A Serpent's Tale
Chapter 347: The Two on Top of Society

Chapter 347: The Two on Top of Society

"Welcome to Astraa City, Divine one."

The person bowing before me, whom I assumed to be the Empyric Coil, supreme leader of the Sect of Naga.

I could tell by the Molten Shroud she wore, which was a precious robe that never cooled down, even in the coldest of conditions.

The shroud itself had a semi-vague depiction of the Goddess, Astraa. Which made me think, did they actually know the name of their Goddess? I don’t think I’ve ever actually heard anyone refer to her by her name before. Me included, at least before I received her inheritance.

Besides that depiction, there was also a soft orange shimmering glow to it also, alongside several crudely woven runes that must be the reason it’s said to be eternally warm. And they really were crude, like they were written by someone who didn’t know how to write them.

As for the colours of the robe, it was mostly red with some orange highlights and even some yellow to help better depict some fire patterns on it. And the outlines for everything was woven together with a very fine golden thread.

I also noticed two more mystical things about it. The first being that it no matter how it draped, it never quite touched the floor. The second, was that there was no belt to hold it together, not even a button anywhere, meaning that it held itself together.

As for the woman herself, she had hair similar to mine, a vibrant and shining crimson, her scales a slightly darker shade of scarlet compared to mine. Her chest... one size bigger than me, which I was mildly annoyed by for some reason.

"Don’t call me that." I finally responded after several seconds of silence. Totally not because I was jealous of her being bigger than me. Not. One. Bit.

She was taken aback a little by my slightly venomous tone.

Thinking I was offended by how she addressed me, she quickly corrected herself, "Then how would you prefer to be addressed?"

"My name is Traytora." I responded bluntly.

"Traytora it is then. Apologies for the poor greeting, I’ve been busy preparing for your stay here and haven’t had time to do much else I’m afraid." She remained very respectful of me with the way she spoke.

’Makes sense I guess, I am basically the closest she can be to Astraa without passing on.’

She smiled "Allow me to introduce myself now. I am Krytaraa, the Empyric Coil. And I present to you the ruler of our nation." She then slithered aside for the other one to come and greet me. And I realised now that the surrounding crowd was looking at me with their mouths agape in shock.

This one, who looked somewhat familiar for some reason, though I can’t quite say why, came up and greeted me with respect and grace. And I realised that her chest was two sizes bigger than mine!

Closing her eyes and bowing her head as she clasped her hands together, she spoke, "Greetings, Traytora. I am Trayzara Krara Astraa, the Futaris of this kingdom. I assume you’ve met my cousin, Zarytaa Krara."

’OH! So that’s why she looks so familiar!’

"I don’t like her." I stated without any remorse, letting my feelings be known.

But to my surprise, Trayzara merely sighed. "I’m not surprised. She’s always been far too pushy for her own good. I have no doubt that she tried to force herself onto you. I apologise for her behavior, she’s always had this weird complex for those younger than her and have a mysterious air about them."

"Apparently, she’s the one who got the oligarchs to kidnap me, who then fail to strip me of my power and tried to have me exiled publicly by the church." I went straight into ripping the Duchess to shreds in front of not only her cousin, but also the literal ruler of this country.

And I could see said rulers’ eyelids twitching as she raised her head and looked at me with a squinted gaze filled with animosity.

"Really now?" There was an edge to her voice that was sharp enough to cut stones in half. Then her expression returned to a soft and kind one as she said, "I’ll deal with her later so don’t worry about her. Why don’t we head inside the palace and continue talking there?"

Seeing no reason to refuse her offer, and genuinely curious to see the palace close up with my own eyes, I accepted.

And then, we were on our way to the palace, with several guards suddenly surrounding us and giving us space from the absentminded citizens.

I did notice that Zatyraa and Krytaraa separated from us for some reason, likely headed for the main headquarters of the Sect here in the capital.

And on our way to the palace, the Futaris engaged in some small talk.

"So, where are you from?"

"I... Don’t really remember where I was born... And I don’t like thinking that far back either."

Seeing the mood turn dim already, Trayzara tried to lift it by asking a different question, "How have you found the capital so far? Beyond anything you ever thought right?" I could tell that she was quite prideful about the city, which is fair.

And to not let the atmosphere between us remain down, I answered, "Yeah, it’s so much bigger than I ever thought a city possibly could be. And it’s got so many amazing sights no matter where you look too!"

"Fufu~ I’m glad you like it. To be honest, I’ve done nothing to actually help create this city, I’ve only helped to improve it and expand it by one layer of houses. Everything else was done by my predecessors."

"Still, the fact that you’ve managed to keep it so prosperous and even expand it by one thin layer of houses. Considering how big it must be now, that’s an amazing feat if you think about how large the city is!"

"Haha~ Thank you for your praise. But I don’t deserve it, I’ve not done much apart from approve things since taking the throne from my father after he passed." She smiled despite the clear longing to see her father again. And I could relate to that feeling.

*Cough* "Anyways, here we are, at the Royal Naga Palace!"

We stopped and he threw her arms up and out to point me towards the palace and holy fucking shit.

It’s huge. It’s just fucking huge.

Giant walls that lead up to supposedly an open platform on top and then another very tall wall going upwards. And in seemingly every corner there was a massive spiralling tower filled with balconies and windows the whole way up.

And the walls were a pure white also, with what roofs I could see being a bloody crimson colour.

It was all just so big in proportions that I couldn’t believe it. My jaw hit the floor from sheer astonishment.

"Aahahahaha! Ah, it’s always amusing to see people’s reactions to seeing the palace up close. Come, you haven’t seen anything yet." She ushered me inside, and I followed like a lost lamb, still gawking over the sheer size of this place.