Chapter 14 (2/2)

“But there isn’t a lot of world-travellers.”

Feisha had prepared for this exact argument. “They don’t necessarily need to be travelling to another world – we could promote Noah’s Ark itself as the destination.”

Dea finally showed a sliver of interest. “How?”

“Sightseeing, travelling, vacation, honeymoon…” listed Feisha. “Don’t forget that this place is completely unique. Even if every world has their own brand of hotels, none of them can hold a candle to this one. Never-ending darkness, never-ending stairs, never-ending rooms, and…never-ending supply of food.”

“You only listed one good point about the hotel.”

“The important thing isn’t the ratio of good points to bad points but rather the selling point, wouldn’t you agree?” said Feisha. “All living creatures have some degree of curiosity. Take little animals like kittens and puppies – they see strange things that scare them, but approach it anyway. We need to seize this aspect and manipulate it so that they can’t help but come here.”

“What’s the goal?”

“To make money, obviously.”

“Noah’s Ark doesn’t need money.”

But I do.

Ignoring his inner chaos, Feisha continued calmly: “Even if it’s not for money, it can be for a sense of accomplishment. Even if it’s not for a sense of accomplishment, it can be to just fill up the spaces.”

“Are all humans as annoying as you?”

Feisha sighed. “Compared to you guys, we humans have a significantly shorter lifespan. But it’s because of this that we continuously sought after ways to make our lives meaningful. Life shouldn’t always be so monotonous, you know. It should be full of passion.”

“Passion?” Dea frowned, disgusted.

An idea suddenly occurred to Feisha, shuffling in close to Dea. “Did you know about Gin and Hughes little lover’s spat?”

Dea’s look of disgust intensified. “And if I do?”

“Gin told me yesterday that he wanted to get back together with you.”

There was a really long pause.

Feisha finally understood the feeling of swallowing a hundred flies at once. Dea slowly extended his hand, flame dancing atop his palm like seaweed tumbling through waves.

Feisha gulped. “With that being said, I am absolutely against the idea.”

The flame decreased slightly in size.

“You know,” Feisha quickly said, seeing his chance. “Hughes is my mentor, so I’m obviously on his side. How could Gin set his sights on somebody else over such a petty argument? What a despicable person.”

Dea stayed silent as the flame extinguished.

Feisha let out a relieved sigh. “But it looks like Gin steeled his heart this time. He said that even if you beat him up so badly that his face resembles a pig…er, if you burn him so badly that he resembles roast pork, he’s not going to give up.”

All he got in response was an icy look. “What are you trying to say?”

“Gin accidentally revealed a crucial piece of information last time we drank together. Apparently, he’s only scared of two people on Noah’s Ark: Antonio and Layton.”

Dea was a little surprised.

“Yeah, I was surprised as well. I asked him why, but he wouldn’t say. So I was thinking that if you could pretend to hook up with one of them, Gin would surely leave you alone.”

A frown.

“It’ll be temporary, of course. Gin’s the type of person – no, vampire – who just wants everything. When he sees that he has no chance with you, he’ll definitely go crawling back to Hughes. And you can stop pretending when that happens.”

“I’m not afraid of him.”

“I know you’re not afraid of him; you’re from the mighty and noble faerie race, after all. But as the saying goes, clingy people have the highest possibility of doing crazy things. I’d personally advise you to go on the defensive, especially since Gin’s crossed the line from clingy to straight-up stalking.”

Seeing that Dea still needed a little push, Feisha continued: “How about this: if you’re too embarrassed to ask, I can go do it for you since I’m decent friends with Layton.”

“There is no need. I’ll sort this out myself,” Dea said, turning on his heels and heading down to the kitchen. Feisha was left standing by himself, smirking smugly.

Gin ran over to Feisha. “What did you say to him?”

Feisha just smiled and shook his head. “The process isn’t important. You need to look at the result – did you not see where he was going?” He sounded very pleased with himself.

Gin was still sceptical. “Are you sure he’s going to find Antonio?” This doesn’t sound like something Dea would do; even back when they were together, Dea had never given him so much as a good look. In fact, it could be argued that all the looks ever sent his way were seriously fucking terrible. What happened to treating your bottoms nicely? “You didn’t just ask him to deliver a message to fool me, did you?”

“I’d never tell such a low-skilled lie.”

Gin gave him an unimpressed stare. “Have you told me a high-skilled lie then?”

“There was one.”

“Spill.”

“Last time we drank together, I said that you were a little better-looking than me. That was a lie.”

Gin smiled darkly. “The thing with Hughes isn’t over yet, I’m still at the mentally unstable hysteria stage.”

“I actually think you’re way better-looking than me,” Feisha said genuinely.