MRG Chapter 34: The Blue Sea

Translator: Kii

Editor: EllieKit

“The user you have dialled is temporarily unavailable, please try again later…”

“Beep, beep, beep…”

The terminal received the system’s busy tone for the nth time.

Light hung up the call, the screen switching back to their chat interface. In the column of messages he had sent on the right, Mu Chen had not replied to any of them.

An hour ago, he was in a state where he was unreachable.

Because he couldn’t reach Mu Chen, Light could only ask Lance and Kuina, but the both of them said that Mu Chen wasn’t in his room, nor was he in the indoor lake. Except for when he saw Mu Chen when he returned, no one had seen him in the palace.

Kuina seemed to see worry in Light’s heart. She comforted him that maybe His Highness Mu Chen had gone into the sea, and it might not be convenient for him to check the terminal while swimming underwater.

But this did little to ease Light’s concern. Mu Chen rarely went out of his contact like this without reason. Even when he went to the sea, he would always answer his calls.

Light put down his terminal and rubbed the space between his eyebrows in exhaustion. He leaned back on the seat of the aircraft, his thin lips pressed into a line, and the sadness between his brows didn’t seem to be relieved.

The conversation with Kole from earlier reappeared in his mind. The other party said that when he left, Mu Chen took a lot of medicine to relieve the symptoms of the mating period, far exceeding the normal intake…

When he thought of this, Light furrowed his brows again.

Will his stomach be in pain after taking so much medication?

Listening to the whistling wind in his ears, he just hoped that the aircraft could go faster, so that it could reach the palace in the next second.

Mu Chen had always been healthy since he was young and rarely fell ill. The only time he did was when he got acute gastroenteritis from food poisoning. He vomited throughout the night, his face turning completely pale without a trace of color, which frightened Kuina terribly. At the time, Light was still at the border, but as soon as he heard the news, he took an aircraft back to the palace that very night. The entire journey, he was visibly unsettled. It wasn’t until he confirmed that Mu Chen’s condition had improved that the weight in his heart was finally lifted.

Such anxiousness was hard to describe; it was like having one’s heart hanging over a hot stove and being unable to calm down and think about anything else.

When Mu Chen raised his little face and threw himself into Light’s arms and said to him, “I’m sorry, I made you worry,” Light felt for the first time the concern and anxiety of a parent.

At the time, Light thought that after the little merman grew up, this anxious feeling would slowly ease, but as he sat in this aircraft heading to the palace at this moment, he suddenly realized that no matter how old Mu Chen was, he could not let go of this concern.

The scene when the little merman first came to the palace was still vivid in his mind, but in the blink of an eye, his mating period had arrived and ten years had passed in a flash.

Light’s elbows rested on the window sill, every detail of Mu Chen’s life since childhood emerged in his mind, and his thoughts gradually drifted away…

If he had known that the merman’s mating period was this painful, he should have prepared the other party in advance, and perhaps the sudden loss of contact today would not have happened.

Kole said that the inhibitor he gave Mu Chen could delay the mating period by about a month, so does he have to find a partner within this month?

But once a merfolk forms a bond with a human, they could only have this one partner for the rest of their life. But what if he finds out after marking that the other person wasn’t a good match?

Just thinking about the possibility that someone might deceive Mu Chen’s feelings, Light felt a fire burning in his heart, and his knuckles subconsciously clenched the armrest…

He was the crown prince, so if someone dared to treat Mu Chen badly, he didn’t mind using some of his privileges.

……

The moment the aircraft landed, Light opened the hatch and jumped down. He hurried to the palace entrance, causing a gust of wind wherever he passed.

Kuina was already standing at the entrance waiting for him.

Light took off his coat, then asked her, “You still haven’t found out where he is?”

“No, Your Highness.” Kuina shook his head.

Light frowned slightly. “Then have people search all the rooms.”

Kuina, “Yes, Your Highness.”

Although Light knew that the other person was unlikely to be there, he still held onto the idea of giving it a try and went to Mu Chen’s bedroom as soon as he returned to the palace.

But there were only schools of fish swimming back and forth in the artificial lake. The bedroom was empty, with no sign that anyone had been there.

Light sat on the edge of Mu Chen’s bed, holding his forehead in annoyance…

Where exactly did he go?

Could it be that he really went to the sea?

While Light was thinking, he felt a soft touch on his leg, as if something furry was rubbing against his leg.

Light furrowed his brows and lowered his head to look, only to see Cutie holding a toy in its mouth and wagging his tail excitedly, wanting him to play with it.

He rubbed its head. “I can’t right now.”

“Hng…” Cutie whimpered vaguely and touched Light’s knee with its mouth, obviously still unwilling to give up.

“Wait a min…”

Looking at Cutie with eyes full of expectation, Light’s expression suddenly froze. He seemed to remember something and put down his hand that was supporting his forehead. He took the ball from Cutie’s mouth with some hesitation, asking, “Do you want to play?”

“Arf!”

Want!

Cutie’s ears pricked up.

Light asked, “Do you want to eat beef?”

“Arf!”

I really want sobbbbbb!

It put its paws directly on Light’s knees and began to wag its tail desperately.

Light, “If you find where your owner is then I’ll give you some to eat.”

“Arf!”

Cutie blinked at Light, then rushed out so fast that Light didn’t have time to grab his leash.

……

“Arf! Arf! Arf!”

In front of the heavy palace door, Cutie scratched and clawed at the door, the upper half of its body stood up and threw itself on the door.

Light looked at his closed bedroom door. “Here?”

“Arf! Arf! Arf!”

He’s here, hurry and give me beef!

Cutie started circling around him.

Light hesitantly pushed the door handle, and in that instant, it felt as if a cold wave surged through the narrow gap in the door. Cutie seemed to sense some kind of danger, its ears pinned back as it shrank away outside the door. The excitement over the beef from earlier was completely gone, and it immediately retreated to a safe distance.

Light was so focused on how to find Mu Chen that he didn’t pay attention to Cutie’s reaction.

After opening the door, he was greeted by a sharp breath of ocean current, mixed with the faint wet and salty smell of the sea breeze, and then he saw the person lying on his bed.

Perhaps it wasn’t appropriate to describe Mu Chen as a “person” right now.

The visually conflicting scene in front of him made Light stand in a daze. His pupils suddenly contracted, and a rare moment of blankness appeared on his face, which always looked solemn and unsmiling.

The merman lay on his bed, dragging his over two-meter-long silver tail. Beside him, a messy pile of clothing of various kinds, scavenged from Light’s own wardrobe, was strewn about. From coats to shirts, the once-crisp fabrics were crumpled by Mu Chen’s hands, as if he were constructing some sort of fortress. Piece by piece, he stacked them together, building an unstable “nest.”

Mu Chen’s upper body was curled up in the narrow, cramped nest, while his long fishtail nearly took up the entire bed. The mist seeping from the gaps between his scales dampened the sheets beneath him. The finned ends of his tail, unable to find room on the bed, drooped to the floor. The silver-black tail fin, covered in shimmering scales, glinted faintly in the dim light, evoking an unbidden image of a dragon’s treasure hoard hidden deep within a mountain cave.

As if noticing the sound of movements coming from outside, the man lying on the bed opened his deep blue eyes.

Mu Chen’s face was extremely pale, except for a hint of red at the corners of his eyes. His silver hair fell from his shoulders, revealing his muscular body, which was as undulating as a Greek sculpture.

With a kind of magnificent and inviolable beauty of the outside world.

Although the scene before Light was completely beyond his expectations, he was still worried about Mu Chen’s current situation. He walked over to the bed and sat at the edge, placing the back of his hand on Mu Chen’s cheek, which felt hot.

“What’s wrong…are you uncomfortable anywhere?”

However, the moment their skin touched, the latter’s pupils suddenly shrank. Mu Chen unconsciously shrank back, avoiding Light’s touch.

“Gege…can you please go out first?”

Mu Chen’s voice sounded particularly hoarse, the veins of his forehead throbbed slightly, almost as if trying hard to suppress something.

But Light didn’t hear the warning in his words, he gazed at Mu Chen’s extremely pale complexion and felt uncomfortable. He slightly leaned over and asked the other party, “If you feel unwell, how about getting a doctor to come over and have a look?”

Light’s tightly pursed thin lips were reflected in the merman’s dark blue eyes. He felt the familiar scent getting closer and closer, just like a great white shark smelling the scent of blood in the water. Mu Chen’s knuckles that were pinching the blanket were clenched faintly…

With a snap sound—

A string in his mind broke.

When Light was asking, a wet and slippery tail wrapped around his waist.

Light was completely caught off guard by the other’s movement. He was yanked forward abruptly, losing his balance and falling onto the inner side of the mattress. A cold, slick sensation repeatedly rubbed against the inside of his thigh through a thin layer of fabric. Light’s pupils contracted sharply, a jolt like fire raced up his spine, and even his toes instinctively tensed.

If he looked carefully, he would notice there was a thin layer of red on the back of his neck.

Mu Chen’s fish tail was between Light’s legs. The more than two-meter-long fishtail was more powerful than Light had imagined, winding all the way from the waist down to his calves.

Light took into consideration that Mu Chen might feel unwell, so he only struggled a little. As a result, the fishtail suddenly tightened, and the fishtail covered with hard scales pressed against his most sensitive part.

“…Mm.”

A breath spilled out of the depths of his throat beyond his control.

Light’s fingertips unconsciously left deep and shallow marks on the bed sheet. He calmed his breathing, raised his eyes slightly and met with the merman’s deep eyes. Before he realized it, Mu Chen’s fishtail had drawn him closer to the merman.

The two were facing each other while lying down. Mu Chen’s hot breath fell on Light’s lips.

He was like a spider hiding in a dark cave weaving a web, watching the prey fall into his carefully laid trap little by little, and then slowly tightening the web.

Light bit his own lips, and he spoke in an unsteady tone that seemed like he was suppressing something, “You…let go of your tail, okay?”

Mu Chen looked at the other party who couldn’t move, and a smile emerged in his heart.

Even though you’re already feeling really uncomfortable because of my tail, you still spoke to me in such a negotiating tone. You’re really easy to bully, Gege.

When he thought of this, a flicker of obscure and unreadable light flashed in Mu Chen’s deep blue eyes, and an increasingly bad idea gradually emerged in his mind.

Then what if I don’t let go?

Gege always likes to indulge me, would Gege really be angry at me?