Mu En didn’t take her hand, but instead gave a polite bow.
“Mu En.
A pleasure.
A traveler in this rotten world who hasn’t quite rotted through yet.”
The gesture felt slightly out of place for Hell, yet one couldn’t find fault with it.
Charlie’s hand was left hanging awkwardly in mid-air—embarrassing to pull back, and even stupider to keep there.
She chose to pretend she was just waving.
“You mentioned redemption just now,” Mu En said, using a respectful tone.
“It has been a long time since I’ve heard that word from the mouth of someone who is still sane.”
“If I may ask, how do you plan to turn it from a word into an action?”
Charlie was stunned.
Her eyes slowly widened, lighting up bit by bit until they were filled with surprise.
No one in Hell spoke like this.
The language here was always sharp, crude, and focused on insults below the belt.
Every word and sentence felt like it was trying to saw a piece of meat off the other person.
But the words spoken by the man in front of her were so different.
Charlie’s mouth hung half-open, and she forgot to close it.
“Uh.
Wow.”
She waited for the expected “Just kidding, you idiot.”
But it didn’t come.
“Are you…
are you serious?” She leaned in a little, trying to see if he was joking.
No, there was no hint of amusement in his expression.
She quickly cleared her throat and straightened her back, trying to look reliable.
Her voice was still trembling, but she spoke louder.
“I mean.
Ahem, of—of course!
Redemption!
That’s what we’re going to do!
Redemption is, is a kind of change!
A possibility!
See, even in Hell, even if everyone is a Sinner, you can’t just lock the ending in Chapter One, right?
We can get better, prove that we deserve to be—”
*Bang!*
The sound of the door slamming interrupted her.
“Charlie?!”
A grey blur rushed out from inside the building.
It was Vaggie.
As soon as she appeared, she swiftly assessed the scene:
Charlie was standing and seemed fine—good news.
A man was standing next to her, a new face who actually looked human.
Wait, looked human?
Bad news.
“What was that scream just now?”
Vaggie strode out and stepped between the two, shielding Charlie behind her.
“What did that asshole do to you?
If he dared to lay a hand on you, I swear I’ll rip his intestines out and use them as—”
“No!
No, no, no!
Vaggie, calm down!”
Charlie rushed to grab her arm, casting an embarrassed glance at Mu En while lowering her voice.
“The guy left ages ago.
I just almost fell down myself.
I’m fine, really, I’m fine.”
Then, as if presenting a treasure, she pointed Mu En out to Vaggie.
“But look!
This gentleman!
He…
he’s interested in redemption!
Really!
He just asked me how I plan to turn redemption from a word into an action!
Can you believe it?
He talks like he stepped right out of a book!”
Vaggie didn’t lower her guard; instead, she looked Mu En over with even more suspicion.
The man’s clothes were excessively neat, and his manners were suspiciously elegant.
In Hell, this kind of perfection usually meant he was either a newcomer who hadn’t been beaten down yet, or a dangerous liar.
“Who is he?”
“A guest,” Charlie blurted out.
Vaggie looked back at her.
Charlie’s confidence immediately dropped by half.
“…A potential guest.”
She quickly added, “And he was seriously talking about redemption with me.”
Vaggie looked back at Mu En, her expression still unpleasant.
“Seriously talking about what?”
“Redemption,” Charlie said, sounding like she’d just found money on the ground.
“He said…
he said he wanted to know how I plan to make it a reality.”
Vaggie was silent for a moment.
Then she crossed her arms and lifted her chin, looking highly aggressive.
“Listen, buddy.
I don’t care which film set you crawled off of, and I don’t care if you’re actually interested or just here for a laugh.”
She took a step forward.
The height difference meant she had to look up, but it didn’t diminish her presence in the slightest.
“If you’re just here to have a laugh at our expense, or to peddle some bullshit soul contract, then you’d better get lost while I’m still being polite.
Charlie has a good temper, but I don’t put up with crap.”
Charlie got anxious and tugged at Vaggie’s sleeve from behind.
“Vaggie!
Don’t be like that!
He’s very polite!
He just helped me up!”
“I *am* being polite.”
“You just told him to get lost.”
“In this place, that counts as polite.”
Charlie couldn’t argue with that for a moment, so she bypassed her and gave Mu En an embarrassed smile.
“Sorry, Vaggie is just very protective of me.
You know how it is, this is Hell—everyone’s on guard.”
“I understand,” Mu En said.
Vaggie frowned.
“What do you understand?”
“I understand that one cannot afford to be careless here.
Especially after you’ve had to clean up the mess for her so many times.”
Vaggie was taken aback by those words.
Charlie was also stunned and turned to look at her.
Vaggie gritted her teeth.
“You certainly have a way with words.”
“Occasionally.”
Charlie quickly took back the conversation.
This time, she didn’t try to force an overly enthusiastic smile.
She simply stood before the dilapidated porch, with Vaggie ready to strike behind her and a man of unknown origin—who was actually listening to her—in front.
“Regarding your question from earlier…
honestly, I haven’t fully figured it out yet.”
Charlie’s shoulders slumped.
“I know that doesn’t sound like what a person in charge should say.
But all I can do right now is keep the doors open, let people in, and stop them from rotting away further.
I guess…
I just want to give people a reason to want to try?
Even if everyone says it’s useless.”
She “uh-ed” for a moment.
“At least let people know it’s an option.”
Vaggie stood to the side with her arms crossed, staring at him.
But she didn’t say anything else.