===[Sky Screen]===
Faust: "I doubt we'll have that much freedom over our own bodies most of the time."
She's the one who spoke to me back in the forest.
Her silver hair that glistens even without sunlight gives off a rather mysterious air.
Faust: "Dante."
Dante: "
Come to think of it, the red-eyed man has been calling me that, too.
Faust: "Dante is your name. The amnesia must be affecting you rather severely."
Dante: "
Faust: "You'll get used to it in time."
Dante: "
Faust: "Faust can hear what you intend to speak."
Dante: "
Faust: "Outdated ideas must be one of the side effects that came with your head replacement."
Faust: "It's anachronistic to think that vocal organs such as the cords or tongue are necessary to participate in conversation."
===[Line Break]===
The Three Kingdoms
"My Lord, do you still remember the phantom and the chains that appeared earlier?" Zhuge Liang asked Liu Bei.
"I remember, but what is the connection between the two?"
"I speculate that the phantom represented the person's soul, and among them, the chain entered Their head, representing a connection established between their souls and Dante's."
"In a sense, they are already one, which is why only the other 12 phantoms, including Faust, can understand Their words."
Han Dynasty
"Needing vocal organs to speak is an anachronistic idea? Could there be other ways of speaking in the heavens?" Emperor Gaozu of Han said in confusion.
===[Sky Screen]===
Dante: "
Faust: "…You can limit the recipient of your words to one person, or choose to speak to everyone at once. Ah, a little clarification: When I say "everyone", I'm only referring to the Sinners."
===[Line Break]===
Among the Common People
Zhang San: Sinners? Are they all people who have committed crimes?
Li Si: There are numbers after their names, Sinner No. 2... could they be ranked according to the crimes they committed?
Wang Wu: What nonsense are you talking? If they were ranked like that, how big of a crime must that woman named Faust up there have committed? More importantly, look at that Yi Sang ranked No. 1; he looks so frail, he'd probably struggle to kill a chicken.
(Don't ask me why the ancients can understand Arabic numerals; if you must ask, it's Little Jin's fault.)
===[Sky Screen]===
Dante: "
Faust: "The people who have taken seats behind you… And the ones who fought in your stead until moments ago."
???: "What hooo!!! So thou art the final piece that completes our journey's cast! How I have yearned for this moment!" An excited and slightly frenzied young girl's voice called out.
???: "Say, pal, where'd you sell your old cranium off?" The man with insect arm said.
???: "So it was you. Thanks for putting my spine back into one piece. Were you a surgeon or something in the Nest?" Asked the woman with orange hair
===[Line Break]===
Qin Dynasty
"A Nest? Is it some kind of city-state?" Qin Shi Huang pondered upon hearing Ishmael's words.
Although he didn't know what a surgeon was, his keen political intuition caught the word 'Nest'.
The meaning of a nest refers to the home of a bird or other animal. Since it can be called a 'Nest'... it should be the place where the people of the heavens reside.
"My Xianyang should also be able to be called a Nest; after all, it is the capital of my Great Qin," Qin Shi Huang thought.
===[Sky Screen]===
Vergilius: "Everyone, quiet. Nothing is more displeasing than to hear a choir of noises."
Vergilius: "Suppose you all owe them a brief introduction. I'll give you time to make yourselves known, starting with the closest one. Go on."
Gregor: "Why is it always the ones in front that go first… I'm sick of taking any sort of lead now."
Gregor: "I heard you were gonna be our boss, or… yeah, our manager."
Dante: "
Gregor: "Yep, which is why I was real curious to meet you, and… Uhrm… Hmm, tsk. Forming the right sentences is tough work. Dunno what you did with your old head, but I guess everyone has their story."
Gregor: "I'm Gregor. We're in this together, Manager Bud."
[At this moment, an introduction to Gregor appeared on the Sky Screen.]
[UNGEZIEFER // GREGOR, SINNER #13]
[This Sinner is relatively easy to handle in terms of personality. However, an upsurge of emotion or a sudden change of environment may cause parts or the whole of his body to transform into insectile (notably akin to a carapace, resembling that of the _________) tissues.]
[If you do not wish to be a rude manager (not that you're obligated to be nice), we recommend keeping your facial expression in check so that your disgust is not visible to him.]
[He sometimes uses cynical language, but he can still be reasoned with, and you can get around him without much difficulty as long as you learn the knack of it.]
A full-body image of Gregor also appeared beside it, in which his terrifying insect arm remained the most conspicuous feature on the field.
===[Line Break]===
The Three Kingdoms
"So, as long as his emotions are stirred, he will reveal the true form of that insect demon," Zhou Yu pondered.
Although he did not know what the term referring to insect carapaces meant, it likely referred the hardened shell of some winged insect.
However... the phrase 'where you sold your head' is too strange. Could it be that in the world of the heavens, one can sell their own limbs, or even their internal organs?
Late Ming and Early Qing
"Sold? Sold where?" a man named Qu Dajun muttered. "Surely not in the markets as human livestock..."
During times of war and famine, some starving Common People were driven to sell human flesh in the markets. Such people were known as "human livestock" — humans reduced to meat in desperate times.
In the second year after the Qing army entered Guangzhou, famine spread throughout the land amid the chaos of war. To those on the brink of starvation, there was nothing they would not eat, not even their own kin...
Qu Dajun fell silent for a long while before finally picking up his brush and writing a poem titled Lament of the Human Livestock.¹
Yet judging from the Sky Screen, the heavenly world did not appear to be suffering from famine at all.
Austria (20th Century)
"He only transformed on one arm rather than turning completely into an insect, and he can still maintain a decent job. In that case, perhaps Samsa could still have earned the respect of his father, mother, and sister," Kafka commented while looking at the Sky Screen.
(During his lifetime, Kafka repeatedly instructed his close friend Max Brod to destroy his manuscripts, but Brod did not follow this wish and chose to publish Kafka's works, allowing Kafka's literary legacy to be passed down to this day.)¹
===[Sky Screen]===
Rodion: "Greg! They aren't just your "bud" or "pal"~ You're talking to the person who'll make us filthy rich!"
Gregor: "Greg...?"
Dante: "
Rodya: "Let's see, what's better… Dante! Don't mind me if I call you by name. You can call me Rodya~"
[РАСКО́Л// RODION, SINNER #9]
[The unfortunate traits of being Backstreets-born are apparent in this Sinner. She loves money, gambling, and betting — so it is advised to pay close attention to her as the manager. She tends to deflect orders with an unimpressive wink or a silly joke; we recommend taking a stern stance at times to remind her that you are her superior. Her mood may be down at irregular intervals. There is nothing you can do to aid her in that state, so we recommend waiting for it to pass.]
===[Line Break]===
Among the Common People
Er Gou: "Addicted to gambling? Who would dare to marry her?"
Gou Dan: "Exactly. If you dare to marry her, the family fortune will probably be squandered by her in a few days."
Old Sha: "Besides, gambling is a man's business; why is she, a woman, joining in the fun?"
Ancient society's attitude towards gambling was complex; dynasties like the Tang, Han, and Qin took severe punitive measures against gambling.
However, despite strict legal prohibitions, most of the time people still turned a blind eye.
=====
T/N:
¹: I changed food people to human livestock cuz it doesn't right for me
²: idk the ties of that fun fact of Franz Kafka with the story but I'll keep it in
WHERE ERROR? IF YES, I WANT TO KNOW!! SO LET ME KNOW!!!