Chapter 193: The Liquor of Anecdotes (1)

“No. Even if their life comes to an end, the faithful of the sky do not die. Through the liquor of anecdotes, they are reborn as a new life.”

“Then it doesn’t add up arithmetically. If everyone can live forever, why does the population remain the same?”

“The lives of the faithful are under the control of Ra. Through a strict law, the total life expectancy of the population is calculated, which is why it remains a fixed number.”

Immortality and population control were incompatible concepts.

In the end, the key point lay in the liquor of anecdotes.

But, like Gardrak, Kanya also avoided explaining it.

Both the faithful and the heretics had their own convictions, but when it came to the liquor of anecdotes, it seemed that neither could speak freely.

A contradiction.

For Shirone, the liquor of anecdotes was a gigantic contradiction.

They crossed the valley of the vortex serpent, passed through the forest of the profane, and finally arrived at the sky.

The group raised their heads upward.

Compared with the size of the wall, they were nothing more than dust.

It was an extreme scale, impossible to reproduce by human hands.

Kanya introduced the place as district 73 and added that in the first heaven alone there were 820 districts.

Surrendering to his imagination, Shirone touched the wall.

He thought it would be stone, but it was metal.

The technology of the sky completely surpassed the group’s common sense.

“Will it be alright if we enter?”

“It should be. You are a Nephilim. Although I cannot guarantee it.”

“Then… how about we cross the wall?”

It seemed impossible to overcome a wall that touched the sky, but they did not have many alternatives.

However, Kanya denied even that possibility.

“Only drones with flight permission can fly over the airspace of the sky. They would be intercepted. It has never happened, but I heard it from my grandfather. Besides, entering secretly is impossible.”

“Why? It doesn’t look like anyone is guarding the gate.”

“Entry is not restricted. It is a matter of the law. All the information generated in the sky is managed in Jebul, the sixth heaven where the angels reside. They can measure everything from the mass variations of each district to the gaseous components of the air. Even if you tried to sneak in, it would be useless. Don’t worry so much. Nothing dangerous will happen. This is not purgatory.”

As a believer, Kanya seemed to want to reassure Shirone, as if there were no need to sow distrust toward the sky.

When they brought the gauntlet close to the gate, a red beam came out of the lens and scanned the surface.

When the gate opened, a roar shook the world.

Covering their ears was useless.

When the entrance to district 73 opened, Shirone’s group followed Kanya and entered the sky.

When the gate closed, the lens shone.

The updated information of district 73 was sent to the sixth heaven, Jebul.

Total mass, 49,739,498,847.3423 kilograms.

Carbon dioxide emission, increase of 0.0000024 percent.

The first impression of Shamayin was strange.

The residential zones were separated by races, and their cultural forms were radically different.

The buildings of the nor were practical, while those of the kergo were ostentatious.

And when they found the buildings of the meca, Shirone and Amy stopped, speechless.

It was the Istas magic warehouse.

Cubic boxes were stacked in layers, freely intersecting with neighboring buildings while changing position.

It did not seem that the meca had visited a magic academy.

It was proof that, in some way, meca technology had flowed into the original world.

Kanya crossed the meca neighborhood and came out to the plaza.

The landscape of the plaza, where several races mixed like a cultural meeting point, resembled an international market of a neutral country.

“Shirone, look at that.”

Amy pointed to a statue of a giant.

It did not feel the same as when she had seen it on the kergo altar.

Here, the giants truly existed. And moreover, they had fought against them.

Why did the giants, revered by the faithful, wander through purgatory?

Kanya’s house had the same size as the other houses of the meca.

If the kergo represented ostentation and the nor practicality, the meca seemed to pursue standardization.

When they entered Kanya’s house, the building rose until it had four floors.

Unlike its inhuman shape, the interior was cozy.

Her parents, who were sitting at the table, jumped to their feet.

He had heard that the liquor of anecdotes was applied to those whose lives were close to ending, but their faces looked much younger than Shirone expected.

Kanya’s mother hugged her two daughters and shouted.

“Where have you been? Do you know how worried Mom was?”

“I’m sorry. Many things happened.”

“Who are those boys? They look like nor.”

“We went to Nor’s refuge. To get this.”

When Kanya extended the bottle to her, her mother’s eyes trembled in shock.

She had never told anyone about it.

Then how did her daughter know about this?

“You… this is…”

“It’s an alarm. Made with nor magic. Drink it before the liquor of anecdotes.”

“Lena! Why did you do something like that? Mom didn’t want this!”

“Then was I supposed to just watch? You also went to purgatory to get medicine for Grandpa!”

“Who told you that…?”

“Grandpa told me! That’s why he was able to enter the liquor of anecdotes smiling until the end! That’s enough! That’s family!”

“Why are you like this? Then you know that shortening your life to obtain medicine also reduced mine! How do you think a mother feels when she sees her daughter do the same thing?”

The father, who had listened in silence with a gloomy expression, intervened.

“That’s enough, both of you. The water has already been spilled. The important thing is that you returned safe and sound.”

After calming his wife, he looked at Shirone’s group.

“So, you are heretics who come from Nor’s refuge?”

Kanya introduced the group.

“No. They come from the realm of the earth. They saved my life and Lena’s, and they helped us obtain this medicine. Without them, we might already be dead.”

There are no parents in the world who treat coldly those who saved their daughter.

The father invited Shirone’s group to enter the house.

While the mother prepared the food, Kanya told what they had experienced in purgatory.

When she mentioned that Shirone was a Nephilim, both parents knelt down, and the room became chaos.

Only after the group’s insistent request did they agree to treat him normally.

“I see. I thank you for helping Kanya and Lena. But it would be better if you leave soon. Even if you are a Nephilim, they will not welcome those who come from the realm of the earth.”

“No. We are planning to go to the seventh heaven.”

The sacred sanctuary of God, Arabot, was a place so holy that even saying one would go there was considered blasphemy.

But Shirone was someone free from the law, so he could express without restriction the words that came to his mind.

“Even so, there is no way to go to the seventh heaven.”

“We will have to think about that from now on. But what intrigues me is the law of this place. What does it mean that life expectancy is reduced?”

“It is literal. The faithful are assigned a life expectancy according to the law from the moment they are born. Kanya’s life expectancy is 62 years. Lena can live up to 73.”

“Huh? But Lena is the younger one and still has more years.”

“Life expectancy can change at any moment. When she was little, Lena obtained ten additional years because she sang the hymns beautifully. It was a good thing, but the problem is my wife. Her life expectancy is 43 years and 247 days. She has only one day left.”

Shirone’s heart skipped a beat.

What kind of person knows the exact day of their death?

Just imagining it was terrifying.

And yet, Kanya’s mother was smiling.

She was convinced that she would receive Ra’s grace.

“When she was young, my wife went out to purgatory and for that sin twenty years of her life were reduced. Because of that, tomorrow she will enter the liquor of anecdotes.”

Modifying a person’s life expectancy was cruel.

No, it did not even seem possible.

If Ra controlled life, how many years would he himself have?

They had said that the history of the sky dated back hundreds of thousands of years.

Perhaps Ra truly was a god.

“What exactly is the liquor of anecdotes?”

“Hm… it seems they had not told you. I assumed it would be like that. It is not something good to know. Besides, are you not a Nephilim, someone free from the law? It is not something that concerns you.”

“Even so, I want to know. Maybe if I know what it is about, I might come up with a good solution.”

“Hm… in that case…”

Just when the father was about to speak, a clear and piercing voice echoed from outside the window.

“Everyone, pay homage! Inspector of the meca race, Peophe.”

Shirone’s group jumped to their feet.

The voice had reached there as if it were amplification magic.

But the most surprising thing was that the language was being translated automatically.

A mental transmission ability launched only with sound, without using channels.

If it was magic, it was of a very high level.

“In the end, the inevitable has come. It is a fairy.”

“A fairy? One like the ones I know?”

Shirone remembered the fairy race from the original world.

Kanya’s father, believing he was talking about the fairies of this world, nodded.

“That’s right. Those who execute the law. If the giants respect the law, the fairies are the ones who execute it. One could say they are internal administrators. She surely came because of the matter of Kanya and Lena.”

“And what do we do?”

“If you are a Nephilim, you should not worry. You are someone free from the law. Although I do not know if she will take that into account. She has a peculiar character.”

“What are you doing? Faithful of this house, open the door immediately!”

The fairy’s voice was heard from outside.

They were on the fourth floor.

And the fairies Shirone knew were not creatures that flew.

When the father opened the door, a small flying creature entered, defying all his expectations.

It was a girl the size of the palm of a hand.

She had curly blond hair.

Despite her small face, her features were so defined that she was beautiful.

She wore green boots that reached her ankles, and transparent wings that vibrated at an invisible speed.

When Kanya’s family knelt down, Shirone’s group discreetly imitated them.

Floating in the air, Peophe raised her chin and spoke.

“I am Peophe, the fairy of the spiral. I have come personally to carry out the judgment of the faithful.”

Fairies were not natural beings, but entities born from concepts, like enchanted lanterns.

They were single-concept entities.

For that reason, fairies possessed reason and could master the concept from which they had been born.

“Therefore, I will proceed to execute the law. Kanya and Lena, have you ever gone out to purgatory?”

“Yes. We went.”

Kanya’s parents closed their eyes tightly.

But Kanya, the one involved, answered calmly.

It was something she had already prepared herself for before leaving the sky.

The only one she was worried about was Lena.

“I’m sorry. I wanted to give my mother a good meal before the liquor of anecdotes, so we hunted in the forest of the profane.”

She thought that, since the kergo could enter and leave purgatory freely, using hunting as an excuse would reduce the punishment.

But Peophe pressed her without showing the slightest interest in the circumstances of the faithful.

“Hmph. How dare you lie? What use is food for a faithful who will die tomorrow?”

Kanya’s mother finally broke down in tears.

Even if the liquor of anecdotes was a blessing, there was no creature that did not fear death.

And Peophe had stirred precisely that fragile emotion.

Shirone felt anger when he realized it.

The faithful called the liquor of anecdotes regeneration.

But the words of the administrator fairy were an unambiguous death sentence.

And it was not a simple threat.

He knew it because there was no malice in Peophe’s voice.

It was like listening to an innocent child honestly expressing what she felt.

“In any case, I will deliver the verdict. Kanya and Lena, I will reduce your life expectancy by forty years each.”

Kanya was stunned.

A reduction of forty years meant she had less than ten years of life left.

Lena was somewhat better off, but she would still die at thirty-three.

As far as she knew, a reduction of forty years for unauthorized departure was an unprecedented punishment.

A year ago, Seil, who was her same age, had lost five years.

Uncle Kai, from the nor race, lost seven.

Even her mother, considered the worst case, had lost twenty.

And now forty?

If that was so for her, what would happen to Lena’s life?