The noise outside immediately drew the attention of the palace.
"Princess Shirahoshi!"
A group of guards came rushing down the corridor with their weapons drawn but the moment they arrived, they stopped.
Several members of the Flying Pirates were sprawled across the floor unconscious.
A large patch of blood covered the wall and Shiki stood in front of the tower door as if nothing had happened.
"Lord Shiki!"
"What happened here?!"
Before Shiki could answer, another group arrived from behind them.
"Shiki!"
Nami, Vivi, and Robin pushed through the guards.
Nami quickly looked around.
"The Flying Pirates?"
"Yeah."
Shiki jerked his chin toward the blood-smeared wall.
"That idiot Decken finally crawled out of hiding."
Nami's eyes immediately sharpened.
"Decken?"
She looked at the bloodstain, then back at Shiki.
"Is he dead?"
"Obviously."
Shiki gave her a strange look.
Nami let out a long breath.
"Good."
They had already searched for Vander Decken after the battle, but the bastard had hidden himself somewhere and disappeared.
She had been annoyed that they couldn't find him.
Who would have thought he would come straight to Shiki instead?
"Saved us the trouble of hunting him down."
Vivi looked toward the Hard-Shell Tower.
"So Princess Shirahoshi is finally safe."
Robin smiled faintly.
"It seems he chose the worst possible time to come here."
"More like the worst possible person to come after."
Nami crossed her arms.
That idiot had practically delivered himself to his executioner.
With Vander Decken dead, there was no reason to keep standing around.
He shrugged and calmly continued forward until he reached the door to Shirahoshi's room.
Nami followed him, only to notice the axes and other weapons embedded around the entrance.
She immediately slowed down.
"What is this place? Why does the entrance look so creepy?"
A chill ran down her spine, and she instinctively grabbed Shiki's arm.
Vivi looked around as well.
"All of these were thrown at the princess?"
"Pretty much."
Shiki reached for the door.
"Let's go in."
He pushed it open.
Inside, Shirahoshi heard the noise and immediately sat upright on her bed in alarm.
Her wide blue eyes turned toward the doorway.
Shiki had returned but this time, three unfamiliar women had come with him.
Shirahoshi wasn't the only one surprised.
Nami, Vivi, and Robin all stopped the moment they saw her.
They had heard plenty of stories about the Mermaid Princess, but seeing her in person was something else entirely.
Her long pink hair fell around her enormous figure, while her clear blue eyes gave her an almost childlike gentleness.
"She's... so beautiful..."
Nami stared at Shirahoshi, momentarily forgetting what she had been about to say.
Vivi blinked several times.
"So this is Princess Shirahoshi..."
Even Robin's eyes showed a trace of amazement, though she recovered faster than the other two.
There was no exaggeration in the rumors surrounding the Mermaid Princess.
"Yeah."
Shiki nodded and walked toward the bed.
"So? Have you decided?"
Shirahoshi didn't answer.
Instead, she looked at Shiki, then turned her curious gaze toward the three women behind him.
Her bright blue eyes were practically overflowing with questions.
Shiki sighed.
At this rate, she wasn't going to listen until he introduced them.
"This is Nami, Vivi, and Robin."
He pointed toward them one after another.
"They're my companions."
Then he glanced toward Megalo.
"And Megalo already knows them."
The moment Megalo was mentioned, Shirahoshi visibly relaxed.
Megalo quickly swam around the three women as well, happily confirming Shiki's words.
"They're your companions?"
Shirahoshi looked at Shiki with sparkling eyes.
Then her gaze lingered curiously on Nami.
For some reason, the orange-haired girl gave her a strangely familiar feeling.
She couldn't explain why.
Shiki didn't dwell on it.
"So, have you decided?"
He lightly tapped his foot against the floor and floated upward until he was directly in front of Shirahoshi's face.
Shirahoshi jumped at his sudden movement and instinctively leaned backward.
Nami blinked.
Seeing Shiki floating in front of the enormous Mermaid Princess made the difference in their size look even more ridiculous.
If a certain woman-loving cook had been here, he probably wouldn't have survived the sight.
"I'm sorry..."
Shirahoshi tightly clutched the blanket in both hands and lowered her head.
"I still can't go outside."
"Why?"
Shiki tilted his head.
"Don't you have somewhere you want to go?"
He scratched the side of his head.
Girls really were troublesome.
Even going outside somehow required this much thought.
"But..."
Shirahoshi's expression became gloomy.
"If I leave without permission, I'll cause trouble for everyone."
"Didn't I already tell you?"
Shiki sighed, deliberately softening his voice.
"I'm here."
Shirahoshi looked up.
"No matter what happens, I'll stay with you and protect you."
Her eyes trembled slightly.
For a moment, she seemed caught between fear and hope.
Standing nearby, Nami narrowed her eyes.
"That sounds awfully familiar..."
Shiki had once told her something very similar.
Robin glanced at her and smiled.
"But he kept that promise, didn't he?"
"He always does when it matters."
Nami lowered her gaze, and her expression softened.
That was true.
Shiki had never broken a promise he'd made to her.
"Um..."
Shirahoshi struggled with herself for a long while before finally looking at Shiki again.
Her eyes were already beginning to fill with tears.
"The Sea Forest..."
Shiki hadn't expected what happened next.
The moment Shirahoshi said it—
"Waaaaah!"
She burst into tears.
Huge droplets fell from her eyes and splashed across the floor.
"What the—?!"
Nami hurriedly jumped aside.
Vivi barely avoided another one.
"Those tears are huge!"
Robin calmly stepped out of the path of a third.
Shiki rubbed his forehead.
Why was this princess crying again?
Shirahoshi desperately wiped at her face.
"B-But that's only my dream! I can't be selfish and just leave whenever I want!"
"Why are you crying just because you told me where you want to go?"
Shiki scratched his head, completely at a loss.
"I'm sorry..."
Shirahoshi sniffled miserably.
"It took me so much courage to say it... Please don't be angry with me."
She looked at him with teary eyes.
"Lord Shiki is so scary..."
Then...
"Waaaaah!"
She started crying all over again.
Nami stared at her, completely dumbfounded.
"What is with this Mermaid Princess?"
Vivi looked helplessly at Shiki.
"You really should be a little gentler with her."
"Shiki."
Robin smiled.
"Try not to make girls cry."
"Tch. What a pain."
Shiki scratched his head again.
It wasn't as though he wanted to make her cry.
He just couldn't understand why she kept doing it.
Perhaps sensing his growing exasperation, Shirahoshi finally managed to stop.
She sniffled several times before looking at him again.
"I've always wanted to visit the Sea Forest."
Her voice gradually grew quieter.
"For the last ten years... I've wanted to go there."
"But everyone always told me that the outside was dangerous."
Shirahoshi lowered her gaze.
"And I'm... really scared of going outside."
She hesitated before looking back at him.
"Lord Shiki..."
"Can you really take me outside?"
"Yes."
Shiki nodded.
He had already told her that several times.
"Can you really protect me?"
Shirahoshi still sounded uncertain.
"Leave it to me."
Shiki smiled.
"You'll be fine."
There was no hesitation in his voice.
To him, protecting Shirahoshi from anything waiting outside was hardly worth worrying about.
Shirahoshi stared at him.
Her brilliant blue eyes slowly lit up.
She couldn't explain why, but seeing how unconcerned Shiki was made the fear in her heart feel a little smaller.
For the first time, hope began to push past it.
A smile appeared on Shirahoshi's face.
But as that smile grew—
Shiki's expression changed.
He silently floated backward.
Because Shirahoshi's eyes were filling with tears again.
"Hey."
Shiki pointed at her.
"If you start crying again, I'm really not taking you."
"Mmph!"
Shirahoshi immediately clamped her mouth shut and desperately held back her tears.
Nami, Vivi, and Robin all released small sighs of relief.
At least they wouldn't have to dodge another downpour.
Then Shiki suddenly remembered something.
He had absolutely no idea how to get to the Sea Forest.
If they were actually going there, Shirahoshi would have to lead the way.
"You know how to get there, right?"
"Yes."
Shirahoshi nodded immediately.
Of course she knew the way.
The harder part was actually getting her out of the Hard-Shell Tower.
She hesitated at the doorway several times, stopping whenever she came close to crossing it.
Nami and Vivi stayed nearby and patiently encouraged her, while Robin watched with a small smile.
Shiki, on the other hand, simply waited.
After being confined inside the same room for eight years, taking that final step was much harder for Shirahoshi than anyone else could understand.
Eventually, she gathered enough courage.
Slowly, the Mermaid Princess passed through the entrance of the Hard-Shell Tower.
Once her entire body was outside, she stopped.
For eight years, that door had separated her from the rest of the world.
Now it was behind her.
Shirahoshi remained still for several moments, staring at the corridor in front of her.
It was only a hallway inside Ryugu Palace, but to her, almost everything looked new.
She watched soldiers moving in the distance, schools of fish passing beyond the palace windows, bubbles drifting through the water, and the colorful coral decorations lining the corridors.
At first, she remained close to Shiki.
Every now and then, her eyes would nervously move toward the surrounding passages, as though expecting another weapon to suddenly come flying toward her.
Nothing happened.
Vander Decken was already dead.
There would be no more axes chasing her through the palace.
Little by little, Shirahoshi began to relax.
Her fear slowly gave way to curiosity.
Before long, she was looking everywhere at once.
Things that Nami, Vivi, Robin, and Shiki barely paid attention to were enough to make Shirahoshi stop and stare.
The farther they traveled from Ryugu Palace, the stranger the white clouds drifting overhead seemed to become.
Their shapes twisted and stretched in all sorts of unusual ways, and Shirahoshi stared up at them with sparkling eyes.
"That one looks like an octopus! And that one looks like a pufferfish! Oh! That one looks like a mackerel!"
She pointed excitedly from one cloud to another, sounding as though she had discovered something incredible each time.
Nami looked up as well.
Having lived on the surface for most of her life, she had seen countless clouds before, but Shirahoshi's excitement was strangely contagious.
"You really do see fish in everything."
Nami smiled before pointing toward another cluster of clouds.
"Look over there. That one looks like a village."
She quickly found another.
"And that one looks like an orange... that one looks like a windmill... and that one almost looks like a nautical chart."
Shiki glanced between the two of them, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly.
Somehow, the two of them had become completely absorbed in the same childish game.
They were simply seeing whatever they liked most in every cloud they passed.
Robin and Vivi followed behind them, quietly watching the scene with amused smiles.
However, Shirahoshi's cheerful expression suddenly changed.
Her gaze had fallen upon an enormous white cloud drifting slowly through the sky.
For some reason, she stopped moving.
The excitement in her eyes disappeared.
Her expression gradually became lonely, and before long, her large blue eyes began to redden.
Nami immediately noticed.
Her smile stiffened.
"Huh?"
She instinctively took half a step back.
She hadn't said anything wrong, had she?
Seeing Shirahoshi's eyes rapidly filling with tears, Nami quickly turned toward Shiki and gave him a helpless look.
Shiki frowned slightly.
"What's wrong?"
"Father..."
Shirahoshi's voice trembled.
Sure enough, in the very next moment, she covered her face with both hands as tears began spilling down her cheeks.
"Whenever I think about how worried Father must be back at the palace right now, I..."
Her voice broke off as she began crying.
Nami stared at her helplessly.
She had only been happily looking at clouds a moment ago.
How had things changed this quickly?
After being confined inside the Hard-Shell Tower for eight years, Shirahoshi had finally gathered enough courage to leave Ryugu Palace.
Of course Neptune would be worried.
And Shirahoshi, despite desperately wanting to see the outside world, was still the kind of person who would worry about her family the moment she had enough time to think.
Before anyone could comfort her, however, a loud voice suddenly came from behind them.
"SHIRAHOSHI!"
Shirahoshi froze.
Her hands slowly lowered from her face.
That voice...
"Father?"
She immediately turned around.
In the distance, King Neptune was hurrying toward them.
The moment Shirahoshi saw him, her already tear-filled eyes widened.
"Father!"
She rushed toward him.
Neptune barely had time to stop before Shirahoshi threw her arms around him.
"Father!"
"Shirahoshi!"
Neptune hugged his daughter tightly.
For several seconds, neither of them said anything.
Then—
"WAAAAAAAH!"
The two of them burst into tears at almost exactly the same time.
"Father! I'm sorry! I left the palace without telling you!"
"Shirahoshi! You finally came outside!"
"I was worried you would be worried about me!"
"Of course I was worried!"
After a while, Neptune finally managed to calm himself.
He released Shirahoshi and looked carefully over his daughter from head to tail, making certain she had not been injured.
Seeing that she was completely unharmed, the tension in his expression finally eased.
Shirahoshi wiped her tears away before looking back toward Shiki.
"Lord Shiki..."
She lowered her head.
"Thank you."
Neptune followed her gaze.
His expression became serious.
He already understood what had happened.
Shiki had protected Shirahoshi before, and now he had even given her the courage to finally leave the place where she had been hiding for eight years.
Neptune lowered his head as well.
"Shiki... you have my gratitude."
Shiki waved a hand dismissively.
"There's no need to make such a big deal out of it."
Shirahoshi looked at him for a moment before smiling through the last traces of her tears.
Before returning to the palace, they accompanied Shirahoshi to the Sea Forest, where she finally stood before her mother's grave for the first time in ten years.
She remained there quietly for a long while, paying her respects to Queen Otohime and fulfilling the wish she had carried in her heart all those years.
Not long afterward, Shiki, Nami, Robin, and Vivi returned to Ryugu Palace with Shirahoshi and Neptune.
They did not remain on Fish-Man Island for much longer.
Their journey had never been meant to end there.
When the time finally came for them to leave, Shirahoshi accompanied them as far as she could.
She watched the four of them prepare to depart, clearly reluctant to see them go.
Her fingers intertwined nervously in front of her.
"Are you really leaving already?"
Nami smiled.
"We can't stay here forever."
Shirahoshi lowered her head slightly.
"Oh..."
Seeing her expression, Shiki spoke before she could start crying again.
"We'll come back."
Shirahoshi immediately looked up.
Shiki continued calmly.
"And next time, we'll take you to the surface with us."
For a moment, Shirahoshi simply stared at him.
Then her eyes lit up.
"The surface...?"
Nami grinned.
"You wanted to see it, didn't you?"
Vivi nodded.
"There are plenty of things up there you've never seen before."
Robin smiled as well.
"I think you'll enjoy it."
Shirahoshi's face brightened more and more with every word.
The sadness from a moment ago vanished completely.
"Really?"
Shiki nodded.
"Really."
A brilliant smile spread across Shirahoshi's face.
She raised one enormous hand and began waving enthusiastically as they departed.
"Lord Shiki! Nami! Robin! Vivi!"
Her voice carried after them.
"I'll be waiting!"
Shiki glanced back once.
Nami and Vivi waved in return, while Robin raised one hand with a gentle smile.
Behind them, Shirahoshi continued waving with all her strength.
This time, there were no tears on her face.
Only a bright smile and eyes filled with hope.
--------------------------------------
Support me at patreon.com/Arthorain and read upto 50 Advanced Chapters and R-18 Content!
--------------------------------------
Update schedule: 7 chapters/week
Every 300 power stones = 1 Extra Chapter
By voting with [power stones], you can easily get double the number of chapters.