It involved the dignity of the entire merfolk and the ultimate outcome of this marriage. As the king of the merfolk, Lausus couldn’t simply declare surrender. Since the opponent said they could set any rules favorable to their side, Lausus decided to make a desperate attempt. It was not only for the merfolk but also to avenge the harm done to his younger brother.
Lausus drew the bronze-adorned sword from his waist, assuming a stance ready to strike. He wished he could rush forward and tear apart that cruel and malicious smile immediately, but that would only bring the match to an early end with his defeat.
“I agree. The rules are: you cannot use magic, you cannot attack the hostage, you cannot use evasive actions to delay time, and you can only use the weapon currently in your hand. Of course, there should be no assistance from anyone else during the match. If you violate any of these, you lose. And if I win, I don’t need any bride; I want your life!” Lausus shouted at Thrett, and the match officially began.
Lausus first strike aimed for Thrett’s heart, but the latter did not block with his sword; he simply dodged to the side. Then, Lausus targeted vital points with his attacks, but each time Thrett skillfully blocked them with his sword.
“Why isn’t he counterattacking?” Wei Yu was nervous watching from the side. Thrett had plenty of opportunities to retaliate with those multiple thrusts, but he kept holding the sword, seemingly treating it as a mere ornament.
“That’s because Thrett doesn’t know any swordsmanship at all,” Ziyuan said, observing the absurd scene. The Demon King had infinite magical power, and with such strength, who needed to learn physical attacks?
However, the current match rules prohibited the use of magic, which might put the Demon King at a significant disadvantage.
“Now that I think about it, His Majesty has never used a sword to attack anyone. Just now, throwing the daggers must have involved magical assistance to hit so accurately, right?” Ziyuan realized.
“My goodness, this is indeed ‘fair,'” Wei Yu couldn’t help but sigh.
“Do you look down on me? If you dodge again without attacking, I’ll consider it a rule violation, and you’ll be declared the loser!” Lausus thought Thrett’s reluctance to strike was intentional mockery, so he issued a warning and forcefully thrust his sword. Surprisingly, Thrett did not dodge this time; his shoulder was pierced by the war sword, and blood sprayed out.
“Thrett!” Ellyad controlled himself from rushing forward. If he intervened now, Thrett would lose the match. However, another voice in his mind strongly argued, was there anything more important than Thrett being injured at this moment?
In the moment of hesitation about whether to charge forward, Ellyad saw Thrett smile at him during a brief pause.
“Don’t worry.”
It seemed like Thrett wanted to convey this message.
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.
Seeing that he had finally wounded the enemy, Lausus felt a moment of joy. He then vigorously swung his sword downward, and Thrett’s abdomen was subsequently cut open, his cloak in tatters.
“C vfwbc ktb mjc’a erf wjulm lr kbgrf atjc j yfjra. P’ii ajxf sbeg ilof!” Ktlcxlcu tf tjv atf eqqfg tjcv, Ojerer iloafv tlr rkbgv jcv rkecu la abkjgv Ktgfaa’r cfmx. Lbkfnfg, atf rkbgv vlv cba tla Ktgfaa’r cfmx.
Ktgfaa ugjyyfv atf vfrmfcvlcu rkbgv yijvf klat tlr yjgf tjcv, jcv yibbv bbhfv ogbw tlr qjiw.
“Looking down on others is only appropriate in situations like this,” Thrett said, then delivered a punch!
Lausus was sent flying, and the war sword clattered loudly, falling far away.
“You!” The merman struggled to climb up, reaching out to pick up his sword, but Thrett stepped on his hand with a forceful stamp.
“Ah, agh!” Lausus let out a mournful cry, trying hard to suppress the remaining screams. However, the sound of his finger bones shattering tormented all his senses.
“Trying to kill me isn’t as simple as you think,” Thrett laughed, protected by the rules that belonged to the Demon King and the Hero.
Any attack with a weapon other than the Hero’s Sword was ineffective against the Demon King. Wounds would automatically heal within a short period. The world’s rules left no room for others to intervene.
Thrett raised the sword in his hand. Even if his swordsmanship was terrible, simply using the blade to pierce the merman in front of him posed absolutely no challenge.
“Wait, stop, don’t hurt my brother! I beg you, I don’t want a bride anymore. Please don’t kill my brother!” An unexpected cry interrupted Thrett’s actions. He looked up.
He cried with a runny nose and tears, pleading with Thrett. The bride no longer mattered to him; he could no longer accept seeing his homeland and brother harmed by this cruel demon.
“Should have said that earlier,” murmured Ziyuan, self-deprecating.
A merman swam out, nervously announcing the outcome. Thrett sheathed his completely bloodless sword, agreeing to end it. Only then did the other merfolk dare to approach the two merman kings.
“Are you okay?” Ellyad rushed to Thrett’s side to check his wounds.
“No problem, no problem. Your voice has recovered,” Thrett showed his healed wounds to Ellyad, reassuring him.
“Yeah, the magic has been lifted.”
After confirming Thrett’s safety, Ellyad walked toward the brothers, who was surrounded by a group of merfolk receiving treatment, and spoke, “I hadn’t finished saying it earlier. Neither I nor Wei Yu, nor the sisters, will marry any of you. The sisters believe that merfolk should marry the ones they truly love, not blindly follow tradition. We are not your most cherished partners, so we cannot stay no matter what.”
Lance leaned against his brother, staring at Ellyad for a long time before weakly speaking, “Merfolk are supposed to be the sacred beasts symbolizing love, right?” After a self-deprecating chuckle, he closed his eyes, turned away, unwilling to face anyone else.
Lausus gently stroked his brother’s face, then shouted, “Leave this place immediately. Mirror Lake does not welcome you, and we pray for eternal separation.”
“That’s obvious,” Ziyuan replied disdainfully. Antagonizing the merfolk didn’t really have any consequences, and there was no reason for them to return here.
Ellyad nodded silently, then turned and walked towards Thrett and the others. The four of them left Mirror Lake together.
—
After getting ashore, Wei Yu changed back into his original attire, his ears dripping wet. However, his treatment these past three days was surprisingly more lenient than he had imagined. According to Wei Yu, when he stayed in the palace, Lausus completely ignored him. In reality, Lausus wasn’t really fixated on him as a bride. All of his actions were just accommodating his brother.
“It’s really strange. Weren’t they all clamoring to get married?” Wei Yu left with many questions, but he quickly gave up on delving deeper.
“Polon, if there’s a chance next time, you’re very welcome to travel with us,” Ellyad suddenly spoke, feeling a certain connection with the prince. Wei Yu was also an easygoing young man, so Ellyad had developed some fondness for him.
“No, no. After all, sometimes, I use flight to shorten the distance. Our paces might not match.” ‘The more important reason is that traveling with that cruel demon would scare me to death.’
“But if you travel with Ziyuan—”
“Forget about it,” Ziyuan immediately vetoed before Wei Yu could finish his sentence.
“Ell, don’t worry about them.,” Thrett patted Ellyad’s shoulder. He didn’t want to travel with the mischievous brat who had once harbored ill intentions towards Ellyad. He continued, “Aren’t you supposed to go back to town? You should be able to get there before evening.”
“Yeah, so, Prince Polon, Mr. Ziyuan, we’ll be leaving now.”
“Ell, until we meet again.”
“Well, I…” Ziyuan glanced at His Majesty the Demon King, asking silently if there were any orders for him. Afterwards, he received the instruction to “return to the Demon King’s castle to take care of the pet.” Ziyuan had no complaints about this; after all, he was a subordinate of the Demon King, and obeying the Demon King’s orders was only natural.
—
Ellyad and Thrett returned to the circus, but a performance was underway at the time, and the props in the open space behind the circus had all been moved into the performance area.
“Do you want to find those two mermaids?” Thrett asked.
“No, I’m looking for someone else. Ah, there he is.” Ellyad ran towards a middle-aged man. The man, upon seeing him, turned pale.
“It’s you again! I knew these mermaids couldn’t be from Mirror Lake…” Realizing his mistake and accidentally letting slip the truth, the man quickly covered his mouth, his face growing even paler.
“No, it’s not like that. Please let me explain. I just found something you dropped and wanted to return it to you. And please don’t worry, no one will come to reclaim the mermaids now.” After saying this, Ellyad quickly handed the man a small bag containing the ring and turned to leave.
“What kind of people are you… Ah, wait a moment.” The man stopped Ellyad and muttered to himself while bowing his head. Finally, he sighed, letting his shoulders slump, “It doesn’t matter who you are. Anyway, you don’t need to return this to me. I don’t want it anymore.”
“Why? Isn’t this meant to be a gift for those mermaids?” Ellyad could vaguely guess the relationship among these three individuals. The “beloved objects” mentioned by the mermaid sisters must refer to this man, and the person to whom the man was giving the ring was undoubtedly the sisters. However, the man’s demeanor was completely different from when he initially protected the mermaid sisters, preventing Ellyad and others from approaching. He now seemed like a deflated balloon, with a weak and despondent expression on his face, as if he had suffered a significant blow.
“I don’t deny that it was meant for them, but I’m not qualified. I’m not worthy of those two women, nor do I have the courage to give it to them,” the man didn’t deny Ellyad’s speculation, continuing in a low voice, “Keeping secrets from your beloved and living a lifetime with guilt in your heart, I’m not worthy of facing their love.”
In the end, the man added, “Because I fell in love with those two mermaid sisters, I had to continue fabricating lies, pretending to be ‘someone’ to deceive them…”
And so, the man began to tell ‘his story.’
I knew somehow that these two rings were most likely going to be given to Thrett and Ellyad, but I didn’t know how! So, this guy was pretending to be someone in front of the mermaid sisters?