"That's right! It was them! It was these poachers who did it!"
Facing the mountain-vast giant snake, the mage drew a deep breath, then raised a hand and pointed at the young Ignis man beside him.
"It was these poachers! They burrowed into the mountains and ate up every last one of the beasts!"
"You......"
The young Ignis man whipped his head around in shock; he'd never imagined this mage would race to lodge a slander first.
But in the instant their eyes met, he saw, at the bottom of the mage's gaze, a bone-chilling killing intent.
Ignis City can have only one king, and that is me!
The cry reverberated, deafening, at the bottom of the mage's heart.
So, to become that one and only Sage King, to elbow out this rival, he would stop at nothing.
The moment he'd realized the Snake God was learning the Ignis tongue, a sense of crisis had risen in the mage's heart — for he knew well enough that his present safety rested entirely on the young Ignis man's inability to communicate smoothly with the Snake God.
Once the Snake God had learned the Ignis tongue and could fully understand what they meant......
"Had I known, I should have killed this brat first while the Snake God was out!"
In this moment, the mage only regretted not having thought that far ahead, regretted the chance he'd let slip.
Luckily it wasn't too late even now — and this way was safer besides. If the Snake God truly had some plan of His own, then killing the brat by his own hand might instead draw the Snake God's wrath. Whereas now, simply turning the Snake God against the brat and letting the Snake God do it Himself, he stayed comparatively safe.
"All along, the sacred mountain has been forbidden ground to the Ignis people. Except at the Harvest Festival, when the Ignis king enters to present offerings, no one ever sets foot in the mountains at all."
To make the Snake God trust his words the more, the mage even tacked on a few extra lines.
"But there are always poachers who defy the Ignis people's ancestral teaching, defy the laws their forebears laid down, who steal into the mountains on their own just to hunt the precious beasts within...... they are offending the majesty of a god! They must be severely punished!"
"Oh? Is. That. So?"
The vast giant snake spoke. The words plainly still came haltingly, but that thunderous, mighty boom was already enough to set a man trembling.
"You're saying — he's the one, poaching?"
"Yes! He's one of those poachers!"
Seeing the Snake God already roused to anger, the mage nodded again and again.
This, this was exactly what he wanted — as long as the Snake God killed the brat......
"It wasn't me! This pig is lying!"
Recovering from his shock, the young Ignis man at once burst into a furious tirade.
"They were the ones who let us in! He told me so himself! He clearly sensed my trail, and let me in anyway——"
"Ha. Then go on, tell me — why would I let you in? What good does that do me?"
The mage gave a scornful laugh on the spot.
This was exactly what he'd been waiting for.
If the brat had spoken first and blurted out some of the things he'd let slip earlier, he'd truly have been put on the back foot — but now that he'd spoken first, it was a different matter entirely. Pin a charge on the brat first, and the brat fell into a fluster all on his own.
He'd even exposed his single greatest weakness.
This young Ignis man was tongue-tied.
The brat was a deserter by origin, with no proper education at all; some skill he'd trained up, true, but all of it in fighting — at a moment like this, one that called for a glib tongue, he couldn't seize the point at all.
Whereas on his own side......
The importance of communication had been stressed since the time of the Nineteenth Sage King; as a man of the Ignivas family, a descendant of the Nineteenth Sage King, even if he'd spent most of his days training his magic and his appetite, he had at least the most basic gift of speech.
"As a descendant of the Nineteenth Sage King, I shall be the new Sage King...... so there's no way you'll talk me to death here in two or three sentences."
Thinking this, the mage opened his mouth once more.
"Go on, then — what other crime will you pin on me? Just now you could say I let you in; next will you say I mean some treachery against the god Himself?"
"You, are you not——"
The words barely out, the young Ignis man stalled.
Dull as he was, he'd realized that whatever he said now would do no good.
A single step too slow to speak, and he'd been dropped into a corner like this!
"I......"
The young Ignis man worked his mouth, but for the life of him couldn't marshal the words for a counterattack.
And his moment's hesitation was, again, seized upon by the mage.
"You — what's the matter with you? Lost your tongue?"
The mage put on a face of perfect rectitude.
"Is this you admitting your guilt?"
"I, I, I——"
Pressed hard by the mage's badgering, the young Ignis man couldn't string together a single whole sentence.
But it was just then that a flash of inspiration struck the young Ignis man's mind.
"I know where there's meat to eat! This mage has a pasture! Right at the edge of the sacred mountain! He said he'd offer up every sabertooth he raises to You!"
"...... oh?"
And it was just then that the great snake's head turned to look at the mage.
"Your. Pasture. You have?"
"......I do."
Seeing that pair of eyes, each larger than a whole person, swing around onto him like that, the mage at once bowed his head, not daring to meet them.
"I do indeed — I do have a pasture at the foot of the sacred mountain, and I'm only too glad to offer up all those sabertooths to You......"
The thought of actually handing over those sabertooths he'd reared to the Snake God gave the mage a real pang.
But considering the chance at becoming Sage King was now within arm's reach, after a fierce inner struggle he finally gritted his teeth and owned to it.
If it meant becoming the Sage King......
"......And this brat, then? What's to be done with this cursed poacher?"
Saying this, the mage had already raised both palms.
"Why don't I be the one — let me punish this——"
THWACK—
The great tail swept across, and the mage went flying on the spot.
"His. Eating meat. Small matter."
The vast giant snake spoke once more.
"Death, death — no need."
......No need?
The mage jerked his head up in shock.
What did that mean, no need — what on earth was the Snake God thinking? Faced with a criminal who'd offended the majesty of a god, He didn't even want to mete out punishment?
Call the Snake God merciful if you liked, but merciful to a degree like this......
"Also. Remember. Said. Me. As a god — don't."
The snake's words still came in fits and starts, plainly its grasp of the present-day Ignis tongue still not quite fluent.
"And then. Poaching. One man, eating...... eating, one man, can eat, how much?"
At these words the mage broke out at once in a cold sweat.
Under the gaze of that pair of vertical pupils, he felt as though the hide cloak on his body had been stripped clean away — as though even the thoughts hidden in the depths of his heart had nowhere left to hide.
To think he'd hoped to use the Snake God to be rid of this cursed deserter.
So the Snake God had known everything, from the very start.