Maggie almost choked when she heard this answer. Sure enough, Xiu really hated Geminis and wouldn't even bother to be polite as a friend.
The old fish understood perfectly, probably knowing Xiu's personality, and simply smiled.
"Since we're all friends of Xiu, please come in and have a seat."
The unexpected friendliness made Maggie, who had been treated coldly when she first arrived at the Forest of Green Wilderness and who had almost had her treasures detained, feel quite comfortable.
Although it was thanks to Xiu that it happened.
"I'm sorry to bother you."
Maggie bowed; she was always very polite to the elderly.
Just before entering the settlement, she couldn't help but look back at the scattered ice mermaid corpses, a pile of eerie ice sculptures that made her feel uneasy.
"I didn't expect that when I brought you back, you would see such a terrible scene. You must have been terrified."
The old fish was kind and gentle, and his tone was full of concern.
It's likely they treated Maggie and the others like ordinary children.
Mermaids are also one of the immortal species, but not as exaggerated as elves. In his eyes, a teenager like Maggie is no different from a child.
"It's fine."
Maggie shook her head. Back in the border city, she had seen far more disgusting scenes than this, and these were nothing compared to what she had seen before.
“This boy Xiu ran off to human territory without a word. I see he’s doing quite well, so it seems he’s received a lot of help from you.”
The more the old merman talked, the darker Xiu's face became. Maggie glanced at him and found it all quite amusing.
Xiu, with his strong-willed personality, must have felt so ashamed to be told this by a mermaid who was like an elder. He probably wanted to disappear into a crack in the ground.
"No, Xiu has helped me a lot too. It's only right between friends."
Maggie didn't mention her deal with Xiu; these things shouldn't be known to an old woman who cares about children.
This is her principle.
"Oh, that's wonderful! He's been a loner since he was little, and I was worried he might develop some kind of illness and not want to make friends. But now that I see you all, I'm really relieved."
The old merman's face was full of relief, and his gaze toward Maggie became increasingly friendly.
As for Gemini?
The two of them remained silent the entire time. Sperr wanted to speak, but his brother stopped him several times with a warning look.
Perhaps realizing that his younger brother couldn't possibly say anything decent, he simply stopped him from speaking.
Once they entered the settlement, the agonizing small talk finally ended. The old mermaid instructed his men to arrange rooms for Maggie and the others, and the remaining time was returned to them.
Spitbol took his younger brother to find a room first, leaving Maggie and Xiu alone, and the atmosphere became awkward again.
Maggie glanced at Xiu a couple of times, feeling that the little conflict in the Mermaid King's City earlier didn't seem to have caused any real trouble.
To break the ice, she curiously wanted to ask a question that she was somewhat concerned about.
Xiu immediately saw what she wanted to ask and interrupted her.
"Grandpa mermaid who raised me, don't overthink it."
Xiu's words gave Maggie a crucial insight: was Xiu actually an orphan who was raised by the clan chief?
“I think Grandpa treated you very well, so why did you leave here?”
Maggie sighed as she walked.
"Of course I don't want to cause him any trouble..."
Xiu glanced at Maggie speechlessly, as if to say, 'Are you talking nonsense?'
"Because you stole the Ice Mermaid's treasure?"
Maggie spoke these words before thinking, and then suddenly remembered what the remnant of the sea god in that space had told her: 'The Heart of the Ocean' is his heart.
In other words, Xiu's heart is now inside her chest.
Xiu used his heart to heal her.
Moreover, he saved her with what he thought were precious treasures without her knowledge.
Maggie's feelings suddenly became complicated.
She encountered so many things afterward that she almost forgot about it, but thinking about it now still makes her feel uneasy and anxious.
"Well, actually I... don't think ice mermaids count as mermaids."
With no one else around, Xiu was finally able to tell Maggie some things.
"They appeared suddenly, without any warning. Although they look a lot like mermaids, they give me a very uncomfortable feeling. Besides, you also saw their dead bodies, which is very abnormal."
As Xiu spoke, his expression grew increasingly complicated.
"Their leader came to Grandpa with the 'Heart of the Ocean' to negotiate, asking to join the mermaid race, but Grandpa refused."
He was saying something Maggie didn't know, something that wasn't in the comics, and Maggie listened intently.
"Grandpa also felt they were very strange."
After Xiu finished speaking, he looked at Maggie.
“You’re right. I think so too. If it were a flesh and blood body, it shouldn’t turn into an ice sculpture after death.”
Maggie stroked her chin, feeling that it was right for the mermaid family not to accept the Ice Mermaids.
"But at that time they were just tentatively interacting with the mermaids of their own kind and seducing the mermaids in the settlement; things hadn't gotten this tense yet."
Xiu sighed and said.
"Oh, so you only turned against me after you stole the 'Heart of the Ocean'?"
Maggie was puzzled.
"Not really. Before that, because we discovered that the Ice Merfolk were unusually bloodthirsty, Grandpa explicitly forbade the mermaids in the settlement from contacting the Ice Merfolk outside. This finally enraged them, and they threatened Grandpa."
Xiu paused for a moment before speaking slowly.
Bloodlust is a trait that normal mermaids would never exhibit, which is one of the reasons why Grandpa judged them to be problematic.
"So that's why you stole the 'Heart of the Ocean'?"
Maggie was shocked. She thought Xiu was acting out of personal desire, but she didn't expect him to be so righteous.
"That's not entirely the reason; there are other reasons as well."
Xiu didn't continue on this point; he found it difficult to bring up the fact that he was born without a heart, yet he was still able to survive.
He only truly felt a heartbeat when he came into contact with the 'Heart of the Ocean'. It was because he couldn't control his desires that he stole it, not entirely because of the interests of his tribe.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have stolen the things and run away, but instead returned to the mermaid settlement.
"Okay, so they're now planning to forcibly break through your grandfather's ban, is that right?"
Maggie had a good impression of the old merman from earlier, and since she was already there, she would be happy to help if she could.
"Yeah, I think so."
Xiu nodded, though his expression didn't change much, but Maggie could vaguely sense that he was feeling a bit down.
Maggie didn't ask any more questions, but instead began to think about the ice mermaid.
The ice sculpture... the unsettling aura... she should have smelled something similar before, but she couldn't recall it.
She has never actually come into contact with an ice mermaid; if she had a test subject in front of her, she would probably be able to draw more conclusions.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com