Merfolk have delicate and selfish thoughts; their cultural essence revolves around singing and marriage. Living a happy life, singing songs, and marrying a beloved partner are the two most important things in their lives. If their partner dies, they immediately follow suit and don’t stay behind alone. For Lance, who lost his partner from the beginning, this is a very cruel blow, which is why he easily developed genuine feelings for the stranger Ellyad. Perhaps it’s more accurate to say this is a case of Lance transferring his affections.
On the other hand, Brother Lausus is not as impulsive as his younger brother. He understands that he is the Merfolk King, holding the happiness of all merfolk couples, families, and citizens in his hands, which is why he can endure. Perhaps because he has such a strong brother, Lance has a weak character and can’t withstand setbacks.
“If you dare to touch him, I’ll annihilate you first and then blow up this entire lake.” Thrett, who disregarded the shouting Lance, supported his chin with his hand and spoke coldly.
“Jealous to the point of staining his own country with blood. Is that human really that important?” Ziyuan looked at the unfamiliar Demon King with mixed feelings. While he was willing to assist the Demon King in exterminating a tribe, the motivation behind it was a mere human, and furthermore, the mortal enemy of the Demon King—the hero. He couldn’t help but feel endless sighs of emotion.
“So, how about we retrieve your brides in exchange for our freedom?” Ellyad spoke up, breaking the tense atmosphere. He calmly tried to propose a solution.
“Humans and demons are too cunning; we can’t trust you at all! Besides, how do I know you won’t disappear just like them?” Lance rejected Ellyad’s proposal with just one sentence.
“I also share this sentiment with my brother. We only know that humans took away Rasi and Sai; besides, it’s been so long, where do you expect us to start looking?” Lausus agreed with his brother, and now they were in a dilemma.
Not compromising might lead to the black-haired demon before them destroying the lake. On the other hand, compromising would mean that his brother would continue to be unreasonable, perhaps even doing crazy things.
After hearing this, Ziyuan calmly analyzed, “If someone impulsively captured the mermaids, we should have seen them struggling with humans on the shore. However, you said you only saw that human quickly taking them away, indicating that this person might have planned it in advance and prepared a large container for convenient transportation. So, if we infer this way, the most likely culprits who took them away would be a caravan or a circus.”
“Ah! The circus, speaking of the circus,” Wei Yu suddenly exclaimed, “I’ve heard on my way here that there’s a circus in a nearby town, featuring a beautiful singing mermaid. It might be the one.”
“So, the chance of recovering your brides is very high, isn’t it?” With ample clues, Ziyuan asked the two merfolk kings.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Snfc lo atfgf jgf miefr, kf mjc’a agera sbeg kbgvr!” Tbecufg ygbatfg Ojcmf ralii raeyybgcis gfpfmafv atf qgbqbrji, yea bivfg ygbatfg Ojerer cbk tjv j vloofgfca lvfj. Lbkfnfg, tf wjvf eq tlr wlcv joafg rfflcu Ktgfaa reqqbgalcu tlr mtlc klat jc fzqgfrrlbc atja rffwfv ab rjs, “Ktlr lr ybglcu; P wluta jr kfii fzafgwlcjaf j aglyf.”
So, older brother Lausus went along with their proposal, saying, “Otherwise, you leave something equally valuable here as collateral, and I’ll give you three days to retrieve our brides.”
Thrett definitely planned to leave and exterminate this place after taking Ellyad away. Ziyuan, who had been an assistant to the Demon King for centuries, also understood this. However, the merfolk kings were not faking their fear from earlier, and Lausus had probably guessed that Thrett might do that. Therefore, he proposed this self-protective suggestion.
Ziyuan immediately asked, “What counts as something ‘valuable’?” Seeing that things were finally reaching a compromise, though not entirely, the terrifying chill from the next seat had subsided a lot, which was a relief for the merfolk.
“Human belongings are useless to us, and you have nothing valuable on you. So, leave the bride as collateral!” Younger brother Lance slyly smiled.
Thrett was here mainly to take Ellyad away, and he endured the irritation to engage in this pointless argument with the two merfolk. However, Lance’s words brought everything back to square one.
“No way,” he immediately coldly rejected, his patience reaching its limit.
“What do you mean, not allowed!” Lance slammed the table, yelling at Thrett. Lausus quickly grabbed his younger brother, pacifying him and pulling him behind him. Lausus felt that if his younger brother said one more word, he would instantly lose his life.
“If you need to leave a bride here, then let me stay.” Wei Yu suddenly stood up, volunteering himself.
Leaving Ellyad here was absolutely impossible, so the only option as a hostage would be himself. Wei Yu thought that if it was him, perhaps he could handle these two merfolk to some extent, enduring until Ellyad and the others retrieved the brides.
“You…” Ziyuan left the beginning of his sentence at the tip of his tongue and swallowed the rest. Originally, he wanted to say, “You’re not allowed to stay either,” but considering the stubbornness of the merfolk king, without leaving a single sacrifice, there would be no progress.
Ellyad looked at Wei Yu, torn between his concern for Thrett’s rare display of anger and hesitating whether to let the young Prince stay behind as a hostage.
“No problem, it’s just three days, and you’ll definitely find them, Ell.” Wei Yu’s eyes conveyed trust; he had the courage and judgment to trust others, believing that he wouldn’t be wrong. Even if Ellyad couldn’t find the mermaid sisters, he would find a way to rescue himself.
“Okay,” Ellyad nodded confidently.
“So be it, leave this human boy at the bottom of the lake, and the three of you go retrieve our brides, Rasi and Sai. The deadline is three days. If you can’t bring them back within three days, these two humans must marry us. Lance, endure for now. If you don’t want to trust them, at least trust me, your brother.” Lausus grabbed his brother’s shoulder, asking him to let go of Ellyad. Hearing his brother’s gentle advice, Lance didn’t argue further.
Ellyad felt the hand on his waist loosen and quickly walked behind Ziyuan.
Instead of heading towards Thrett, he approached Ziyuan. The reason was that he was still wearing the embarrassing wedding dress and didn’t want Thrett to see him in such a shameful state.
“Please give me back my clothes,” he pleaded with a troubled expression.
This time, Lance didn’t make trouble. Leading Ellyad back to the room where they had been confined, he allowed Ellyad to enter the bubble to change.
“I will cast a sleep spell on you, just to make you doze off. During your sleep, your companion will take you back to the land. Alright, close your eyes now.”
Ellyad didn’t understand why a sleep spell was necessary, but since it was suggested by the stubborn Lance, he didn’t want to complicate things further and nodded in agreement. Moreover, the merfolk might have used a similar method initially to bring Ellyad and Wei Yu under the water without letting them drown, so this was probably a necessary procedure to return to the land.
Ellyad obediently closed his eyes, waiting for the drowsiness to set in.
A sly look flashed across Lance’s face. After casting the sleep spell, his fingers slid over Ellyad’s neck.
—
“Splash, splash, splash…” The three figures emerged from the water. Thrett carried the sleeping Ellyad on his back, while Ziyuan stood by their side. None of them had a single drop of water on their clothes.
As expected, once out of the water, Ellyad naturally woke up. Thrett gently placed him on a large rock farther from the lakeside.
Ellyad rubbed his eyes sleepily, and Thrett quickly asked, “How do you feel? The simple sleep spell should wear off immediately upon waking.”
Hearing Thrett’s concerned tone, Ellyad was about to tell him that he was fine:
“ ， 。”
Ellyad’s lips moved, as if saying something, but no sound came out.
“Did you just speak?” Ziyuan asked to confirm.
“ 。” Ellyad’s lip movements conveyed, ‘Yes.’
Thrett clicked his tongue in displeasure. It was evident that Ellyad’s voice had been taken away. The most likely culprit was the merman who clung to Ellyad. The time they took action was probably during the interval when Ellyad returned to the room to change. Thrett’s expression darkened, and the calm emotions that had just settled seemed to stir again.
Perhaps Lance believed that with only Wei Yu alone, it wasn’t enough to bring the three back, so he decided to steal Ellyad’s voice. At least, Ellyad would return to the lake again to reclaim his voice.
“ ， ， ？”
“Wait, say that again, slower.” Ziyuan had caught a glimpse of him mouthing his own name in the previous sentence, so he requested Ellyad to repeat it.
Ellyad suddenly uttered a long string of sentences, but Ziyuan didn’t catch his lip movements in time, so he didn’t know what Ellyad had said. Losing one’s voice indeed caused significant inconvenience.
‘Now we can only go find those sisters. Mr. Ziyuan, did Wei Yu mention where that circus is?’
“Damn, he even called you ‘Mister.’ Ell, you don’t have to be so respectful to him.” Thrett suddenly spoke, revealing the lip-reading Ziyuan had missed earlier.
Both of them looked at Thrett incredulously, and he just shrugged, saying, “Just a little trick to let me hear what Ellyad was saying.”
Thrett’s “little trick” was actually eavesdropping magic, converting Ellyad’s lip movements into a “voice” he could hear. However, the voice Thrett heard was not Ellyad’s original voice but something akin to telepathic “vague sounds.”
Knowing what Ellyad was saying, Ziyuan replied, “He says the circus is in a town to the southwest after crossing a dense forest with the lake as the north reference. The town looks like a giant staircase, with crops planted in extensive terraced fields.”
‘We might arrive in town before nightfall if we leave now.’ Ellyad forgot about losing his voice and absentmindedly spoke. At this moment, only Thrett could fully hear him, and losing his ability to speak seemed not to have caused negative emotions for Ellyad.
Though Thrett knew that he could easily resolve the situation with more forceful means, he still wanted to respect Ellyad’s preferred method of handling things. He chuckled helplessly, following behind Ellyad, while Ziyuan couldn’t overlook the pleased expression on the Demon King’s face, furrowing his brows slightly.
I know Lance is heartbroken, but man do I want to punch him in the face smh
True
<3