Chapter 205
He immediately took Yurik into his arms. The snakes' encirclement continued to tighten.
He couldn't even see in detail where they were all coming from.
Except for a slightly round spot at their feet, everything was covered with snakes, making them unable to move.
"Is it because I bothered the lizard...?"
"No. It's not because of you, so calm down."
Yurik, who was hugging his waist tightly, asked in a trembling voice.
But no matter how he thought about it, this wasn't Yurik's fault.
All the child had done was watch a lizard from nearby.
So the snakes' encirclement must have had another purpose.
Probably. "It's okay. Stay still. Don't try to step on them, let's just stay still for a moment. If you're scared, do you want to climb onto my feet?"
"It's, it's not that bad..."
"Good boy. You're brave."
The snakes were standing rigidly with their heads turned toward them.
Occasionally the snakes would only flick their thin tongues, and hot sunlight beat down over their heads.
They couldn't stay like this all day.
He could see the tense Yurik wiping sweat from his nape. He had no choice but to speak to the snakes first.
"I think we need an explanation of why you're doing this to us. Did the 'children of Ig' have business with me?"
In this world, there was a god particularly friendly to reptiles.
The Coiled King, father of snakes and vipers, the Scaled One, the Snake God.
Though there were many such epithets attached, the essence was only one.
The oldest snake in this universe, and like the Elder Things, a powerful being that had landed on this planet.
A snake that would eventually become a god in the future, Ig.
Ig, who had nested on the planet, poured unstinting love and marks upon the reptiles he cherished.
One of those marks was the white crescent moon pattern that appeared like a symbol on their heads.
The heads of the snakes surrounding him and Yurik were full of small crescents.
Ig's favorites wouldn't interfere with the path of passing people without any thought.
Should this ultimately be seen as Ig's will?
But he didn't think he'd had any contact with Ig until now.
"It seems you've misunderstood something. We were just trying to pass through here. If we startled you, I apologize. But we had no intention of causing harm."
The snakes' small black pupils stared at him.
Even after doing this much, they didn't seem inclined to step aside?
"If you don't want both sides to dry up and die here, how about bringing someone who can communicate? That's the only way we can resolve this conflict."
-Hiss.
That was the end of the snake's response.
Since snakes weren't beings like the Elder Things, they had no proper language.
So without knowing what that meant, whether it was refusal or permission, Yurik and he had no choice but to stay silent again.
When the dry wind swept across the ground several times,
A faint vibration was felt from the floor.
Yurik clung to his side in alarm. He wrapped one arm around little Yurik's shoulder and faced the group of shadows approaching from beyond the wasteland.
Only after the thick sand and wind cleared could he recognize them. They were snakes wearing robes with slender builds.
Those covered densely with shiny scales of blue-green, black, and white had bright yellow eyes and forked tongues.
The leader of the snake-people, wearing white tunic and robes, was particularly taller than the other individuals.
As the snake-people approached, the snakes that had surrounded them split to either side, making way.
The snake-person in white robes came forward through the snakes and approached him and Yurik.
Narrowed diamond-shaped pupils scanned him. Then it commanded in a strangely creaking voice.
"Our father... has invited you. If you follow obediently, both sides will enjoy peaceful conversation, but if not, you will surely meet destruction."
Ig? Suddenly inviting them, who had nothing to do with snakes?
He and Yurik looked at each other briefly.
It was the most threatening and murderous invitation they had ever received.
*
Ig, the King of Snakes.
The grimoire Pnakotic described various gods and life forms including the Elder Things.
However, that book couldn't be called perfect either.
While some, like alien life forms such as the Elder Things, were written about in detail from appearance to habits,
There were also life forms and gods that were replaced with simple explanations.
Ig was also one of the gods replaced with brief explanations.
All he knew was that Ig had the form of a snake and was very pleased with snakes and reptiles of similar appearance to himself.
...That's why, even when the snake-people took them underground, he hadn't expected to encounter another city beneath the ground.
A black underground kingdom that could only be seen by going down into a cave beneath a small rock.
Sharply refined stones and hard earth lined up on both sides of the flat road served as ceiling and pillars supporting the castle.
The winding narrow stairs and corridors had glowing stones embedded in them, similar to what he had seen in the Elder Things' city,
And the sound of water droplets falling could be heard like a chorus from somewhere.
A world without sun or fresh air, but which seemed livable enough with the sound of flowing water and abundant moss and fungi.
It was a perfect ecosystem where nothing from the surface could intrude.
Though Yurik was tense and gripping his arm tightly, he couldn't close his mouth at the fantastic scenery he was seeing for the first time.
The snake-person who had been gliding over the black basalt ahead looked back at them.
"Consider it an honor to set foot in the first city we built, the great Valusia."
Valusia.
The name of the black kingdom and the place where snake-people dwelt.
"Since we're invited, we had to come. Didn't you say you'd kill us if we didn't?"
At his retort, the snake-person stared at him with eerie pupils before turning away again.
More than that, the first city.
It seemed the snake-people and snake king Ig hadn't been on this planet for as long as he'd thought.
They had probably settled after the Elder Things. The Elder Things were already laying down material transport routes between cities.
If so, there might be quite a time gap between the Elder Things' planetary landing and Ig's migration.
Should he be thankful that he didn't have to rot here for a billion years?
Of course, even if Ig's migration was much later than the Elder Things', the snake-people's establishment of an underground kingdom was a great achievement.
They were one of the races that had developed civilization using unrefined resources on a primitive planet.
Moreover, they hadn't brought alien technology or knowledge like the Elder Things.
Even while thinking about the snake-people's civilization, he and the snake-people steadily progressed.
The deeper they went underground, the more snake-people began to appear.
There were snake-people wearing robes like those currently leading them, but most were not.
Most wore long skirts around their waists, which looked like sophisticated aprons with the back open so as not to catch on their tails.
The snake-people wearing only skirts politely made way when the robed snake-people passed by. At some crossroads, they would step aside and wait until all the robed snake-people had passed.
If this was their own way of showing respect, the robed snake-people clearly held special roles in society.
He didn't know whether snake-people had adopted a class system like humans, but if the distinction was this clear, probably...
"Yesung, look over there!"
Yurik excitedly shouted in a low voice.
Looking in the direction he was pointing, several young snake-people were giggling while covering the ground with both hands.
When one of them slightly lifted their hand, several thread snakes emerged through the soft earth as if drawn out by the hand.
The sight of them shaking their heads this way and that following the young snake-person's hand was strange and fascinating.
Was that possible because snake-people were similar to snakes?
"It's snake-people magic. Magic learned from our great father."
"Magic?"
"Only we can use it. It's not recorded anywhere and grown snake-people teach it directly to the immature ones."
"Do you call something like that magic?"
"They're young snake-people, so it's only at the level of pranks. The magic of grown ones is much crueler and more painful than that."
"That's interesting."
What he could know about magic didn't greatly exceed the level of Doctor Strange or Harry Potter.
To think that simply calling and controlling snakes was also magic - somehow it was deflating. He had thought at least producing fire from hands would be possible.
Come to think of it, something was strange.
Certainly until previous cycles, there had been stories about beings called wizards.
But what they did, what abilities they had - even he who had entered this world didn't know.
Besides the content that the Central Temple was greatly wary of them because they performed acts contrary to divine providence, nothing else had been revealed.
That's why in this world, they were actively using artifacts obtainable as payment for deals rather than magic.
Wait a minute. Then to get artifacts, who exactly did they have to make deals with...
"Yesung."
"Ah. Sorry. I was thinking about something else for a moment. So that's what you call magic."
"Magic?"
"Yes. If you learn magic or get your hands on a grimoire, won't you be able to do it too?"
"I can do that too? I definitely want to try it later."
As he was explaining to Yurik in detail, one of the snake-people following behind made a mocking sound.
"It looks like it's been less than a few years since you broke out of your shell - go eat more slugs first."
He and Yurik looked at each other and their expressions became subtly strange.
Yurik preferred fruits over slugs. Moreover, though he didn't know for sure, the young snake-people playing pranks now didn't seem like they would be over 7,000 years old.
Furthermore, this Yurik was closer to having occurred naturally rather than being born from an egg or anything.
The snake-person's sarcasm wasn't unpleasant, but it did confuse them somewhat.
Indeed, wherever you went, species differences were extreme.
"It's okay. Don't listen. You'll be able to use magic too."
"Yes."
They had to live for a very long time - surely he couldn't fail to use even one magic spell during that time.
Given the opportunity, he would send him anywhere to learn magic.
Making such a resolution, they passed the young snake-people.
The path continued downward. The surface was distant, and they could only stop walking after reaching a place deeper than the path Orpheus had descended to meet Eurydice.
There was no light there.
Only pitch-black darkness, damp and quiet air, and the smell of cold underground rock and earth.
However, even with slightly sensitive senses, one could immediately notice.
That something invisible to the naked eye lurked beyond this darkness.
A cold wind that couldn't exist underground touched his face.
The snake-people standing in front of and behind him all prostrated themselves on the ground and bowed their heads.
The only being worthy of their worship whispered from the darkness.
[I smell dry earth and ice. I have been waiting for you, son of bitter cold.]