So I'm a Snake, Who Cares?

Phili knelt and begged, but his sister slapped his cheek and pulled his hair.

The king coldly glared at Phili and the queen cried while cursing him too.

It was actually Leon, his older brother, who stopped his sister then.

'I wish you would die. I wish you'd die painfully and horribly burning.'

Phili cried as he heard those words of curse.

Remembering that made his heart freeze.

These recent happy days rather brought up his guilt.

Because Phili carried a sin.

A sin that could never be forgiven.

He got up from his bed.

Whenever he had such nightmares, Phili would lock himself in his room for days.

He glanced at Amain.

Find adventures at empire

He's sleeping so peacefully.

And there's also Rania and Teacher Snake who visited the Lily Palace yesterday.

He can't just stay locked up here.

He carefully opened the window.

The cold dawn air rushed in.

Dawn was breaking in the eastern sky.

Now it truly begins.

The Solarian.

==

The week-long Grand Festival.

And the Solarian finals that take place during the Grand Festival.

The Solarian finals are held on the last day of the Grand Festival.

It's not just a festival between academy students.

The Solarian is a major event attended even by the king and royal family.

The entire 3rd District of the capital where Emerald School is located was already in festival mode.

Where many people gather, various traveling merchants also gather.

Markets lined the main streets, and even in non-market areas, various stalls selling snacks and goods appeared.

There were street musicians and performers collecting money in hats and cans.

There were also gambling scammers and con artists.

And, there were also clowns.

A clown with white face paint performed mime acts in front of passing pedestrians.

It was the type where they'd do attention-grabbing tricks and then hold out their hat for money, but few people actually gave money when the hat was extended.

Nevertheless, the clown repeated such unprofitable acts.

This time, they chose a tall man.

He hadn't noticed because of the hat, but up close, he was terrifyingly handsome.

Blocking his path, the clown performed a mime as if there was an invisible wall.

Passersby giggled as they walked past.

After performing such mime acts and extending the hat...

Smack!

The man grabbed the clown's hand.

And a snake shot out from the man's wrist and coiled around the clown's wrist.

"Heuk!"

"Shut up."

A spine-chilling command.

And with his other left hand, the man grabbed the collar of a nearby pedestrian.

"W-what...!"

"Return it if you don't want to lose your wrist."

"..."

"Three, two, one..."

"Yes!"

The pedestrian took out a wallet and handed it over.

The tall man, Obern, put that wallet in his chest.

"You two have been stealing from quite a few people. Too greedy."

"..."

He had been watching from the beginning.

How the clown and pedestrian duo were stealing wallets from passersby.

"Please spare us, at home I have a sick mother and..."

"I have four children. My wife ran away!"

They hurriedly begged for forgiveness.

But it was useless.

"Shut up and listen."

If Obern had been watching them from the start, there must be a reason he quietly let them steal the wallet.

"Want to live?"

"Yes!"

"If you do as I say, I won't report you to the guards."

"Anything..."

If habitual offenders like them got caught by the guards or peacekeepers, their wrists would be in danger.

They were willing to do pretty much anything Obern ordered.

"See that person over there?"

Obern pointed at someone.

An ordinary-looking man was drinking tea in front of a nearby stall.

"Yes, we see him..."

"Steal his wallet."

"What?"

The duo was bewildered.

What kind of sudden order was this?

"What, don't want to?"

"No! We just need to do that?"

"That's right."

"We'll do it!"

They hurriedly backed away.

Since they did this every day, something like that was easy.

And after they left...

'Obern!'

The snake was holding a purse in its mouth.

'I got the pickpocketing skill!'

'...Congratulations.'

The snake had stolen the clown's purse in the meantime.

For the poor Obern, such side income was precious. He quickly tucked it away in his chest.

Despite his expressionless face, Obern's heart was pounding.

'Can we really infiltrate?'

Right now, the two were facing a very difficult task.

'We need to find out the Solarian's challenge, but to think it would come to this...'

What the Court Count ordered Obern was to 'Make Third Prince Phili win the Solarian.'

And he told him the content of the preliminaries.

But even the Court Count couldn't find out the content of the finals.

'How important is it to know the test questions in advance!'

The snake emphasized its importance. The Court Count felt the same way.

They needed to find out what the finals would be like in advance.

In exchange, the Court Count brought one piece of information.

Only Principal Balanyar, who sets the tests, and his close associates know the test content.

And recently, Principal Balanyar has been in close contact with something called the Fineman Guild.

Though unknown why, more than half of the budget allocated for the Grand Festival went to the Fineman Guild.

If the Principal hasn't committed embezzlement, he must be preparing something to be used in the finals.

So the snake and Obern set out to investigate this.

Here, they received help from Amain, or more precisely, Amain's father Roil.

Running the Riddle Guild, he informed them that there was a warehouse bought by the Fineman Guild right near the 3rd District.

That red brick building ahead is the warehouse.

And warriors disguised as ordinary citizens were guarding around it.

'Only three. That's all I can see.'

The snake somehow had the insight to clearly find the three hidden warriors.

And one of them just disappeared somewhere saying they were going to the bathroom.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Of the remaining two, one was the person they just ordered the clown to steal from.

Actually, trying to pickpocket a skilled warrior was practically suicide.

And finally...

"You bastard!"

"Aaack!"

The clown was immediately caught by the wrist and subdued.

And the clown's partner who had approached pretending to be a passerby ran away without looking back.

"That bastard, catch that bastard!"

"What!"

And the one remaining warrior tackled the fleeing partner.

'Now!'

The snake shouted.

Obern, who had made his body lightweight, quickly jumped over the wall.

'I think I'm a genius!'

The snake's proud voice echoed in his head.