Chapter 3

In my daze, I felt someone hold me close, caressing my hair gently. Hot tears spilled onto my cheeks, making my heart shudder.

"Marina, if all of this never happened… If only things were as they were…"

Was that Cyrus? Was he crying?

It took an eternity for me to open my eyes, but Cyrus was no longer there, only a guard that dragged me to the courtyard. The scorching sunlight beat down on me relentlessly, and I quickly felt dehydrated.

Cyrus and Emily were there in the courtyard, and seeing me, Emily made a show of looking concerned. "You haven't eaten in a long time, right? Are you hungry?"

My throat was dry, and it hurt to even draw in a single breath, so I couldn't respond to her immediately.

At Emily’s signal, a guard kicked me hard.

The kick landed right on an unhealed wound, and fresh blood stained my clothes again.

Cyrus seemed irritated. He frowned and threw his coat over me. "Enough! Heal your wound and stop playing the victim. You know that Emily faints at the sight of blood!"

A devious glint flashed through Emily's eyes as she threw dirty meat and vegetables onto the ground in front of me. "You must be hungry! Eat up!"

I turned to look at Cyrus, who only averted his gaze, as if he didn't want to look at me for one second longer than was necessary.

From the looks of it, that moment earlier, with him holding me and crying, must've been a dream. How could he possibly still hold any feelings toward me?

I slowly lowered my head and reached for the food on the ground, pitifully eating like a disgraced mutt.

Suddenly, Emily's voice, underlined with malice, rang in my ears, "Why aren't you eating the meat, Marina? I'm sure you need the nutrition, right?"

Numbly, I placed the meat into my mouth. My sense of taste had long since been dulled from all the pain I suffered, so all I could feel was that the meat was slightly different from anything I'd ever eaten before.

"Is it good?" Emily smiled brightly. "They're always in seawater, so I'm sure mermaid flesh is pretty tender, right?"

A piece of meat dropped from my mouth as I raised my head in shock, looking at Emily, as if I was processing what she just told me.

Her smile only grew wider, relishing in my pain.

A wave of nausea rose up, and I collapsed to the ground.

Urgh!

"God, my shoes!"

I had thrown up all over Emily's heels.

Without waiting for orders, the guards grabbed me by the hair and dragged me away, stuffing a rock into my mouth.

Cyrus held Emily in his arms, threw away her soiled shoes, and ordered a servant to fetch her a new pair.

He used to treat me like that too, in the past, but now all he had for me was hatred.

"What's wrong, Marina? You should have expected this when you merfolk hurt us werewolves. Since you don't want to eat, just throw the meat into the rubbish!"

Emily wore a new pair of shoes and kicked the meat away, before turning to look at Cyrus. "Alpha King, don't blame Marina. She's just not hungry, that's all.

"How about you let her keep me company while I paint to make up for it?"

Cyrus shook his head helplessly. "You're too kind, Emily."

Then, he took the rock from my mouth, wiped away the dirt on my face, and gripped my chin. "Hear that? You upset Emily, and now she's giving you the chance to make up for it. Keep her company, and don't make her unhappy."

What else could I do but nod?

Cyrus' grip on my chin became tighter, and he seemed to want to say something, but he was interrupted by an incoming call.

He stood up and bid farewell to Emily, before leaning down and kissing her pregnant belly.

Watching them, I couldn't help but feel a wave of sadness washing over me.

After Cyrus left, Emily didn't bother keeping up the act any longer, only rolling her eyes at me. "I don't like being watched while I paint. Go sit by the trash can."

I quietly moved to sit by the trash can. The sun was far too bright for me today, and there was at least some shade by the trash can.

A few moments later, Emily's maid came over with a bucket. Pinching her nose in disdain, she looked down at me—both literally and figuratively.

"Hey, monster! Emily needs red paint for her drawing. The prettiest red is the color of blood, so extract a bucket of your blood for her."

After that, she threw a rusty dagger in front of me.

"Use this."

I hesitated. "B-But it's rusted…"

The maid put her hands on her hips and yelled, "Do you think you're still a princess? Don't be so picky and cut yourself already, or I'm not going to go easy on you!"

All I could do was take the dagger and slit my wrist, allowing the blood to drip into the bucket.

I only stopped when my lips turned purple and I was close to passing out, when the bucket was finally full.

Leaning against the trash can in a daze, I heard a few maids talking in the courtyard nearby.

"Emily's paintings are just gorgeous! It's a pity how difficult it is for her to get the materials she needs for her paints. Did you know that she could only get a tiny bottle of pearl powder after killing several merfolk?"

"Why do those monsters only have one mermaid pearl? Since they're freaks anyway, what's a few more?"

The color drained from my already pale face, and I stood up, My face went pale. I pushed myself up, clinging to the wall. Shrill cries echoed faintly in my ears, and I prayed to whoever was listening for it to not be what I thought…

The closer I got to Emily, the clearer the cries became, and that's when I saw it.

The pile of mermaid corpses around Emily's feet.

When I got there, she had her hand around the throat of a mermaid, her knife stabbing into their chest with precision, digging out their mermaid pearl and crushing it in one fluid motion.

At that moment, I felt like my heart was crushed into pieces as well.

Wiping the blood on her hands, she turned to look at me. "Marina, I didn't know that you merfolk had differently-colored pearls. I just want white ones… I hear only royalty has pearls of that color, right?

"You're the mermaid princess, so you must know who's royalty, right? Could you help me get their white pearls, pretty please?"