Transmigrating from a zombie world to become the mecha kings wife-Chapter 366: Hello_16th century

After a successful and fun night out which ended very late, going into the earliest hours of the morning, Scarlet and Esong returned to the hotel for some much needed rest. This would be denied to them as they had to rise so early, in the hour when the cock crows, to prepare themselves for the national execution day. A day which for those who had lost relatives was long awaited and Scarlet was sure that she would be collecting fresh souls on this day.

It was unnatural to Scarlet how chipper everyone they came across was about the execution. They all dressed in black as if it was a day of mourning but wore masks of different types, animal, clown, baby and other freaky masks and walked the streets excitedly.

Forced to accept the order of things, Scarlet wore a black bandage dress and a plain black and white mask. She, Esong and Justin made their way to the Aroyal coliseum, a sphere shaped venue which occasionally hosted mecha fights or concerts. But every year, in this month and on this day, it played host to the barbaric tradition of beheading space pirates and other criminals whose crimes were beyond redemption as their actions led to the loss of many lives.

Esong occasionally glanced down and looked at his wife’s dog which was covered with a black cloak and on it’s head was a reindeer ear head band. Why Scarlet put a Christmas themed decoration on the dog’s head was beyond his understanding. As for the cloak on its body, he had no idea where to start from in understanding her unique thought process.

"Look mommy, see my execution outfit." Justin tugged on Scarlet’s arm and pointed to another little boy who was dressed like him. He was dressed in a black cloak and his face was covered with a common cat mask.

"Yeah, amazing, everyone likes Justin’s style." She answered.

They went through security and headed to the seating section which was allocated to members of the royal family. From where she was she had a very clear view of the wide, high and grand platform on which the beheading would be done.

It was quite the staging, decorated as if the people were here to enjoy an ordinary concert. Why else would they be selling glow sticks, flyers, mini swords? Also being sold were shirts with words like off with their heads, oops! I am missing a head, I became a space pirate and lost my head. These and other things with catchy phrases along with accessories were available. As it turned out, every event in the Sun star was an opportunity to make money to some people.

The entire stage and coliseum which already held millions of people was surrounded with heavy security and thousands of cameras. Every bit of the shield around the coliseum reflected the stage like gigantic screen ensuring that nobody missed a single thing. Already, the early arrivals were cheering excitedly.

She shook her head in disbelief thinking to herself that they were more excited for this than they had been for christmas.

"Talk about having the best view in the house." She mumbled.

"What?" Esong asked her.

"The view, it’s____, wow." She said unwillingly. From high above, nothing escaped her eyes.

"I know, it’s amazing." Esong said with a smile, then he clapped and cheered.

She moved her head around looking for familiar faces close by and she saw governor Lancaster. He waved at her eagerly and she waved back.

Ideally, she should have been sitting in the fourth row with other governor’s but she was a member of the royal family and they came before governorship.

She had to sit on the first row, a few chairs away from the emperor and the empress. She was sitting between Justin and one of Esong’s relatives, a son of the emperor’s sister who was rarely seen in public.

While she busied herself answering texts from Mina and Arya who were excited to see her on the Sun TV, the Sun star’s national television, Justin rubbed Severus’s head and Esong spoke fervently to another of his male cousins.

She was explaining to Mina and Arya in a group text that there was nothing exciting about watching people lose their heads. Everyone else was quite okay with it however, even bringing their children the same way Esong insisted on Justin coming. So many little ones were in the crowd. some even being carried by their parents high up for the cameras to see so that they would be shown on the large screen or hologram.

Scarlet let out a small surprised cough when she noticed someone selling popcorn, apples, sweets and small snacks in the crowd.

"Oh good lord!" she exclaimed.

"Humans." Severus said disdainfully.

"I know, right?" she responded in deep seated surprise. Did an execution turn into a movie viewing event? This was some really welcome to the sixteenth century kind of stuff.

Soon, the doors to the coliseum were closed and silence fell over the crowd.

"Rise for the empire’s anthem." a voice echoed loudly all through the coliseum.

Everyone lowered their masks, covering their faces and then got on to their feet. An orchestra on stage started playing instruments and a woman in a black cloak and black mask with long gold strings stepped out and opened her mouth to lead the citizens of the empire into the anthem.

Scarlet knew only a few lines of the anthem which had three stanzas. She muttered and mumbled her way through the rest of it. Justin on the other hand loudly sung the entire anthem word for word, very off key at times but his loud voice was filled with pride.

After singing the anthem, the emperor addressed the citizens, mentioning the cold season, survival, glory and loyalty to the empire just as Scarlet expected. When he was finished, the minister for internal security in for the empire said something as well. Through these speeches, Scarlet had her eyes momentarily closed and she got a few minutes of sleep.

Soon, a partition in the back area of the stage opened up and prison officers led out handcuffed prisoners who had to be pushed to the front of the stage amidst loud yells from the crowd which was calling for their heads. If this was the sixteenth century, people would be throwing rotten food at them right now.

This thunderous noise of millions of voices jolted Scarlet awake and she opened her eyes. She saw five prisoners who were being forced onto their knees by the prison officers. As their faces were brought closer on the screen by the cameras, she saw the fear in their eyes. Nothing was more scary than the anticipation of death, and what frightened these prisoners was the thought of the moment when the blade met their flesh, separating their heads from their bodies.

Scarlet shook her head, almost feeling sorry for the criminals but with the names and faces of their victims being shown on on holograms in the air, that pity was short lived. They had claimed the lives of many innocents and harmed twice more. Rather than dwell on the road that had led them down that path and brought them to this point, she had a more pressing job to do as a reaper so, she opened her soul gourd and looked at the stage waiting for the fresh souls.