Chapter 1187: 174. The Play

“Little Daphne, you’re heading out so early today?”

“Mm, a little earlier than yesterday.”

“How brave. Your mom and dad can’t accompany you at this time, can they?”

“Mm. Mom has to take care of my little brother, and Dad is still working. Daphne doesn’t need them to come with her. Daphne is already a big girl!”

“Little Daphne is such a good girl!”

Muen followed Daphne out of the secluded alley and onto the main street. Miss Dragon’s path through the city earlier seemed to have deliberately avoided the crowds, so only now did Muen discover that the streets were even more prosperous than he had imagined.

People came and went, and the place was extraordinarily lively, yet it did not feel particularly crowded because the road was wide enough for five or six carriages to travel side by side. Various stalls were arranged in neat rows along both sides of the street. No one called out to advertise their wares, yet the dazzling assortment of goods on display was almost enough to overwhelm the eyes.

“Here, I made these pastries today. Little Daphne, have a taste too.”

At one of the stalls, a middle-aged woman who was chatting warmly with Daphne smiled and handed her a pastry.

“Tell me what you think after you finish it.”

“Mm.”

Daphne accepted the pastry without the slightest hesitation and took a large bite.

“Delicious! It’s really delicious! Aunt Rose’s pastries are the best!”

“Oh my, if I can receive praise like that from Little Daphne, then the half month I spent studying the recipe wasn’t hard work at all.”

The middle-aged woman revealed a blissful expression, then handed a pastry to Muen as well.

“Here, young man. You have one too.”

“Me?”

Muen glanced at the exquisitely shaped pastry, which was clearly not some cheap free sample, then instinctively waved his hand.

“No, I’ll pass... I don’t have any money.”

Or rather, he did not have the currency used in this place.

Hmm. This was the first time he had ever told someone outside that he had no money. It was quite a novel experience.

Fortunately, when it came to being looked down upon, he had plenty of experience...

“Money?”

The middle-aged woman froze upon hearing that, then seemed to become somewhat angry.

“Do you think I’m the kind of person who would take the initiative to demand money from someone? Honestly, where are you from? How can you be so rude?”

“Hm?”

That unexpected reaction made Muen freeze as well.

“Exactly!”

Daphne, who had finished the pastry in two or three bites, nodded solemnly.

“Big Brother is so rude! How can you refuse something someone gives you?”

“???”

Muen stared blankly.

What was going on... Had there been something wrong with his reaction just now?

What did she mean, how could he refuse something someone gave him... Accepting food directly from a stranger was what was wrong!

“Little Daphne, you can have this one too!”

The middle-aged woman turned and handed the pastry to Daphne instead.

“Auntie is so nice!”

“Hey, little girl, how can you only eat her pastries? Don’t you want to try my fruit?”

“I do!”

“My roasted meat is excellent too!”

“Delicious!”

“Here, come try everything!”

“Thank you!”

Perhaps adorable Daphne was simply too eye-catching. Whether the surrounding stall owners knew her or not, each of them began feeding her one thing after another.

Daphne refused nothing, and soon both her hands were full of food.

Muen, who was following behind her, was also stuffed with quite a lot along the way.

He suddenly felt as though he had returned to a zoo from his previous life. The uncles and aunties around him were enthusiastic visitors, while he...

Was the monkey in the cage waiting to be fed.

“This place is getting stranger and stranger.”

Muen looked at the various pastries, snacks, and fruits in his hands, then raised his head and surveyed the surroundings. That eerie sensation naturally welled up in his heart once again.

Unlike the poverty of Annabawei, and unlike the primitiveness of the Notata people from before, this place had already developed to a level hardly different from the outside world as Muen knew it.

Clothing, food, entertainment—nothing here made it look like a “land of survivors” trapped within the mist, an isolated corner that had once narrowly escaped disaster.

In fact, in Muen’s eyes, certain aspects of this place far surpassed the outside world.

For example, its prosperity.

Along the entire way, Muen had not seen a single person with a sallow, emaciated face or dressed in rags, much less homeless people begging along the streets, prostitutes waiting in dark alley entrances, or children barely reaching an adult’s waist who were already forced to run back and forth through the streets to make a living.

Even in Belrand’s Upper District, that was extremely rare.

Then there was the harmony here.

Although he had yet to speak with anyone in depth, Muen had already noticed that everyone here smiled while talking. There was not the slightest trace of hostility in them, and they greeted one another with exceptional warmth.

They were almost too warm.

Muen was certain that his style of dress was obviously different from theirs. He was also certain that he did not know a single person here. Even Daphne did not know everyone.

Yet simply because she was cute, and because he was walking beside such an adorable child, they had enthusiastically given him so many good things.

And Daphne had accepted all of it as a matter of course, as though this kind of thing was perfectly normal here.

There was no need to care about money.

No need to scheme against other people.

No need to be constrained by etiquette or deception.

Prosperity.

Harmony.

Happiness and fulfillment.

It seemed that no word or phrase describing something beautiful would be excessive when applied to this place.

...On second thought, perhaps that was normal.

After all, this was New Tars.

It had been built in almost complete imitation of the ancient city-state Miss Dragon had once called a “peaceful land of dreams.”

If this was a perfect reconstruction and recreation, then the beauty of this place was naturally only to be expected.

But...

Perhaps that very “naturalness” was itself part of the abnormality.

“I refuse to believe that such a small place could possess such abundant resources. What, do milk and cakes grow directly out of the ground?”

Huh?

Wait.

Speaking of things growing from the ground...

Muen suddenly remembered the Lost Land from before.

As an Evil God’s pasture, that place had received the blessing of abundance. Milk flowed through its rivers, and fresh meat grew on its trees.

Could this place be the same?

But wasn’t the force behind this place supposed to be the Withering King in a “female disguise”? Had the Mother of Abundance also decided to get involved?

With those doubts in mind, Muen focused and carefully brought a pastry to his mouth.

FWOOSH.

Black flames swayed, standing ready. The moment the slightest abnormality appeared, they would devour it completely.

—Miss Dragon was not beside him, so Muen felt that he absolutely had to maintain one hundred and twenty percent vigilance.

Once he had made his preparations, Muen lightly bit into the pastry.

A sweet fragrance instantly filled his mouth. Without taking the time to taste it carefully, he did not even chew and swallowed it directly.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

Muen remained fully on guard...

“It really is just ordinary food.”

Ten seconds passed.

Muen’s eyes widened in surprise. His vigilance had been completely unnecessary. After the food entered his body, under his strict monitoring...

It truly was nothing more than perfectly ordinary food.

Even a blessing of abundance could not produce food this “pure and flawless.” There was not even the slightest trace of anything extra mixed into it.

Besides, even if Divine Authority could accomplish such a thing, adding absolutely nothing...

Wouldn’t that essentially be giving it away for free?

Evil Gods emphasized “equivalent exchange” and also enjoyed “devouring everything and leaving nothing behind.” They were probably not generous enough to perform charity like this.

“This is becoming harder and harder to understand...”

Whether it was the food or the people, everything here was unbelievably clean.

It was as though the “peaceful land of dreams” from eight hundred years ago had truly crossed through time and appeared before Muen.

No wonder even Miss Dragon had been unable to distinguish it at first.

“I’m full!”

Daphne finished every last bit of the food she had been given, patted her swollen little belly, and waved goodbye to the kind people around them.

“Goodbye! I’m taking this big brother to watch the puppet show.”

“Be careful on the way, Little Daphne.”

The others also waved goodbye gently, as though reminding a child from their own family to be careful. There was not the slightest trace of malice on their smiling faces.

“Mm, I know!”

Daphne continued forward with Muen.

Before long, they arrived at a plaza.

The spacious plaza was paved with flat stone slabs. Even if a carriage traveled across it at full speed, it probably would not experience the slightest bump. Drainage facilities had also been installed around the outer edge, and flowering greenery surrounded the entire plaza.

By the time the two arrived, quite a few people had already gathered there. However, everyone remained orderly, and there was little crowding or pushing.

Muen easily found a position with a fairly good view. At Daphne’s insistent request, he lifted her onto his shoulders.

A stage had been erected in the center of the plaza.

Their timing was perfect. Just as Muen raised Daphne up, the curtains on the stage slowly opened.

Muen narrowed his eyes, temporarily cast aside his distracting thoughts, and began seriously watching the puppet show Daphne had been looking forward to so much.

Theater was the distillation of culture.

Leaving aside what someone as artistically deficient as himself might be able to understand from it, the content of the performance alone might allow him to discover some trace of what was hidden behind all this beauty.

“Ding-ding, dong-dong...”

The performance began with a gentle, beautiful melody.

Then a hand-painted backdrop rose under the control of a mechanism, revealing a prosperous city standing tall before Muen’s eyes.

“A very, very long time ago...”

The narrator’s voice was melodious and pleasant, exceptionally captivating.

“There was a city more beautiful than any other in the world, built by the gentlest and bravest people in existence.”

The puppets appeared.

The small puppets had been carved with exceptional precision and looked remarkably lifelike. Controlled by fine strings, even their movements were astonishingly realistic.

They danced along with the music and occasionally assumed poses of diligent labor, while the city behind them grew increasingly prosperous.

“The name of that city came from the blessing of a goddess, and its meaning was ‘a place free of all worries.’”

“The gentle and courageous people lived there, and they defeated the wild beasts that came to attack them.”

Puppets shaped like wild beasts appeared. Their appearances were comical, and they were soon defeated by warrior puppets carrying swords and blades.

“They also overcame disasters beyond imagination.”

The stage suddenly went dark.

Everything was submerged in pure darkness.

However, points of light soon appeared. Puppets dressed in long white robes lit something atop the highest part of the city.

“They even successfully endured the cataclysm that destroyed everything!”

BOOM!

Lightning flashed and thunder roared.

All the puppets trembled, and the city swayed on the verge of collapse. An incomparably terrifying shadow flickered in and out of sight farther away. The painted sky seemed about to split apart, while the music became sinister and horrifying.

Yet not a single puppet gave up.

They supported the city, preventing it from falling before any disaster. Together with the city, they endured trial after trial.

“At last, peace returned to the world, and those gentle and courageous people were finally able to live happily ever after...”

The narrator’s voice rose and fell expressively, the puppets were vivid and lively, and an extraordinary amount of care had clearly been put into the scenery...

Even Muen was unconsciously drawn into the puppet show, his emotions fluctuating along with the changing music.

Especially during the scene depicting the cataclysm, Muen’s heart had even tightened. He had worried that the city would be destroyed just like that.

Only when the narration said that everyone would live happily ever after did he finally breathe a sigh of relief as well...

“The world became beautiful once more, and this ‘place free of all worries’ seemed as though it would remain beautiful forever.”

“But...”

The narrator’s tone suddenly changed.

“From a certain day onward, everything became different.”

WHOOSH!

The sound of a violent wind mixed into the music.

All the puppets raised their heads and looked toward the top of the stage.

Looks of astonishment seemed to appear on their hand-painted faces.

Muen was also somewhat stunned, because...

“On that day, the dragon descended from the sky...”

Controlled by strings, a black, hideous dragon puppet—one that Muen found extremely familiar—slowly descended.

It landed within the city.

It landed among the puppets.