CHAPTER 85: SEABED

"...I apologize, Pandora, if my attitude didn’t please you, but I did what I thought was best for you," Elena says.

"AND HOW IS THAT BETTER? YOU’RE MINE, WHICH PART OF BEING MINE DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND? YOU CAN’T DO THAT KIND OF THING WITHOUT MY PERMISSION," I shout angrily.

The fact that something I marked as mine decided to act this way irritates my monstrous side, which doesn’t lose to my rational side.

"Pandora, we need to act, we’ve already found several destroyed human vessels in the ocean, they’ve already started to act, and if they manage to get the support of the mermaids, it’s going to be difficult for us."

"And you think having a goddess threatening us is better than that?"

"You put my life at risk, you put the lives of my subordinates at risk, and you put my castle in this damn bet, what makes you think this damn plan would work?"

"My plan had a 70% success rate...besides, we were able to establish communication with the goddess, I just didn’t expect the threat."

I take a deep breath to calm down, I’m letting my monstrous side dominate too much, after receiving that warning that I became a child, I feel like my monstrous side has grown.

I’m not even letting Elena explain properly. I look at her colors, the same radiant color that symbolizes her loyalty.

"Okay, let’s go to a more private place to talk better." I take a pill I got from my room, soon I feel my tail and Aureola return.

This medication cuts the effects of the other one. I’ve missed my tail, it’s very useful and has several functions.

My aura also seems larger since I’m getting stronger. Soon we’re going to a conference room and Elena begins her explanation.

"According to the data we gathered, the humans are already trying to communicate with the mermaid goddess to fulfill their plan."

"At sea, you can find many shipwrecks that were destroyed by the mermaids, showing that the humans are very active."

"Amid all this, some humans have already managed to contact some mermaids, and with that I deduced that our time was very limited, I understand it was risky."

"But if they get the mermaids as allies, the sea won’t be the only problem, having the mermaids as allies means access to a large part of the treasures in the sea."

"Because if they’re no longer attacked, it means everything in the sea becomes a resource, that is, magical minerals, shipwrecked artifacts, and even provisions for the war."

"If we don’t stop this, the advantage they’ll have will be absurd."

"I understand that it was a bit rushed to act without permission, but I acted this way for a good reason."

"While I was planning, a low tide occurred, and I couldn’t miss this opportunity, I even stopped the planning just to send Thalor to the ocean."

"When a low tide occurs, it’s easier to communicate directly with the goddess, and part of the mermaids are weakened, a low tide only occurs once a year."

"If we had lost this opportunity, which lasts a short time, we would only have another one next year, so we made some of the arrangements on the fly and couldn’t let you know."

"..."

’There’s a bit of logic...’ I think I was too hasty.

Soon my mind spins with possibilities, and I reach a frightening hypothesis. If the humans get these resources, they can start the full-scale war against me faster.

And since we don’t know when my power will be complete, having a full-scale war against them too early would be terrible.

Also, the humans know that I’m weak at the moment, which means they know that even with incomplete heroes, they can kill me, in fact, if they just used Mikael against me, it would be enough.

Of course, getting through the millions of demons would be difficult, but with resources, it would be perfectly possible even with a hastily assembled army.

In other words, this current alliance would be one of the worst scenarios for me, a war while I’m weakened would be a practically lost war.

I don’t even have experience in commanding large troops yet, although I’ve already studied some books, it’s still not enough.

"Okay...what you said has some logic...but it doesn’t change the fact that I’m now in danger." It will be very complicated, if she wants my presence there, what does she want with me?

Although I have studied business and how to act, it is still a goddess, I don’t see how I would convince her to help me, I’m still the Demon King.

’Wait...I’M A GODDESS!!!’ Maybe if I use my new title I can try something.

"Elena, tell me, between a Demon King and a goddess, which one do you think has a better chance of success?"

"...Probably a goddess, why do you ask?"

"For nothing." I’m not going to reveal yet that I’m officially a goddess now, I’m going to ask for a private meeting with the mermaid goddess and reveal it only to her, after all, I don’t know how the demons would react to the news that I’m now an official goddess.

"Elena, prepare a magnificent dress for me, also prepare some cool accessories, and finally prepare a gift..."

"Wait, with what were you planning to do business with the mermaid goddess?" I still don’t know.

"Yes, about that, it happened more or less like this, Thalor and Calypso were allowed to go to the Goddess’s palace, so when they got there they had a meeting with her, then they had another meeting two days later."

"And the maximum offer we made was a ton of magical minerals...in human money, it would be enough to buy half the kingdoms surrounding the main kingdom."

"..." I’m left speechless, 1 ton of magical minerals is an absurd amount, and there are also many kingdoms.

"Do we have all this?"

"Yes"

"It’s safe in the vault."

"Okay..." This is more than I expected, I never thought we were so rich.

"Continue telling what happened."

"After this offer, the goddess didn’t seem interested, and after some more discussions, the goddess said that if you didn’t show up to negotiate in person, she would do everything I said."

I have no idea how to convince such a person, in addition to being tyrannical and demanding, how will I do something with this?

I’ll think about it later, I can’t leave such a person waiting, I run to the bathroom while my tail begins to provide me with the mana it contains.

My aureola also returns to providing mana, it seems the two were unable to give me mana while they were hidden.

The reason for taking the medication to remove the effects was because I think the goddess wouldn’t like me to go without being myself, or she might just think I’m not the Demon King.

After all, Kaelith is identical to me, another reason is to separate my life as Demon King and my life as Grand Duchess, I have to know how to always keep the two lives separate to avoid making mistakes.

Right after the bath, I put on a black dress with red details and crescent moon accessories.

"We’re done, Your Majesty." I spin in front of the mirror, looking at myself, it seems perfect to me.

Soon after scolding Elena again, we head to the coast, I scolded her again because even though I now understand the importance, it doesn’t change the fact that she did something wrong, we could have been wiped out if the goddess had wanted to or been offended.

Soon we’re on the coast of the beach, suddenly a giant "Kraken" appears, it puts some kind of boat on the surface and goes back into the ocean.

Soon some mermaids come out, some stayed on the boat probably because they don’t have legs, but tails like "fish", while those who came out have relatively human legs, though they have scales and their feet have animal fins.

"Good morning, Demon King, I’m Lisandra, your guide." A mermaid girl bows to me, she’s wearing a maid’s outfit and has a funny accent, but her tone is formal and cold.

I nod as she guides me to the boat, Elena just watches, only I was invited, going with someone else is a sign of disrespect, and that’s not what I want, especially considering who I’ll be disrespecting.

Soon I get on the boat and see that the interior is very chic, the interior is white with finely intricate details in pure gold.

’How is this going to work?’ I can easily adapt to breathe underwater, but I’m sure they won’t just sink me in the water and expect me to endure...right?

How I wish I didn’t know that’s exactly what they’ll do, soon the ship is pulled back into the water, the place doesn’t fill with water, but I easily notice that we’re descending quickly, the pressure is increasing.

Initially it’s a bit uncomfortable, it’s hard to breathe, and I feel like I’m being crushed, but as we descend rapidly, I start to adapt and it becomes bearable.

After 10 minutes, all that happens is me looking at the pure darkness through the window with boredom, the mermaids are very reserved, no one talks to me or tries to talk.

In general, it’s more like they’re here just to watch me. Soon one of them comes to serve me the 15th cup of tea, and I accept and drink it, anyway, everything I eat and consume is absorbed by my passive.

’Stop offering me tea, I hate tea, offer me blood or something’ After taking 20 cups of tea, it became odious, they don’t stop offering it, and I never refuse out of politeness.

And so we pass several minutes, I don’t even see anything through the window, I thought it would be faster, plus the depth is strange, very strange, from what I can tell and the speed, this is too deep.

’I think this planet is bigger than Earth...’ The depth of this place is bizarre, and this darkness is somehow frightening, precisely because even my eyes, which can see perfectly in the dark, can’t see anything.

"!!!" I quickly move away from the window when a giant eye appears, okay, I got a little scared.

’They seem to be able to see... this darkness is not natural’ The mermaids have shown the ability to see the bottom of the sea, I judge that the darkness of the sea was probably formed by magic, now without a doubt the one who cast this has a lot of mana, in addition to extraordinary talent.