My wife is an immortal black snake.

Page 19

Let them choose their leader. Effect: A young but capable officer will become the leader of the united government.

"...This has blown up too much."

"Ah."

Under the protection of the serpent scales, they were cautiously moving towards the checkpoint leading out of the city. Although the city was moving, that didn't mean the serpent scales had no way to get them out of the city—provided they could reach the underground warehouse on the outskirts of the city, find a vulnerable point inside, blow it up, and then jump off from that point.

This road is destined to be unsafe. It's mostly through chaotic areas.

Yang Hao watched helplessly as the chaos he had caused erupted, feeling a pang of bitterness... but ultimately, that bitterness paled in comparison to the weight of his own actions and Margarita's. However, besides Margarita, he still had his friends...

The statue that we didn't take with us because of the weight, we'll just leave it there. What about Jack's?

Yang Hao gestured for Margarita to be quiet for a moment, and they followed the snake scales forward. He then took out his phone and dialed Jack's number. If he remembered correctly, Jack should still be in his own home, being tortured.

"Beep-beep-"

Yang Hao waited patiently for Jack to answer his call.

A moment later, the call connected. Before Yang Hao could say anything, Jack's panting voice on the other end of the line, which drew the attention of the silent Snake Scales around them, made him swallow all his words:

"Hey?! Yang Hao!! Where are you right now?! If you're home, don't fucking go out. Margarita's with you, right? You guys pack your things now and wait. I'll drive over and pick you up after things calm down around noon!"

"Jack—"

"Don't even mention it! Do you think your run-down place can withstand this riot? My house is big enough, and I have plenty of supplies, including several first-aid kits! That's enough for us for months—you'd better pack your things! Or is Margarita not with you?"

...Jack was Yang Hao's best friend. Although they had their share of jealousy and doubt, and even fought when they were drunk, and compared their lengths when they went to the toilet, Yang Hao would never forget Jack in an emergency, and Jack would never forget Yang Hao.

What kind of expression would Jack have if he found out that this chaos was caused by me? With these complex thoughts in mind, Yang Hao took a deep breath:

"...Margarita and I won't go. We're about to leave the city."

"Out of the city?! The city's moving into the heart of Colombia like it's on drugs. Are you guys trying to jump off the walls and get turned into mincemeat?!" Jack was utterly baffled. But soon, as Yang Hao's best friend, he realized something: "Wait... could it be?"

“Yes, someone has targeted me and Margarita. Now we have to leave Colombia to avoid getting you involved.”

"Damn it! We're all going together! You wait for me—"

"Think about Mette, okay?"

Mette was Jack's wife, a seemingly petite but remarkably strong Vyvan woman. Jack's voice abruptly stopped after Yang Hao mentioned this name.

They remained silent for a long while. These two best friends knew that the next time they saw each other would be sometime in the future.

Chapter 50

After Yang Hao hung up the call with Jack, his best friend left him with only this one sentence:

"Let's have a beer together again sometime."

Jack didn't know what Yang Hao was planning, but he knew he couldn't stop him, so he straightforwardly offered his best friend his blessing. Yang Hao, after instructing Jack and his family not to leave the house until the chaos subsided, hung up the phone with a touch of melancholy.

"Sir, if needed, our team can bring two more people."

As he hung up the phone, a serpent-scaled man offered him a suggestion with utmost respect. However, Yang Hao didn't heed this advice for his own selfish reasons: Leaving aside the question of whether the group could even reach their destination safely after adding two more people to Ursus, the very survival of the group was now in question!

So Yang Hao simply refused. After instructing the snake scales to focus on their current task, he noticed that the hand he was holding was inexplicably gripping tighter and tighter.

“Margarita, we’ll be safe soon.” He turned to comfort Margarita, who had been looking down at the ground the whole time. “Jack and the others will be fine—that fat bastard with the big hooves is best at avoiding all the chaos.”

"...Um."

Margarita's condition looks...strange.

Yang Hao didn't know how to describe it. But Margarita's seemingly resolute silence gave Yang Hao the feeling that she had grown up.

...Perhaps he didn't need to worry about Margarita? After entering the underground storage area of ​​the outskirts of the city with the Serpent Scale Squad, he shook his head, feeling a bit tired, so he decided to shut down the [Puppet Stage] and get some rest—

Just then, he had a vague premonition of something ominous. Without thinking, a red soldier unit appeared on the [Puppet Stage] interface.

Margarita suddenly pulled him back, causing him to fall flat on his face on the slope.

"boom!"

Caught off guard, a steel pillar with a rope attached suddenly pierced through the ceiling. If Yang Hao had still been standing there, he would probably have had his leg crushed by the pillar, then been caught in the tightening rope and dragged to the ground.

"Protect them! You all need to get out of here!"

The first Serpent Scale unit, already suffering heavy losses, quickly ascertained the order of their casualties the moment the attack began. Some rushed out of the underground storage area to search for the attackers on the surface. The rest took cover behind bunkers, ready to intercept any approaching enemy.

After Yang Hao was pulled up from the ground by Margarita, he covered the wound on his nose from the fall and shouted to the first Serpent Scale unit at the rear:

"This is a special force composed of immortal beings, and there are only ten of them!"

The serpent scales nodded. Although they didn't know how this lord had obtained information they themselves were unaware of, ten people? Knowing their organization would allow them to better halt the enemy's advance.

The first Serpent Scale unit, stationed in the underground storage area, watched as their second comrades protected the two men as they fled along the original route. After they disappeared around the corner of the underground storage area, they received a message: all their comrades who had gone to the surface to delay the enemy's advance had been killed in action; the last member had sent this message before dying.

The enemy that annihilated them was a special unit of 10 people. These enemies all used special weapons, but it can be confirmed at least that one enemy, who was likely using the [Steel Pillar], was unable to continue fighting until he retrieved the steel pillar with the rope attached.

“That’s enough.” Snake Scale, who was in charge of receiving messages and giving orders, nodded. “We need to buy them at least two minutes—that way, even if they catch up, our companions will have already landed on the ground.”

"2 minutes?"

"Yes, 2 minutes."

Two minutes should be enough time for them to escape to the ground.

With this in mind, these snake scales, who had no intention of returning home, prepared to fight the enemy to the death.

......

"...They are all dead."

When Yang Hao and his group arrived at a blasted-open hole in the underground storage area under the protection of the second Serpent Scale unit, looking down at the ground below that was being covered by sand and dust due to the city's movement and was rapidly receding, Margarita suddenly uttered some words that were incomprehensible to the others.

...The members of the second Serpentscale unit looked at each other in bewilderment: they certainly knew that the rearguard was doomed, but why was this Sarkaz Blood Demon so certain that they were already dead?

They looked at Yang Hao, while Yang Hao looked at Margarita. He had a bad feeling.

“Margarita? You—”

"...I'm going to stay. If I don't, Yang Hao... won't be able to escape."

She said. Taking the crossbow that she had been carrying on her back, under the astonished gaze of the snake scales, she used two fingers to pull back the taut string, secured it, and then placed a bolt on it.

What kind of future did Margarita foresee? Yang Hao had no way of knowing... but... why did she insist on staying?

He wanted to question her about why she did this, but the snake scales had already begun binding him with ropes for landing, and he didn't have much time to question Margarita.

In the end, all the words he had in his heart were uttered in one sentence: Why?

"...Because I don't want to be immature anymore...I want to grow up, I want to face you with maturity in the end," she said, looking at Yang Hao, a slight smile playing on her lips, tears clearly welling in her eyes. "Besides...it's necessary...If I don't stay, if I don't stay to stop them, you won't be able to escape, you know?"

If I don't stay, he can't escape. The images flashing before Margarita's eyes told her that there were only two paths she could take in the present future.

"Margarita! Don't talk nonsense! We can escape, we can escape to Ursus!"

One option is for her to stay behind. She can stop the pursuers' advance, but in return, she might have to hide in a cave in the wasteland for a long time after the battle due to excessive blood loss or for some other reason. She won't be able to move around here for a long time until she can do so.

“I have to stay… The prophecy tells me that only I can stop them.” She shook her head, smiling as she refused Yang Hao’s outstretched hand. “If I don’t do this, you will die… so I have to do it.”

The second option is that she will follow him, and in the end he will die in the wilderness or be captured, while she will survive because of the blood she drank.

"And what about you?! If you stay behind, what are you going to do? Didn't you foresee that you would die—"

So Margarita chose the first path. She wasn't worried about dying; her only worry was that she hadn't learned from the events of the past few days, and hadn't learned from her own immaturity.

“No. I foresaw it... we would meet again, decades from now, when you were still so young.” Margarita revealed a glimpse of the future she had glimpsed, amidst Yang Hao’s astonished expression. She reached up and wiped away the tears from the corner of her eyes. She had already made her decision, so why was she crying over the decades of separation?

For the Blood Demon, isn't this just "a little while"? Why...?

Is this the kind of suffering one must face to grow through pain?

"But I don't want... I don't want to hold you back with my immature attitude when we face each other again, or cause you trouble with my immature thoughts..."

"Margarita..." Yang Hao's ropes had already been tied up. Snake Scales were waiting for them to finish speaking. Once they gave the order, they could leave.

"So...please...wait for me, please wait for me, okay? Wait for the moment I mature...wait for the moment I can stand tall and no longer be childish...wait for the day we meet again..."

I want to build a happy and fulfilling family with you. I want to tell you this properly. However, I'm still too immature to express this... to shoulder the responsibility for my feelings, my future, and everything else.

"...I love you. I will say those words, I will say what I've always longed to say but was too afraid to." Margarita took two steps forward, casually tossing the crossbow to the ground. Tears streaming down her face, she tightly embraced Yang Hao, wanting to hold onto all the memories of the decades they wouldn't see each other in the future. "Even if it's an answer decades out of date, even if it's a rejection, it's okay... When the time comes, can you give me, now that I'm mature enough, an answer?"

...

He didn't speak. He simply hugged Margarita back silently.

A few seconds later.

"...I will. But Margarita, promise me, don't die."

"Ah."

She nodded, wiped her tears with his clothes, took a deep breath to memorize all his scent, and then let go of his hand.

Then, the snake scales carried Yang Hao to the dusty ground. Before the last snake scale jumped down, Margarita picked up the crossbow again and said to him:

"...Please tell that monster from Ursus, that immortal Koschei—I will not give up."

Margarita will not give up.

Those are just monsters from Ursus. If Margarita becomes a monster too... then the monsters will be even.

"..."

Snake Scales nodded silently, then leaped down, leaving Margarita alone in the underground storage area.

She felt neither fear nor tension. She simply felt that she was walking on the path that fate had woven for her.

Since the prophecy tells me that I can live, win, and meet him again in a few decades to confront that Ursus monster, then I just need to keep going.

'Dad, Mom...'

Since the price of growing up is countless pains.

That's settled then.

A steel pillar fell from the sky.

She dodged to the side, avoiding the impact of the falling steel pillar in two seconds. Calmly, she looked up and aimed her crossbow at the impending hole; now, all she could see was the enemy about to be blown to the head by a crossbow bolt.

The blood of the first vampire boiled within her. Margarita knew she was about to embark on a monstrous path.

Chapter 51

The steel pillar smashed through the solid ceiling and landed at the spot Margarita had predicted. Ignoring the falling debris, she pulled the trigger of her crossbow the instant the pillar struck.

As the taut crossbow string propelled the bolt forward, it pierced through a gap between the rubble, just missing the edge of the breach and stabbing a masked enemy peering down. Margarita frowned and dodged two more bolts that seemed to come from nowhere with a sideways leap.

...The corpse fell from the ceiling. After dodging the enemy's continuous fire several times with leaps, Margarita reloaded her crossbow with a new bolt. Then, she darted to the corpse, lifting it up to use as a shield. At the same time, she opened her mouth and bit through the corpse's neck. While it was still bleeding, she sucked the fresh, powerful blood, preparing herself for the fierce battle to come.

She could see the ghosts of her parents faintly guiding her, and following their directions, Margarita saw nine cloaked figures. Were those the secret force of immortal beings Yang Hao had mentioned?

Including this one, that makes ten. She casually tossed the blood-drained corpse aside, then raised her crossbow and aimed it at their location.

“A young Blood Demon.” The group seemed unmoved by the death of their companion. The leader, a man wielding a long sword and wearing a six-eyed mask, simply looked at Margarita with admiration and spoke in a strange, mechanical voice, “Unprecedented potential.”

"..."

Margarita saw in the prophecy that they would continue their relentless attack on her. But that should have been several minutes later? What happened in those few minutes?

She held her breath.

“You might be able to join us,” the six-eyed masked warrior with the knife said, uttering words that left Margarita bewildered. “Anyway, all Lord K wants is to capture him and bring him to our mansion—I know what you’re thinking, but I assure you, we will not cause that gentleman any harm.”

"...Are you kidding me?"

"Won't cause any damage whatsoever?" Back then, if that steel pillar, capable of smashing through the ceiling, had been even slightly higher, it would have instantly killed Yang Hao. Not to mention now that one of their members has been killed, Margarita is unlikely to believe anything they say.

Seeing that Margarita showed no intention of releasing her weapon, the six-eyed mask simply shrugged and lowered his weapon first, demonstrating his pacifist stance.

“You have no idea how terrifying the impact that man’s abilities will be on this land. As a Colombian, it’s only natural that Lord K doesn’t want him to end up in other countries.”

"..."

Yang Hao's abilities? Margarita knew they were terrifying, but how did they know? If she wasn't mistaken, he shouldn't be here—

“If you live long enough, you’ll figure out what’s going on.” The six-eyed mask saw Margarita’s confusion. “Lady K has lived for over a thousand years. She can see where that man is in these incidents—his ability to manipulate everyone like puppets on a stage.”

Now he's the workers' foreman, and the workers have become his puppets, staging a strike. He's temporarily become the city's lord, and the city has become his puppet, forming an independent government after the chaos subsides. If one day he can stand at the pinnacle of the nation, then he can expand the stage to the entire country. Miss Margarita, can't you understand how terrifying this is?

People, possessing individual will, become puppets, unknowingly and endlessly dedicating their power to a unified existence called the "Nation." Without their awareness, their thoughts are altered. The moment their thoughts change, even if they relinquish their powers, there is no possibility of returning to their former state; they will simply continue living with their altered minds, unaware that they have already been changed.

Now, the workers and police of one city have formed an independent city under his influence. What about next time? What if he controls an entire country next time? Who can guarantee he won't do something horrific? Who can guarantee he won't suddenly start a war just for fun? Who can guarantee he won't change the country's name because he's not satisfied with the colors on the map? Who can guarantee he won't release infected people into other clean cities because of his overflowing compassion?