Chapter 39: Fairy-Tale Kingdom (6)
“The ugliest…”
“Mermaid…”
“In the ocean?”
Su Qiong led everyone to the mermaid who had hidden in the shadows and refused to show himself because of his “ugliness.”
The moment they saw the young mermaid, the players’ faces filled with amazement.
Without exaggeration, he fulfilled every human fantasy about mermaids.
A human upper body and a fish tail, long hair like drifting seaweed, shimmering scales, sapphire-blue eyes bright as gemstones, and a pair of pointed elven ears.
His beauty was nearly comparable to Su Qiong’s when he had first become a Circle Lord.
And one had to remember that Circle Lord Su Qiong had been beautiful enough to kill.
Even when he had been preparing to sacrifice five million players, those players had still marveled over his breathtaking appearance with death staring them in the face.
Afterward, Su Qiong abandoned his position as Circle Lord, and his appearance underwent a subtle change. He remained beautiful, but his level of cuteness rose sharply.
Even after he obtained a human body, his companions occasionally still hallucinated the sight of a little marshmallow.
Yet a mermaid whose appearance rivaled Su Qiong’s had somehow become the ugliest mermaid in the ocean?
They urgently needed to investigate the underwater residents’ standards of beauty.
“Hello.” Su Qiong entered the coral cave where the mermaid lived and greeted him first. “My name is Su Qiong.”
The mermaid timidly shrank deeper into his nest before hesitantly answering, “Hello. I don’t have a name.”
“Why don’t you have a name?”
“Because I was born ugly. My biological parents abandoned me, so they never gave me one.”
“How are you ugly?” Shi Yuntian spoke bluntly. “Every mermaid I saw on the way here was uglier than you.”
“How could that be?” The young mermaid touched his face and said sadly, “Everyone believes I’m the ugliest mermaid in the entire ocean.”
“Isn’t that just emotional manipulation?”
“Definitely emotional manipulation.”
Because he was the only proper-looking mermaid in the entire ocean, most of the residents had forcibly labeled him ugly to achieve some form of psychological victory.
“You’re not ugly. You aren’t ugly at all.” Su Qiong took his hand and comforted him like an angel. “You’re the prettiest fish I’ve ever seen.”
“R-really?” The young mermaid remained doubtful.
“Really!” Su Qiong nodded vigorously, then pointed at his own face. “Do you think I’m ugly?”
The mermaid carefully examined Su Qiong with his ocean-blue eyes.
Being stared at so intently made Su Qiong unexpectedly nervous.
Only after studying him for a long time did the mermaid reach a conclusion.
“Beautiful.”
The mermaid had lived beneath the ocean for years. He had never seen a human and knew nothing about human standards of beauty.
But looking at Su Qiong’s face made him feel happy. For the first time in his life, he understood the meaning of “pleasing to the eye” and “a feast for the eyes.”
“Exactly! I’m very satisfied with this body.”
Although the stingy system refused to prepare elaborate clothing for Su Qiong, his face was flawless. Whenever he encountered a reflective object, he would stop and admire himself for a while.
“You’re as beautiful as I am,” Su Qiong said sincerely. “So you aren’t ugly at all, right?”
“That’s right,” everyone agreed.
The young mermaid frowned, wearing an expression of delicate sorrow like Lin Daiyu.
“But they all say I’m ugly. There isn’t another mermaid like me anywhere in the ocean.”
“Before coming underwater, we believed every mermaid was supposed to look like you,” Yu Qimiao said.
“Exactly!” Shi Yuntian complained. “What kind of monster is that half-human, half-fish thing split vertically down the middle?”
Moi added timidly, “And the mermaids with nothing but fins, fish heads, and strange scales covering their entire bodies.”
A summarized bluntly, “Monsters.”
Lu Shufan began extracting information from the mermaid. “You’re all mermaids. Why do you look so different?”
ERROR found it strange as well.
When he designed IF, he had never given the system code allowing it to alter entire species.
“Because this fairy-tale ocean is cursed,” the young mermaid explained. “According to the elders of the mermaid tribe, five hundred years ago, the cursed mermaids began developing different forms.”
“Every fish believed mermaids should resemble its own kind, and none could convince the others. So they separated into different branches and reproduced independently, trying to strengthen their own races.”
“Every ten years, the mermaid tribe holds a celebration. Each branch—the Fish-Head Tribe, the Fin Tribe, the Vertical-Split Tribe, the Scale Tribe, and the Dismembered Tribe—sends the most beautiful mermaid from its family to compete.”
At this point, the players could not resist criticizing the mermaid tribe’s naming conventions.
They were certainly simple, blunt, and instantly understandable.
“The mermaid who receives the most recognition becomes chief for the next ten years. The branch they belong to becomes the mainstream standard of beauty for the entire tribe and receives honor and additional resources.”
“Uh…”
“Very capitalist,” Yu Qimiao commented.
Su Qiong summarized the mermaid’s explanation and looked thoughtful.
“In other words, if you become chief, the mermaid tribe’s standard of beauty will be based on you for at least the next ten years?”
“That should be correct,” ERROR agreed.
“That’s impossible.” The young mermaid lowered his head self-consciously and whispered, “They hate me. They would never recognize me.”
“You don’t need to consider whether it’s possible.” Yu Qimiao adopted the commanding air of someone accustomed to authority. “How do you obtain their recognition?”
Intimidated by his presence, the young mermaid answered honestly, “Scales. Once the celebration begins, every mermaid brings its most beautiful scale and gives it to the mermaid they believe is the most attractive. Whoever receives the most scales becomes the next chief.”
“So we only need to make them give you their scales? This task is simple.” Yu Qimiao took out his blackhearted—
No, his Equivalent Exchange Bag.
“Yuyu, calm down!” Lu Shufan hurriedly stopped him. “There are thousands—maybe tens of thousands—of fish down here. Are you planning to negotiate with every single one?”
“Generally speaking, as long as you secure fifty-point-one percent, you obtain absolute control,” Yu Qimiao replied.
Fifty-point-one percent…
As expected of a capitalist’s way of thinking.
Everyone was certain that if the total population were large enough, Yu Qimiao would put countless zeroes before the one and refuse to take even a fraction more.
“Even fifty-point-one percent amounts to several thousand fish. We don’t have that much time.”
“Even if your trades succeed, they still wouldn’t genuinely recognize the young mermaid,” Su Qiong said. “Ten years later, everything would return to where it began.”
Only after hearing that did Yu Qimiao put away his item.
“Then what ideas do you have?”
“Knowing the system, there must be a way to make them genuinely recognize him.” Su Qiong reorganized the clues and traced the problem back to its source before suddenly asking, “You said the mermaid tribe was cursed. What kind of curse was it?”
“I don’t know.” The young mermaid shook his head. “It happened far too long ago. I hadn’t been born yet, and the ancestors who knew about the curse died one after another. Now only the Great Elder, who has survived until today, knows anything about it.”
“He has been alive since the curse began? That means he’s at least five hundred years old?”
The young mermaid nodded. “Yes.”
“What an ancient fish.” Lu Shufan casually joked, “Yu Qimiao, you should learn from him.”
Yu Qimiao glanced sideways at him. “My ID contains ‘Yu.’ I’m not actually a fish.”
“If you were a fish, we could complete this task in minutes.”
If they nominated Yu Qimiao as the mermaid tribe’s new chief, then with his abilities, forget ten years—even after a hundred or a thousand years, the entire tribe would still be obediently under his control.
“Why couldn’t you have been a fish?” Shi Yuntian sounded sincerely regretful.
Yu Qimiao: “…”
He should never have chosen that ID.
Su Qiong turned and exchanged glances with ERROR and A. They immediately understood one another.
“Let’s split up. The three of us will find the Great Elder. Anyone who has lived five hundred years can’t be simple. The rest of you should gather information and learn the criteria for receiving scales, as well as whether there are other ways to become chief.”
“Moi, stay with the young mermaid. This place is hidden and relatively safe.”
Earlier, A had scanned the mermaids’ levels and discovered that aside from the young mermaid, the others were all fairly high-level.
Not only were their levels high, but they lived in groups, making them especially dangerous if a fight broke out.
“All right.” Moi nodded obediently. “I’ll protect the young mermaid.”
After she said that, everyone realized Moi had probably misunderstood what the adults meant.
“Moi, we know you aren’t afraid to die.”
“But while we’re here, you don’t need to die.”
“We’re several grown men. If we can’t even protect a young girl, forget explaining it to Qiyi—we wouldn’t be able to face ourselves.”
“You only need to remain here and wait for us to return.”
“…All right.” This was the first instance Moi had entered without Qiyi, and she felt deeply moved.
When separating from her sister, she had already prepared to be treated as bait and risk her life to obtain information.
Her companions knew she possessed that ability, yet they still chose to protect her.
Moi hid in a concealed place and pressed a hand over her chest, communicating silently with Qiyi.
“Qiyi, we’ve met some very good people.”
The players left the young mermaid’s home and split into two groups.
Lu Shufan made use of his bizarrely allocated talent points and attempted cross-species socializing, extracting clues from the merfolk.
Meanwhile, Su Qiong guided A and ERROR through the enormous underwater world in search of the mermaid Great Elder.
Before meeting him, the three casually speculated whether he belonged to the Fish-Head Tribe or the Vertical-Split Tribe.
Su Qiong’s thoughts were innocent. Since the elder had been born before the curse, perhaps he still retained the true appearance of a mermaid.
Reality proved that Su Qiong was far too naive.
Rather than a mermaid, the Great Elder looked more like a fossilized fish.
He had lived far too long. Almost no flesh remained on his body, only dried skin wrapped around jagged bones.
Without legs, he could not stand and could only lie flat against the ground.
The seabed was covered in soft white sand, and the outline of his skeleton had left an impression in it.
Anyone unaware of the truth might assume an archaeological expedition had made another major discovery.
“Are you… the Great Elder?” Su Qiong circled the nearly weathered fish fossil twice clockwise, then twice counterclockwise, seriously doubting whether it was alive.
The instant that thought appeared, an ancient voice sounded.
“How rude. Of course I’m alive.”
The Great Elder moved his fish mouth, resembling a dried salted fish suddenly returning from the dead.
Su Qiong instinctively stepped back. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you.”
“Hmph.” The Great Elder laboriously stood up and turned sideways toward them, revealing one shriveled eye. “You aren’t creatures of the fairy-tale ocean. Why have you come to see me?”
“We want to know about the mermaid tribe’s curse,” ERROR said.
“You want to know, so I have to tell you? Who do you think—” Halfway through his stubborn response, the Great Elder sensed a presence from ERROR powerful enough to destroy him and immediately changed his words. “Of course I’m willing to tell you.”
After living for five hundred years, the Great Elder had long mastered the principle of yielding when necessary.
“Actually,” he began slowly, “I’ve explained the so-called curse many times. The mermaid tribe was never cursed.”
“There was no curse?” Su Qiong was shocked. “Then why did they become so…”
Ugly.
“They became like that because of their own sins.” The Great Elder sneered and shakily lit himself a cigarette.
An inappropriate thought entered Su Qiong’s mind:
If a salted fish smoked, would it become smoked salted fish?
“Originally, all kinds of fish lived in the fairy-tale ocean. They minded their own business and coexisted peacefully.”
“Then one day, a legend suddenly appeared in the ocean. It claimed that children born between fish and humans would become powerful mermaids.”
“Suddenly, every fish in the ocean seemed to go mad. They tried every possible method to reach land, kidnapped young women, dragged them into the depths, and forced them to give birth to mermaids for the fish tribes.”
“That’s horrible.” Su Qiong’s powerful empathy made the story difficult for him to accept.
“The so-called curse was nothing but their greed, selfishness, and stupidity,” the Great Elder sighed. “The fish tribes wanted only to produce powerful mermaids, but they ignored one important condition.”
“What condition?” A asked.
“In the fairy-tale ocean, only a human and a fish who truly love one another can give birth to a beautiful mermaid. The deeper their love, the more perfect the mermaid. A union without love produces only malformed monsters.”
“Ah.” Su Qiong instantly understood why there was only one real mermaid in such a vast ocean.
He also understood why the other “mermaids” constantly called the young mermaid ugly, insulted him, and joined together to ostracize him.
Ultimately, it was nothing more than jealousy and fear.
The young mermaid’s existence proved that a human and a fish truly could produce a mermaid, while they themselves were merely the products of their ancestors’ crimes—ugly monsters.
Those strangely shaped mermaids feared that their filthy history would be exposed, so naturally, they used every possible method to suppress the young mermaid and deny his existence.
“If you know so much, why haven’t you told them?”
“You’re human. You should understand better than I do.” The Great Elder blew a ring of bubbles from his cigarette and said weatheredly, “You cannot awaken someone pretending to sleep, and I cannot tell them a truth they refuse to accept.”
The Great Elder looked toward the depths of the ocean and continued slowly, “The main reason I’ve survived until now is that I wanted to see how this group of tragic creations would ultimately end.”
Only after he finished did ERROR ask, “Are you a mermaid, or one of their ancestors?”
“Huh?” Su Qiong turned toward ERROR.
The Great Elder possessed no trace of anything human. Why would ERROR make such a guess?
At ERROR’s question, the Great Elder abruptly fell silent for a long time before reluctantly responding.
“I committed sins too. I have no right to judge them.” The Great Elder sighed. “Faced with the temptation of enormous benefits, no fish could remain clearheaded.”
“Then do you know…” ERROR stared directly at him. “There is a true mermaid living beneath this ocean.”
“Impossible!” The Great Elder immediately denied it. “Hundreds of years ago, we tried every method but were never able to make humans love fish. After the mermaid tribe’s scandal spread, humans not only refused to fall in love with fish—they stopped entering the waters where mermaids lived altogether.”
The Great Elder spoke firmly.
“A human and a fish could never produce a mermaid.”
“It seems you haven’t met that true mermaid yet.” ERROR’s lips curved. “How pitiful.”
“There really is one,” Su Qiong reminded him softly. “He’s extremely beautiful.”
“There actually…” The Great Elder’s shriveled pupil suddenly trembled.
“If you wish to correct your mistakes and make them understand the truth about mermaids, this may be your only opportunity.”
ERROR narrowed his eyes slightly.
“So, what will you choose?”
“Yuyu! I found something!” After gathering useful information, Lu Shufan eagerly ran toward Yu Qimiao.
The only fortunate fish in the ocean stopped and asked, “What did you find?”
“I found out about the young mermaid’s origins.” Lu Shufan ran up excitedly. “None of the fish know the exact details, but do you want to guess why the others ostracize him?”
Yu Qimiao looked helpless. “Stop keeping me in suspense.”
“It’s rare that I’m useful. Cooperate a little,” Lu Shufan complained.
“I can’t guess,” Yu Qimiao replied expressionlessly. “Hurry and tell me.”
Although the cooperation lacked sincerity, Lu Shufan was satisfied and announced proudly, “The other mermaids ostracize him because his mother was human. The mermaid tribe believes that a mermaid born from a fish and a human isn’t a pure mermaid.”
Yu Qimiao began thinking. “Then why do the mermaids in fairy tales all look like him?”
“I don’t know that either.” Lu Shufan spread his hands and continued, “Also, the young mermaid wasn’t abandoned by his parents. Supposedly, his father fell in love with his mother, so he voluntarily left the ocean to search for her. He even traded with the most wicked witch in the fairy-tale world to gain the ability to live on land.”
“Unfortunately, he arrived one step too late. The mermaid’s mother wanted to live beneath the sea with her child and the fish she loved, so she also made a deal with the witch in exchange for the ability to live underwater.”
“The witch never told either of them about the other and collected payment from them both.”
“As a result, one descended into the ocean while the other went ashore. They missed each other forever. The mermaid’s mother was devastated. Not long after giving birth to the young mermaid, she died of grief in an ocean without love or others of her kind. When the mermaid’s father learned what had happened, he immediately followed his wife in death, leaving the young mermaid completely alone.”
“What a tragic story,” Yu Qimiao said.
“Right? After hearing it, I almost wanted to drag him into the Orphan Alliance.”
“He isn’t a player, and the ocean is his true home.” Yu Qimiao looked around. “We need to find a way to turn this place into an ocean genuinely suitable for mermaids.”
“All right. Little Pastry went to find the Great Elder. He’ll probably think of something.” Lu Shufan looked around. “Speaking of which, Little Pastry is taking a long time.”
“We’ve collected nearly all the clues. Let’s reunite with Su Qiong,” Yu Qimiao said.
“Wow, you really care about Little Pastry.”
Yu Qimiao did not speak. He merely gave Lu Shufan a cold look that asked:
Was there something wrong with caring about him?
Lu Shufan shrugged and had nothing to say.
One should never provoke someone obsessed with protecting their precious child.
Yu Qimiao had previously arranged a meeting point with A. They communicated through their bracelets and found the others’ location.
After reuniting, the groups exchanged the information they had gathered.
ERROR pushed the Great Elder forward. “He agreed to help us as atonement.”
“I haven’t agreed yet!” the Great Elder stubbornly protested. “First, I must confirm whether the one you described is truly a mermaid.”
“Fine. We’ll take you to meet him now.” Yu Qimiao could not be bothered wasting words and intended to let the elder see for himself.
Long after they had left, Shi Yuntian finally arrived and stared blankly at the empty stretch of ocean.
“Where is everyone? Weren’t we supposed to have a meeting?”
Shi Yuntian scratched his head, apparently failing to realize that meetings could proceed perfectly well without him.
“I was planning to ask them…” Shi Yuntian opened his palm, revealing several blood-covered scales. “How do I use these things?”
“Moi, did anything happen while you were here?”
After returning to the young mermaid’s coral cave, they first checked on Moi.
“No.” Moi emerged from the cave. “Only a few mermaids passed by, but they didn’t notice us.”
“That’s good. Where’s the young mermaid?”
“He’s inside. We’ve become friends.”
The young mermaid’s mental age was close to Moi’s. He had always lived in the coral cave without family or companions.
Moi told him about the outside world, the orphanage, and her younger sister. They quickly became close friends who could confide in each other.
The young mermaid even promised that if he became chief, he would find a way to help Qiyi when she entered the instance.
According to IF’s rules, instances were not completely identical. They changed according to players’ actions.
If the group completed the task and made the young mermaid chief today, then he would remain chief for at least the next ten years.
“Little Mermaid.” Moi waved toward the coral cave and called him out.
“T-too perfect!” The moment the Great Elder saw him, light appeared in his shriveled eyes.
The other mermaids were too young and believed that mermaids should resemble themselves.
But the Great Elder had experienced the ocean’s most terrifying era and knew exactly how many methods the fish tribes had used to create a perfect mermaid.
Back then, even the birth of a creature vaguely resembling a human upper body with a fish tail would have caused an uproar throughout the entire tribe.
How much more so for a mermaid as utterly perfect as this young one?
“So humans and fish truly can give birth to mermaids. The legend was correct. We were the ones who were wrong.” The Great Elder moved closer, frightening the young mermaid into shrinking back as fear returned to his eyes.
“That’s right. You are the key to correcting our mistake. This farce that has continued for five hundred years should finally end.” The Great Elder sighed and turned his dried fish body halfway around. “I agree to help you. But my abilities are limited. The ocean is now completely controlled by those mermaid monsters. They’ve heard the history of the tribe from me, but they don’t take it seriously. I lack the strength to do anything to them.”
“As long as you cooperate, that will be enough.” ERROR wore an ambiguous smile. “You’re an elder of the fish tribe, so your words carry greater credibility. If those fish still refuse to believe…”
“Why make it so complicated?” A continued calmly.
In his opinion, this instance resembled the hospital instance.
Becoming chief required receiving scales from most of the mermaids. Therefore, as long as they killed every fish that refused to give the young mermaid a scale, he would unquestionably be elected.
“A,” Su Qiong kindly reminded him, “that kind of reasoning got you locked up for four days in the beginner zone.”
A: “…”
He had no response.
“When does the celebration begin?”
“At sunset,” the Great Elder answered. “According to mermaid tradition, before the celebration begins, the current chief must scrape off their scales as an expression of reverence.”
“What does removing their scales accomplish?”
“It’s a tradition left by their ancestors. By removing their scales, they appear more human and can pretend they are true mermaids.”
“Oh. Psychological victory.” Lu Shufan complained, “So fish can be idiots too.”
At the mention of idiots, everyone finally realized—
Wait. Where was Shi Yuntian?
They contacted him through the bracelet and learned that he was still waiting at the original meeting point.
“Didn’t we agree to gather and discuss things? Why haven’t you arrived yet?”
“Ah, well…” Lu Shufan awkwardly explained, “Boss Shi, the meeting location changed at the last minute. Hurry to the coral cave.”
Without changing expression, Yu Qimiao added, “The meeting cannot continue without you.”
“Obviously. I’m carrying something important.” Shi Yuntian completely failed to notice anything wrong and felt exceptionally pleased with himself.
Su Qiong’s gaze wandered between the two of them before he said faintly, “You’re deceiving your companion.”
He had believed teammates were supposed to trust one another completely.
“This was forced by circumstances.”
Yu Qimiao did not know how to explain it to Su Qiong.
He normally lied without blinking, but he restrained himself considerably around Su Qiong, afraid of teaching the child bad habits.
If they admitted they had forgotten Shi Yuntian, he would surely explode in anger.
“Shh.” ERROR raised a finger and lightly pressed it against his lips. “Do you know what a white lie is? You must keep it secret.”
“All right.” Su Qiong nodded and gained another piece of knowledge about humans.
Five minutes later, Shi Yuntian rushed back to the coral cave and displayed the scales he had forcibly obtained.
“With these scales, the young mermaid will definitely have a better chance of becoming chief.”
The Great Elder examined them and shook his head in disappointment.
“No. The scales used during the celebration are not ordinary scales. They are washed away by the undersea tide that occurs only once every ten years. Normally, mermaids treasure them in the most secret part of their nests.”
“What? They’re completely useless?!” Shi Yuntian’s eyes widened as he began questioning his life.
“Boss Shi, were you catching fish and ripping off their scales this entire time?”
“Yeah!” Shi Yuntian answered with a righteous expression that asked what the problem was.
“Nothing.”
“That’s great.”
It truly had not mattered that the meeting proceeded without him.
Yu Qimiao briefly explained the current situation to Shi Yuntian, only to watch his eyes glaze over once again.
His ears had probably heard the explanation, but his brain refused to process it.
The same thing had happened too many times. Yu Qimiao could not be bothered wasting energy and stated bluntly, “Next, we’re participating in the celebration.”
“Got it.” Shi Yuntian instantly returned to normal. “Are we going to cause trouble?”
Su Qiong hesitated.
Although a guide NPC should not despise a player, he sincerely hoped Shi Yuntian would use his brain next time.
Accustomed to it, Yu Qimiao explained, “We aren’t causing trouble. We need to ensure the celebration proceeds smoothly.”
“Why?”
“Read the quest again,” ERROR said. “The chief must be chosen during the celebration.”
“Oh.” Shi Yuntian wore an expression suggesting he had thought seriously and suddenly understood.
Act!
Keep acting!
Human celebrations were often inseparable from noise, joy, and laughter.
But the fish tribe’s celebration completely overturned their expectations and was eerie in every possible way.
They secretly entered the celebration grounds and saw a vast number of fish scales arranged in a circle to mark the event area.
The scales were covered in blood and appeared to have been forcibly ripped away.
The current chief, whose body had been stripped of every scale, stood among the fish and spread his fins and arms, displaying his “holy” body.
The current chief belonged to the Vertical-Split Tribe. His body was divided straight down the middle, one half human and the other half fish.
Every scale had been torn from the fish half, leaving countless hollow wounds that oozed blood and looked painful even from a distance.
The chief seemed unable to feel pain. He stood rigidly while members of his tribe approached one after another and inserted their own scales into his wounds.
“…Are they transplanting scales?”
The mermaids’ baffling behavior had thoroughly confused the players.
“Have they considered the possibility of tissue rejection?”
“Fish scales probably don’t count as organs.” Su Qiong looked equally confused. “But I don’t understand why they’re doing this either.”
Even within the world of IF, removing all one’s scales and allowing others to insert their scales into the wounds was extraordinarily bewildering.
“They probably don’t understand the reason themselves,” the Great Elder explained. “Originally, this ritual was how the fish tribes atoned for their foolish actions and demonstrated that forced unions would never have good results.”
“Gradually, it evolved into a ceremony for sharing in the chief’s glory. Sigh.” The Great Elder regretted his past stupidity deeply.
Looking at this group of mermaids, the ancestors who had gone to such lengths to create them would probably feel their minds collapse.
“Does the ritual serve no other purpose?”
“It does,” the Great Elder continued. “Each mermaid’s scale represents a portion of its power being transferred to the chief, allowing the chief to ensure that the celebration proceeds successfully. However, mermaid bodies are inherently defective. Losing so many scales while bearing so much power that does not belong to them places an enormous burden on the body.”
“After every celebration, the outgoing chief dies suddenly.”
“What did you say?!”
“If the young mermaid becomes chief, doesn’t that mean he’ll suddenly die after this stupid celebration ten years from now?!”
