All Chapters of After Betraying the Mermaid Princess, My Fiancés' Curse Was Unleashed: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

I stopped my chair outside Captain Basque's door and knocked.Half an hour earlier, what I had overheard outside the lower storeroom still lingered in my mind.I had meant to fetch some painkillers, and through the half-open door I saw the three of them inside.Reno's broad back was against the sacks, and he was bent over kissing Lilia, the maid.Lilia pushed him off, breathless. "Don't. Heloise will be hurt if she sees. You are going to marry her, after all...""Don't bring up that tiresome arrangement." Reno raked a hand through his hair, irritated.“Father insists we owe her our lives and is forcing one of us to marry her to repay the debt. She has no tail now, she can't even walk, and her voice sounds like a broken bellows. Marrying her would be nothing but a burdensome obligation.”From the shadows, Oslan pushed up his gold wire-rimmed glasses. He spoke calmly, as though stating the obvious.“It's a debt we owe. There's no getting out of it. But marriage is only a title. Marrying

After the sea beast withdrew, Lilia complained that her dress was ruined.So Reno pushed me along with them to the largest general store in town.The front hall housed the couture department, where nobles crowded around bolts of fine fabric.My wheelchair quickly drew a good many sidelong looks."Look at that woman in the wheelchair. She's extraordinarily beautiful...""Shame she's a cripple..."Just then an old scholar with a monocle cried out, "She isn't a cripple... Look at the markings behind her ears! She's a mermaid! And more than that... she's a mermaid who has sacrificed part of herself!""She gave up her tail? Whoever she did it for must be very happy..."Lilia listened to the whispers around us, then approached with a smile and pushed my chair toward the fine-wine section. "Heloise... you've been so good to those two brothers. Let me pour you a glass..."I had no intention of humoring her.But she gripped my chair hard, and her eyes grew more and more vicious.The next second

Reno burst into deafening laughter.He strode over and closed a hand around my throat. "Who besides us would ever be willing to marry you?"I looked calmly at Reno, whose shape had already faded into shades of gray before me.I answered, "Cyrus, Lord of the Deep.""Heloise, has your mind gone? Lord of the Deep? The tyrant out of legend who can overturn the four oceans?""If you're going to lie, pick something believable! You're crippled, you can't even get into the water. Where would you have met him?"I didn't struggle as he tightened his grip and shook me roughly.Oslan came over and pried Reno's hand off.Arrogance was written all over his face."Reno, don't put hands on her. We don't want people saying we bully the helpless.""Heloise, have you finished? You'd invent a lie this absurd to get out of the marriage. Do you think dragging in a random name will hide how vicious and jealous you are?"Lilia peeked out from behind Oslan, her voice simpering."Heloise, I know you're hurting.

In the days after we returned to the coral palace, Cyrus restored my strength with the finest seaweed salves.I lay on a soft seashell bed and listened to a seahorse attendant report on events above the waves.Since my departure, Oslan and Reno had gone completely mad.They searched everywhere for me, even going so far off course that they sailed into dangerous reefs.And Lilia, seeing that I had truly gone, finally dropped the pretense."She complains every day about the food on the ship and about the jewelry Oslan gives her not being fine enough," the seahorse attendant said with relish."She has been urging them to rob passing merchant vessels, saying it is the only way to keep up with her spending."I laughed coldly."And they agreed?""Not at first, but Lilia is an excellent actress. She cried that she felt insecure and could relax only when she saw gold. She even threatened to throw herself into the sea if they stopped loving her."The attendant imitated Lilia's affected tone."O

Oslan's enormous toad body heaved.The weeping poison glands kept splitting open from the force of his regret, leaking green fluid.He turned to me with difficulty, and tears actually ran from those bulging toad eyes."Heloise... I'm sorry... I didn't know... I truly didn't know she was that kind of person...""Back then, after you lost your legs, your temper grew increasingly erratic. Lilia always seemed so understanding and yielded to you at every turn. We convinced ourselves that you were using your powers to bully a defenseless human."Oslan nudged his gold wire-rimmed glasses, which now hung crookedly on his toad face. He tried to reclaim his old air of clever composure, but only looked absurd."I thought we were protecting someone weaker. I thought you had changed. It was all her fault! She is too good an actress! Heloise, will you forgive me? I truly am sorry. I'm not begging only because the curse came back!"Reno dragged his heavy octopus body over as well, his tentacles leavi