Mera led Azul into the palace hall. The moment he swam inside, he saw all of his siblings already gathered there, his four older brothers and fifteen older sisters.
Without exception, all of them looked incredibly serious and didn’t show even the slightest smile when they saw Azul.
"Did I... do something wrong?" he asked hesitantly. "Is this about my engagement? Come on, even Helga told me she doesn’t like me, so—"
"Sit down, son." His father, the King of the Aquilian Kingdom, cut him off before he could finish.
Just as Azul had once described, the King truly looked like a kraken. Instead of a fish tail, the lower half of his body was covered in long, powerful tentacles that moved slowly beneath him.
"Let’s talk," the King said.
He sounded so serious that even the adult Azul standing beside Roxanna felt nervous.
"What do you think your father wants to talk about?" Roxanna asked.
Azul shook his head. "Who knows. Maybe it has something to do with the invaders."
It was the most logical answer, but the young Azul thought that his father simply wanted to remind him how important his future marriage was.
Even so, he obediently sat down on top of a giant clam-shaped seat. His blue eyes swept across the hall, and the longer he looked around, the more nervous he became because his siblings looked nervous too.
"My children," the King began, "this is a meeting I never wanted to hold."
The Queen, who was sitting right beside him, squeezed his hand, trying to comfort him.
"But we have no choice," he added.
The tone of his father’s voice finally made the young Azul realize that they were no longer talking about his engagement. This was something far more serious.
"The Devourers have finally reached the Lupherion Ocean," the King continued. "And all of you know how dangerous they are to the underwater kingdoms."
The King delivered the grim news. "The Kingdom of the Eastern Ocean has fallen to the Devourers, and none of the royal family survived."
The moment those words left his mouth, the entire hall seemed to freeze because just hearing the name The Devourers was enough to make people hold their breath.
Several faces turned pale, some lowered their heads, and others looked away.
Even the adult Azul beside Roxanna looked as if he had just seen a ghost.
Roxanna, the only person who had never heard that name before, finally asked Azul, "What’s that? Are they the Invaders?"
Azul took a deep breath, and whether he realized it or not, he tightened his grip on her hand.
"They’re worse than simple invaders. They’re... a group of sea beastkins who won’t stop until they’ve killed every member of a royal family and imprisoned the people."
"They took over the Kingdom of the Eastern Ocean fifteen years ago. None of the neighboring kingdoms could help because the Devourers surrounded the entire kingdom with dark magic."
"If anyone tried to force their way inside, they would be cursed and it’s not the kind of curse you can simply remove."
His expression darkened. "The curse can even affect future generations. That’s why no one dared to touch the cursed barrier."
"You could say..." Azul turned his face away, looking incredibly guilty. "We let them die, thinking that as long as we didn’t interfere, we would be safe."
However, that way of thinking was wrong because once the Devourers had taken everything from the Kingdom of the Eastern Ocean—their territory, their people, and their resources—they no longer found any excitement in it. The only way to cure that boredom was by taking over another kingdom.
"Azul... your people were just trying to survive," Roxanna said. "Not everyone has the ability to help others, and... that’s alright."
[Now I sound like a hypocrite,] Roxanna thought bitterly. [I used to be the kind of person who would do anything to help others. Seriously, where did my shame go?]
Luckily, she didn’t have to hear Azul’s response because the King of Aquilian spoke again. "This situation is more urgent than any of you realize," he said. "That’s why all of you must leave the Aquilian Kingdom until I can be certain that it is safe to return."
"Father, that’s not fair!" Azul was the first to protest. "Doesn’t that mean we’re leaving you and Mother here by yourselves?" he argued. "This place isn’t safe for you either, so—"
"What kind of leader abandons his people?" The King’s voice cut through his words before Azul could finish. The young prince immediately fell silent. "It would be impossible to evacuate everyone to a safe place because there are simply too many people and even if we managed to do it, that safe place would only become our new graveyard."
A heavy silence settled over the hall, and no one could deny it. After all, moving a handful of people was possible, but moving an entire kingdom was not.
The King let his gaze travel across the room, looking at each of his children. His expression softened for a brief moment.
"But you," the King said softly, his gaze moving across the faces of his children, "my sons and daughters... you will be the ones who carry on the Aquilian bloodline."
His voice softened slightly. "And you won’t be alone. There will be people I send with you."
"What?" Azul immediately stood up. "We can’t do that! We can’t just decide who gets to live and who gets to die! That’s not fair to our people!"
"Azul!" For the first time that day, the King rose from his throne and the room instantly fell silent.
His eyes burned with anger, but there was still a small amount of patience left in them. "You need to understand that we are not capable of saving everyone, even God Himself cannot do that."
"Then He isn’t a God!" Azul spoke without hesitation.
Some of his sisters lowered their heads, others stared at him in shock. The Queen looked worried, while Mera rubbed his forehead as if a headache was coming.
Meanwhile, the adult Azul standing beside Roxanna turned his face away and clicked his tongue.
He already knew how foolish he had sounded back then. His younger self had been too naive, too stubborn, and too determined to believe that there was always a way to save everyone.
But now... he realized that his father was right all along.