Translator: ThatLazyPotato
Editor: DragonFae
The Caribbean Sea was calm, the light blue-green transparent water flowed peacefully through the Merfolk Island shipwreck area, and some shipwrecks were carried along with the ocean current.
Sunlight passed through the shallows and extinguished in the twilight zone, blue-light jellyfish drifted like stars in the dark ocean. Above the underwater coral formations rested a throne made of corals, precious stones and gold.
Rimbaud sat on the throne, lazily leaning his head on his hand and resting with his eyes closed. The scales on his tail were messy, and some areas where the scales fell off revealed red flesh. There were many claw marks on his chest and arms, causing his snow-white skin to have opened cuts and exposed his flesh, which was washed pale by the sea water.
Some coral stumps fell to the ground, and some faint traces of blood filled the nearby waters. A fight to the death just took place here, and the outcome had already been decided.
An omega merfolk’s corpse landed among the corals, a Dead Sea heart rock dagger stabbed their heart, and the blood mist dispersed from the wound.
There was a siren scale glowing green on the side of their fishtail, which slowly lost its brightness as they died.
There was another challenger that fell below the throne; the status of the ocean overlord’s throne remained unshakable.
After Rimbaud rested for a while, he opened his eyes, his fishtail stirred the water in boredom, the bubbles that formed stretched out and turned into starry jellyfishes.
He turned his attention to the mother-of-pearl on the staghorn coral next to him, and used his fingernail to open the shell. The mother-of-pearl obediently opened up, revealing the pure white marble in the shell’s flesh.
The pearl was covered with a layer of lustrous pearl texture, and the overall diameter appeared a millimeter larger than initially.
Rimbaud picked up the marble, narrowed his eyes, and looked carefully. “It’s been half a year and it has only grown this much. Are you messing with me?”
The mother-of-pearl trembled.
The marble shook in Rimbaud’s fingers, his cold expression suddenly softened, and he gently rubbed the surface of the marble.
The marble let out a “meow” sound, rolled up along Rimbaud’s arm, and stayed on his collarbone. It found a comfortable position and fell asleep, purring from time to time.
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.
Rimbaud’s heart melted. He simply leaned back on the throne and stopped moving, indulging the marble in a little nap on his body for a while.
Cc bwfuj rkjw bnfg ogbw j vlrajcmf, qjrrfv atgbeut atf ujq yfakffc atf mbgjir, jcv rabqqfv ecvfg atf atgbcf. Lf rkfqa tlr fsfr bnfg atf wfgobix mbgqrfr, kjr j yla regqglrfv, yea vlvc’a rtbk la bc tlr ojmf.
Lf xcffifv yfrlvf Elwyjev’r ajli, qea tlr tjcvr bc Elwyjev’r xcffr, ifjcfv tlr mtffx bc tlr rmjifr, jcv ibkfgfv tlr fsfr. “Vlgfc.”
The omega merman had three strings of gemstone beads hanging around his neck, which was a symbol of the middle class in the clan. The more beads on the chain, the higher the merfolk’s status was. Merfolks with three strings of beads were powerful and good at fighting, and could compete for a wider territory and sufficient food for the clan. Therefore, they were classified as lesser lords and nobles.
But even if they had a noble status, they could only kneel under the throne in the lowest posture in front of the siren. They couldn’t loom directly in the siren’s eyes, so as to not offend him.
The merman omega called him in a low voice. Seeing Rimbaud nod, he quietly went to clean up the bodies on the ground, and use seaweed to wipe the blood off the corals.
Not long after, an alpha merman swam through the aquatic plants, his fishtail was a translucent cold blue, and his scales were rich in color. His face was beautiful, his exposed waist and abdomen had smooth and graceful lines, and his narrow blue eyes were alluring. His beauty was one of the best among the many merfolk alphas who competed for beauty, but he only had one bead hanging around his neck; his status in the clan was not high.
“Siren.” The alpha kneeled, put his hands on Rimbaud’s knee, and his cheek stuck to the scales on his fishtail. He raised his eyes and deliberately teased Rimbaud on the throne with a seductive gaze.
Rimbaud supported his head with his hand and looked down at him with a cold expression.
The alpha merman swam behind Rimbaud and ambiguously put his hands on his shoulders. He took the opportunity when Rimbaud wasn’t paying attention to grab the white marble sleeping on Rimbaud’s collarbone, held it up in front of him, and fiddled with it.
“Your scale is indeed in here. When will you take it out?” The alpha merman tried shaking the marble, and it let out a “meow” sound. He thought it was very peculiar and shook it a few more times. The marble meowed incessantly, as if it was being shaken dizzy.
Rimbaud raised his hand and took the marble back, “Do you have a death wish?”
The alpha suddenly laughed out loud, and a bright smiling face rested on Rimbaud’s shoulder. “This is the price of being weak. You love him so much, yet you aren’t able to keep him. Do you now understand your mother and I’s painstaking efforts?”
He was Rimbaud’s alpha father, but in their merfolk clan, alphas have the lowest position. Even as the king’s father, he had no privilege.
“Don’t be mad.” The alpha merman kneeled back in his original place in a flattering manner, leaned on Rimbaud’s tail, and raised his hand and touched the marble lightly. “I saw this type of ability before. It can condense the soul into a small object, but once compressed, it cannot respond to the outside world. The one you bought is obviously different, your scale is protecting him. I can feel that there is life in it.”
Rimbaud raised a brow. “Do you have a way to recover him?”
“No, but isn’t it fine like this?” The alpha merman’s fingertip brushed against Rimbaud’s scales. “It’s your mother who told me to come visit you, telling you to not lose yourself in playing with things and forget your responsibility as king. The world outside has been in dire straits for months now.”
The alpha noticed the dead corpses on the ground when he came; they were the lucky new heirs with siren scales. They trekked here from the distant seas just to challenge Rimbaud, the winner would live and the loser would die—this was the rule of the merfolk clan.
“He wanted to be a hero of humankind, to save them when they were in trouble. I won’t allow it.” Rimbaud spread open his hand, the seawater cut off the siren scales from the corpses, and placed them on his palm. “Humankind doesn’t need a savior, but a lesson.”
The alpha merman watched Rimbaud embedded the scales on the throne, then asked, “Siren, who are you waiting for?”
Rimbaud absentmindedly looked at his nails. “Waiting for Yan Yi to bring the person I want.”
The alpha merman knew that Rimbaud was the most resolute when it came to holding grudges, any more persuasion would be of no use for this obsessive love, and he feared his own life would be half gone if he really annoyed him.
So he could only turn around and leave awkwardly.
Rimbaud didn’t care in the least, before the alpha even left the coral reefs, he had already leaned on the side and lightly kissed the white marble. He then lifted up the fins below his abdomen, pressed the marble to the small entrance, and slowly pushed it in. He unapologetically and unashamedly moaned lightly.
The aquatic plants shook lightly, the corals were swaying, and the guards at the side didn’t dare lift their gaze and look.
After a long time, the marble came out on its own.
Rimbaud leaned back on the coral throne exhausted, his fishtail rested on the armrest, and his chest and belly heaved slightly.
The marble was covered in a layer of soft, pinkish-white pearly texture, and it was larger in diameter, now appearing to be the size of a ping-pong ball.
The marble was flushed with a distinct reddish color, rolled disorientedly a few times, and hid in the corals unmoving.
Rimbaud flipped over, layed on the arm rest, and his fingertips probed into the gap of the coral. He teasingly poked at the glowing surface of the marble.
“Don’t hide, Randi.”
¤¤¤
Another ordinary day had passed on land, nothing had happened except that the seafood prices had skyrocketed.
Because of the many large chunks with a hard sealing layer similar to hydrated steel that have condensed on the surface of a large number of seas, many fishing boats were unable to go far out into the ocean, so they were forced to catch fish in the unfrozen waters. However, the sea area was limited, and it was constantly narrowing. This caused the amount of fish they could catch to dwindle, and the market price for them to rise. The price of striped bass, which used to be ten yuan a catty, had now risen to an outrageous two hundred and sixty yuan a catty.
It hadn’t snowed this winter yet, and February should be the coldest, but the weather had warmed up ahead of time. Most people on the street had put away their cotton padded sweaters and wore ordinary sweaters and cashmere sweaters in exchange.
Meteorologists said that this year was a warm winter, or maybe extreme weather would arise in the summer.
While the ordinary citizens didn’t feel much inconvenience, coastal factories had already received a number of fines because of the hardening of the sea surface, which had prevented the smooth treatment of some industrial water, and caused a separate color sea surface to be formed directly on top of it..
The snow castle on top of Laurentian Mountains was also affected.
More and more icicles hung on the castle. There were many experimental subjects playing in the courtyard, and they would get injured by the falling icicles from time to time, so Puppet Master made a couple of ice-knocking dolls holding hammers to clean up the roof.
Eris laid by the window edge, holding his head with his hand and watched the ice-knocking dolls working outside, and his calves swayed leisurely.
Puppet Master sat in front of the sewing machine and hemmed the doll’s spring clothes. In the wastebasket at his feet were discarded rags and a dozen pairs of crossed eyes.
“Didn’t you just make the winter clothes?”
“It’s got warmer.”
“Ah.” Eris couldn’t feel the heat or the cold. For him, the change of seasons was only reflected in the change of clothes.
“This isn’t normal.” Puppet Master put on a copper thimble, sewing buttons on the doll clothes. “The eavesdropper dolls saw the sea solidifying. There is also very little rainfall in the outside world, and we don’t get snow here anymore either, but the wind is quite strong.”
“Rimbaud still hasn’t cooled down. But obviously, he won’t easily calm down his anger that easily. I heard that his scale has been annihilated into Bai Chunian’s marble. Even if he shows mercy, if he doesn’t have that important scale, he won’t be able to do anything.”
Eris turned over and sat up. “Can’t he just break the marble and take the scale out? Let the stinky canned fish forget Bai Chunian and he won’t be angry anymore.”
Puppet Mastered snorted. “When a person is pushed into a corner, they’ll always find a way. Let’s just sit back and watch a good show.”
“Ok.”
There came a loud knock on the workshop’s wooden door. The maid doll stood outside, bringing two lunches with her.
One was Eris’ polishing strip sandwich and glass of gear oil, the other one was Puppet Master’s rye bread and sardine can. The inside of the can had no sardines, it was empty.
It was only when asked that they found out the purchasing dolls didn’t buy any fresh fish or canned seafood today, because they had all been bought out by people. However, the chef doll was programmed to be inflexible, so he had to find a sardine can for Puppet Master. Thus, they rummaged the trash, cooked and plated it attentively, and had the maid bring it over to Puppet Master.
Eris held the sandwich in his mouth. “Mn…I’d better go crush the marble, Knicks.”
The world-wide chaos wasn’t caused suddenly by a large explosion or a geological disaster in a certain area, it started when the mineral water in the first supermarket chain sold out. The merchant was extremely delighted, but then found out they couldn’t get the goods anywhere now.
I love Rimbaud and I love his grudge
Thank You for the new chapter (ฅ’ω’ฅ)♥
Rimbaud… he’s such an intriguing character and I love him for that.Thank you for translating <3
Yeah. Rimmbald is holding the world hostage to avenge the kitty. Muwahaha 👹
I know that this is fiction but what’s happening within their world (maybe not the experimental individuals, but who knows..) our ocean may experience these if we humans do not start caring for it.
Anyways, thank you for the update!
There’s something I don’t understand. In the first chapters it is said that when using Anihilate, nobody has memories about the person, only Bai C can remembers. So why does everyone remember him? 🤔
It’s because if you go back to Ch. 62, Yan Yi stated that in using Annihilate, “When the marble with the condensed soul gets broken, that person would be completely wiped out from this world, leaving no trace of their existence.” Therefore, since Bai Chunian’s marble is still intact and safely in Rimbaud’s hands, his memory and existence wouldn’t be erased from everyone’s minds.
Yeah Thx, I remembered it a few chapters later ^^ 👍