The Fake Bride Offered to the Snake God - Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Half a year later, a letter arrived from the Royal City.

Adelan, the Temple’s High Priest, had been put on trial, and Malo had given up three hundred years’ worth of Vessel records from Yuehuai Village.

They had done similar things in many villages.

It was just that Yuehuai Village had been the longest-running-and the dirtiest.

The messenger didn’t dare enter the Serpent Lair. He set the letter on the stone steps and ran.

When Norn brought it back, he also happened to pick up a pouch of gold coins.

“Compensation,” he said.

“From the Royal City, for you.”

I opened the pouch and saw a tiny Silver Bell inside.

My expression changed.

Semyre reached for it, but I clenched it in my fist first.

“Don’t touch it.”

He looked at me.

I set the Silver Bell on the table and used a cloth to pry it open.

Livia’s voice wasn’t inside.

Only a very soft recording.

It had been left by the Royal City Witch.

“Livia’s remains have been found.”

“She was not a traitor.”

“Before she died, she entrusted her child to the Northern Caravan. The child survived.”

“That line eventually wandered from place to place before settling in Yuehuai Village-which means it is your mother’s clan.”

“Miss Ailia, if you wish, you may come to the Royal City to reclaim her belongings.”

After I finished listening, I couldn’t quite describe what I felt.

It wasn’t sadness.

It wasn’t happiness either.

It was like an old door that had been shut for a very long time had finally been pushed open, just a crack, from the other side.

Semyre sat across from me, his fingertips resting on the rim of his cup.

The water in the cup rippled in widening circles.

I asked, “Do you want to go?”

He didn’t answer.

I asked again, “Semyre, do you want to go see her?”

He lifted his eyes to me.

Over the past half year, he had rarely mistaken me for someone else anymore.

But in that moment, I was still a little afraid.

Afraid he would nod.

And afraid he would shake his head.

He set down the cup.

“I do.”

My chest tightened.

Then he said, “Come with me.”

“Me?”

“Mm.”

“Why?”

Semyre looked at me and said, very slowly, “I want to return the past to her.”

“And then come back with you.”

I clutched the Silver Bell and didn’t speak for a long time.

Beside us, Norn covered his ears.

“Can you two be any less roundabout?”

I glared at him.

He immediately hugged the gold coins and ran off.

Only Semyre and I remained in the cavern.

I lowered my head and looked at my hand.

The mark from where he had bitten me was still on my palm, very faint, like a crescent moon.

“Semyre.”

“Mm.”

“Do you still hate liars?”

He thought about it.

“I do.”

My heart clenched.

He lifted my hand and looked at that bite mark.

“But it depends.”

“For example?”

“For example, someone is clearly afraid but lies and tells me she isn’t.”

He lowered his head and gently brushed my palm.

“For that kind, I bite more lightly.”

My ears heated at once.

“Then what if someone lies to you and says she’ll come back?”

Semyre was quiet for a while.

“I would ask her if she wanted me to wait.”

“And if she said yes?”

“Then I would wait.”

“And if she didn’t come back?”

He looked at me.

“I would go find her.”

I smiled a little.

“That’s more like it.”

The old Semyre had been trapped by a single lie for three hundred years.

Now, at last, he knew that when someone you were waiting for didn’t come, you could go find them.

And when you heard a lie, you could ask about it with your own mouth.