Chapter 185
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I am most afraid of the sudden silence in the air.
The mermaid leader glared at his daughter while looking at Lina.
After a while, he finally recovered from his embarrassment: "You... are the granddaughter of the Elf Queen?"
Lina nodded, bowed formally, and said sweetly, "Yes, my grandmother asked me to say hello."
The mermaid chief was stunned for a moment, as if he had not considered that he was already a grandfather.
"good……"
"Wait, why are you here?" The mermaid leader finally realized that something was wrong.
An elf princess suddenly appeared here with two humans?
...and holding his daughter's beads?
Seeing the other party's eyes fall on the beads, Lina quickly explained: "We bought this at the auction in the main city before!"
"At the auction, the owner just said it was salvaged from the sea. I had no idea it originally belonged to Doroya." Lina touched her nose. "Now it's returned to its rightful owner. It's only right."
"Is this really mine?" Doroya was overjoyed, her eyes curved as she held the bead. "I accidentally lost it a few years ago when I was chasing those people away. I thought I'd never find it again."
"...Silly child." The mermaid chief looked at Doroya and sighed softly.
Because she lost her pearl, Doroya has been staying in the palace all these years and rarely goes out.
This time, Doroya was sent to drive away that group of people in order to train her abilities that had not been used for a long time.
"Although it was successful, those people are no longer afraid of the clouds," Doroya said a little aggrievedly. "They were so fierce, they even tried to tear my beads apart!"
"Those people must have come from Xincheng. I don't know how they found out the function of this pearl, so they snatched it from us."
Lina explained.
"New city?" The mermaid chief frowned.
"That's what you came for?"
Several people looked at him, not knowing what "that thing" he was talking about.
"Grandmother told us that the water source of the Elf Forest has been cut off, and the new city is located between the forest and the ocean."
"After Sister Lianyun captured the main city and seized control, those people from Beiyin fled to the New City. Now the New City is their gathering place. They are definitely involved in this matter."
Lina then told him about the changes on the land in the past few months, including the efforts of Lian Yun and the town, the strange phenomena on the land, and so on.
The mermaid leader looked at Lian Yun and Lan Na.
"The Elf Queen and I are old acquaintances. Naturally, the people she trusts are not ordinary people."
"No matter what you thought before, now that you have seen me, you should understand what kind of person I am." The patriarch said slowly.
In the eyes of the land races that have not been seen for a hundred years, he is the mermaid chief who abides by the curse he has cast, sticks to his promise not to communicate with the human race, and refuses some contacts.
But when Lian Yun saw him this time, he felt that he was not as scary and old-fashioned as the legend said.
If he really didn't want to communicate at all, he should have sent them away immediately even though Doroya brought them back.
But he didn't.
In fact, the fact that the chief did not object to Doroya bringing the dwarf back and letting her live in the palace a few years ago was enough to prove that his position was not rigid and without room for maneuver.
The patriarch turned around and walked into the palace with a few people.
The palace was spacious and gorgeous, with shiny objects placed in every corner of the hall, and some graffiti, as if scribbled by children.
Seeing their gazes, Doroya smiled and said, "That was a drawing I made when I was a child."
Many years have passed, and it has never been cleaned up. This shows that the mermaid leader really loves his daughter and is willing to leave even such a small trace.
It’s just that they have never heard of the existence of the mermaid princess during the war a hundred years ago.
When Lina mentioned this question, Doroya sat at the crystal table, her chin in her hand as she recalled, "Everyone says that my mother was pregnant with me at the time, and that's why my father didn't want to fight."
"I see..." Lina suddenly stopped talking.
A hundred years ago... pregnant with Doroya?
Doesn't that mean Doroya is...hundreds of years old?!
The patriarch seemed reluctant to bring up the topic and said to Doroya, "You didn't go out all day yesterday. Did you do something?"
"By the way, I made some small accessories yesterday, just wait for me!" Doroya suddenly thought of something, stood up happily and ran upstairs.
Everyone watched her back disappear at the stairs. When they turned around, they saw the patriarch staring at them seriously.
"Okay, time to get down to business."
"I have a vague feeling about what you're talking about, because 'it' is back."
The patriarch said in a deep voice.
Lian Yun immediately realized that 'it' was the guardian beast.
"Ever since the elves settled in that forest, it has remained in the underground river. Not only does it protect the elves, but it also draws energy and faith from that fertile land. This energy flows along the river to the ocean, connecting the mermaids and elves."
"But ever since the great war a hundred years ago, the elves have been isolated from the outside world. I also cast a curse to prevent us from contacting the outside world, and communication between our two races has been severed ever since."
"Back then, I was deceived and cursed in anger. But over the years, Doroya has given me a lot of inspiration and spiritual comfort. I know I can't dwell on the hatred of the past."
The mermaid leader paused and sighed deeply.
"I tried to lift the curse, but failed."
"Why?" Lian Yun asked with a frown.
For her, who had never encountered a "curse", she did not understand what it meant or what form it took.
Now that she couldn't understand what the mermaids were saying, she felt it firsthand.
But how powerful is the curse that even the person who cast it cannot break it?
The mermaid leader lowered his head slightly, and everyone noticed that he was also wearing a pearl necklace around his neck.
But these pearls are smaller than Dorothea's.
The neat and small pearls strung together, although exquisite, lack an eye-catching center of gravity, making people feel that something is missing.
"I cast a curse at the cost of my pearl."
The mermaid leader told the story of that year in a low voice.
It turns out that every mermaid is born with a pearl in their mouth. The size and color of the pearl vary with their abilities.
The pearl of the mermaid leader is the most dazzling and eye-catching one in the entire mermaid tribe. As long as he wears it, anyone who sees him from afar will know his identity.
"During the war a hundred years ago, my wife was pregnant with Doroya. But both she and her daughter were in very poor condition. Her face was very pale, and she had no flesh on her body except for her belly. I was terrified and decided to take her ashore."
"Back then, I made a pact with that man. If he was willing to send enough wizards to accompany my wife during childbirth and provide energy at all times, I would give him the sleeping turtle in my domain."
"...Sleeping Turtle?"
"Their heads are very slender, with red tongues. They sleep all year round, and once they wake up, they will shed their shells... The shells they shed are very useful and are excellent raw materials." The mermaid leader did not hesitate to explain what they knew.
"That was when humanity was engaged in wars and lacked sophisticated equipment, so they naturally needed this."
"But he deceived me."
"When my wife was giving birth, he threatened me with her life and demanded that the entire mermaid tribe submit to him. He knew I had the ability to do so."
However, the mermaid leader shoulders the hope and responsibility of the entire mermaid tribe. He cannot make promises casually, and he cannot let all his tribesmen and this sea area fall into the hands of such a villain.
The queen understood his struggle so well, and knew that his love for her would inevitably make him make choices he didn't want to make.
When she discovered that the situation had changed, she resolutely chose to end her life.
He had clearly come ashore for his wife's safety. There were so many wizards around her, but no one was willing to provide her with energy.
"I fought my way out with Doroya, and cast a curse on my way back to the sea."
From then on, the mermaids lived in the deep sea forever and no longer trusted humans.
"...Does Doroya know this?" Lina asked softly.
"Yes, she knows, and I would never hide it from her."
"I told her about the horrors of humans and the horrors of the outside world, but she remained so kind." The patriarch thought of something and a smile appeared on his face.
"She made all these shiny little gadgets," the patriarch said, shaking his head with a fond smile. "She also gave them to every household."
Or maybe that's not such a bad thing.
It was because his daughter Doroya was like this that she illuminated his life for hundreds of years and illuminated the mermaids for hundreds of years, preventing them from sinking into darkness.
"You not only told her about the dangers of the outside world, but also taught her to be brave and kind," Lian Yun said.
"You imparted every excellent quality to Doroya without reservation."
Doroya lost her mother at birth. She had hundreds of years to recall this pain countless times, or she could be forever immersed in the past, unable to recover, and wasting her years.
But Doroya chose another life and she was living her own life.
Even if you are in the dark deep sea, you may still be able to touch the sunlight and have a bright heart.
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