Dante’s Immortality – Chapter 118

“What happened to you?”

Dante groaned, opened his eyes, and saw Victoria standing above where he was slumped over on the bed. Her voice had a touch of both resentment and amusement, which was a strange combination, and she looked rough. Almost unrecognizable. Dirt covered every inch of her body and face, and more than one area was splotched with dried mud. Had he not heard her voice, he wouldn’t have believed it was even her.

“I could ask the same,” he said, sitting up. “Where did you go?”

“Shadow thought he saw a miyue serpent.” Victoria plopped down on his bed with her arms crossed, soiling it with the dirt that covered her. “He did.”

Dante jumped up, yanked the fur blankets out from under her, which were his own, and began swatting off the dirt. “Was that really necessary?” He glared at her. “These were expensive. And what is a miyue serpent? I’ve never heard of it.”

That he hadn’t heard of the serpent wasn’t surprising. All of his knowledge about creatures was from the information in the books he collected. And based on the inconsistencies in the different copies he had, he knew his knowledge was limited to say the least.

Victoria didn’t seem bothered by the fact that she had just ruined his blankets. In fact, she seemed satisfied by her actions. Like she was happy to share some of the frustration that she was feeling with him. “Miyue serpents are vile, evil, malicious, conniving, cruel, elusive, spiteful-”

“Okay, I got it,” Dante cut off her rant as he stored his fur blankets. “I assume that it is a snake-type creature. Why would you go out of your way to catch it?”

Victoria didn’t seem pleased by the interruption, but her mood was slowly returning to it’s normal, aloof state. “I didn’t catch it, I killed it.” she let out a sigh. “Unfortunately, the serpent was female and had already laid its eggs, so its venom had already lost its potency.”

“What type of venom does the miyue serpent have?” It losing its potency after the snake gave birth was already indication enough that it is unique.

“Its effects are similar to a Forsaker Classification’s. The venom is harmless on its own, but when infused by world essence it has a corrupting effect. If injected into humans, it will halt all world essence control and mana regeneration from anywhere between several hours to several days depending on the amount of venom injected.”

That gave him pause. “Did you at least find its eggs?”

“I did, but I must have interrupted its breeding. There were only four when they usually lay dozens over the course of a few months. And given the miyue serpent’s high infant mortality rate, it is unlikely that any of them will survive their incubation period.”

“If the female was in the midst of breeding, surely there must be a male somewhere close by that we could acquire.”

Victoria looked at him incredulously, then pointedly looked down at her dirt covered appearance before looking back up at him again. “It was very challenging for me to locate this miyue serpent after Shadow tracked it. If you would like to go find the male, solely based on that premise, be my guest.”

“I was just thinking aloud,” Dante brushed the matter aside. He still couldn’t get over the fact that Victoria had to expend so much effort to locate a single snake. That pretty much meant that it would have been an impossibility for him to capture.

It was nice to see Victoria after the day he had been having. “By the way, Diana Ailloss is here.”

Victoria’s demeanor underwent an immediate change as her eyes snapped on to him. “She is?” She examined him, finding something amiss. “I take it that you have yet to meet?”

“Actually,” he said. “We’ve already met twice, the second time was less than an hour ago. She wants Jayden’s help to invade the noble’s territory.”

Victoria looked surprised. “You didn’t tell her your name, did you?”

“No, I told her my name was Jack.”

A smile spread across Victoria’s face. Any of her earlier frustration from hunting the miyue serpent completely disappeared.

That smile, in addition to the context of their conversation, filled him with unease. “I know that there are people in the noble’s territory who are looking for me, but from what Diana said, she shouldn’t be involved with any of them.” Of course, there was the possibility that Diana had lied to him earlier. In which case, he would be more than happy for Victoria to tell him the truth before finding out on his own.

Victoria’s arms remained crossed, but there was a subtle smugness to her posture now. “I heard that she ran away from her father because he arranged a marriage for her.”

Dante nodded, that was what Diana had told him.

“Edward Ailloss kept everything about the marriage hidden, but it would be impossible for rumors to be suppressed,” Victoria continued. “Apparently, Edward was trying to set her up with someone from the Outer Edge region.”

Dante’s mind blanked. He was still looking at Victoria, but his eyes were no longer in focus. “Those are just rumors though, right?” There was almost zero chance that Victoria was talking about him. But ‘almost zero chance’ wasn’t nearly small enough.

“Nope,” Victoria crushed any of his delusions. “A friend of mine is a part of House Ailloss. I can say with absolute certainty that it is you.”

He didn’t know how to process the information that Victoria gave him. The first thought that he had was that Edward was crazy. Wanting to marry off someone he had just met to his own daughter. Then he was struck by the thought that Edward might actually not be that bad. Sure, he was a bit absurd, but it would be a stretch to say that his intentions were nefarious.

Well, that might have been true if Diana wasn’t the person he was supposed to marry. He wasn’t sure about how he felt about that. It made it seem like Edward was unloading her off to him more than anything. She was willing to raise an army against her father, the Goddess only knows what she would be like as a wife.

Dante thanked the Goddess for his change in appearance for the first time. “I’m Jack now, call me Jack.”

“Very funny,” Victoria said. “Jokes aside, you need to keep an eye on Diana. If the two of you got into a fight, you might not win. Her skills will completely block yours.”

She thought he was joking?

Dante’s eyebrows lowered. “Why, exactly, haven’t you told me this before?”

Victoria’s shoulders lifted into a shrug. “I didn’t think it was that important.”

“How is this not pertinent information?”

“Helena, Edwards wife, makes all of the final calls.” Victoria said. “Even if Edward wanted to marry Diana off, nothing would come of it without her approval.”

He rubbed his eyes. “If Helena was going to stop Edward, why would Diana run off and form an army.”

Victoria was still smiling, her smugness was irritating. “Helena and I happen to be good friends. I just need to mention it and she will intervene on your behalf.”

Dante’s mouth opened but no words came out. He didn’t believe that something so important could be resolved so easily. Even more so, he couldn’t believe that Victoria had friends, much less good ones. Sure, she had Melisandre, but from what he could see their relationship formed because they were both a part of the assassin’s guild. In his mind, it was inconceivable that she would go out of her way to socialize with others who she had no dealings with otherwise.

Dante slumped back down on the bed, placing himself next to Victoria. “Can we please leave?”

“Not yet,” Victoria looked down at her dirt covered body. “I need to bathe. And I’ll also need to try and get an incubator made for the remaining eggs. I doubt any of them will hatch, but we might as well try anyways.”