There's an old legend people still talk about in the south of the Empire. They say that, a long time ago, mermaids used to live in the southern sea—the Seryndel Sea.
Only… the stories aren't the dreamy kind with lovesick mermaids falling for humans and giving up their tails to live on land. Nope. These ones were nothing like that.
The mermaids of the Seryndel Sea were beautiful, sure—but they were deadly. The kind of beautiful that made you forget your fear until it was too late. They were monsters. The legends say they'd seduce men, have children with them, and once they got what they needed—they'd kill them. No mercy. No second chances.
They were known all over the world as the royalty of the seas. They had this incredible power—they could control massive amounts of water like it was just an extension of their own body. Waves, tides, even storms—they could bend them with barely a thought.
And what's worse? Only the women survived. At some point, they decided that male mermaids were useless except for one thing—being sperm donors. That's literally all they kept them around for. If a male had good genes, they'd let him live long enough to father enough kids. Then—gone. No thanks, no goodbye. Even their own baby boys weren't safe. If a male child didn't meet their standards, they got rid of him too.
Cold and cruel.
At some point, no one really knows when or how, those mermaids started blending in with humans. Not just hiding in the sea anymore—they began walking among people. Some kind of strange phenomenon made it possible. They didn't lose their powers, and they definitely didn't lose their nature. They just got better at pretending.
And the way they treated their human partners? Still the same. Cold. Ruthless. People started disappearing—wealthy merchants, foreign travelers, nobles visiting the southern coasts. Gone. No signs. Just missing. Some said they ran off. Others whispered they were taken by something far worse.
The mermaids didn't care about love or kindness. By any human standard, they were monsters—beautiful and deadly. They saw people as tools, and when those tools broke or became useless, they were thrown away. Or worse.
Everything changed when a powerful mage from the Vallis family stepped in. His name was Duke Caelum Vallis—an older ancestor of Noel, known across the Empire for his incredible water magic. People said he could freeze a lake with a glance or drain a river with a flick of his hand. When things got out of control, the Emperor—his cousin at the time—sent him to deal with the threat.
Caelum didn't just fight the mermaids—he uncovered the truth, hunted them down, and destroyed the ones he could. The rest—the strongest, the cleverest—he sealed away in places no one could find. He didn't stop there. He built a special order of mages, trained to watch the waters and act fast if anything like this ever happened again. People say that order still exists, hidden in the Empire, just waiting.
After that, things went quiet. The sea calmed. The stories faded into legend.
But legends have a way of coming back. Especially when the blood of those legends starts running in someone's veins.
Most people didn't know this, but the mage order that Duke Caelum Vallis created long ago still exists. It works quietly in the background, watching the seas for any danger—especially anything related to the mermaids.
Ethen's family has served this order for generations.
They weren't nobles, but they were trusted with important tasks. When rumors spread that a mermaid was hiding among humans, Ethen's family was sent to investigate. That mermaid turned out to be Noel's mother.
By the time they found out, she was already pregnant. It was too late to stop it. So Ethen's family stayed close, watching her every move in secret, waiting for the right moment.
After Noel was born, they acted quickly. His mother was killed quietly, in secret. No one else was told what really happened. Even Duke Edmund Vallis, Noel's father, wasn't told the truth. He was only told that his wife had disappeared.
Noel was taken away from his mother immediately. He grew up in the Vallis estate, never knowing who or what his mother really was.
Ethen grew up beside Noel—not just as a friend, but as someone who knew the whole truth. His family made sure Noel was safe, even if it meant killing his mother. Ethen had seen what she was—and what she could have become.
But Noel? To him, she was just gone.
And the truth was still hidden.