If one day a god appeared before you, what would you do?
If the land you live on were nothing but a prison, how would you pick the lock?
If your predecessors had long ago arranged your fate for the greater good, would you choose to sacrifice yourself?
Mask has witnessed all the many faces of evil in this age.
A dark, gaunt young woman stands in an abandoned district forsaken by the Federation. Beyond a long wall, she gazes toward the upper district, bright with lights and packed with skyscrapers.
“Heaven is always above hell, because class exploitation is built by people upon other people. They have to stand on others to easily get their share of the spoils. They’d never willingly toil on the ground.”
The saint who betrayed them rails at her blood relatives until her voice gives out, then falls into a pool of blood shed for her ideals.
“How will history remember our age? I don’t want to be called a sinner!”
The frail chosen one, whose life was ruined by a prophecy for four hundred years, is battered and bruised, yet still fights with all her might to stay alive.
“I don’t want to die. If I’d been able to escape during those four hundred years, I wouldn’t have had to endure all this. But I couldn’t. I know I’m good for nothing, but I don’t want to die. I just don’t want to die!”
Wealth and poverty, life and death, war...
The age, choices, fate...
Mask thinks she has long been accustomed to such concepts.
Everyone has hardships they must bear. Choices that leave you trapped between two impossible options are no freedom at all.
So when disappointment becomes the world’s prevailing tune, someone asks her: Why do people live? Why do they die?
“Life and death are rights. Being alive needs no reason.” Mask gives her answer.
[Reader’s Guide]
1. This is a true history. The author learned their stories through inspiration and recorded them. The author is not the creator, but the one who puts pen to paper.
2. An ensemble historical drama. It uses some elements of stage plays and historical records, but it is still a novel. The writing aims to be light and humorous, mostly through deadpan humor. Read on for a warning about angst.
3. The world is vast, very vast. This is an epic of an entire age. People facing the concept of time and space are bound to meet with tragedy, so feel free to brace yourself for heartbreak. The ending leans toward a happy ending.
4. A blend of violent and dark aesthetics, with just a touch of cosmic horror. It is bloody and grand, so proceed with caution if you are easily disturbed. Everyone is highly intelligent, with their own strengths, and supernatural abilities exist. No characters are made stupid just to be killed off; the logic is strong, in the literal, physical sense. The characters’ values do not represent the author’s.
5. The protagonist is extremely rational. There is technically a pairing, but the author writes the plot before the romance... So feel free to ship any character pairings, romantic or platonic. [Following point 1, this is historical RPF.]
Theme: Life and death are rights. Being alive needs no reason.
