Chapter 190: Hook, Line, And Sunk?
Chapter 190: Hook, Line, And Sunk?
The physical discrepancies between my own anatomy and Owen’s were a mystery to me in terms of exact measurements, but one look at Ariel confirmed the gap was monumental. Her furious tirade died instantly, her jaw dropping and her eyes stretching wide as she stared down at the sheer scale of the "submarine" I was preparing to dock.
Panicking, my Espionage skill clashed with my naturally chaotic mouth, throwing my vocal cords into a desperate overdrive. I started shooting off at the mouth on pure autopilot.
"Surprise, honey!" I blurted, my voice cracking slightly. "I was actually waiting for the perfect moment to tell you about the groundbreaking new medical supplement that Loki Sky and I developed for the men of the Balder Kingdom!"
Buzz~!
I reached into my Storage Ring and blindly snatched a random medicine vial, pulling it into the open. I nearly choked on my own saliva. Nestled in my palm was yet another bottle of those distinct, glowing pink pills. I could have sworn I gave Owen my only supply, but there was no time to second-guess my inventory. The curtain was up, and the performance had to go on.
"Ahem—" I cleared my throat, puffing out my chest. "This is our latest crowning achievement: the Root-Strengthening Sky-Ruler Pill! You’re well aware of how absurdly potent Loki Sky is, right? The man is practically seeding the continent and making super babies everywhere. Well, this is his ultimate secret. He handed it over to me as a profound apology gift for, uh, stealing my wives. So..."
Rattle~
I gave the glass bottle a quick, dramatic shake before quickly shoving the hazardous aphrodisiacs back into the depths of my ring. I prayed to whatever gods were listening that I would genuinely forget they existed this time.
But I had made a fatal, catastrophic miscalculation.
When you find yourself deep within an underwater kingdom populated entirely by hyper-sexualized mermaids, there are two things you should never, under any circumstances, advertise: possessing a leviathan-class member, and holding the keys to absolute fertility. Doing so is an invitation to a never-ending storm. It was a mistake that was going to thoroughly screw me over later.
"So that is why my husband Loki is so monstrously big and managed to get me pregnant in a single night?"
I turned, hoping to see my wife Opal backing up my desperate deception. Instead, she was actively loading the cannons to sink my battleship. A wicked, mischievous glint danced in her bright blue eyes as she leaned forward.
"Tell me, what exactly is the secret ingredient for this male-enlarging, high-fertility miracle pill?"
My mind raced. Thanks to my Alchemy and Pill Concocting skills, over a thousand rare medicinal herbs flashed through my thoughts in a fraction of a second. But surrounded by the heavy, humid scent of the ocean and predatory sea beauties, my brain short-circuited. I blurted out the first thing that connected my current surroundings to the lie.
"Mermaid Tears! The core matrix of the pill relies entirely on pure Mermaid Tears. In fact, if a man ingests the pill and simultaneously consumes fresh Mermaid Tears, his fertility rates skyrocket exponentially. That is precisely how Loki Sky knocked you up in one evening, cough!"
Slap~!
I smacked my own cheek in sheer frustration. My chaotic mouth had run so far off the rails that it had accidentally dragged a piece of actual, unfiltered truth into the fabrication.
"Ah?! No, wait! Forget I said that!" I panicked, waving my hands frantically. "You girls cannot breathe a word of this to anyone! The pills, the physiological enhancements, the Mermaid Tears trick—this absolutely must remain a secret between us!"
But the damage was done. July, who was still flushed, sticky, and thoroughly dripping from the heavy creampie I had just pumped inside her, sat up abruptly. The raw emotion of the moment, combined with the prospect of eternal fertility, overwhelmed her. Tears swelled in her eyes and spilled down her flushed cheeks.
"My Owen," she whimpered, her breath coming in hot, husky gasps as she wrapped her arms tightly around my neck. "Lick them fresh right now!"
Lick~!
With Ariel still watching me from the side with a deeply skeptical, evaluating gaze, I had no choice but to lean down and press my tongue to July's wet cheeks. Tasting the salt of her tears sent a shiver through my spine, but the act made her face light up with a radiant, blissful smile.
Seeing this, May let out a soft cry of pure joy. Her own eyes welled up as she aggressively gripped my jaw, pulling my face directly against her damp skin.
"Neptune, lick me too~!" she begged.
I obliged, dragging my tongue across her cheek, fully aware that this snowballing delusion was going to drag me straight into an avalanche.
Standing nearby, Opal watched the entire display with a knowing, thoroughly entertained grin. "Oh, look at the time. It is finally time for the grand banquet. I have a feeling tonight is going to be incredibly entertaining."
As we began the process of cleaning the sticky fluids off the women and getting dressed, I pulled Ariel to the side. She kept casting lingering, heavy glances downward at the massive leviathan I was trying to casually tuck away into my trousers. I kept up a steady stream of hushed bullshit, trying desperately to smooth over the physical discrepancies, but a sudden prickle at the back of my neck stopped me cold.
Across the room, Opal had pulled May West into a secluded corner. She was gesturing animatedly, her lips moving rapidly as she whispered intense, calculated instructions to the submissive mermaid.
Instantly, my Mundane Divination flared to life, sending a massive, spider-sense jolt of impending doom straight down my spine.
An hour later, the royal event began...
The scent of roasted deep-sea krakens and sweet kelp-wine filled the grand banquet hall, but the real star of the evening was The Father of Regrets. The exotic, potent sake Loki had brought along was flowing freely.
A hundred beautiful mermaids filled the room, their laughter echoing off the coral arches. Among them, a dozen specific mermaids were already blushing, whispering, and casting stolen, heated glances at the head table. They had already secretly spent hours with the "King," and the memory of his otherworldly stamina was making the sake hit them twice as hard.
Loki, perfectly disguised as King Owen Balder, sat lazily at the center of the head table. He casually sipped his sake, completely unbothered. His true advantage wasn’t the alcohol, but the literal Mermaid Tears he had drunk earlier. The liquid fate was circulating through his veins, supercharging his passive luck to reality-bending, god-like levels.
To his left sat his deadpan Valkyrie wife, Frigg, who was systematically ignoring him while cutting her meat with terrifying precision. To his right were the Princesses of The Seven Sea Songs, including Opal Blue and Ariel Blue—the Queen's granddaughters—and the ever-scheming May West.
It was May West who leaned in close, her shoulder brushing Loki’s as she whispered just loud enough for him to hear. "You know, darling… a King with your handsomeness shouldn’t just rule by blood. You should rule by absolute dominance. The Queen's anchor treasure on her neck is looking rather heavy tonight." She gave him a subtle, sharp nudge beneath the table, her eyes gleaming with a brilliant, calculated spark.
Loki smirked. It was Opal who had subtly orchestrated this entire gambling event.
She had spent the last two hours dropping precise hints, fanning the flames of the Queen's gambling pride, and pushing Loki into a corner where he had to challenge her.
Opal didn't just want Loki to win a game; she wanted her husband to strip the Queen of her political leverage, break her authority, and inevitably pull the supreme ruler of the seas directly into his harem.
"Your Majesty," Loki called out, loudly enough to silence the hall. He set down his cup of Father of Regrets and looked across the marble table at Queen Atlantis Blue. "The banquet is lively, but a bit dull. How about a little wager to spice up the evening? A simple game of Siren’s Eclipse."
Queen Atlantis Blue smiled elegantly, her ageless, flawless face radiating supreme confidence. "A gambling game, King Owen? Against me? You do realize who I am."
She didn't need water magic. Queen Atlantis was a Master Time Mage. With a casual wave of her hand, three massive, glowing abyssal clams appeared on the marble table, alongside a single, flawless midnight pearl.
"The rules are simple," the Queen murmured, her eyes locking onto his. "Find the pearl."
She flicked her wrist. Instantly, the air around the table warped. She didn't just shuffle the clams—she used Area Time and Space Utility magic. She accelerated the timeline of the shells, looping them in a micro-second blur that defied physical sight.
She was actively manipulating the temporal flow, rewriting the position of the pearl across multiple seconds. To any mortal, the game was a literal impossibility. The pearl was simultaneously everywhere and nowhere until she allowed time to stop.
"Make your guess," the Queen said, leaning back with a victorious smirk.
Loki didn't even look at the table. He was busy pouring another cup of sake for Ariel, laughing at a joke May West made, and completely ignoring the deadly, judgmental glare Frigg was shooting at his profile. He reached out blindly, his finger lazily pointing to the far-left clam.
Thanks to the Mermaid Tears, his luck didn't care about the laws of physics. It didn't care about time. His luck simply rewrote reality to match his whim.
The clam popped open. The midnight pearl sat inside, glowing softly.
The Queen’s smile froze. "A fluke."
She spun the clams again, faster this time, layering three different temporal loops over the table. Loki tossed a gold token without looking. Left clam.
Correct.
Five times. Ten times. Twenty times.
The atmosphere in the grand banquet hall went dead silent. The hundred watching mermaids stopped drinking, their jaws dropping in sheer awe. The dozen mermaids who had already slept with him began to whisper excitedly, their gossiping voices rising over the silence. "The King... his intuition is just like his stamina... it never misses a single spot..."
Queen Atlantis Blue began to sweat. Her flawless composure was cracking. Her time magic was flawless, yet this man was breaking the laws of causality by merely guessing.
"You look stressed, Your Majesty," Loki purred, pushing a mountain of high-tier cores into the center of the table. "Let’s end this. I call an 'Eclipse.' I bet all of this that not only is the pearl in the center clam, but the temporal pressure you’re exerting has mutated it into a legendary Royal Gold Pearl."
"That is a one-in-a-million mutation! It is impossible!" the Queen hissed. Desperate, she activated her mana, attempting to force a temporal rewind to shift the pearl out of the center shell before it opened.
But Loki’s god-level luck was too heavy. It acted as an immovable, fixed point in the timeline. As the Queen forced the rewind, the conflicting magical forces caused the timeline around the table to snap with a sharp, glass-like crack.
The center clam snapped open. A blinding, radiant golden light illuminated the entire banquet hall.
The Queen gasped, stumbling backward in her throne. Loki reached across the table, his fingers brushing her collarbone as he smoothly untied The Chronos Heart Jewel right off her neck.
Without her sacred anchor, the Queen felt her domain's magical pressure fluctuate wildly. Her absolute authority, her political leverage, and her supreme status were shattered in front of her entire court, her daughters, and her horrified granddaughters.
"No..." Queen Atlantis whispered, staring at her empty hands. Absolute despair washed over her face. She was completely ruined.
Beside Loki, May West took a slow sip of her sake, a deeply satisfied, wicked smile spreading across her lips. The plan had worked flawlessly. The Queen was entirely broken.
"I need my anchor back," the Queen begged, her voice trembling as she swallowed every ounce of her royal pride. She looked at Loki, her chest heaving.
She had no treasure left of equal value to wager. "One more round. Double or nothing. If I win, I get the Chronos Heart back. If I lose..." She bit her lip, her face flushing crimson as she looked at her court, then back to him. "...I wager a night with myself. My absolute submission to you."
"Grandmother?!" Opal and Ariel gasped in absolute shock, their faces turning completely red as they realized their elegant grandmother had just wagered her body to the man they believed was their husband.
In the background, the dozen gossiping Mermaids practically squealed. "A night with the King? Oh, the Queen won't survive until morning... she has no idea what she's walked into..."
Frigg slowly set her fork down, pinched the bridge of her nose, and let out a long, exhausted sigh. "Of course," she muttered dryly. "Because why stop at the granddaughters when you can collect the entire matriarchy by dessert?"
Loki spun the golden pearl in his hand, looking down at the desperate, blushing Queen with a thoroughly wicked, victorious grin...