Chapter 58: How Nice Would It Be?

Aila was confused by Nerio's referencing the princess. Wasn't the princess dead? That seemed an insensitive thing to say to her grieving brother even if the two of them weren't rumored to be particularly close. 

She remained confused as Nerio escorted her back to the main palace garden where she was supposed to be waiting this whole time. Thankfully, her father's meeting was just finishing up when she arrived. Her absence had not been noted. 

Yuval seemed frustrated when he left the throne room but that turned into surprise when he saw who was with her. "Who is this?"

"Sir Nerio of the coral palace. Prince Zale has gifted him to me as a sign of his favor," Aila said, repeating what she had heard earlier. "We bumped into each other here while you were in your meeting."

"…what did you talk about to receive such a gift?"

"Not much," Aila lied. 

Yuval frowned but could not refuse a gift from a prince. Even if it was one with a not-so-great reputation. 

"I see. Thank you for accompanying my daughter, Sir Nerio. I will be sure to send an official thank you to Prince Zale at a later date."

Nerio nodded before silently following them back to her family's estate. Her mother was similarly confused and worried by the present but didn't realize exactly how worried she should be. Her daughter had gotten involved in something she was never supposed to be a part of.

That night when she was left alone with Nerio guarding her bedroom door she called out to him softly in the hopes that no one else would overhear. She was bursting with questions and he might have answers. 

"Sir Nerio?"

He answered immediately. "What is it, my lady?"

"I…" How to phrase this? "Have you worked for Prince Zale long?"

It wasn't exactly what she had wanted to ask but she had to start somewhere. Maybe this would soften him up a bit. 

"Nearly a century. Why do you ask?"

"I was wondering how well you knew him. He is quite skilled with a spear," Aila said, fishing for information. 

"I doubt there is a merman alive who could beat him," Nerio said proudly before frowning. "But you can't tell anyone about what you saw today." 

So she was right. His entire public persona was a carefully constructed act. But why? What purpose did acting a fool serve if he was as talented as that? What exactly was he planning? 

"I won't." 

Aila had no reason to out him. He had been doing this for centuries; no one would do that without due cause. Didn't it get tiring pretending all the time? What was Prince Zale truly like?

Based on what she had seen earlier, all she could say for sure was that he was strong and shared a close bond with his men since they addressed each other casually. The rest of his behavior had been harder to make sense of. 

"Are you really going to be here until the danger has passed?" Aila asked. 

"It is what my prince commanded of me," Nerio said stoutly. 

"And what you said about the princess?"

"The princess is his most precious treasure. It was a reassurance on my part that you were in safe hands."

Is not was. Why wasn't he speaking of the princess in the past tense when she was dead? Aila felt like she was missing something but she doubted Nerio would tell her if she asked. 

"I see," she said lamely. "You are dismissed, Nerio. Thank you for your service."

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The merman bowed before heading out to resume his post. She headed to bed with more questions and answers. What kind of merman was Prince Zale? And what could he even do about the threat to the merking? He was a strong fighter but he couldn't attack the merqueen or crown prince without evidence or he would get in trouble. 

Aila supposed she would have to wait and see. She had never been particularly fond of waiting. 

=== 

Zale couldn't believe the solution to all of his problems fell right into his lap. It had been over a year since he received Talori's message and he had been beginning to lose hope that his plan would work any time soon when he was approached by Lady Aila, claiming he was in danger. 

He had been momentarily horrified that Aeces had been stupid enough to bring an outsider somewhere the real him could be seen until he realized the wonderful opportunity he had been presented with. He did wish he had collected himself in time though. 

She was likely confused by him going back and forth between his true persona and the soft and silly one she had seen at parties despite the two of them hardly interacting after that first time since he had other nobles to expose his jewelry to. She had certainly seemed frightened when they first locked eyes. 

Zale would have to make it up to her later. If this worked out the way he hoped it did, he would give her anything she wanted within reason. She would have more than earned it. 

"This worked out surprisingly well for you," Beck remarked as they watched Nerio and Aila leave. 

He grinned maliciously. "Indeed it did. I don't have to kill the merking at all because they'll do it for me. All I have to do is plan my counterattack for when they try and frame me and I'll be home free. I do hope they do it quickly so I can see Tali faster."

"You will need to have your counterattack prepared before then though. Will you have enough time?"

"Of course. They probably think they'll be able to blame it on me because I'm an idiot who could have accidentally given the merking something poisonous. But even the idiot prince isn't that stupid. 

"Worst case scenario, I have to simply kill them and use Lady Aila as a witness so my executing them for treason is justified. I'm sure she was only in the palace today because her father and the other nobles were meeting with the merking about the surface item problem. I overheard them talking at the last party.

"As long as I follow through on cleaning up the waters surrounding our kingdom I doubt anyone will care. Merrick doesn't have as much support as he thinks he does. The merqueen knows this, which is likely why she is choosing to strike now." 

"It is helpful to have a witness," Beck agreed. "And if anyone tries to stop you, you can beat them easily."

"Exactly. All we truly have to do now is wait for them to attack first. My last great act might actually be fun. I can't wait to see the looks on their faces when they realized it was all an elaborately crafted lie to outwit them," Zale said with a wicked laugh. "Seeing that woman's head on the floor will be supremely satisfying."

"Indeed. You have waited for a very long time."

"Not much longer though. And then Tali will be home and we will be able to build the kind of prosperous kingdom we have always dreamed of. One where everyone feels safe."

Beck clapped a hand on his shoulder. "I believe in you, Zale."

"Thanks. Let's get to work, shall we? We have much to do to prepare for the show. Aeces! Cyreus! I need you to come with me. Seaton, see to it that we have sufficient weaponry. We're going to need it. Take Marius and Taron with you if necessary."

"Understood!" Seaton replied before gesturing for the other two to follow. 

Everything was coming together but Zale had to prepare for every possible contingency. He couldn't let anything go wrong here. Not with how many decades he had been working toward this. 

Playing the idiot. Keeping his hatred festering under the surface. Waiting for something he wasn't sure would ever happen. 

After losing Talori—even if it was only supposed to be on a temporary basis—he had lost heart. He hadn't forgotten what he was fighting for but it was incredibly frustrating continuing to get nowhere without her brightness to perk him back up. 

Zale would see her again soon if the merqueen didn't decide to wait too long to enact her scheme. He would be ready and waiting whenever that was and would finally be able to live the life he wanted. 

How nice would it be to finally be himself outside of the coral palace and not have to scheme to survive? To simply be?

He knew it wouldn't truly be that easy since he would still have a kingdom to run but it was nice to dream. It would likely take him a while to completely shake his former reputation as the idiot prince but he was sure it would happen eventually once merfolk saw what he was doing for the kingdom. He would be a far better merking than King Ren.. He was sure of that.

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