Chapter 35: Black snake
The soldier extended his arm toward Airi, but Kazuka forcefully shoved his hand away, his eyes filled with clear hostility.
He lowered his voice in a threat, like a growling tiger.
"Speak clearly, or we will not let you take her anywhere."
Feeling the delay, she became annoyed, stepped forward, and shouted loudly.
"Hey, why are you taking so long? Do you want to die?"
Seeing her approach, Yurika ran inside the library with visible fear and closed the door.
The four soldiers, seeing her coming, turned around and bowed their heads.
"Lady Reika, they are not cooperating."
Her face immediately showed an annoyed attitude; she tilted her face up and looked down.
"Huh? Why is there even a need to cooperate?"
Kazuka immediately jumped out and pointed at Reika's face, dissatisfaction evident on his face and his voice carrying reproach.
"Hey, you over there? What do you want to do to my friend? State the reason clearly."
All four soldiers moved behind Reika to let her speak easily. As if they had been trained beforehand.
Airi maintained her composure and spoke up:
"Do you have something you want to say to me? You can say it right here, my friends are very trustworthy."
She spoke with the arrogant voice of a girl who had not been properly raised, her eyes looking at the three with contempt.
"I have nothing to speak about with vermin like you."
She then pointed her finger at Airi and shouted loudly:
"I simply do not allow anyone here to be more beautiful than me!"
The atmosphere immediately became silent, then a loud burst of laughter rang out. Kazuka and Takeshi burst into laughter that echoed everywhere.
She looked at the two with a displeased face.
Kazuka and Takeshi laughed while clutching their stomachs. Takeshi said while laughing:
"So it turns out you see my friend is more beautiful so you feel jealous? That is truly hilarious."
Veins of blood surfaced in Reika's eyes like a sheet of ice cracking in a chain reaction; she gnashed her teeth, her angry face becoming extremely hideous.
Seeing this, all four soldiers drew their swords; the one standing near her spoke loudly, as if it were the final warning for a life:
"You are insulting a person of the Kagami clan."
Seeing them draw their swords, the three stepped back a few paces with high vigilance; at any moment she could order the soldiers to kill them.
Airi spoke up to reassure them.
"Calm down... Whatever it is, speak slowly, we did not mean it that way."
Reika stood still, her face lowered as if hiding the ugly anger on that face. Her two hands were clenched tight, her body trembling in waves.
At this moment, she only wanted to eat the three of them alive. Then she looked up, anger enveloping her as she pointed toward the three.
Her teeth ground tightly against each other with a creaking sound, then she emphasized each word:
"Do you want to die? When I catch you, I will pull out your bones."
"Capture them for me!"
All four soldiers immediately rushed forward with sharp swords in their hands and their energy radiating.
Takeshi immediately turned around and shouted loudly: "Run!"
Airi immediately ran right after him.
The sword of a soldier in front swung in a diagonal line; Kazuka immediately drew the sword from his hip and blocked the incoming attack.
Clang!!!
He used his strength to shove the sword away immediately after the collision and turned to flee.
"Hey, wait for me!"
The four soldiers chased right after them.
Airi said with urgency:
"Let's speed up."
"Yeah."
All three immediately poured more energy into their legs. Seeing that, the four soldiers did the same. But the three dashed away very fast and turned into small alleys.
Their expressions were very surprised when in just a moment they were left far behind; they immediately stopped.
"They are too fast."
Reika arrived immediately after with uncontrollable anger, her voice like the scythe of the death god pressed against their necks carrying the threat of death.
"Why did you not chase them? Do you want to die?"
Hearing that, all four soldiers immediately turned around and knelt on the ground. Everyone was trembling with fear that they would be killed.
They urgently explained, trying to save their small lives:
"They ran into the alleys, young mistress, this is where they live so they are very proficient, even chasing it is hard to catch up."
She swept her hand, as if not caring about what they said and brushing it aside from her hand.
"I do not care, find their traces for me at all costs."
"Those damn rats."
She glanced around at the people who were looking at her; there were a few laughs mixed in that silence. It made her become even angrier.
At this time, the three had run back to the wolf elder's house. Kazuka and Takeshi were still laughing loudly.
"You heard it, right Kazuka? It's killing me with laughter."
"Hahahaha"
"I heard it."
Airi spoke with a complaining voice, as if it were not at all fun for her.
"I did not expect I would get entangled in this, and for her to even think of that reason, I am speechless."
Takeshi shrugged.
"This world has many kinds of people, but truly that reason is nonsense."
"We haven't even gone outside yet and already encountered trouble."
Kazuka's stomach growled loudly.
"I am so hungry, earlier I couldn't buy anything to eat, probably later I'll go hunt some animals... but it's night already, what animal would be out."
Airi sighed.
"Sigh, I guess that's how it is."
As the three were leisurely walking along the tree-shaded trail leading back to their familiar dwelling, the late afternoon light covered the forest in a vague pale orange, like a soft silk draped loosely over the rustling leaves. The atmosphere was strangely quiet, only the sound of the wind breathing softly through each crevice of the leaves, and the sound of footsteps touching the damp ground ringing lightly, like a gentle country song slowly ending.
But then, from behind a large moss-covered rotted tree, a dark shadow lunged out as if melting from the very dark patches of the jungle. That shadow was none other than the old wolf elder, the one with the shaggy grey fur. He did not simply step out, but lunged straight in front of the whole group like a whirlwind full of dark aura, his head tilting, his mouth baring rows of pure white fangs in a sinister smile, so bizarre that the surrounding darkness seemed to shrink back in horror.
His face at that time was no different from a nightmare in animal form: distorted, fierce, and containing something both mocking and threatening. Everything around suddenly seemed mute, birds stopped singing, the wind stopped blowing, space frozen like a deathly painting.
Kazuka and Takeshi, who were walking leisurely, were immediately pulled from their flow of thoughts, jumping in startle as if a clap of thunder had just exploded right next to their ears. Their faces turned pale in an instant; they simultaneously let out a scream, long and panicked as if their souls almost slipped out of their bodies:
"Aaaaaaaaaa"
The scream echoed through the trees, overwhelming everything like a bolt of lightning tearing apart the curtain of silence.
But… amidst that small chaos, there was one person who still stood still as a statue.
Airi remained calm to the point of coldness, as if she were used to the bizarre scares of the wolf elder or simply found it truly childish and silly. She did not even bother to frown; her eyes only skimmed over that bizarre face with a cruel indifference, as if looking at a child trying to get attention with a clumsy acting game.
In the chaos of the scream and the feet scrambling backward, Airi's composure became so prominent that… it almost made the entire forest go silent to listen.
Takeshi stood there and complained.
"Are you playing that game again?"
Kazuka frowned and got angry. He clenched his fist and pointed at the wolf elder.
"You damn old man, you're old and you still play this game."
The wolf elder's face became serious. His gaze shifted to a strange scrutiny. He raised his right hand with a snake that he had grabbed by the neck; Raiga's tail was trying to wrap around the wolf elder's wrist in the weakness and fragility of that small body.
"How do you explain this? Why haven't I heard about it?"
All three were surprised, Airi immediately ran close, her face panicked, with a bit of pity.
"What are you doing? Quickly let it go."
The wolf elder used his other hand to unwrap Raiga's tail that was coiling around his wrist and let go.
"Explain."
The snake was now a bit larger than Airi's arm, the change still not too significant.
When released, Airi worriedly leaned down and reached out her hand, but it immediately crawled behind Airi's back and slithered up her body to hide behind it.
"Go to the fire, I will explain."
Sitting before the flickering fire, the snake was coiled on Airi's lap, sleeping. The wolf elder spoke up.
"So that is how it is, but you did not know what kind of background it has and still raised it?"
Airi shook her head.
"I did not know, but looking at this appearance, at first I also saw it had an unusual background."
The wolf elder seemed to catch the key point.
"Exactly, not just unusual, but extremely abnormal would be correct."
Airi looked down at Raiga with a bit of bewilderment.
"Is it that serious?"
Kazuka was immediately surprised and looked toward Raiga.
"Is that so? But it has lived with us for a long time, so we know it is very gentle."
Takeshi immediately nodded in agreement.
"That's right."
Kazuka continued:
"It is quite shy, very rarely goes out and we often bring food into the house for it to eat. And especially it does not eat raw food but eats cooked food, especially grilled meat."
The wolf elder was immediately surprised, eyes wide open, mouth agape, his face bewildered to a comical extent.
"Huh? It eats cooked food? Did you tame it?"
Kazuka glanced toward Raiga and shook his head:
"I don't know, however it eats, we just feed it that way."
"Let me tell you three kids... by the way, what is this snake's name?"
Airi replied: "It's Raiga."
"Yeah, a good name too. Now let me tell you."
"Those purple scales are quite special. When I saw it, I immediately remembered seeing it in books, the appearance when young is exactly the same. Later when it grows up, those scales will turn to black. And it is called the Black Snake."
"It is one of the strongest creatures of the Yokai."
All three opened their eyes wide, their expressions stunned as if they could not believe this small, shy creature was that strong.
The three could only glance at Raiga with confusion.
The wolf elder continued, his voice lowering.
"It went extinct around... about... I don't remember clearly. But to make it easy to understand, it was during the time of the 18th Demon King. At that time, the Demon race mobilized a large number of the most bellicose demons to attack the Yokai. And at that time, the King of the Yokai was a Black Snake, because it is one of the strongest creatures, so being King was only natural."
"I only remember the books saying: the king of the previous Yokai generation had a grudge with the Demon race, and he fled. Of course, the Demon species is very bellicose and they caused the Yokai to be heavily damaged. And because the King of the Yokai at that time was a Black Snake, therefore most black snakes gathered there to live and you understand the rest yourselves."
"It is truly surprising that there are still black snakes now. It could be there are a few left or this black snake because it was not incubated, it had to take a very long time to hatch."
"Thinking about it, it has been a long time."
"One reign of a Demon King is about 100,000,000 years, and now, the current Demon King is of the 43rd generation. So that means it was in the egg for a very long time, and only just managed to hatch because no one transferred energy to incubate it."
All three had eyes shaped like 'O' and mouths like 'A' when hearing this race-level information.
Takeshi, as if unable to believe it, asked again to be sure:
"Really? That long?"
"Well of course, these battles were a very long time ago but it was a major battle, so I think the city library will have it, you guys try to find it when you have time."
Airi sat stroking Raiga's head, with eyes of pity.
"I truly did not expect, if it is the only living snake. Then it will be very lonely."
The wolf elder nodded.
"Yes, and is it a male or female snake?"
"I don't know."
"Then does it understand human speech, since it is an intelligent species it will understand, right?"
"It understands."
"So, wake it up and ask."
Airi took her finger and poked its head a few times, it immediately raised its head and woke up, looking at her with a cute face. Airi also had to pause for a moment.
"Are you a female snake?"
It immediately nodded. Then Airi stroked its head again.
"Yeah, so go back to sleep."
The wolf elder continued:
"Actually I am also not sure, but there are some types of snakes that do not need a male to reproduce, I think you should hope it is so."
The gazes of the three lowered, Airi sat gazing at Raiga.
"Hope? Hope so."
The wolf elder seemed to think of something, which could bring a bit of hope that was originally fragile for Raiga.
"Ah, I just thought of this, I think one day you guys should try."
"I also only read it in books, okay. After a period of the attack by the demon species, a user of dark energy found a black snake, and at that time, it was the last one. He captured it, it seems it was a female snake."
"And that black snake was placed in the deepest floor of a Dungeon created by him. And it was the final boss of that Dungeon. After that, it was cleared, and that snake was killed."
"What I want to say is: maybe you guys try to find that place, who knows if that black snake managed to lay any eggs. Who knows, there might be."
Airi nodded, her eyes showing a bit of hope for the future.
"Yeah, that is also possible, worth hoping for. But how would we know where that Dungeon is?"
The wolf elder closed his eyes and shrugged, his head shaking slightly.
"Who knows?, this you guys have to find yourselves, plus such an important event will surely be recorded in books. As for whether you can find it or not, that is up to you."
Kazuka immediately complained.
"Are you challenging us? How can we find it? From that time until now how can it still exist?"
Takeshi also added.
"That's right."
The wolf elder: "Who knows? That is why I said this is only hope."
His voice shifted to a bit of irony.
"At that time, probably your ancestors did not even exist yet."
Kazuka immediately replied:
"Your ancestors were the same."
"You guys must know: Only extremely strong individuals create such a Dungeon, it is usually the tomb of the creator, also the place keeping his entire fortune. And of course, no matter how much it is destroyed, it certainly still exists, it has always been so from ancient times until now. Do you guys see anyone with money who builds a tomb for themselves in a simple way? Surely not."
"Therefore, just hope. But I remind you, also do not hope too much for anything, sometimes it is exactly disappointment, and disappointment is very easy to lead to discouragement. I said this during training, now I remind you so you remember."