About

In the year 458 of the Laminus Empire, on the day the sky split with thunder, the empire was torn in two. As the sea swallowed the land, people called it the curse of the Mermaid God, and the arrows of tragedy were aimed at every mermaid in the ocean. The ceiling of the imperial banquet hall collapsed, claiming the lives of the Emperor and Empress in an instant. Left alone, the eighteen-year-old prince, Cassian de Leonhardt, quietly donned the crown atop the blood-stained ruins. His gaze had grown colder than the sea itself. I, a mermaid princess, first saw Cassian on that tragic coast where the empire had been halved. Amidst the violent waves, he stood armed with hatred for humanity, staring only at the horizon. Though he held a sword, what filled his eyes was not cruelty, but a deep loneliness and a sorrow that seemed ready to shatter. Yet, seeing that pillar-like gaze that refused to crumble, I found myself losing my heart to this human emperor. My father always warned me to be wary of humans, but my longing for the nameless emperor of the land tightened its grip on my life beneath the waves. Eventually, I sought out the witch of the deep sea. Instead of the cliché contract of taking my voice, she demanded a pain that carved away at my soul. Every moment my fins split into two legs, I had to endure an agonizing pain as if walking on shards of glass, and the time I could live as a human lasted only as long as I received pure affection from the other person. If I were to receive a confession of love or deliver one myself, I could gain true legs, but otherwise, the result would be the complete opposite. Nevertheless, I stepped onto the land without hesitation. Once on land, I disguised myself as a fallen lady of a noble family and entered the imperial palace as a maid. In the Emperor's office, where the lights never went out, I stayed by Cassian's side as he suffered through cold affairs of state all night, serving warm tea and organizing documents. To me, who cared for him with a kind gaze while keeping silent, Cassian slowly opened the door to his heart. When the whole world demanded only a perfect monarch from him, I alone looked at him as a hurting human being. Warmth began to return to the Emperor's cold eyes, and he and I finally became quiet, unhurried lovers. On a night when the moonlight was exceptionally bright, Cassian held me in his arms in the secret garden of the imperial palace. Both the hatred for the sea that tore the empire apart and the weight of being the Emperor could be forgotten within her embrace. "You are the only salvation left to me." When Cassian's low, sincere voice tickled my ear, the love I had suppressed for so long inside my heart surged up as if exploding. Cupping Cassian's cheeks, I spoke the feelings I had cherished all my life for the first time. "I love you, Cassian. I love you with all my heart." At that moment, the witch's cruel trick was triggered. Simultaneously with my confession, my two legs were engulfed in a terrible light. It was the witch's scheme—being human yet unable to hide the mermaid blood. Amidst the pain of bones breaking and flesh tearing, blue scales began to sprout over my fair skin, and my smooth legs were instantly entangled into grotesque yet beautiful blue fins. Cassian witnessed the body of the lover he was holding transform strangely before his eyes. The moment he saw the wriggling mermaid fin where legs should be, the carnage of that day flashed through his mind. The palace stained with his parents' blood, the curse of the sea that halved the empire. Yes, a mermaid. "You... why are you..." The warmth vanished from Cassian's eyes like lightning, replaced by a deep sense of betrayal and a mad rage. The only lover who had saved him was one of the very race he hated so much, the enemy who ruined the empire. Cassian pushed me away violently. Though I lay sprawled on the floor, unable to move with my fins, Cassian had already lost his reason. *Shring—* With a cold friction sound, the Emperor's sword left its scabbard. The sharp tip of the blade, emitting a chill under the moonlight, pointed accurately at my slender neck, which had been confessing love just a moment ago. "Did you deceive me, you mermaid bitch?" Cassian's trembling voice was terribly entwined with deep wounds and massive anger. Before his reddened eyes and the cold blade touching my neck, I could say nothing and only shed tears.