Chapter 81 "Sharing the Same Drowning" is truly laughable. She became the murderer, and...
Boom!
Andra's head slammed into the sea, his ears ringing and his whole body going numb.
In an instant, she hugged the girl tightly in her arms, her left hand and legs struggling to swim upwards.
This was strenuous, but not difficult for Andra.
Even if she drowned while lying on her back, even if she had only learned to swim for a day, her body was prepared to rise to the surface with all her might the moment she entered the water.
She was very calm, unusually calm, and did not open her mouth wide in fear to choke on the water.
Her nasal cavity and mouth closed reflexively, and her body began to turn forward, instinctively trying to adjust to a more convenient swimming position.
Splash, splash.
She tried splashing around in the water with her legs and left hand, but she just kept spinning in the same spot. She was so angry that she gritted her teeth.
Damn it, the gold chains she was wearing were far too many and too heavy. They weren't jewelry; they were clearly chains dragging her toward hell!
Gold is heavy to begin with, and with so many chains strapped to her body, she was like a prisoner bound with stones being thrown into the water.
Andra, clinging tightly to his gold-plated body, refused to loosen his right hand even for a moment and use both hands to tear off the chains.
Even when she was pulled backward by the heavy chains, she only used her body and legs to struggle against them, because—she was still holding Eleanor.
The surrounding area is a vast ocean, and the tide is constantly rising.
If she lets go, the girl in her arms might be swept away by the turbulent ocean currents and forever separated from her.
She will never let go.
Even if there's only a one in ten thousand chance of losing her lover's life, she will never let go!
Andra struggled to swim upwards, just one more breath...!
A series of bubbles gurgled as they brushed against my chin.
Andra kept her eyes open, but she wasn't used to swimming with her eyes open in the sea, so her vision was very blurry.
She felt the girl in her arms move slightly, exhale a string of bubbles in the water, and push her arms away to begin to float to the surface.
"!"Danger!
Just as Andra raised his hand to grab Eleanor, he saw the girl skillfully glide by, her waist and legs as flexible as a real fish tail.
Very good.
If it weren't for the fact that they could only hold their breath underwater, Andra would have loved to shout: Once Eleanor swims to the surface, they'll be safe.
Looking up at her lover's blurry figure, she thought happily: Even if they both end up floundering and sinking, as long as Manju and Jingci on the surface can see their approximate location, they will definitely swim over and pull them up immediately—who? Who's behind them!
Andra suddenly turned around, and a pair of hands came across from the left and grabbed her arms.
Before she could react and retaliate, another hand darted out from the right, grabbing her arms from both sides along with the shadowy figure from before.
Andra squinted, vaguely recognizing the two familiar figures.
Is it... Manju and Thorns?!
She froze for a moment, followed by a surge of intense, boiling anger!
Thud! Thud thud!
Andra straightened his body in the water and swung his arms violently.
Good, you two bastards! How dare you ambush me in the water?!
Even though she was the worst swimmer and Andra was covered in chains, she still managed to throw a heavy punch!
Thump! Bang! Thump!
She repeatedly punched and kicked, forcefully striking her hateful enemies in the constantly weakening water, occasionally swinging the chain to scrape them.
Swoosh, splash.
The chain carried the seawater, which swept across the area again and again, forcing Manju and Jingji to retreat continuously.
Andra struggled to the surface in the chaos, gasping for breath, only to be pulled back down by the thorns, her legs dragged along. With a ferocious rage, she twisted the chains and hurled them at the two men—
Shala-la.
The water splashed with a crisp sound, and a slender figure suddenly pressed down from the surface.
...Could it be Eleanor?
Andra looked up as if sensing something, and immediately saw her lover's beautiful long hair drifting quietly in the seawater, wrapping around her little by little.
The princess swam nimbly in the sea, persistently swimming towards her.
Andra couldn't help but smile, nonchalantly letting the seawater seep into her lips. She tossed aside the golden chain—opened her arms to Eleanor, ready to swim with her towards the radiant sea.
Splash!
Her lover embraced her again, then suddenly grabbed the chain hanging from her body and did a head-up movement.
What happened to Eleanor? Did she accidentally choke on water?
Andra anxiously reached out her hands, even though she herself was bound by heavy chains, she wanted to lift her lover up first.
Splash...
Eleanor hesitated for a moment, but quickly resumed her upward movement with determination, only stopping when she was diagonally above Andra.
Hmm? Why is she standing there? What is Eleanor looking at in the water? Is she... looking at me?
Thump, thump thump.
Andra's heart was pounding so fast it hurt.
She thought she was worried about her lover's safety, fearing that Eleanor would continue to fall after her cramps.
The feeling of worry continued to spread, but the moment Eleanor raised her right hand, all the worry in her chest was completely swallowed up by another, stronger, and more terrifying emotion.
Sizzle—
Even though he was in the water, Andra could clearly hear the dagger whistling through the air.
She had mocked the overestimation of their own abilities by all sorts of enemies countless times.
Whether it was her sister's clumsy slashing attack, or an arrow or a knife from behind... they were all laughably weak.
But, but now—
She kept her eyes wide open, refusing to look away no matter what, not even when the sharp tip dug into the corner of her eye.
It wasn't a dagger after all... it was Eleanor's hairpin.
Andra suddenly realized that her hands were not broken, she could still struggle, and she still had a lot of strength.
She could slap him across the face and knock his vulnerable lover unconscious in the water.
By kidnapping Eleanor, she could force Manju and Thorns to make way, and even drag her onto the water with them...
But these thoughts slipped away like flowing water, leaving no trace whatsoever.
Eleanor... Eleanor...
Andra swung her arms in the seawater, trying to speak, and involuntarily opened her mouth.
Glug glug glug
The moment the seawater rushed into her lungs was extremely painful, but she couldn't feel the pain at all.
Because the pain in every part of the body is masking the lamentations deep within the soul.
One, two, or even more hands reached out from the deep sea to her, dragging her into the abyss of darkness.
Boom!
A tremendous force surged from behind, rolling and sweeping upwards.
Guh-woo—
The surging waves gripped human bones, throwing everyone to the surface and then crashing down from all directions!
The figures scattered completely in the turbulent sea, utterly lost—
......
Belly has many specialties, especially debt and pearls.
This old saying sounds witty when spoken by nobles, but pearl divers would feel it deeply and shed tears.
They were terrified and saddened when they were evicted from their shacks three days earlier.
But the people who drove them out not only provided them with a hot meal, but also distributed rolls of clean linen to them in the open space. So everyone gratefully held their bowls of soup and started talking.
"Oh, if only such an important person could come every day... I heard she's a foreign princess."
Their sluggish minds hadn't even heard many stories about princesses and kings.
Of course, after all, it's Belle, and some people will have some understanding of the ups and downs, love and hate in dramas.
A nobleman naturally wants to marry a beautiful noblewoman, and that black-haired princess was indeed very beautiful at first; she was the most beautiful noblewoman they had ever seen.
"Why is she crying? Isn't she a princess?"
That evening, some children quietly asked their mothers questions.
Because the princess with long black hair completely disregarded her beautiful appearance and lay on the beach wailing incessantly.
Her hair and long dress were wet, clearly she had just been pulled from the sea.
"How pitiful, she cried even more than her aunt."
The children by the sea had witnessed countless partings and deaths, and they made a bet with a mixture of worry and excitement: "The princess is crying so bitterly, her mother or daughter must have drowned in the sea."
"Hey, don't talk nonsense!" Where did Your Highness get a daughter? King Nolana isn't dead yet!
The mothers anxiously patted their mouths, forbidding their children from uttering such slanderous nonsense about the nobility.
The guess was quickly corrected: the person who drowned was not a relative of the princess, but her lover.
At first, only the black-haired princess and her servants were desperately trying to salvage the fish.
But they quickly took out silver coins and recruited people on the spot, asking them to help find a distinctive corpse.
They said the body had long, golden-red hair and a strong, beautiful physique; once it was pulled out, no one would mistake it.
Anyone who participated in the salvage operation could receive a silver coin every day, a reward that greatly appealed to commoners and slaves.
If someone recovers the body—
The beautiful princess cried for a long time, and her eyes were so swollen that they were no longer recognizable.
But when she sobbed, she said, "My lover wears so much gold jewelry, I can give it all to you... even if all the jewelry is lost in the water, I'm willing to pay a thousand gold coins!"
Everyone instantly got excited.
One thousand gold coins!
Even if the pearl divers put their hands and feet together, they couldn't calculate how much money it was. Let alone a thousand pearls, even ten would have been enough for them to change their impoverished lives.
For the next three days, everyone worked feverishly to salvage the fish.
Fishermen from Shanshui rowed their small boats, while merchants who weren't in a hurry to go out to sea also opened their nets and scooped up fish. Unfortunately, after a long time, they caught nothing but some unlucky fish and seaweed.
The salvage operation lasted for three days, and the princess indeed distributed silver coins for three consecutive days.
She used the reserves of the Marigold Merchant Guild to issue chests of silver coins from the largest trading company in Emerald to pay daily wages to all those who were serious about going to sea.
On the third night, the fishermen and merchants who had a little conscience said to her tactfully, "You don't need to be in such a hurry."
This is the ocean, not some small lake.
They urged the girl to go back and rest, saying that perhaps after a good night's sleep, the gods would wash her lover's body ashore the next day.
They believed that the initial pain of losing her lover had numbed her. So many days had passed; if the body had sunk to the bottom or been eaten by fish, no one would be able to retrieve it.
If the body will float to the surface of the sea like most bodies, then let it float and wait for the ocean currents to carry it. Why waste so much money?
Even the pearl divers, who are the best swimmers, no longer waste time diving into the water.
They had received their full three days' wages and were now just waiting for the body to wash ashore so they could be the first to find it and try their luck, even if it was just a single gold coin.
Eleanor's mouth was open; she seemed to be laughing, but her eyes were unfocused.
She responded to everyone's comfort and inquiries, her body trembling incessantly.
"Your Highness, let's go back quickly... I beg you." Coral pleaded, clinging to her arm.
Manzhu followed silently behind, one hand resting on the hilt of her sword as she looked around.
Her expression was completely different from her sister Jingji's; she was looking down, seemingly lost in thought.
Eleanor stumbled to the beach once again, knelt down, and grabbed a handful of wet sand.
"Andra, are you really dead?"
In a hoarse voice, she asked the seaweed: "How many days is it? Is it the third day?"
The fragmented images flashed through her mind.
One moment she actually killed Andra, and then used a dagger to cut off her lover's head, which she then soaked in the seawater and laughed heartily.
But a moment later, the two of them were embracing each other affectionately, with clouds floating on the calm sea, and nothing bad happened.
She nodded and shook her head intermittently, scratching her cheeks in frustration.
“I...I didn’t kill her. I used a hairpin. How could I have chopped off her head? No, no, I killed her. She drowned...she was dragged into the sea by the gold chain and drowned.”
Her dry lips kept opening and closing, her mind was a complete blank, and she couldn't remember anything she had done in the past few days.
When Andra was swept away by the sea, it seemed that a part of her soul was swept away with her, leaving only her reason shouting, "I want to see her body! I want to see her body! She is Andra!!"
She didn't see the body float to the surface... but that's normal, not every body will float to the surface.
Who knows where Andra will be dragged to by the gold chain and the ocean currents? This vast sea could be her final resting place.
...Is Andra really dead?
Maybe he's dead, maybe he isn't.
Crunch, crunch, clack.
Her teeth were chattering, and her fingers slowly reached for the gold pendant on her chest, trying to press it down.
Go back three days! Go back to the past!
No, I can't do it.
She lowered her hands from the bottom of her heart, tears falling drop by drop.
She couldn't do it; she shouldn't have gone back to three days ago.
Because she could no longer... could no longer kill the lover who had lifted her up countless times, the lover who had protected her in dire straits.
So many years...so many years have passed, and Andra has always been her most beloved person, her best lover.
"Ah...ahhh."
Eleanor curled up on the beach, letting out mournful howls.
If she could go back to three days ago, she could only embrace Andra on the shore and let time slip away.
Let's not go back.
Andra is probably already dead... She's dead... Let's not do it again.
She suddenly relaxed, the accumulated fatigue pressing down on her eyelids, and Eleanor's body went limp as she collapsed onto the beach, falling into a deep sleep.
"Oh dear, the princess has fainted—"
The children on the shore screamed with delight as the big sister, who had been running around on the beach for three days straight without sleep and refused to leave, finally collapsed!
Only the adults lamented: "Sigh, there won't be such easy money to be made in the future."
......
"Your Highness, Your Highness!!"
In her dazed state, Eleanor heard the worried cries of Coral and the others.
She was fast asleep, but her body would occasionally regain some sensation.
During the indistinguishable days and nights, people kept prying open her lips to feed her food and water, just like during those three days of purgatory.
Sweet honey water and bitter medicine occasionally soaked my lips, along with finely chopped vegetable starch soup...
The splitting headache gradually subsided, and the pain in my heart became increasingly numb.
"Hmm..."
Andra, Andra.
The name Andra flashed through my mind, leaving a deathly white mark on the mottled wall.
Andra, Andra... Andra!
It was as if someone—a person who looked exactly like her—was roaring in her ear, demanding, "How dare you kill my lover?!"
That's hilarious.
She became both the murderer and the victim.
"Ha ha ha ha."
So Eleanor actually laughed out loud, and her eyes opened wide with laughter.
“Your Highness…Eleanor!” Coral cried out sadly as she collapsed beside her, embracing her tightly with her much thinner arms.
Eleanor then realized that not only were her eyes open, but half of her body was also upright in bed, and she was only able to stay upright by leaning against a pillow that had been shoved into her head.
She shifted her blurry vision, and it took her a while to realize something from the luxurious decor.
This is in Belé... perhaps the best hotel in Féli, or maybe a palace provided by the King of Belé?
She tilted her head and asked slowly, "How many days has it been? How many days have I slept?"
Coral wiped away her tears and whispered, "Waaah, you...you've been asleep for four days."
Oh, so that makes a total of seven days.
That's great, since she doesn't have the strength to change the outcome anyway.
Andra, you must be dead.
Please... die peacefully, that's all.
Eleanor neither cried nor laughed anymore; she simply nodded in acceptance and said gently, "Okay, let's go home."
She did not mention Andra again.
They are too.
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