"Hehe… we were only joking before! Don't take it to heart! This matter with Nick is naturally my responsibility as well!"
Agnes wore an apologetic smile on her face, and it managed to soften Belinda's expression — after all, there would come a time when she needed favors from the other party as well.
"Come, I'll take you inside to handle the paperwork!"
Agnes draped an arm around Belinda's shoulders with one hand, pulled Sophia along with the other, and did not forget to bellow at Thomas: "You! Apologize to His Excellency Nick right now!"
Seeing her stance, Belinda's face finally bloomed into a smile once more, and she did not resist the other's gestures much either.
"My apologies! His Excellency Nick!"
Watching the three women walk ahead, Thomas called out in a loud voice.
But the shape of his lips formed a different sentence in silent mouthing: "You freeloading leech who lives off women!"
As for his provocations and insults, Raylin merely shrugged his shoulders, then continued following behind Belinda, leaving Thomas somewhat dumbfounded — it was the first time he had ever seen someone with such a thick skin.
Leaving the seemingly stupefied Thomas behind, Raylin followed expressionlessly behind the three ladies ahead, radiating an air of meek submission.
In truth, however, he was sneering coldly to himself the entire time.
What good were honor and face when one's life was nearly at its end?
The Ten Thousand Serpent Curse Seal had begun to erode his life force relentlessly — he had barely a few years left to live. In such a state, was he really supposed to give up this simple method of entering the city and go searching for another way?
Such a waste of time — setting aside whether it would even succeed in the end — was practically joking with his life!
Compared to that, being treated as a freeloading leech carried what loss, exactly?
"You—" Thomas puffed out his cheeks as he followed behind, but for the moment he could do nothing about Raylin's brazenness. It was Agnes up ahead who seemed to have noticed what was going on, a sharp gleam flashing through her eyes.
"Out of the way! You lowborn wretches! Don't dare block the path of us Steward nobles!"
As if determined to vent all the frustration he had swallowed back at Raylin, Thomas cracked a snake-headed nine-section whip that emitted a sharp, whistling hum with each flick, using it to intimidate the queue of half-snake people ahead.
Whoosh! Watching the half-snake people on both sides clear the path in terrified deference, Raylin could not help but stroke his chin. It seemed the Steward family to which these siblings Agnes and Thomas belonged was quite notorious in the Holy City.
"You guards — are you blind? Come and receive them at once!"
Even those vicious, bloodthirsty guards who had been slaughtering lives without hesitation earlier now hurried over at Thomas's shouting to help, escorting Belinda and her companions all the way to the front of the great gate.
Thomas tilted his chin upward with smug satisfaction, casting a sidelong glance at Raylin, his eyes brimming with indescribable pride.
At this fellow's display, Raylin could only roll his eyes in speechless exasperation.
A person like this would have already been killed who knew how many times over if he were in the Wizard World. But this was the Hail Continent! The descendants of the Ten Thousand Serpents held a position of supreme nobility, and bloody struggles for power were exceedingly rare — this state of affairs had persisted for tens of thousands of years, eventually hardening into an ironclad, unspoken rule!
So it was completely understandable to Raylin that Thomas, having grown up in a greenhouse, would behave this way — he was nothing more than a spoiled rich kid!
Raylin naturally wouldn't stoop to bickering with a spoiled brat like this. His attention was already captured by the Ten Thousand Serpents statue standing before the main gate.
"Hmm! Bloodline verification! Soul detection! I'm fairly confident I can slip past those two, but the final identity check is still a real problem! After all, I can't just hack into the Holy City's core database and fabricate a background for myself! And the story I gave them before is riddled with holes..."
Raylin's expression darkened slightly, but Thomas clearly took it as proof of his own triumph.
"You should count yourself lucky! You ought to know that half-blood serpent folk like you rarely manage to stay in the Holy City for even a full year!"
Thomas sneered with open contempt. "Of course, perhaps you can't even afford the cost of living here... But even if you could only stay for a short while, it would still be enough for you to show off back on the Hail Continent. Perhaps... you could write this experience into your travel journal? I'm sure plenty of low-bloodline folk would be fascinated by it..."
"Thomas! Enough!" Agnes clearly couldn't stomach his behavior any longer.
Of course, Raylin strongly suspected that Agnes simply felt Thomas was bringing shame to the Stewart family — that was the only reason she had stepped in.
"Here! Belinda! And dear little sister Sophia! These are green cards I specially applied for on your behalf. Once your bloodlines and souls are bound to them, you'll be recognized as free citizens by the entire Holy City!"
Agnes smiled warmly as she produced two crystal cards from her coat, each one a lush, gleaming green. Judging by the envious stares of the surrounding half-serpent and even pure-blood serpent folk, these were clearly something extraordinary.
"Thank you so much, Agnes!" Belinda accepted the crystal cards. After all, with the status of Holy City resident, she would be counted among the direct forces of the Mother of Ten Thousand Serpents — the Eye of Judgment would likely not dare to act too rashly against that, and might even proactively withdraw its bounty warrants.