Chapter 84: Merfolk Fairy Tales (VIII)

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Chapter 84: Merfolk Fairy Tales (VIII)

Lin did not know what frame of mind had led him to remain alone in the wizard’s home for several days. Although the room contained many books that could teach him how to use the wizard’s power now flowing through his body, not once did he manage to calm himself enough to read them. He merely stayed in that room filled with brilliant red, occasionally gazing out at the courtyard that had become completely devoid of life.

In the end, however, he still left. He had always been nothing more than a passerby in these waters. He did not belong here, nor did he belong to that wizard. His hand unconsciously rested on his abdomen. Even their final connection had already been severed. Before leaving, he cast a barrier over the place. It was the first wizard spell he had ever used, perhaps only to preserve the books he had yet to finish reading. In truth, a barrier was the only wizard spell he had learned.

Returning to the Western Sea Dragon Palace, the place that truly belonged to him, he found that his innate merfolk power had been nurtured to extraordinary heights by the wizard’s potions, even surpassing that of his father, who had lived for over a thousand years. Looking at the shock on that familiar face, Lin curled his lips into the same faint smile as always, carrying his usual cool detachment. “Father, you have grown old. The future of the Western Sea will be mine to rule.”

A thousand years was nowhere near old by merfolk standards, but whatever was said now was merely an excuse. What he wanted was the throne of the Dragon Palace. It had been his wish ever since his hollow childhood. If anyone was to blame, it was the Dragon King and Queen of the Western Sea for failing in their duties as parents, allowing their only child to grow so twisted.

The Western Sea Dragon Palace had already rotted to the point of collapse. Taking it was far easier than he had ever imagined. Yet instead of joy, he felt only a faint sadness. The dream he had pursued all his life had been fulfilled, and all it left behind was the emptiness of losing something precious.

He became the King of the Western Sea Dragon Palace, replacing every corrupt official with vibrant young faces. The entire palace was filled with renewed vitality. This was exactly what he had always wanted to see, yet witnessing it brought none of the excitement he had imagined.

Until one day, one of the loyal ministers who had served him the longest brought up the matter of his marriage. At that moment, a single face surfaced in his mind, and only then did he understand the reason for everything. For the first time, he could not maintain the dignity of a king upon his throne. The smile that had become second nature vanished from his face. He could hear the beating of his own heart, and then it felt as though something inside him shattered beyond repair. He had been clever all his life, yet he had let go of the one person he wanted most.

He had fallen for that person during the hundreds of days and nights they had spent together. Or rather, he had fallen in love with him. He had simply locked himself inside his own shell, refusing to admit it. He was a merman whose eyes could turn blood-red, one destined to stain his hands with blood. Such a merman was never meant to be loved sincerely, nor to have anyone open their heart to him completely. In truth… he had only ever been a coward. A coward so fearful that he had ended up hurting the one he loved.

∇ Capture Target Lin Favorability: 100%.

∇ Main Mission 1: Capture the Male Lead, Western Sea Merman Prince Lin (Complete).

∇ Side Mission: Raise the Future Merfolk King.

∇ Reward: 10,000 points.

∇ Failure Penalty: None.

“Accept mission.”

∇ You will remain in this world for twenty years. After twenty years, Lovely will automatically complete the cleanup tasks and return you to the system space.

∇ Confirm?

“Yes.”

…

It was not as though he had failed to notice the pain Miao Lichen had been enduring when he placed that final vial of potion into his hands. Though it had shown only in the slight furrowing of his brows, how could it possibly escape someone whose gaze had become fixed on him at every moment? Lin had simply chosen to ignore it. He had even allowed him to leave with the child at his weakest. Wizard Chen’s reputation within the wizarding world was matched only by the number of enemies he had. For wizards, making enemies in pursuit of rare materials was nothing unusual.

Leaving the throne with a trace of desolation, he was not unaware of the worried voices of his ministers behind him. But now he wanted to think of nothing. He only wanted to return to the place where the two of them had once lived together. Perhaps he still held onto a sliver of hope, hoping the wizard might one day return to that house that had belonged to him.

But it was only a fantasy. A beautiful fantasy. A sharp sting spread across his cheek. Looking at the blue-robed mermaid standing before him, a faint, indifferent smile curved his lips.

“I wish I could kill you… The wizard wouldn’t have wanted me to do that, and I know I couldn’t even if I tried. But seeing you suffer makes me happy.” Lian had never imagined such cruel words would come from her own mouth. Yet for his sake, she no longer cared whether she appeared worthy of a princess.

Even those cutting words retained the girl’s gentle, melodious voice. Her sea-blue robes drifted softly with the currents, brushing against her fair skin. The childish innocence that had once lingered on her face a few months ago had been replaced by quiet determination. Only when her gaze swept across Miao Lichen’s face did it momentarily lose focus.

Her eyes burned with undisguised anger, yet held the same sorrow. This prince, who had supposedly come to rescue her from the wizard’s clutches, had instead become the architect of her nightmare. He was now her fiancé in name. The hero who should have saved her had become the one who stole away the happiness she desired most. A merman willing to bear a wizard’s child left her no choice but to question his true intentions. Whether it had been coincidence or design, all she could do was sigh at fate’s cruel irony.

Fate had brought this man to the wizard’s side. Fate had made his body even more suitable than hers, a mermaid, for bearing the wizard’s child. Fate had made the Prince of the Western Sea, the one who stole away her happiness, wound the wizard, only for him to discover his own love far too late. How tragic. In the end, were they not both left with the same outcome? Neither had even received an empty promise. Then again, her wizard had never been one to make promises lightly.

She had thought that once she returned to the Dragon Palace, she would gradually forget those fleeting years they had spent together, insignificant compared to a mermaid’s long life. Yet the harder she tried to forget, the clearer those memories became, so vivid that she could almost hear his breathing beside her. Tormented by those fleeting illusions, she found herself less and less willing to meet anyone, spending her days shut away in the royal library. She lived in contradiction, longing to remember him while desperately trying to forget him. Only by turning page after page could she briefly escape those three years, if only for a moment, and forget the only person her eyes could still see.

But… she eventually discovered a tattered old book that had somehow been mixed among the collection. It recorded the history of wizards and merfolk. Unlike other races that became enemies for various reasons, wizards and merfolk seemed to be born as natural enemies, destined never to coexist peacefully. If a wizard and a merfolk produced a child, the bloodline would belong entirely to the wizard, while the merfolk would be offered as a sacrifice, giving up their life.

But this was not without a solution. If a merfolk used a secret technique at the moment the child was born, not only would they avoid sacrificing their life, they would also absorb all of the unborn child’s life force and power into themselves. That merfolk would become one capable of wielding a wizard’s magic. Such merfolk had appeared in history before, though the wizard’s power within them could never be passed down through their bloodline.

Lin had appeared far too suddenly. Although she was innocent, she was not foolish. Having grown up in the Dragon Palace, she naturally understood the darkness surrounding power and status. Lin was the Crown Prince of the Western Sea Dragon Palace. Originally, there had been no need for him to enter a political marriage. If, as he claimed, he truly admired her beauty, why had he chosen this particular moment? Why had it happened just as the Western Sea Dragon Queen became pregnant with her second child?

Whether among humans or in the Dragon Palace, brothers killing one another over power was nothing unusual. In fact, because wars between the various Dragon Palaces were so rare among the merfolk, such internal struggles occurred even more frequently. If Lin’s proposal had not been sincere, then could his willingness to bear the wizard’s child truly have been genuine? It was far more likely that he had done it for the power he sought.

One option was to rely on the influence of his wife’s family behind the throne. The other was power entirely under his own control. Even if she had been the one making the decision, she would have chosen the latter without hesitation. Who would willingly place the outcome of their life in someone else’s hands, relying on others and allowing themselves to be controlled?

She hardly thought it through. The moment the thought crossed her mind, she rushed toward the place that held three years of her memories. Only then did she realize that she had never truly wanted to forget. What she had wanted all along was simply a reason she could openly use to go and find him.

The moment she saw Lin, she knew she was too late. He no longer wore the youthful face from when they had first met. There was now an air of authority about him, and he was dressed in the royal robes of the Western Sea Dragon King. If he had already donned those robes, then he had achieved his goal. Had the child the wizard had longed for… already disappeared?

Lian turned and left the place she had missed countless times. Without the one she longed for, there was no scenery here worth loving. Her fingers slowly tightened into a fist. ‘ Wizard, where are you now? If it were me, I would have willingly borne a child that belonged to the two of us, even if it meant exchanging my own life. May I dare hope… that the reason you sent me away was not because of the Western Sea Prince’s physique, but because you pitied me? ’

There was no point saying such things now. But she knew she would never forgive that man, just as she would never forget the wizard.

When Lin returned to the Western Sea Dragon Palace, he had regained his usual composure. Yet he had developed a fondness for red garments, even ordering his dragon robes to be changed to red. The thin smile on his lips only made him appear even more bewitching.

Several years later, a merchild with a crimson fish tail arrived at the gates of the Western Sea Dragon Palace, carrying a small box in his arms. From that day onward, the Western Sea Dragon Palace had a Crown Prince—a red-tailed merfolk unlike any recorded in history. At the time, however, no one knew that this prince would one day become the great ruler who unified the entire merfolk race. His brilliant red tail would also become a legend among the merfolk.

That same year, Dragon King Lin married Lian, the youngest daughter of the Eastern Sea Dragon King. The two treated each other with mutual respect throughout their lives and became the model couple of the merfolk race. Later, stories spread that the Dragon King had once rescued the young princess from the clutches of an evil wizard, and that the two had pledged themselves to each other through life and death. It was also said that, because the princess had been too young, the Dragon King had delayed proposing until after learning of the Crown Prince’s existence, only then hastily arranging their marriage.

The evil wizard was defeated, and the princess and the prince lived happily ever after. The fairy tale remained a fairy tale.

Only the truth was forever buried beneath the pages of history. Who knew that there had never been any love between Lin, the Dragon King of the Western Sea, and Lian? If there had been any emotion at all, it was only Lian’s hatred for Lin, for she believed he was responsible for the death of the man she loved. The only reason they remained together was because, after losing the ones they loved, they wished to give that person’s child a complete family, even if… the child had never needed one. They were nothing more than two pitiful souls who could only remember the ones they loved by gazing upon the face of a child.

The greatest king in merfolk history had been born to shatter the rules of the merfolk race. He broke the tradition of merfolk bearing single-character names. His name was Nian Chen.

At the height of his reign, Lin voluntarily abdicated, and Crown Prince Nian Chen ascended the throne. The child who had inherited his father’s life also inherited his father’s extraordinary talent.

Many years later, someone happened upon an autobiography written by Crown Prince Nian Chen. In it, the most legendary ruler in history wrote that the only parent he ever acknowledged was Chen. His father was a great wizard, one who had broken the boundary between merfolk and wizards. From that day onward, merfolk could bear children who possessed wizard powers, and if a wizard drank the blood of such a merfolk, they could conceive either a wizard or a merfolk child with an ordinary merfolk, without paying any price.

Everything he knew had been taught to him by his father. Therefore, the greatest person had never been himself. Later generations adopted the title Mentor to refer to the teacher who had influenced them most profoundly… History, after all, is always written by those who come later. How much of it is truly real?

Legend says that the spider lily blooms along the banks of the Bridge of Oblivion, where the flowers bloom without leaves, the leaves grow without flowers, and the two remain separated for all eternity…

Among wizards, there is another legend: a true Spider Lily can only be nurtured with human blood and life force. Only then will its blossoms bloom in their most brilliant, most enchanting red…

The spider lilies that once covered that courtyard were the brightest and most vivid red flowers in the entire world…

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