The Kingdom Illuminated by The Sun

“Huh?” Luciela let out after finishing the letter. She was hoping for something more than this, and yet the letter left her feeling slightly more anxious than relieved. And frankly, with even more questions than she previously had.

‘But what does she mean to let go of the letter immediately?’ Luciela wondered, confused by the letter’s request, but she didn’t have to think it over for long. She yelped as she saw smoke coming from the letter, and after releasing her grip on it, the letter suddenly burst into blue flames, disappearing completely from sight.

“Did that letter just…light on fire itself?” Luciela, a bit shaken, asked Bubble, who was completely calm and collected before answering, “Yes, Ms. R requested for the letter to be a one-time read only, so naturally it bursts into flames afterwards. How else would it disappear?”

Luciela shook her head, Bubble speaking as though everything that happened was simply the natural way things were expected to go. Of course, understandably it was common sense for someone like Bubble, who was frollicking in the ghost world all his life before Luciela showed up. But for someone like Luciela, who was brought here against her will, such things were completely bizarre and nonsensical.

And a sensible person like Luciela could only take so much chaos at once.

“Bubble…” Luciela began, but honestly, she spoke without even knowing exactly what it is she wanted to say. Bubble, at least according to his words, could not disclose any information on the letter’s sender, or about the details of Luciela’s surprise vacation to this kingdom filled with…ghosts.

Ghosts. The idea was suddenly sinking deeper into Luciela’s mind, and she was sure of what she wanted to ask, although she was afraid of the answer.

“Bubble,” Luciela began carefully, taking a deep breath and steadying herself before continuing, “I’m…I’m not dead, am I?”

“Huh? Oh, wait, of course not! Why would you think that?” Bubble questioned her with a look of surprise, clearly taken aback by what he must’ve deemed a strange and unexpected question.

“B-Because, there’s ghosts everywhere here! Are there no humans? Did I die at the awards show somehow? I-I don’t get how this is happening-” Luciela rambled on, starting to show her distress to her tiny companion, who was startled by her splurge of words racing out of her mouth.

But Bubble, surprisingly, kept a sensible look to him, zooming up to Luciela’s face and putting a finger on her mouth to get her to stop. When he did, Luciela found that her mouth couldn’t open-she tried with all her efforts, but her lips simply stayed shut.

“And you think I’m a chatterbox,” Bubble said with a giggle, as though he didn’t just forcibly silence someone, “Sorry, I keep forgetting that you aren’t from here, so I guess it makes sense that this is all confusing for you! But first things first, you aren’t dead. No one here is. I remember Ms. R did tell me that you might be shocked, since humans think of ghosts as people who have passed. That’s just a nasty stereotype though! What do humans know about ghosts after all,” Bubble said this with a huff, before continuing, “but here, everyone is alive, and quite healthy at that! We’re all born as ghosts to begin with. This kingdom in fact, for a very long time, has only ever had ghosts, no humans.”

Bubble then twirled his arms, causing an image of a magnificent city to appear in front of them. He also released the bind holding Luciela’s mouth shut, allowing her to finally be able to speak. She scolded him, angrily saying, “Hey! Don’t go shutting people’s mouths by force like that again, will you? If you needed me to keep quiet, you could’ve just asked me.”

This caused Bubble to give an apologetic look, responding with, “Sorry, you’re right! Sometimes I act without thinking, another one of my bad habits that I’ve been trying to break. But! I wanted to clear things up for you. While I can’t reveal anything more about the reason you were sent here, I can help you better understand where you’ve been sent! Here, the image you see, is Luminous, the capital of the Soleil Kingdom, the place that we’re in right now.”

Luciela, still with an annoyed look on her face, turned her attention towards the image. Her facial expression immediately lost its tension, replaced instead with a child-like wonder as she gazed at the breathtaking sight of the city. The image itself was a moving one, and basically looked like a video; but Luciela reasoned that, perhaps, that terminology wasn’t used in this ghost land.

In the image, she saw a golden fountain that released a wave of water that twisted and turned in the air before landing within the fountain’s base. There were tall buildings of bright white, gold, lilac, blue and green hues, some of them floating in the air, with forks in the road that twisted up into the sky and led to these buildings. Many ghosts were walking or flying about, and there was a large marketplace full of incredible foods that Luciela had never seen before.

And far away, there was a castle that floated on a large pack of light pink clouds, a sight that looked like it came straight out of a childlike fairytale.

“This is, is…” Luciela trailed off, unable to keep her eyes away from admiring the various sights that the moving image displayed before her. “Hah, it’s super suntastic isn’t it?” Bubble finished her sentence for her, a beaming smile on his face as he did.

“And that’s not all! Luminous city is home to the best high-school in the entire kingdom, Scare Heights Academy, the place that hosts the top ‘Scare Guards’ training course that many young ghosts dream of enrolling into! And you are getting the opportunity to go study there as well!” Bubble finished, waving his arms to remove the floating image now.

“Wait, what does that even mean?” Luciela questioned in confusion, but before Bubble could answer her, the Swifter suddenly stopped zooming, floating down as it came to a stop and opened its door.

“See for yourself!” Bubble told Luciela enthusiastically as he flew out of the Swifter, a confused Luciela following closely behind. She covered her eyes from the bright sun that greeted her as soon as she stepped out of the Swifter, taking a few seconds to finally adjust to the light outside.

Then, she noticed the tall and beautiful school building that stood not too far from where she was, many young looking ghosts walking around, some with suitcases floating beside them, some chatting with friends, others sitting in the grass and having their lunches.

Bubble didn’t miss the shocked look on Luciela’s face. He smiled, then took the opportunity to create little fireworks in the air and, with a dramatic tone, smiled and said, “Luciela, welcome to Scare Heights Academy!”