Chapter 881: Wis.h.i.+ng Mermaid Lagoon
Rowena and Prince Liam traveled together on foot to reach the Wis.h.i.+ng Mermaid Lagoon. Since it wasn"t exactly that far away from Verona"s city proper, Rowena wasn"t expecting much but similar to her encounter with the valley, her breath was taken away.
The lagoon was a beautiful deep blue, with large boulders surrounding it. Rowena could almost imagine lovely mermaids perched on the rocks as they sang enchanting melodies.
There were a lot of people around, but once she and Prince Liam arrived, the people gave way for them to approach. It was strange, but she paid more attention to the lagoon.
"This place is..." Rowena started.
"Beautiful isn"t it? I come here—" Prince Liam bit down on his tongue. "People come here when they want to make wishes and hope that the Mermaids grant them."
"But it"s not like they"re really here, right?" Rowena said as she gazed at the deep blue lagoon.
Despite the fact that it was separated from the ocean, the waters were such a dark shade of blue that it both mystified her and also made her wonder if there was an authenticity to the claims that Verona harbored a portal to the realm of Mermaids.
It almost made her want to dive in, but n.o.body simply jumped into the waters when there was danger a.s.sociated with traveling to another realm. Rowena had read the stories of people who claimed to enter a portal and return after more than several decades.
"Well, the common people say that if you throw coins, or anything else interesting while you make a wish, a Mermaid might hear it and grant a special gift." Prince Liam explained.
"And that"s probably not real, right?" Rowena asked.
"Nope. Or else, more people would be here," Prince Liam said.
"Then it seems that we may have come here for no reason," Rowena said. "Not that the place isn"t beautiful…"
Prince Liam"s eyes widened and he immediately waved a hand.
"There was a legend that said before the Verona Kingdom was inhabited and this place was nothing more but a simple seaside town, the future first king of Verona came here with nothing more but the clothes on his back and a single coin he received from begging. Back then, it could hardly afford him food."
"He was a beggar?" Rowena asked in surprise.
Prince Liam smiled. "Well, it"s not like everyone was born royalty. Some people achieve the right to be a ruler by accomplis.h.i.+ng a great feat, and for the king of Verona, it was through the help of a Mermaid."
Rowena stared at him. "You seem to have done an incredible job at discovering this legend, Julian—er, Harland. And you told me to relax because you"ve already learned the story of Verona, huh? Great job."
Prince Liam blushed as he picked up a small pebble. He threw it across the water and watched it skip. "Don"t give me too much credit, Harlow."
"Well, will you continue with the story? I"m curious." Rowena smiled at him as she also copied his actions, she also threw a rock and watched it skid over the water"s surface. "I wonder if the Mermaids will be disturbed that we"re doing this."
Prince Liam sheepishly smi
led and scratched his head.
"Well, let"s see. The first king of Verona was an ordinary man, he had humble roots and when it was the full moon, he decided to throw a copper coin into the waters... the dark part of the story was that he had lost all hope and actually wanted to uh, end himself."
Rowena"s expression turned sorrowful for a moment. Despite Julian not actually using the most riveting words, it was easy to understand why a person might have come to a conclusion if he lost all hope.
Fortunately, it wasn"t such a dark tale, or else, there wouldn"t have been Verona today.
"But all of a sudden, the waters rippled in the moonlight and the most enchanting maiden suddenly sprung up from the water and greeted him. She was someone with beautiful red hair and dazzling green eyes, and she wore a very elegant sh.e.l.l necklace across her fair collarbones. That was where his fortune changed."
"What happened next?" Rowena asked. Although she had a feeling that she knew where this story was going, she had read fairy tales before and this one seemed familiar.
"She complained about being hit by a coin and lectured him about tossing things into the water, and the future king discovered that the maiden turned out to be someone who was half-human and half-fish. He immediately apologized for his behavior and once she surfaced onto the rock, she then showed him a silver coin and asked if it was his."
"He said no, didn"t he?" Rowena guessed.
"Yes, even if he was a beggar, he couldn"t say that the coin was his." Prince Liam smiled. "So the maiden dove back into the waters and returned with a gold coin, but similar to before, the beggar refused to accept the gold coin and said that the coin he threw was a very small copper coin."
"That"s very altruistic of him."
"It was, and though the maiden was impressed by his virtue... she was still actually very petty."
Rowena blinked. "She was?"
"She demanded that he pay for disturbing the waters that belonged to hers and told him that if he couldn"t pay for it, she would drag him into the depths as retribution," Prince Liam said.
"That"s very… how did he manage to get out of that situation?" Rowena asked.
"Since he didn"t have anything with him except for his clothes, he finally chose to offer the only thing he had left. The beggar actually turned out to be someone who could sing well, and though the maiden of the sea was furious about all the things that people threw into the lagoon, his songs calmed her."
"A Mermaid found a human"s voice enchanting?" Rowena said.
"Yes, although I think it was because the future king of Verona sang about his hards.h.i.+ps and actually touched the heart of the maiden of the sea."
"Is that when the Mermaid finally decided to reward him?"
Prince Liam tilted his head. "No, not exactly. She liked his voice so much that she decided to take him as her husband, so before he could finish the song, she grabbed him and dragged him into the lagoon."
"Oh, yikes," Rowena said.
"Our ancestor—er, the ancestor of the
king of Verona claimed that he sank deeper and deeper into the water, that he actually found a lot of items within the waters. Among them was a blade within its depths and he used it to fight off the Mermaid."
"I see... that"s really a turn of events." Rowena looked at the deep blue waters and realized that perhaps not all myths and legends were as fanciful as she thought they might be. "So did the king actually kill the Mermaid?"
"No, he wasn"t able to do that." Prince Liam grinned.
Rowena was greeted by the grin that Julian always pulled off whenever he bragged about a previous successful escape, steal, or other adventures he once had before he met her.