Six-Armed Serpent Demon

Page 26

The female dragon priestess before him could no longer contain her anger and almost roared at the paladin who had interrupted earlier, "You tell her!"

After saying that, she turned around and strode toward the side door of the chapel, with the other two priests quickly following her.

The three people disappeared through the side door of the chapel, and the heavy wooden door slammed against the frame with a loud bang.

The demon turned its head to face the paladin.

As was her habit, she tilted her pretty face slightly up to him, staring at the top of his head to overcome her social anxiety, completely unaware of how annoying this glaring, nostril-nosed manner was.

She caught a glimpse out of the corner of her eye that the paladin was very young, not even twenty years old.

Fortunately, being face-to-face with such a beautiful woman, the young paladin lowered his gaze, not daring to lift his eyelids, his face flushed red: "Lady Ivy-Beate, you, you are the eldest daughter of the prestigious Beate family..."

"Well."

This was the only response she knew.

At the same time, I felt both fearful and uneasy:

This is terrible; I'm not tall enough. Looking up at people's heads like this requires me to crane my neck, which is far less comfortable than when I was in my original form as a six-armed snake demon, standing at 2.7 meters tall.

Perhaps in the coming period, I'll need to use my deformability to stretch my legs a bit more, so I can grow taller...

"once."

Another slightly older paladin beside her glanced at her sideways, making no attempt to hide the malice in his tone, "They were once the prestigious Beate family."

“Yes, in the past,” the young paladin said hastily, “but, but now, your family has vanished…”

"who are you?"

She interrupted him curtly: "What's your name?"

The young paladin stammered, "Ah, I, I am..."

The malicious paladin interrupted him: "He is Juan Gilero, your admirer. He used to send you many anonymous flowers. When he learned that you were engaged to the son of that gentleman, he cried a lot. A lady from a prestigious family."

The young paladin Juan, enraged and humiliated, cried out, "Squad Leader!"

The malice paladin squad leader, El, shrugged.

Having just acquired the name "Ivy," she turned to squad leader El with an air of disdain, rolling her eyes at him.

Squad leader Elton immediately narrowed his eyes, his temples bulging with veins.

She asked curiously, "That gentleman just now?"

Al took two deep breaths and gestured with his chin toward the side door.

“That’s the same man who questioned you just now, the High Priest of the Ottokan family,” he said lazily. “By the way, young lady, do you really have no recollection of me or Ador?”

She shook her head decisively.

El sneered dismissively.

He seemed about to say something sarcastic or harsh, but the magic effect of her lying detection hadn't worn off yet, and everyone could see that she was telling the truth.

El's eyes flickered, but in the end he said nothing, his gaze simply dimming.

Then, she learned from the young paladin Juan that the Beate family was a prestigious family in the city of Flame Earth, a family of dragon bloodlines who had served the bronze dragon for generations.

Those with dragon lineage are people whose ancestors were favored by dragons. Although they are human, they inherit a faint trace of dragon blood and retain some dragon features in their bodies, most commonly in the shape of their pupils—which explains why everyone is oblivious to her vertical pupils, even though the original owner's pupils were yellowish-green while hers were emerald green—but in this generation, the Beate family is not large, with only Miss Ivy Beate and a younger brother under four years old in the main branch.

Ivy-Beate's aptitude was quite ordinary (this was Juan's assessment; the Six-Armed Serpent Demon believed the truth was probably quite poor). Those with dragon blood possessed incredible charisma, natural-born sorcerers or paladins, but despite her diligent training, Ivy-Beate remained a low-ranking paladin, unqualified to become a high-ranking officer or enter the city's leadership. Her only advantage was her noble birth and stunning beauty, ensuring she wouldn't have to worry about marriage. Therefore, Ivy's father, the head of the Beate family, decided to let his daughter contribute her remaining talents by marrying into the dragon priest family of Otukan to ensure the family's honor would not be lost.

This was a perfect marriage, not uncommon even in the City of Flame.

The only problem is that, although dragons are of noble status, they don't look very human.

The Dragonkin are a servant race created by the many divine dragons of the world of Abel. The first Dragonkin were the most devout followers of the dragons. The dragon masters bestowed upon their followers a gift, transforming them into higher life forms similar to themselves. Regardless of whether the followers were humans, dwarves, or other races before the transformation, the transformed Dragonkin are bipedal, scale-covered humanoid creatures with heads resembling their creators.

Most of the dragons today are descendants of the first dragons. This is because dragons endowed their offspring with the same reproductive and fertility abilities as their own, and they can produce dragon offspring by interbreeding with any race.

However, their looks are definitely beyond the realm of normal human aesthetics. Although one could bear it with the lights off at night, Ivy Beatrice, the protagonist of the arranged marriage, felt she couldn't get over it.

So, one day three or four months ago, she eloped with Ador, a human apprentice servant who admired her.

Ivy Beatrice's actions caused a huge uproar among the upper echelons of Yantu City.

The Otukan family, with whom the Beate family intended to form a marriage alliance, is the only dragon family in the past two hundred years to have evolved from a human. The Otukan family owes this honor entirely to their devout faith in the bronze dragons. Enraged by the broken engagement, they consider it a profound insult: not only a betrayal of the contract, but also a desecration of the bronze dragons.

So they persuaded the other dragon families in the City of Flame to join forces to exclude and attack the Beate family from all sides.

The head of the Beate family fell seriously ill and was bedridden, passing away a month later. The family's business and wealth were completely divided up by distant relatives and in-laws. Thus, the prestigious Beate family was destroyed.

The demon, disguised as Ivy Beatrice, nodded thoughtfully.

"So, how is Ivy-Beate's three-year-old... I mean, my three-year-old brother?"

She was somewhat intrigued to hear that the original owner of the body she had impersonated had a younger brother, but that was all.

In her previous life on Earth, she came from a dual-income family. The national policy allowed for three children. However, the cost of raising children was too high, and her parents simply couldn't afford it. They also had to earn money to support their family, leaving them with insufficient time to care for their children. Therefore, let alone a third child, even their planned second child was forced to be postponed indefinitely.

—Perhaps after I travel to another world, they will restart that shelved plan?

She was lost in thought.

"Your younger brother..."

Juan said somewhat awkwardly, "He died of malnutrition a little over a month ago due to lack of care..."

The imposter Ivy Beatrice blinked.

He blurted out, "It's perfect—uh, I was being sarcastic."

This is certainly a major positive development.

With her family fortune gone and all her relatives dead, Ivy Beatrice no longer knows anyone in the city. Even if she does, they wouldn't bother with her now that she's infamous.

In this way, no one can detect the difference between her and the original owner.

Oh, by the way, Juan mentioned that the Beate family might have a few distant relatives who took advantage of the situation to seize the family fortune, but that's irrelevant.

“Don’t you want to ask Ador’s family?” El asked from the side.

She paused for a second before recalling that she had heard the squad leader named El mention this name earlier; it was the man Ivy Beatrice had eloped with.

I casually asked, "Is that man doing alright at home?"

"Thank you for your concern, but how much better do you think it can get?"

Al said, "That immature bastard came from a poor family. His father died early, and he only had his mother and sister. The two women raised him, hoping that he would be able to support the family when he grew up. In the end, the person he admired dragged him into a struggle for a great true love and against worldly fate."

"You don't want to marry someone you don't love, that's true."

"But you shouldn't drag innocent people into this. He's your servant, he obeys you completely, and I know you hardly ever talk to each other in private. Do you really love him, or are you just using his naive little thoughts as a tool to resist an arranged marriage?"

"He ran away with you, leaving behind two women who were condemned by everyone and had no means of livelihood. No one could bear the priest's wrath, and no one was willing to hire his mother and sister. They said he was a gigolo who seduced young ladies, that his moral depravity was due to a lack of upbringing, and that they were harlots who would ruin other people's marriages like him... The two women couldn't bear it and committed suicide by burning charcoal two months ago."

The imposter Ivy Beatrice keenly sensed the anger lurking beneath his calm demeanor.

Her eyes were bright and alert as she looked intently into the air above his head.

What is your relationship with that man?

"...I'm that childish jerk's ex-fiancé. I went to serve in the north a year ago and only heard about this a month ago and rushed back. If it weren't for this mess, we should be married now."

El couldn't help but stare at her, mesmerized by her stunning beauty.

He initially looked at this woman with hatred, but in the end, he couldn't help but be attracted by her stunning beauty... This made him hate himself as well.

"Young lady, I don't care if you have amnesia or if your brain was eaten by lizardmen."

He said coldly, “But there was once a naive fool whose whole family died because of you. So, at least when you mention him, call him by his name, Ador—and if I hear any more of that man, I’m afraid I might draw my sword and kill you.”

She stared at the air above his head, blinked her emerald green vertical pupils, and then nodded seriously.

“I understand. Although I don’t consider myself Ivy Beatrice.”

Chapter 30 A Place to Settle Down

After leaving the inner city temple, the six-armed serpent demon found Raphael, the sunglasses-wearing dinosaur, and the bear cubs, Gugu and Guguxiong.

Captain El made up an excuse, saying his dog was about to have puppies, and left. He left behind the young paladin Juan to lead the amnesiac "Ivy-Beate" and her group to her residence.

They walked down the cliffside path in silence.

As the sun sets, the originally iron-gray sky transitions from reddish-brown to blackish-gray.

Standing here and gazing into the distance, the boundless sea reflects the glow of the setting sun, its shimmering waves glowing red and bright, like a furnace of boiling molten steel.

Upon arriving at the next level, the aristocratic residential area, Juan turned to the imposter Ivy Beate.

"I'm sorry, Miss Beatrice."

Juan said, “You’ve just returned, so there are some things you don’t know. The Beate family’s ancestral home and most of their properties have already been sold. As far as I know, the Beate family currently only has six warehouses available for rent and a simple house, which is now occupied by your cousins.”

Ivy Beatrice hummed in response, offering no further comment.

Juan said, "But they're all at the bottom, uh, in Fire Harbor. It's a mixed bag there, and the security isn't very good..."

He nervously stole a glance at the silent Miss Beatrice.

The sea breeze tousled the woman's fiery red hair. Her fair and delicate face was bathed in a golden-red light. Her slender and perfect figure, shimmering in the sunset, seemed to be surrounded by golden flames, so dazzling and captivating.

The young paladin mustered his courage: "Well, it's like this, I have a house here, which is entirely my own property and has nothing to do with the Gilero family. If you need to stay there, you can take your three pets with you—"

"Goo-oo-goo," the baby owl bear beside it uttered a sound that seemed to fit the mood, whether it was a bear goo or a goo bear.

"Thank you so much."

Her clear, melodious voice initially pleased him, but then disappointed him. "But there's no need. Burn the harbor, lead the way."

By the time they reached Fire Harbor, it was completely dark.

The damp sea breeze carried a strong, salty smell, and the sound of waves crashing in the wind was like the sleeping sea breathing heavily.

The imposter young lady discovered that most of the houses here were dark.

People were either asleep or unable to light oil lamps, it was unclear.

Juan raised an inextinguishable flame.

Two people—no, one person, a demon, and three monsters—walked unsteadily through the darkness and silence.

Outside the illumination range of the undying flame, a dark shadow occasionally flickers. But upon closer inspection, the shadow vanishes, as if it had never been there at all.

After winding their way through the streets, they found a simple house in a corner of the harbor, far from other buildings.

This is a single-story house, shaped like a capital "L". From the outside, it looks quite spacious inside, at least 200 square meters.

The house's exterior is just a bit dilapidated.

The roof was covered with thatch instead of tiles.

The walls were made of wooden planks and were extremely dilapidated.

The salt in the sea breeze is highly corrosive, and the house hadn't been maintained for a long time. When the wind blew, the whole building groaned and trembled, as if it might collapse at any moment.

Juan walked onto the porch and knocked twice.

Seeing no response from inside the door, he switched to using his fists and began pounding on the door.

After smashing things for a while, a light came on in the pitch-black room, and the sounds of a woman's wanton laughter and heavy footsteps could be heard.

The door opened.

Accompanied by a warm, cloyingly sweet stench, a fat figure appeared in the doorway, carrying a dimly lit oil lamp.

"What the hell are you doing? If you have so much energy, you can use it inside later," she chuckled. "Coming here so late, are you that impatient?"

The woman's voice was loud and sharp, with a hint of meanness beneath its wantonness.

This was a plump, middle-aged woman. Her head was wrapped in a headscarf, with a few strands of reddish-brown hair peeking out from the edge and hanging down her pale, swollen cheeks, which were pale from obesity. She wore a gaudy, gold-embroidered nightgown, deliberately with the collar pulled low to reveal dizzying white flesh and a deep cleavage.

Juan rudely brought the Undying Flame close to the fat woman's greasy face, almost poking her nose.

The fat woman hurriedly raised her hand to shield her eyes from the light.

"Stop taking pictures, stop taking pictures, Your Excellency," she cried out in a panic, "Is there something you need?"

She recognized the Undying Flame; this magical artifact was not something ordinary people could afford. Only two types of people would use it for lighting: wealthy and powerful upper-class individuals, or desperate adventurers. Neither type was likely to patronize her business, nor were they people she could afford to offend.

Juan asked with disgust, "Lovin-Beate-Swango?"

The fat woman forced a smile.

“I’m willing to serve you, sir,” she winked at Juan, almost making him vomit on the spot.