperation at her smugness. “You really can’t handle praise. If I hadn’t run into you, you’d have been sold in some alleyway. With your personality, you’d probably end up counting money for the person who sold you.”

“Mind your own business.” Yulia bared her teeth at him, refusing to speak further. But as was the nature of children, her moods shifted quickly. Barely three minutes had passed before her nose twitched, and her gaze swept the street stalls, finally settling on a smoky stand not far away. “There, over there—”

She rose on tiptoe and tugged at his sleeve.

“Didn’t you just say I shouldn’t interfere?” Amy deliberately put on a cold face, but after barely three seconds he broke into laughter, teasing, “Funny how you only think of me when it’s time to pay.”

“You misheard,” the girl replied with a straight face, twisting logic. “I said I want you to take care of it.”

“…Come to think of it, that might be true.” Shaking his head, the young Glorious One decided not to argue with a little girl. He let his gaze linger where she pointed. “You want some barbecue? Just so you know, you can have some, but not too much. Fifteen silver coins is the most I’ll give you.”

Strictly speaking, silver coins weren’t the same as Silver Thol, but few bothered to distinguish between them, as both were of equal value.

During the era of the Kings, humans used a currency system named after Thol. But after the city-states crumbled, the old economic system underwent a long transformation. Thanks to the relative stability of the Glorious Ones’ consortium, the value of Gold Thol remained fairly fixed. However, as time passed, the previously circulated Silver Thol and Copper Thol gradually failed to meet the needs of the regional economy, making the issue of new coins imperative.

Hemtica had no gold mines, but it did have silver and copper. After discussions among experts in economics and currency, a new batch of silver and copper coins was minted. Though their appearance differed somewhat from the circulating Silver Thol and Copper Thol, the silver and copper content was nearly identical. Apart from the rarity and collectible value of the older coins, the new and old were generally treated as equivalent in the marketplace.

“Just fifteen silver coins?” The girl looked rather disappointed, gazing up at him with puppy-dog eyes. “Amy, can’t you give me a bit more?”

“A bit, you say?” The boy squinted, a smile curling at his lips. “Here.”

“You really did just give one more—how stingy can you be!” Yulia opened her palm, pitifully looking at the spinning copper coin. “You truly embody the iron rooster spirit.”

“Thank you for the compliment.”

Hmm, iron rooster should be a compliment… right? The Glorious One consoled himself, not wanting to argue with the girl.

“You actually think it’s a compliment?” Yulia looked astonished, but then gave up. “Never mind, it’s too complicated to explain. I’ll go get the barbecue first—don’t worry about me getting kidnapped, or counting money for someone after being kidnapped.”

With a wave, she disappeared into the crowd.

Being small does have its advantages.

Amy watched the surging crowd, hesitated for a moment, then decided to wait.

Despite his words, the girl he called Yulia was actually very clever. She might be a bit spoiled and silly, but sometimes she showed a maturity beyond her years. Overall, unless she wandered into some shady alleyway ruled by thugs, her safety wasn’t something he needed to worry about.

Still, he couldn’t help but be a little concerned.

“Ta-da!” Before his worry could turn to anxiety, her voice sounded beside him again, and she cheerfully shoved a food box into his hands. “Here’s yours.”

“Uh… thank you.” The boy was a bit surprised. “Sorry, I thought…”

“What did you think?” Yulia shot him a glance. “I can’t finish fifteen silver coins of food by myself. Even aside from weight gain—too much fried barbecue can cause cancer.”

“Cancer?” The young Glorious One didn’t quite understand the term.

“It’s complicated to explain, but it’s not a good thing.” The girl spoke through a mouthful of spicy, roasted squid, her words muffled. “I’m not too worried about cancer, but for you mortals, it’s incurable.”

“Mortals, huh…” Amy took a deep breath, staring seriously into her deep black eyes. “Yulia, let’s call you that for now—”

He paused, then spoke deliberately:

“Adolescent delusion is a disease. It needs treatment.”

“Cough—cough! Cough!” The girl, wrestling with her squid skewer, was suddenly choked by the pepper. She instinctively grabbed the water flask handed to her, gulping it down without a glance, and then patted her chest in relief. “Thank goodness, I almost croaked right here.”

“Isn’t that a bit dramatic?” The boy frowned.

“No, just startled.” Yulia gave him an odd look. “By the way… where did you hear the term ‘adolescent delusion’?”

“Probably from a book,” Amy mused, unable to recall exactly. “I’m not sure, but I can’t think of any other possibility.”

The fact that strange words often popped into his mind wasn’t something he’d share with strangers.

“Looks like some old geezer is trying to leave a back door in Hemtica,” the girl muttered to herself, glancing again at the boy—after all, this unlucky fellow was also tricked by some ancient relic, becoming one of countless insignificant pawns in this game.

If only she could help him.

But… in this chess match beyond mortal imagination, not even “she” was qualified to be a player.

This was a contest between gods and gods, monsters and monsters.

Humans… were never destined to be the protagonists.

Even if they were, it was only as the main character in a script that had long been written.

The thought brought a bitter smile to her lips—in the end, their initial resistance had seemed grand, but now it turned out to be meaningless. They had merely moved from one cage to another. Humanity remained the marionette of those beings.

Even “she” was no exception.

“Hey, snap out of it, snap out of it.” The boy’s clear voice pulled her from her thoughts. “I never expected you to be so absent-minded—but it’s impressive that even while distracted, you don’t forget to eat your skewers.”

Ignorance truly is bliss.

She tilted her head slightly, glancing at the boy beside her, whose name was Amy Ulysses. He knew nothing of what Ulysses carried in this world, nor realized he had become, unwittingly, a pawn in some ancient being’s game. He lived in fragile, glass-like happiness, striving for dreams as thin and destined to shatter as they were.

“Now…” Noticing her gaze lingered too long, the girl coughed lightly, awkwardly looking away and surveying the lively evening street. “We’re already at the festival grounds… That was fast!”

“Let’s not waste any more time. Hemtica isn’t safe at night.”

The young Glorious One still remembered the attack following his last visit to the Dark Traveler Ignati. While the dagger’s wound was hard enough for a human to treat, it was worse for monsters. If the murderer known as Mist Night had recovered and struck again, in his current exhausted state, he wasn’t sure he could escape unscathed—especially with a burden in tow.

“No worries. With me by your side, what’s there to fear?” Yulia declared with bravado, though her petite, soft frame hardly inspired confidence. “In Hemtica, I’m the undisputed number one.”

She puffed out her budding chest.

Number one… what did that mean? Was it a place name? Amy rubbed his nose, vaguely recalling it as a nickname for some area in the lower city—never mind, it wasn’t worth responding.

He decided to act.

Closing his eyes, he pressed his palms together, praying to his ancestors, and to the gods.

“I hope…” What wish should he make to that omnipresent, great being? Anything related to himself could be achieved through effort and determination… Ultimately, after a brief pause, he quietly voiced his wish: “I hope Yulia will be safe and happy.”

“Tch, what an old-fashioned wish, you hopeless sister-obsessed fool.” Yulia stuck out her tongue, apparently having made her own wish for the new year before him. “But… it’s unexpectedly true to your style.”

“My style? What style?” Amy was surprised, then curious what wish the girl would make. “Wait—if only you know my wish, isn’t that a bit unfair?”

“You were just too slow,” Yulia made a face at him. “But since you bought barbecue, I guess I could tell you—just don’t freak out when you hear it.”

“I don’t think any New Year’s wish could be that shocking,” the boy replied.

“Well, humans are always tirelessly seeking their own doom,” the girl said with a mischievous smile, then her face turned serious. “This isn’t a joke—I simply wish that this dull world, already doomed, will soon disappear.”

Cough, cough—

Choking on the pepper, the Glorious One grabbed the water flask and took a gulp.

That really startled him, but it was indeed a wish characteristic of her…

“How about that, shocked you, didn’t I?” Yulia grinned wickedly, her face showing none of her earlier solemnity. “That’s payback for nearly choking me—an eye for an eye.”

“…Amy remained silent.

“Don’t put on that corpse face,” the black-haired, black-eyed girl rose on tiptoe to pat his cheek. “Smile more—oh, but don’t laugh—my real wish is that you’ll be happy in the coming year…”

Yes, happy for the remainder of your life.

I’m sorry, this is all I can do for you…

The girl suddenly grew melancholic.

“Sorry,” the unexpected apology startled her, and she looked up at the boy before her. “I thought you were a brat at first, and I misjudged you—thank you for your kindness. You’re a good person, no, a good kid.”

“Uh, good person…” Yulia mulled over the term, giving the Glorious One a strange look as she sized him up. “Well, ignorance is no crime—you’re a good person, Mr. Good Guy.”

Good guy? The whole family’s good guys!

After inexplicably receiving a card, her playful mood waned. The girl nodded. “Thanks for everything this afternoon. I’ll head home now—”

She stuck out her tongue and made another face:

“Don’t go stalking beautiful girls, Mr. Good Guy.”

“And another thing.”

A slight pause, and a drawn-out voice:

“My name is Jasu. The ‘Ja’ of Jasu, the ‘Su’ of Jasu—if you call me Yulia again, I’ll be mad, okay? If there’s a next time…”

Her figure vanished into the surging crowd.

“Jasu, huh?” Quietly murmuring her name, the boy exhaled softly and turned to melt into the crowd. “She really is quite a remarkable person.”

Reflecting on this, a previously ignored question surfaced in his mind.

Since when did following girls become a gentlemanly act?

Amy was utterly baffled.