Chapter 37 The Dragon's Courtship (4) But, the creatures of the abyss really...
“Mr. Karl, do you…” Xia Ying said cautiously, “have some personal grudge with Fafnir?”
The siren's expression froze for a moment, and a tiny, insignificant flaw appeared in this meticulously designed, beautiful scene.
"...How could that be? I've only heard of the Crimson-Crowned King."
His expression quickly returned to normal, as if the fleeting gloom that had just passed through Xia Ying's mind was merely an illusion.
"Besides, how could I possibly have anything to do with those clumsy and savage lava crawlers?"
Xia Ying thought to herself: They must have a grudge against each other.
"How could I make such an unreasonable request?!" Xia Ying exclaimed in shock. "Fafnir is powerful! And Mr. Karl is so..."
Just as the word "weak" was about to slip out of her mouth, Xia Ying suddenly recalled the terrifying experience of being chased by a sea monster and its enormous and terrifying form, like a deep-sea vortex.
She shifted her gaze to the fair-skinned, slender, and beautiful mermaid in front of her, finding it difficult to connect her with that memory.
“Although Mr. Karyu is also very powerful,” she abruptly changed her words, “you can only fully utilize your strength in the ocean; you would likely have little advantage on land.”
"..." Charybdis reluctantly confirmed Xia Ying's judgment with silence.
The siren grasped Xia Ying's hand with a hint of urgency, gazing at her with longing eyes: "So, what exactly do you want me to do for you?"
"Nothing is needed."
Charybdis was stunned, and repeated her words in a daze: "Nothing at all?"
“That’s right, I don’t need you to do anything for me now,” Xia Ying said.
She raised her hand to show him her black ring.
"I originally hoped you could help me complete a difficult wilderness quest to obtain the loot [Ring of Greed], as it is an essential item for my upcoming plans... but by chance, I have already obtained it."
Xia Ying said.
“So, Mr. Karl, I have no other requests of you.”
"No, Xia Ying, it shouldn't be like this."
The siren's expectant expression gradually turned into disappointment, dark clouds began to gather unsettlingly, and the once calm sea surface began to surge.
He gazed at the girl in front of him with fascination: "If you just ask, I will give you everything you want, even if it turns into bubbles, I will feel incredibly happy."
Despite the siren's passionate confession, Xia Ying's eyes remained calm and clear.
She asked, "Why would you think that, Charybdis?"
"Because I love you!" the siren cried urgently. "Don't you still believe me?"
He gazed deeply into the girl's eyes, afraid of missing even the slightest flicker of emotion. The siren's eyesight was sharp enough to pierce the abyss, yet she could never find a trace of tenderness for him in those eyes.
After a long while, a slight ripple appeared in Xia Ying's eyes. It was neither affection nor doubt.
She seemed like an observer, someone standing high on the deck, casting a distant glance at the sea.
Xia Ying lifted the siren's beautiful face, which seemed to please her, and said gently, "But do creatures of the abyss truly understand what 'love' is?"
The siren's amorous eyes flickered, seemingly not understanding her words.
“The longer I stay in Cocytus, the more I feel that the creatures of the abyss are truly unfortunate,” she said slowly. “You are born of desire, controlled and driven by desire, and ultimately devoured and killed by desire. How can such creatures possibly understand the so-called ‘love’?”
She raised her gaze and looked directly at the siren: "Charybdis, you don't have a complete soul, so how can you offer such a soul to me?"
"...I will have it."
The siren stared intently at her, its pupils gradually widening, spreading across its eye sockets like ink seeping through.
The sea level began to rise, gradually engulfing Xia Ying's body. The sea monster wrapped its arms around the girl and pulled her down into the sea.
"So that's what you were thinking." As the tide was about to engulf her, Xia Ying cast a glance at the sea monster, her eyes filled with childlike wonder. "The reason you're trying so hard to grasp this feeling is because you want to fill the void left by desire with 'love'?"
She finally smiled and reached out to hug the siren.
The moment she touched him, the tide receded, and the two of them fell together into the damp sand.
Xia Ying propped herself up with one arm, lowered her gaze, and gently stroked the siren's light blue hair.
“What a pitiful wish.” Her gaze and voice were full of affection. “But it’s also quite lovely, Charybdis.”
In that moment, Charybdis probably mistook that tenderness for "love".
He felt as if the sea had suddenly drifted away from him, otherwise he wouldn't have felt so helpless and dizzy.
His scales gradually dried up, his strength slowly dissipated, and all his sensations were magnified to an excessive degree. He felt the fine sand chafing his skin, the breeze cutting his face, and the sunlight baking his body like a blazing fire.
But for the first time since his birth, he briefly forgot the voice of the abyss in his heart that kept demanding. He was only tormented by unfamiliar unease and panic, awkwardly enduring all kinds of unknown pain... But all of this combined could not compare to the joy of "love" that filled him completely in this moment.
Is that really "love"?
Charybdis is currently in a state of utter chaos and is no longer capable of thinking about these things.
And the culprit behind all this... Xia Ying, her world still runs as usual, except that she lowers her head and wipes the water from the siren's eyes with her fingers.
"Is this seawater?" she asked curiously, half-lying against his chest. "Or did I make you cry?"
Like the Little Mermaid in the fairy tale, Charybdis opened her mouth, but seemed to have suddenly lost her voice, only able to utter words of love.
"I love you."
"Yes, I know."
"I love you."
"If that's what you call 'love'... then I won't doubt you anymore."
Xia Ying said patiently and gently.
"So stop crying, Charybdis."
####
After a long time, the siren finally calmed down.
The sea was neither particularly turbulent nor overly silent; the sea breeze began to blow again, and the waves lapped against their bodies, smoothing away the marks on the white sand.
Xia Ying leaned down and asked softly, "Are you feeling any better?"
"..." The siren covered her face with her hand, her ear fins and neck glowing with a pearly pink luster from shyness. "I'm sorry, Xia Ying, could you please forget about this for now?"
“Of course.” Xia Ying couldn’t help but laugh, got up, knelt on the soft sand, and said seriously, “I’ve forgotten about it now, for the time being.”
Charybdis also sat up, trying to put what had just happened out of his mind: "We were talking about... ah, 'virus,' we were talking about the spikes of the 'virus'."
Xia Ying took out the sharp spike and handed it to the other person.
Charybdis took it and crushed it in his palm. The foreign object, which had originally been in the form of spikes, was decomposed and restored into a string of fine, interconnected magic runes.
He observed the flow of the runes for a while, then his expression changed: "Something's not right."
Xia Ying uttered a questioning single syllable: "Hmm?"
“The Summoner is right, this ‘virus’ is different from the past.” The siren turned to look at her. “Xia Ying, I’m going to… uh, a special place to decipher this magic rune. Will you come with me?”
Xia Ying nodded.
Then, Charybdis stood up... Huh? He stood up? ???
Xia Ying watched as the other's fishtail transformed into legs, and a thin mermaid veil draped from the sea siren's waist, concealing her slender and graceful waistline. She exclaimed in shock, "So you can transform into a human?"
"Well, actually, their forms can change freely," the siren explained softly. "Because mermaids look rather delicate and cute, and humans generally seem to like them, that's why..."
He turned his face away as if trying to cover up his misunderstanding, just as the sea swirled up at the perfect moment, and a giant whale rose from the sea with a long, urging cry.
Charybdis took the girl's hand and led her into the ocean, where they rode on the vast back of a giant whale.
The giant whale carried the two of them as it submerged into the water and swam to deeper depths.
Xia Ying suddenly remembered something and turned to ask, "By the way, how did you know I'm human?"
The siren replied, "I could tell from the fluctuations in the soul."
“Oh, the Eater said you were a master of soul magic,” Xia Ying said. “But wasn’t the Eater also very skilled in soul magic? Why didn’t he notice?”
“Perhaps it’s because he doesn’t understand humans as well as I do,” Charybdis said. “Actually, between the oceans of the Demon Realm and the human world, there is a very narrow ‘gate’ that only allows seawater to flow through.”
Xia Ying suddenly realized: "Your form can change freely, so you've been to the human world!"
The siren smiled and said, "I like humans, and I like the human world."
"..." Xia Ying suddenly gave him a sharp look, "It's not that you like the taste and texture, is it?"
“I don’t dislike that aspect… Ah, that’s not what I meant!” the siren quickly added. “I like human souls, and their rationality in developing a complete civilization.”
The giant whale stopped at this moment, and Xia Ying's attention was diverted to a huge sunken ship that appeared in front of her.
The siren said with a sigh of relief, "We've arrived."
They swam together into the sunken ship, where a peculiar secret base appeared before Xia Ying.
"This place looks..." Xia Ying looked around hesitantly, "like the human world."
What appeared before Xia Ying was a room with distinctive human civilization features. Unlike the extravagant decorations of the dragon-themed room, the Siren's secret base not only had common household items, but also bookshelves, beanbag chairs, and computers.
Xia Ying even noticed the controllers, cartridges, and game console that had been left unpacked.
“These can all be bought through the store,” the siren explained awkwardly. “I just like human civilization, not what the other abyssal creatures say, that I’m some kind of perverted human-obsessed person… or anything like that…”
He was as flustered as a teenager showing his bedroom to a girl he liked for the first time, so he simply turned around and started fiddling with the computer.
Charybdis opened his palm, and magic runes floated out from his hand, flowing into the computer through the interface. The screen quickly displayed the words "Program interpreting".
Magic and technology merged in a wondrous way that Xia Ying had never seen before.
But how did this happen?
Before Charybdis could explain, Xia Ying's mind flashed to the image of the phone's "Student Handbook" and the technologically advanced Wilderness Hall.
"Was this the idea of the Demon Lord?"
“Yes,” the siren said. “With the help of my magic, the Demon Lord and I created this computer that can analyze magic.”
As the conversation progressed, the analysis progress bar continued to advance. When it finally reached "99%", Xia Ying suddenly felt a powerful repulsive force.
She immediately understood the situation: "Karu, I think I'm waking up!"
The siren reached out to grab her, but this could not slow down Xia Ying's awakening process. She floated up involuntarily, rising towards the exit of the dream.
"I haven't told you the results of the analysis yet. When will you come again?" the siren asked reluctantly. "Perhaps, if we meet somewhere outside of the dream..."
Xia Ying didn't hear what he hadn't finished saying.
This was the first time she had left the siren's dream in such a hurried manner.
Xia Ying opened her eyes and, just like before, saw Fafnir's face.
He looked calm, as if he had already shaken off the turmoil of emotions.
Xia Ying raised her hand and touched the dragon's forehead, and sure enough, she found that the fever had subsided by more than half.
She asked with relief, "Fafnir, are you alright?"
Fafnir held Xia Ying's arm, closed his eyes, and gently touched the inside of her wrist with his lips.
“You know, a dragon’s mating season is not easy to endure,” he whispered. “We become more brutal and greedy, and more easily provoked.”
Xia Ying was about to speak when she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her wrist.
The dragon's sharp teeth pierced her skin, leaving a mark.
"Especially when the territory is coveted by other abyssal creatures."
Fafnir opened his eyes, revealing a more dangerous and scorching golden light than usual.
"Where did you go just now, Xia Ying?"
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Author's Note: While writing this chapter, the thought of "what is love" kept echoing in my mind.
I've been quite busy with work these past few days before the holiday, so this post might be a bit late. I've vowed to stockpile a lot of drafts during the National Day holiday.
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