I’m the Youngest Daughter of the Serpent Family
Chapter 64
The Black Mamba was a clan powerful enough to be counted among the top three on the entire continent.
Naturally, I had expected them to be the very last to form, but to think they were established the earliest? And with zero internal friction, to boot?
It was a story I could hardly believe.
"Actually, around that time, an incident occurred."
"An incident?"
"……The oppression of our clan began."
"They were…… oppressed?"
Hearing just that first sentence made my body freeze stiff.
Who on earth would do such a thing?
Don't tell me that's why they started gathering in the South?
To escape the oppression of their clan.
Yet a question arose at the same time.
……Still, how could anyone oppress them? Was that even possible?
"Who did such a bad thing?"
I furrowed my brow.
In any case, learning that the family's beginning started from surrounding oppression instinctively made me bristle with aversion.
Yet Casana was utterly impassive, showing no emotion whatsoever.
Rather, her reaction was as if it had been entirely natural.
"It was our clan who started the entire incident first."
"Huh?"
"You know this as well, young lady. The fact that the Black Mamba clan is born carrying poison."
"I know that."
They said the degree of poison varied by individual, but everyone was born with it.
On top of that, I had heard some were born with constitutions specialized for venom.
"Though it varies by constitution, members of our clan can spread pheromones within a radius of several meters to poison others. The stronger they are, the wider the range becomes."
"I see."
I recalled the Pheromone Stone piercing Mesis wore.
I thought it was simply used to trigger pheromone bursts, but that wasn't the only reason.
Since it completely changed the usable range of pheromones, one could deal with enemies far more easily.
"But what does that have to do with anything?"
"That is…… because that was the very ability of the first head of the family, Lord Tamur."
Casana let out a sigh.
"Lord Tamur was extremely averse to sharing territory with others."
"……."
"And as it happened, the power he possessed was beyond compare."
No way…… It couldn't be the kind of development I was thinking of, right?
It couldn't be that, just because he hated his territory overlapping with other beastmen, he drenched the entire area in venom-laden pheromones or something, right?
Wondering if that could truly be it, I waited for Casana's next words. Then, she parted her lips.
"It is just as you have guessed, young lady."
"……Gasp."
"Because of that, other clans began raising complaints, and the clan, sensing the situation was turning dire, hastily founded a family."
Casana pointed to the map of the continent drawn in the book.
Based on the compass rose, a star was marked in the center of the South where the Astrophel family was first established.
"That is the reason the Astrophel family first appeared on the continent."
"I-I see."
"The Black Mambas declared they would coil up and settle in the South before the entire clan was suppressed."
……To think there was such a reason.
Honestly, when she first mentioned oppression, I thought a heroic tale would follow.
A cliché story where someone saves their clan from villains and magnificently builds a family.
Not a single thing here can be easily predicted.
I looked at the portrait of Tamur Astropel with a sour expression.
For some reason, he looked like he must have been utterly disobedient as a child.
Wearing colored lenses of bias, I immediately judged Tamur Astropel that way.
"……There aren't more stories like this, are there?"
We've only just started the tale of the first head of the family, so why do I feel exhausted already?
"So…… you're saying they shoved Grandpa Tamur into the seat of the head of the family."
It was a kind of shackle placed on him so he couldn't wander around anywhere else anymore.
Tamur was forced into the position of family head, something anyone else would consider an honor?
The more I thought about this astounding and bizarre family backstory, the more at a loss for words I became.
Casana cleared her throat.
"That is not to say Lord Tamur neglected the family. It is thanks to his presence that we are able to live in the South today."
"Right. That's true."
Thinking about it again, it felt like an overwhelmingly Black Mamba-esque beginning.
I broke into a soft giggle. It was delightfully entertaining to listen to.
It felt like listening to a fairy tale passed down from ancient times.
I had worried history class would be boring, but that was an entirely useless concern.
"However, even after founding the family, there were still problems. Everyone worried whether Lord Tamur would properly lead the family."
It was a natural worry.
It would be stranger to expect someone who was forced to take on the mantle to do a proper job.
More than that, it seemed far more likely that Tamur would have rejected the seat of the head of the family altogether.
As if sensing my curiosity, Casana turned the page.
Written in flowing cursive was 'Grace Astropel (510–609).'
"This is Lady Grace Astropel, the first mistress of the family."
"Whoa…… She's super pretty."
Now I understood.
Why the people here were all so strikingly beautiful.
It truly had to be a racial trait. They usually say portraits tend to beautify the subject…… but in this case, it felt as though the painting couldn't even capture all of her beauty.
As I stared at Grace in a daze, Casana let out a soft chuckle.
"According to the records, she was said to be the only person capable of reasoning with Lord Tamur."
She sat elegantly in a chair, resting a long staff against the ground.
She was smiling beautifully, but an undeniable strength could be felt within it.
"Unusually, Lady Grace is said to have proactively led the family meetings."
"Isn't that something the head of the family is supposed to do?"
"That is correct. However, because it was an age of chaos back then, wars broke out frequently."
Territorial disputes must have happened constantly.
Then was Tamur away often? To protect the family's territory?
Pondering it, I wrinkled my brow at the question that remained unresolved.
"Do you have a question?"
"When war broke out, did Grandma not go to battle?"
"……G-Grand……."
Casana stammered before regaining her composure. She then praised me, saying it was a good question.
"Of course, Lady Grace was in the midst of war every single day as well."
"I knew it. She went to battle with Grandpa Tamur, right?"
"No."
Casana firmly shook her head and spoke.
"Lady Grace played a major role in curbing the volatile tempers of her fellow Black Mambas."
……Ah. I instinctively sensed that Grace's story was no less formidable.
"As you may know, Lady Irene, female beastmen are relatively stronger."
Nod, nod.
I nodded instead of answering to show that I knew.
Yet their numbers were correspondingly small.
The closer one got to the top of the food chain, the rarer their numbers became.
On the other hand, they could be encountered quite frequently in the mansion.
Powerful beastmen served as tremendous assets to the family's strength, after all.
Rosaria, Hestia, Casana, and Surpia all occupied important positions within the family.
Casana offered a faint smile.
"And as you know, the Black Mamba is one of the strongest clans."
"Right?"
"And this is the place where such clan members are all gathered together."
"……Right?"
"Because of that, Lady Grace devoted herself even more to the internal affairs of the family."
"Ah."
"Controlling the clan during an era of chaos is also the role of the mistress of the family."
So, in short, they divided the labor.
Since waging war and keeping their own kind in check felt practically the same in terms of difficulty, they had each taken on one half.
Even so, I wondered how on earth that could compare to actual war…… but hearing it was the Astrophel family rather than any other clan made it utterly convincing.
Leading the family really was that difficult.
All over again, Kaid seemed incredible. To carry the responsibility of such a massive family on his shoulders.
"How strong was Grandpa Tamur?"
Casana flinched in surprise again, but she seemed to have built up some immunity from earlier.
Quickly composing her expression, she opened her mouth.
"He was the most powerful among all past heads of the family."
"Then is he stronger than Papa?"
"Presently, his martial prowess is evaluated to be on par with Lord Tamur."
Then just how strong was Kaid?
Since I had never seen him use his abilities, I couldn't fathom it.
Would the day ever come when I got to see it?
"Then what is Papa's ability? Is it similar to Grandpa Tamur's?"
"That is correct. However, I have never witnessed him using his ability."
"I heard Mesis is similar too."
I recalled the scent of Mesis's pheromones that I had smelled last time.
"A Black Mamba's pheromones have the characteristic of becoming sweet and fragrant when carrying venom. It is to lower the opponent's guard."
"I see. Right, I think it was like that."
Even though it was an extremely faint trace, it had made me want to smell more to figure out what scent it was.
Agreeing with her words, I nodded.
At that, Casana's hands, which had been tidying the books to wrap up the lesson, suddenly froze.
"……What did you just say?"
"Huh?"
Why was she making such a serious face all of a sudden?
I looked at Casana, puzzled.
"Young lady, by any chance…… have you smelled Lord Mesis's pheromones before?"
"Yeah. Just a tiny bit."
They said that much wouldn't cause any problems for my body, didn't they?
Rosaria and Mesis, who had been there with me, hadn't worried much either.
Yet Casana was staring at me with a stiffened expression.
"……Were you not poisoned?"
"Rosaria blocked it for me."
And Mesis had quickly stepped back, so poisoning was prevented.
"Is that so? What a relief."
Contrary to her reply, Casana's expression remained rigidly grim.