So I'm a Snake, Who Cares?

"Ubaba, big brother?"

Obern's face froze.

Did the Margrave just call him big brother?

"Ababa."

The Margrave's voice was drawn out. It seemed to have gotten thinner too.

His pronunciation had become clumsy and tended to slur at the ends.

The "ababa" babbling especially sounded just like baby talk.

It didn't suit the old, thick-lipped Margrave at all.

Margrave Sareb had clearly undergone a major mental change (whether voluntary or not).

And unfortunately for Obern, the Margrave's physical condition wasn't good either visually.

A large bump had formed where he hit his head when falling, with dried blood.

His face, soaked in alcohol, still had a purple tinge.

Dana and Rahan recognized these symptoms at a glance.

And as trained guards and slaves, they took appropriate action.

They immediately entered the carriage.

Dana kicked Obern away from the Margrave.

And Rahan instantly drew his chain sickle and threw it at the snake.

Until just recently, they had been sharing laughs together.

The couple had found the snake cute, and liked Obern who showed surprisingly human aspects.

However, in the current situation, such things didn't matter at all.

More professional than anyone. Rahan threw his chain sickle.

Swoosh-

Though it was too dangerous a weapon to use in a narrow carriage, situations differ depending on who uses it.

Rahan was a master.

It was fast enough and on a trajectory perfect for slicing the snake...

Clang!

...But failed to spill blood, only making a metallic sound.

Instead of tearing the snake's mouth, the sickle was caught in the snake's jaws.

Crunch-

The snake's bite force shouldn't be that high.

How did it catch it?

The snake's and Rahan's eyes met.

Those round eyes that once looked docile and even foolish.

Now they were looking at Rahan as if burning.

He was startled and tried to retrieve his chain sickle.

But it wouldn't work as he wanted.

Creak, creeeak-

Such sounds came from the tautly pulled chain.

The snake had tied its tail to the fixed sofa leg to brace itself. It looked almost like a tug of war.

Unlike Rahan who was sweating profusely while applying force, the snake seemed relaxed.

A pen and paper appeared and wrote in the air.

「Fool.」

Fool?

Rahan really felt like a fool.

"What are you doing Rahan!"

Dana who had rushed at Obern seemed to have fulfilled her duty.

She was holding his neck from behind.

The sword in her right hand was threatening where Obern's carotid artery would be.

"Snake, drop the chain sickle quietly. Otherwise this magician will die, you know."

As expected of Dana.

Rahan felt renewed admiration for his lovely wife.

To turn the tables and take a hostage instead.

But the snake didn't release the chain sickle.

Rather.

It closed the open carriage door.

Bang, click-

And even locked it.

Bang, bang, click, click.

It closed all the windows too, turning the carriage into a sealed room.

Clack.

Only then did the snake release the chain sickle.

But it didn't seem to intend to surrender.

"Snake, back off!"

The snake ignored Dana and even climbed onto the Margrave's shoulder.

The Margrave who would normally have freaked out was just crouching and trembling like a child.

"I said back off! I'll really kill this magician!"

And Dana's blade tip really dug into Obern's neck skin.

Just one more bit deeper and blood would fountain out, and he would die.

"..."

But surprisingly, Obern's expression remained cold.

As if his own death didn't matter at all.

Seeing that face of someone so mentally strong, Rahan suddenly felt a chill.

And.

The anomaly began suddenly, and too quickly to stop.

It started with a red sphere appearing above Dana's head.

And in front of the Margrave's nose, at Rahan's solar plexus, below his crotch.

Spheres of red magic appeared in the carriage.

One, two, four, eight, sixteen.

Continuing without stopping.

Until it filled the carriage so full you couldn't take a single step.

The body hair stood on end from the magic filling the carriage.

Magic missiles.

So many magic missiles they were hard to count had taken over the carriage interior.

Rahan instinctively calculated their strength and how much he could withstand.

If he kicked open the carriage door and pounced to protect the Margrave...

Kiiing-!

At that moment, those magic missiles started spinning.

Their power clearly increased drastically.

All his calculations until now became useless in an instant.

「Fools.」

At that moment when even Dana froze.

Words were written on paper.

「If you wanted a hostage, you should have brought Phili first.」

Phili, they should have taken the prince hostage.

But that wasn't a possible situation.

「Dana, if you don't put down the sword, you die.」

The snake's death threat was bigger scale than expected.

「You, and Rahan, and the Margrave, and all the servants here too...」

They had just thought it was the magician Obern's familiar.

Rahan and Dana's judgment was completely wrong.

The opposite.

This snake was the mastermind behind everything.

「And the traitor Oliver who ran away too.」

Though they didn't know what that meant.

Dana gritted her teeth and gripped her sword tighter.

The snake wasn't just good at threats.

Living up to its reputation as a wise, wicked, and cunning beast from ancient times.

「If you put down the sword and cooperate with us, I'll help you too.」

It knew how to whisper sweet words too.

「I'll remove the curse the Margrave put on you.」

The magic linked to the mark drawn on the Margrave's wrist, the spell that had dragged the couple to hell.

It was saying it would remove that.

Dana showed clear signs of wavering.

The hand holding the sword trembled slightly.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

It wasn't something to decide alone.

She turned her head to look at her husband, Rahan.

Rahan very slowly nodded.

That meant...

Clang.

Dana dropped her sword to the floor.

"Sasasat!"

The snake laughed.

In an instant, the magic missiles filling the carriage vanished into the air.

「Then we're friends again now.」

What nerve.

Rahan thought so for a moment.

==

Phew, that was close.

I had liked Rahan and Dana.

If I had ended up killing them all, how bad would my dreams have been?

Good thing that didn't happen.