Listening to the obscure, impenetrable words coming out of the savage's mouth, Du Yi was, for a moment, struck dumb.
True, being woken from his molting sleep had left him a touch groggy, fresh out of bed — but the plump mammoths around him already made the rude awakening feel worth it. These mammoths, marbled lean-and-fat, had flesh veined like snowflakes through marble, a juice-rich, tender mouthfeel that hardly seemed something the wild could grow.
For a moment it had Du Yi giving thanks for nature's bounty.
And once he'd spotted living people, his mood improved further still. He'd slept so long that he hadn't talked with anyone in quite a while; meeting two living people now, he could have a chat with them, see just how long he'd been asleep this time and what new changes the outside world had seen.
This was the good of talking with people. What he could explore on his own was limited in the end, but talking with people let him gain more news he could never have dug up himself, let him learn things he'd otherwise have had a hard time learning.
Yet the one thing Du Yi never expected was a language barrier.
"That makes no sense? Didn't I learn these savages' language?"
Du Yi was rather baffled. He remembered it clear as day — that savage called Lightbringer had learned the snake's way of sounding from him, and he'd learned a bit of the savages' speech from the man; on those words he'd even conversed with Lightbringer smoothly for decades.
But now, that language had stopped working entirely.
What he said, this savage plainly didn't understand.
And what this savage said, he didn't understand in the least.
"This......"
Du Yi started scratching his head with his tail; just now he felt all that language-learning had been for nothing.
Still, it wasn't much of a problem for him — he'd run into something like this before, after all. When it came to communication, Du Yi had a track record of success.
Since words didn't work, he'd simply fall back on the most primitive method.
Thinking this, Du Yi tore off a chunk of mammoth meat and nudged it toward the two of them.
***
Watching the fragrant elephant-meat nudged before them, the two beside the giant snake wore very different expressions.
Looking at the two portions doled out before him — and especially at the second portion, nudged toward that mage — the young Ignis man's face turned, all at once, rather peculiar.
The mage, for his part, the moment he saw a portion of meat pushed in front of him, burst into a hearty, delighted laugh.
The instant the Snake God had spoken just now, he'd realized: what the Snake God spoke was indeed the Ignis tongue — only an ancient pronunciation from centuries past. A way of speaking that likely traced all the way back to the era of the Nineteenth Sage King; no one talked like that anymore.
Even he could barely make out the meaning of those ancient sounds.
But that wasn't the point. His not understanding was fine, in fact — what truly astonished him was that the young Ignis man beside him couldn't understand either.
Hearing the man use the present-day Ignis tongue to address the god, and seeing the sudden frozen looks on both their faces, how could the mage fail to realize it: this young Ignis man and the Snake God before them simply could not communicate at all.
And a man who couldn't so much as converse normally with the Snake God — how could he possibly have been appointed His apostle and sent out to gather offerings?
"And besides, those words I spoke earlier......"
At the thought, the mage couldn't help breathing a small sigh of relief.
And when he laid eyes on the meat before him, the mage grew surer still that he'd come safely through this brush with death.
For across the whole history of the Ignivas family, across all thirty-six chieftains, only the Nineteenth Sage King had ever received food from the Snake God.
By rank of station, the First chieftain — who'd gained the power of magic from the Snake God — was plainly the more exalted. But by importance, the Nineteenth Sage King, who'd received food from the Snake God, stood even far above the First.
For the First chieftain's way of gaining power had been nothing more than spying from afar.
But the Nineteenth Sage King had truly communed with the Snake God, had even received wisdom from Him.
And now, that same favor lay before him.
"Could it be, could it be......"
The mage's heart surged.
To become a mage at all, he too was of the Ignivas family — not an Ignis man, but a man of the Ignivas family — which was to say, he too was royalty, could count himself a descendant of that Sage King.
And now, after centuries, a descendant of the Sage King had once more received food bestowed by the Snake God.
Didn't that mean......
"Could it be that I, too, can rise to stand level with that Sage King?"
The mage's whole face flushed crimson in an instant.
The thought of that Sage King, still sung of to this day, set the mage's heart surging — all his life he'd only ever heard of that great figure in the family's records and in the tales of the streets and lanes. And now, here and now, he actually had a chance to become a figure that great himself!
"That such a fate should be mine, that such a chance should be mine......"
Picturing himself praised by ten thousand mouths, honored as the new Sage King — even replacing that Nascent Dawn and seating himself upon the throne that symbolized royal power — the mage went dizzy with it, trembling head to foot with excitement.
But it was just then that a sound rose beside him: the sound of chewing.
Not from up in the air, but from right at his side; and the one eating was not that great Snake God, but the young Ignis man.
Which turned the mage's face, on the spot, black as thunder.
Indeed, this was a chance in a thousand years — to receive food from the Snake God meant one had taken the first step toward the qualification to become a Sage King.
But the one holding this fine chance was not him alone.
Beside him, that young Ignis man was partaking of the Snake God's grace as well.
And feeling the mage's gaze, the young Ignis man even gave a little smile.
"True enough — I'm no envoy of the Snake God."
The young Ignis man spoke softly, even as he chewed his meat.
"But go on, then — blast me dead right here in front of the Snake God, if you've got the nerve."
"You......"
The mage ground his teeth at once.
But in the end he forced it down — because he was still partaking of the food the Snake God had bestowed, and whatever happened he could show not the slightest disrespect. True, thanks to the language barrier, those blasphemous words of his earlier might not get him killed.
But if he let any wrong expression show now, over the elephant-meat the Snake God had so carefully cooked, he would surely not live.
"But...... what is the Snake God trying to do?"
Chewing the roast in his mouth, the mage silently clenched his fist.
"How can Ignis City have two kings?"