First things first,
I'm more than happy to translate this for you all, dear readers.
Until now, this marvellous (and crazy) story could only be enjoyed in my motherly language, but I have skills and I want to put them to use for you. Best reward for me are your likes.
The story is already wholly translated (the original author put it on hiatus) but is now undergoing a remake, so pardon the little holes, they are going to eventually disappear soon
Enjoy!
***
Shi Shuan has been speculating about the afterlife long before. From the abundant menu of possibilities he presumed to be reincarnated as a lesser part of the world, a pebble or - most desirably - a cat. Who of all people wouldn't want to be one of their kind? A carefree fur-ball laughingly sleeping through its days, slightly cracking eyes open at the food it needn't even had to catch. Nonetheless, humans nearly worship you.
Sadly, fate assigned him to a different role.
Right after his life came to an end, he found himself in the dark. Even with all senses cut off, he was still instinctively aware that the space was pitch black. Calm and silent depth.
"Like the bottom of the sea." He thought.
He humph-ed in displeasure letting out a bunch of bubbles. The idea of staying in this nothingness for eternity wasn't tempting at all. He did what he did in order to be freed from thoughts, but instead it was everything that dissolved except thoughts.
"I didn't even get to take my exams !"
His life was short and boring. He wasn't particularly talented nor interested in anything, yet he did not fall behind too much neither. He was twin to all the plain people in the crowd, no matter how much staring was done, there would be nothing to differ him. He was just an unattractive ghost, akin to a background noise in someone else's movie.
Now he came to regret. He would have been better off nourishing his life as a human. He is going to end up as a plant for sure. And an ugly one at that.
The space broke, cracked like glass. He felt that, and the sensation shooting up his limbs. It hurt. The pain was akin to razor-sharp pieces of shattered bottle flying at him like daggers thrown off a skyscraper. Everything was cut to shreds, leaving solely his consciousness. Despite that he was glad. At least his senses were back. He was able to feel.
His whole body ached when the light mercilessly tore through the crack of his eyelids. His eyes blinked madly, blinded by foreign light.
"Huh? I'm alive?" he croaked feebly with an ached throat. He rubbed his blind eyes until they cleared.
When his pupils adapted to the new intensity of light they were welcomed by a high ceiling heavy with paintings. He felt cold stone under his fingertips. It was the only stable joint between him and the spinning world around him. He curled his fingers and let the surface cool down his splitting head. He blankly appreciated the view above until his mind has cleared. Then he slowly turned his head to one side.
His blank eyes were meet with an endless sea of other eyes, just as bewildered as his own. They stared at him in unison as if they were one big organism. His thick brows furrowed almost kissing in the middle of his nose bridge.
The eyes had mouths slightly opened agape and heads as well. Mostly haired, but a couple hated by the god were left without as much as a strand of hair. They were then followed by the rest of the body hidden under ghostly white robes. Such colourless clothes made even the whitest skin of theirs appear neither pink or yellow, which made them look even funnier.
The cold stone under his fingers was the dais, located in the centre of the splendid dome, adorned with golds and reds, seen only ever in old grand temples.
The vertigo in his head was rocked aside by panic.
"Satanists!"
The rabble of eyes came alive, breaking the massive organism into separate individuals, each with their own pair of eyes with hope and thrill swirling inside, each with their own mouth and set of teeth, sometimes not complete anymore, fully shown in an absurd smile. All this galore of feelings directed at his puzzled eyes.
His slanted grey irises were often mistaken for colourless, when without emotion. Just like monochrome pictures seemed more dead than the coloured ones. They were like muddy water that was left to rot for so long that it became dry and grey in a dull way. That water seemed to be always disturbed and thus veiled with mud rising up from the depth. It was a king of a lost gaze, always distracted and searching, looking beyond people as if they were see-though and beyond earth, unchained by attachments. Those eyes were heavy on person's back, staring straight through. While every human wanted to be clearly seen and recognised, this one gaze humbled them to stay invisible. This very dreamy gaze was now confused more than usual, searching around for a way out. The body followed the straying eyes and climbed up to flee. The eyes seemed to forgot to wait for their fellow body parts and run ahead, the body desynchronised and fell forward. Legs didn't listen, hindered by the stuttering connection. They left foreign. Longer, straighter and scrawnier.
He braced himself for the impact and squeezed his eyes shut. However the expected encounter never came. Cold of marble floor altered to warm flesh. Someone cushioned his fall with their arms and pulled him up. Thoughtfully leaving his hands on his body for support in his dizziness. The man made a point of being considerate and respectful, as he always did. That's how his brothers in belief saw him, as a exemplary gentleman, adorned with all main gentlemanly features: wisdom, beauty and kindness. This image was carefully nursed by him everyday to the point of being perfect, almost saintly. However this time was special, and so he had to remind himself to be specially considerate and fixed the best of his smiles, "Is your lordship alright?"
His voice was as flawless as his manners. Caring and soft, but wrapped in power.
Shi Shuan scrunched his head to look up at the owner of the gentle arms.
"What is this magnificent place? Is this heaven?"
It wasn't a hospital, nor familiar room, or even a morgue. You cannot blame him for assuming this to be heaven, because this wasn't like anything any mortal had ever experienced. The dead should be dead. That was the sacred truth of every belief, in Buddhism and Christendom alike. So who can explain how a clinically, practically and virtually dead person is now walking among humans? No scientist has ever demystified the great mystery of afterlife, so how can a mere, young human try? Since ancient times, all that has been unknown was called divine, and this remained unchanged through the millennials of human progress. Where science failed, people were doomed to return to belief and that was the young human did.
Belief was also reflected in the eyes of the crowd gathered around the confused youngster. Both him and them could not believe what was before them, but their miracles were clearly different.
"The great lord has blessed us! A miracle! The great lord has heard our prayers! Salvation is nearing!"
They repeated those words like a mantra, to convince themselves to believe. Louder each time, as if to make sure they can not only hear it but feel the words vibrating through their whole bodies. Their shouts were progressively wilder with joy and audacity and finally their content became unrecognisable, barely even human. Shi Shuan's heart was racing, He didn't know why they did that, he was overstimulated. His eyes were racing across all this madness taking place. A person fell to their knees laughing. A group of them had tears swell in their eyes. Next time he swept his gaze through them, a person's eyes rolled back and he watched in horror as their body fell back, limp like a rug doll.
Shi Shuan felt movement beside him and one source of warmth beside his body disappeared.
The man beside him raised his hand. That gesture made everything go silent. It was absolute and unforgiving of defiance. Some surpassed their happiness, some were forced to shed tears in silence.
The man then turned to face Shi Shuan once more. He let go of him and took a respectful step back with a slight bow.
"My lord, in the name of my brothers and sisters, this humble servant would like to apologise for the shameful sight you have witnessed. This servant is sincerely apologetic about the inconvenience our hurried call forced onto you. If rest is what you desire, this servant shall show you to your quarters." The man spoke in an old-fashioned way, his speech dripping with politeness.
Shi Shuan didn't show any reaction to his words. He was dead. The problems of the living simply weren't his department.
Feeling detached he flexed his hands and felt them around. They looked somehow more defined and less scarred than his.
"Is there anything I can be of help with, my lord ?" the man repeated with a smile firmly plastered on his face, despite being ignored.
"High Priest!"
A plump man, pink on the face and panting, presumably from running strode inside the temple. His short legs did their best to carry him here, but they were at their limit, so he came to a halt right in front of the door to catch his breath.
"What's so urgent for you to come here personally, brother?" the priest standing beside Shi Shuan responded, "Make it concise, please."
Even though the matter was so critical for the senile man to run, the priest didn't abandon his politeness, inquiring about him and adding "please" at the end.
'The crown prince is going to-'
Before he could finish, the door swung open again, hitting the unfortunate man from behind. He staggered a few hectic steps to the side massaging his hurt butt and didn't dare to say more.
That's because the one who had just entered was not to be offended. Even though the man looked young, there was already something flashy about the way he walked, that was characteristic for elders of aristocracy. Their strides were long and authoritative, their back straight as an arrow, their chin lifted so high it was a miracle that the neck didn't snap from this unnatural position. But their best-recognised trait were the sharp eyes, the word "wisdom" almost written on their sockets. However upon a closer inspection the man was subtly different from this description, because his eyes didn't show intelligence, but an absolute conviction of his own superiority. He did not put anybody in his eyes. He didn't smile, didn't greet and strode straight for the High Priest.
Shi Shuan dejected by the man's attitude retreated to partially hide behind the tall as a mountain High Priest.
"What is the meaning of this?" he said in a low voice. Even when he was furious, he never raised his voice. The young monarch demanded of others to make an effort to hear his words. How could he shout and damage his throat because of someone of lesser importance?
"What is the meaning of this?" here he swept his arm around the room, "Is it true that you resolved to the Call? Without my consent. Are you unaware of the consequences that follow? Or is it that you are tired of living?"
High Priest's smile became droopy.
"How could this subject dare to? Your highness is preoccupied with important matters pertained to well-being of our nation, so how could I burden you with my visit? I sent a letter to your highness informing of the ritual."
The prince smiled ironically.
"How come I never got the said letter?"
At this moment, the plump man who had already returned to more natural, but still pink colours came forward. He cupped his hands in front of his protruding stomach and knelt down.
"It was my task to pass on the latter, but your highness has been studying diligently and gave orders to not disturb. I have waited to inform of this since morning and came running here as soon as I heard the news of you leaving your chambers, but this subject is old, his legs are not as good as before and didn't manage to get here on time. Please, punish this subject."
The young monarch regarded the old man for a while, but in the end he did not say a thing. Just waved his hand to call it a day.
He could not argue as he has really locked himself in his study early this morning and with him gone, the decisions could be made by High Priest with authority second-ranked only to him. In fact the priest followed his wishes simply out of courtesy, as he was serving directly under the Grand Master, not the ruler, hence he could not say anything and boil from anger in silence.
Even Shi Shuan who just came here was aware of the planned delay in information.
The young monarch had to let the disrespect slide, relaxed his posture and leisurely strolled around the dais seemingly appreciating the artful craftshipman found uniquely in temples, when in fact his little, bright eyes discreetly searched around.
"Forget it then. Was this time successful?"
He didn't wait for an answer when his penetrating gaze caught a corner of white robe peeking from behind the High Priest. His eyes glimmered slightly as if encountering an interesting trinket, but having to conceal such earthy desires as to play with it and keeping up an image of a sublime aristocrat.
"Dear heaven!" he exclaimed, his hands itching at his sides to check out the new finding.
Having throughly examined the subject of his interest, he said in a mighty tone, as if stating a new thesis "You look different from what I have imagined."
The certainly with which that was said made Shi Shuan, who was usually shy and easily succumbing feel apologetic that he didn't look the way "he", whoever he is, should.
However if "he" was nothing alike him, then he should act oppositely to himself. If the young monarch regarded him as someone worth their priceless attention, then he should make his movements deserving of this honour. And "he" would certainly feel offended at such a remark.
He stepped away from the tall man's protective back towering over him and lifted his gaze. Giving his lanky figure and slightly bend forward posture he looked like sombre, yet vibrant hawk ready to jump at his prey any moment. The act looked challenging to the outsiders, who could not take a look at his hectic thoughts and only only judge based on his intense eyes. The crowd around the three great figures quieted down expecting a storm. High Priest feeling the tension, broke out in a cold sweat. He was desperately thinking how to prevent those two great individuals from clashing. All his three great skills cultivated hard for this moment solely appeared useless now. Not wisdom, not even suave manners would help here.
"Who are you to decide how shall I look?" Shi Shuan spoke distinctly, calmly, but without aggression. He felt no shame saying it out loud.
The prince was flabbergasted and could not respond for some time. Maybe this was because he could not believe he had just heard the grand being before him speak, or simply because he didn't expect such nonchalant and natural response, or maybe both. Nonetheless, as a person of great power himself, he recovered quickly and became composed again. He let out a half-hearted chuckle to unload the tension in the conversation.
"It appears, that the gods are as graceful and proud as they are believed to be. I have never in my life met one before, but this one here appears to be the proudest and sharpest of all!"
High Priest face tensed, somewhere on his way in search of appropriate words to terminate this conversation he lost his best, gentlemanly smile.
"Your highness, as you are out of isolation now, please head back to the Flaxen Palace. Minister of War is waiting for an audience since early in the morning. It is an important matter and can not be delayed any longer." the man finally stepped in between the two.
The young monarch, when suavely asked out, restrained his curiosity and bowed his head slightly as goodbye, "Then, I shall take my leave. It was a pleasure, meeting you. Excuse my for leaving no sooner than I have arrived. I hope we can find some time later to talk."
The mighty monarch departed, leaving behind a glorious "I will return later."
"My greatest apologies, my lord. His highness is a little bold, but that's how his dragon bloodline is. Please excuse him." the High Priest returned to his business-like, mannerly demeanour.
It seemed that High Priest also didn't have an easy time dealing with the young monarch on daily basic.
"No need to feel bothered about it. Young people these days... it's good to be courageous." Shi Shuan AKA the god waved his hand, "I preserved my patience for situations like that after descending."
He tried his best to sound as reasonable as a teen put in god's shoes could. He shifted uncomfortably. His little desiring soul wasn't suited to act this big. Most people would probably be over the moon faced with treatment deserving of a noble lady, but he felt simply hollowed. High Priest pleasantries were bothersome, young monarch with his cocky demeanour was bothersome, the huge crowd was also burdensome. Why was he here?
"Our god is gracious and merciful! Beseech his forgiveness." the crowd nearly ascended from admiration.
Not everyone was suited to be a god.
It felt foreign to have his own "fans".