The moon in the dark sky shone brightly, casting its light down upon the flames consuming the earth below. Its dazzling glow revealed the delicate and handsome face of the man cloaked in red fabric, which only served to further enrage Headless Teyat.
'Tsk! Damn it.'
The conflict, drawn out longer than necessary due to Teyat's prejudiced actions, ended in an agreement.
After glancing around and becoming entranced by the magnificent view of the moon, he snapped out of it, turning toward the man in red fabric to ask the questions swirling in his confused mind.
"I'm sorry, I have so many questions about my head, but in the end, I lost my head entirely... Fine, where am I right now? Why am I here? When I should be in Hell, getting killed and resurrected by demons, I'm now in this inexplicable place. I expect a proper explanation from you. And... first of all, what is your name? I don't want to address you with positive qualities that I don't possess... tsk."
The sentence began with sincerity, but by the end, anger and jealousy had crept in.
At that moment, the man in the red cloak turned away. The moon, with its radiant light, revealed their forms in the darkness, but its light did not illuminate the path where the man intended to walk.
The man in the red cloak, with his hands clasped behind his back, looked into the darkness and began walking slowly and calmly. As he walked, he spoke.
"Of course, I apologize for not introducing myself earlier."
He turned toward Teyat, placing one hand on his chest and extending the other outward as he bowed his head. He took a respectful stance to introduce himself.
"With your permission. First and foremost, I have no name. In fact, I didn't, but thanks to you, I now have one."
'Thanks to me? What?'
The man in the red cloak changed his stance and turned away again, clasping his hands behind his back as he continued walking confidently into the darkness. He gave Teyat a sidelong glance as he walked.
"My lord, may I ask you to accompany me?"
In response, Teyat instinctively reached up to touch his nonexistent head, scratching the empty space where his head should have been.
"You just had to jump off that cliff, didn't you, you fool!"
Internally seething, but outwardly responding in a polite tone, he answered the question.
"Of course."
•
After glancing sideways, the man in the red cloak turned to face forward again, continuing his slow steps with his hands behind his back. Teyat, eager to understand what was happening, quickened his pace and hurried toward the man, only to spot his own head lying on the ground, eyes closed. He quickly picked it up and held it against his chest as he approached the man in red.
Stopping just behind him, they both continued walking toward the darkness. Meanwhile, Headless Teyat glanced around in astonishment as he stared into the abyss.
"With your permission. My name is 'Handsome.' It was a name you gifted me moments ago. I am grateful to you for bestowing it upon me, my lord."
'H-handsome...'
"I wish my invisible mouth, which is speaking right now, could disappear..."
In a sudden shift of emotion, Teyat clenched one hand into a fist and brought it to his mouth, while he placed the other hand behind his back.
He coughed.
"Y-yes, I-I did a pretty good job naming you. But... now I've changed your name to 'Ugly.' Mister Ugly."
At that moment, Mister Handsome, who had been gazing calmly into the darkness, turned his head toward Teyat with a smile.
"Alright, as you wish, but let's be honest, my lord. Am I ugly?"
Teyat involuntarily glared at the man, frustrated, and thought to himself.
'Tsk! Damn it, he's way too handsome. I'm jealous.'
Once again, he coughed.
"A-anyway, explain what's going on here."
"Alright, but first, I asked a question. All those who have left the questions of the God of Darkness unanswered have perished... Am I ugly?"
This time, he shifted his gaze from the headless Teyat to Teyat's severed head, which was staring back at him from his chest, and asked the question again.
Teyat deliberately ignored the question and turned his decapitated, pale, long-haired head away, facing his chest.
"Explain everything—"
"Am I ugly?"
"You're handsome, dammit! Stop repeating those hateful words like an NPC! Just explain!"
Suddenly, he shouted angrily at Mister Handsome.
'Damn bastard! He did it on purpose! Tsk!'
Mister Handsome smiled as he looked ahead and continued walking into the darkness with Teyat beside him.
"Thank you. First and foremost, the place where we are now, the realm belonging to the Legacy of Darkness, is called the 'Soul of the Moon' realm. The reason you are here, when you should be in Hell, being tortured by demons, is because your soul has been chosen to inherit the 'Legacy of Darkness.' In other words, you've been tasked with carrying on the Legacy of Darkness, a legacy left behind by the God of Darkness to continue his bloodline."
"I don't care."
"Huh?"
Mister Handsome responded in shock to Teyat's indifferent reply.
"My soul is chosen. Not me. Besides, things like this never end well. Can you send me to Hell, Mister U—Handsome?"
Mister Handsome looked at Teyat as they walked, smiling at the ridiculousness of his response.
"You are a very clever heir, though a bit prejudiced."
"Don't mock me! I just know, or at least think I know, that the soul and body are separate. So, where's the way to Hell?"
Teyat, while continuing to speak, stared intensely into the darkness, and by the end of his sentence, he turned toward Mister Handsome, once again wishing he wouldn't die.
Because Mister Handsome was now staring at him with a terrifying, even colder gaze, piercing him as he continued to walk.