A divine oracle came down to the deep-sea temple.
– The princess who saved the sacrifice becomes another sacrifice herself.
The Mermaid King stroked the hair of his sleeping youngest princess and let out a low sigh. Since confirming the oracle’s contents, he couldn’t focus on state affairs.
Not long after the youngest princess Vivianne was born, the queen fell ill and passed away.
The mermaids greatly mourned the loss of their only queen, and he also knew that among the ministers, there were whispers calling the youngest princess “the princess who devoured her mother.”
However, the Mermaid King didn’t care much.
What sin could a young child have?
She was a pitiful thing who had never received a mother’s love. That’s why he cared for and cherished her even more specially.
The Mermaid King taught Vivianne directly and sometimes told her stories from outside the sea. Before bed or when she woke up in the morning, he would always kiss her round forehead.
It was true that he had raised her by indulging her every whim. He had wanted to fill the void left by her mother, even in that way.
But of all things, she had to steal away the sacrifice.
“She did it without knowing anything. What sin does this small child have?”
The Mermaid King muttered like a lament.
However, it was already something that couldn’t be undone. He also knew it was too big a matter to overlook.
The deep-sea god must have been angered. Otherwise, why would he not only swallow an entire ship but also place such a harsh curse on this young child?
Before being a king of a nation, he was a father. A father’s heart wanting to save his daughter was no different just because he was a king.
It wasn’t that there was no way.
“Summon the priests. I will go to the temple.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
The aide accepted the command.
* * *
Using a sacred relic to purify the curse placed on the youngest princess. The sacred relic was a treasure passed down through the royal family for generations.
The temple was in fierce conflict over this matter.
“A ship has already been swallowed in place of the sacrifice. Having the princess pay a price as well is too harsh a treatment.”
“The very fact that the ritual was disrupted is the problem. Though it may be presumptuous to say, if a curse was placed on the princess, that too is the god’s will. Going against the god’s will again will ultimately bring great disaster.”
When the priests sitting around the round table began to argue, the Mermaid King sitting at the head seat flew into a rage.
“Silence!”
The thunderous roar instantly froze the surrounding atmosphere.
“I, the king, want to use the royal treasure for the safety of the royal family. What problem does that pose? What do you think is the reason we serve the god?”
The priests had no answer to this fundamental question.
“I have served the god solely for the peace of the royal family and the people. If it is the god’s will to not allow even the perfectly natural paternal affection of a father trying to save his daughter, then the royal family will refuse to serve such a god from now on.”
“However, Your Majesty…”
“From now on, anyone who opposes my will shall be treated as a traitor to the royal family.”
The Mermaid King took a hardline stance. He purged all opposition within the temple and issued an edict that the youngest princess’s matter should never be mentioned again.
Meanwhile, Vivianne underwent purification rituals day and night to wash away the curse.
The purification came with conditions.
One was that as a side effect, she would lose all previous memories.
The other was that the princess must never come into contact with the sacrifice. If this was violated, the two would inevitably be bound by one curse and destroy each other.
Therefore, the Mermaid King forbade Vivianne from going out and raised her confined in the Mermaid Palace.
Through this series of events, the matter seemed to quiet down, but forces supporting the oracle still remained secretly.
After being driven from the temple, they formed a secret organization and called each other ‘prophets.’ They didn’t hesitate to become witches and use sorcery to achieve their great work.
The prophets’ purpose was clear.
To sacrifice the original offering the princess had stolen away and correct the wrong ritual.
If that wasn’t possible, then to make the princess become another sacrifice according to the oracle. They believed this was the true will of the god.
“Glory to the prophets…”
And among them was Annabel.
* * *
“Annabel, can’t you sleep with me just tonight?”
Vivianne grabbed Annabel’s wrist. Her tone was desperate.
“No. You’re a grown lady now, Princess.”
“But I had a scary dream. I can’t sleep alone.”
“You slept with me last night for the same reason.”
“I’m still scared.”
When pleading didn’t work, Vivianne stuck out her lower lip.
“If you close your eyes, it’ll be morning in no time.”
Annabel smiled gently and laid Vivianne on the bed decorated with coral and shells.
“Oh right, guess what I found?”
She received the object Annabel held out in bewilderment. It was a necklace with a round pendant.
“What is this?”
“It’s something you treasured and called precious. Don’t you remember from when you were little?”
“No.”
“It’s a compass. Something humans use. I heard it’s an object that tells you which direction to go.”
“I see.”
Vivianne let out a light sigh.
“You know, Annabel… I actually don’t remember much from before I had that severe fever.”
Vivianne, who had been fiddling with the compass, opened the pendant’s lid. She could see the compass needle stopped in the center.
“But I must have really liked this. It doesn’t feel unfamiliar somehow.”
“When you were little, His Majesty scolded you many times for playing with human objects. You must have hidden it and forgotten about it. This time, hide it well so you don’t get caught.”
“Okay. I’ll treasure it. Thank you, Annabel.”
She gripped the compass tightly with both hands and smiled brightly, like she had met a benefactor.
“Then please sleep, Princess.”
An isolated being has no choice but to depend on someone. Dependency eventually breeds blind faith.
Isn’t it amusing? Who would have thought it would be so easy to plant faith in the daughter of a king who had abandoned faith?
Finally, another sacrifice had obtained an object containing the aura of the sacrifice she had stolen away. The compass was an enchanted object. That object would guide the princess to the sacrifice, and the sacrifice would also be guided to the princess.
The two would become perfect traps for each other.
The sacrifice was both a trap for the princess to fall into and prey to be caught in the trap called the princess. It wouldn’t matter which of the two was sacrificed.
* * *
In the reception room of Baldwin Manor. After hearing Alice’s words, Vivianne was silent for a long time.
Her head was complicated because too many stories had poured out at once.
From the story of how she had saved the ritual sacrifice to the conflict between the royal family and the temple, and the curse placed on her and the existence of the prophets. It seemed like she was hearing about a world different from the one she had lived in.
“Why didn’t I… know anything at all?”
“His Majesty said he would severely punish anyone who mentioned that day’s events. Especially regarding the princess, he ordered it to be kept thoroughly secret.”
Moreover, Annabel being one of those prophets. No matter how she thought about it, it didn’t feel real. Even so, Alice had no reason to lie.
Honestly, she wanted to deny it. To Vivianne, Annabel was her life as a mermaid itself. She had always been by her side, she had confided everything to her, and she had blindly followed her because she liked her.
Unlike her father, who loved her but treated her in an oppressive way, Annabel was an embracing presence who accepted her unconditionally.
[Didn’t you hear? Vivi, it’s all your fault.]
[You should have listened to me.]
[Because of you, I died. The baby died too. You’ll end up k*lling everyone.]
However, the voices she had heard fleetingly recently remained clearly in her mind. The words that had poured into her painfully splitting head.
It was definitely Annabel’s voice, but it was so different from usual that she couldn’t believe it.
[So please, just die.]
However, she couldn’t deny the fact that it strangely matched what Alice had told her.
“How did you know?”
“What?”
“How did Alice know that Annabel was a prophet?”
“Well, that’s…”
When Vivianne asked, Alice looked a bit troubled.
“I also learned about it after hearing what the Duke told me.”
When a completely unexpected name came from Alice’s mouth, Vivianne asked in surprise.
Of course, since he had discovered Annabel in the taxidermy room, Kian must have definitely met Annabel.
“They pulled her up on deck. She muttered something and then suddenly collapsed and died.”
“Annabel did that?”
“Yes.”
Alice nodded.
“Glory to the prophets… He said she definitely said that.”
“……”
“The Duke told me never to tell the princess. But no matter how I thought about it, it kept bothering me…”
It was a story Kian could never have made up without experiencing it directly.
“When I first met the Duke, he asked about the contract. How a mermaid could become human, what kind of contract she made with a witch for that, everything in detail. At that time, my child was sick, so I promised to receive help from the Duke and told him the truth.”
“Then the fact that I’ll turn into sea foam if I don’t have a baby… Kian knows that too?”
“Yes.”
She had thought he couldn’t possibly know.
So that’s it. He knew everything.
Speechless, Vivianne let out a light sigh and kept moving her lips.
“But recently, he asked about how to break the contract.”
Why would Kian ask that…?
Perhaps from confusion, her vision suddenly swayed hazily. Startled, Vivianne gripped her teacup tightly.
There was one way to break the contract. Stabbing the man’s heart with the ‘mermaid’s knife.’
“Stab this into that male’s heart. The contract will be nullified, and you can return to the sea as a mermaid again.”
It was none other than Annabel who had given her the ‘mermaid’s knife’ and told her this method. Vivianne’s fingertips holding the teacup began to tremble.
“I’m so sorry. Because of me… because you were so worried about me, you gave up something precious.”
“Nothing is more important to me than you, Princess.”
It was Annabel who had given up even her beautiful hair just to save her. She had thought of it as sacrifice and naturally never even suspected there might be some ulterior motive.
“Breaking the contract requires the mermaid’s knife, and he told me never to reveal it, so I just let it pass… But no matter how I thought about it, it kept bothering me. I felt I should tell the princess, so I came.”
Wait, then where is the mermaid’s knife now?
After holding it and failing to stab Kian, it had been by her bedside the whole time. And on the day she fled from Larson, she remembered leaving it there.
After they reunited, his appearance of constantly trying to have a baby. And unlike before when he had even put shackles on her to confine her, how he had sent her to Baldwin so easily.
He had done all of that knowing everything.
All the puzzle pieces fit together, and anxiety rushed over her like a surging wave.
“Alice. When does the red moon rise?”
After having the baby and deciding to live, she had forgotten to watch the waxing moon.
“Today. Tonight.”
Alice answered in a low, sunken voice.
Time was already past noon. She had to meet Kian before the red moon rose.
Translator
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
pickle3
nasty curse, pushing for a sacrifice and then putting the curse on a princess because they didnt get their human blood fix.
curse ultimately designed to drive a wedge and probably kill both in the process.