Free Web NovelChapter 99: The Mermaid Queen (2)
"I did."
I replied without any hesitation.
The moment the words left my mouth, I heard the other guys let out a collective gasp.
"Huh?"
"Did he... did he really just say that?"
They were looking at me like I had completely lost my mind. To them, my reaction was entirely reckless.
I had just casually admitted to murdering a Queen’s son right in front of her face, especially when she had just revived with an insane amount of unknown power. They probably thought she was going to wipe us all out in a single flash of anger.
However, unlike what they expected, the Queen didn’t show that kind of reaction at all. She didn’t scream, she didn’t flare her mana, and she didn’t even speak up right away.
She just lowered her head slowly and stared at the ground beneath her feet, which could only be possessed by the royal bloodline.
I watched her closely. I don’t know what she might be thinking right now. Maybe deep down under that calm composure, she is incredibly angry and wants to kill me on the spot.
Maybe she is enraged but is forcefully keeping herself quiet because she knows her son was the one who was completely wrong. After all, Trion had slaughtered her entire kingdom.
But there was one thing I knew for sure. She wasn’t going to attack. If my knowledge of the story was correct, she would soon look into my eyes and say just one specific word.
"Alright."
Saying that, she slowly raised her head. But this time, she didn’t look at me, Vera, or anyone else in the room. Instead, she turned her body around and began walking toward her now completely restored throne.
Her pace wasn’t fast at all. It was slow, incredibly slow.
It took her around a whole minute just to cross the short distance back to her seat, when she could have easily reached it in a few seconds if she wanted. It looked as if every single movement she made was carrying the heavy weight of an entire dead world.
After sitting back down on the throne, she placed her pale hands on the armrests. She let out a long sigh, and her eyes stared blankly at the roof of the palace hall.
"What went wrong?"
She muttered to herself.
If there was no water around us, then I am absolutely sure we would have been able to see her shed at least one bitter tear.
In just a single day, she had lost her entire kingdom, her loyal people, and her only son. I may not be able to fully understand what she was feeling right now, but it must be really heartbreaking.
Still, looking at the bigger picture, this outcome was for the best. In the story of the novel, the Hunters who came to clear this Gate were a little too late.
At that time, the prince had already finished dealing with the Queen and had brutally cut her into many pieces before the protagonist finally arrived to put him down.
It had taken a really long time for the main character to revive the Queen because of that delay.
At least this time, she was whole.
"So," the Queen spoke up again, her slightly opened eyes drifting back toward me. "You all must have gotten what you wanted by coming here. I am not going to thank you for killing him, nor am I going to hold you responsible for his death. So... you guys can leave now."
She paused for a second as her hands tightened slightly on the armrests.
"Moreover, I don’t think I have anything left to give you anyway."
I knew she was lying, or at least, she thought she was telling the truth. She still had many legendary artifacts and hidden treasures she could give away, but for someone in her position, those things didn’t matter anymore.
The kingdom, and secondly her son, were the most important things in her life. Now that both were gone, she was probably feeling completely lost and helpless in this vast world.
Out of a sudden urge of respect, I bowed my head slightly toward her. Seeing me do it, the other Hunters also quickly followed suit and bowed their heads in silence.
Even Vera, who was just standing there confused, got a slight nudge from my hand as I gently pressed the top of her mask to make her head bow along with me.
It was just out of pure respect for her. For someone who was now left entirely alone in this empty world inside the Gate.
Furthermore, I did it for one more practical reason.
An event that I knew would happen in just a few moments if I played my moves right.
"Okay. Good luck," I said.
With that, I kicked my legs against the floor and began to swim out of the grand palace hall.
The other Hunters didn’t hesitate and immediately followed right behind me. They were more eager than me to leave the depressing atmosphere.
But as I swam, I intentionally kept my speed slow. My eyes were fixed on the exit of the main hall, but my mind was counting the time.
’Be quick... Say anything. Don’t let us just walk away,’ I thought to myself.
"However..."
Suddenly, a voice reached us from behind. It belonged to the Queen.
I immediately stopped swimming, and a smirk formed beneath my mask.
’At last.’
I slowly turned my body around in the water to face her again. The rest of the Hunters also halted, turning back with somewhat curious and tense expressions.
The Queen was staring straight into my eyes, looking past the eyeholes of my mask.
"...I can feel that you would need this in the near future," she continued, but her voice still sounded incredibly distant.
Then, gradually, a soft white light began to manifest in front of my chest.
The light soon turned into a strange piece of paper.
It was a single sheet of old paper with glowing symbols written all over it. I reached out and took it, then began scanning the words, but it was something I couldn’t understand at all.
A deep frown formed on my face.
This was completely wrong. This wasn’t the reward she was supposed to give!
The protagonist received a legendary black box that possessed the incredibly rare power to completely stop time for a brief moment. It was a literal cheat item.
But all I got was this strange paper with weird words. Why is it different? Did my actions change the reward system entirely? Everything is so different now.
Before I could think about it further, the Queen’s gaze locked onto both Vera and me.
"You two share a rather sad, horrific fate," the Queen spoke, her voice carrying a chilling, disturbing tone that made the hairs on my arms stand up.
"I can see it... a future where one of you must constantly consume the other just to remain whole, while the other willingly tears their own flesh apart to be devoured. A cycle of absolute devotion built upon a mountain of corpses. You are a tragedy waiting to happen, walking hand in hand toward a dark void that will eventually swallow both of your souls alive."
Hearing her words, silence fell over the hall. The description was incredibly disturbing and was far worse than any monster’s roar. freewebnovёl.ƈom
’What the hell does she mean by that?’ I thought as I tightly gripped the strange paper. ’Consume each other? A tragedy?’
I glanced at Vera beside me. She didn’t seem bothered by the disturbing prophecy at all. She was just staring at the Queen while her hand was firmly holding onto my sleeve like always.
To her, as long as she was next to me, nothing else in the world mattered. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
While I was deeply lost in my thoughts, the Queen slowly turned her gaze away from us and looked toward Seok, who was standing a few feet to our right.
"You..." the Queen murmured. "Why does it feel like you constantly think of yourself as a completely worthless person?"
She just said that out of nowhere, without any malice or emotion, but the words hit Seok very deeply. His body instinctively jolted, and he took a sudden step forward through the water.
"I... I..."
He opened his mouth to reply, but he couldn’t form any words. He just stopped after trying. His face was a mask of pure shock.
I didn’t notice it at first since we were standing a bit farther away, but when I leaned in to look closely at the Queen’s face, my eyes widened.
Her eyes had completely changed. Inside her pupils, a strange manifestation had appeared: a glowing blue clock with six sharp pins spinning slowly in a counter-clockwise direction.
I recognized it instantly.
It was her unique trait, a specialized skill that allowed her to analyze a person’s past, their deep-seated memories, and even catch faint glimpses of their emotional burdens.
She wasn’t able to look directly into a concrete future, but she could completely feel everything a person had been or will go through just by looking at them.
She was literally reading his mind right now.
"Consider this a personal gift from me, a reward for reviving me by successfully planting the trident into the altar’s core," the Queen said softly.
Snap!
She snapped her fingers with a sharp clicking sound.
Instantly, a small, glowing white object manifested in the water directly in front of Seok’s face too.
Looking at it, his eyes went completely wide.
His hands were visibly trembling as he reached out and quickly grabbed the object. The moment his fingers touched it, a gasp escaped his lips.
"D-dragon bone?" he stammered, and as he looked up at the Queen, his eyes were filled with a mixture of disbelief and desperate hope. "Dragons... do dragons actually exist here?"
He asked subconsciously.
I could see tears forming at the edges of his eyes, mixing with the clear water around his face.
Maybe this was the exact item he needed for something important.
The Queen looked at his emotional face and slowly closed her eyes, leaning her head back against the cushion of her throne.
"Not anymore. They have gone extinct... just like us."
With that final statement, she casually waved her hand through the water and gave a clear gesture telling us to leave her palace for good.
And we did just that.
We didn’t have much time left anyway, since the magic films from Hana’s spell were beginning to flicker and thin out, telling us that our breathing time inside the waters was rapidly running out.
Together, the ten of us turned around and swam rapidly upward toward the surface of the swamp.
But as I swam, my mind was focused on what had just happened.
The dragon bone reward for Seok was a massive twist.
The Queen never gave anything to the side characters. I didn’t think she would give something so incredibly important to someone other than me.
I glanced over at Seok, who was swimming near the center of the group.
He was practically shining, and a massive, brilliant smile was visible across his face as he clutched the small piece of dragon bone against his chest like it was his entire life.
Seeing him like that, a small smile also formed on my face.
The timeline had definitely shifted, and the rewards were completely different from the book, but looking at Seok...
I couldn’t find it in myself to care about the lost time-stop box anymore.
’I hope we meet again,’ I thought to myself as the dark green surface of the swamp drew closer and closer. ’Because I know for a fact that we will.’
Soon, both Vera and I broke through the surface of the dark green water, stepping back into the foggy, silent world of the Gate.
’I can’t wait to get out of this place and check this paper out. It must also be something really important, looking at who gave it to me.’
