CHAPTER 736: CHAPTER 740: FAIRY TALE TOWN (29)

"Why can’t I, I eat humans... You humans hunt marine creatures extensively, you eat fish, shells, all sorts... Why can’t we eat humans..."

The Sea Princess’s voice was so faint, it was as tiny as a mosquito, and Su Li was the only one who heard it.

Following that, her weak breath also faded away with the sound of Cinderella’s explosive attack.

In fact, where do all these ’whys’ come from? Isn’t the natural world just a case of you eat me, I eat you, big fish eat little fish, and little fish eat shrimp?

It’s simply survival of the fittest.

Perhaps, in one of the many small worlds within the Great Thousand World, humans are not the dominant primates but at the very bottom of the food chain or the food of some fish, just like people eat pigs, cattle, sheep, and fish now.

So, to the Sea Princess, her statement was not wrong.

To her, humans were just one of the edible items on her menu, so what’s wrong with her eating people?

However, now she happened to include Su Li among those she wished to consume.

She could only be blamed for her poor luck.

Everything is a cycle, going round and round, you’re either eating or being eaten...

Now, since Su Li wasn’t eaten by the Shark Princess, then...

Su Li smiled as she watched the shark’s corpse, the original form of the Sea Princess, revealed on the ground after she died completely.

Having tasted the delicious carp meat, she had yet to discover what shark meat tasted like.

However, looking at the unappetizing food before her, the slight interest Su Li had kindled was extinguished.

Forget it, you have to have a bit of everything – color, aroma, and taste – when eating, and this special food failed at first glance.

Besides, she couldn’t bring herself to eat something that tasted like feces, no matter how fresh the flesh might be.

Moreover, the fish meat that had been destroyed by Cinderella was now inedible anyway.

Regaining her composure, Cinderella realized what she had done.

She let out a cry, quickly threw away the deformed plank in her hand, covered her eyes, and retreated to a side where she began to weep loudly.

Despite appearing pitiful, weak, and helpless now, this did not stop the landlady’s strange look at her.

Scary, scary, Cinderella in a rage was truly frightening.

Should she be grateful for her former stepdaughter’s restraint from not beating her before?

After venting, Cinderella, who stood up again, seemed changed in Su Li’s eyes.

It was as if her experience had opened a new door for her.

She stared blankly at her hands as if they had acquired some magical power.

--------

It didn’t seem like much time had passed, but in fact, the sky had already started to brighten after all this commotion.

Su Li could already hear numerous hurried footsteps approaching.

With the Sea Princess’s breath gone, the fog that shrouded some people dissipated.

The collapse of the Princess’s residence was quite an event. Regardless of how unpopular the Princess was, the matter had to be dealt with.

Not only had the Imperial Palace’s housekeeper arrived, but the Prince had come as well.

He had a dazed look on his face, as if he had just woken up from a beautiful dream.

Facing the Prince, the housekeeper, despite not holding the unpopular Princess in high regard, still managed to show temporary courtesy on the surface.

He bowed to Cinderella and then asked with confusion, "Princess, could you tell me what happened here? Why is the palace in such ruin?"

The more important issue was that such destructive power could not have occurred without making some noise.

Yet, in truth, they had only just become aware of the scene when someone had spotted it moments before.

To think further... oh, he dared not ponder any longer, merely hoping his masters would not hold him accountable for his lack of vigilance.

After a night of intense emotional turmoil, the once unrecognizable Cinderella now had a face marred by even more gauntness and ugliness.

Had they randomly pulled a properly dressed young maid from behind the housekeeper, she would have been more pleasing to the eye than Cinderella.

The housekeeper involuntarily furrowed his brow.

Such an appearance was truly an embarrassment to the Imperial Family.

Yet, as bold as his thoughts were, the housekeeper lacked the courage to say them in front of the Prince.

Although unspoken, the housekeeper’s face betrayed his inner thoughts to some extent.

After a long wait without a response from the Princess, the housekeeper’s tone grew noticeably more rigid as he repeated, "Princess, might you inform me?"

"Prince, I..."

As the housekeeper turned, struggling to speak to the Prince, no one expected the newly appointed Princess, often viewed as meek and vulnerable, to suddenly step forward and deliver a resounding slap to the housekeeper’s face.

With such force, the stunned housekeeper’s face was turned aside.

Like the remnants of her unreleased energy, her movements were fluid and precise, not least bit awkward.

"Do you know your place? Who gave you the audacity to speak to me in such a manner?"

Standing tall, Cinderella straightened her back and adjusted the skirts at her sides as she firmly stated, "Please remember who I am. I am the Princess acknowledged by the people."

"Prince, you see..." the housekeeper, looking aggrieved, turned to the Prince, his plea unspoken.

Reminded by others, the Prince too noticed Cinderella’s assertiveness.

His gaze swept over the person in front of him and then swiftly averted, his disgust clearly unhidden, piercing Cinderella’s heart deeply.

He did not scold his Princess as the housekeeper had hoped; instead, he fiercely shouted at Cinderella: "Was this all your conspiracy, your doing... wasn’t it?"

For a moment, Cinderella was taken aback, not understanding what the Prince was referring to.

But as her thoughts turned and she caught a glimpse of the shark carcass on the ground and the Prince’s quickly averted gaze, it all became clear.

She laughed, the last hint of warmth in her tone now frozen by the Prince’s demeanor.

"Did you come here first thing in the morning in search of the Sea Princess?"

"See, there you have it."

Cinderella’s smile widened as she pointed to the shark carcass on the ground.

Such a large shark laid out, a blur of blood and flesh, garnering little attention from anyone, was curious indeed.

"What are you talking about? That couldn’t possibly be..."

Before the Prince could finish his rebuttal, Cinderella quickly interjected, "What do you think that is?"

Following the direction Cinderella pointed, there rested a small crown beside the shark carcass.

Everyone in the palace knew that it belonged to the Sea Princess.

And that shark bore a mark of the Mountain Fork, a symbol that the Prince also bore on his arm.

It was there because the Sea Princess bore it, and to show his sincerity, the Prince had stamped the same mark on himself.

Every servant and subordinate bowed their heads low, wishing fervently that they could just vanish into thin air.

In reality, Cinderella believed she was the only one to notice something amiss in the palace, but that was just what she thought.