Chapter 115 Waaaaah, I've been looking for you for so long, waaaaah…
"Is this the son you've been searching for for so long?"
the old basilisk asked.
"Waaaah…" the new basilisk wailed—even though it doesn't shed tears or cry—and darted toward Cohen, "I've been looking for you for so long, waaaaah…"
"You climbed into my bed in the middle of the night and made me risk being called the 'Slytherin's heir' to come to the Chamber of Secrets to find you, just to call me 'son' and take advantage of me?" Cohen dodged the basilisk's "loving embrace." If it had bumped into him, it would have been no different than being hit by a truck again.
Strangely, according to various accounts, Parseltongue should have control over basilisks—but Cohen didn't feel like he could control them. Either the books in the library were wrong, or Cohen's 9/10 Parseltongue was missing the crucial last tenth.
"You have no idea what kind of life I've been living these past few years, sob sob sob…" the new basilisk complained to Cohen, "Ever since everyone in that lab was gone, I've had to go out and catch my own food every day—and I can't even run into any living people, otherwise if a bunch of living people suddenly die, I'll be hunted down by wizards… sob sob… that Derek is a fraud…"
"Who's Derek?" Cohen heard an unfamiliar name.
"A wizard from that lab…" the new basilisk said, "He wanted to capture me—of course… as a basilisk who has lived for over three hundred years, it's almost impossible for a wizard who hasn't even grown all his feathers to capture me, even if he learned some Parseltongue later in life—so he used very insidious and dirty methods… you know… basilisks never become slaves…"
"Unless you provide food and lodging."
Cohen felt like he couldn't laugh anymore.
"You just said 'everyone in that lab was gone, so I had to go out and catch my own food every day,' is that insidious and dirty? You clearly did it voluntarily!"
"Ha…" the new basilisk said, its eyes darting around, looking quite human.
"…"
Cohen understood why it had come to him.
It wanted to freeload off Cohen, the kind where you can just lie around and get free meals.
And Cohen actually did intend to do just that—keeping a basilisk as a secret weapon was indeed very useful, plus it was close to him, making it of excellent quality.
However, the basilisk's cheeky appearance made Cohen feel like "I'd be at a loss if it succeeded in its plan," and he couldn't let it come and freeload so easily.
"So son—"
"Call me Cohen outside."
Cohen refused to use that title right now.
He couldn't just collect some blood and venom and suddenly become a super-generational elder, could he? Besides, Cohen didn't have any ideas about glaring at his father for the time being, and he couldn't use that on Ari right now either.
"Is this your name?" the new basilisk asked enthusiastically, nuzzling Cohen. "I have a name too—I specifically asked Derek to find one for me—Sissoko..."
"Taking you in isn't impossible," Cohen said, feigning hesitation. "Since you've been out there for so long, you must know the logic of human society. I'm just a student now, I don't have that much power or influence..."
"I can be your strong support..." the basilisk Sissoko immediately chimed in—it still intended to be a good-for-nothing.
"So keeping you would be more dangerous for me—and the attacks you two caused at school have already put the teachers on high alert," Cohen said slowly. "I can't openly keep a basilisk of the same species as the culprit, and I'm worried you'll run off anywhere..."
"If you provide food and lodging, I guarantee you won't run away!" the basilisk Sissoko quickly said. "I'm the most docile—"
What kind of monster have those researchers raised you into?!
Cohen felt it was even more important to entice it into signing an unbreakable oath—without any coercive constraints, it would definitely stay in the box like a dead snake, let alone be made to work.
"Besides, there are other residents in the box where I keep magical creatures. If you wander around inside and they die, I'll be at a great loss."
"I promise I won't run around. Just give me a hole and feed me every day..." Sissoko quickly tried to prove himself.
"Just the fact that you sneaked into my bed the first time we met made me very uneasy," Cohen said. "But there's a way for us to rebuild our trust…"
"I'll do it!" Sissoko blurted out.
Would his own cub harm him? He'd soon be able to lie in Cohen's den for the rest of his life!
Sissoko was full of hope for the future.
"Alright, I'll bring my owl over later, we'll make an unbreakable vow, and then I'll bring you to my old den," Cohen said cheerfully. "Not now, I don't want to take you around, lest people think I'm the one who carried out a terrorist attack at Hogwarts—sooner or later, the Hogwarts professors will find the culprit and eliminate the threat."
"Wait a minute…" The old basilisk, who had been observing the entire "rather strange father-son reunion," suddenly called out to Cohen. "Um… what you said about food and lodging…"
"Can I come along?"
Cohen and Sissoko both looked at it.
This made the old basilisk a little embarrassed for a moment, looking hesitant.
"I told you not to hang out with your old friend's unreliable offspring…" Sissoko was extremely excited after receiving permission from Cohen to move into his box.
"You're a murderer." Cohen was unsure how to rescue this old basilisk in this situation, even though it was just following Salazar Slytherin's last wishes.
"Will they come to kill me?" the old basilisk hissed. "The wizards in the castle?"
"Theoretically, yes," Cohen said. "Fifty years ago you killed a girl, and recently you attacked a Squib—though he didn't die…"
"I thought it was the castle's need…" the old basilisk said in a low voice. "Salazar said the castle needed to be purified in the future… He was the master of the castle… His demands should be the castle's demands…"
"But Salazar Slytherin is dead. He lived over a thousand years ago," Cohen said. "His descendants aren't him; apart from a tiny bloodline, they have no connection."
"Tsk…" Sissoko seemed to want to defend the old basilisk. "Cohen… the old man has spent his whole life in this house; you can't expect him to always know what's going on outside…"
"I'll think of something?"
Cohen raised an eyebrow.
The evil side quest was to save one basilisk…
but what if you saved two?
Would there be two rewards? "
Sorry
, I didn't hear what you just said."
Inside the House of Always Requests, the Count cautiously and politely asked Cohen,
"You just said you wanted me to catch a Fire Gray Serpent for you, right?"
"Then you might need to wash your ears," Cohen corrected. "I made it very clear, I need to make an unbreakable vow with one or two basilisks, and you have to witness it—you're more experienced, and I don't trust humans."
...
After five seconds of silence.
"Did a field mouse steal your brain?!"
the Count shrieked.
"Basilisks? Two of them? If you don't like me being female, you can just change my sex or kill me. There's no need to go to such lengths to find two basilisks to glare at me!"
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(End of Chapter)