After meeting the gatekeeper and passing its trial, William arrived at his destination.
The first thing he saw when he entered was a souvenir shop, which had several trinkets and keychains that said.
“I came, I saw, I ate.”
“I love Gluttony Paradise!”
“Fat people are harder to kidnap!”
“Food is an important part of a balanced diet!”
“When stuck on a deserted island, the skinny people will die first before the fat ones do!”
“Viva Food!”
“Let them eat Cake!”
William mostly ignored these trinkets, but when he passed through the food section, he noticed some gummy bears for sale and remembered the scene of Chiffon happily eating gummy bears that were being hand fed to her by Maple and Cinnamon.
Because of this, he decided to buy a bag of them before leaving.
Surprisingly, after he had entered the main area of Gluttony’s Paradise, Erinys was already there waiting for him.
The doll-like beauty was seated on her floating boat, with her feet dangling over its edge, while humming a tune.
The moment she saw William, a sweet smile appeared on her face before she jumped off her boat and came running towards him.
“What took you so long?” Eriyns complained as he lightly punched William’s leg. “I’ve been waiting for almost a week!”
“Well, you should have saved yourself from waiting and just allowed me to hitch a ride on your boat,” William replied as he playfully patted Erinys’ head, making the latter close her eyes and bury her face in his stomach.
She liked it when William patted her head, because her father and grandma would do it from time to time whenever they felt like it.
“I can’t do that,” Erinys replied. “The Underworld has rules, and if I allowed you to ride my boat to the next Layer without permission from the God of Death, my Ferryman Badge would be revoked.”
“I was just joking. Having your badge is a good thing. It allows us to go places we weren’t supposed t o go.”
“I know, right?”
Erinys giggled happily before reluctantly pulling away from William. She then grabbed his hand and swung it side to side like a spoiled child asking her parents to buy her some toys.
“I will take you to the place where I saw someone that looked like your wife,” Erinys stated. “Although I am not sure if that person is really your wife, the description you shared with me matches hers.”
William nodded. “Please take me there, Erinys. I am dying to see her.”
The trace of sadness, longing, and anticipation in William’s voice made Erinys’ heart skip a beat, not because of love, but due to the raw emotion she felt after hearing the Half-Elf’s words.
She could tell how much he loved his wife, and it made her curious, as well as a little bit envious, of one of the ladies that William had come to look for in the Underworld, despite the risks involved.
“Come with me,” Erinys said with a determined look on her face. “I’ll take you to her now.”
“Thank you,” William replied. He clearly felt the light squeeze that Erinys had given him as if it was some kind of assurance that he would reunite with one of his wives in Gluttony’s Paradise.
After twenty minutes, Erinys took William to what seemed to be a Palace made up of cookies, and other kinds of desserts.
Along the way, he saw several people that were eating almost everything they could see.
They were eating houses, the grass, trees, the lamp post, the ground, and drinking directly from the chocolate fountains.
Just like the name suggested, it was every Glutton’s paradise. Everything in it, with the exception of the people that resided in it, could be eaten.
To William’s surprise, the things that people ate regenerated as fast as the blink of an eye. The grass, the trees, and every other thing that people ate instantly returned to the way they were in less than a second.
“I kind of doubted it at first, but now I believe that this is indeed a Gluttony’s Paradise,” William said. “My wife would definitely love it here.”
“Perhaps,” Erinys replied. “I just hope that your wife loves you more than she loves eating food.”
William smiled after hearing Erinys’ words. He had asked Chiffon long ago that if she were to choose between a mountain of sweets, and him, what would she choose?
The pink-haired girl said that she would choose him in a heartbeat.
Her reason was this.
“No amount of food can fill me up like the love that you give me everyday. Although I feel hungry, my heart feels full, and it is the strangest, and most unbelievable thing that has ever happened to me in the past nineteen years of my life.”
Although William was confident that Chiffon loved him, he felt a little worried that his gluttonous wife would have forgotten all about him, after spending several months in the Underworld.
“Halt!” a gingerbread man shouted. “Only those whose gluttony surpasses the realm of mortals are allowed here!”
Erinys immediately presented her Ferryman Badge and the Gingerbread man’s attitude immediately made a 180% turn.
“Please come in, Your Excellency,” the Gingerbread Man said respectfully. “Gluttony’s Palace will always be open for you.”
Erinys’ raised her chin arrogantly as she dragged William inside the Palace. No one dared to stop them, and it made William very tempted to get a badge like Erinys, so he wouldn’t have to deal with the obstacles that blocked his way.
As the two walked deeper into the palace, William asked if they needed to check every room to find Chiffon, but Erinys just shook her head.
“The VIPs of Gluttony’s Paradise only stay at the top of the castle, where the Grand Buffet Hall is,” Erinys’ replied. “They have access to every kind of food in existence, so they don’t need to go anywhere else. However, those who stay in that place must have a very high rank, or else they wouldn’t be qualified to even step foot inside it.”
William nodded his head in understanding. His wife, Chiffon, was the Sin of Gluttony. If she wasn’t qualified to stay at the top of the castle then no one was.
As soon as Erinys showed her badge to the guards guarding the gate made from chocolate wafers, they were allowed entry without too much hassle.
When William entered the Grand Buffet Hall, he was immediately stunned by the otherworldly scene in front of him.
Several platters of food floated along the walls and up to the sky, in a circular motion.
Every now and then, one of those platters would descend to the ground, and a lady would take something from it before the platter returned to where it was before.
The moment Wiliam and Erinys entered the Grand Buffet Hall, dozens of eyes locked into their locations, as if wanting to know who the newcomers were.
To William’s surprise, the majority of them were ladies, and only a handful of men were present in that vast hall reserved only for the VIP’s.
When the Half-Elf’s gaze landed on what seemed to be a part of the River of Hell, passing through the Buffet Hall, he noticed that there was a giant White Lotus in it, that lazily floated on the river’s hellish waters.
He didn’t know why he couldn’t take off his gaze on it, but before he could even register what was happening, his feet were already walking in that direction.
“The Heart moves, where the Heart wills.”
These were the words that he had said to Chiffon back then, and now those words came back to him, as if reliving a memory that had escaped him since the day he met his glutinous wife, whom he loved, and missed dearly.
