The Fake Bride Offered to the Snake God - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

My name is Ailia, and this year, I am Yuehuai Village’s Sacrificial Bride.

I was not the one who was supposed to enter the Serpent Lair. It should have been the wealthy merchant’s daughter chosen by Priest Malo.

But my younger brother, Norn, was dying.

He had been coughing up black blood since the day he was born. The apothecary said it was the Snake God’s Venomous Curse, and only the Black Lotus from the Serpent Lair could suppress it.

The villagers spoke of the Black Lotus as if it were a divine medicine.

Only later did I learn that it was not medicine at all. It was the blood the Snake God had shed after his bones were gouged out.

When Malo placed the Black Lotus Medicine bottle in front of me, his smile was warm and gentle.

“Go in her place.”

“As long as you survive tonight, this bottle is yours.”

I asked, “And if I don’t survive?”

He looked at me and said nothing.

I understood.

Norn clutched my sleeve and sobbed. He was so thin his wrist bones dug into me.

“Sister, don’t go.”

I tucked the medicine bottle into my robes and stroked his head.

“I’m only going to trick a snake.”

I said it lightly.

In truth, I was so terrified my legs had gone weak.

Everyone in Yuehuai Village knew the Snake God Semyre did not eat the living.

He only bit liars.

Three hundred years ago, a woman tricked him. She promised she would return to marry him, then turned around and brought the Temple Knights to burn down the Serpent Lair.

The Snake God did not die.

The woman did.

The village also said that before she died, she left behind a Silver Bell, and within it was recorded the last true thing she ever said.

Since then, every bride sent into the Serpent Lair who had ever hidden a lie in her heart would become a cold, empty husk by dawn.

When Malo lowered the red veil over my face, he said in a low voice, “Remember, your name is Weilan.”

Weilan was the name of the merchant’s daughter.

I tightened my grip on the medicine bottle hidden in my sleeve.

“I know.”

“Don’t give yourself away.” Malo patted my shoulder. “Your brother is still in the village.”

That sentence worked better than any curse.

When I was carried into the Serpent Lair, the red bridal sedan tilted downward the entire way.

There was no wind outside the curtain, only damp, frigid air that clung to my ankles and seeped into my bones.

The bearers stopped at the mouth of the cave, abandoned me there, and ran.

I sat there for a very long time before I heard the rustling.

It sounded like countless fine silver chains dragging across stone.

A pale hand lifted the sedan curtain.

I raised my head and saw the Snake God.

He did not look as terrifying as he did in the village murals.

His features were cold, his black hair fell to his waist, and his pupils were narrow lines of dark gold.

Below the waist, he was hidden in black mist. Now and then, a flash of silvery-white scales glimmered through it.

He glanced at me.

Then he said, “You again.”

My head buzzed.

Malo had not told me the Snake God could mistake people too.

I swallowed.

“Great god, I am Weilan.”

He smiled.

There was not a trace of warmth in that smile.

“Liar.”