Shirahoshi walked out of the Hard-Shell Tower openly and upright.
She raised a hand to shield herself from the light, taking a moment to adjust.
The outside world.
The feeling of freedom.
It really was wonderful.
"Koji-sama, how did you catch that Van der Decken-sama?" Shirahoshi asked curiously.
After all, even her family had been unable to solve that problem for so many years. That alone showed how troublesome he was.
"He was just a speed bump," Koji said.
Van der Decken had only himself to blame for crashing straight into Klee's bombs. After that, there was no way he was getting off lightly.
Although Shirahoshi did not understand what "speed bump" meant, she still nodded. In any case, she understood that they were very powerful.
"And there's no need to call that kind of guy 'sama,'" Koji added. "It's unnecessary."
"Oh." Shirahoshi nodded.
"Lumine-sama, please don't move around. It tickles."
Lumine was sitting on Shirahoshi's chest.
She did not care about the strange looks from the others at all. This spot was far too comfortable. Soft, smooth, springy, and bouncy. She felt that if she jumped on it, she might even be bounced away.
"Shirahoshi, do your shoulders ever feel weighed down?" Lumine asked, finding a good angle and lying down comfortably.
Although Shirahoshi was a mermaid, she did not have any fishy smell. Instead, she had a unique, faint fragrance that smelled quite pleasant.
"No," Shirahoshi said innocently. She had no idea what Lumine was talking about.
Ningguang and the others were speechless.
Shirahoshi was huge, yes, but the way she spoke and acted made her seem like a child. Lumine, doing this to her… did your conscience not hurt at all?
The banquet began.
To celebrate Shirahoshi finally escaping Van der Decken's harassment, Neptune directly ordered the chefs to go all out, preparing countless rich and sumptuous dishes.
"Mmm, this tastes really good."
Paimon loved eating. The amount of food displayed by that loli-like body of hers was enough to shock even someone of Neptune's size.
It was truly exaggerated.
Was there a bottomless pit inside her body?
"Paimon-sama is amazing," Shirahoshi said in surprise.
Although she had never seen a competitive eater before, even she could tell that Paimon could eat an extraordinary amount.
"Hehe. This is the first time Paimon has ever been called Paimon-sama," Paimon said with a smile.
It felt pretty nice. After all, the people she had met before either called her by her name or gave her all kinds of nicknames.
"Princess Shirahoshi should be able to eat a lot too, right?" Paimon asked.
With such a huge body, even eating a little casually would already be far beyond what an ordinary person could manage.
"I'm all right."
Shirahoshi did not think she ate that much.
"Neptune, a reminder. The person who killed your wife was Hody Jones," Koji said casually. "He's also preparing to replace your royal family."
"What?!"
Neptune's eyes widened in fury.
He had never seen the truth. All this time, he had believed that Otohime had been killed by a human. Who could have imagined that it had actually been a fish-man?
"That can't be possible. Hody Jones is a fish-man. Why would he kill Mother?" Fukaboshi said in disbelief.
There had clearly been no direct conflict. Other than hatred toward humans and those who wanted peace with them, what reason could there be?
"In your opinion, is the relationship between fish-men and humans good?" Koji asked.
Neptune fell silent, his brows furrowing.
The relationship between Fish-Man Island and humans was not actually good.
Although Otohime had achieved some results back then, her sudden death had caused nearly all of those efforts to go to waste.
Many fish-men hated and despised the humans on the surface. Their racial hostility was extremely radical.
"That bastard Hody Jones wants to start a war?" Neptune said in a deep voice.
If Fish-Man Island went to war with humans, it would definitely lose, unless the fish-men hid in the sea forever.
But was there truly no way for humans to deal with them?
Humans possessed top-tier technology.
"Father, this is true. Megalo told me everything," Shirahoshi said, her eyes reddening.
"Hody Jones was the one who fired the gun."
None of them had expected that the person who killed their mother would actually be a fish-man.
Compared to a human doing it, this was even harder for them to accept.
Otohime had never wronged you.
So why did you kill her?
"Shirahoshi, carrying something like this all these years must have been so hard on you," Neptune said with heartache.
How old had Shirahoshi been back then?
To hear the truth behind her own mother's murder at that age… how deeply must that pain have carved itself into her heart?
"Back then, wasn't the Lawrence Clan also trying to make themselves the kings of Mondstadt and implement dictatorship?" Kaeya said.
"Kaeya, you're talking about the Lawrence Clan, aren't you?" Eula said.
"Of course I'm not including you. How could I not know what kind of person you are?" Kaeya shrugged.
Eula was practically an anomaly among the Lawrence Clan. Her way of doing things was nothing like most members of Lawrence.
Besides, he was not a native Mondstadter either. He was from Khaenri'ah, so naturally, he had no right to speak on behalf of Mondstadt.
"Father, let's go suppress Hody Jones right now!" Fukaboshi said.
"They have Energy Steroids. Those can temporarily enhance their strength. I don't think you can beat them," Koji said.
Anyone who dared to eat that kind of drug, which overdraws one's own body, was a ruthless character.
"Hody Jones actually got his hands on that kind of thing…" Neptune's expression turned grave.
Given Hody Jones's former position, it was indeed possible for him to obtain them.
"Thank you."
Neptune casually took out a Den Den Mushi.
"King Neptune, what business do you have with this old man?"
"Jinbe, something has happened on Fish-Man Island. I need you to come back and help," Neptune said directly.
Jinbe, who was currently one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, could resolve this matter. Neptune definitely did not want Fish-Man Island to fall into internal strife. Jinbe had also promised Otohime that he would return to the island.
"This old man understands."
Jinbe could hear the seriousness and abnormality in Neptune's tone, so he knew this was no ordinary matter.
At present, Ace had not yet been handed over to the Marines by Blackbeard, so Jinbe had not been imprisoned in Impel Down. That meant he could return to Fish-Man Island.
"Koji-sama, how did you know?" Shirahoshi asked curiously.
The only ones who should have known about this matter were her and Megalo. They could not possibly have casually told anyone else.
"Just treat it as us having the ability to foresee the future," Koji said.
"Like Madam Shyarly?" Neptune thought of Shyarly. Her predictions were also very accurate.
"There are some differences."
Koji shook his head and did not say anything more.
"Even if we didn't say anything, you would eventually find out. With Hody Jones's savage ambition, he would definitely make a move against you. When the time came, he would probably say this kind of heart-wrenching truth straight to your faces."
When Neptune and the others heard that, they could not help clenching their fists.
Because they knew this was very likely to happen.
Hody Jones was far too extreme. He would stop at nothing. It could be said that there was nothing he would not do.
As for words meant to murder the heart, there was a high chance he would really say them.
Thankfully, they had learned the truth in advance.
Otherwise, if something truly happened, they would have been caught completely off guard.
(End of Chapter)
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