At the edge of the shell bed, a head with long, black hair slowly rose into view, careful and deliberate.
It was none other than Helektra, now called Hysilens.
Like a cat eyeing its prey, she clung to the shell's edge, revealing only her pair of sparkling indigo eyes, her gaze cautious yet filled with curiosity as she quietly peeked inside.
"Up this early today, Hysilens?"
Lucian ultimately closed his eyes again before asking lazily, his tone unhurried, as if he had expected her presence all along.
"Kya!"
Hysilens exclaimed in surprise, her body jolting as she jumped back in fright, then she let out a small, helpless sigh while patting her chest as if to steady her racing heartbeat.
"How did you know it was me?"
Hearing her question, Lucian opened his eyes again and slightly turned his head to look at her, his expression calm and faintly amused.
"I mean, other than you, who would come grab the edge of my bed every day?"
At this somewhat blunt answer, Hysilens's fair face instantly flushed red, and even the tips of her ears became faintly pink.
"I... I brought breakfast!"
Hysilens hurriedly raised her hand, showing a tray filled with several fruits wrapped in oversized bubbles.
All the fruits were round and pink, their smooth surfaces glistening softly beneath the artificial lights, while a faint, sweet fragrance slowly drifted through the room.
"I especially went up to the shore to pick them for you, they're really sweet!"
As she spoke, Hysilens carefully offered one of the bubbles forward as if she were presenting some precious treasure, making it drift gently through the water until it floated right in front of Lucian.
Lucian raised his brows slightly before reaching out and lightly poking the bubble with his finger.
In an instant, the thin bubble burst apart with a soft pop, and the fruit sealed inside immediately dropped into his palm, cool and slightly moist to the touch.
He took a bite without hesitation, and in that instant, a rich sweetness instantly spread throughout his mouth, while the abundant juice flowed out together with the soft flesh of the fruit, leaving behind an especially refreshing taste.
He had to admit that the flavor was unexpectedly good.
As for how he could eat and move around so naturally without using Imaginary energy to shield himself from the seawater like before, it was because the shell bed he was currently in had been specially designed by him to completely isolate itself from the surrounding seawater, making the area around it completely dry and entirely free of seawater, almost no different from living on land.
Maybe the only real drawback was the complete lack of sunlight, which was why the entire room relied entirely on artificial light sources for illumination.
"It's good, right?"
Hysilens asked Lucian while looking at him expectantly, her bright eyes carrying a faint trace of anticipation.
"Umu, it's good."
Hearing Lucian's honest answer, a happy and satisfied smile immediately emerged on Hysilens's face as she happily popped another bubble herself and ate the pink fruit inside it in small bites, as though she was carefully savoring its sweet and delicate taste.
Soon, a bit of fruit juice stained the corner of her lips, and Lucian, who noticed it, reflexively reached out with his finger and very naturally and gently wiped away the juice at the edge of her mouth.
With a soft and careful movement, his warm fingertip lightly brushed against her slightly cool skin, causing Hysilens's body to tremble faintly as if she had been numbed by a small electric current. Even the tips of her ears twitched slightly from the unexpected contact.
"Th-Thank you..."
Hysilens quickly lowered her head and muttered shyly as she felt her heart beating slightly faster than before, the soft and restless thumping audible only to herself.
Even though it was merely the simple act of wiping away fruit juice, she still couldn't help but feel warm and ticklish sensations quietly spreading inside her heart when that happened. A strange sense of sweetness lingered in her chest, making her feel both embarrassed and inexplicably happy at the same time.
After a few moments of silence, Hysilens secretly glanced up, only to discover that Lucian was silently looking at her with a gentle yet slightly teasing smile in his eyes, as though he had already noticed her flustered reaction.
In that instant, her face immediately reddened like a ripe apple, and even the movement of her fish tail became slightly stiff.
"I... I'll go check on the coral outside!"
Hysilens hurriedly found an excuse, then her fish tail flicked in a panic as she darted away in a flash, leaving behind a string of flustered little bubbles drifting through the water.
Lucian silently watched her retreating figure disappear into the distance, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly upward into a faint smile.
Clearly, the sea siren princess was genuinely feeling shy.
===
At noon, Hysilens came to Lucian's room again, but this time she was dragging along a huge shell that looked almost like a small bathtub, its smooth surface glimmering faintly beneath the underwater light.
"Lucian! Look!"
While pulling the heavy shell across the floor, Hysilens exclaimed excitedly before proudly showing him the colorful, glittering little stones piled inside it.
"Aren't they pretty?"
Hysilens quickly picked up a golden stone before holding it up beneath the glowing coral nearby, causing the crystal-like surface of the stone to refract a dazzling and radiant light throughout the room.
"Yeah, pretty."
Lucian, who was sitting leisurely on a coral chair, glanced at the stone and replied with a small smile.
"Mm, this one's for you!"
Hysilens nodded happily before handing the golden stone over to him.
"For me?"
"Mm, for you," Hysilens replied with a bright smile, nodding her head hard. "It's the brightest one I have."
Lucian reached out and took the stone, feeling its smooth and slightly warm texture through his fingers, along with the faint warmth that still lingered from Hysilens's body after she had been holding it for so long.
"Why give it to me, though?"
Lucian asked curiously while carefully inspecting the stone's entire surface, occasionally turning it beneath the coral light to observe the golden glow reflected from within it.
"Because..." Hysilens paused for a moment, her face turning a little red once again as her gaze awkwardly shifted away. "Because you're the Ocean King! And... And it also looks like your golden eyes!"
Clearly, the reason had been awkwardly made up on the spot, and it was obvious enough that anyone could immediately see through it, but Lucian, who had already understood the real meaning from miles away, simply smiled faintly and decided not to comment on it or expose her embarrassment.
"Thank you."
Lucian closed his fingers around the stone and smiled gently as he thanked Hysilens, whose eyes immediately curved into beautiful crescents in response, visibly delighted that he had accepted the stone she had chosen for him.
"By the way, this one looks nice too... and this one's shaped like a star..."
Hysilens picked up another stone and enthusiastically introduced her stone collection to him one by one, her voice carrying obvious excitement as she carefully showed him the different shapes and colors she had gathered.
"..."
Lucian quietly listened at her side with a gentle smile resting on his face, occasionally giving a soft response here and there while watching her animated expression.
As Hysilens continued talking enthusiastically without stopping, she unconsciously moved closer and sat down beside Lucian, right next to him, very, very close to him, causing her faint scent of sea breeze mixed with warm sunlight to slowly drift over toward him along with the soft movement of her hair.
He had to admit that she truly smelled good.
After talking about her stones for a while longer, Lucian soon saw Hysilens carefully pick up a pink, heart-shaped stone from the pile in front of her.
"Ah, this one's the most special! It's like..."
Hysilens suddenly got stuck and paused in the middle of her sentence.
"Like what?"
Lucian asked with slightly raised brows as he looked at her curiously.
Hysilens opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but closed it again before secretly shifting her gaze from the heart-shaped stone toward Lucian.
In that instant, her heart suddenly started beating rapidly once again.
'Like... Like the thing drawn in human books... the thing that represents liking someone?'
Hysilens answered inwardly, yet did not dare say the words out loud, feeling far too embarrassed to explain it herself.
"Hey, like what?"
Lucian pressed further, asking again when he saw Hysilens suddenly fall silent.
"Nothing!"
Hysilens hurriedly stuffed the heart-shaped stone back into the shell, trying to hide it away before Lucian could look at it any longer.
"It's just... It's just like the stars you described to me before—the ones beyond the sky..."
Looking at her trying so hard to awkwardly argue her way out of it while avoiding his gaze, Lucian almost laughed out loud.
"Hmm, really?" Lucian asked casually before leaning back lazily in the chair. "Well, someday I'll take you to see real stars."
"Really?" Hysilens smoothly changed the subject without hesitation. "Can you take us to see the Xianzhou, to see the Dreamscape, to see the living planet you mentioned before?"
"Us?" Lucian asked, raising his brows slightly in surprise. "You mean everyone together?"
"Mm..." Hysilens nodded softly before lowering her gaze slightly. "If my family can't go with me, then I don't want to see any stars..."
Upon hearing this, Lucian paused briefly for a moment before letting out a soft sigh and revealing a helpless smile.
"Yes, but we'll have to wait... wait until I'm fully ready... but it might take a very long time..."
Lucian spoke with a rare seriousness in his voice, his expression looking unusually thoughtful and solemn, as if he were already considering something far ahead in the distant future.
Aside from Hysilens, he could not guarantee that everyone else who was not his follower could be fully materialized in reality, since the chance of the script affecting reality itself was entirely random and impossible to predict.
Besides, even if they were successfully materialized in reality, they would still exist inside the Scepter δ-me13, still merely a segment of data rather than a true and complete lifeform with genuine existence.
In other words, he could only truly deal with this problem after obtaining the Scepter itself, since with it, he would possess everyone's complete code data, making Hysilens's wish far easier to fulfill than it was now.
Seeing Lucian lost in thought, with a deep frown tightly adorning his face, Hysilens gently reached out and grabbed his hand with both of hers.
"It's okay... No matter how long it takes, it's fine. We have very long lives anyway. We can keep waiting for you until you're ready to take us to see the stars."
Hysilens's sudden, gentle, and understanding words immediately brushed against Lucian's troubled heart like a soft feather, quietly soothing some of the pressure and exhaustion that had been weighing heavily on his mind.
Lucian froze for a brief moment before slowly turning his eyes toward Hysilens, who was quietly looking back at him as well, her beautiful eyes filled with concern and sincerity.
As soon as their eyes reflected each other's figures, the atmosphere around them gradually grew quiet and strangely intimate, with only the soft sound of flowing water faintly echoing outside the room, making the silence between them feel even more delicate and ambiguous.
Hysilens was ultimately the first to blush beneath his intense and unwavering gaze.
In the next moment, she quickly looked away and lowered her head in embarrassment, her slender fingers nervously fiddling with the hem of her dress while her heartbeat quietly began to accelerate.
Seeing her cute and shy reaction, Lucian ultimately let out a helpless sigh as a faint smile slowly appeared on his face before he gently reached out and grabbed Hysilens's soft hand in return, his movements carrying an unconscious gentleness that even he himself didn't notice.
"Before that, you gotta go up to the shore and learn how to live among humans first. C'mon, I'll take you to live on land... just the two of us."
In Hysilens's ears, Lucian's words and actions at this moment carried an impact no less than a direct confession.
As a result, Hysilens, not expecting him to say so straightforwardly that he wanted to live alone with her, completely froze as her eyes widened, while her originally calm mind instantly fell into chaos.
"I-I-I-I..."
Hysilens stammered for a long while, her lips trembling slightly as she struggled to form a complete sentence, until Lucian finally cut her off.
"What's wrong?" Lucian asked with a gentle smile. "You don't wanna live on land, or you don't wanna go with me?"
Hearing this, Hysilens hurriedly shook her head over and over again, her long hair swaying wildly from the movement.
"No! It's just... It's just that I was too surprised... I want it... I want to go live on land with you..."
At those words, Lucian couldn't help but reveal a slightly confused expression.
Why did this suddenly feel like a proposal?
Wasn't he just planning to take her out to see the world outside?
For some reason, the atmosphere had somehow become strangely ambiguous.
In the end, not bothering to dwell on it any further, Lucian simply stood up from his coral chair, his hand still firmly holding Hysilens's soft hand.
"Let's go."
And so, without further ado, Lucian directly pulled Hysilens along by the hand to find Phagousa and make the necessary arrangements for her departure from the sea.
Meanwhile, Hysilens, who had never once imagined that the Ocean King would personally take the initiative to invite her to live together with him on land, merely followed behind him in a daze, her mind still feeling somewhat blank from the overwhelming surprise.
Even now, she still found herself repeatedly questioning whether all of this was truly real.
It couldn't be helped.
Among the countless sea sirens that existed throughout the ocean, she alone had received such uniquely special treatment from the Ocean King himself.
How could she possibly not feel shocked by this?
A short while later, after walking through the palace corridors together, the two eventually arrived at Phagousa's quarters, where Lucian immediately began explaining his plan to them.
"I see..."
After hearing Lucian's plan, Phagousa nodded thoughtfully for a moment before slowly smiling and speaking up.
"Actually, I was just about to talk to you about that. Earlier, the people of Styxia were praying to me nonstop. Apparently, the River of Souls is rising and has already begun threatening the safety of the entire city-state. And the source behind all of this—"
Before Phagousa could finish revealing the cause, Lucian calmly continued their words as though he had already known the answer from the very beginning.
"Because the Death Titan died at the gate of Styxia, right?" Lucian said casually, as though what he had just mentioned were nothing more than a trivial matter. "Thanks to that, the River of Souls has started converging toward their corpse. At this rate, sooner or later, the whole river's gonna overflow and flood the city."
"You already knew that?" Phagousa asked in surprise, blinking several times before eventually giving a helpless smile. "Well, as expected of you... I really shouldn't have been surprised in the first place."
Why did Lucian know about it?
Naturally, aside from the knowledge he possessed from the game itself, it was also because he had personally experienced this exact situation before within Castorice's script.
"Well, this works out perfectly," Lucian said with a light shrug. "I'm gonna take Hysilens to live on land for a while anyway, so I'll handle this stuff along the way."
To others, this problem was extraordinarily difficult to solve, even for Phagousa themself, since there was simply no way for them to deal with the Death Titan's corpse or the terrifying authority surrounding it.
However, for Lucian, it was merely a matter of using the Godly Bandage.
"Having you become our king back then was truly the right decision."
After hearing that Lucian was capable of handling the problem Styxia was currently facing, Phagousa felt even more strongly that there was always someone beyond oneself, a sky beyond the sky.
Phagousa then slowly shifted their gaze away from Lucian and toward Hysilens.
"Helektra, please take good care of the Ocean King. He is our only hope."
"Yes, Mother. I swear I'll protect him with my life!"
Hysilens exclaimed solemnly without the slightest hesitation, her gaze firm and completely determined.
Lucian merely watched the two of them silently from the side, not wanting to ruin the atmosphere between them by objecting or saying anything regarding Hysilens's claim that she would use her own life to protect him. No matter what happened in the future, he obviously would never allow such a thing to happen.
Just like that, after a brief conversation inside the quarters, Lucian left together with Hysilens to begin making the necessary preparations.
Phagousa could naturally tell that Lucian treated Hysilens differently, caring for her far more than he did the other sea sirens, but in their eyes, that was not a bad thing at all.
As long as Hysilens liked Lucian, they were naturally more than happy to see the two of them together, especially considering that Lucian was not only their savior but also someone capable of sheltering all the sea sirens from the terrifying black tide.
Having him gradually become entangled with Hysilens and grow even closer to her was definitely a good thing.
===
[A bonus chapter for every 500 Power Stones.]
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