Hate Me, Witch!-Chapter 172: The Correct Way to Use the Serpent of Mercury

Xia Ya gave him a meaningful look.

Now that was a familiar setup.

It reminded him again of dear Comrade Norton and the tragically unfulfilled Comrade Guderian.

“So you’re saying… Father’s death wasn’t exactly a coincidence, was it?”

“Yes, I was the one who, in His Majesty’s food and drink…”

Halfway through the sentence, the knight captain suddenly snapped out of it.

How could he have been so careless, spilling everything just like that without hesitation?

Especially the part about secretly recognizing Duke Seras as his foster father.

That was his biggest secret.

No, with his strength being close to the Sixth Tier, even at his most careless, he wouldn’t have made such a rookie mistake.

This had to have a source—

He stared in shock at the black-haired, dark-eyed prince in front of him.

Only to realize that this prince—usually sickly, indifferent to politics, viewed by the nobles and ministers as nothing more than a puppet—was now simply smiling at him.

Still the same thin and frail frame, yet in his eyes, Xia Ya seemed to carry a mysterious weight.

Within those pitch-black eyes, three blood-red tomoe were slowly spinning, then enlarging.

Eventually, the silver-white moonlight within them ascended—transformed—into Crimson-Gold Eyes.

In those golden-red pupils, it was as if molten lava flowed.

“Sorry, this is my first time using Tsukuyomi in the First Era where Divinity is suppressed. Bit rusty.”

“If guiding your subconscious won’t work, guess I’ll have to be more forceful. Hope you don’t mind.”

With a tone laced in mild apology,

That slim black-haired silhouette appeared taller and more imposing in the knight captain’s eyes.

That calm voice rang out again—this time with an undeniable, irresistible authority.

“Now, I need you to tell me everything you know.”

……

Moments later.

“Master, all the info I recorded is right here.”

The metal fairy Yui flapped her delicate fairy wings and obediently landed by Xia Ya’s side.

The Dracoserpent Mercury manifested as line after line of refined script before Xia Ya’s eyes.

His gaze swept across it.

Compared to the Serpent of Fate, this knight captain was ultimately just a Fifth-Ring, so the level of intel he could offer wasn’t very high.

At the very least, there was no point hoping for secrets about True Gods.

However, on the flip side, he could fill in the details that the Serpent of Fate had left out.

Xia Ya’s eyes landed on the first line Yui presented.

[Year 928 of the Cataclysm Calendar]

This was the current era Xia Ya was in.

The knight captain didn’t know the origin of the Cataclysm Calendar—only that long ago, a disaster known as the “Great Cataclysm” or the “Calamity of Light” had erupted.

Thus, chaos replaced order and became the prevailing theme across the Western Continent.

It was an era when Mythical Creatures ran rampant across the world.

The war of the gods raged from the Starrealm, to the Spirit Realm, and finally spilled into the Material Plane.

In such a disordered age, humanity—being the weaker party—could only cling to Mythical Creatures to survive.

They worshipped them as totems, trading reverence for scraps of protection from the fallout of divine warfare.

And the “Forest Kingdom” Xia Ya currently resided in, was under the protection of a Dragon Totem.

Of course, no matter the era, even when beset by internal and external crises, humans were never short on internal strife.

Like this knight captain before him—conspiring with his prince’s uncle, the duke, and aiming to usurp the throne.

“Following the usual plot… the weak prince gets replaced by a transmigrator, then it’s time for a classic revenge arc.”

“It’s just that this opponent…”

Xia Ya couldn’t help but shake his head.

In the First Era, neither Magitech nor mage systems had emerged—it seemed like humanity’s path to transcendence relied entirely on forging the physical body.

But as the saying goes, men are clever, demons are strong.

Lacking fangs, claws, rapid regeneration, or longevity—humans trying to surpass the long-lived species and mythical creatures in brute strength was a total fantasy.

According to this knight captain’s memories, a Fifth-Tier like him was already considered formidable in the Forest Kingdom.

Even his so-called foster father, the duke vying for the throne, was merely Sixth-Tier.

“Sixth Tier at most, not even Legendary. What kind of kingdom is this—how boring.”

Xia Ya couldn’t help but shake his head again.

When your status changes, so does your perspective.

Now, honestly, he had zero interest in the politics of this tiny kingdom.

So what if he became king?

He was the officially appointed Royal Consort of the Fresta Empire, with an entire empire of easy living waiting for him—this little backwater wasn’t even worth a glance.

Compared to all this petty, laughable palace drama—

He was far more interested in that Evil Dragon Totem the knight captain mentioned.

Xia Ya’s thoughts shifted, and the silver moon in his eyes slowly faded away.

And in front of him, the knight captain seemed to awaken from a dream, snapping out of the earlier state.

He looked at the prince before him, but before he could speak, Xia Ya beat him to it.

“Well, since it’s Uncle’s command, I understand.”

?

The knight captain was dumbfounded.

Did you hear “send you to be a sacrifice to the Evil Dragon” as “send you to ascend the throne”?

Unfortunately, parts of his memory had already been rewritten and erased by Xia Ya using Tsukuyomi, so no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t make sense of anything anymore.

“As a prince, it’s only natural to have the resolve to feed oneself to a dragon.”

Xia Ya waved it off, unconcerned.

“When are we heading out?”

……

Silent Forest.

This was an endless sea of trees located at the southernmost edge of the Western Continent.

Countless towering ancient trees stood in dense clusters, blocking out the sky and sunlight.

The kingdom Xia Ya was in was called the Forest Kingdom precisely because it sat at the forest’s border.

“Your Highness, I can only escort you this far.”

Of course, “escort” was really just supervising his march to death.

After all, usurpation still needed some justification, right? If the prince wasn’t dead, how could the uncle take the throne?

The knight captain stopped in his tracks, eyes wary as he gazed into the depths.

From deep within the Silent Forest, a faint yet chilling dragon’s presence radiated outward.

Even a brief glimpse of it sent a visceral terror and bone-deep chill coursing through his battle-hardened body.

It was a suppression stemming from his very bloodline.

He looked at Xia Ya, who was staring lazily and unfazed into the depths of the forest, his face calm—almost like he didn’t realize he was walking to his doom.

The knight captain had been prepared to betray him on the spot and force him in by strength if needed, but in the end, things had gone smoother than he’d imagined.

“Mm, I’ll handle the rest of the way myself.”

“But…”

Xia Ya’s words paused slightly.

“Don’t you feel wronged?”

“You’re not exactly weak. Peak Fifth-Ring and Sixth-Ring aren’t all that different. So why must you bow to someone else?”

“Are kings and nobles born special? If everyone’s using shady means anyway, why is my royal uncle fit to be king and you’re not?”

As Xia Ya’s voice echoed with subtle persuasion—

In an instant, just as the knight captain was beginning to retreat, a sudden flame surged in his heart.

The flame of ambition.

A man born between heaven and earth—how could he willingly live beneath others?

And Xia Ya, who had casually planted that psychological suggestion in the knight captain’s heart using Tsukuyomi, kept his gaze fixed on the depths of the Silent Forest.

He probably wasn’t going back to that kingdom. What he did just now was more of a casual move to see if something fun would happen.

Since the knight captain had already acknowledged Duke Seras as his foster father, wasn’t it only natural for the “father and son” to have a heartwarming little power struggle?

But at this moment, what Xia Ya cared about more was what lay deeper in the Silent Forest.

That was a true Mythical Creature.

The dream of every Beastmaster.

Ever since he transmigrated to the Western Continent, Xia Ya had constantly heard tales of dragons.

Whether from wandering bards or the textbooks of Black Tower and St. Roland Academy, countless records illustrated the might of dragons.

Even Draconic Wyverns—which had relatively high concentrations of dragon blood—were already Imperial-Tier species.

So imagine the terrifying potential of a pure-blooded dragon.

Even the weakest white dragon could reach Legendary Tier upon maturity.

Let alone the red or black dragons above them.

But true pure-blooded dragons had long vanished from the Western Continent. Even with Xia Ya’s status, he’d never seen one.

And now, in this authentic First Era, many ancient and mythical species that had disappeared from the future were now finally in sight.

……

The deepest depths of the Silent Forest.

A towering ancient tree stood tall.

Though it hadn’t developed sentience or its own will,

the aura it exuded was already enough to suppress an average Demigod.

Legend had it this was one of two severed branches of the World Tree, felled in the early days of the Cataclysm Era.

One branch landed on the Lost Isle of the High Elves, becoming the Ancient Elf Tree they revered.

The other landed in the Silent Forest, eventually growing into this boundless sea of woods.

At the top of the Silent Ancient Tree—

Countless thick crimson-gold branches were woven into a massive dragon’s nest.

This chapter is updated by freēwēbnovel.com.

From the outside, it looked like a simple nest made of World Tree leaves and branches. But upon stepping inside, one would find spatial laws twisted around every single leaf.

Within the layers of warped space ripples,

lay a compressed sub-plane.

This was the true Dragon’s Lair.

Beneath the veil of Eternal Night—

a sky of absolute darkness stretched endlessly. On the ground, only thin strands of crimson flame glimmered—

the sole color in this world of black and red.

At the edge of this barren, broken landscape lay the ruins of a shattered palace.

And at its center—

a massive shadow lay quietly, curled on the earth.

Black-and-red scales shimmered with a chilling luster. A hulking body coiled in silence.

Its enormous leathery wings, even tucked tight to its sides, hinted at their sky-covering majesty when unfurled.

This was a towering Black Dragon.

But right now, the dragon lay prone, seemingly in a deep, ancient slumber.

Pa-da—

Pa-da—

Light footsteps drew closer.

“Hiss hiss hiss (Wait—Master, you actually came?)”

“Hiss hiss hiss (Don’t be fooled by how easily you flattened those divine descents earlier. They were just incomplete vessels!)”

“Hiss hiss hiss (Right now, you’re in the Age of Gods, and that’s a fully-formed, genuine Mythical Creature!)”

Inside the Soul Pact Space, the tiny Mercury Serpent flicked its tongue nervously.

Ever since contracting with Xia Ya, it had been forced to use the same “pet-speak” as the others.

Not because it couldn’t speak human language—but because Xia Ya thought the hissing made it cuter.

The little snake could only silently choke on its despair.

Sure, it had technically lived through four eras, but it was more of a scavenger than a warrior—never one to get involved when the Divine Wars broke out. So the concept of divine pride meant nothing to it.

If acting cute was the way to survive, then cute it was.

“What, aren’t you a mythical creature too? Now that you’re back in the Age of Gods, shouldn’t you be crying tears of joy to see an old friend?”

Xia Ya gave the snake a scornful look.

“Hiss hiss hiss~ (I’m not a mythical creature, I’m just a Battle-5 Snake, you said so yourself, Master.)”

The snake had completely given up.

Once your dignity's been trampled once, a second time doesn’t hurt.

Dignity? What’s that—can you eat it?

If Master said it was Battle-5 Snake, then Battle-5 Snake it was. At least it wouldn't be forced to fight.

“Your species shouldn’t be called the Serpent of Mercury, it should be Shame of the Mythical Creatures.”

Even Xia Ya was stunned by how low the snake could go.

Still, he gently patted its head.

“But you’re right. That dragon really is the real deal. I’m confident, but it’s better to have a backup plan.”

“So, if things go south and I need to run, you’ll be the meat shield to cover the retreat.”

“After all, if you take a fatal blow, you’ll trigger Fate Rewind and reset the worldline, right? That means we get unlimited retries—no matter how many times we fail.”

Snake: ?

So Fate Rewind is for this?!

While the two chatted, Xia Ya had unknowingly stepped into the area of the ruined palace.

Pa-da.

The moment he stepped in—

The dragon's roar erupted.

It shook the skies, thundered across the land.

The earth cried out, cracking open with crimson-black fissures.

In the blink of an eye, flames of red and black surged from the dragon’s body.

That black dragon—like a statue—finally stirred.

Its massive wings unfurled, covering most of the pitch-black sky.

Its once-shut eyelids opened, revealing terrifying dragon eyes.

But from those pale, ashen irises, Xia Ya could see no spark of sentient life.

Only a deadly stillness, pale and withered, utterly devoid of vitality.

It didn’t feel like a sentient creature.

It felt like a living corpse.

And as the black dragon awakened—

Xia Ya saw, just behind it, deep in the palace ruins—

That—

A jet-black dragon egg, shrouded in a thin veil of shadow, like it was wrapped in the curtain of night.