Hotel Between Worlds

When he heard her pronounce his name, Darian's first reaction was that this girl was way too straightforward. how could she just call him "Fox" like it was his actual name? After asking several more times, he finally realized that she was saying "Lyra," not fox.

Her name was Lyra—a little strange, but quite fitting for someone with such a bunch of tails.

"I'm Darian," he said, sitting with Lyra amidst the ruins of the abandoned temple, introducing himself. "I came from... uh, I don't know if you'll understand this. I came from the 'outside.' Not just outside the valley."

"You really came from the 'outside'!" Lyra's eyes widened immediately. She seemed to grasp his meaning right away, and her astonished expression revealed another layer of implication: she knew the 'outside' existed!

Lyra quickly took another small, controlled bite of the chocolate and stared at Darian's face. "How did you get in here? Do you know... how to get out? Is it... up in the sky?"

As their conversation continued, Lyra's speech gradually became more fluent. It seemed like she was rapidly regaining the ability to communicate with others.

Darian paused, surprised by her question. "The sky? Why do you ask that?"

"Before the immortals died, they said we all came from the sky. But then the sky went dark, and we... couldn't go back," Lyra explained, carefully piecing her words together. Though she was speaking more smoothly now, longer sentences still came out haltingly. "Then the land got more and more dangerous. It became toxic. A lot of the people who came with us... died. We couldn't go back…"

Darian listened in a daze, barely keeping up by relying on sheer mental reconstruction to make sense of her jumbled account. He began to realize that this valley, which Elara had casually referred to as part of the "Otherworld," was hiding a far more complex story. And this many-tailed girl before him had an origin that was utterly beyond comprehension.

She was trapped here too.

But when he tried to ask her what exactly "the sky" meant, or who the "many people" she mentioned were, and how they had arrived here, her answers became even more incoherent.

"The sky… is just the sky. I've been trying to go back up there all these years, but I can't," Lyra gestured as she explained. "I tried jumping up, but I hit something. It hurt. Everyone… doesn't remember anymore. There was a dad, a mom, immortals, and… and other people. We came down in a boat. A really big one…"

At that point, Lyra suddenly seemed to remember something. She raised her hand and pointed into the dark depths of the valley. "Over there, the boat fell down and became part of the mountain. Dad always wanted to go back and get something, but then... everyone was killed by something, and no one knew how to... get back into the boat."

The things she described began to sound eerie and unsettling. Darian felt a chill creep down his spine.

He tried his best to make sense of her story. Even without considering what exactly she meant by "immortals" or where this "sky" might be, from the fragmented pieces Lyra provided, he managed to piece together a rough picture:

Lyra, her family, and others referred to as "immortals" had come to this valley long ago aboard a massive vessel—very likely some kind of large, flying craft. At that time, this place wasn't yet a dead zone. But then something happened—the sky "went dark," and an unknown environmental catastrophe sealed off the area. The people who came with the ship became trapped. And after that, they suffered a devastating attack by a powerful enemy, nearly wiping them out.

The process had been unimaginably brutal. And in the end, the only one left was Lyra.

But Darian also understood that this was just a narrative he had mentally pieced together. Lyra's words were scattered, her memories full of glaring gaps, and her understanding shaped by her own chaotic perspective. The true story, whatever it was—was likely something even she could no longer comprehend or recall.

Her mind had clearly become deeply unbalanced.

"How long have you been trapped here?" he couldn't help but ask.

"I don't know. Just... a long time," Lyra slowly shook her head, carefully holding the half-piece of chocolate in her hands. "It never really... changes here. I don't know how to count the days. When I get too hungry, I pass out. Then I wake up again, and it feels like a long time has passed…"

Darian couldn't help but frown as he looked at her tattered clothes and thought about the chaotic, fragmented experiences she had described. He realized she'd probably been trapped here far longer than he had imagined at the very least, for years.

"All these years... how have you survived?" he asked, furrowing his brows. "What do you eat? Just scavenging trash in the ruined temple? But there doesn't seem to be anything edible here…"

"No food," Lyra shook her head again. "In the forest… sometimes there are fruits, but they're poisonous. If you eat them, you pass out. Other than water, most things here are poisonous. So, most of the time… I just go hungry."

As she spoke, Lyra slowly smiled, pointing at herself with a hint of pride. "I'm a youkai. Very strong. Can't starve to death. Just… doesn't feel good. The hunger."

She seemed to recall some terrible memories. Her smile twisted, and then she suddenly got up and ran a short distance away. From among the broken bricks and rubble, she retrieved the bag of kitchen waste holding it like a precious treasure, hugging it to her chest.

"This is still edible," she said seriously to Darian.

Darian opened his mouth, but no words came out. He wished he could pull out a mountain of food at that moment, or open a door back to the real world. But he could barely take care of himself right now.

"Benefactor…" Lyra suddenly spoke again.

Darian blinked, caught off guard. "What did you call me?"

"Benefactor," she repeated, her expression serious. "Mama said... if someone helps you a lot, they're your benefactor. You gave me food."

Darian waved his hand. "...That's a bit much. Just call me Darian. I'm used to that."

"Oh, alright, bene" Lyra mumbled, trailing off the title vaguely. Then she lifted her hand to point at Darian's finger, lowering her head along with it. "I'm sorry."

"Huh?" Darian was momentarily stunned before he noticed the wound on his finger again, the one from when Lyra had bitten him in a panic while trying to snatch the bread. At some point, it had already fully healed, leaving behind only a trace of dried blood on his skin. Seeing it, he waved it off without care. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it. Just a scratch."

But Lyra still looked deeply concerned. "Benefactor, are you sure you're okay? Being bitten by a youkai... the wound hits your core. It can't heal."

"But it already did heal," Darian said, a bit confused and skeptical as he wiped away the dried blood. "Look."

"It really did heal…" Lyra stared at his finger in surprise. "Benefactor... are you an immortal too?"

"I'm not. I don't even know what you mean by 'immortal'—from what I understand, it's someone who cultivates to become immortal?" Darian replied casually. "But why would someone who's cultivated into an immortal be hanging around with... uh, youkai? Based on what you just said, it sounds like you were all youkai on a ship, traveling around with an immortal, right? But in all the stories I've heard… immortals and youkai don't really get along like that."

Darian finally voiced the question that had been bothering him for a while.

Lyra had brought up many terms he'd only heard in tales. And she herself had those big, seemingly ancient tails that screamed spirit beast. Putting all the pieces together, it painted a picture where an "immortal" was leading around a bunch of youkai, traveling together. Even after their "flying boat" crashed, they stuck together in the wilderness, trying to survive (though that ultimately failed). This scenario didn't match his preconceived notions of immortals and youkai at all.

In stories, don't these two groups usually treat each other like dumpling filling at first sight?

But Lyra clearly didn't understand why Darian looked so baffled. Tilting her head in confusion, she tried to recall something, then offered an uncertain explanation: "Because... he was a tour guide immortal."

Darian: "...?"

He felt like he had just heard something completely insane.

Yet after asking several times to confirm, he was certain, Lyra wasn't mistaken or misspeaking.

It was a tour guide immortal. Or rather, the immortal was a tour guide.

A long, long time ago, the youkai and immortals who crashed into this forbidden land aboard the "celestial boat" were, in fact, part of a freaking tour group.

And here Darian had just finished mentally composing an 850,000-word xianxia epic. All that imagination, wasted!

Don't even ask why a group of youkai would be led by an immortal on a sightseeing trip. Just accept it—15 dollars, four days, no forced shopping stops. Is it unreasonable? No, it's perfectly logical. Cheap tours always come with problems.

Darian sat in the night wind as the cold breeze swept through the ruins of the temple and across his face.

He thought this world was messed up.

And he was growing more and more certain of that.

Just then, he heard the fox girl whispering beside him again.

"Benefactor…"

"Just call me Darian," he sighed, exasperated. "What is it now?"

Lyra clutched her stomach with a pained expression. "Benefactor, my stomach hurts a little."

Darian blinked in a daze. "Huh?" He looked at the half-eaten piece of chocolate in her hand.

No way. Even a fox spirit can't handle chocolate?!

"...Crap! Stop eating it!" Darian broke out in a cold sweat, reaching out to grab the chocolate from her. "This stuff is bad for you"

But just as his hand reached over, a deep growl rumbled from Lyra's throat, like a Tibetan mastiff. Then, without warning, she lunged forward and chomped down on his hand. "Awooo!!"

The next second, Darian's scream was even louder than hers.

(End of Chapter)

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