QT: I hijacked a harem system and now I'm ruining every plot(GL)

Chapter 422: Daphne

I do not know why the prince is looking so scared. I am not going to eat him or anything.

"I could invite you in, Your Highness, but..." I pause. "I do not want to."

I really do not. The thought of my family’s sacred space being contaminated with the presence of others makes me uncomfortable. This cabin is ours. Mine. Lorelei’s. Alira’s. No one else’s footprints belong on its floors.

I walk further out and sit on the deck. The wood is warm beneath me. Alira babbles, grabbing at my hair. I let her.

The prince remains standing.

"Will you keep standing there?" I ask, rubbing Alira’s hair. She coos.

The prince hesitates. Then he cautiously takes a seat next to me—far enough to be respectful, close enough to be present.

He looks at Alira, who looks at him curiously. Her tiny hand reaches toward his face, waving at him.

"She is beautiful," he says.

"I know."

"She looks like you."

"As she should. She is my daughter, after all."

I know what he wants to ask. I can see it in the way his eyes flicker, the way his mouth opens and closes.

I do not give him the chance.

"I hope your trip here was not too uncomfortable, little prince," I say.

"It was bearable."

"Don’t hate them." I shift Alira to my other hip. "They only brought you here as per my request."

He gulps.

I smile.

"You see, dear little prince, you made a deal with a devil. And now it is time to pay up."

He flinches.

I continue.

"The original contract stipulated that I was to help you get rid of the monster of the seas. Surely, I could not possibly kill the love of my life."

"But as payment, for the past year I have invested in your kingdom. Protected your merchant ships. In fact, the protection will last another four years." I tilt my head. "So you could say I have done even more than just helping you get rid of the monster of the seas."

He swallows.

"What do you want from me?"

"Your body." I say.

He moves away so fast he nearly falls off the deck. His eyes are wide, his face pale, his hands raised in front of him like he is warding off a blow.

I look at him in disgust.

"Relax," I say. "I meant literally. Your physicalpresence. Not—" I wave a hand. "Whatever you were thinking."

I notice, in the far distance, figures swimming toward the island. Dark shapes moving beneath the water. Fast. Purposeful.

I smile.

"You, my dear prince, are going to be my lucky peace offering."

He looks at me, confused.

***

Lorelei

I stand with Alira in my arms, watching as she walks toward the water with the human prince.

I do not hear the conversation. I am too far away.

But I see his posture—rigid, afraid, trapped. I see the way she gestures. I see the way he follows.

The merfolk emerge from the waves.

Two of them. Tall. Broad-shouldered. Their tails glisten in the fading light.

The prince struggles as they take him. He kicks. He twists. He shouts something I cannot hear.

They drag him under.

His struggles are drowned by the water.

She turns. She starts to walk toward me. Her feet leave prints in the sand. The setting sun catches her dark hair, softening the edges, making it gleam like the surface of the sea at dusk.

Alira coos.

I hold her closer.

She reaches me.

"It is done," she says.

"What did you do?"

"I gave the princess a gift," she says. "In good favor. And she will give me a gift in kind."

"A gift?" I tilt my head.

"Yes." She cups my cheek. Her palm is warm against my skin. "My beloved, you said it always breaks your heart that Alira could not be with the others because of your circumstances."

I stare at her.

"Daphne—"

"She accepted," she says simply.

I shake my head.

"You said the clan elders are the ones who banished me. They are the ones with authority over the clans. The royal family does not interfere—"

"The princess is of higher authority," she says.

I frown.

"I do not understand. The royals never get involved in clan matters. They are... symbolic. They have power, yes, but they do not use it. Not for things like this."

Daphne tilts her head.

"You underestimate the amount of affection the princess holds for the human prince."

I shake my head.

"I still cannot understand why the princess would fall in love with a human when she has the whole sea’s worth of mermen to choose from."

Daphne leans down and kisses my nose.

"My beloved," she says, "should you be judging the princess?"

"It is different." I defend.

"Oh, really?"

She takes Alira from me. The baby settles against her chest, her tiny fingers curling around Daphne’s collar.

"You fell in love with a human," Daphne points out.

"I did not," I argue back as we walk toward the cabin.

The sand is warm beneath my feet. The sky is deepening, shifting from gold to pink to purple.

"After all, you are as human as I am right now," I say.

Daphne opens her mouth to argue.

Then she closes it.

"I suppose you are right," she says.

After all, she turns into that land animal—the panther, she said it’s called—that looks beautiful and dangerous. So in a way, she understands me. She is not entirely human. She is something else. Something more.

But humans are... unmagical.

They do not shift. They do not breathe underwater. They do not sing songs that can calm the sea or call the storm.

So I do not understand the princess at all.

Daphne takes my fingers and interlocks them with mine. Her grip is firm, certain, steady.

All thoughts of the princess fly away.

I look at our hands. At the way her fingers fit between mine, like they were made to be there. At the way her thumb traces slow circles on my skin.

I’ve never been happier.

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