Volume 8, Chapter 24 – The Wall of Sighs

Although it wasn’t her first time crossing the Netherworld, having an undead guide her as she leisurely made her way through it was a first.

The various undead standing on the wasteland filled Fia with a strong sense of novelty.

In the past, when she crossed the Netherworld, she always used [High-Speed Flight] to pass through quickly. As a result, her view was either blocked by the thick clouds that perpetually shrouded the Netherworld, or she saw nothing but the endless gray earth stretching before her. The undead on the ground would often only hear a series of sonic booms overhead before Fia had already flown far away. Under such circumstances, Fia naturally couldn’t appreciate the scenery of the Netherworld—when it came to flying, travel and sightseeing were two different things.

But now, led by the fifth-rank undead archmage maid, Fia was able to observe the undead closely. Since the maid was bringing Fia to a location near the Wall of Sighs, the undead gathered here were also particularly numerous, forming what looked like village structures. She could see many simple stone dwellings scattered sparsely across the wasteland, and most of the undead appeared in humanoid forms. Some lay by the roadside, others focused on stacking stones or playing with mud. Fia even saw some undead lighting bonfires on this plantless wasteland and sitting around them together.

If not for everyone being in skeletal or half-rotten corpse states, Fia might have thought she had stumbled upon some human village.

It was worth noting that when Fia passed by the undead, they would, as if sensing something, simultaneously stop their activities, stand up, and gaze at her from afar. Their eye sockets, containing only faint blue flames, were filled with envy and longing.

Probably envious that she could enter the Wall of Sighs, Fia guessed. Both the “barking maid” and the older maid who had led her to see Lucitine had mentioned that the undead outside the Wall of Sighs were lonely wandering souls—the disdain in their words practically spilling over. Thinking about it carefully, it was probably analogous to the elves living in Blossom looking down on outsiders.

“You seem quite interested in the undead outside the wall.”

Sensing Fia’s gradually slowing flight speed, the maid, hovering like Fia just a foot above the ground, asked respectfully.

Fia held no racial hatred toward the undead, so she replied jokingly.

“With all of them staring at me, of course I’m interested. Speaking of which, some of them have their backs to me and are dozens of meters away, yet they suddenly turn around and look over as if sensing something. Can you undead use telepathy to call your companions and have them observe me?”

“Use telepathy to greet companions? The ability you’re describing only appears in Chaos. They can sense your presence because of the enviable aura of the living that you carry. Ah—”

The maid suddenly choked up, hurriedly covering her mouth with one hand.

“What’s wrong?”

“You… you heard that?”

“I’m not so deaf at this distance that I couldn’t hear. You said I carry an enviable aura of the living. Don’t you undead detest the living and look down on them?”

“Well… that’s the thinking of the upper echelons.” The maid’s flight speed slowed, and her voice carried more timidity. “Please, Your Highness the Queen Consort, pretend you never heard it…”

It sounded like a secret everyone knew but tacitly agreed not to mention.

From this perspective, undead weren’t so different from humans and elves. Ultimately, as long as a being possessed intelligence, the behavior of all races tended to converge. Fia spread her hands.

“I’ll keep your secret, but only if you finish what you were saying.”

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“Mm, I understand.”

The maid clasped her hands in front of her and answered weakly as she flew.

“We undead cannot escape the curse of loneliness and forgetting. The undead you see now, those outside the wall—the ones diligently building houses and carving sculptures—they aren’t doing it to create a peaceful dwelling for themselves, but as a form of self-gratification.”

“When one transitions from living to undead, while losing various desires, one also loses the right to experience joy. No longer needing to rush around for food frees up a great deal of time. But because of the loss of past desires, life becomes monotonous and tedious. So if we undead want to pass the time, our options are either to seek combat or to compete in creating art. That’s our only form of amusement.”

“But the curse no one can escape is that, after becoming undead, the mind slowly dulls over time. First, we forget the taste of food, the sensation of sleep. Then we can’t remember why we came here. Next, we forget our relatives and friends. After that, we lose the capacity for aesthetic appreciation. Eventually, we even forget who we are, degenerating into those numb and apathetic skeletons on the outermost periphery that retain only instinct.”

The maid’s voice was especially weathered and melancholy, as if she had seen off many companions who had gone through the experiences described above.

“Couldn’t you write down important things? Carve them on stone tablets, for instance?”

“If only it were that simple.”

Fia’s words drew a wry smile from the maid. However, because this maid was only fifth-rank, her skin and muscles appeared as dried, deep brown jerky, so even the expression of a smile looked particularly terrifying.

“Words can only record what happened, not the feelings experienced at the time. That’s too abstract to explain. A very simple example is ‘cake is sweet.’ What exactly does ‘sweet’ feel like? Over time, everyone forgets. Even if newly arrived undead try their utmost to describe it, we can only imagine it as a feeling of happiness. The same goes for family and one’s own name. After enough time passes, the words on the tablet become just a string of symbols. The feelings associated with being with them, and the meaning those names represent, are all consumed by time.”

“Hmm…”

She had never considered such things. Or rather, she had never encountered anyone similar, so she had no frame of reference.

For a moment, Fia couldn’t help but feel a sense of sorrow for the existence of the undead. This feeling of watching oneself slowly die while being powerless to do anything about it—she’d had enough of that.

“You mentioned earlier ‘degenerating into the outermost skeletons.’ Are you saying the skeletons now on the northern border were once like the undead here?”

“Yes. They lost their memories, and eventually their magical power also dissipated, leaving them in that state. Outsiders say the undead detest the living, but in reality, the undead crave the living. Undead who have forgotten even who they are have long harbored a longing for the sensation of being alive. This obsession eventually distorts to the point that when they sense a living being, they lunge at them, vainly attempting to tear them apart, hoping that they can replace that living person. Of course, that’s just one reason. The irreconcilable opposition between negative life energy and life force is another.”

Fia remembered Davis mentioning that if not for his strong rationality, he would have attacked her on sight as well. But Davis was eighth-rank; his ability to restrain the instinct to kill the living made sense. The maid before her was only fifth-rank—why didn’t she attack?

After Fia voiced her question, the maid covered her mouth and chuckled.

“Because I’m an undead inside the wall, blessed by Her Majesty the Queen’s radiance. Her Majesty is a deity to all us undead. Staying close to Her Majesty slows down the forgetting process significantly. Additionally, there’s a kind of happiness that’s hard to describe—it might be comparable to the sense of security a child feels beside a father. So we obey Her Majesty’s commands from the bottom of our hearts, without a second thought.”

“I see. Undead have their own hardships too, don’t they?”

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“Although you are living, you show no fear or disgust whatsoever. No wonder Her Majesty has taken a liking to you. Ordinary people, never mind being led by an undead to the foot of the Wall of Sighs—just seeing this ugly form of mine would scare them half to death. I have a feeling you will surely become the jewel at Her Majesty’s side. If I ever have the chance to advance to the sixth rank, I will definitely apply to serve at your side.”

“You’re joking. I’m only standing here because of my natural gifts. Compared to someone like you, who has reached the fifth rank through your own efforts, I’m far behind.”

The maid didn’t respond, but Fia could sense an atmosphere of being moved and happiness emanating from her. Clearly, Fia’s praise was well received.

Come to think of it, now that she could freely use [Sacred Relic Analysis] and [Particle Repair], she could grant the Queen of Death a living body. This maid before her should be even easier. Since these undead longed for the feeling of being alive, if she actually gave them a living body, they would probably weep for joy.

However, the upper echelons’ contempt for the living was a problem. Casually granting living bodies would undoubtedly cause considerable trouble. She’d better observe for a while before deciding what to do. Bringing happiness to others with just a little effort—that felt pretty good.

After quite some time, the maid finally replied with a wry smile.

“Come to think of it, I probably won’t get the chance to serve you anyway. You are living, after all. Everyone will inevitably desperately flock to your side, trying to remember what it feels like to be alive. Things like drinking water, eating—I haven’t seen such things in over a decade.”

“So, do you still remember what sweetness tastes like?”

The maid hesitated for a moment before answering.

“…I don’t remember anymore. Ah, we’ve reached the Wall of Sighs.”

As her words fell, the maid stopped. What appeared before them was not a wall standing upright, reaching into the sky like a curtain, but a fallen gate lying flat upon the earth. Its presence stood in stark contrast to the surrounding gray wasteland, appearing an earthy yellow like solid rock. The moment Fia gazed upon it, an indescribable sense of ancientness and dead stillness rushed toward her, so strong that Fia’s breath caught.

From Fia’s perspective, this wall stretched endlessly, engraved with archaic and elegant ornate patterns. Fia attempted to use [Flight] to gain altitude, but discovered that once she entered the area directly above the Wall of Sighs, the elements and magical essence in the air were almost nonexistent. The sluggish sensation of flying felt like moving through mud.

However, Fia was not someone constrained by insufficient magical power. She ascended to a kilometer above the Wall of Sighs and looked down. The patterns engraved on the gate were two female profiles facing each other. What intrigued Fia was that these two faces were not identical. The woman on the left had demonic horns on her head, quite similar to Claire’s horns. The face on the right was that of a human girl, but the pattern particularly emphasized the eye portion—unlike the earthy yellow background, that eye on the profile appeared purple.

Additionally, many small characters were carved into the gate, seemingly explaining something. But even Fia, who had read tens of thousands of books, had never seen this script before.

Since the horns resembled Claire’s, she should bring Claire here next time. Claire’s race remained an enigma. Most demons in this world had horns, but their horns could usually find prototypes in animals—dragons, oxen, goats, deer. Claire’s horns were incredibly ornate, clearly not from any ordinary race.

Ultimately, Claire was a bundle of mysteries. First, like Fia herself, she didn’t belong to this world and couldn’t remember who she was. At the same time, she possessed power so great that even the top experts of this world had to fear her. Additionally, she bore the world’s curse. With such formidable power, perhaps Claire was someone summoned by this world as a savior to destroy Chaos, just as the witches said Fia was a guided one brought by the Witch of Hope.

Claire’s homeland was the Dragonfall. After she showed Lucitine the Second Abyss, she would go to Dragonfall.

Dispelling [Flight], before Fia could even return to the ground, the fifth-rank maid’s voice rang in her ears.

“Your Highness the Queen Consort?! Magic cannot be used near the Wall of Sighs!”

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“Ah, well, I’m an exception. Don’t worry about it. How do we enter?”

“B-but I clearly saw you flying in the air…” The maid’s voice was full of astonishment, but she decided to focus on her primary duty first. “Under normal circumstances, only complete souls of the dead can cross the Wall of Sighs. But you carry Her Majesty’s blessing, so you are unrestricted. Just stand on it.”

“Blessing? I didn’t see Lucitine cast any magic on me.”

“To dare directly address Her Majesty the Queen by name… truly worthy of Her Highness the Queen Consort…” The maid’s mouth fell open, her voice filled with admiration. “Anyone who has had contact with Her Majesty carries her blessing. And the blessing on you is very very rich. You must have already had physical intimacy with Her Majesty, right? Her Majesty’s power now is unprecedentedly powerful. She is like a true living person. It wouldn’t be strange if something like that occurred.”

“No…”

Fia didn’t know where to begin. The richness of the blessing on her was undoubtedly caused by that hug from the defenseless Lucitine. As for the phrase “like a true living person,” Lucitine was a living person now.

And there was something else worth worth complaining about. From the very beginning, when she first learned the Queen of Death wanted her to be queen, Fia had wanted to say—she and the undead queen were both women. Why were the undead even more open-minded than the elves, showing no surprise at all about same-sex relationships?

“Before I go in, I have a question.”

“Please, ask.”

“I am female, and Lucitine is female, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Then why aren’t you at all surprised by the ‘union’ between Lucitine and me? It’s not just you—the entire undead world seems to think this is perfectly normal. Weren’t you all once living beings? Wouldn’t you find it at least a little strange for two women to marry?”

“From a living person’s perspective, yes, that would be the case. But we undead don’t care about gender. Look at me—I’m just a rotting corpse now. It’s hard to even tell if I’m male or female, and I’m actually one of the more intact types among the undead. The vast majority are skeletons. Besides, we’ve lost the ability to reproduce, so a partner’s gender no longer matters. People care more about compatible personalities—soul mates, so to speak. After all, no matter how you look at us, our outsides are skeletons. Gender becomes irrelevant, doesn’t it? Her Majesty has chosen you precisely because you are her soul mate.”

“…I see.”

This reason was even simpler and more direct than the elves’ ability to achieve same-sex reproduction due to [Mana Surge].

Perhaps envying the physical contact between living beings, Fia noticed the maid casting an envious gaze her way.

“To be able to feel the warmth of skin touching skin… if I hadn’t been so stubborn when I was alive…”

“When you were alive?”

“Ah, sorry. Don’t let my appearance fool you—I was actually the daughter of a noble family. Please, stand on the Wall of Sighs.”

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“What about you?”

“I am already an undead within the wall. I can enter with just a thought. And I don’t have the qualification to stand on the Wall of Sighs like you. Those without blessing who stand upon it will be annihilated by the wall’s magic.”

“I understand.”

No wonder both Ruth and Lucitine disliked living in the world of the undead. It was truly oppressive here.

She took a deep breath and stood upon the Wall of Sighs. The archaic patterns on the wall immediately lit up with an interweaving of purple and silver radiance. At the same time, the maid vanished from her sight, clearly having entered the Wall of Sighs ahead of time to wait.

As the purple and silver light obscured her vision, Fia sensed an extraordinarily familiar feeling from the silver glow. This magical power was very similar to Claire’s, but it wasn’t Claire’s magic.

Could it really be related to Claire?

Come to think of it, this teleportation was activating too slowly.

Fia had stood on the Wall of Sighs for a full ten seconds without feeling any momentum of crossing it. Instead, the interwoven purple and silver radiance brought her increasingly distinct piercing pain. If not for her exceptional defensive abilities, someone slightly weaker would already be severely wounded, or even dead.

After all, this was originally designed for the dead. The undead felt no pain, so Fia wasn’t surprised.

Until a full minute passed.

The interwoven purple and silver radiance grew increasingly intense, becoming like a sun appearing on the ground. Although the pain now meant nothing to Fia, she could be certain the magic’s power approached the seventh rank.

Even for the undead, this magic’s intensity was too high.

The moment this thought emerged, the radiance abruptly ceased. It disappeared as if it had never been. As her vision cleared, Fia’s expression became thoughtful.

She was still standing on the Wall of Sighs. In the distance stretched the endless wasteland, the sky still shrouded by thick dark clouds. The world was a hazy gray.

Clearly, she had been refused entry to the Wall of Sighs.