“Bai Lianhua!” Cermin called out to the girl he saw with blond pigtails.

That was the name of his ex-girlfriend and ex-fiancee. The one who hated his gege the most.

Bai Lianhua was a beautiful girl that everyone had admired, four years younger than Min Cheng. She was like the white lotus, so pure and delicate in appearance.

Min Cheng thought that she was really like that for two years. When she reached 20, the legal age for marriage for women in mainland China, he proposed to her.

But then, she showed her true colors. The lotus was not as white as he thought.

For you see, Bai Lianhua had habit of making jokes about his gege, especially his appearance. She said this right after Min Cheng formally introduced the two:

“Wow, is that relly your skin color? It’s like those cocoa beans my family’s farmers roasted in the sun!”

At first, Cermin thought it was harmless. She was simply comparing his skin to cocoa beans, which was like comparing white skin with milk.

But eventually, it was not just a comparison of appearance.

“Oh, he lives here? Poor guy, the people in our plantation have a bigger house than him.”

It was not harmless comparison at all. It was judgment.

She was judging his gege for his appearance and poverty, and Min Cheng only realized this when they broke up.

He should have realized sooner actually how strange she was behaving when the rumors have begun to spread. The rumors that his gege……

Favored not just men, but young ones.

Min Cheng never believed these rumors at first, but Bai Lianhua jumped in immediately. She was saying the most horrible things about his gege behind his back.

She was reposting and liking online accusations too when the case began.

The sexual assault and murder case of an 8 year old boy near the train station where his gege lived.

Not just the whole school but their entire school went in an outrage for this murder. Journalists and media were found everyday, trying to gain more drama from the case.

The rumors only increased, and become even more ridiculous. There were rumors that his gege only had high grades because he slept with professors.

Or that he was a part of/or the leader of a gang that molested children. Everyone were throwing things and accusations every time he was seen in public for his trial.

It eventually reached national news, and then international news.

Because of his gege’s appearance.

It perpetuated the rumors. How can anyone trust someone like him who looked like that?

And Bai Lianhua was no exception. Min Cheng should have known that she never trusted him since he told her about him.

“You’re just looking for clues that aren’t there! The evidence says it, he’s convicted! What do you mean he was framed!?”

Min Cheng retorted: “I had a hacker check the rundown CCTV camera in a nearby convenience store, and during the time when he was there, the assault should have happened—”

“So what? It could have been faked.”

“That’s very unlikely, Bai Lianhua—”

“Fine. He’s your friend, I understand. But he’s guilty, babe!” She protested. “And even if he was innocent…”

Min Cheng saw her sneer for the first time as she said:

“He’s a disgusting human being for being involved with men in the first place—”

SLAM!

“My gege is not disgusting!”

He ended up punching the wall by her side, and making a dent in it.

Bai Lianhua jolted, not believing that he was capable of doing that to her. Hell, to anyone. Everyone knew Min Cheng as a carefree man.

Even Min Cheng was aware of it himself. People see him as someone who doesn’t take anything in life seriously.

But if that was true….. He wouldn’t have been bugged by that ghost in the first place.

Bai Lianhua cried that day, and went to his mother and father for help. Painting him as the unreasonable bad guy. After a few more arguments for consecutive days…..

Min Ching finally snapped and broke off the engagement. Throwing his ring into a drainage sewer.

And yet Bai Lianhua did not stop bothering him.

So he slept with hookers and made it publicly known. It was not just the depression that was the reason, but her.

“Bai Lianhua….. Oh.”

He realized that he was no longer in the town of Sodomia, but in a forever-stretching field. There was nothing but grass all around and…..

Cocoa trees nearby, the color of his gege’s skin.

“So this is the woman that was most important to your life, huh?” Bai Lianhua chuckled, and put her hands behind her back. “She’s not too bad.”

Cermin’s eyes widened, and he summoned his sword. “Who are you?”

“Uh-uh. That won’t work here.” The woman snapped her fingers.

His sword disappeared. And soon…

He saw that he was being surrounded by thick orange goo. Trapping him from the feet, to the legs, and slowly making its way to his thighs.

“No…. This must be an illusion! I need to wake up!” Cermin exclaimed, trying to use his willpower just to get out of the goo.

But the goo was hardening around him as it cooled, keeping him in place. Soon, he would be fully covered.

“Yes, it’s an illusion… But also not. I am not like that Calla Lily at all who just talks and talks to control minds.”

The woman twirled her hair. “I fabricate the world itself.”

“You’re a daemon! I will defeat you once I get out of here….. I killed one of your kind before!”

“Actually, I am not. I just want to talk.” The woman went over to trace her fingers on his chest. “Look at you struggling like an insect on a web…”

“I enjoy making men struggle a lot. Confusing them, luring them… consuming their deepest secrets and fears. Their lies.”

Her fingers continued to dance around him as the goo reached his waist and restrained even his hands.

“Tell me…… What are you doing n this world, Cermin Drychspiel? What is your purpose? Meet another woman who was not as callous as this one?”

Cermin gritted his teeth. “I don’t have time to tell my purpose. If you’re really not a daemon or an enemy, then let me go back to my friends!”

The woman then summoned a glass of wine out of thin air.

“Your friends, eh? Do tell me what’s your purpose in traveling with them. A hero can’t be in a journey without a purpose, otherwise, what will be your reason to defeat the villain?”

The goo was now at his chest, and Cermin could only keep on thrashing helplessly.

“My purpose is to save the people!”

“For what? Why are you saving them? Recognition? Fame?”

“No! It’s because they’re innocent and don’t deserve it—”

The woman frowned. “Ah, how boring. Your view of the world is in black and white. You can’t see that everyone is in different colors.”

“Everything isn’t just good or bad, man or woman, poor or rich…. Innocent and evil. People can be in between.”

“Even ‘innocent’ people can do terrible things, whether they mean it or not. Even ‘evil’ people can do good things, as a consequence that they may or may not expect.”

She patted his head. “You are still unwise. If you only see people as ‘good’ and ‘bad’, how can you be trusted to save a world where good and bad are simply an illusion?”

“It’s all an art that people have painted for you to believe in. Intentions are not enough, morality is not enough. You can be good all you want…”

She whispered in his ear. “But if you’re not wise enough, you might bring more harm than good.”

“You—”

He was about to respond when the goo reached his lips, and covered his head. Covering him completely.

He shouted before it hardened, trying to escape. But as soon as it cooled completely into a rock, he was stuck in a screaming expression.

The woman clicked her fingers again, and eventually……

Everything swirled, including the endless fields, wrapping the encased Cermin in a cocoon. That cocoon then got smaller and smaller, until it became as small as a pendant.

The woman caught it in her palm, and tied it with a string. Wearing it around her neck.

An amber necklace.

She went back to jogging joyfully on the streets, interested in the parties and debauchery happening in Sodomia.

But more than that, she was interested in how people were fooling themselves with beautiful things. Embellishing reality into something more beautiful.

The whites and blacks contrasted to the extreme. Sodomia wore black proudly, while Elysia wore white.

That was how art was. Embellishing reality… And everyone creates art.

Like a theater performance where everything was exaggerated.

“The missing god of art has returned, I see. I knew there was something different about you when we first met.”

Someone was aiming a knife at the beautiful woman. It was stolen from a charlatan beggar who tried to do the same thing to him.

She simply raised her had. “The darkest of them all is here.”

Ronin simply pressed it deeper into her neck.

“Give him back to me, Lovushka. Or should I say the God Musae?”