Chapter 15: In the distant past and future
Chapter 15 In the Distant Past and Future
On the embankment of the Thames, Arthur, in a messy white shirt and a bottle in his hand, stared out at the littered Thames and the sinking sun in the west.
The figure of Agareth floated beside him, and the Red Devil pinched his nose in disgust and grumbled at Arthur.
“Hell! How long are you going to sit in this place anyway? The smell in here is almost as bad as the cesspool where Baal feeds!”
Arthur tilted his head back and took a swig of wine and asked, “Who’s Baal?”
“You don’t know Baal? Then perhaps you’ll understand if I change the name. You should recognize Beelzebub, right? That’s Baal’s alias.”
“You mean the guy who pipes flies?”
“Wow, Arthur, that answer is right up my alley.”
Agareth laughed out loud, “That’s right, the Lord of the Flies! Yet it’s such an undignified devil that actually manages to run Hell. And a gentleman devil like me, who is cultured, knowledgeable, musical, and skillful in many foreign languages, has to be exiled from the earth, don’t you think it’s ridiculous?”
Arthur stroked his disheveled hair, “No wonder you’re here, it’s because you’re against Baal.”
Agareth reached out and put a hand on Arthur’s shoulder, “That’s right. Just like Scotland Yard can’t accommodate an outstanding talent like you, Hell likewise can’t accommodate an outstanding ghost talent like me. I’m in the same boat, my little old man.”
After saying that, he also pointed to the bottle of wine in Arthur’s hand, “Give me a whole mouthful too.”
Arthur looked around for a moment until he confirmed that no one was paying attention to him, then he pushed the bottle in front of Agares.
“Careful, don’t let anyone else see it.”
Agareth lifted the bottle and took a clean swig, followed by a loud belch.
“This wine isn’t very good! Think back to when I followed King Solomon’s invasion of Jerusalem ……”
“Don’t mention King Solomon, my ears are getting calloused.”
Arthur asked, “You’ve lived so long, don’t you have some other stories to tell me? You can’t have done any serious work since King Solomon, can you?”
Agares sniffed angrily, “What’s wrong with not having done any work? When I followed King Solomon and attacked Jerusalem back then, I did all the work in my life.”
He was afraid that Arthur wouldn’t believe him, and deliberately put his hand into his pants pocket and pulled out a handful of small colored balls.
He pointed to the colored balls and said, “Arthur, do you see what this is? These are all souls, all of which I have accumulated from that time. Otherwise, with your passive-aggressive work efficiency, I would have starved to death years ago.”
Arthur looked at an expressionless human face on the surface of the colored ball and sighed helplessly, “So you have so many reserves. Then why do you still force me to find you souls every day?”
“Arthur, I’m a devil! My pleasure is in torturing, not eating.
These souls have been tortured by me for thousands of years, and have long since become fearless, making it so that I’m not even interested in toying with them now.
Unless I’m starving, usually I don’t even bother to pull them out and look at them.
And even if I eat, I want to pick fresh food, would you eat rotting food?”
“A devil and so picky, no wonder you’ve never been able to find a suitable indentured servant.”
“Arthur, you can’t disrespect my profession, it’s quite an old trade. Moreover, those who are in our line of work emphasize that we don’t open for a thousand years, but open for a thousand years. Even if you don’t look for a pactee, you can’t look for a pactee indiscriminately, it’s better to have a shortage than to have an abundance.”
“Then you may have found the wrong person this time, I have no interest in attacking Jerusalem.”
“Then what do you want?”
Arthur sighed as he leaned against the railing and looked at the sunset in the sky, “I want to go home.”
“Then we can leave now! Yorkshire isn’t that far from London.”
“No, Agareth, you don’t understand, I’m from the future.”
Agareth frowned for half a second and asked, “Is this today’s portion of a cold joke?”
Arthur shook his head, “No, the sneer is later.”
“Then go on, I’m listening.”
Arthur looked at the barges on the Thames and spoke, “In the future, there will only be 97 ships left in the Royal Navy all together.”
“Wow, that’s pretty bad.”
“But that’s not the worst of it.”
“Then what’s the worst?”
“The worst is that the French have ninety-eight ships.”
Agareth laughed out loud at this, he couldn’t catch his breath.
“Arthur, you must be out of your mind. Didn’t the Royal Navy destroy all of the French naval power at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805? How long would it take them to have that many ships? A hundred years?”
Arthur shook the bottle and took the last bit of his drink into his mouth, “A hundred years? Two hundred years!”
Agareth finally breathed a long sigh of relief when he saw that Arthur was actually in the mood to joke.
“Arthur, you are really temperamental. I thought just now that you were about to jump into the river to make light of the situation, but after all that, you’re not in the least bit of trouble.”
“Who says I’m fine, I’m not, I’m desperate to get to the future now. I’ve really had enough of being in this cesspool.” “The future is great?”
“The future can’t be any worse than the present!”
Arthur took the bottle and smashed it far into the Thames.
There was a plopping sound!
The river turned up black waves, and a foul odor came with the waves of the water.
Agareth hurriedly pinched his nose as he cursed, “Arthur! I have to give you a piece of advice! If you fucking know the cesspool stinks, then don’t stir it up with a bottle!”
Arthur clapped his dusty hands together and rose from the railing, “I’d be happy to.”
“You’re really not listening.” Agareth floated around after him, “You’ve quit, so what shall we do tomorrow? Do you have a plan yet?”
Arthur responded casually, “Smoking, drinking, and going to the market to buy a rabbit to keep at home.”
“So are you still going to find a random woman on the street and get married?”
“Depends on the circumstances.”
Agareth stopped Arthur at his waist, “Arthur, that’s not a plan. You’re just going purely against Scotland Yard’s house rules.”
Arthur froze even as he heard this.
He rubbed his chin and thought for a while before asking, “Agareth.”
“What?”
“Teach me to do something bad.”
“Wow, my dear Arthur.” Agareth let out a hefty chuckle as he rubbed both hands together and said, “You must have misunderstood me, I never teach anyone to do bad things.”
“But aren’t you the devil?”
“Devil is just a nickname given to me by people of different faiths, they still call me Satan.
Did you know that? In ancient Hebrew, Satan simply meant ‘hostile’, but then people just visualized it.
In the earliest times, any pagan deity could be called Satan.
In the very distant past, I was also a supreme deity that some people revered. Do you think I would teach my followers to do bad things? They treat me well, and I certainly can’t harm them.”
Arthur was a little curious to hear this, he always retained a keen interest in these unknown areas.
He asked, “And what do you teach them?”
Agares narrowed his eyes and smiled, “I don’t really teach them anything, I think they are all good people, so I just tell them to follow their hearts and then give them what they want.
Whether it’s wealth, or power, I give them whatever they want.
I’ve always trusted them and thought they would take those things and do good things with them.
But as you know, the results have disappointed me.
That’s why I took their souls as punishment for their nonsense.
I never thought I was doing bad things, what I did was always good.
I made the beggar rich overnight and gave him a decent life.
And made the homeless man a king and had tons of kids and enjoyed a home.
Have I done anything wrong?
Arthur, it’s never me who’s bad, it’s the people who are blinded by power and wealth.
You can look at yourself, you have reaped the same help from me, but have you committed any evil?
You punished a college professor who had sexually raped a female student, you saved a child’s life, you did a lot of good with the help I gave you.
The same thing, in the hands of good people, then it’s good. In the hands of bad people, then it’s bad.
Think of the way those people looked at you in the courtroom today. In their hearts you are a savior, you are their god.
Arthur, for social groups, they have to have a god or they can’t talk about anything.
And you, you already have what it takes to be that god.”
Arthur stared at Agareth’s smiling face for a long moment before he spoke, “Agareth, you’re trying to hex me again.”
“Why yes, Arthur.” Agareth smiled brightly, seemingly without any falsehood, “I’m genuinely trying to help you!”
Arthur reached out and patted him on the shoulder, “But then again, thanks for today. I owe you a soul for Mrs. Peel. I’ll do it when I find the right target.”
“Oh, my dear Arthur.”
Agareth stuck out his half-meter tongue and licked his parched lips, his drool almost soaking the tops of Arthur’s shoes, “Didn’t you obviously find the target already?”
(End of chapter)