Chapter 176: Siren Naga x Old Kobold Kohler
Dark Continent, East Coast, beside the Endless East Sea...
In a kingdom of bathhouses, made up of tens of thousands of hot springs large and small, lay the "City of Purification," which welcomed countless guests stained with "filth" every day.
Valentia, the "Pure Capital." West suburbs, Shuilangfang 7th Street, Bathhouse No. 54-09.
Vanessa Siren dragged her weary tail, forcing a smile as she saw off the last group of customers... the [Toadmen]. She instructed her younger sister, Laura, to close up shop, then went straight upstairs without eating dinner.
Swish... swish... Her snake tail, covered in silvery-white scales, rasped against the wooden stairs. Creeak~ The door closed. Laura, slightly smaller than Vanessa, hung the "Closed" sign and followed her sister upstairs. Seeing Vanessa collapsed on the bed, her tail curled into a ball, Laura's heart ached.
"You don't have to work this hard, sister. If we really get demoted, I'll just find a man to marry and ask for a hundred thousand 'Qin Pearls' as a dowry!" Laura put her hands on her slim waist, her impressive chest heaving, speaking with spirit. Suddenly, a pillow flew at her, thrown by Vanessa in feigned anger.
"Your sister doesn't need to sell you to keep the bathhouse running. Go to sleep and stop bothering me."
"Hee hee, no... I want to sleep with you..."
Laura's emerald-green snake tail slithered over. She climbed onto the bed and clung to Vanessa like a koala, using both hands and tail.
Two snake tails, one white and one green, entwined. Vanessa pushed her head away reprovingly, looking disgusted. "Get away from me. Don't drool on me later!"
Laura took the opportunity to lick Vanessa's palm with her long tongue, grinning mischievously. "I won't!"
After some playful banter, the sisters settled down. A while later, Vanessa held the sleeping Laura, listening to her soft snores. She smoothed the hair by her sister's ear, her beautiful, gentle face clouded with deep fatigue and worry.
The "Pure Capital" Valentia earned its name as the "City of Purification" because of their Siren clan. Using their inherited Nen ability, "Siren's Tears," dripped into the bathwater, they could help customers purge the "filth" lurking in their bodies caused by the backlash of [Nature] against [Faith].
In other words—
The Siren clan was a renowned clan of [Exorcists] in this corner of the Dark Continent!
Legend had it that when the "Great Siren" awakened, she could purge and even heal problems for figures as powerful as [Gods]. This showed just how important the Siren clan was to magical beasts or humans of the [Faith] faction!
They were undoubtedly the "doctors" of this world, saving people from suffering and preventing them from becoming mindless beasts or "Calamities"!
But "physicians cannot heal themselves." "Exorcising Nen" didn't mean truly removing it!
The Siren clan used "Siren's Tears" to wash away the "pollution" from their customers, but then temporarily stored that "pollution" within their own bodies. Later, through the "Great Siren," believers would distribute "Qin Pearls" on a regular schedule to absorb this "pollution." Otherwise, over time... the accumulated pollution would eventually erupt, forcing them to lose their minds, become "monsters" or "Calamities," and then be purged from Valentia by the "Cleanup Squad," left to fend for themselves.
What Vanessa didn't tell her sister Laura was that their parents had left Valentia on their own initiative before the Cleanup Squad could act, while they still had a shred of consciousness, to seek another way of life in the depths of the East Sea. This was because they hadn't met their "quota" that year and hadn't received enough "Qin Pearls."
Now—it was her turn to face this problem!
Afraid of accumulating too much pollution, she didn't dare take too many customers. Because she didn't have many customers, she didn't meet the quota, the bathhouse was downgraded, and she received fewer and fewer Qin Pearls, causing the pollution in her body to build up. It was a vicious cycle... Vanessa stroked Laura's small face, thinking of their parents, and even considered "following them." But Laura was still young. Could she leave her alone to walk the same path as herself and their parents?
Vanessa was unwilling and unreconciled. Drowsiness overtook her, and she fell asleep clinging to her sister.
A wisp of ethereal mist drifted in, quietly infiltrating the depths of her subconscious, curling around a sliver of her consciousness and drifting towards Roy's dream domain...
Dark Continent, Northern Frontier.
Kobold Tribe Settlement.
Territory of the Howling Moon Wolf King, Broken Bone City, River Valley Town. Near a small river, scattered households formed a remote little village called Yellow Village.
Deep at night, on the west side of Yellow Village, Old Kohler waited until his wife and children were asleep before quietly getting out of bed. Carrying a dim oil lamp, he went to the woodshed, lifted a floorboard, revealing a dark, cramped basement underneath. He stood silently for a moment, then ducked his wrinkled dog head and crawled in.
Tap... tap...
Footsteps echoed in the pitch-black night.
The basement, sealed for years, was damp and stuffy. Old Kohler, holding the lamp, coughed a few times and walked slowly to the end. In the corner against the wall, he saw a dusty, broken wooden chest.
The chest was locked. Old Kohler gently hung the lamp on an iron hook to the left, patted himself down, took out a key from his pocket, squatted, and inserted it into the lock. Click. The chest opened, revealing a faint, yellowish halo of "Nen"...
The halo was weak, the "Nen" seemingly thinning and on the verge of dissipating after being sealed away for so long.
Old Kohler stared at it entranced. He reached in and touched the contents: a battered set of plate armor and a rusted morningstar, testaments to an unknown epic of the past.
"Thinking of adventuring again?"
A raspy voice sounded from behind him. Old Kohler shivered violently. Before even turning around, he plastered a smile on his face—scrunching his dog face until his eyes were lost in the wrinkles—slammed the chest shut, and fawned over his wife, supporting her waist. "Last time... I promise, this is the last time..."
"The harvest was bad this year. The other day, Mark's son met with misfortune, dragged off and eaten by some green-skinned beasts..."
Old Kohler stroked his wife's growing belly. "We don't know how many you're having this time. I just thought I'd do a little job, earn some milk money before the kids are born..."
"You always have a reason."
"Kohler," Jenny stroked Old Kohler's dog head. The deep furrows spoke of weathering many storms; he was clearly not young anymore.
She said, "Do you think you can still lift that hammer, wear that armor?"
"What if..."
Jenny looked at him with worry. "You said it yourself, Mark's family met with misfortune."
She leaned against Old Kohler, nuzzling him affectionately with her dog nose. "I can't lose you."
"Yes... yes... let's not talk about it, let's sleep..."
That night, after coaxing his pregnant wife back to sleep, Old Kohler drifted into dreamland. His consciousness floated up, carried by a faint, hazy dream mist, swimming in the "collective" unconscious ocean...
When he opened his eyes again, he was in a vast place with no sense of direction. He looked up...
And saw a boy whose face was obscured, and a "humanoid" magical beast with a human body and snake tail...
His dog eyes instantly constricted!
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