Baby System: I'm the Beast World's Only Hope!-Chapter 239: Episode 237: Go now, Little Pearl.

The day of the Grand Reception arrived with a silence that felt heavier than the millions of tons of water pressing down on the Spires.

Roxy stood in front of a mirror in the Pearl Wing. She was dressed in the Imperial Silk, a gown of deep, shifting midnight blue that clung to her form and trailed behind her. On her head sat the Crown of Tides, a heavy, jagged circlet of black coral and raw diamonds that hummed with the ambient magic of the ocean.

She looked every inch a Queen. Cold. Distant. Powerful.

Inside, she was vibrating with fear. She was very nervous that Caspian could taste it in the water.

"You are shaking," Caspian murmured, swimming up behind her.

He placed his large hands on her shoulders. He was dressed in ceremonial silk. He looked magnificent, but his eyes were tight with worry.

"They will love him," Caspian said, though he sounded like he was trying to convince himself. "He is the Heir. His blood is Royal."

"They will see his legs," Roxy whispered, adjusting the crown. "They will see something that shouldn’t be in the spires., Caspian. Your people are proud. They value the tail above all else."

Caspian’s grip tightened. "Then I will remind them who is King. If anyone speaks a word against him, I will rip their tongue out."

"No ripping," Roxy said, turning to face him. She smoothed the lapel of his armor. "We do this with dignity. We do this with pride. If we look ashamed, they will smell blood. If we look like we own the defect... they will call it a feature."

She swam over to the crib where Zale lay, wrapped in the heavy purple swaddle. He was awake, sucking on his fist, completely oblivious to the political storm he was about to cause.

"Ready, little fishy~" Roxy cooed, picking him up.

Zale gurgled, a bright smile laughter blooming on his face, kicking his legs inside the silk.

"Let’s go," Roxy said, booping her nose with his. "Showtime."

Once they arrived at the Great Plaza, it was a sea of bodies.

Thousands of merfolk had gathered in the vast, open-water amphitheater. Bioluminescent jellyfish floated above like living lanterns, casting a kaleidoscope of colors over the crowd.

The roar of the crowd was deafening. When the Royal Family emerged from the palace gates, everywhere went into absolute silence.

Silence rippled outward from the front rows to the back, absolute and expectant.

Caspian swam first, his expression stony. Roxy followed, holding the bundle high against her chest. Nerissa and the High Council brought up the rear.

They reached the central dais, a raised platform of white coral visible to everyone.

"Citizens of the Deep!" Nerissa’s voice boomed, amplified by magic. "Behold! The drought is over! The line continues!"

A cheer went up, wild and joyous.

"King Caspian!" they chanted. "Queen Roxy!"

Roxy had a wave of déjà vu course through her veins, but she was used to this. Caspian stepped forward. He held out his arms.

Roxy handed Zale to him. Her heart hammered against her ribs. Here it comes.

Caspian took his son. He looked out at his people. He took a deep breath, steeling himself, and then lifted the bundle high above his head for all to see.

"I present to you," Caspian roared, "Prince Zale! Heir to the Spires! Son of the Sea and the Surface!"

The crowd cheered again.

Then, Zale moved.

Startled by the noise, the baby kicked. He kicked hard.

The purple silk swaddle, which had been loosely wrapped to allow for the presentation, slipped. It drifted down, unraveling in the current. Roxy was to late to hide him and Zale was too active to allow them cover him with reflex.

Zale was left floating in his father’s hands, wearing only a small ceremonial tunic.

His legs were bare.

They dangled in the water, two pale, chubby, distinctly human legs with knees and feet and ten tiny toes. He kicked them, looking like he was treading water.

The cheer died instantly. A collective gasp sucked the oxygen out of the water. Thousands of eyes fixed on the Prince’s lower half.

" legs..." someone whispered in the front row.

"He has no tail," another murmured, horrified.

"A mutant!" a voice shouted from the back. "A Walker! An abomination!"

The murmurs grew into a roar of confusion and disgust.

"The line is broken!"

"It is a Surface-taint!"

"He cannot swim! He is crippled!"

Caspian froze. His arms were still raised, holding his son, but his face darkened with a terrifying rage. His gills flared. His pupils slit into vertical lines. And he was this close to ending them all.

"SILENCE!" Caspian bellowed, the sound releasing a shockwave of mana that knocked the front row back. "He is my son! He is—"

"He is a defect!" a High Council member shouted from behind them. "Matriarch! This cannot be the Heir! The prophecy demands a swimmer!"

The crowd was turning ugly. Fear was spreading like ink.

Roxy saw Caspian’s hand twitch toward the trident strapped to his back. He was going to kill someone. And if he did, the reception would turn into a massacre.

"No," Roxy whispered.

She pushed off the coral floor, swimming up to Caspian. She placed a hand on his arm, lowering it gently until Zale was at chest level.

She turned to face the crowd. She didn’t look apologetic. She looked furious.

"You fools," Roxy’s voice rang out, clear and sharp. She didn’t need magic to amplify it; she had the rage of a mother protecting her cub.

She grabbed Zale’s tiny foot. She held it up.

"You look at these and you see weakness," Roxy shouted, her gaze sweeping over the silent, stunned crowd. "You see a lack of fins. You see a lack of scales."

She sneered at them.

"That is because you are small. That is because you are afraid of the shore."

She lifted Zale higher, taking him from Caspian.

"These are not defects!" Roxy declared, her voice rising with every word. "These are weapons! Do you know what lies above the waves? Do you know what creatures walk the dry lands? Dragons! Wolves! All sorts of creatures!"

The crowd murmured, confused but listening.

"A tail cannot conquer the land!" Roxy shouted. "A tail stops at the beach! But these..."

She kissed Zale’s foot, a gesture of absolute respect.

"These legs will walk where you cannot! These legs will carry the banner of the Spires into the forests of the Surface! He is not just a King of the Deep! He is a Conqueror of the Dry Lands!"

Whatever the fuck I am saying, let it get into their pea brains.

She looked at them with burning violet eyes.

"He is the Bridge! He is the Amphibian King! He will double your empire because he can walk where you can only dream!"

Silence.

Then, a soft, golden glow began to emanate from Zale’s skin.

The blessings of the Gods kicked in. The Sassy Goddess’s Charm of the Tides.

Zale giggled. The sound bubbled out, amplified by the silence. He kicked his legs, and tiny sparks of golden light trailed from his toes.

A trench-worker in the back, a rough-looking merman with scars, raised his fist.

"The Amphibian King!" he shouted. "He will take the land!"

"A Conqueror!" another shouted. "Double the empire!"

The narrative shifted. Fear turned to greed. Disgust turned to awe. They didn’t see a cripple anymore; they saw a weapon. They saw expansion.

"ALL HAIL PRINCE ZALE!"

The chant started low, then swelled until it shook the foundations of the plaza.

"HAIL! HAIL! HAIL!"

Caspian stared at Roxy. His mouth was slightly open. He looked at her with a mixture of shock and worship. She had taken a disaster and turned it into a triumph with nothing but words and attitude.

"You..." Caspian breathed. "You are terrifying."

Roxy’s knees nearly gave out with relief. She handed Zale back to Caspian, her hands trembling.

"Smile," she whispered through her teeth. "Wave. Don’t kill anyone." 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

The rest of the reception was a blur of cheering, gifts, and heavy political maneuvering. Roxy stood by Caspian’s side, the perfect Queen, accepting the praise she felt she didn’t deserve.

As the currents began to shift, signaling the end of the cycle, the crowd began to disperse.

Roxy floated near the edge of the dais, watching Caspian show Zale to a group of awestruck generals.

"A smooth tongue," a voice murmured. "You spin lies like a spider spins silk."

Queen Nerissa was hovering next to her. The Matriarch was looking at the distant, dark currents of the upper ocean.

"I spoke the truth," Roxy said quietly. "He will walk the land."

"Ideally," Nerissa agreed.

The Matriarch drifted closer. Her tentacles brushed against Roxy’s gown, creating a curtain of privacy that blocked them from the guards’ view.

"The reception is over," Nerissa whispered. "The King is distracted. The guards are drunk on victory."

Roxy felt something heavy and cold press into her hand.

She looked down.

Hidden in the folds of Nerissa’s shawl was a key. It was carved from black coral, ancient and jagged, pulsing with a faint, purple light that matched Zale’s eyes.

Roxy’s breath hitched. She looked at Nerissa.

"Mother?"

Nerissa didn’t look at her. Instead she focused on something else as if looking at Roxy was going to spoil all her plans and although Roxy didn’t understand she just looked at Nerissa expectant.

"The Treasury Gate," Nerissa whispered, the words barely audible over the distant cheering. "It is the only exit that wouldn’t lead you into the jaws of the leviathan."

She closed Roxy’s fingers over the key.

"The tide turns in two cycles," Nerissa murmured, her eyes finally meeting Roxy’s. They were filled with a strange, fierce sorrow. "The guards will be rotating. The corridor will be empty for seven minutes."

She pulled back, her tentacles uncoiling.

"Go, Little Pearl," Nerissa said, her voice devoid of emotion. "Take your exit strategy. Before the cage closes for good."

She knew.