BXBX NOVEL Chapter 98: Strange Mermaid
But his eyes soon trailed away from her face and looked behind her, noticing the long blue fish tail beneath her waist. He quickly realized she was a mermaid.
"What are you?" she asked, her voice strangely contrasting with her cold expression.
Nolan was about to respond when he saw her suddenly turn her head away from his face and prepare to swim off while saying,
"You probably can\'t hear me, anyway..."
He could feel an unfamiliar sense of despair and raised an eyebrow.
\'Hey system, did you hear what she said?\' he asked.
[She didn\'t say anything. She just moved her lips and swam away...] the system replied.
Nolan simply looked dazedly at her fading figure before quickly rising to his feet and following her.
Once he began walking, she paused and looked back at him, her almond-shaped eyes slowly morphing until they formed the pupils of a snake.
SCREEEEEEECH!
The sound of an evil screech resonated as strange dark scales appeared all over her face, followed by two fangs protruding from her mouth.
In an instant, the indescribable beauty before him had transformed into a monstrous-looking creature, and Nolan froze, unmoving.
"Your play... It is beautiful," he said, before turning his back and beginning to walk away.
But she remained in her position, dazed, as her fangs retracted and the dark scales disappeared.
The words continuously reverberated through her entire existence...
"Your play... It is beautiful."
"Your play... It is beautiful."
"You can... You can hear me?" she mused silently as she looked and saw Nolan\'s back quickly fading away among the trees.
In the next instant, her large tail moved, and she swam after him with speed.
"I should return now..." Nolan said to himself.
He had no reason for being here in the first place, and what he had witnessed was nothing but mystifying.
But now it was time to return to the palace. Who knows what trouble his disappearance would cause if he didn\'t return soon?
And so, he began running forth until he felt the rippling of water behind him and turned his head.
Suddenly, he felt a hand push him down onto the floor, and the weight was so powerful that Nolan felt the bare form of his Divine Essence violently wane before it shattered completely, sending the cold water crashing into his skin once more.
He tried struggling against the weight pinning him down and even prepared to summon his dagger but paused when he saw who it was.
It was none other than the beautiful mermaid...
"Can you hear my play?" she asked in her melodious voice, and Nolan nodded.
"Yes, I can. And it\'s really beautiful..." he remarked, watching her look at him dazedly.
Suddenly, Nolan noticed a strange multicolored tear sliding down her face, and it dripped onto his.
With confusion, he watched as a smile appeared on her face amid the multicolored tears that dripped down her face.
Slowly, she backed away from him, covering her face with her hands as if trying to hide from Nolan.
[Her lips moved again, but I can\'t hear her,] the system suddenly informed him, and Nolan finally realized what was happening.
"Could it be that no one can hear her, but I can?" he asked aloud.
In the next moment, he stood up and walked over to her, gently taking her hands away from her face and wiping her tears with his fingers.
Her skin was so soft that Nolan felt a pang of fear in his heart that he might scar her with the roughness of his fingers, so he immediately retracted his hands.
"I am Nolan," he replied to her earlier question as a smile bloomed on her face.
It confirmed to him that he could really hear her.
He was the only one who could, ever since she had been born.
"Who are you?" he asked.
chapter-source-MvLeMpYr
"I am Lorelei..."
"Lorelei. It\'s a beautiful name..." Nolan called out, wanting to say more, but he stopped, slowly stepping back from her.
"I\'m afraid I must return to the palace now. I was drawn here by your play, but my people will be worried about me."
"You should return to your home too. It\'s a bit cold here, and maybe dangerous as well," he said to her before turning his back and continuing his run into the distance.
Silently, Lorelei watched him quickly disappear among the lightning-lit trees, until he completely faded from her sight.
"Return home?" she repeated, and in the next instant, she swam forward with speed, heading in the exact direction Nolan had run—towards the palace.
---
Silently, Nolan broke through the thick forest, arriving at the backyard of the palace.
Just as silently as he had moved out before, he moved back in, weaving past the gazes of the guards until he appeared in the guest room alleyway where he had been given his quarters.
Tiptoeing, he walked forward, moving towards his room, before suddenly stopping when he saw a figure reclining beside his door, legs resting against the wall, and his gaze fixed directly on Nolan.
It was a blindfolded figure—none other than Gojo.
"Well, well, well. Look who\'s here, sneaking around the palace..." Gojo\'s coy voice rang out as Nolan quickly thought up a lie in his head.
"Just needed to get a bit of fresh air. What are you doing in front of my door anyway?" he asked, watching Gojo rise up before shrugging.
"I don\'t believe your lie, but whatever. I came to check on your Divine Essence. I expect it to be waning by now, and it seems it has even been broken already. I came here to refill it..." Gojo said, and Nolan was shocked.
\'He cared about that?\' Nolan wondered.