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

Chapter 425: Caspian

I sit. That is all I can do now. In this room. On this bed.

It is not even a bed—something woven from coral, each time I sit up I am drenched in water. The kingdom belonging to the merfolk is beautiful. It looks like it is from a dream, in the depths of the ocean.

Some parts are fully submerged. Others are not. Others are halfway, like my room.

I look at my feet. Extremely pale in the water. My toes are getting webbed.

I look at the small webs on my fingers too.

I feel resigned.

I can never go back to the surface like this.

Besides, I would not survive. I once tried to swim there, but because I have no tail, the underwater currents nearly killed me.

I was found unconscious.

Larissa must have felt guilty, because she let me go. I arrived at the port, and to my surprise, no one knew I was missing. The only news they had in relation to me was that I apparently got married and was expecting a child.

So this is the conclusion the royal family came to.

Logically, I understand. After losing my brother, they could not announce the loss of another heir. That does not mean it did not hurt me.

I had no home.

I could only go back to the sea, where she was waiting.

"I told you," she said as she dragged me into the depths, "I am the only one who loves you, Prince."

*

I stand and walk out of the maze called the royal palace. I am now familiar with this place, having been here for years now. The merfolk no longer look at me suspiciously—I am the only one with two legs among their tails, but no one cares anymore.

I find my son’s room.

This is part of the reason I am accepted. The child between Larissa and I is to be the next king. No one would want to step on the toes next king’s father.

I do not reach his room before I am stopped by some huge merfolk.

Larissa’s guards.

We do not say anything. I just follow them.

There is Larissa, lying down on a large shell as some young merman polishes her scales.

I once fell in love with her sweet, innocent nature. Now I see it is entitlement born from her position. She is a selfish royal. Still incredibly beautiful.

"Everyone leave," she says.

All the servants swim away.

I know what is coming.

"I do not care what you do, Prince. But have some decorum. Leave the newly adult mers alone."

She is speaking about her cousin, who gifted me her song on her coming-of-age ceremony. I could not resist her. She was like a younger Larissa—with her beautiful eyes and sweet innocence. She was just like younger Larissa in bed too. All enthusiastic and clumsy.

The best thing about this place is that under certain special circumstances, I am allowed to be with others. I could say no, but why would I?

"I did not make her come to me," I say offhandedly. "I only indulged her."

Her tail angrily hits the shell, creating waves underwater.

She swims to me.

"Do you know how embarrassing it is for me that you do these things?"

I look at her. At the woman I once loved. I still love her, in a way. I am sure she still loves me too—not as much as before, though. Our affection has faded. I know it. She knows it.

She is honestly not even jealous. I know about her little mermen.

"If you need one, I will bring you one. Do not just—"

"Mother! Father!"

Swimming into the room is our son. Tristan.

We immediately become cordial.

His blonde hair floats around his face, the same pale gold as mine. His tail is a deep shimmering blue, like his mother’s. His eyes are gray—just like mine.

It makes the king so angry that his beloved grandson looks just like me.

Tristan looks between us.

"Were you fighting again?" he says.

"Of course not." I wrap an arm around Larissa’s waist. "Your mother and I were merely having a conversation. Were we not, honey?"

She smiles in agreement, her hand resting on my chest.

"Just discussing the day," she says smoothly. "Nothing for you to worry about."

Tristan studies us. His gray eyes are sharp—too sharp for his age.

"You are lying," he says.

"We are not," I say.

"You have that look."

"What look?"

"The look you get when you are pretending."

Larissa laughs. It is a genuine sound, warm and surprised. The only time a genuine laugh escapes her is around our teenage son.

But he does not press any further.

"Father, you promised to go on a swim with me." He takes my hand.

I look at him suspiciously.

It has been years since he has wanted to swim with me.

***

Daphne

[Host, are you going to let this happen?]

I look at the holographic screen, amused. So this is what she has been doing.

Alira wants to cause chaos.

She is like a cat. I wonder whom she gets it from? She is so cunning, using people for her own amusement. I click my tongue in disappointment.

[Yes, Host. I wonder who she inherited those traits from.]

She has been sneaking into the human palace, befriending the human prince. She has also befriended the mermaid prince. Both teenage boys like her.

I am not worried about Alira.

If she really was angry or uncomfortable, she would quite literally kill them. That bloodthirsty nature I am sure she gets from her other mother, not me.

The System narrows its eyes at me.

What?

It just shakes its little head.

I ignore it.

So I wonder what her plan is. Does she plan to make the half-brothers meet? As far as I am concerned, they do not know about each other...well not for long.

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