Chapter 14: Deception (Part 2)

Insidious Feisha

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Full moon has passed, and so the three moon siblings finally prepared to leave. Feisha followed them to the front desk, reluctant to part, only to find Isefel and Gin waiting there as well.

“Have a safe trip,” Feisha emotionally shook hands with Moon, eyes brimming with tears. They’re finally leaving, hallelujah; he’s saved from mutilation!

Moon did likewise, feeling touched. “Don’t worry, we’ll be back next month!”

Feisha ripped his hand back as if burned. Behind him, Gin smiled through his haggard expression. “Please take care on the trip back.”

“I know you hate to part with us, but your sentiments really showed through this time. I’m moved,” said Lune.

“Then can you guys hurry up and leave? It’s really windy outside, I’m about to fall asleep here,” said Gin.

“How does it being windy outside make you sleepy?”

“Cake and pens don’t have anything in common either, but occasionally they get placed onto the same table.”

Lune considered this for a moment, then nodded. “You have a point there.”

Luna suddenly popped up in front of Feisha. “I’ve met lots and lots of humans here before, but you’re the prettiest one out of all of them.”

…Is that a compliment?

Feisha decided to correct a little detail. “You’re supposed to call men handsome, not pretty.”

“You’re not handsome though. Just pretty.”

“How am I not handsome?” Feisha asked, offended.

“Compared to Isefel? You tell me.”

Feisha stole a glance at Isefel, and continued after seeing that he wasn’t even listening. “Then what if you compare me to Layton?”

“Now you’re just fishing for compliments.”

“I changed my mind; you guys should leave.”

Luna dug a gold coin out of his pocket and held it out to Feisha: “Here.”

“What’s this for?” asked Feisha, accepting it with a confused expression.

“A tip.”

Feisha was a little surprised. “You guys tip here as well?”

“Of course! Well, humans tend to get tipped less because they always try to avoid us, but you should keep up the good work!”

The tears in Feisha’s eyes finally spilled over as he leapt forwards to trap Luna in a bone-crushing hug. “You can’t only plan for the full moon every month! In fact, new moon is just as round as full moon, so make sure you come visit us if you feel uncomfortable in any way! And- uh, you can bring more gold coins next time, I have four pockets in total if you count the suit.”

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The moon siblings finally departed.

Feisha slipped in front of Isefel before he could leave, and suggested: “Let’s do group discounts!”

Ideally, groups with around a thousand members. If every single member tipped one gold coin, then his debt could be cleared easily with plenty to spare. Haha…

“The one in charge of sales is Dea,” Isefel said.

“Oh, yes, you’re right. I’ll go find him immediately-”

He took two steps and was promptly stopped by Gin. Taking in Gin’s dark smile, Feisha quickly wiped all traces of pride and greed off his face, saying heavily: “And also sort out that other thing while we’re there.”

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For once, Dea wasn’t in the warehouse, forcing Feisha to scour the hotel for a trace of ginger. Gin shadowed him in dead silence, bringing about a cloud of gloom.

Feisha had enough, stopping in his tracks. “Can you not stare at me with such an ominous expression?”

“We of the blood clan take romance really seriously, you know. As a member of said clan how do you think I feel, being misunderstood and rejected by my lover? I’ve been in this living hell for two whole days already… Oh god, I might as well kill myself.”

“Oh dear…”

“This is a really serious issue, how dare you mock my pain?”

“No, look behind you.”

Gin whipped around and paused. “Oh dear,” he uttered softly.

Dea walked by the other end of the hallway, clearly not wanting to talk to them. As soon as their eyes met, he immediately did a 180.

Feisha stopped Gin as he readied himself to give chase. Throwing a ‘leave it to me’ look over his shoulder, he quickly caught up to Dea, who was merely walking rather than running away. Thank god faeries are a race that value the importance of composure and presentation.

“Dea, I have a very very important matter I need to discuss with you.”

Dea reluctantly stopped walking and looked at Feisha suspiciously. The orange hair flowing softly over his shoulder formed a makeshift shawl. At this, Feisha’s concentration wavered for a second but quickly collected himself under Dea’s cold stare.

“What I wanted to talk about is- To improve this hotel’s overall performance, I think we should offer group discounts.”

Dea frowned. “Group discounts?”

“We have way too many rooms, it’s a bit of a waste to not draw in big groups,” Feisha said with a nod.

“But there isn’t a lot of world-travellers.”

Feisha had prepared for this exact argument. “They don’t necessarily need to be travelling to another world – we could promote Noah’s Ark itself as the destination.”

Dea finally showed a sliver of interest. “How?”

“Sightseeing, travelling, vacation, honeymoon…” listed Feisha. “Don’t forget that this place is completely unique. Even if every world has their own brand of hotels, none of them can hold a candle to this one. Never-ending darkness, never-ending stairs, never-ending rooms, and…never-ending supply of food.”

“You only listed one good point about the hotel.”

“The important thing isn’t the ratio of good points to bad points but rather the selling point, wouldn’t you agree?” said Feisha. “All living creatures have some degree of curiosity. Take little animals like kittens and puppies – they see strange things that scare them, but approach it anyway. We need to seize this aspect and manipulate it so that they can’t help but come here.”

“What’s the goal?”

“To make money, obviously.”

“Noah’s Ark doesn’t need money.”

But I do.

Ignoring his inner chaos, Feisha continued calmly: “Even if it’s not for money, it can be for a sense of accomplishment. Even if it’s not for a sense of accomplishment, it can be to just fill up the spaces.”

“Are all humans as annoying as you?”

Feisha sighed. “Compared to you guys, we humans have a significantly shorter lifespan. But it’s because of this that we continuously sought after ways to make our lives meaningful. Life shouldn’t always be so monotonous, you know. It should be full of passion.”

“Passion?” Dea frowned, disgusted.

An idea suddenly occurred to Feisha, shuffling in close to Dea. “Did you know about Gin and Hughes little lover’s spat?”

Dea’s look of disgust intensified. “And if I do?”

“Gin told me yesterday that he wanted to get back together with you.”

There was a really long pause.

Feisha finally understood the feeling of swallowing a hundred flies at once. Dea slowly extended his hand, flame dancing atop his palm like seaweed tumbling through waves.

Feisha gulped. “With that being said, I am absolutely against the idea.”

The flame decreased slightly in size.

“You know,” Feisha quickly said, seeing his chance. “Hughes is my mentor, so I’m obviously on his side. How could Gin set his sights on somebody else over such a petty argument? What a despicable person.”

Dea stayed silent as the flame extinguished.

Feisha let out a relieved sigh. “But it looks like Gin steeled his heart this time. He said that even if you beat him up so badly that his face resembles a pig…er, if you burn him so badly that he resembles roast pork, he’s not going to give up.”

All he got in response was an icy look. “What are you trying to say?”

“Gin accidentally revealed a crucial piece of information last time we drank together. Apparently, he’s only scared of two people on Noah’s Ark: Antonio and Layton.”

Dea was a little surprised.

“Yeah, I was surprised as well. I asked him why, but he wouldn’t say. So I was thinking that if you could pretend to hook up with one of them, Gin would surely leave you alone.”

A frown.

“It’ll be temporary, of course. Gin’s the type of person – no, vampire – who just wants everything. When he sees that he has no chance with you, he’ll definitely go crawling back to Hughes. And you can stop pretending when that happens.”

“I’m not afraid of him.”

“I know you’re not afraid of him; you’re from the mighty and noble faerie race, after all. But as the saying goes, clingy people have the highest possibility of doing crazy things. I’d personally advise you to go on the defensive, especially since Gin’s crossed the line from clingy to straight-up stalking.”

Seeing that Dea still needed a little push, Feisha continued: “How about this: if you’re too embarrassed to ask, I can go do it for you since I’m decent friends with Layton.”

“There is no need. I’ll sort this out myself,” Dea said, turning on his heels and heading down to the kitchen. Feisha was left standing by himself, smirking smugly.

---

Gin ran over to Feisha. “What did you say to him?”

Feisha just smiled and shook his head. “The process isn’t important. You need to look at the result – did you not see where he was going?” He sounded very pleased with himself.

Gin was still sceptical. “Are you sure he’s going to find Antonio?” This doesn’t sound like something Dea would do; even back when they were together, Dea had never given him so much as a good look. In fact, it could be argued that all the looks ever sent his way were seriously fucking terrible. What happened to treating your bottoms nicely? “You didn’t just ask him to deliver a message to fool me, did you?”

“I’d never tell such a low-skilled lie.”

Gin gave him an unimpressed stare. “Have you told me a high-skilled lie then?”

“There was one.”

“Spill.”

“Last time we drank together, I said that you were a little better-looking than me. That was a lie.”

Gin smiled darkly. “The thing with Hughes isn’t over yet, I’m still at the mentally unstable hysteria stage.”

“I actually think you’re way better-looking than me,” Feisha said genuinely.

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Translator’s notes

“You’re not handsome though. Just pretty.”

It’s exactly what it sounds like – Luna thinks that Feisha attractive in a more feminine way.

“Now you’re just fishing for compliments.”

Chinese: 比上不足，比下有余bǐ shàng bù zú, bǐ xià yǒu yú (lit. worse off than some, better off than many).

“Oh dear…”

Pun time! This time, the Chinese is gonna go down a little differently; just bear with me here:

Gin: 天哪。我生不如死。 tiān nǎ. wǒ shēng bù rú sǐ. (lit. Oh sky. I’d rather die.)

Feisha: 地啊…… dì a…… (lit. Oh ground……)

Gin: 这个时候你还和我唱对调？ Zhè ge shí hòu nǐ hái hé wǒ chàng duì diào? (lit. You’re singing a duet with me at such a time?)

Feisha: 不是，你看身后。Bù shì, nǐ kàn shēn hòu. (lit. No, look behind you.)

Gin: 地啊。dì a. (lit. Oh ground.)

‘Oh sky’ is just how people say ‘oh god/oh my god’ in Chinese. AFAIK there isn’t an actual song with “Oh sky, oh ground’ as the lyrics, but ‘oh ground’ is a thing people say as a sarcastic response to someone exclaiming omg. The joke here is that Gin thought that Feisha was being sarcastic, but in reality he was just saying Dea’s name (Dea’s name in Chinese is pronounced as ‘dì a’ – exactly the same as ‘oh ground’). English is pretty self-explanatory (cuz dear sounds exactly like Dea haha geddit).

What happened to treating your bottoms nicely?

Helpful reminder that yes, Dea topped in their (short-lived) relationship.

“Gin’s the type of person – no, vampire – who just wants everything.”

Chinese Chinese: 碗里锅里肯定要抱住 wǎn lǐ guō lǐ kěn dìng yào bào zhù (lit. be sure to hold onto everything inside the bowl and the pot). This is reference to the saying, 吃着碗里，看着锅里chī zhe wǎn lǐ, kàn zhe guō lǐ (lit. eating out of a bowl, but still looking at the pot’s contents). The gist of this is that the person already has a bowl of food to eat, but has their eyes on the rest as well (i.e. they’re hella greedy).

But as the saying goes, clingy people have the highest possibility of doing crazy things.

Chinese Chinese Chinese: 女怕缠郎 nǚ pà chán láng (lit. Women are afraid of clingy people)