Chapter 407: The Trial is Complete?

Rebuilding a city here would be very difficult, but Shire had already made his decision. For one, the location was a great distance from human settlements, which offered the best protection from the harassment of human Adventurers. For another, it was adjacent to Darren Lake, making it a prime choice for both water collection and port construction.

As he was walking slowly toward the “center” of the Feathered Serpent Kingdom, a loud shout suddenly echoed from the distance. “Bro, it really is you!”

“Hmm?” Shire made out the newcomer in the faint moonlight and couldn’t help but smile. “Pazani, what are you doing here?”

“Bro, it’s the Shui Yumo, my coming-of-age trial.” The Naga Prince slowly “slithered” over. As he got closer, Shire noticed a huge bundle on his back, much larger than any he had carried before.

“Don’t call me that… ah, forget it.” Shire waved his hand, giving up on correcting him. ‘He can call me whatever he wants.’ “Did your coming-of-age trial tell you to find me?”

“No, words appeared on the beast hide, telling me to come to the Feathered Serpent Kingdom and meet you before dawn,” Pazani said excitedly. “Are we going to kill the Feathered Serpent Evil God, Bro?”

“That’s not certain. We’re just taking advantage of its hibernation to raid this place.” Shire’s gaze locked onto the bundle on Pazani’s back. “What did you bring? That’s a huge pack.”

“An Ice Array,” Pazani said with a grin, the four fleshy whiskers by his mouth quivering with excitement. “I noticed this morning that the writing on my coming-of-age trial had changed. It didn’t take me long to figure out you must be leading an assault on the Feathered Serpent Kingdom. So, I spent a long time haggling with the elders. At first, they didn’t want to get involved and forbade me from coming. But I cornered them using the Shui Yumo’s hint. I said that if I didn’t come, I couldn’t complete my trial, and then they’d have to pick one of my brothers to be the King of the Naga Race.”

“And then?” Shire raised a hand, signaling for Pazani to lower his voice. Although his subordinates had already secured the area, Shire still felt like he was in someone else’s “home” and needed to be cautious.

“Then the elders were out of options. You should’ve seen their faces! They looked like they’d just eaten unripe red algae, it was that bitter,” Pazani said, patting the scales on his lower body. He tried to keep his voice down, but he couldn’t hold back his grin. “They had to let me come, but they only agreed to let me come to the Feathered Serpent Kingdom alone. They kept muttering things like, ‘One must not trespass in an enemy’s kingdom.'”

“They have a point,” Shire said, nodding. He could understand the elders’ decision. It’s said that the older one gets, the more timid one becomes; sometimes, the consequences of a single misstep are simply too great to bear.

“So I said, ‘If you won’t let me bring reinforcements, then at least make something for me.'” As he spoke, Pazani untied the large bundle from his back and dropped it on the ground with a THUD. “I had the elders use the White Holy Stone you gave us to create a large-scale Frozen Array.”

“Rune Language: Frosty Winter?” Shire unwrapped the beast hide from the bundle to look inside. “Nice. This improves our odds.”

After a moment’s thought, he decided to set it up in the “plaza” in front of the tower where, according to Broken Tooth, the Feathered Serpent Evil God was hiding. If the Feathered Serpent God were to awaken unexpectedly and charge out of the tower’s entrance, they would immediately activate Rune Language: Frosty Winter.

“You go with Broken Tooth and Nine-finger to set this up now.” Having decided, Shire immediately beckoned his subordinates over.

They had to race against time. The sooner the setup was complete, the better their chances would be.

“Be careful not to make too much noise,” Shire instructed the goblins before him, and Pazani. “We can’t underestimate the Feathered Serpent Evil God; it’s still very powerful. Set everything up quietly. No loud noises.”

Everyone nodded gravely. Then, with Broken Tooth leading the way, they headed off into the distance.

But after going only a few yards, Pazani slithered back, pulling out a piece of beast hide and handing it to Shire. “Bro, I’ve already signed this. See if you want to sign, too.”

“Sign what?” Shire held it up, using the light from a nearby torch to read. “The ‘Alliance Pact Between the Goblin Kingdom and the Naga Race’?”

“Yep. I thought of it on my way here. We’ve already made it all the way to the Feathered Serpent Evil God’s lair, so if we don’t sign an alliance now, we’ll probably have to later anyway.” He grinned and pointed off into the distance. “That Feathered Serpent isn’t going to give us many more chances.”

“Do the Naga Race elders know about this?” Shire frowned as he scanned the document. He could clearly tell it was something Pazani had written up on the spot; many of the clauses required more discussion and consideration.

“They don’t know,” Pazani said, shaking his head. “If I told them, this alliance would probably become a huge hassle.”

“You’re not the Naga King yet, and your coming-of-age trial isn’t even finished. Even if I sign this, it won’t be legally binding, will it?” Shire said hesitantly. ‘This is a pretty big move he’s making. I’m not sure now is the right time for this.’

“It’s fine, Bro. I may only be a Prince right now, but I’ll complete the trial eventually. Signing an alliance now is better than letting those elders debate it for days on end with no result.” He waved his hand dismissively. “From my interactions with you, I can tell you’re nothing like a goblin. You’re actually a great leader. More importantly, you prefer to make deals, or exchanges. You don’t like to just plunder.”

“Me?” Shire let out a wry chuckle.

“Yes. Take those Frogmen from before. They were incredibly weak. With your strength, you could have just robbed them blind. You could have even captured them all to harvest their mucus every day, but you didn’t do that.” Pazani nodded, his smile gone. “You’re different from other goblins, and even from those depraved humans. You seem to view all the species in this forest as equals.”

“Er…” Shire was momentarily speechless. “Well, how do I say this… Perhaps it’s my education. I was taught to treat people as equals.”

“That’s why I think I can sign an alliance pact with you,” Pazani said with a soft sigh. “I don’t know what the future holds for my trial. If we sign this toni… today, then even if my brothers are the ones to meet you next, they will seriously consider this pact.”

Shire pursed his lips, saying nothing for a moment. He understood the meaning behind the Naga Prince’s hesitation. They were going up against the Feathered Serpent Evil God tonight. If something were to happen to him during the battle, then a new Naga Race prince—undoubtedly one of Pazani’s younger brothers—would meet with Shire in the future. Then, their two peoples could continue to discuss this unfinished pact.

“You rascal. You’re always saying you don’t care about your race, that you don’t want to be King, that you just want to be an ‘office worker.’ But you clearly care more about your people than anyone,” Shire said, good-naturedly calling him out. His gaze, however, was filled with admiration for the Naga Prince.

“I’ll sign the pact.” Saying this, Shire pulled a charcoal pencil from his belt and hastily scrawled his name on the beast hide. “But I’m also adding that the contents of this pact require further discussion, and this is merely a letter of intent.”

With a few quick strokes, he finished writing the addendum, then folded the beast hide and handed it back to Pazani.

But Pazani didn’t take it right away. Instead, he frowned and pulled another piece of beast hide from a small pouch he was carrying. Shire recognized it—it was the Naga Prince’s “coming-of-age trial.”

“What is it?” Shire asked.

“I think the coming-of-age trial has changed,” Pazani said. He always got a certain feeling whenever the Shui Yumo script shifted.

When he unrolled the beast hide, his eyes widened in shock. “It’s… complete?”

“Complete?” Hearing the Naga Prince, Shire looked down at the beast hide in his hands.

“Yes.” With a miserable expression, Pazani showed the beast hide to Shire. On it, the Shui Yumo script displayed a few large words: COMING-OF-AGE TRIAL FULLY COMPLETE.

“If I’d known it was this easy, I would’ve signed the pact the very first time we met,” he wailed, his dorsal fin visibly drooping. “I could have been getting three extra days off every week!”