He and It Chapter 28: The King’s Pearl (28)

Chapter 28: The King’s Pearl (28)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: KarateChopMonkey

Shao Xia was an Aurora mermaid from the North Sea.

As the name suggested, Aurora mermaids had ethereal scales and skin as white as snow, wandering in the dark sea, almost impossible to catch their bodies with the naked eye, but in a bright environment, Aurora mermaids became the brightest spotlight, each arc of their swim resembled a star track reflected in the dark abyss.

Shao Xia, the guardian of the territorial sea, was bored, grabbing a handful of krill as a snack and flinging it into her mouth.

How boring… 

Except for the exchange, there was nothing special recently, the sea bottom was calm, really boring for mermaids…

Well, no, it seemed that a few months ago there was a great event. It was said that the abyssal king heir who lost his soulmate, ran to the land of the land people after a big mess, but really found his mate, and also on the shore caused a tsunami and earthquake. Making so much noise,he really deserved to be the abyssal species, ah.

Shao Xia turned around aimlessly, her heart filled with lamentation, and envy, and loss, and anger.

So big, many of the neighboring sea mermaids have run to spectate, listening to them, the sea in the vicinity was still turbid after many days, the topography of the shore was also changed, the mermaids who went that day were even more fortunate, not only to see the protagonists of the gossip, but they also to rode the tsunami, when a time in the sky rushing around the flying fish.

Later, the king of the abyss delivered news to all the sea kingdoms, they learned that the original land people there caught a mermaid who was dissipating, and not only imprisoned her soul, but also used the mermaid’s flesh and blood to make a potion that could extend the life of the land people.

For this matter, the sea stirred for months, the revenge against the culprit has never stopped, they almost went to war with the land, but then the land people seem to express the willingness to give in and make amends, so the matter has been temporarily put to rest…

Shao Xia enviously thought, Soul mates, it’s great, lost for so many years yet was found again. Should I say that the king is lucky, or that he is persistent enough?

While he was thinking, Shao Xia’s eyes suddenly caught a glimpse of a shadow in front of him.

[Who?] He exhaled a sound wave, and the water under the sea shook slightly, covering towards the shadow.

Shao Xia narrowed his light blue pupils and saw the appearance of the shadow, which seemed to be a… Was it a person?

He instantly became alerted, but, how could the land people be here? This place was already infinitely close to the location of the deep sea area, how could a human’s fragile body withstand the abrasion of the sea? He had seen an attempt to capture the mermaid, but was dragged into the sea by the mermaid land people, he didn’t die first of asphyxiation due to lack of oxygen, but died from the instantaneous increase in pressure, the ocean almost crushed him into a thin meat pie.

A man, how could he come here?

Shao Xia’s skin flashed with a ghostly light, he suddenly merged with the surrounding seawater, like a transparent jellyfish, quickly and silently towards the direction of the silhouette bounced.

If anyone was blinded by the skin of the aurora mermaid, thinking that they were as weak as they appeared, they were mistaken. The stealthy nature of the aurora mermaids made them like ghostly killers under the sea. Abyssal mermaids were the most massive and robust, falling into their hands of the prey, always having the most horrible exaggerated wounds; Far Eastern mermaids were the most stoic and silent, if they locked onto a target there was no possibility of escape in life; equatorial mermaids were flowing in the blood of the fiery flame, regardless of love and hate they were blazing hot, vowing to burn everything around…

The aurora mermaids were the most ethereal and agilely lethal, they made the most narrow wounds, set up the least enemy, their character was also the most calm and quiet, treating prey, they only shot once, never entangled, and didn’t remember revenge.

But for the creatures at the bottom of the sea, this only one shot was already enough to bury their lives.

Getting closer, Shao Xia could see the appearance of the visitor.

It was indeed a human, no tail, only two legs, and wearing a light fabric to cover his body, with the seawater waves, floating like clouds in the sky.

But looking more closely, he wasn’t fully human. His ears were translucent with fin bones protruding, looking like very small ear fins; his fingers were webbed, nails, although short, but human nails wouldn’t be so sharp; his gill pattern, scales, the color was very light, as if he was a newborn pup…

What was more, he looked really small. White, slender, wrapped in fluttering fabric, if you could add a fishtail, he was simply a living aurora mermaid cub!

What kind of creature was this?

Shao Xia was so curious that he was about to swell up, he immediately had to swim over and grab the other to study it, but saw that the creature suddenly turned around and looked in his direction, opened his lips in surprise and showed a bad expression.

What? Shao Xia’s heart twinged. Was I found?

[Raperth!] The other party opened his mouth and spat out the language of a mermaid, [Stop it now!]

Raperth, who is Raperth?

Shao Xia already felt the ominous danger pressing in from behind. His spines unfolded in a flash, his fins sharper than blades, cutting perfect curves in the sea as if in a dance of beauty and murder, and opening his mouth to spit out a deadly sound wave—

His neck was clamped by a huge sharp claw! The enemy had directly and skillfully controlled the mermaid’s vocal organs, and in a precise position, the complex structure of the cartilage in the throat was unceremoniously pinched together, while the other hand passed through the many sharp and shining fin bones and quickly and viciously grabbed Shao Xia’s tail vertebrae.

On the first side, Shao Xia could only see a pair of horrible pupils, molten gold like lava, like two blazing fires twisting in the dark.

——This was a true abyssal species.

[You dare to approach him from behind!] The deep-sea mermaid roared, nails protruding threateningly, and the smell emitted was like a roaring thunder cloud.

[Raperth!] Jiang Mian swam over and hastily tugged at the male mermaid’s arm, [You’re going to… hurt him… don’t.]

Shao Xia’s eyes widened and he looked at the mermaid in front of him with fear, his physique was already larger than other types of mermaids, and his strength and tolerance for extreme conditions were among the best in the sea. [Your soulmate?]

So it was them… So this was the king of that deep-sea mermaid, and it turned out that his mate was a mermaid with mixed human blood! Huh, but how did he change his name to this?

[I’m not trying to hurt him!] Shao Xia wailed, [I just wanted to see him… Just looking!]

The male mermaid turned his head grumpily and stared into Shao Xia’s eyes, his copper-gold eyes nearly burning two holes in his lid membrane, [Just looking? You sneaky…]

“Raperth!” said Jiang Mian changing to human language, “Come on stop it, we’re here as guests, this is…”

He looked up and down at the slender mermaid that had been forced into its present form, the other was undoubtedly a very graceful creature under the sea, more like a creature one would be fascinated to celebrate in fairy tales and legends than the wild Raperth, “This is an Aurora mermaid? You seem to have frightened him.”

“Oh,” Raperth muttered somberly, “I’m not scaring him, the sneaky thief.”

He switched to mermaid language and hissed, [He definitely just tried to steal you and raise you as an Aurora mermaid pup!]

[What? Absolutely not! No!] Oooh, Shao Xia stumbled, pale and feeble in his defense, feeling a pang of weakness for some reason.

Ever since they had broken away from the Institute, Raperth had become infinitely wary of anything that could attract Jiang Mian’s attention and hook him away from him. He couldn’t afford to keep Jiang Mian apart from him any longer, he couldn’t afford the consequences.

“All right, all right.” Jiang Mian surrendered, he had to find another way, “Well… I’m hungry!”

Raperth, “…”

Raperth said helplessly, “Little one, you can’t keep using this method…”

Jiang Mian sighed, “It’s true, I didn’t eat the fish you caught this morning, I just couldn’t stuff it anymore.”

Raperth was so scared that he dropped the Aurora mermaid and rushed up to hug him, “Little one, why aren’t you eating?”

“Because I’m not hungry!” Jiang Mian said loudly and under his breath, “By the way, I’m not hungry now either, and I’m just saying that so you can let go of that mermaid.”

Raperth turned around, and sure enough, the Aurora mermaid that had been thrown away leaped away faster than anything else and was gone in the blink of an eye.

Raperth turned his head back and pouted at Jiang Mian.

“You lied to me.” The male mermaid muttered sadly, “I’ll punish you.”

Jiang Mian narrowed his eyes and heard him solemnly and gravely give the king’s punishment, “I’m going to tickle you.”

Jiang Mian was shocked, his scales had only recently grown out, a time when he couldn’t afford to be tickled, so he immediately struggled against Raperth’s hand, “No, no, no, don’t tickle me!”

Alas, Jiang Mian cried out, trying with all his might to avoid his too hateful, too evil partner. Jiang Mian cried even harder when Raperth wrapped his big heavy tail around him and pinned him down in the warm darkness of the underwater cave.

By the time this year’s exchange season was over, Jiang Mian had not been able to find a velvet sea rabbit to his satisfaction, and he and Raperth had missed the peak of the event, losing out on so many great exchange opportunities.

Jiang Mian took a hard bite of his crab leg and wouldn’t talk to him.

“It can still wait for next year, Pearl.” Raperth held him curtly to his body and coaxed him carefully, “We still have… longer than we can count… don’t rush.”

—

It was September at the equator, the hottest time of the year.

The sound of the sea was like a strange and gorgeous ensemble in the background as Jiang Mian sat on the reef, the sea breeze blowing comfortably through his somewhat longer black hair, the sunlight reflecting his skin with a starry, broken awning.

The perpetual summer near the equator had not darkened him, and in the sunlight he was as conspicuous as a luminous body. During his travels around the world with Raperth, Jiang Mian had become healthier than ever, and that health would continue to grow.

In the past six months, he had grown at least five centimeters taller and gained about seven pounds. The youth’s physique remained slender, but this slenderness didn’t hinder his progress toward greater proportion and strength, and Raperth loved to hold him in his hands and weigh him carefully, making the male mermaid extremely happy when he sensed that he had gained weight.

…And he got very excited.

Jiang Mian was a little puzzled that Raperth had found this place last night after they had drifted out to sea to look at the stars. Early this morning, he put him here and now it was unknown where he went.

Because of Raperth’s overly clingy behavior, he was willing to leave Jiang Mian for a moment, which was a very rare thing. Jiang Mian scooped up a handful of crystal-clear seawater, felt the dynamics of its flow on his skin, and couldn’t help but sigh comfortably.

Jiang Mian lowered his head and saw Raperth’s long fishtail bobbing in the sea, his long dark hair flowing and swirling, revealing a deep face, looking upward at him.

Jiang Mian was stunned, this familiar location, a familiar scene, in his heart pointing up a throbbing ripple. He remembered their first meeting, Jiang Mian hesitant, Raperth curious, but long before they knew each other, the pupils of their eyes reflected the souls of their partners before each other.

Jiang Mian didn’t say anything, and Raperth didn’t say anything either. One man and one fish looked at each other for a long time, and then Jiang Mian suddenly asked, “What’s your name?”

He looked at Raperth with a smile in his eyes, “I think ‘Raperth’ isn’t your real name, right?”

As the sea breeze flowed, Raperth gazed into his eyes and answered calmly, “This name… indeed… is not my real name… but it is the name you first used to call me. Since then… it has been yours exclusively… and of all people… I respond only to your voice.”

He reached upward, and in his palm, he placed an open, gritty shell, which revealed the glow of a pearl, like a small moon, radiating an unchanging love and tenderness.

Jiang Mian smiled and he whispered, “Yes, Raperth.”

The mermaid lifted his head, Jiang Mian bent his body down, across the interval between the sea and the reef, the identity of the lover and the beloved, the moment their fingers touched, time seemed to freeze.