By the time they returned to the valley where the Doll Kingdom was located, the rain had yet to let up.
As they descended, Yvette spotted Ice Rain holding a tattered old umbrella, its origin clearly unknown, scanning the surroundings anxiously outside the valley. Only when the silhouette of the black dragon broke through the curtain of rain did she breathe a sigh of relief and shout, “Where have you two been? You vanished early in the morning and scared everyone half to death!”
“We went to Kux to confirm some matters,” Yvette replied as she jumped down from the back of the black dragon, splashing water and waving to the distant dolls.
Among the group were other dolls holding umbrellas or wearing odd rain gear, including the administrator Copper Skin, three children from the adventurer team, and others. Their mysterious disappearance that morning, combined with the unsuitable weather, had briefly alarmed the kingdom, likely recalling a past incident of vanishing that happened long ago.
Upon seeing Yvette return, the dolls began to chatter among themselves, pulling back to the safety of the dry air-raid shelter. Copper Skin approached, stepping through the wet mud with a drip-drip sound, his wooden raincoat still soaking and looking anxious. “Are you alright, Miss Yvette? What happened?”
“I’m fine,” Yvette said, a gentle smile on her face. Although she rarely faced real danger anymore, Copper Skin’s concern still evoked a sense of humanity akin to human society.
Compared to nine years ago when she first left the Doll Kingdom of Agasha, after living in Kux for so long, Yvette had stopped pondering whether these emotional displays were genuine or not. At least until the beauty was shattered, she would default to accepting that everything was real.
After repeating what she had discussed with Ice Rain, she continued, “…I’ve confirmed the general situation in Kux.”
At this, Ice Rain and Copper Skin were taken aback. Ice Rain immediately asked, “What’s the situation?”
“It’s quite simple. Kux is a production facility for an external aberration faction. Their stronghold is located in the Source Ocean North, and this is where they breed the Mountain Whales. Once the Mountain Whales hatch, they continuously return to the Source Ocean North. That is the truth,” Yvette explained.
“Is that so?” Copper Skin immediately believed her. To his straightforward mind, such an answer was already astounding and not something that could be fabricated. He expressed his gratitude, “The questions we’ve had for years have finally been answered! Thank you, Miss Yvette! I must hurry and tell everyone the news!”
“Is that all?” Ice Rain felt it wasn’t dramatic enough.
“What more do you want?” Dugrabi said discontentedly. He had nearly been killed by the Spider Witch to obtain this answer; even if the outcome remained the same, it didn’t detract from the fact that he felt he had contributed.
“Uh… it’s fine, but it’s just not legendary enough. If there could be a huge crisis that we resolve ourselves, then that would be a real adventure…” Ice Rain began to daydream.
“You naïve little brat,” Dugrabi scoffed. “Do you think reality is like tales spun by bards?”
“Are you very mature then?” Ice Rain shot back, displeased.
“Don’t think I believe you. A few years ago, you were feigning ignorance about human language and huffing at people all day,” Ice Rain smirked, then after waiting for a moment without hearing a response from the black dragon, she turned her head to see Dugrabi staring fixedly at something behind them, frozen in place.
“What’s the matter?” Ice Rain wondered, slightly taken aback as she followed his gaze outside the valley. She quickly spotted dark dots, obscured by the rain, speeding toward them from the direction of Kux.
Those dots grew larger and clearer with the passage of time, and what Ice Rain finally saw were the unmistakable shapes of Mountain Whales!
A pod of whales? Thıs content belongs to 𝖓𝖔𝖛𝖊𝖑~𝖋𝖎𝖗𝖾~𝖓𝖊𝖙
But why were they heading straight toward the kingdom?
“The whales are coming! Quick, hide!”
Panic-filled voices broke the silence, as clearly, the other magical dolls in the kingdom had also recognized the terrifying reality and were ushering others to take cover in the air-raid shelters.
Ice Rain swallowed hard, suddenly recalling her previous words, feeling dreadfully prophetic. She couldn’t feel any joy at all.
This wasn’t a crisis we could resolve… she thought nervously, instinctively turning to look at the kind-hearted lady, only to find Yvette calmly standing at the mouth of the valley, unperturbed by the approaching whale herd, as if waiting for their grand entrance.
Standing atop the King of the Mountain Whales, the Purple Commander clad in chitinous armor gazed at the valley in the distance.
Noticing a silver-haired girl standing still at the valley’s entrance, their eyes met over a distance of several kilometers, and a faint smile formed on his expressive face as he muttered to himself, “Interesting.”
He had actually known about the location of the Doll Kingdom for a long time. After all, he had been stationed in Kux for many years; if he didn’t know this kind of information, it would reflect poorly on him as a commander.
So, when Abella reported the matter involving that mysterious silver-haired girl, he had suspected she might be at the Doll Kingdom or that there was some connection between them.
Normally, a Godkin and a Mechanical Clan member would not interfere with each other. The fact that this mysterious silver-haired girl couldn’t even defeat Abella didn’t warrant his interest.
However, not long ago, Abella had suddenly disappeared from the senses of the Pale Mother Nest after completing her promotion, which was a significant matter.
While a fifth-stage lord might not seem important to the King of the Ocean Depths, it made a difference for the Purple Commander, as this could significantly affect the overall strength of his aberrant army and his standing in the eyes of the King of the Ocean Depths.
Therefore, he needed to resolve this issue, and the best way to do so was to convert the culprit into nutrients, potentially nurturing one or two new lords in the process to compensate for his losses.
As for keeping a low profile… The figure before him was merely a fifth-stage lord, not a sixth-stage commander. What was there to fear? Did he think he would let her escape after personally intervening?
The current situation took him slightly by surprise.
Facing the arrival of a commander, that silver-haired girl displayed no intention of fleeing whatsoever? Didn’t she realize that killing a lord would trigger significant repercussions for her?
Or perhaps she understood her escape routes were cut off, opting instead to surrender and take Abella’s place to serve him?
With that thought, the Purple Commander felt the answer was presented well enough. As long as the silver-haired girl wasn’t a fool, she was undoubtedly there to submit.
Then, today’s events would not mark a loss of Abella; instead, he would convert Abella into nutrients, yielding him an excellent new subordinate…
That didn’t sound half bad.
Soon, the massive pod of whales completely overshadowed the valley above, swallowing the light.
Yvette looked up at him, but did not answer.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to respond; rather, she found that the manner in which the sixth-stage commander from Kux spoke had an accent that was difficult for her to comprehend, rendering her momentarily stunned.
Was it an accent from the Emerald Continent or the Silver Mirror Continent? It was undeniably clear that he was an outsider among aberrations.
On the other hand, noticing Yvette’s prolonged silence led the Purple Commander to believe she was either conceding or stunned into silence. He then continued, “Since you intend to submit, the previous matters will be dealt with leniently, but you will still need to accept certain penalties.”
“…?” Yvette still didn’t understand what he was trying to say when she saw the Purple Commander glance toward the Fishman beside him. Right away, the Fishman, as if receiving a command, leaped off the back of the King of the Mountain Whales, a cruel smile on his face.
“I advise you not to struggle. Otherwise, it won’t be me punishing you, but Lord Purple,” the Fishman warned, his accent more straightforward. At least it was clear enough for Yvette to understand.
“What did you say?” Yvette asked in surprise.
Behind her, Dugrabi, Ice Rain, and Copper Skin—who had been peeking over the cave wall—had all perked up their ears. Like Yvette, they had also been bewildered by the Purple Commander’s foreign accent, completely unsure of the Fishman’s intentions.
“I said, I’m going to punish you; it’s best if you behave!” The Fishman repeated, slightly impatience creeping into his voice.
He had had a few short exchanges with Yvette previously and didn’t think she could necessarily defeat him. As for Abella’s disappearance… it was likely due to Abella’s own incompetence.
Seeing Yvette display a face of surprise and contemplation prompted the Fishman to approach, forming a trident made entirely of solid ice in his hands.
This was one of his innate abilities. Although it merely appeared to be created from ice magic, its strength was truly astonishing, rivaling some military-grade alloys from the Origin Civilization. Furthermore, it required no maintenance; if broken, it could be rebuilt instantly, making it extremely useful.
He intended to stab this troublesome silver-haired girl into the ground with the trident and extract a bit of flesh for punishment, as nutrients taken from her. While it felt a bit unsightly to inflict such torture on a lovely girl, many scenes of henchmen extracted from his human memory fragments surfaced in his mind, making the task seem almost second nature.
As he said this, the Fishman lunged forward with the trident aimed at the silver-haired girl. He expected everything to go smoothly under the watchful eyes of the commander, but in the next moment, before the Purple Commander and the others could even react to what happened, the Fishman was launched back like a cannonball at an unimaginable speed, crashing into the belly of the King of the Mountain Whales, nearly toppling the great beast from the sky.