The Serpent's Diluted Mercy
Violet couldn't believe it. Not at first, when her constellation had sent her a potion that behaved nothing like the usual ones. Naturally, she had been suspicious. After everything the Ruler of Serpents and Darkness had put her through, how could she not be?
But then her little sister had bolted upright in bed right before her eyes. At that point, suspicion alone wasn't an option anymore.
“C-Constellation-nim… what is this…?”
The Ruler of Serpents and Darkness says this is an Elixir she has just bestowed upon you.
The Ruler of Serpents and Darkness says you should repay this kindness with lifelong gratitude.
“An… an Elixir…?”
Violet’s pupils trembled violently. Of course she wanted to assume it was another lie, another trick, just like always. And yet… her sister was standing there completely healthy. How could she not believe it?
The illness had been so mysterious that even after trying every herb and potion she could find, even after bringing in healers, Violet had never been able to identify its true nature. If it wasn’t an Elixir, could her sister really have recovered like this?
In truth, the Ruler of Serpents and Darkness had not lied. The only problem was that she had diluted the Elixir to roughly one-hundredth of its original strength with water. In other words, not even a single full drop had gone into the bottle.
Of course, even the Ruler of Serpents and Darkness felt a little wronged at being suspected. Elixirs were so incredibly rare that obtaining even this much diluted liquid had been no small feat.
“Big sis! Please, I’m begging you!”
The Ruler of Serpents and Darkness was currently on her knees, performing a perfect dogeza in front of the Great Warrior of Tartarus, another constellation from the Underworld.
She could be endlessly vicious toward those weaker than herself, but when faced with someone stronger, she was more than willing to drop to her knees without hesitation.
The Great Warrior of Tartarus stared down at her.
“Oh ho, so this is the photo you sent to that Seeker of Supreme Knowledge fellow…”
“Big sis!”
“Pfft, I’m only joking.”
The Great Warrior of Tartarus burst into laughter at the serpent’s shrill shriek. After a long moment, she asked,
“So, you’re saying that if you just have an Elixir, you can land a solid blow on that seeker bastard?”
“Yes! One bottle of the diluted version will be more than enough!”
“Hmm… Well, I suppose you must have a plan.”
The Great Warrior of Tartarus pulled out a glass bottle and tossed it to the serpent. The Ruler of Serpents and Darkness scrambled to catch it, then hugged the bottle to her chest as if it were the most precious thing in the world.
Even this small amount was enough to produce a healing effect equivalent to one of a constellation’s spare lives. It pained her to use something so valuable on a mere human—and not even the incarnation herself, but the incarnation’s younger sister. Still, the Ruler of Serpents and Darkness presented the Elixir to Violet with every possible flourish and display of generosity.
And so, after Violet’s sister had risen from her sickbed, the following message appeared.
The Ruler of Serpents and Darkness says the two of you have a lot of work to do.
The sisters were dragged from place to place, forced to show their faces to both incarnations and constellations alike.
First, they were taken to the Pantheon together to offer a prayer of gratitude to the constellations (at the Ruler of Serpents and Darkness’s insistence). Naturally, the exact wording of the prayer had been dictated by the constellation herself. She even made them pray aloud in the public prayer room so everyone could hear.
“Thank you for healing my little sister’s illness…”
“Thank you so much…”
In the public prayer room, with everyone staring at them with strange looks, the two sisters passionately confessed their faith in the Ruler of Serpents and Darkness.
When they finally stepped outside the Pantheon, lower-ranking Underworld incarnations were waiting. They showered the sisters with flower petals and even placed a floral wreath around Seri’s neck.
What on earth are they doing…?
I have no idea, sis…
Dragged from one location to another, the sisters were used as propaganda tools, much like North Korean defectors being paraded around with promises of meat soup at every meal.
At the same time, anonymous posts began flooding the Community Board, racking up suspiciously high numbers of likes at an alarming speed.
Even though the posts were anonymous, the writing style made it painfully obvious who had written them. The tone was awkward, and it never actually explained what the Seeker was supposed to clarify. Nevertheless, posts like these began sprouting up everywhere on the Community Board, dominating the recommended section and slowly shifting public opinion.
The Princess of Frost, upon seeing them, immediately sent a message.
The Princess of Frost tilted her head in confusion. But she soon understood when the Seeker pointed out that every constellation’s attention was currently focused on the two sisters. It would be nearly impossible to do something like that without getting caught.
“Hmm… Then what do you plan to do?”
The Princess of Frost tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for the Seeker’s next message. She was genuinely curious to see what solution he would come up with this time.
His reply soon followed.
The Princess of Frost nodded unconsciously. Saying he couldn’t heal Seri because he had been a lowest-rank incarnation at the time would be an explanation, but it would also amount to admitting that the Ruler of Serpents and Darkness had taken the girl out of pity.
The Seeker’s message continued.
Though puzzled, the Princess of Frost ordered her incarnations to check. A short while later, she received a report exactly as the Seeker had predicted: the two incarnations were still wrapped head to toe in bandages, lying in hospital beds.
The Seeker explained step by step. During the Pantheon bombing incident, the Underworld had tried to position themselves as complete victims against the 72 Demons. Those injured incarnations were key evidence that allowed them to claim victimhood and stir up sympathy. That was why they had hospitalized people who had already recovered, treating them as if they were on the verge of death.
The Seeker of Supreme Knowledge asked the Princess of Frost to mobilize the constellations of the 72 Demons to sway public opinion while he posted anonymously.
Having heard that much, the Princess of Frost understood without needing further explanation.
Not long after, the Community Board was suddenly flooded with demands for the Underworld to explain themselves.
They had taken someone else’s incarnation—not even the incarnation herself, but her family member—claiming they would heal her. Yet they had left their own incarnations untreated and abandoned in the hospital. Wasn’t it suspicious? Had they never intended to heal Violet’s sister in the first place and only did so now because it was convenient?
Those were the kinds of attacks raining down.
Before long, the two incarnations of the Ruler of Serpents and Darkness suddenly got up from their hospital beds as if they had never been injured at all.
The Princess of Frost sent the item the Seeker had requested.