Infatuation of a Merman

Chapter 19-The Past in The Present

Sometimes, I wondered how long I could lie to myself.

Beastmen had animal ears. It was part of their anatomy. Julian had human ears. I had seen them before. Therefore, Julian couldn't possibly be a beastman.

Lies were nice. They could be anything but the truth. They could be the weapon that was used to stab others, or the shield that was used to isolate one's self.

I was probably just overthinking it. I had never seen Julian transform into a beast, and he never said anything about it. So I could be wrong.

But while lies were the stories I told myself to sleep at night, the truth was the tale I needed to accept my waking hours.

And in my truth, Julian was probably a beastman. I wasn't sure why or how, but he was most likely that golden wolf.

Well, whatever.

We weren't engaged anymore. He could be the long lost prince to a forgotten kingdom and it wouldn't matter to me.

At some point during my internal monologue, our dragon had flown home. Dad was on the ground, looking up at me with worry wrinkling his forehead.

He held out his arms, and I wondered if Julian's beastman status held any important significance.

"Nyx."

My head snapped toward the direction of the voice. Dad was still standing on the ground. And it was only when he lowered his arms did I realize that he had been waiting for me to jump down.

"Nyx, why don't you take Mirel back to the Dragon Den?" Dad said, the worry still present in his eyes.

After a bit of thought, I realized that he was offering me a brief escape. Mother was going to be undoubtedly furious about my broken engagement. And he probably thought that I wanted a bit of time to myself before our showdown. But at the same time I was also prolonging the opportunity to discuss my recent discovery with Kiraize.

Eventually, I decided that with so many thoughts plaguing my mind, I was not ready to talk to mother at the moment. So I nodded to Dad, taking him up on his offer.

With unexpected swiftness, he removed Mirel's battle-gear in exchange for normal riding equipment. Then, after moving onto the rider's seat, I commanded the dragon to take flight.

I was in a daze during the whole flight. Fortunately, Mirel knew where to go, otherwise I wouldn't be surprised if we traveled to another kingdom without my knowledge. I probably should've been focused on the journey ahead, but I just couldn't stop thinking about it.

If he was a beastman, a conjecture I was definitely leaning toward, it made sense that he would hide his identity. The absolute loathing between humans and beastman seemed to be engraved into our bones, marked by the blood of ours and their kin. According to the history books, at the beginning, with their superior strength and civilization's limited development, it was beastman who enslaved humans. The vulnerable humans who couldn't even kill a bear with their bare hands were nothing but slaves for the physically strong.

However, as human intelligence and knowledge gathered with the accumulating sands of time, brains proved to be superior to brawn. The barrier of physical strength was cracked and shattered under the onslaught of weapons and wit. Now, humans were the ones enslaving beastmen. And although there was a nervous period of time where it looked as though the beastman were about to revive their lost glory, the mermaids unexpectedly tore apart the newborn kingdom before it could take root.

So it wasn't a surprise if Julian didn't want to be known as a beastman. With limited rights, it was simply logical to join the other side. The main mystery was why Julian didn't have any of their tell-tale features. He had human ears, no wolf tail and I could see that he was fairly intelligent from my interactions with him. Yet, he presumably could transform into a beast. It was as if he had the best of both worlds.