The Epic of the Discarded Son-Chapter 51: Serpent Bodyguard
[You have acquired 1 soul fragment.]
[You have acquired 1 soul fragment.]
’Two chimes.’
He knew that sound. That beautiful, annoying, absolutely wonderful sound that only meant one thing.
’I’m alive?’
The realization hit him slowly. Like his brain had to restart itself before it could process something as basic as being alive.
’I’m not dead.’
Then faster.
’I’m NOT dead.’
Then all at once.
’Death—zero. Shiro—four. And it’s not even close, you overrated, overhyped, bony-handed fraud.’
Joy flooded through him—the feral, unearned, completely irrational kind.
But something was wrong.
His lungs felt strange. His stomach too. Like both of them were being inflated from the inside. Air was being forced into him. Pumped in. Like someone was trying very hard to make sure he kept breathing whether he wanted to or not.
"What the hell—"
His eyes snapped open.
He twisted. Folded forward onto his knees. His vision still a blur, the world doubled and dim, but he felt something rising up his throat. Demanding to be let out.
’Talk about déjà vu.’
He remembered this feeling pretty well. The taste of already digested food, his own organs, and god knew what else trying to claw their way out.
It was all the same—minus all the poison eating his body from the inside, the blood clots blocking his airways.
’Yeah. Never mind.’
Once his stomach finally stopped evicting everything inside him, he fell onto his back. Gasping. Trying to catch his breath. His vision swam, then steadied, then sharpened just enough to make out faces and his surroundings.
One thing was clear—he was back on the ship. Which was exactly where he wanted to be. Surrounded by people looming over him like he’d risen from a coffin.
Ana. Luca. Darius.
And Nora—sitting right beside him. Closer than the others, which he didn’t mind. Her hair soaking wet. Eyes wide and watery. Looking at him like she wasn’t sure if she wanted to hug him or kill him.
He gave her the only greeting his throat would allow.
"Sup."
The word came out cracked.
He could barely move. His chest rose and fell in heavy, ragged breaths.
Nora slid an arm under his back. Lifted him up gently. In her other hand was a small bottle—an elixir he didn’t even know they had.
She pressed it to his lips. The liquid slid down his throat, slow and warm. And almost immediately, he felt his mana stir. Not full. Not even close. But enough.
Elixirs were rare. They didn’t heal wounds. They restored mana—gave the body the energy it needed to start healing itself.
"Thank you."
He pushed himself up. His legs were still shaky, but he could move, which beats dying any day, so he’d take it.
Ari leapt off Nora’s shoulder and landed on his, rubbing her face against his cheek with the desperate affection of a creature that had been counting every second he was gone.
"I missed you too." He scratched behind her ear.
He looked up. The sky was empty. The winged beasts—gone. Every last one of them. Vanished like they’d collectively decided this wasn’t worth the trouble anymore.
"Oh nice. They all left."
Then he looked at the others.
They stood there in silence. Every single one of them. Staring at him with the kind of expression people wear when they have a very specific question and are waiting for you to answer it without them having to ask.
Before they could let any loose, he rushed toward the edge and looked down.
He felt something trailing the ship like a shadow that refused to let go.
And he was right. On both sides of the ship, gliding through the water with effortless grace, were two serpentines. They shared the same build as the one he’d just killed—but longer. Sleeker. And their scales weren’t just dark. They were armored. Plated in something that caught the moonlight the same way his knight’s armor did.
’They’re not attacking.’
Instinctively, he reached out—not with his hands, but with something deeper. Something that pulled.
Both responded. They materialized in his palms as shards—sharp, crystalline fragments humming with a warmth that had no business existing. He closed his fists. Crushed them. And the beasts materialized once again.
"Oh. That’s so cool."
He turned to the others, a grin already spreading across his face. He materialized the serpents. Dematerialized them. Materialized them again. Like a kid showing off a new toy.
"Isn’t this cool?"
Bam.
Nora’s fist connected with the top of his skull. Stars danced behind his eyes.
"Quit messing around."
He rubbed the top of his head. The others weren’t entertained. Not even a little. If anything, it only added more questions onto the pile they were already thinking of drowning him in.
Shiro sighed. The long, defeated kind. He couldn’t dodge this one. No amount of serpent tricks or lopsided grins was going to get him out of this conversation.
"Okay, okay. Fine." He sat down, crossed his legs, and gestured lazily at all of them. "Come on. Ask away."
"Who are you?" Luca was first to break the silence. His voice sharper than usual. Less confusion, more demanding.
"What are you?" Ana’s question followed—more curiosity than suspicion.
"Why did you tell us to break the rings that were supposed to protect us?" Luca again. Without giving him a chance to answer the ones from before.
"How did you manage to stay in the water for as long as you did, and how did you manage to kill that beast alone?" Ana again.
"Where and when are you?" Darius slurred from behind them with a bottle in his hand. The question made absolutely no sense.
He pointed at Luca first.
"I’m Shiro. Twin brother of Kuro. Second favorite son of the clan leader. Disowned. Left for dead. Surprise—I got better."
He turned his finger toward Ana.
"I... think I’m human." He paused. Reconsidered. "Mostly."
Back to Luca.
"That ring wasn’t for protection. It was a leash. My father uses them to spy on every member of the clan. And if you’re wondering why he’s trying to kill us right now—it’s because he knows about your little fan club." His voice dropped. "And he probably figured out his second favorite son is alive and breathing again. Which he doesn’t love."
Then he pointed lazily at Darius.
"On a ship, buddy. We’re on a ship."
He didn’t want Nora to know how they all tied into the masked rebellion.
And the last thing Richard needed was his own daughter discovering the truth he’d spent years hiding. The man had already buried a wife, and taken a dagger to the chest from a boy he’d once trained. Twice. Giving him a break—just one night—was the least Shiro could do.
Some truths needed the right moment. This wasn’t it.
He pointed his finger back at Ana.
"Simple. I’m half snake." He scratched Ari under the chin with one finger. She hissed happily. "And I’m pretty sure I got that from her."
Ana just stared at him.
"And the beast?" He waved his hand dismissively. "Fifty percent luck. Seventy-five percent skill. Seventy-five percent will. And fifty percent pure awesomeness."
Nora raised an eyebrow. "That’s two hundred and fifty percent."
"Exactly." He flashed her a grin. "That’s how you know it was impressive."
He sighed. "Fine. It was fifty percent stupidity."
That comment earned him a kick in the shin.
And he felt it. The elixir hadn’t restored him enough to dull pain yet—which was clearly the universe punishing him for trying to be funny while half-dead.
"Ow. Okay. Well deserved."
"How did you manage to get those two?" Darius asked, still somewhat tipsy. The man had sobered up just enough to ask questions, not enough to ask good ones.
Shiro shrugged. "I don’t know."
Another kick.
"Will you stop—"
He gave up mid-sentence. It wasn’t worth fighting. And honestly, being kicked meant Nora wasn’t actually mad at him. Pissed, sure. But pissed the specific way she got whenever he did something reckless and stupid. It’s her way of being worry about him.
He’d take that over her silence any day of the week.
After the serpent trick, nobody bothered asking how he’d done it again after Darius, which was a big relief.
Even he knew turning a dead beast into a summonable weapon wasn’t just rare—it was impossible. Nothing in any record, any story, any drunken captain’s tale ever came close to what they’d just watched him do. And no one looked shocked.
He thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. ’Yeah, never mind.’
The amount of things he’d done in front of them—they had probably lost the ability to be shocked somewhere between him returning from the dead, summoning a killer knight from his shadow, and fighting Darius one-on-one.
And tonight, he had officially broken their ability to ever be surprised by him.
At this point, Shiro could have sprouted wings, flown to the moon, and come back with a souvenir, and the reaction would’ve been the same. A tired nod. A sip of wine. A ’yeah, that tracks.’
Which was honestly a relief. Fewer questions meant fewer made-up answers.
As the night slowly surrendered to morning, the sky bled from black to gray to the faintest hint of gold—the kind of light that promised nothing and everything at the same time. The crew moved quietly around the deck.
He kept the two serpents nearby. Tied to the ship like loyal hounds. Gliding alongside the hull with that slow, patient grace of predators who knew nothing in the deep would dare challenge them.
Greater-ranked beasts were the ocean’s apex. And nothing—not the hunters, not the scavengers, not even the curious ones—wanted to test their luck against something that could end them in a single bite.
Behind all that, there was one thing that still nagged at him.
How had he gotten two soul fragments while unconscious? He’d only killed the greater beast. That was two. The other two had come from somewhere. Someone had earned them for him.
