Arc 2: 2.6

(A/N: I'm so sorry about the late update. Due to being busy in real life these past few days, I haven't updated any chapters at all. At first, I wanted to write as many as possible to get it done as a draft, but life's suck. It didn't even leave me a little time. Actually, this chapter was half-done but the other half I was busy then that is it. XD So here the chapter.)

Today was the third day of the festival, which was the celebration of the one million year birth of the Netherworld. It was also important for all the dead spirits that were soon going to see the chosen one by the Nether God. They always waited for this day every year because they had been waiting for the Nether Empress for a thousand years. They didn't know whether this year they would get the Empress for their Emperor or not. But all they could do was pray to the Nether God. The big violet sun from the first had already set since the end of the first day, and it made everyone frustrated, but they couldn't do anything. Thus, their last hope was the third day of the festival.

Nineteen arrived at the platform early than the others so he was in the middle of the crowd. Last time he was too far away from the altar due to waking up late, so this time he got his system to wake him up early to be able to get in the front. In the end, he couldn't get to the front, so the middle was also fine with him.

As it was near the time that the Nether Emperor came, more and more dead spirits flowed in. The crowd quickly went silent when they saw the golden shine from afar because they knew it was the Nether Emperor's arrival.

Nineteen also joined the crowd, looking at the person cloaked in the golden robe. The Nether Emperor walked slowly toward the altar like on the first day. He also stopped halfway and turned to look in a certain direction, then after a while, he continued on.

Unlike the first day, he swung the wooden staff, today he put the wooden staff aside and kneel on one knee in the middle of the altar, and all the dead spirits after seeing their Emperor kneeled, they also kneeled down but on both knees with their head bowed down too.

Nineteen saw that everybody had already kneeled down, he also hurried to kneel down too. He took a peek at the process but he couldn't see due to being blocked by those dead spirits. He tried a few more times but still didn't succeed, he gave up and just focused on the ceremony.

As for the Nether Emperor who was on the altar, when he kneeled down, he began to chant a string of incantation that lasted about a minute until he finished chanting it. He then rose from the ground and looked up to the sky above the altar. The atmosphere stayed still for a while when a familiar phenomenon appeared.

A golden light pierced through the dark sky of the Netherworld, then the light made its way to a certain direction in the crowd. After that, it shone on one particular person which made that person standing in the spotlight. The dead spirits who were around that person suddenly took a few steps back in order to make way for the chosen one to the altar.

Nineteen who was still kneeling didn't notice that the dead spirits around him scattered away from him, he was still in the kneeling position until his system yelled at him.

[Host, stand up!]

[Why?]

[Don't you want to see who is the chosen one?]

[Of course.]

[Then stand up.]

Nineteen instantly stood up and was surprised that there was no one around him and those who were around him were standing quite far away from him. Then he noticed that the place he was standing on was very bright, he immediately looked up and nearly got blind by the brightness of this golden light. Then the sound of the Nether Emperor reached his ear.

[Why don't you come up, the chosen one?"

Nineteen looked around him and realized that he, alone, was standing under the bright golden light while everybody didn't. He slowly lifted his hand and pointed at himself.

"Me?"

"Yes, you are the chosen one."

For a moment, Nineteen wanted to faint. He couldn't believe he was the chosen one. He didn't think that he was faithful to the Nether God, why would he be chosen? Although he denied the fact that he was the chosen one, his feet were walking slowly toward the altar. The crowd slowly opened the path for him until he reached the altar.

The Nether Emperor walked to Nineteen and took his hand to hold, leading Nineteen to the middle of the altar. The Nether Emperor raised his wooden staff and the crystal globe on the top of it began to brighten and filled the whole crystal.

"The crystal globe also brightens it means that from today onward he will be my Empress, the Nether Empress of our Netherworld. Tomorrow, we will be celebrating my wedding."

The clapping and congratulations voices of the crowd slowly filled the entire Netherworld. Nineteen had no idea about anything around him because he was still overwhelmed about being the Nether Empress. He glanced at the Nether Emperor who stood by him, then he looked at their locked hands. His gaze became a little complicated.

Although Nineteen wasn't against anything about being romantic, he would still think that he was rather a loyal person. But, from what he thought who he was before and the current him now, he didn't think his view of a relationship changed much. He knew himself that he could fall in love as fast as possible depending on the situation and what mattered the most was that the other person loved him first. Otherwise, from his picky taste, no one in a million could move his heart first.

Well, you couldn't say he's cheating right now because there was no Fredrick here, only him. So if he started the new love, it didn't mean that he had thrown those wonderful memories of him and Fredrick to the mud. It would always stay as a part of his heart.

The conflict in his heart now was a least at ease after a careful analysis from his mind for his heart's matter. He sighed in relief. His mental health was rather good from the start, but who knew if one day it would be broken down until nothing left. He needed at least to analyze the situation of his heart with his mind, in order to avoid any negative feelings.

His IQ wasn't a level of a genius, but he could say that at least it was above average, just a little above average. Nothing special. His only good point might be fast learning. He could understand things in just a few times of demonstration, but he had a rather short memory and couldn't do or analyze anything that was complicated or needed deep understanding. 'Oh, my poor mind!'

*sigh*

"What's wrong?"

A deep manly voice whispered to his ear, making Nineteen startled a little. Nineteen lifted his head up and happened to be in a direction that those deep blue eyes stared at him. He didn't know why he felt that he had seen those eyes somewhere and was very familiar with them. He thought that maybe he had seen them back when he was alive on Earth. However, he knew that his surroundings were all Asian, so there was no way they had blue eyes unless they were half. On the other hand, all the foreigners that he knew could count on his two hands, so the possibility was eliminated.

He didn't have any answers to his doubts so he stopped thinking and replied to the Nether emperor.

"Nothing! I was just thinking about why I was chosen?"

"Because you are the one who I was waiting for my whole life."

Nineteen was in a daze after the answers, so he chose to stay silent. However, his ears betrayed him, turning red like a tomato, making the situation turn into a lovey-dovey. But, the Nether emperor chose to turn blind eyes to Nineteen's shyness because he knew that NIneteen's reaction was sincerely embarrassing. The Nether Emperor then proceeded to lead Nineteen to the castle under the envy and excited gaze of the crowd.

The duo arrived after a while, the Nether Emperor ordered the servant to bring out the clothes and started to prepare for the ceremony tomorrow as soon as possible. Nineteen then saw several golden chests were carried out from one of the rooms, putting them down in front of him. The servant then opened each golden chest. There was a chest full of undergarments, followed by tops, bottoms, outer clothes, accessories, and so on. All of them were in his size.

"How come you have all of these? And even in my size?"

"That's a secret."

'A******' That was what Nineteen thought after hearing it was a secret.