The Mermaid Who Swallowed a Ruby 74

Chapter 74

Anschel sent an anxious glance, wondering what was happening, and Ann firmly grasped his hand as if telling him to stay still. At that moment, Jayden began speaking in a low voice, as if making a confession.

“Alcita… wanted to adopt you.”

Jayden raised his head with tear-filled eyes. A slight ripple appeared in Harriet’s white eyes. Harriet was perplexed.

“Alcita… accepted my proposal. He smiled… like a flower… when I asked him to live together… He said we should adopt you… as our son.”

At the time when Alcita had lost his wife and son, he had lost his will to live. It was Jayden who saved him.

Jayden, who had been taking care of Alcita since their academy days, started to desire him from that point. He forcibly lifted Alcita up.

Alcita soon returned to normal life but couldn’t immediately accept Jayden. They had been close friends since childhood and were both men. While same-sex marriage is legal now, in the past, there were many more prejudiced views. But Jayden didn’t give up.

Around that time, he heard that Alcita was sponsoring an orphanage. It was also around then that he heard rumors that Alcita’s relationship with his father, Dante, wasn’t very good.

The small boy called Harriet was quite cute. It was like seeing Alcita’s son. This was because Alcita and Harriet both had the same golden hair. And occasionally, Alcita’s eyes were filled with a sorrowful emotion when looking at Harriet.

“Zero empathy ability. Diagnosed as a psychopath?”

“Shh. The child can hear you, Jayden.”

Although Harriet was just a small child, he seemed unnervingly mechanical even to Jayden.

“I’m teaching him emotions. Good things, nice clothes, how to smile. How to be troubled. After a little more time, I might be able to teach him more.”

To Jayden, that kid seemed like a doll with no emotions, but it seemed different for Alcita.

Seeing Alcita’s brilliant golden hair shimmering in the sunlight, Jayden handed him a bouquet with a pounding heart. Alcita would surely refuse as usual today. Then, although he might feel a bit dejected, he wouldn’t give up.

But that day was different. Alcita, with a confused expression, fluttering his long double eyelids, very carefully accepted the bouquet. Jayden was so surprised he almost jumped at the touch of Alcita’s fingers. His heart felt like it would leap out of his mouth.

Trying to calm his racing heart, Jayden looked up. Alcita, holding the bouquet, smiled even more brightly and radiantly than him.

“Wh-why, uh… Alcita?”

“I’m going to adopt that child. Jayden, will you raise that child with me? Let’s teach him. How to love and receive love.”

“…Alcita.”

“That child only knows how to drink hot cocoa. Let’s teach him more, Jayden.”

He had always dreamed and imagined Alcita accepting his proposal, but it wasn’t this vivid. Jayden covered his mouth and his face turned red. Then, with tears flowing, he grasped Alcita’s shoulders.

Later, when Jayden found out that Alcita would be sailing with the Ellikiss, which Jayden had sponsored for the crossing, he was extremely anxious. But Alcita comforted him, telling him not to worry.

“Nothing will happen. Trust me, Jayden. The merpeople won’t attack us.”

But strangely, Jayden was too anxious.

“I’ll come with you.”

“Stay here.”

“Please… please, Alcita. Let me come with you.”

“Nothing will happen. My father wouldn’t kill me.”

Something seemed off about Dante Maxim. The current atmosphere was precarious, like walking on thin ice. Jayden was anxious, but Alcita said it was fine. Alcita reassured him with a smile, saying even if it was his father, he wouldn’t go so far as to kill his own son.

And Alcita Maxim never returned to Jayden Olden’s side again.

“I… kept going wild… saying I’d die… My inner circle couldn’t stand it and put me in a mental hospital… The day I resolved to live for revenge… I looked for you first, but you were nowhere to be found.”

However, Jayden Olden didn’t make much effort to find Harriet. His revenge was always directed at Dante, and in his heart, there was only Alcita, not Harriet.

Harriet looked down at Jayden Olden and turned his head away. He could feel Anschel sending him a pale gaze. Looking around, he could sense that even those who had been beaten by him were looking at Jayden’s back and at him with sympathetic gazes.

Jayden was crying with a disheveled face. Adoption. That was Alcita’s decision, not Jayden’s responsibility.

‘……?’

Harriet couldn’t understand why they were sad, so he smiled awkwardly. He missed Ender.

His cute junior might be able to explain to him why they were sad right now.

* * *

“Be careful, it seems advisable.”

“Oh, Antonio… you’re the only one I can trust.”

Dante Maxim’s voice was very gentle as he held a cigarette with his wrinkled hands. But since he hadn’t contacted Antonio just to laugh and chat, Dante quickly got to the point.

“So, when can we deploy?”

“On election day, as soon as Your Excellency is elected, it will be possible.”

Dante was president but had an election ahead of him, and because of that, his plan to invade the Northern Sea had been slightly delayed. But neither Antonio nor Dante had even the slightest reconsideration of the premise that he wouldn’t be elected; it was just that the timing was slightly delayed.

“And soon… it’s Alcita’s death anniversary. I’ll see you then.”

Dante narrowed his eyes. Although he had been a foolish son, Alcita had been excellent at handling people and had planted his own people here and there. Dante Maxim, who had utilized this more effectively than anyone else, exhaled cigarette smoke with a satisfied smile.

A kind and affectionate smile filled his aged and wrinkled face. The voice that came out of his mouth was equally affectionate, just like his expression.

“Yes. Let’s make the Northern Sea his son’s grave on that day.”

“…Yes.”

Antonio seemed to hesitate for a moment before ending the call. Dante leaned his upper body against the chair backrest as he put down his personal phone. Though dissatisfied with the expensive chair that made a creaking sound, thinking of the upcoming festival made him feel like all bad energy was flying away.

Dante found his son, Alcita Maxim, pathetic. He always disapproved of a son who, far from helping the father who had brought him into the world, only hindered him by blocking his path and causing petty disturbances. In the end, Dante was so angry with Alcita, who was so willful that he had to completely dissociate himself.

Peace in words only. Coexistence in words only. That was something even Dante Maxim could do. You can say anything in words. We need to compromise with merpeople, the sea belongs to merpeople so we must coexist with them—living in the peace his father had created, Alcita had gone around spouting such things.

Even after losing his grandson, Dante Maxim’s hope, to the sea, Alcita continued to advocate for pathetic peace.

“Stupid son.”

Dante Maxim spat out the curse with a gentle expression. His doctor had told him to quit smoking, but since he had started again recently, it was harder to quit.

Ender McGuire, who had been a docile chess piece, was gradually showing his true nature by scratching at Dante. Although he was still at an adorable level that could be overlooked, it was appropriate to punish him for putting forward his assistant as a presidential candidate in this election. But for now, he needed to cherish and take care of his valuable chess piece.

“The likes of him…”

Dante Maxim snorted as he crushed the half-smoked cigarette in his hand. Ender was the finest ability user nurtured with care by the McGuire family, but if he was judged to have fulfilled his function and no longer had any value for use, Dante planned to push him into the sea along with his senior.

Dante, who had never properly seen the face of that disgusting test subject, could never imagine that Ender McGuire would fall in love with him. When he briefly saw the faint photo that came up in the documents, he was just a pale man. Not pretty like Delta Maxim, nor small.

But this is the end now. Dante was confident. It was confidence bordering on certainty. Alcita Maxim was pathetic and a fool who opposed his father, but the dead Alcita Maxim was truly a filial son. Dante Maxim caressed his wrinkled face while letting out a phlegm-filled laugh.

Yes, a filial son, a filial son.

Thanks to his foolish death at sea, Dante had gained justification to attack the merpeople, and it was also a sufficient catalyst for citizens to harbor hostility and fear towards merpeople.

“A filial son, a filial son.”

And all those left behind by Alcita were just right for Dante to use. Starting from Antonio to the Peace Committee members who followed Alcita, Dante had absorbed them all and was using them effectively.

From the moment Dante Maxim lost his grandson whom he loved as much as his own life, Alcita was destined to die.

Buzz-.

At that moment, the cell phone that Dante Maxim had thrown onto the desk vibrated. After checking the caller on his personal phone, Dante reached out and pressed the call button. The caller was Antonio, whom he had just hung up on.

“What is it?”

“Please check the TV!! Jayden is now…”

Antonio shouted urgently, getting straight to the point. Dante Maxim narrowed his eyes and turned on the TV screen. Since the last thing he was watching was the news, the screen Antonio was talking about was right there in front of Dante without having to change the channel.

“These… bastards.”

Dante trembled as he threw his cell phone to the floor. Anger blazed in his drooping eyelids.

“Jayden Olden and 2,000 members of the Peace Committee, publicly declare their support for candidate Anschel Lee…”