He and It Chapter 143: The Serpent of Pharisee (9)

Chapter 143: The Serpent of Pharisee (9)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: GaeaTiamat

 

Echidna hissed a few times, and several stone snakes instantly separated from the throne and swam noiselessly out of the room.

Xie Ning huffed and puffed, no longer able to speak, and no longer able to defend himself. Echidna shortened his sharp nails and touched the scar on his forehead, then he reached out to cover the human’s hand and carefully pinched the tiny fingertips.

There was no intimacy in his movements, only simple curiosity. In all his long life, Echidna had never willingly gotten close to any human, let alone gotten along with them without hurting them.

What was his name, and where did he come from? 

He did not look like a native of Cilicia, where the Poseidon blood made them strong and aggressive, tall and clumsy. He was likewise unlike some of the southern nations, and moreover, his language was of a kind that no man had ever spoken.

Wherever he came from, he is mine, Echidna thought darkly, his will and avarice more unshakable than the mighty Caucasus Mountains.

He gazed at the top of Xie Ning’s hair, and sang in his heart: Mine, mine, mine.

Soon the stone serpents returned, bearing large silver platters of steaming roasted meat, sweet smoked figs, and a delicious kunefe ¹ of cheese, flour, honey, and liqueur, next to golden chalices of swirling, clear wine.

The snakes swung around in a panning motion. No waiter could match their swiftness and speed, and Xie Ning’s spirits were lifted by the scent of the food. His cheeks ached, and he couldn’t help but salivate profusely.

Echidna stretched out his arms and tore the hot, oily meat for him, placing it on his wrists and palms for him to eat.

Xie Ning was already so hungry that his eyes blurred, so he didn’t care about that much, just grabbed it and stuffed it into his mouth. The roasted meat was too hot to come close to his lips, so he first sucked on two soft, ripe figs, swallowed a few pieces of kunefe, and gulped down wine before moving on to a harder dish like the roasted meat.

Echidna saw him eating fiercely, and his heart rose high with joy. It was only when Xie Ning had stuffed himself to the gills and could eat no more that he told the serpent to remove the cups and plates.

“Alas.” He looked at Xie Ning eagerly and said, “What is your name? Where do you come from?” 

With food and water in his belly, Xie Ning finally came back to life, and he wiped his mouth with satisfaction, having gotten rid of the state of a starving ghost.

…Hey, why am I sitting in the middle of Echidna’s tail? 

Now that his hunger was no longer interfering with his sanity, Xie Ning took a breath and immediately noticed the strange situation he was in.

He looked in amazement at the snake’s tail moving around underneath him, and the demonic scent, like the scent of flowers in a vile ***, lingered deeply around him. Xie Ning realized that his back was pressed against Echidna’s skin, and the delicate edges of the gold jewelry.

He was immediately creeped out by this unusual closeness.

The difference between the species was as great as the difference between the clouds and the mud. As an ordinary human, Xie Ning was like a rabbit sitting on top of an evil dragon, and his stress reaction began to surface.

What just happened? Am I hallucinating? 

Or have I traveled again, this time to a magical timeline where “Xie Ning and Echidna are in love”? 

Echidna stared at him keenly, and looking at such a face, and such a body and tattoos, Xie Ning stammered, hardly able to utter a complete sentence. Yet, he couldn’t ignore the dungeon master’s inquiry.

“I, uh, I…” 

In the middle of stuttering, Xie Ning tried his best to search his mind for appropriate words and phrases to replace the language of this time and place, when he suddenly froze.

He realized that from the beginning to the end, when he communicated with Echidna, what came out of his mouth was his native language, not the official language here.

He asked incredulously, “Can you understand me?” 

Echidna found it refreshing, “Why can’t I understand you?” 

“Because I am not speaking your language!” 

“Words are articulated through the tongue, but only to convey the meaning of a man’s heart.” Echidna said. “Even an old goat that only bleats is happy when it meets a pasture, and frightened when it meets a hungry wolf. Words are enough to convey the heart, words are only an artificial barrier.” 

After he said that, he patiently asked, “What is your name and where do you come from?” 

Xie Ning lowered his head. He saw a line of golden light on Echidna’s black snake scales that seemed to sway, like the ripples in a shimmering lake.

He decided not to tell Echidna his real name. The old king had given him a native name anyway.

As for his origins, he couldn’t say anything, Echidna was a temperamental demon, and at this point, Xie Ning still didn’t know why he was treating him so favorably. Could it be because of the aromatic oil spa last night? 

That made no sense. Echidna controlled the lifeblood of the underground palace, and even in a powerful country, he could have anything he wanted. Would he still lack people to rub oil on him? Let’s hide for now.

Xie Ning made up his mind, and answered, “My name is…They call me Dorus, and I come from a small country called Iolcus.” 

Echidna’s forked tongue hissed in the air as he licked the name, as if to suck the sweetness out of it.

Dorus, what a name! Is he not a gift from fate? 

Echidna remembered it with joy, and cared little for the homeland of Iolcus, for in truth, Dorus had only one homeland worth remembering now, and that was the palace of Arima.

He asked, “Why were you crying?” 

Xie Ning, “…” 

Xie Ning recalled what he had done when he was starving, and took three deep breaths of embarrassment, his toes digging into his cowhide sandals.

People really can’t go hungry! he thought sadly. I‘m convinced. Next time I’m not going to be caught crying. And next time I don’t want to be tricked into taking out a loan, participating in a pyramid scheme, or becoming the legal representative of a company.

When he saw him frowning and not answering for a long time, Echidna held him around his ribs like before, and gently shook him – he had begun to like this action.

Xie Ning came back to his senses, and hurriedly replied quickly, “Uh, uh, uh, actually I paint! I’d love to…I mean, you’re beautiful, and I’d love to draw you, but I’m not good enough to do it. So, I got rather frustrated…” 

Echidna’s heart burst with joy at his natural expression of appreciation, like a sweet spring of water flowing through his cracked and dry heart. But how could one small spring nourish an entire desert? He wished he could make Dorus repeat it a thousand times.

At the same time, he was tolerant and sympathetic to the boy’s delusions, because he was young and naive, and didn’t know that the form of a Demon God could not be depicted or reproduced. The primordial gods carried with them a demonic nature that could not be looked at, and when the human beings, who were not virtuous, saw them, it would stir up all the ambitions, cruelty, brutality and obstinacy in their hearts. The sinfulness that had lived in human beings from the very beginning of their existence.

However, since Echidna had decided to favor this boy with his paranoias, he would grant that small wish.

“Where are your paintings?” he asked. “Show them to me, and let me point out your omissions.” 

Xie Ning was a bit surprised, but he had been separated from his sketchbook for so long that his heart had long been thinking about it, so he answered quickly, “It’s just sitting by my luggage! It’s a book about this wide and this long, with an ink-blue cloth wrapped around the cover.” 

Echidna gave another command, and two more serpents swam down, toward their destination.

“You…What I’d like to ask is,” Xie Ning deliberated, and spoke carefully, “Why are you being so nice to me?” 

With that question, Echidna hissed softly in mute silence, unable to tell him the reason.

Because you stroked my tail, you courted me boldly, you sang of my beauty – you even wept bitterly at not being able to recreate it, and yet, I could not respond to your love.

You are so weak, so small, that you cannot bear any passion. My kisses would burn you clean, and as for my caresses, if I had not controlled my venom, I fear that death would have risen to my palace and racked his brains, as he pondered how he could snatch your dead soul from my hands.

“It is a secret!” the snake demon said with subtle bitterness. “You will know later.” 

Xie Ning was confused, knowing nothing of Echidna’s thoughts.

The snakes returned, and they brought back Xie Ning’s sketchbook and traveling bag.

“Yes, yes, yes! That’s it!” Xie Ning happily held the book, and when he opened it, Echidna poked his head over his left shoulder, ready to view the youngster’s work.

He was in the mood for instruction, but the result surprised him.

–On the bright and smooth paper, his form was so vividly depicted, with black hair, brown skin, realistic expressions, and tattoos, that he would have thought he was looking in a mirror if the paper hadn’t been so non-reflective!

Though the artist was unable to reproduce the demon’s charisma, it was still far beyond the level of human achievement.

Could an artist favored by the Muses paint that, or a priest loved by Apollo alone? Echidna may not have walked the earth for many years, but he could well assert that this was skill below the gods and but above the humans.

The Gods of Olympus had always favored chroniclers, whether poets, singers, painters, or sculptors, the Gods had always placed those human beings in various positions in the temples, so that they would not be submerged among the common people. It was because what could be passed on to the world was immortal, and even if the end came and went, the glory of those who had been recorded would remain in the world for future generations to remember.

That was the privilege of gods and heroes.

He didn’t have to come to Arima’s Palace! It was dark and miserable. Half a roasting furnace, half a pit of bone-chilling ice. It was far from civilization, without sunshine, without song or dance, and naturally without laughter. No snow-white buildings would rise here, no great feasts would be held here, and there were only the banished old gods and goddesses, and the more boorish dependents of Mother Earth.

If the boy entered a court, the king would be delighted to make him his guest; if he entered the temple, the Gods of Olympus would vie with each other to reach out from the clouds and claim him; if he walked with the gifted singer Orpheus into the depths of the Underworld, the into the presence of Hades, the King of the Underworld might be moved by the sound of Orpheus’s lyre and allow him and his wife to depart from the realm of the dead, ² but he was bound to leave Dorus behind! Dorus! You see how true his fingers were to what he painted, in which the praise was all the more mesmerizing, and reproof all the more powerful. He could paint the feasts of the Gods in such a way as to make mortals think of climbing Mount Olympus; he could paint the deeds of sin in such a way that all the objects in his picture would still be pointed out and reviled thousands of years later.

This was an offering for the Gods! Echidna’s heart fluttered so violently, and he was so bitter that he almost died instantly.

How can I get such a precious treasure? What do I need to do to deserve this? The demon was lost in thought. He was completely stiff like a bronze statue.

Suddenly, his heart began to suspect that this was in fact a conspiracy. Just as the Gods of Olympus had created Pandora, instigated her to seduce the brother of Prometheus, and to bring disaster upon the earth, so now they had created Dorus, specifically to lure him into a future of destruction.

“What is it?” Having noticed Echidna’s long silence, Xie Ning asked nervously, “Is something wrong?” 

After a long time, Echidna answered hoarsely, “…No.” 

So be it, the snake demon thought. So be it! Even if he, like Pandora, were dressed in a brilliant snow-white robe, with a golden sash like no other in the world, and held a box full of evil plagues, I would not be afraid, nor would I shrink from possessing him. Whether the end be miserable, or unfortunate, I shall be glad of it!

“I have nothing to say to you,” he said in a low voice. “But I am greatly surprised at your talent.” 

Xie Ning felt much better after receiving the confirmation from the rightful owner. He was happy for a while and asked, “Then…Can I ask you to be my model? The painting will be yours!” 

Echidna whispered, “It would be my honor, and you would add a great deal of luster to my reputation.” 

Yay! The lord looked satisfied, which means I can sell my paintings for a living again!

With his old job back, Xie Ning felt much more secure, and he sat on Echidna’s tail, twisting and turning happily.

He suddenly realized something.

Xie Ning lowered his head, and curiously pressed his chest.

“Huh? It doesn’t hurt anymore,” he muttered to himself in astonishment, not knowing when his internal injuries had disappeared without a trace. When he turned around earlier, his ribs hurt. Xie Ning was really afraid that he’d broken a bone, but now he was able to move around easily. It wasn’t uncomfortable at all.

Echidna heard him, and stretched out a finger, rubbing it on Xie Ning’s forehead. The scars he had received from the unruly princes fell away to reveal clear skin.

“I gave you clean food, and wine that the Gods enjoy, didn’t that protect you well?” The demon hissed and spit out his forked tongue. “Tell me, who other than Polluxaeus has caused you pain with all those wounds?” 

Xie Ning was careful not to speak right away, because he smelled a hint of danger in Echidna’s question.

He wasn’t a softie. Before he entered the palace, those princes came over every day, like monkeys, not only shouting at him, but throwing stones at him, trying to see if he had inherited “the steel of the gods.” It made Xie Ning so angry. If he had the chance, he would punch them back, punch them in the face, and break all their noses, so that they would live with crooked mouths and slanted eyes for the rest of their lives.

…But while he could retaliate with a vengeance, the demon god might not be able to restrain his behavior.

He answered tentatively, ” Uh, it might be the Princes of Cilicia-” 

“‘Tis well,” Echidna laughed a terrible laugh, like a howling old raven, resonating from his chest, “those haughty children of Kostas, so ungrateful, who think that because they have Poseidon’s divine blood, they can run about my domains, and make as much noise as wild dogs. If they have hurt you, I will make all the rivers that pass through Cilicia as poisonous as the blood that drips from my scales!” 

“-or maybe not,” Xie Ning said in a sharp turn of phrase, thankful to have a clear mind. “I misremembered! I was starving, so I remembered wrong.” 

Echidna asked skeptically, “Is that so?” 

“Yes, that’s right,” Xie Ning emphasized.  Motherfucker, how many people would die if the river turned poisonous? “I think…Right! Actually it was the giant with the snake whip, the one with the grayish skin and the big incisors. He was the only one who hit me with the whip, no one else but him.” 

Echidna said, “That was Polluxaeus! He had more courage than the heavens to assume your identity, and foolishly thought that I would believe his lies. He is already dead, and I caused him to die by the fangs of the serpent.” 

When he had said this, he could not help feeling a pang of loss, as if the opportunity of displaying his majesty had been wasted.

I should have kept the liar alive for a while, and let Dorus see it with his own eyes! He thought to himself. That would have shown my divine power, and let him know that I will not spare anyone who has insulted him. Even if I cannot answer his wooing, I should give him this unique privilege.

To die so soon…Xie Ning was staggered. Seeing that he did not make a sound, Echidna asked again, “What else do you need? Feel free to ask, and I will surely fulfill your wish.” 

Xie Ning cheerfully, jokingly said, “Anything? What if I say I want to go back?” 

Echidna was struck head-on by a thunderbolt, and was so panicked that he couldn’t move his eyes.

I hadn’t thought of that! He panicked and cursed his own rashness. In his haste, he made the rash decision that if the human demanded to go back, he would follow him to Iolcus, where he would build his new lair.

Sensing that the goldmaster behind him seemed to be choking, Xie Ning hastened to say, “I’m just kidding! Now I have nowhere else to go….Ugh. Well, I just want a bath, nothing more.” 

Echidna, as if pardoned, heaved an instant sigh of relief.

“That’s not a problem,” he said. “There are geothermal springs here. Let me show you.” 

Speaking of bathing, Echidna’s gaze fixed on Xie Ning’s cloak, and the snake demon suddenly asked, “The size of this cloak far exceeds your physique, whose is it?” 

Xie Ning froze for a moment. He thought, Palaemon was a hero. On the off chance he had some indirect conflict with Echidna before, revealing his name would not be good, so he lightly replied, “I like bigger cloaks. What’s wrong?” 

Echidna pondered for a while, confused, and made a mental note of his preference.

In fact, Xie Ning’s intuition was correct. In the end, he had avoided a heroic disaster, for the snake demon’s jealousy was as violent as his poison.