CH 33

TL: Hua

The cracking sound of the whip and the muffled sound of it hitting the body rang out in the dimly lit basement.

The pool in the center of the room has been stained light red by the mermaid’s blood, and a few black scales that have been whipped off are floating on the water.

In the room where there was no other sound except the muffled sound of the whip, a hoarse voice that obviously used the voice-changing period sounded.

“Kiro, you are still so disobedient; it’s just an educational video; why are you doing this?”

As he spoke, the man in a black robe, whose face was tightly covered by a mask, let out a pretentious sigh.

“Didn’t those two Clarices also teach you at that time? Why are only you allowed to receive education while those mermaids at the foster center are being treated like little fools? Is that what your parents taught you?”

Another whip was swung down, and the mermaid, whose arms were handcuffed to the floor tiles, finally let out a muffled groan. Looking at the black-robed man whose whole body was hidden, he gave a chuckle, and the blood-stained tail that was covered with scars flung hard!

The black-robed man who was only one step away from him was instantly doused by a wave of water. Kiro looked at him, and his bright eyes seemed to see the ugly and disgusting soul through the layers of robe and mask.

He spat bloody saliva at the man who swung his whip again, and a mocking smile rose from the corner of his dry mouth.

“The videos you guys recorded are worthy of being educational? Just because Leiden hasn’t let you old bastards see blood in the past few years, you all no longer know your places.”

Under the scolding and lashing of the whip by the man in black, he calmed down and continued to mock him: “You dare not let me die, and this is the only way. I advise you to quickly give up those ridiculous thoughts. If he could kill you once, then he could kill you a second time, a third time…”

He raised his head and looked straight at the trembling man, saying, “Until there’s no one left to kill, until the pride and glory of your sh*tty family is reduced to ashes and swept into the sea by my tail!”

“Shut up! You shut up!!!”

The black-robed man swung his arm angrily. Just when Kiro was about to close his eyes to meet the whip, he suddenly let out a mute laugh uncharacteristically, and his tone was soft and gloomy.

“So you still expect Leiden to save you—oh no, to save your clan.”

He sighed and said with pity, “But as far as I know, Leiden never took care of the mermaid foster center after what happened that year; otherwise, how could our people have infiltrated so smoothly?”

Seeing the mermaid’s eyes suddenly open, he continued: “Besides, who in the entire empire doesn’t know that Leiden is a murderous lunatic? Perhaps he won’t be able to resist this year’s mental attack and will silently die in the lifeless palace during the new year.”

It’s unknown what he’s imagining in his head, but he suddenly burst out laughing.

“Hahahahaha, our situation is very good, but you persuade us to give up! It’s ridiculous, hahahahahaha.”

The brief light was cast into the basement and then quickly swallowed by darkness. The sound of footsteps and the sound of closing and locking the door sounded. After a while, Kiro raised his head and looked around with difficulty.

After confirming that the idiot had left, he relaxed, his body began to involuntarily twitch, and he also began to adjust the floating position while his mouth let out a “hissing” cry of pain.

The blood-stained water became clear again under the water-changing system, and Kiro could smell familiar medicine.

“Heh.” Feeling the pain in the wound, he sneered. They won’t let him die yet.

but……

Thinking of what that person said just now, Kiro sighed.

He also knew the power of Leiden’s mental riots. At the beginning, Shanas wanted him to help with spiritual counseling, but perhaps her mental power was too weak; she was unable to suppress the black dragon in Leiden’s spiritual sea.

His human half-brother… He can’t wait for the day when he messes up the spiritual sea of that black-robed man and runs out to tell him the truth!

After all, in his impression, Leiden had already possessed the emotional intelligence of an orphan since he was very young. This kind of emotional intelligence, whether you like it or not, is definitely not pleasing to those delicate and weak little mermaids!

Today’s Kiro is still a good big brother who is worried about his younger brother’s premature death. In the midst of sorrow and pain, he tried to cheer himself up.

Under the rippling water surface, the black fish tail turned into a pair of scarred legs for a moment but then disappeared quickly, as if everything was just an illusion.

In the quiet bedroom, after finding that there was no useful information other than the photo that was too old, Ji Mingjiang sighed and turned off the light brain.

Looking at the overly thick diary in front of him, he pinched the bridge of his nose, bit the bullet, and began to rummage through it for the information he might need.

But to his surprise, the information revealed on the first page of this diary was enough for him to make up his mind.

“Star calendar 3518, November 18th. After discussing it with Berek, I decided to take a young mermaid home. The younger the better; that’s the only hope.”

Ji Mingjiang froze for a moment. What hope?

He continued to turn the page.

“Star calendar 3518, November 19th. Under the operation of the conservation center, we successfully received a little guy who was just 6 years old. He is really small. When Leiden was 3 years old, he was three times taller than this. Berek and I named him Kiro. The pronunciation of his name is similar to the word weakness1His name is 克若 [kè ruò] and the word weakness is 弱[ruò]. We hope that the labels of weakness, vulnerability, and fragility that have been branded on mermaids for a long time will be successfully removed one day.”

“…”

“Star calendar 3518, December 1st. Kiro has gotten used to the environment of the palace and no longer stresses, making both Berek and I breathe a sigh of relief, so we can arrange some simple lessons for him next. But recently, because we’ve been worrying about Kiro’s health, we seem to have neglected Leiden, and that made him a little unhappy.”

Ji Mingjiang could not help but laugh out loud when he saw this. He knew that even if Clarice didn’t show jealousy now, he must have been very upset at the time.

And at the bottom of this page of the diary, a line of wild and scribbled handwriting was added to the blank space, and Ji Mingjiang recognized it word for word.

It’s the handwriting of the former emperor, but the content is somewhat indescribable.

Perhaps because Clarice has been showing his indifferent character since he was a child, his father took great pleasure in seeing his wife’s distress.

“Hahahahahahaha who let that brat emphasize all day long that he has grown up? He’s still a child deep down!”

The content of the subsequent diary is a record of the little mermaid’s learning progress and personality changes. Ji Mingjiang quickly scanned it, wrote down the key words, and then turned to the next page.

This record has continued for seven or eight years.

The sky outside is getting darker and darker, and Ji Mingjiang’s posture when looking through the diary has changed from straight back to half of his body lying on the edge of the pool.

He yawned slowly; a tear spilled out of the corner of his eye, and then his sleepy, somewhat squinting eyes instantly widened at the sight of the next page!

“Star calendar 3526, November 18th. Today is the eighth year that Kiro has been a member of our family. We are all very happy to see the transformation in his character. But he’s only 14 years old now, so do we really want to tell him the truth at this point?”

“Star calendar 3526, November 19th. After discussing with Berek, we decided not to tell him the truth directly, at least until he became an adult. Now we will let Kiro record some lessons for those little mermaids as originally planned.”

Most of the subsequent diaries recorded how to choose courses suitable for mermaids and how to make Kiro record the courses in easy-to-understand words. Ji Mingjiang read to the end, and the diary came to an abrupt end on October 25, 3528.

“Star calendar 3528, October 25th. All the courses have basically been recorded, and there’s still a month or so before Leiden’s birthday. Berek and I plan to choose a suitable energy star as his birthday gift. In the spring of next year, these courses will be officially handed over to the conservation center. Maybe we can also tell Leiden and Kiro what really happened to the mermaid clan. I hope everything goes well by then.”

Seeing this, Ji Mingjiang could already guess what happened after that. He gently closed the diary, sighed, and wrapped his fingers around his hair irritably.

Help! Really,  don’t indiscriminately set up flags! Isn’t this just a twisted saying that we will go back to our hometown to get married after I finish this battle!

After putting the diary aside to prevent it from getting wet, Ji Mingjiang took out his light brain and was about to send a message to Clarice to tell him that he had now confirmed 80% of his suspicions. Then he inadvertently glanced at the top of the light brain and realized that it was now one in the morning.

“It’s already this late… Then let’s talk about it tomorrow.”

After deleting the line he just typed, Ji Mingjiang yawned.

Anyway, this matter can’t be dealt with in a short while. At this stage, he only needs to know that the royal family is not the driving force behind the change in the mermaids.

When he was about to curl up his tail and go to sleep, his eyes glanced at the bed not far away.

“…”

“Wait…” He suddenly remembered something.

Ji Mingjiang murmured, “Isn’t this Clarice’s room?”

So where is he? It’s not because he suddenly remembered the past and ran off to have some mental riot, right?!

Just as he was about to dial Mr. Rowlett’s communication, the door of the room was pushed open, and Clarice walked in with a tired face.

After looking at the diary on the ground, he first put it into the space button before meeting Ji Mingjiang’s somewhat worried eyes and taking the initiative to explain: “I went to the archives room after I finished handling today’s government affairs. I didn’t find any records that matched your speculation in the files that were on the surface.”

Ji Mingjiang frowned, and after telling Clarice the information he had just learned through the diary, he saw that his expression was obviously a little dazed.

After a few minutes of silence, Ji Mingjiang heard Clarice say: “If it’s so important and secretive that it needs to be passed on by word of mouth among immediate family members, then there may be some information in the darkroom of the archives.”

“But…” He rubbed the center of his brows and said, “The dark room needs to be opened by the spiritual power of the emperor and the other five noble patriarchs. Without any one of them, it will be permanently sealed.”

“…”

Ji Mingjiang looked at him inexplicably and asked, “Why is the theft prevention in the archives of your palace even guarded against its own emperor?”

Are you being suppressed by the nobles?!

Hua: Your girl is all burnt out from work recently, so we’re probably going back to two chapters a week (Monday and Tuesday) for a while until I’ve stockpiled more chapters.