Ghost Knight King's Dungeon Project

Chapter 6 [The Twin Moons in the Sky and the Myths of Another World Under the Stars]

Night fell over the dark, desolate land.

The piercing howls of the pack of beaked dogs echoed across the Kanas plain, sounding strange, like a mixture of wolf howls, dog barks, and hoarse bird calls.

The slime writhed in the shadows. Some root-like clumps, resembling plant stems, walked back and forth in a loose line in the darkness, carrying small rakes and spears made from the withered branches of bloodthorn.

Two moons hung high above the vast Kanas Plain, one large and one small. The large moon was pale white, while the small moon was a bluish-bronze color, like two twisted, strange eyes staring at the dark world.

Under the watchful eyes of the twin moons, two figures trekked through the wasteland, their forms resembling two towering giant trees, making their way towards the Adventurers' Alliance stronghold, Thorn City, under the cover of night.

“There are two moons in this world,” Samael said with interest, gazing at the bronze moon in the sky. “And with that trendy metallic finish…”

The bronze moonlight returned a bronze gaze.

"What do you mean? Did you live in a world where there was only one moon?" Talia glanced at Samael.

“Yes, there’s only a pale white moon with some blurry, cratered black spots on it, just like the big moon here,” Samael gestured.

"Then what guides the souls of people in your world after they die?" Talia asked, puzzled. "Isn't your world occupied by the spirits of the dead?"

"Guiding a soul?" Samael scratched his helmet. "Possessed by a vengeful spirit?"

“My father told me that one of these two moons is the moon of the living, and the other is the moon of the dead.” Talia pointed to the two moons overhead. “The white one shines on the living, and the bronze one shines on the dead. After death, the bronze moon will act like a lighthouse, guiding the souls of the departed to the dark starry sky.”

“But the Bronze Moon is actually a trap, because the starry sky is too far away and too big. The souls of the dead are attracted and lured by the Bronze Moon to fly to the starry sky, where they will get lost and eventually become stars.” Talia pointed to the starry sky above her head. “In this way, the souls of the dead will not remain on earth. The world will not be occupied by the souls of the dead.”

“Uh…is this some kind of myth or legend with a distinctly different world?” Samael asked. “It sounds like something out of a children’s bedtime story.”

To be honest, as a pure science and engineering student who had been exposed to science education since childhood, Xia Moan, a visitor from another world, was not very interested in these strange myths and legends.

It's like how people in ancient times imagined the dark spots on the moon as rabbits or toads.

“No, that’s not true! Samael, it’s the truth!” Talia stubbornly argued. “If you’ve ever seen the undead creatures, you’ll know! When those skeletal warriors and rotting ghouls aren’t disturbed by the living, they look up at the sky in silence—that’s where they are looking at their own dead souls—because their souls have lost their way in the starry sky, leaving only their long-dead, empty bodies, driven by psychic energy to stagger through the world.”

“Uh… what I’m about to say might be a bit of a downer.” Samael hesitated. “I know I shouldn’t say this, but I have a bad temper, so I’ve decided to say it anyway—the stars aren’t lost souls, but huge gaseous fireballs burning in the boundless, weightless, dark, and cold void, just like the sun. It’s just that because they are so far away, the stars’ light is very faint, and they look like a point of light.”

"What strange stuff are you talking about again? How can stars and the sun be the same?" Talia stopped, one hand on her hip and the other poking Samael's breastplate in annoyance. "We should respect the dead—my deceased parents are among those stars—perhaps they are watching me from the distant dark sky!"

"Oh, sorry." Samael snapped out of his daze and realized that what he had just said had been too cold.

Reality is always cold.

It's like telling a child that Santa Claus is fake, that Christmas is a commercialized consumerist lie. Harry Potter, Hogwarts, dragons, and Kassel College are all fictional; the child is left to spend years studying gruelingly in a top-tier high school, from 6 am to 10 pm, to get into a second-rate university, find a third-rate job, and live a muddled life with base dreams.

People should always believe in something, even if it's just believing that offering a second baby born in autumn to the gods will make fruit grow bigger and sweeter... at least it gives the soul something to hold onto.

"Please, aren't you a soul summoned from the starry sky by the magic circle of the ancient ruins? You're a living example!" Talia tried to convince Samael that the stars were souls lured and lost by the Bronze Moon. "You were probably also tricked into the starry sky by the Bronze Moon after your death, and then pulled into the armor by the ruins' magic circle, weren't you?"

“Uh…no.” Samael shrugged. “I just remember being at my computer desk…never mind, whatever makes you happy.”

He sighed softly, swallowing the rest of his words.

“Aren’t you a star that fell into this world?” Talia asked.

Samael was stunned for a moment by these words. He looked up at Talia.

“That sounds so romantic…so poetic.” Samael rubbed his helmet face with his gauntlet, gazing at the sky, his attention drawn to something strange. “I wish I could become a star. But I want to be a planet, not a fixed star… a planet that rotates day and night, obscuring the silhouettes of others everywhere… letting the wind disperse the chaotic breaths…”

He hummed the theme song of the animated series "Star Journey" that he watched as a child, but forgot the lyrics halfway through, as if he had forgotten the ending of his childhood.

Talia looked at him.

"May I be like a star and you like the moon, shining brightly together every night," Samael sighed and suddenly said softly.

“What?” Talia heard his voice. “Is this some kind of chant? It sounds like a rhyming chant that bards would sing.”

“This is a poem from my hometown, written by Fan Chengda. He was from my hometown in ancient times… I could be considered a wandering poet, but he was more like a writer, or a high-ranking official who was often bullied by the emperor,” Samael explained. “The whole poem is—” “The carriages are far away, the horses are long, you travel east and then east again, how can I fly and chase the west wind?”

"May I be like a star and you like the moon, shining brightly together every night. When the moon is dim, the star will always be bright. Let us keep our light until the moon returns, so that we may be together in full glory on the fifteenth night."

After arriving in this world, the armor that possessed him allowed Xia Mo'an to quickly master the common language. However, translating and expressing Chinese poetry using this world's common language remained quite difficult.

Samael tried his best to organize his words, striving to convey the rhyme and imagery of the poem.

"What elegant words!" Talia exclaimed. "You actually have the leisure to study culture and art. You must be some nobleman or member of royalty in your hometown, right?"

“Hmm… I wish I were…” Samael scratched his helmet, “Unfortunately, you guessed wrong. I come from a pretty ordinary background. It’s just that my hometown has very high expectations for young people. They think young people should know everything and be good at everything, including culture and art… To be honest, it’s quite tiring.”

"So, are you naturally drawn to culture and art?" Talia asked.

“It’s so-so,” Samael hesitated. “I can recite these poems because when I was a child, there was a very popular thing called the Ancient Poetry Competition, which was often broadcast on the science and education channel on TV. My primary school also followed suit and held a poetry recitation competition for the whole school. Each class had to send at least one person to participate. My teachers and my parents thought I had a good memory, so—unfortunately, I was dragged into the competition.”

Samael explained awkwardly.

"There was a poetry competition called 'Flying Flowers Order,' which required knowledge of many classical poems to participate in. So during that time, I spent every day memorizing classical poems. This is one of the poems that left a deep impression on me, after all, it was indeed very beautifully written."

“What is television?” Talia asked. “Are these competitions used to weed out inferior offspring? Are the losers executed or abandoned?”

“What… No! Of course not! Why would you think that?” Samael exclaimed in surprise.

Talia remained silent for a moment.

“…Because…there needs to be such a competition among the heirs of the demon race, held at the age of twelve.” She said dryly, “My sister was abandoned because of this. Because…because I didn’t want to be abandoned, so I could only…I…”

Her voice gradually faded and eventually disappeared.

The two were silent.

“I’m a little tired,” Talia broke the silence.

“We can rest here for a while. You must be running low on energy, right?” Samael asked gently. “My body doesn’t tire; my energy is practically limitless. I’ll take the night watch.”

There was a huge white rock by the roadside, which could block the wind and also keep out the sight of other creatures in the wasteland.

Talia remained silent, slowly sitting down against the boulder. However, she did not remove her helmet.

"Take a nap," Samael said, leaning against the boulder. "Rest well before you go."

"I can't sleep," she said.

"..." Samael changed the subject, "Would you like to hear some of our world's...myths? We believe there are rabbits on the moon."

"...Rabbits? Why would there be rabbits? Your world is so strange." Talia seemed very interested. "You also mentioned something about very powerful monkeys before."

“Actually, they’re all fairy tales, very famous in my hometown, almost everyone has heard them—let me tell you a bedtime story!” Samael’s eyebrows danced with excitement. “Long, long ago, on a high mountain covered with flowers and fruits, there was a stone full of magical power…”

Two moons shone on the wasteland, and beside a white boulder under the starry sky, a cursed suit of armor told a mythological tale from a distant world.

The story tells of how a monkey transformed from a magic stone shattered the grand feast of the gods in the Heavenly Court, and how a devout monk followed the emperor's command to seek knowledge and truth in the distant West.

At first, she listened with great interest, even interrupting to ask a few questions, but gradually, weariness overwhelmed her. In the mythology of another world, she fell into a deep sleep.

Samael sat down carefully, avoiding the clanging of the metal armor to wake her.

Listening to the soft, even breathing sounds coming from Talia's helmet, he opened the ethereal, dark blue UI panel and continued to analyze the tech tree and equipment uses of the armor.

The secrets of this world... seem numerous. He pondered.

(End of this chapter)