Chapter 114: Debut! Mermaid Princess!
The cold trident cut through the air, shattering the gate like a golden meteor and embedding itself deep in the floor. The metal shaft of the trident quivered slightly, tearing the wound of the multi-limbed fish-man and causing blood to gush out, dyeing the shattered floor red.
The fish-men were dumbfounded, unable to believe what they were seeing. After accomplishing its task, the life force within the trident was just exhausted, and its vessel turned back into an inanimate object.
A piercing wail startled the dazed onlookers, who subconsciously moved closer to the trident.
Not far away, Yelena looked at the fish-man pinned to the ground, a strange thought flashing in her mind. "He's still not dead? Is the life force of fish-men too tenacious?"
Neptune, Jinbe, and the others looked at the fish-man, who matched the descriptions exactly, and were now certain that this was the culprit who had been threatening Shirahoshi. At the same time, the shock in their hearts grew even stronger. Van der Decken had always stayed in the deep sea where sunlight couldn't reach. Not even the fish-man soldiers could track him; they could only watch helplessly as he threw love letters to harass Shirahoshi every day.
And Louis had just casually thrown a trident, pierced him, and brought him back here. What kind of ability could achieve such an effect?
After a moment, the gradually recovering Van der Decken opened his eyes. He looked at the people surrounding him and recognized their identities.
"King Neptune—"
"Fukaboshi—"
"Jinbe!"
"I see... I was actually... ambushed by you!"
Van der Decken spat out a mouthful of warm blood, his eyes filled with ferocity and unwillingness. He knew that this time, he was truly done for. His family's inherited dream of obtaining the Ancient Weapon Poseidon was about to be shattered.
However, the rage in the hearts of Neptune and his princes was many times greater than his. Fukaboshi's gaze was incomparably cold. He gritted his teeth, stepped forward, and punched him directly, the pain nearly making the already weak Van der Decken faint.
Neptune's face was extremely grim. He stepped forward with his large trident and questioned, "Why do you harass Shirahoshi? You scum!" In Neptune's eyes, he was no longer a fellow fish-man, but scum, just like the slave owners above them.
Hearing this, as if reminded of something, Van der Decken ignored the pain in his body and quickly turned his head to look around. After sweeping his gaze past Louis, Yelena, Jinbe, and the others, he discovered Shirahoshi, cowering behind a human who was much smaller than her, in a corner.
The next moment, Van der Decken's blood-stained face twisted, and he became extremely fanatical. "Princess Shirahoshi! Please marry me!!"
POW. Another prince, hearing this, couldn't hold back and punched him again.
However, this time, Van der Decken seemed to feel no pain. He spread his blood-soaked limbs and scrabbled at the floor, trying to crawl toward Shirahoshi. But no matter how hard he tried, the trident pinning him to the ground prevented him from moving an inch.
As if sensing his life force draining away, Van der Decken's shouts became more and more intense, his voice gradually becoming twisted.
Shirahoshi heard him and finally made up her mind. A hint of determination appeared on her usually gentle face. "I refuse!! You're not my type!"
Van der Decken was taken aback, then became even more crazed. "Impossible! You..."
"Enough!" Neptune let out an angry rebuke. He had long since lost his patience. He was about to have someone take Shirahoshi back to her room and then execute this criminal who was constantly harassing her on the spot.
However, the next second, Van der Decken's crazed words made his face change drastically. "The legendary mermaid princess must be in the hands of the Van der Decken family! A year ago, I saw you summon them with my own eyes! There's no mistake, you are the legendary Po—"
Neptune's face turned ashen, his pupils trembling violently. He couldn't care less that Shirahoshi was present. He decisively raised the trident in his hand and pierced it through Van der Decken's head, cutting off his words.
"!!"
"Father!" Shirahoshi subconsciously covered her mouth and gasped. Then, she swam over to Neptune, looking with concern at her father, who seemed to have suddenly lost control. "Father, are you okay?"
Neptune looked at Shirahoshi's worried expression and the lifeless corpse before him, and gradually calmed down. "It's nothing. I'm fine."
Then, he pretended to look casual as he took in the expressions of Louis and his group. In the end, he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the calm Louis and the indifferent Daz Bonez. However, what he didn't notice was that the brow under Yelena's gas mask was slightly furrowed, and her scarlet eyes were gradually shifting to Shirahoshi.
"Summoning—is it an ability similar to that Celestial Dragon's? And 'Po—' what was that?" Yelena suddenly felt that before leaving, it was necessary to investigate what unusual events had occurred on Fish-Man Island a year ago.
After everything was over, the soldiers began to clean up the mess and drag the corpse out.
Neptune, having composed himself, led his son and daughter to bow to Louis. "Thank you, Lord Louis, for taking action and helping us capture the criminal who has troubled the royal family of the Ryugu Kingdom for over a year. The Ryugu Kingdom is endlessly grateful!"
A flash of gratitude appeared in Neptune's eyes. At the same time, a deep sense of fear rose in his heart. Van der Decken had actually started throwing weapons at Shirahoshi today. If not for Louis's intervention, with the Ryugu Kingdom's capabilities, Shirahoshi might have been in danger for the rest of her life.
To this, Louis replied with a smile, "It's just a return of favor. Weren't you feasting us and offering to give us recipes and ingredients, Neptune?"
"A banquet and recipes are nothing compared to the grace of you saving Shirahoshi." Neptune shook his head at Louis, his face full of seriousness. At this moment, Neptune temporarily lowered his guard against Louis and his group to a minimum, just as he had when he first met Roger and Whitebeard.
Then, he glanced at the ruined banquet and the blood-stained floor. After taking a deep breath, he made a new decision. "Lord Louis, please stay for a few more days. I would like to hold another banquet for you and all the members of the Archangel Pirates!"
Louis nodded and smilingly accepted the request. "In that case, we won't be polite."
Night.
Louis and his group stood before the railing of the palace, gazing at the deep sea outside the bubble.
Nearby, Uta, transformed into her mermaid form, hovered in front of Princess Shirahoshi. Holding a musical score, she was earnestly trying to teach the princess how to sing. To this, Louis and Yelena both saw Uta's inner thoughts. It was nothing more than the same idea she had in Shimotsuki Village, only this time, her target was Shirahoshi.
However, Louis felt that a combination of two mermaid singers wasn't without merit. Princess Shirahoshi's voice was second only to Uta's before she ate the Siren Fruit, and her beauty was also on par with Uta's. If Shirahoshi was also interested, she could use her singing voice to eliminate the prejudice of ordinary people against merfolk and fish-men, strengthening the exchange between them and humans, and thus allowing the merfolk and fish-men to truly live under the sun.
But the prejudice against Fish-Man Island originated from the World Government. To achieve this, a powerful backer was essential. So, where would Shirahoshi find such a backer?
To this, Louis felt that he was the most suitable one.
Louis would give Shirahoshi his support, allowing her to use her own efforts to eliminate humanity's prejudice, and Shirahoshi would repay him with the power of Poseidon. Louis thought this was an excellent idea.
"However... before that, we have to find a way to make the relationship between Shirahoshi and the Archangel Pirates closer," Louis turned and said in a low voice, looking in the direction of the singing.
Beside him, Yelena slowly turned her head and said thoughtfully, "Why not... pull her into our group?"
Louis shook his head. "Shirahoshi's personality is too soft; she's not suited for combat. This is not something that can be solved even by giving her a top-tier fruit." Then, Louis looked at Yelena and asked with some curiosity, "Why would you have such an idea? You can also see that she's not suited for combat, right?"
To this, Yelena threw a question back at him. "Didn't you hear my call with Kuina?"
Louis looked resistant. "I don't have a hobby of eavesdropping."
Yelena: "..."
Then, after making sure there were no ears around, Yelena met Louis's eyes. "After I heard Van der Decken's words and saw Neptune's haste to silence him, I called Kuina and had her investigate what happened on Fish-Man Island a year ago. In the end, I got an astonishing answer. Combining that with Van der Decken's words, I deduced that Shirahoshi has the ability to summon Sea Kings. Plus, the super-large Sea Kings we met before we landed, and the word 'King' that Uta relayed to us... So I believe that Shirahoshi is the King of the Sea Kings!" Yelena's red eyes pierced through her gas mask, meeting Louis's. "That includes the super-large Sea Kings over five thousand meters in size. With such an ability, I think Shirahoshi can be rightly called a 'weapon'!"
"And from what Van der Decken said, someone like Shirahoshi seems to have appeared in history before, known as the legendary mermaid princess." In the end, a single phrase came from Yelena's mouth. "Ancient Weapon - Poseidon."
"..."
?
Yelena looked at Louis's completely unfazed eyes and let out a light laugh. "As I thought—you were also aware of it, which is why you want to get closer to her."
To this, Louis nodded. "That's right. I do indeed want to bind her to our chariot." Although he hadn't just learned that Shirahoshi was Poseidon, it was indeed because of this that he had this idea. "But how to get closer to her has become a problem."
Yelena heard this and fell into thought. Soon, she had another shocking idea. She glanced at Louis, who was now much taller than her, then at the distant Shirahoshi. Then, Yelena said concisely, an idea that would be enough to get Louis thrown in jail.
"A political marriage!"
Louis's vision went dark. He almost couldn't believe what he had just heard. In the end, he replied, annoyed, "She's a mermaid. How could you have such an idea?"
To this, Yelena glanced at Louis and replied with a smile, "My body has the blood of an Oni, and now Uta is a siren too."
"..."
Louis had no reply.
"Uta—a siren—"
But soon, another idea came to him. He looked at Uta and Shirahoshi, who had a 70% resemblance, and said thoughtfully, "If we make the two of them become sisters, that could also bring our relationship closer, right?"
Yelena heard him and turned, following his gaze. "You mean... make Uta a mermaid princess too?"
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