After listening to Saul’s account, Floco closed his eyes. When he reopened them, he still appeared leisurely.

His reaction was different from what Saul had expected.

“I thought you’d be angry after hearing this, or at least sigh.”

Floco waved his hand dismissively. “When the Azure Scale Clan left this world, the remaining mermaids were all mixed-blood branches with very low status. Even if I were still in this world, they wouldn’t necessarily live better than now… of course, they might have a better reputation on the surface.”

Floco was essentially the god of the Azure Scale Clan. A god might care for his believers and subjects, but wouldn’t concern himself with whether a particular group lived happily.

“Didn’t you say this mermaid has your bloodline?”

Floco was blunt, “Reproducing offspring is a basic need, racial expansion is survival insurance.”

Saul didn’t judge the other’s lifestyle and took out the pollution sample obtained from the mermaid Coral’s tail.

A piece of flesh and some blood.

“This is flesh and blood taken from a mermaid showing atavistic traits. Can you determine if it has your bloodline? Actually, there’s mermaid royal bloodline with higher concentration, but I can’t get that for now.”

The flesh was pale, but the blood was darker.

Floco swept it with mental power and shook his head. “Nothing to do with me. Should be bloodline from other Azure Scale Clan members.”

He told Saul, “This isn’t important. Like I said, the mermaids left behind were all mixed bloodlines, not royalty from our era. The remaining mermaids probably elevated their own status.”

When there are no tigers in the mountains, monkeys rule as kings.

Saul expressed understanding.

“Since they’re not your descendants and you don’t care, I won’t hold back.”

Floco waved his hand. “Do as you please.”

Saul raised the question he’d been contemplating these past days.

“Atavistic mermaids have stronger soul bodies than modified mermaids. But their adaptability to black tide pollution decreases as a result. Maybe we can understand what modifications the Tribunal made to mermaids by comparison.”

The Tribunal had fought black tide pollution for hundreds of years, possessing knowledge that even Saul’s exceptional talents couldn’t obtain.

“That’s normal. The stronger the soul body, the more unstable it is. Like how taller buildings are more likely to collapse.”

Saul nodded. “So we need to reinforce our building materials.”

A well-built skyscraper was definitely more durable than a thatched hut.

Looking at the clear-minded Floco before him, then thinking of Kate, and finally the originally ugly mermaid with only survival instincts, a light bulb went off in his mind.

“For the Tribunal, the hardest part is actually controlling mermaids. Maybe they just tampered with the mermaids’ soul bodies, then threw all mermaids into black tide pollution and selected survivors for mass breeding?”

“Using natural mutation instead of artificial modification—if the sample size is large enough, that could indeed save a lot of time.” Floco showed no emotion discussing this matter.

Saul became somewhat worried again. “But then there’s no technical content to reference. Coral’s pollution might just be caused by her strong but unstable soul body. But to solve the pollution, would we have to destroy her soul body?”

Thinking of that ruby-like mermaid, Saul felt somewhat reluctant.

He thought, “I still need to visit the Red Sea Trees and large numbers of mermaids to compare the differences. If Alfonso won’t take me, I can ask Wizard Royer for help.”

…

Wizard Alfonso, whom Saul was thinking about, was currently in the Evernight Royal Palace, in His Majesty the Emperor’s quarters, watching Sander have his blood drawn.

Two young female wizard apprentices knelt before Sander’s knees, each holding one of his arms.

Both apprentices’ mouths had been specially modified—lips protruding then gradually tapering into thin needle-like tubes.

Their stomachs had also been modified into two chambers: one for consuming liquid food, another for storing Sander’s blood.

This large-scale blood drawing occurred once a month.

Besides this, Sander had mandatory tasks to complete.

Weekly breeding sessions.

Although the court gave this activity a pleasant name, “inheritance” Sander internally considered it breeding.

The shame this word brought prevented Sander from quickly becoming numb and depraved like previous emperors.

After the blood drawing, the two female wizard apprentices withdrew. Until their blood storage stomachs were removed, they couldn’t eat again.

Some were lucky and quickly underwent surgery, but others starved to death in the process.

Sander’s face turned three shades paler after the blood drawing. He leaned back against the soft leather cushions of his reclining chair, but the dizziness in his head didn’t lessen.

He closed his eyes but felt worse, so he forced himself to open them and look across the room.

Opposite Sander was an enormous floor-to-ceiling glass wall.

It was the adjacent room—a space enclosed by crystal glass.

Inside the glass was clear seawater with clean stones and seaweed.

This was a room made of water, also confining royalty.

An heir to mermaid royal bloodline.

Pearl.

She was also an atavistic mermaid, the one with the purest bloodline among atavistic mermaids.

She was born with a complete blue-green fish tail.

She was called Pearl because she had pearl-white hair. When sunlight hit it, it reflected soft rainbow colors like real pearls.

Alfonso had spotted her immediately among the mermaid population and used magic to extract her from the seawater.

He discovered this uniquely beautiful little mermaid actually had a face resembling a human girl. From head to abdomen, she resembled a seventeen or eighteen-year-old human girl with almost no mermaid racial features.

Alfonso examined her body several times, always suspecting some illusion was affecting her.

But after years of examination, he still found no traces of artificial manipulation.

Pearl was truly born looking this way.

However, mismatched with Pearl’s extremely human-aesthetic appearance was her damaged soul body.

This had been personally verified by Tribunal Chief Frim.

Pearl only had the intelligence of a three or four-year-old child and couldn’t speak.

Alfonso still hadn’t figured out why Pearl, who possessed the strongest mermaid royal bloodline, had a broken soul body. Due to her bloodline and special status, Alfonso kept her separately confined.

For Sander, who was also under “house arrest,” Pearl was a fellow sufferer.

In the glass water room opposite, Pearl also pressed against the wall watching Sander.

Every time the Evernight Emperor had blood drawn, Pearl would press her rosy little mouth against the transparent wall, watching the spectacle with shock.

She found it fascinating every time, even though she’d seen this scene hundreds of times.

Sander forced a smile toward Pearl. Pearl immediately responded with a bigger, more brilliant smile.

This improved Sander’s mood somewhat.

But his mood quickly soured again because Alfonso appeared with a bottle of black potion.

He thrust the black potion directly at Sander’s face, blocking his view of the mermaid, and said in a low voice, “Drink it. Go back to sleep.”

(End of Chapter)

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