Facing the flame attack, Aqua instinctively dodged, but all attacks were blocked by Black Fish alone.

When Aqua came to his senses, Black Fish’s outer robe had already disappeared, revealing his appearance.

The exposed Mr. Black Fish no longer had a black-scaled fish tail on his lower body, but a pair of normal legs.

But what surprised Aqua wasn’t the other’s disappeared fish tail, but his appearance.

He looked exactly like the wizard who experimented on mermaids.

No, Aqua shook his head with a bitter smile in his heart.

It wasn’t just looking exactly alike—the other was clearly Alfonso!

And the unconscious mermaid Alfonso held in his arms was none other than the mermaid princess with the highest bloodline concentration among their atavistic mermaids, Pearl!

The other mermaids behind them couldn’t see Alfonso’s face due to distance and angle, but they all recognized Pearl.

If it weren’t for the apparent enemy in front of them, they would probably have rushed forward.

Aqua’s already not-too-bright brain was in chaos. He couldn’t understand how Mr. Black Fish, who had been secretly helping them restore their soul bodies and designing escape plans, had turned out to be the Tribunal’s third-rank wizard Alfonso.

But the situation before him didn’t allow Aqua to think too much.

He gritted his teeth and decided to continue trusting Mr. Black Fish.

No matter what, Mr. Black Fish had been helping them all along, and they had nothing worth being used for anyway.

Although Alfonso’s appearance was exposed, he wasn’t panicked. He even tightened his hold on the mermaid in his arms, making Pearl more comfortable.

“You came.” His voice remained low and determined, as if he hadn’t just been attacked.

The footprints across from him suddenly materialized into a body from bottom to top, like an invisible person revealing their true form.

The newcomer was indeed Royer, who had just bid farewell to Saul and claimed to be going to patrol other areas.

Compared to Alfonso’s calmness, Royer had a cold face, his gaze seemingly capable of killing.

“You still took this step.” Royer’s voice suppressed anger, “I don’t understand why you insist on releasing this group of trash. Looking at you like this, you already guessed I would follow you, so why did you still take the atavistic mermaids to escape?”

Unlike the agitated Royer, Alfonso looked completely calm, even appearing somewhat innocent.

“Then why are you so fixated on these dozens of atavistic mermaids?”

“Hmph! No matter what mermaids they are, they’re all Tribunal assets, and they must stay to clean pollution for the Red Sea Trees.”

“The Tribunal has enough mermaids already. We’re not short on these dozens.”

“Whether we’re short or not is for me to decide. I’m the one responsible for the Red Sea Trees!” Royer’s voice was somewhat loud. Then, seeming to realize his emotions were too agitated, he calmed down for a moment before saying, “I don’t care why you’re trying to release mermaids when you know it’s impossible, but since I’m here, you’re coming back with me. This isn’t a big problem. The Chief will at most punish you…”

Suddenly, Royer’s words stopped as he reached toward the mermaid Pearl in Alfonso’s arms.

Because he realized that Alfonso standing here talking to him for so long was actually just to buy time.

However, perhaps because Alfonso usually appeared too honest, Royer was still a step too late.

His fingers hadn’t yet touched Pearl’s beautiful hair when a burst of spatial power suddenly erupted from the person opposite.

“A portable teleportation formation?”

Royer quickly withdrew his hand and retreated to avoid having some part of his body taken away by the spatial teleportation formation.

Watching Alfonso and several mermaids behind him disappear simultaneously, leaving only a few mermaids at the rear of the group standing bewildered, Royer snorted coldly.

“If you had saved this trick to deal with me, you might have won, but…”

A warm yellow light suddenly lit up on Royer’s body, gathering into a beam that shot toward where Alfonso and over a dozen mermaids had just disappeared.

After the light entered that area, it suddenly twisted, as if affected by the spatial teleportation power.

But although the warm yellow light twisted, it didn’t disappear under the influence of the teleportation power and even destroyed part of the force.

Then, a figure that had originally disappeared staggered and fell to the ground.

It was actually Alfonso, who had just teleported away.

But the mermaids behind him and Pearl in his arms hadn’t returned with him.

Alfonso, lying on the ground, raised his head, losing his composure for the first time.

“Chief, why are you here?!”

Alfonso’s lips trembled.

According to the original plan, Frim should now be secretly heading to the Sighing Wall, preparing to kill Gorsa.

But how could he appear here?

Could stopping a few mermaids from escaping be more important than killing Gorsa?

The warm yellow light beam merged into a light sphere.

Frim’s voice came from within.

“I haven’t completely left Nephret yet.”

After Frim finished speaking, Royer raised his chin and said loudly, “Alfonso, the Chief delayed his departure because of your matter.”

Alfonso smiled bitterly and said, “A few mermaids, are they really this important? Worth the Chief leaving a strand of consciousness in Royer, worth Royer pretending not to know and cooperating with me in this performance.” Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on N(o)vᴇl(F)ire.nᴇt

Frim didn’t answer immediately but transmitted information to Royer, “Those mermaids are at… go bring Pearl back, kill all the others.”

Alfonso’s whole body shook. Just as he was about to say something, he saw Royer smile at him and fly away.

Alfonso wanted to chase after him, but just as he took a step, he saw the light sphere before him and regained his rationality.

Then the light sphere spoke.

“You ask me why I can’t let the atavistic mermaids go? I should be asking you, what else are you hiding about the atavistic mermaids? If Royer hadn’t told me your attitude toward mermaids was wrong, you might have actually escaped during this brief respite today.”

Frim lowered his head, hesitated for a few seconds, and finally spoke, “Chief, I’ve been researching mermaids for nearly a hundred years and discovered a fact I don’t want to admit but have to acknowledge.”

The light sphere quietly listened to Frim speak.

“I discovered that mermaids… the mermaid race is actually more adapted to this world than wizards—this world threatened by black tides that could be completely destroyed at any time.”

“They have extremely strong natural resistance to black tides. If their soul bodies weren’t deliberately damaged by us during reproduction, with their numbers and abilities, they could definitely establish an independent nation. They could develop into a force capable of opposing black tides. Why do we only treat them as trash and consumables?”

“To be honest, the more I research, the more certain I become of one thing: if this world is nearly completely destroyed by black tides and only one race survives, it would be the normal mermaid race!”

Frim listened quietly without interrupting Alfonso until he finished and was breathing heavily, then he spoke.

“Whether other races and other forces can adapt to black tides doesn’t matter at all. They just need to become materials for the Tribunal, letting Nephret become the surviving continent.”

“You’ve been charmed by mermaid princess Pearl. I didn’t expect that even after I destroyed her soul body, she could still use instinct to cast enchantment on you.”

Alfonso suddenly raised his head, his eyes full of surprise, “So it was you!”

(End of Chapter)

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