Chapter 10
Early one morning, footsteps echoed through the deserted palace.
“Wait here.”
At the corner of the corridor, Kyle gave his guards their orders, then walked ahead alone.
As he gazed at the broad, magnificent palace doors before him, an inexplicable wave of irritation rose in his heart...
Why did this merman’s chambers look even larger than his own?
He glanced around and, after making sure no one was nearby, used a key card he’d procured in advance to unlock the electronic door. Then he tiptoed inside.
If that merman was the only one in the pool right now, Kyle planned to have Shelley take a look and leave.
What a pain.
If he weren’t worried about losing face if he backed out, why would he be sneaking in to see a stupid fish first thing in the morning?
Under the dim lights,
Kyle saw the merman leap out of the shimmering water. He shook his silky silver hair, and in almost an instant, the water droplets on its ends dried.
With his back to Kyle, the merman sat on a rock and ran his fingers through his waist-length hair. His almost deathly pale skin lent him an otherworldly air, while the translucent glow of his ear fins was more dazzling than all the jewels Kyle had ever seen combined.
But this was Wright’s merman.
That realization stirred the flames of jealousy in Kyle’s heart once more.
“Woof! Woof! Woof!”
A sudden burst of barking came from the room next door.
Kyle’s steps faltered, and his breathing tightened. He realized it must be the sea dog Jorah had given the merman.
And that dog should have been his.
The next moment, the merman turned around on the rock. His face still carried the childish innocence of a young boy, but the blue eyes he turned on Kyle held nothing but calm after a brief flash of surprise—so calm it felt contemptuous.
“This is my bedchamber. What are you doing here?”
Mu Chen’s reply only made Kyle’s anger build.
“This is the palace of the Aus Empire, and I’m a prince of the Aus Empire. Why shouldn’t I be here?”
He was only a merman who’d been brought here a week ago. What right did he have to speak to Kyle like that?
Kyle had heard that merman call Wright “Your Highness,” over and over in the sweetest voice. He even called the King “Your Majesty.”
So why was he the only one the merman addressed with such an arrogant, disdainful attitude?
Driven by anger, Kyle walked toward the rock step by step, intending to drag the merman ashore.
But just as Kyle reached out toward the merman,
“Hiss!”
A slight sting pierced his skin. Mu Chen’s nail had left a bloody scratch across the back of his hand.
“You fucking dare scratch me?”
When Kyle met those blue eyes filled with hatred, he was thoroughly enraged. He grabbed the metal fishing net used to scoop things out of the pool and swung it at the merman.
Mu Chen didn’t hesitate. He plunged into the water, and a net-shaped shadow fell across the surface.
Kyle was furious now. He swung the net like a madman, trying to catch the merman.
Mu Chen’s blue eyes reflected the net drawing closer. In that instant, the shadow in the air seemed to take the shape of a whip, overlapping with a memory that had long been buried.
“Smack!”
It was the sound of a whip coming down.
He could almost hear flesh splitting open.
The next instant,
“Hiss—”
The merman’s vocal cords vibrated, releasing a low growl.
Mu Chen’s ear fins flared. A transparent, glass-like hardened layer sharpened along the edges of his nails. His luminous blue eyes darkened with streaks of black, and the scales on his tail began locking together layer by layer.
Kyle stared in shock as the once-gentle, harmless merman suddenly transformed. The next moment, he leapt out of the water and tore the net to shreds with his hardened claws...
Like many people, Kyle had no idea that mermen had a second form.
In truth, most mermen of the final generation had little more than their beauty to recommend them; they were weak and helpless. They couldn’t take on their second form even if they wanted to, so many had forgotten that the former rulers of the deep became more aggressive in battle.
In every sense, Mu Chen was an anomaly among the royal family of Atlantis in its final days.
Mermen were destined to have only one mate in their lifetime. Once the marking of the courtship period was complete, they could only remain with that partner for the rest of their lives. It had once been a blessing that represented loyalty, romance, and love, but by the last dynasty, it seemed more like a twisted curse.
For the sake of her blue-blooded descendants, for the sake of continuing a dynasty already in steep decline, Mu Chen’s mother died in childbirth.
Before him, his parents had had three children. They were malformed and frail, and none lived past the age of three.
Mu Chen, however, was unexpectedly healthy.
And his father—the last king of Atlantis—watched the dynasty gradually decline and watched his wife die for his sake. He was powerless to stop it. There was nothing he could do.
After drinking himself into a stupor time and again, Mu Chen’s father finally found an outlet for his helplessness: he took his anger out on the son born under an “ill omen.”
Mu Chen’s blue blood was the strongest among all his people. No matter how hard his father lashed him, the scars would always disappear within a few days.
When Mu Chen was very young, he would cry from the pain whenever he was beaten. But his tears never made the beatings stop; they only made them worse.
He had tried to fight back, too, but every failed attempt earned him a harsher punishment.
Until one day, while his father was beating him, a sharp hardened layer suddenly formed on his fingertips, slicing through the leather whip.
His father tossed aside the whip in his hand, and his gaze toward Mu Chen changed. For the first time, the beating stopped early.
After that, his father beat him less often. He would look at him with a hopeful expression, always saying, “You are the hope of Atlantis.”
That gaze... There was something strange in it, with a hint of madness.
Yet behind that layer of sharp scales, Mu Chen saw no hope...
He only knew that becoming stronger was the one rule that mattered.
“An eye for an eye, blood for blood” was the law of survival in this world.
During the six years he spent wandering in exile on a deserted island, Mu Chen never escaped the shadow of Atlantis. He didn’t become more cheerful, and time didn’t heal him.
But he learned to disguise himself with a weak and harmless appearance, burying his dark thoughts deep inside.
...
“Fuck!”
Kyle’s scream echoed through the hall.
Scalding blood spattered across the floor.
The net wasn’t the only thing that had been slashed open; one side of his face had been cut too.
Kyle clapped a hand over half his face. Blood kept seeping between his fingers as he glared at the merman beneath the water with venomous hatred.
“Just you wait!”
Once he’d treated his wound, he’d come back and teach this beast a lesson!
He would make everyone in the palace see the merman’s true nature.
...
About an hour later,
A crowd gathered outside the palace doors, led there by the attendants. Among them were King Jorah and Queen Catherine.
Quina looked surprised. “Your Highness, are you saying he attacked you for no reason?”
How could a well-behaved child like Mu Chen do something like that?
Kyle angrily pointed at the gauze wrapped around his face and shouted, “Can’t you see the injury on my face?”
“Your Majesty.” Catherine touched the gauze on Kyle’s face, her eyes reddening as she put on a heartbroken expression. “Everyone says mermen are beasts at heart. Just look at what he did to Kyle... Where’s Wright?”
“Why doesn’t he ever keep his merman in check?”
Jorah pressed his lips together, his expression dark. “Let’s go in and take a look first.”
At the King’s command, the attendants pushed open the heavy doors before them.
A thick smell of blood immediately hit them.
“Click!”
An attendant had the smart butler turn on the lights.
On the porcelain-white marble tiles, mottled streaks of blood trailed across the floor.
Kyle angrily pointed at the bloodstains. “Look, this is what he—what the hell happened?”
He broke off mid-sentence...
At the end of the blood trail was the little merman, curled up in a corner and trembling all over. Blood was still dripping from his once-beautiful silver tail. A few steps away, the fishing net lay in shreds, its sharp wires snagged with bloodstained scales.
Kyle was dumbfounded.
He stiffly turned around and met Jorah’s doubtful gaze.
Intermittent sobs came from across the room. The little merman seemed to be crying. He clutched his thin shoulders and buried his face against his knees, silver hair spilling down from his shoulders. He had curled into a tight little ball, looking utterly defenseless.
Jorah furrowed his brows and asked Kyle, “Did you do this?”
Kyle charged toward Mu Chen, his emotions running high. “Bullshit! I didn’t even touch him!”
Mu Chen had cut through his net the moment he’d thrown it over him. If anyone had been injured just now, it could only have been Kyle himself!
So why were there scales and blood on the floor now?
Just as Kyle was about to pull Mu Chen up and demand an explanation, the atmosphere around them suddenly fell silent—dead silent.
Then he heard a voice from the distance. “Your Highness.”
Kyle turned around and saw Wright standing at the palace entrance.
He had clearly just returned from the training grounds; he hadn’t even had time to change his clothes.
Wright’s cold gaze swept across the hall and finally settled on Kyle.
Kyle opened his mouth, wanting to say something.
But before he could get a word out, his breathing suddenly tightened. Someone grabbed him by the collar, and then he met the man’s eyes, brimming with rage.
Wright seized him by the collar and slammed him against the wall. “What have you done?”
Kyle was no match for Wright, a man seasoned by countless battles. For a moment, all he could do was uselessly clutch Wright’s arm, his neck reddening.
The attendants around him didn’t dare step in to stop the eldest prince.
“Your Majesty!” Catherine was the only one who grabbed Jorah’s arm. Clutching her chest, she cried, “Wright, what are you doing to your younger brother?”
Wright glanced at the bloodstains on the floor, his eyes narrowing. “Why don’t you ask him what he did first?”
Kyle: “Cough... cough... I fucking didn’t touch him!”
“Your Highness...”
A faint sob came from beside him.
Wright abruptly let go and walked toward the little merman, leaving Kyle to fall to the side.
He crouched in front of Mu Chen. The little merman lifted his face, streaked with tears. Shining tears rolled from his red-rimmed eyes, and his usually rosy lips had lost their color.
“Your Highness...”
Like a frightened kitten, Mu Chen instinctively called out the words that made him feel safe. Trembling, he threw himself into Wright’s arms. “Your Highness... I’m scared.”
Wright felt the little merman trembling and curled up in his arms. From the corner of his eye, he saw blood still dripping from Mu Chen’s ear fins, and it was as if someone had squeezed his heart tight, leaving him filled with helplessness and self-blame.
He picked up a towel and wrapped the little merman in it, stroking his back again and again.
“It’s all right now. Don’t be afraid.”
“Sob...”
Perhaps because he had finally seen someone he could rely on, Mu Chen’s tears burst forth uncontrollably.
Wright held him close,
“I’m here.”
“Don’t be afraid.”