The Empress was quiet for a while, and since nobody seemed to be willing to cause trouble and direct her fury at themselves, the crowd was quiet for most of the time. Some whispers and talks were shared quietly, mostly discussing the credibility of this human’s words or what could possibly be going on if they were to take this human’s words as the truth.
In the end, nothing was said out loud until The Sea Empress’s words stopped their chattering once more.
“Human,” she called out, “as for now, I will consider your words as the truth given that you are a companion for the two members of the Sky blood, despite them being young, I do not think you have the ability to deceive them. For now, you may continue with your discovery.”
It was a permission, but the look in her eyes suggests it was a warning. The cold glare directed at her suggests that any foolishness would cost her life. Although that was only Serein’s own interpretation after knowing well that her ‘original fate’ could still bite her in the back at the very last minute.
Either way, it’s not like she is planning to scam these powerful beings before her with how powerless she is…
So, bowing in gratitude, Serein did as she was told and continued to spill the beans on these assailants.
“Their identity is unknown. But it seems like these people always wear a mask made of the top half of a skull.” In addition, there was something more to that mask that could distinguish this particular character from random strangers getting stranded.
“—They have a deep tattoo carved onto the mask. For a reason I haven’t yet figured out, they always wearing such fashion, I was almost certain that it’s their signature or so”
Serein truly has no idea why they were dressed that way, past the fact that Min Suhyun used to have a lot of morbid curiosity in the past when the draft was created. However, from Serein’s and these people’s points of view, it can’t be that these terrorists would dress up uniformly without any actual reason, right?
‘There’s no way villains would just get all fancied up like that simply for fashion reasons—’
…
That would have been ridiculous. But for some odd reason, she feels like she’s not supposed to get all shocked if it were the case, given that this story was meant to be a munchkin story.
Still, her pride as an author would receive a big blow if that were the case.
“I was reminded of the boater’s and the spirits’ stories when the Archaic Spirit that’s in contact with me mentioned that a person who has a strong similarity to my description was witnessed here not so long ago.”
And to support her claim, following Aiston’s direction, she pulled out the Notebook of Certitude and showed them a sketch of a figure, Of course, this sketch was made by Aiston, who agreed to cooperate generously this time.
With a nod of approval from the Empress, one of the guards takes the notebook and lets a bunch of schooling fish recreates the picture on a bigger scale so that everyone there can see. It was then that soft gasps started to be heard all around.
Not from the royalties themselves, but from those who have witnessed one of the grand ceremonies that were held in this area. The ceremony symbolized the peace between the sea creatures and the humans from the neighborhoods.
“… Ah, wait, I remember such a person.”
“Isn’t he one of that dazzling princely’s companions?”
“Does this mean the Qirith Empire breached their contract-?”
“With our queen? their Sea Goddess?”
While listening to these audiences who sit comfortably on the podium chatting among themselves, Serein saw how a sketch is starting to appear at The Notebook of Certitude.
Aiston, who has agreed to help his contractor with this, has been asking spirits around to create the exact visual of this villain.
‘This is bad.’ With how Qirith Empire’s name kept being mentioned, Serein felt rather iffy. After all, she has no intention of getting involved in any of these, but the more she learns, the less likely she is to be able to separate herself from the situation.
‘Although… I can’t believe that I’m actually right.’
It seems like the punk who stole the Sea Empress’s egg was the same one who pitted the merfolks against that race of darkness whom everyone thought had gone extinct, the Sirens.
‘So, this was indeed the work of one of them.‘
The culprits behind a lot of the chaos that has happened and will happen in the future, those whose names need to be aware of always wear masks made of bones. Various types of bones, although surprisingly it was never that of humans. The skulls were those of mutants, merfolks, and even a baby dragon, depending on their ranks— but it was never a human skull.
It’s been too long, Min Suhyun forgot the reasoning behind that iconic dress code. However, as Serein, she guessed that it was to frame humanity in some way. A political strategy to seclude humans as the only ones on whom they’re not preying.
Not that she was certain of it, however, it’s simply obnoxious to not have a single human skull on display when they even have a dragon skull in their ranks.
‘If I’m not mistaken, there are fourteen of them.’
The Oracles.
There are a total of 13 official Oracles, numbered from 1 to 13. They are the cruel and powerful servants of the being known as the Archlord.
Is he a demonic entity? Or is he a being of darkness?
Surprisingly, no one knows. And even if there are witnesses who heard of him from these minions, it’s almost as if nobody dared to talk further about that.
Serein had tried to seek this particular information while they were still in the Kiraan Kingdom before taking off because she knew sooner or later meeting Arlia wouldn’t be the only disaster she needed to avoid. And with the fact that she’s already met the said punk, this information has proven to be one of the most precious pieces of information she can get.
‘And it seems like I’m stumbling with one of their shenanigans…’
Serein wanted to blame her meeting with Arlia for this misfortune, but whatever! She can’t exactly say she is not involved with them in any way. After all, it’ll raise too much suspicion on her side.
So, when she was once again granted time to speak, she continued with her plan: “bullshitting my way through my misery.”
“I’m not sure about the prince or the empire itself being involved, but if this person I’m showing you was involved, I could almost guarantee you that they’re up to no good. I have my own personal reason that I cannot disclose, but I’m willing to bet my life that this punk is either a perpetrator or the culprit himself.”
She doesn’t want to die, but these words were uttered as a conviction. Because for these creatures, humans were nothing but a weaker race, especially in their territory, the water.
That’s why Serein can already understand what’s in their heads; her pitiful life was nothing in front of them; it was so insignificant that it could even end at the whim of the Empress.
She must rejoice that the Empress wasn’t a terrible one and is reasonable, or else, she really should give up on her life.
In addition to the Empress’s nature, it seems like her words did indeed work, based on how serious their expressions are. To be clear, none of them seemed to be taking this lightly anymore.
“Human,” The Empress’s voice could be heard clearly as she leaned slightly forward and asked, “Do you have any idea what you’re implying with this grave accusation?”
To which, without missing a beat, Serein answered with,
“Yes, Your Majesty.” She was in fact aware of the situation right now, including the chaos she could create if she were to pursue this.
As much as she felt unfortunate to be the one who found out about it first—and possibly the one who sparked the fuse into oblivion if she went ahead with it—there is no doubt that it could lead to a massive war between two realms.
where humans are the underdog, and it is very likely that mankind will lose more than half of its total population.
After all, while they have the number, they don’t have the strength, and certainly, they don’t have the unity that these sea creatures have.
In an all-out war, humans would be defeated in no time.
The fragile yet calm relationship between the sea creatures and humans was all thanks to the Qirith Empire and their sacred ceremony that led some humans to worship the Sea Empress as the Sea Goddess; that was the reason why the usually tense relationship between the strong and weak wasn’t present.
Then, this grave mistake happened. A human kidnapping the next Lord of the Sea, which is totally unforgivable. Furthermore, Serein is now accusing the man who accompanied the Qirith empire’s prince to be the master of this whole ordeal.
Her words can simply lead humans to their extinction.
She knows this now. But what can she do? Why lie about it when she could die either way?
Nu-uh.
‘At this point, it’s ride or die’
Besides, there’s still a chance that the Qirith Empire was not involved with the kidnapping and that they were simply being used to steal the opportunity. There are still a million other theories she could come up with if she were given a chance. But for now…
“I am not implying that The Empire is the one to orchestrate this whole thing, no.” She needs to point this out first and foremost, “Your Majesty, while humans might have evolved and even have some mage on their side, this humble being could not fathom the thought that they could do any foul move against Your Majesty with their own accords.”
Which is the truth. Going against the three rulers is impossible, especially when malicious intent is present.
Cevahir manages to win over Aidou thanks to his bloodline, but also due to the dark magic involved. The poison with which she had coated the dagger, which was used to fight Aidou, is considered one of the means of dark sorcery. One that can be used without the presence of a dark sorcerer or the Darkness.
Despite that, Aidou was only able to be subdued because they weren’t being completely hostile; they were lowering their guard and being rather playful in their approach because they were bored.
There was no way for any human to be successful with their hit if the Ruler himself did not permit it in any way. And during her speech, Serein tried to highlight this fact to the audience and the Empress to lessen the chance of the floating danger of open war.
“There’s a chance that the punk acted alone. Like a double agent.”
‘Yes. yes.’ Serein silently nodded to herself, glad that the Empress accepted this possibility.
“—Although,”
‘Oh, fuck.’
“It doesn’t rule out the possibility that humans were behind it all along. Their greed barely knows any boundary.”
‘Noooooooo…’
Serein, in the middle of devastation, then thinks, ‘Well… I mean, who knows? Humans are absolute shit. But still… Noooooooo!!! Don’t get back to that conclusion! Don’t waste my effort!!’
Lamenting over the fact that she can’t seem to defuse the situation, at the very least, this allowed her to take a breath away from the fear of instant death. Though, unfortunately, it seems like she just started a new riptide that’s possibly bigger than the one she just avoided.
This whole thing is giving her such a headache, that she couldn’t help but grumble inside, ‘Gosh… this is so brain damaging.’
Oh, how she wished that this whole thing would end up as a ridiculously long dream instead.
—
Author Note: Heyya folks! Anemic Bunnicula here~! Here goes another update for the week! Hope you all would enjoy it, and I’ll see you again in the next chapter, Chao~!
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