Once upon a time there was a greedy snake.

Chapter 27 What do the Ignis eat today?

When he first began his reclusive life, the young Ignis was quite disheartened.

After all, this kind of thing, though called seclusion, is really just waiting to die. Every day, he eats something to sustain his life, and then quietly waits for time to pass and for death to come. When he was fleeing for his life, he once thought that this kind of life was the best.

But after actually living such a life, the young Ignis realized that it was no life for a human being.

In the past, every time he opened his eyes, he knew what he had to do, whether it was to hunt wild beasts or to kill giants. He at least knew where he was going and who he was going to kill. But now, every time he opened his eyes, all that awaited him was utter confusion.

Where to go? I don't know.

Who are they going to kill? Nobody knows.

He didn't need to go anywhere or kill anyone; he just needed to find some berries to fill his stomach, and then sit on the rock, looking at the distant sky.

He continued living like this until he died of old age.

He doesn't need language, because no one will talk to him, and he doesn't need a name, since no one will call him by his name.

They don't even need to live.

Because no one cares whether he is alive or not.

As the days went by, he increasingly wanted to talk to the serpent god. He wanted to seek answers from the serpent god's wisdom, or perhaps just have a casual chat—but clearly, the serpent god had no time to talk to him. The serpent god was busy with his own affairs, and he couldn't even see his shadow.

"But thinking about it carefully, since we're both in the deep mountains, the snake god's life must be similar to mine."

Thinking about this, the young Ignis began to ponder.

Both of them lived in the mountains, but after only a short time, he was already on the verge of collapse.

On the contrary, the snake god, who had lived in the mountains for so long, was completely unharmed.

"Perhaps... the wisdom of the serpent god lies within it."

Comparing his own life with that of the serpent god, the young Ignis vaguely felt that he had grasped something.

However, just as he was preparing to try to imitate the life of the snake god.

But a new group of people fled into the mountains.

"What are you..."

Looking at those people in tattered clothes, whose faces still showed signs of fear, the young Ignis was momentarily confused.

Poachers like him who fled into the mountains... didn't they all come in one by one? When did it start happening in groups?

And just looking at how these people are traveling with their families, including some newborns, aren't they afraid of any dangers in the mountains?

"Please...save us!"

Upon discovering the young Ignis, the terrified people rushed over and immediately prostrated themselves on the ground, refusing to rise for a long time.

"Since you live in the mountains, you must be the one in charge of managing the sacred mountain! Please give us a way to survive! I beg you!"

"I, this, no, sigh."

The young Ignis was caught off guard and in a flurry of activity.

However, through the cacophony of these people's accounts, he gradually came to understand what had happened outside the mountain.

Just as he chose to go into seclusion, preparations for another harvest festival began in the distant city of Ignis—in reality, preparations involved collecting offerings from house to house as a way to show respect to the serpent god, and every Ignis resident had to offer something.

Although the amount of offerings required each year has increased, this year, the royal family is demanding an unusually large amount of offerings.

"Fifteen harvest festivals in just five months?"

The young Ignis was dumbfounded, at one point thinking that the royals had gone mad. But this unreasonable order was resolutely carried out by the mages. Even though many Ignis had received weapons training, and some had even returned from the northern front, they could only grit their teeth and hand over the little food left in their homes when faced with the mages' slapping hands.

“They said it was for the snake god… so we had no choice but to come and find the snake god.”

A mother holding her child said this.

"We don't care if the serpent god wants to eat us. We just want to know why. We've never skimped on our offerings for the harvest festival every year. Why is the serpent god still trying to kill us?"

"This, how could this possibly be the serpent god's idea..."

The young Ignis shook his head repeatedly. Judging from his interactions with the serpent god, the serpent god found it troublesome even to acknowledge them. These Ignis, including himself, had never been taken seriously by the serpent god.

On the contrary, it was those royal families who forcibly requisitioned sacrificial offerings...

"Are they crazy?"

The young Ignis was completely baffled.

No matter how you look at it, those mages shouldn't have done that. Given their wisdom, he didn't believe they couldn't see the consequences of carrying out such an order.

"What exactly happened in Ignis City?"

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In the distance, the city of Ignis.

The mage named Akakage followed behind the larger figure and cautiously entered the deep palace where only the king could reside.

Yes, like those saber-toothed tigers, he was also brought to Ignis City by his mentor, Sadok—partly because the saber-toothed tigers were gone, and the ranch no longer existed, so there was no point in him staying there.

On the other hand, it's because the city of Ignis needs manpower.

As for the reason for needing manpower, it was naturally to collect offerings. However, to Akakage's surprise, the number of offerings to be collected this year was exceptionally large. In the name of the Serpent God, a large number of offerings were collected from the city and then piled up in the royal family's treasury.

Such unusual behavior naturally raised his questions, after all, celebrating the harvest festival fifteen times in a row was too outrageous.

Moreover, having already become enemies with the snake god, do they really need to celebrate another harvest festival?
"It is precisely because we are now enemies of the serpent god that we need to collect so many offerings."

A broad figure in front of Chi Ying laughed.

"Of course, these offerings are not for that serpent... Our offerings are, of course, for our own gods."

As he said this, Instructor Sadok led Crimson Shadow through the porch.

That palace was originally reserved for the king, but it didn't matter anymore—after all, in Akakage's view, the palace's ceiling and even its outer walls had been completely demolished.

Instead, there was a gigantic humanoid figure, as large as the palace itself.

"Giant, giant, giant, giant!"

Upon seeing the enormous humanoid figure, Akakage began to tremble.

Recalling those legends about the frozen land in the north, he even once thought that those ferocious giants from the north had already attacked.

But at that moment, Mentor Sadok smiled and shook his head.

"Giants? Even the giants of the northern tundra could not possibly have such a majestic figure."

“Those savage barbarians are no match for Him; this is our giant.”

"This is our giant, our king."

"This is our god."

(End of this chapter)