The Fake Bride Offered to the Snake God - Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Norn survived.

The scale-like markings on the back of his neck vanished, and his breathing steadied until he sounded like a real child.

Semyre, however, collapsed beside the pool.

I tried to help him up, but he avoided my hand.

“Don’t touch me.”

His voice was terribly hoarse.

“I can’t control the poison right now.”

The wound on his chest had not closed. Dark red blood dripped into the water.

With every drop that fell, a Black Lotus bloomed across the surface.

I knelt beside him, my hand frozen in midair, not knowing where to put it.

“Will you die?”

“No.”

He said it flatly.

“I’ll just want to bite someone.”

I looked at his pale lips.

“Would biting me make you feel better?”

Semyre lifted his eyes to mine.

That look was cold. Fierce, too.

“Ailia, do you think you’re very good at saving people?”

His words stunned me.

Bracing himself against the stone wall, he sat up and moved a little farther away from me.

“Don’t offer yourself up to someone else’s mouth.”

“I’m not.”

“You are.”

His voice dropped lower.

“Livia was the same.”

Suddenly, I felt a little angry.

Not because he was comparing me to Livia.

But because he was in so much pain, yet still insisted on pushing away everyone who came close.

“Then you shouldn’t have saved Norn,” I said.

Semyre went still.

I settled Norn on a dry stone platform, then turned back to look at him.

“You knew it was Malo’s trap, but you still saved him. You could have chosen not to.”

“He’s a child.”

“I’m someone else’s child too.”

My voice trembled a little.

“When I entered the Serpent Lair, no one asked me whether I was afraid.”

Semyre fell silent.

Footsteps sounded from outside the cave.

Many of them.

The people from the Temple had caught up.

Semyre braced himself to stand, but the moment he moved, blood streamed down the front of his clothes.

I pressed down on his shoulder.

“You can’t fight right now.”

“And you can?”

“I can lie.”

His gaze shifted slightly.

I picked up the broken Silver Bell from the ground.

The moment my fingers touched its body, pain stabbed through my mind.

Countless fragments of noise surged in.

Livia’s sobs.

The knights’ laughter.

And a man’s voice.

“Change the last line.”

“Make the Snake God hate her. Make him hate her for as long as possible.”

My grip tightened around the Silver Bell.

I knew it.

The Temple wasn’t afraid the Snake God would go mad.

They were afraid he would learn the truth.

By the time Malo led his men to the edge of the pool, I had already changed into Livia’s old white dress.

I had found it in an old chest behind the stone wall.

It was a little too long, and the cuffs were badly torn.

When Semyre saw me put it on, his expression turned so ugly it looked as if he wanted to throw me out.

I didn’t look at him.

The moment Malo saw me, his steps halted.

“Livia?”

I lowered my eyes and said nothing.

Behind me, Semyre was hidden by the Black Lotuses.

Norn was hidden behind the stone platform as well.

Malo quickly recovered.

“Ailia, stop playing tricks.”

I lifted my head and imitated the woman’s tone from the dream.

“Malo.”

At last, his expression changed.

I gently shook the Silver Bell.

Ring.

The Black Lotuses in the pool opened all at once.

Every knight drew his sword.

I said, “You altered the bell.”

Malo stared at the Silver Bell in my hand, and his smile slowly disappeared.

“Who told you that?”

“You did.”

I raised the Silver Bell.

“It recorded more than just the last line.”

“The Temple only told you about the last line because they were afraid you’d hear everything that came before it.”

Malo’s face darkened.

All at once, he raised a hand.

“Kill her.”