Chapter 372: Chapter 371 Diplomacy
Unfortunately, Peter was not General Li Jing of Chentang, so he couldn’t smile and ask Li Ang, "Has it been born? Great, did my lady give birth to a male ball or a female ball?"
Peter just stood there dumbly, speechless, with blank eyes, as if his brain held nothing but the image of that huge egg, bursting with countless pink fish eggs.
Uh... in his shock, there was none of the joy and excitement of a new father, only physiological and psychological disgust, and fear.
However, the Black Fish paid no notice to this. She placed the transparent egg on her waist and tenderly stroked it, removing the algae-scented mucus, like an ordinary mother lulling her child to sleep.
The scene was still silent, with only the barely discernible sounds of bug buzz and bird calls from outside the window, and the sound of flowing creek water.
"..."
The Governor coldly glanced at the egg, took a deep breath, and said indifferently, "I won’t allow the bloodline of the Taylor Family to exist in the world in this way."
"Wait a minute, Your Excellency, Governor, I suggest not to be too absolute in your words."
Li Ang interrupted the Governor.
All eyes focused on him. Li Ang, sitting with his legs crossed on a chair, lazily laced his fingers together and casually said, "My personal suggestion is to ask the Mermaid Princess carefully to see if there’s any information we’ve missed."
The Governor frowned deeply, his brooding eyes fixed on Li Ang. "What do you mean?"
Li Ang spread his hands. "Please don’t suspect me. I’m not a spy sent by your political enemies to gather evidence and wait for the opportunity to entrap you. The advice just now was simply a kind reminder from me as a Monk. I do not wish to see a tragedy occur, and detailed questioning can help to reduce the likelihood of misfortune."
The original Mermaid tale is an outright tragedy. The Mermaid, in order to see the prince again, sought a Magic Potion from the witch that would turn her fishtail into legs. After drinking it, the Mermaid found the prince on land, but because of the potion’s side effects, she couldn’t speak and could only watch as the prince, due to a misunderstanding, thought it was another girl who saved him and prepared to marry her. The heartbroken Mermaid boarded the ship back to the sea and heard her sisters say that they had traded their hair for a sword from the witch; only by killing the prince with the sword could she avoid turning into foam, thus avoiding death. The story’s ending, of course, is that the Mermaid couldn’t bring herself to do it and turned into colorful foam.
At first glance, it’s a purely poignant love story where lovers can’t be together, but some parts still raise doubts upon closer examination. For example, why is there a strange stipulation that only by killing the prince with a sword and smearing his blood on her feet can she return to being a mermaid? Why can the witch present a potion with significant side effects and also a sword with strange effects? And after the Mermaid’s death, will the Mermaid Kingdom wage a large-scale war against the land-dwellers? The original fairy tale isn’t lengthy, so these settings have to be filled in by the players themselves. Considering the description of this Black Fish, the undersea Mermaid Kingdom might be quite large. If well-utilized, it could greatly benefit the players in navigating the scenario. John Joyce and the others also understood Li Ang’s intentions; the sixth shard of the Magic Mirror was located in the waters near Rune Kingdom.
Li Ang coughed lightly twice, looked at the Black Fish, and casually asked, "Are there about... two hundred and seventy of these fish eggs?"
The Mermaid corrected, "Two hundred and seventy-three."
"When will they mature? What is the survival rate?"
"In four months. At that time, they will hatch, but they will still be within the eggshells, maintaining a tadpole-like form that is half human embryo and half fish. They will live inside the eggshells for two weeks, consuming the yolk sac, then eat the eggshells. After that, they can live in the ocean and receive protection from their tribe. We Mermaids have our own civilization, not uncivilized and rude beasts, and we can maintain a survival rate of over ninety-nine percent."
Li Ang nodded. "Are all Mermaids female?"
"During the stage of eating their eggshells, they will become females. At that time, they are only as long as a finger segment and need as much time as humans to grow. After sixteen years, they will have a fishtail 1.3 meters long, and only then can they leave their tribe’s residential area to go hunting under their mother’s guidance."
"Hmm..." Li Ang tapped the armrest of his chair. "Sixteen years, a ninety-nine percent survival rate... hasn’t your population—or rather, fish-population—exploded?"
"Are you suggesting that an excessive tribal population leads to a scarcity of resources, causing the downfall of our civilization?"
The Mermaid shook her head. "For us Mermaids, mating is an instinct, but breeding is a duty and responsibility. Only the most excellent individuals are allowed to lay eggs. Some Mermaids who do not meet the standard will voluntarily give up their right to reproduce and undergo surgery. Or, upon laying their eggs, they will actively destroy them."
"Wait a minute!"
The Governor’s wife had heard enough. She hugged her son’s trembling arm, her eyes, sharp as knives, moving back and forth between Li Ang and the Mermaid. "What are you doing? A biological study? We are discussing the future bloodline of the Taylor Family."
Li Ang glanced at the lady without speaking, but the Governor coughed lightly and called out his wife’s name, "Lisa, let them continue."
"What?"
The Governor’s wife looked incredulously at her husband. "Aren’t you supposed to order the arrest of this... this Mermaid, and this Eastern Monk who speaks nonsense?"
Li Ang laughed softly and sighed, casually saying, "If this Mermaid came from a primitive, barbaric, unintelligent, and sparsely populated tribe, then yes, it would be possible to arrest and secretly execute her. After all, a traditional pastime for nobles has been hunting the Jackalman Clan in the wild.
"However, respected Governor’s wife, please note: based on the Mermaid’s description, they can master a language fluently in a matter of months and possess incredible magical talents. Although their reproductive methods are bizarre, they are highly efficient. Imagine if each of them possessed Spellcaster abilities and a high rate of reproduction—that’s almost an entire legion of Spellcasters, with every member a combatant. Should the Mermaid civilization harbor any malice toward humans, the Rune Kingdom would face a terrifyingly formidable enemy. And the Taylor Family, by causing this crisis, would forever become the sinners of the Rune Kingdom and, indeed, all of humanity."
The Governor’s wife’s face turned instantly pale.
Those who climb to such a position might include fools unworthy of their status, but there will be no idiots incapable of weighing pros and cons.
Li Ang watched the Governor’s wife’s pallid expression, smiled, and said, "In other words, from that moment on, this is no longer a domestic ethical dispute, but a diplomatic incident with a non-human civilization that must be handled and resolved with caution."