===[Sky Screen]===
Dante: "
Faust: "They're asking why they need to travel to the Inferno."
Vergilius: "Hmm… Because treasure awaits at the end of the road. Would that suffice?"
===[Line Break]===
Among the Common People
Zhang San: "Huh? Treasure! There's treasure in the underworld."
Li Si: "What are you thinking about? Who could go to that godforsaken place?"
Wang Wu: "Exactly. And whether one can even return from there is a question in itself."
Italy (Renaissance)
"Treasure... could it refer to the path to Heaven?" Dante pondered.
===[Sky Screen]===
Dante: ""
Faust: "They can't seem to understand you at all."
Vergilius: "I did not ask for your understanding, Dante. Nor was this a question of your consent. But if you want to get your head and memories back, you must listen to me."
===[Line Break]===
Three Kingdoms
"This Vergilius is quite overbearing," Cao Cao remarked.
"But in this current situation, we really have to listen to him."
Tang Dynasty
"Retrieving memories, huh..." Li Chunfeng squatted on the ground, deep in thought.
"I guess... this Dante in the sky lost his memories voluntarily, so he would have a reason to embark on a journey after losing them."
"But what could be the purpose of doing such a thing?"
===[Sky Screen]===
Dante: ""
Faust: "They're hesitant."
Vergilius: "Miss Faust, what will we do if Dante keeps on refusing to cooperate? This was not a scenario we anticipated."
Faust: "Preposterous. Faust anticipates every possibility. Dante, once you've completed all your missions…"
Faust: "You'll be able to engrave the Aspect. I can promise you that."
Aspect.
A word that pierces through my mind. Even though my memories are gone, my underlying instincts respond strongly to it.
And led by those instincts, I make my choice…
Faust: "See? They're nodding now."
Vergilius: "Good. Then we can continue."
===[Line Break]===
Tang Dynasty
"But what exactly does this Aspect refer to?" Li Bai asked, puzzled.
"How can one engrave an Aspect? If it were really possible... how would one go about it?"
Spring and Autumn Period
"Even having lost his memories, he still reacts to this term," Zhuangzi said calmly by the water.
"It seems this Dante voluntarily let himself lose his memories, perhaps to prevent something from being discovered?"
Germany (19th century)
"That is truly arrogant, but it fits quite well," Goethe said.
"Aspect... is it something akin to godhood?"
===[Sky Screen]===
Vergilius: "By the way, Charon, why isn't the bus moving? Were you dozing off?"
Charon: "A bus driver only snoozes at rest spots, Verg."
Charon: "Weirdos were hanging around in front of Mephi."
Vergilius: "I told you, Charon. If anything happens with the bus, you've got to let me know right away."
Dante: "
Faust: "Mephistopheles. The name of this bus and the engine that runs it."
Faust: "… and Faust's magnum opus cordis."
Vergilius: "A most fitting ferryboat to bear us across the Inferno."
Vergilius: "Wouldn't you agree, Dante?"
I wasn't sure what he was getting at, so I turned away to look through the window instead of giving him a reply.
===[Line Break]===
Three Kingdoms
"Sister, this Vergilius is so gentle to the girl named Charon," Xiao Qiao said.
"They should be father and daughter; look, their features are very similar," Da Qiao replied.
(When I first played and saw Vergilius and Charon, I felt they were like father and daughter)
England (16th century)
"A ship of hell created in the name of a demon?" Shakespeare said calmly.
"I wonder what the hell described in the sky looks like?"
===[Sky Screen]===
Vergilius: "Looks like they're just another pack of dirty Rats living in the Backstreets."
===[Line Break]===
Qin Dynasty
"Rats? How big can rats be? To be able to block such a large bus," Qin Shi Huang asked, puzzled.
At this moment, an introduction about rats appeared on the Sky Screen.
[What kind of people are rats? As the lowest of the low in "The Backstreets" at the bottom of The City, in the eyes of The City dwellers, they are just a bunch of people without dreams.]
[No sense of belonging, no pursuits, only lamenting the status quo without thinking of changing it, content with scavenging others' trash to scrape by.]
[But the rats just want to live properly, even if their methods are dirty and not decent, but in The City, how many people can live "decently"?]
The Sky Screen changed and gave some information about the behavior of the rats.
The Sky Screen displayed fragments of the so-called Rats of the Backstreets—people who scavenged corpses, trafficked organs, and killed for scraps of Ahn just to survive another day. In the City, even such filth was considered ordinary. The ancients finally realized that Rats were not beasts, but the lowest class of people abandoned by the world itself.¹
Among the Common People
"What are they doing? That person's stomach was cut open alive."
"They are digging out the internal organs!"
"Mother, I'm scared."
At this moment, some ancient people who had eaten were vomiting directly after seeing this scene.
Famine Years
"So hungry." The Common People looking at the "human meat" cooked in the pot didn't care about the Sky Screen in the sky.
Weren't they themselves a kind of "Rat" now?
Spring and Autumn Period
"Even the world in the sky cannot function without propriety."
"Master, are you okay?" Zilu asked worriedly.
"It is nothing," Confucius replied calmly.
"Okay... alright then," Zilu responded.
Seeing the ghost face formed by the muscles behind his master beginning to condense, gradually contracting, and finally forming a large character for "Virtue," Zilu felt it was better not to ask for now.
=====
T/N:
¹: You can also refer to the pre-battle storyline of the rat trio of Pete, Lenny, and Mang-Chi that appeared early in The Library of Ruina. It's also because the author used it as a reference for the next scene
Any mistake? LET. ME. KNOW!!!