Since Novalia hadn't gotten any answers on her end, Ning Busan had no choice but to keep blowing bubbles in the hot spring.
At the thought of Ning Busan also turning into a mindless sea monster, Novalia's brow remained furrowed with worry.
Her heart was heavy, but after seeing what Ning Busan and Leo were up to, she finally understood what it meant to be utterly carefree.
The edge of the hot spring was piled high with food boxes, filled with all kinds of sashimi, each slice cut as thin as a cicada's wing.
Ning Busan tasted and critiqued them as he ate, “This one has a delicate and smooth texture, but it's a bit fishy. Next time, add some lemon juice or white wine to get rid of the fishy smell.”
He switched to another box to try, and his eyes suddenly lit up. “This one is good, not fishy at all! Bring more of this next time!”
Leo grumbled, “You sure have picky taste!”
If he hadn't taken into account that Ning Busan was poisoned, he would have smashed the food box right into his face.
Novalia walked over and asked, “What are you two doing?”
Ning Busan said pitifully, “Right now, I throw up no matter what I eat, except for fish. Even cooked fish won't do; it has to be raw.”
Novalia asked in confusion, “Why does it have to be sliced like this?”
Leo pointed at Ning Busan and mocked, “This idiot doesn't know how to spit out fish bones! Hahahahaha!”
With a dark face, Ning Busan snapped, “Shut up—”
When he was nine years old, he had gotten a fish bone stuck in his throat, which caused an esophageal perforation and landed him in the hospital for over a month.
Since then, he had stayed far away from fish.
What was wrong with not knowing how to spit out fish bones?
It wasn't like he was a cat!
The more he thought about it, the angrier he got, and the deep blue fins that had grown behind his ears flared up.
Seeing this, Novalia said worriedly, “As your body mutates, your mind will also be affected. How do you feel right now?”
Ning Busan said, “Actually, it's not too bad. It's just that whenever I sleep, I dream of the deep sea. When I wake up, my head feels all muddled, like I ate poisonous mushrooms.”
Leo said, “This poison clearly originates from the deep sea. There must be a sea monster hidden in the palace. Have you searched the entire palace and still found nothing unusual?”
Novalia shook her head. “No clues for now.”
Ning Busan was only poisoned, not brainless. Since neither of these two could be relied upon, he had to start analyzing the situation himself:
“If Novalia's mother was also harmed by a sea monster, then that sea monster must have been in the palace for a very long time. They wouldn't let themselves be found so easily.”
“Setting the sea monster aside, there shouldn't be many people who hold a grudge against both Novalia's mother and me. Let me think...”
After pondering for a moment, Ning Busan asked, “What about Queen Quina? Why hasn't anyone suspected her?”
“Queen Quina?” Novalia hesitated for a moment before saying, “She is a good person.”
Ning Busan was speechless.
Was she really handing out “good person” cards just like that?
Novalia said, “After my mother passed away, Quina became the new Queen. In fact, at first, I suspected she was the one who killed my mother, but I quickly dismissed those doubts.”
“You might not believe it, but she treated me very well. It's thanks to her that I was able to grow up safely. Alaphon always wanted to kill me. If Queen Quina hadn't protected me, I would have been dead long ago.”
Ning Busan's pupils dilated in shock.
Shouldn't Quina have tried everything she could to get rid of Novalia?
Was this stepmother a bit too much of a saint?
Novalia continued, “However, ever since Queen Quina gave birth to William, she started targeting me at every turn, desperately trying to find ways to put me to death.”
“Thinking back on it now, her personality suddenly changed so drastically, almost as if she had become a different person. It is indeed a bit suspicious.”
But in Ning Busan's eyes, this was actually the normal way of things.
Leo let out a low chuckle. “Since we all suspect her, why don't we just go and meet her?”
Queen Quina was not imprisoned like Alaphon; she was allowed to move around within a limited area.
However, she kept her doors shut and remained so low-profile that she seemed practically nonexistent.
When Ning Busan and the others burst in, Quina was sitting by the window. Her face was as elegant as a painting, with a faint loneliness lingering between her brows.
Novalia asked directly, “Queen, did you poison Ning Busan?”
Quina looked at Ning Busan behind her and tilted her head. “He deserves to die.”
Ning Busan's killing of William was William's own doing, so he didn't feel much guilt when facing Quina.
And as a mother who wanted to avenge her son, Ning Busan could understand her feelings, but that didn't mean he would let her off.
Ning Busan said coldly, “Hand over the sea monster that poisoned me, and I will let you live.”
Leo suddenly spoke up, “I can't hear her heartbeat. She has no heart.”
Ning Busan was a bit dazed. “How can a person without a heart still be alive?”
“What if she isn't human at all?” Leo said. “As far as I know, there is a type of sea monster called a mermaid that likes to sing on reefs, and their songs have the power to bewitch minds.”
“A mermaid's heart contains a rare toxin, which is the condensation of her life essence, known as the Mermaid's Sorrow.”
“When a mermaid falls in love with someone, she will carve out half of her heart to make the Mermaid's Sorrow and feed it to them. This way, they will fall hopelessly in love with her.”
“But when a mermaid hates someone, the Mermaid's Sorrow becomes a lethal poison. The poisoned person will suffer endless torture and meet a miserable end.”
“If she is a mermaid, then everything makes sense. She split her heart in two and gave the poison of the Mermaid's Sorrow to Novalia's mother and you respectively.”
“Impossible!” Novalia was incredulous. “Queen Quina came from a noble family. How could she be a mermaid? Besides, don't mermaids all have fish tails?”
The woman sitting in front of the mirror said softly, “I am not Quina at all. My name is Kani, and I belong to the merfolk tribe.”
“My home was originally in the deep sea, but because I was playful, I wandered into the waters of the human world and was captured by humans.”
“Quina was a kind human. She saved me and escorted me all the way home. Human lifespans are only a brief thousand years, and I wanted her to spend those thousand years in happiness, so I came to the human world.”
“I made a deal with the sea witch of the ocean depths, trading my voice for a pair of human legs. Since then, I could no longer sing, and every step I took felt as painful as walking on the tips of blades.”
Ning Busan was utterly shocked.
Good grief, it's literally The Little Mermaid!
Novalia questioned in anger, “Then why did you poison my mother?”
“Because Quina was not happy. Her beloved married another woman as his Queen,” Kani said as if it were only natural.
“As long as I killed that woman, the position of Queen would belong to her, and she would be happy forever.”
At this point, Kani's expression filled with confusion.
“But when Quina found out, she became even more miserable. She told me to return to the deep sea, never to visit the human world again, and never to look for her.”
“But I only wanted her to be happy. What did I do wrong?”
Ning Busan clicked his tongue and shook his head.
Even though Quina was a love-struck fool, she still had a high moral standard!
You poisoned and killed someone for her sake; how could she possibly keep you by her side?
Rate on N.U.
