Yarra's Adventure Notes-Chapter 1362 - 148: The Undead Tavern

"I feel like I am presiding over my own funeral, and after the funeral, I must walk into my own grave," said Lina, standing at the entrance of a building. She gazed somberly at the bone door, and after a moment turned to Pannis and said, "Kiss the Emblem of the Earth, repent for the sins of your life, ask the Deity for forgiveness, and you will eventually receive the Deity’s mercy and return to the embrace of god."

"Hey, if you are the one preaching your own funeral, why make me do a final confession?" Pannis exclaimed with wide eyes and a look of panic. "I really didn’t do anything this time, you can’t just declare my death without any reason."

"Can’t I?" Lina replied, equally wide-eyed in disbelief, and kept the gaze until she realized Pannis showed no signs of backing down. She sighed and said regretfully, "Tsk, that’s really too bad. Can we negotiate something? Do something now, so that I can justifiably conduct the ceremony for you."

"I’d rather not," Pannis said firmly, shaking his head. "I’m not an idiot, I wouldn’t do such a foolish thing."

"As if you don’t often do foolish things," Catherine retorted, giving Pannis an exasperated look. She pushed Lina forcefully from behind, moving forward and said half in tears, half in laughter, "And you, stop fooling around with him. No matter how much you dawdle, you’re eventually going to have to go in. You might as well be proactive about it now."

"Whimper, big sister, you’re actually pushing me into the grave yourself, that’s just too cruel," Lina cried, though her body didn’t struggle and allowed the knight to push her into the tavern. The stone building, stone bar counter, stone tables and chairs, and stone tableware made for a wholly stone tavern, a distinct first impression of one of the Undead Capital’s taverns. Perhaps only the Undead moving around were the non-stone elements in the tavern, aside from the food and drink, which, without, the tavern would lose its meaning.

On the way to the tavern, hordes of Undead satisfied their desire to gawk at the living and gradually dispersed to continue their usual diversions to pass the long night. However, over a hundred Undead, reluctant to leave, followed the adventure team into the tavern. With the entrance of over a hundred Undead, the spacious stone hall immediately became crowded. The Undead skillfully found their spots to sit, and a few others hurried across the wide bar counter into the back rooms.

"Even the chefs and waiters have run off to gawk at us, is this really responsible?" said Catherine, her mouth twitching as she spoke in exasperation, "We are not that unusual, they don’t need to get this excited."

"Haha, mainly everyone is just really bored, and moreover, having the chance to see living beings up close lets them remember what it felt like when they were still alive, a feeling you probably can’t understand," Shiela patted Saen’s shoulder blade and said, "Even someone as calm as Saen couldn’t keep his excitement in check."

"Rattle rattle." Saen, the skeleton chief, touched his bare skull, murmuring something unknown.

"Oh, that’s quite rare." Shiela muttered in surprise for a moment before saying to the girls, "Saen just said, order whatever you want, he’s treating tonight."

However, the girls couldn’t ultimately order what they liked because the tavern had no menu. Everyone was already familiar with the food and drink here, so there was no need for one. Fortunately, Shiela and Saen were there to keep them company. After speaking for a few moments with the skeleton waiters, they soon brought out a plethora of different types of food and drink for the guests to try, seeing which ones could be accepted by the living.

"For the guests, for The Door Home," Shiela raised her glass high and said loudly, "Here’s to the master, cheers!"

"Here’s to the master," the skeletons and ghosts in the tavern lifted their glasses in unison, the skeletons widening their mouths, while the ghosts loudly echoed, "Cheers!"

"Sigh," Lina sighed, picking up a drink that the living could tolerate, and watched the scene of skeletons and ghosts wandering and flying around, rubbing her temples, she said, "It’s just like a tomb holder throwing a ball in his own grave, it’s so discordant."

"Ha, you are not wrong, Miss Lina," Shiela wasn’t offended, chuckling as she spoke, "Too bad there’s no real chance to have one. Haha, a ball in the tomb, just thinking about it is amusing. If it makes you feel that way, it seems our efforts in building the house this way weren’t in vain."

"It’s truly a crypt," Lina finally couldn’t help herself, she lowered her voice and asked, "Forgive me for being direct, Miss Shiela, why did you choose to build your house like a crypt? Is it because of the undead’s unique aesthetic?"

"Because we’re Undead, and, specifically, Undead without graves," Shiela gestured around and explained, "To us Undead, graves often signify a sense of security, but in this world, all the Undead are without graves; everyone is exposed in the open after death. Thus, we long for a grave, just as you long for a home. For us, a grave is our home."

"I’m sorry," Lina was taken aback, not expecting such a reply from her thoughtless question. Thinking it over, the deaths in this lost world—whether Triclops, goblins, or humans, Elves, Dwarfs, and Beastmen from the Third Epoch—all involved concentrated unnatural deaths, and naturally, no one would construct graves for them. Reflecting on this, Lina drew a square in front of her chest and said in a low voice, "Miss Shiela, I did not know this was the reason. I’m really sorry for asking such a question. Please accept my apology."

"It’s all right, we don’t mind," Shiela smiled thoughtfully, comforting the guilty priestess. "Death is behind us now, we are a reborn race, what happened in previous lives is no longer significant."

"Thank you," Catherine said as she held Lina’s hand under the table, softly expressing her gratitude, "Allow me to toast to you, to your understanding and also to our first meeting."

"Yes, to our first meeting," Miss Shiela also raised her glass in response, "Actually, Saen and I are honored to have the opportunity to host you, as this is an incident that will be recorded in the history of the Undead, and no leader would want to miss it. The city bells rang just now, perhaps in a while, other leaders will come here too. Tonight, let’s all drink well together, and then arrange for your rest. Tomorrow, we will take you to see the king."