Kai Mali

"Do you know the gods and the devil are the same? Why? Listen and let me explain- "

"Again? How many times do you keep repeating the same speech?"

"It's already in the book; don't you have originality?"

"Copycat!"

"Boo!"

"Uwu!"

Various complaints were thrown out by the crowd at the man performing in front of the street.

Dissatisfaction, anger, and amusement are written on their faces as they spout some negative words, never caring about if it's hurting others or not, if they can fulfill their satisfaction.

The man wore a black suit and held a black cane in his left hand and a black top hat. The man seemed to like the color black very much just by looking at his appearance, except for his skin, which was white.

However, the man seemed not affected by their words as he smiled warmly, as warm as the sun, bowed respectfully, and continued.

"Then I will keep it short. Do you believe in God? Some of you are, while the others are not, and now, why don't the gods show themselves? There is a reason, right? Because they are gods, they can't just show up in front of mortals or something. According to King Levan Dindaethwy, gods are 6th-dimensional creatures. They are the highest entities any man could comprehend, but they are like leeches. They will suck out our faith and life force until we die. Likewise, they were acting like... what? A devil.

"According to philosopher Henrick Stone, there are three sides to humanity. The devil represented the evil side, the gods represented all the personalities of man, such as happiness, anger, sadness, etc., but the human…. Represented…."

The man paused and then picked up a small note in his pocket. After reading it for a second, he turned to the crowd. However, at the place where the crowd gathered, a few people remained.

They could be counted by hand. Some of them were just bored, or new to this place, and wanted to hear new things.

Even though there were just a few people listening to him, the man's smile never disappeared, as if he was the embodiment of determination.

"There was no human represented... or Mr. Henrick simply forgot to write... Anyway, let's compare the devil and the gods. What's their difference and commonality?"

After a while, the man finished his speech, wiping the sweat forming on his head.

Clap, clap!

"Thank you." The man smiled and thanked the only person who remained.

"May I ask what your name is?" The man asked because he this person was the one who only remained and continued listening to him, he didn't mind adding more friends and improving his social connections.

"Kai Mali, how about you?" Kai asked back.

"Evan Cove." Evan smiled. Then he noticed Kai's appearance: he wore clothes with ocean and tree prints on them, and he didn't look like he was from the Evaris Kingdom.

"Are you new here? Where are you from?" he started by asking a simple question.

"I..." Kai rubbed his head, not sure how to answer, so he could only say, "I'm actually from a faraway place. I left my hometown because I wanted to explore the world."

It's a lie!

In fact, Kai was from Earth. As for how he got here, he only knew that he had suddenly blacked out and found himself in the middle of a bustling street. The people and the buildings reminded him of the Victorian era, so Kai thought he had traveled through time.

But when he heard Evan's speech, he knew he had f*cked up.

Evan seemed to care about Kai's answer, and as he smiled warmly, Kai took a small step back because the smile was too bright for him. Evan said, "Oh, we are the same! I wanted to travel the world. I want to expand my knowledge about the mysteries of this world. That's why I'm here. I want to unravel the secret behind the Evaris Kingdom."

"Secret? Do you know the saying curiosity killed the cat...?" Kai looked at Evan. In his mind, this man was too kind and too bright. He was like a light that attracted moths, which might have brought danger to his life.

However, Kai does not have time to care for others; he must first solve his own problem of surviving in this world.

Evan glanced at him and then at the sky, and then chuckled, "That is the true meaning of life. Life without risk is not a life. Do you know that even though we live peacefully, we have no enemies, and we are happy, we still live with risk every day? For example, you don't know when a psychopath kills you or when a natural disaster hits you. You are sleeping, and then when you wake up, you are already in hell."

His voice sounded like he was describing himself as someone who went through many dangers but still survived in the end.

"Hmmm." As they walked through the street, he noticed many people kept glancing at Evan as if he was their enemy, but he didn't ask for a reason, because by looking at the man's sunny smile, it felt like if he asked, it would ruin the mood.

The silence was broken by Evan as he said and handed him a gold coin. "Here, there was an inn in front of us. This will keep you surviving for 1 week."

"This… how do you know?" Kai looked at the gold coin and then at Evan.

"Simply observation." Evan smiled as he pulled his hat down slightly. "Until we meet again, I hope you can share your knowledge with me someday. Goodbye."

"Are you really leaving?" Even though they met only a few minutes ago, Evan was the first person in this world he spoke comfortably to, and he felt like there was no other person like him. Kain looked at Evan's back.

Evan didn't respond as he disappeared into the crowd.

"Hey, you! Why are you standing there?! Go away!"

A man, pulling a cart filled with wood, yelled at him.

"I'm sorry!" Kai immediately apologized. He mastered his courage and asked, "Can I ask where the inn is?"

"Huh!? Are you blind? Look before you!"

Kai looked at the inn where the man pointed. The inn had no sign, so he didn't immediately recognize it.

After thanking the man, he went inside the inn.

The inn was empty, with only four tables standing at the side. Four lanterns stood at each table, bringing light and life to this empty room, and then a woman stood behind the counter with a blank look.

"Is this an inn? It's not looking like it." Kai muttered as he looked around. The place was clean and smelled nice, like a rose.

Kain went to the counter and said with a smile, "Hello, how much for 1 week?"

As he got closer, Kai noticed the woman was very pale white, as if she was a vampire, with a blue-white striped robe covering her neck to her feet and wearing gloves on both hands.

Her face was pale. Kain didn't know if she was wearing makeup or not, but more importantly, her eyes were lifeless, as if she had lost all her reason to live.

The woman pointed to the gold coin in his hands before handing him the key with the word "room 26" attached to it.

"Thank you."

Evan said he could survive one week with this gold coin, and the woman accepted his gold coin for one week of staying here. Now Kai didn't worry about being scammed anymore as he sighed in relief.

As he was about to head to his room on the second floor, a man greeted him, who was getting down the stairs.

"Sorry about that. This is my wife; she became like that when we lost our two daughters by accident. You know, it's quite hard for a woman who loved her daughter like they were her own world." With a sad smile, the man said.

Kai, from the corner of his eyes, saw the woman tremble a bit, he narrowed his eyes seeing this.

The man walked in front of his wife, blocking Kai's vision of the woman.

"I'm sorry to hear that..."

"That's all right!" The man waved his hand with a laugh and said, "I'm sure we can get through it."