Chapter 1546: Night swim (1)

"Ha..."

I couldn’t help letting out a long sigh as I just sat there with a cup of whiskey in my hand.

My wives asked if I wanted to spend the night with them, but I really couldn’t after what had happened today.

At this point, I really needed some time alone to organize my thoughts.

"It seems that I’ve become a bit of a scumbag after a certain point. It wasn’t as if it was my intention, but it seemed like the position that I took has pushed me to this point. When did I start making the wrong choices?" I couldn’t help muttering to myself as I took a sip of my whiskey.

It all started when I became king.

That was when everyone started having expectations of me to act in a certain way. At the same time, it was also when they started treating me differently.

It wasn’t that I had become a different person, it was just that they had no choice.

"I should have noticed when Rose brought up the issue of a successor. It bothered me then, but I didn’t think too much since I wanted to respect her opinion. If only I had pushed a bit, then I would have been able to discuss this with them before this happened. If we talked about it before this, then perhaps we could have come to a different solution."

Though I said this to myself, it wasn’t as if I actually believed what I said.

After all, I could tell that they had already come to this decision a long time ago.

As for how long ago, that was the one thing that I didn’t know.

As I was sitting there alone with my thoughts, I didn’t really notice anything that was around me.

It was only when a voice rang out that I realized that someone was there.

"Can we talk?"

I looked up to see that Ariel was standing there with an awkward look on her face.

She clearly knew what her father had proposed this afternoon and it certainly was embarrassing for her to have her father expose her like this.

But I could also tell that there was a bit of determination in her eyes as she said this.

It seemed that she didn’t just come to talk to me to explain this, it seemed that she wanted to talk about what would come next.

Seeing this determination, it made it hard for me to reject her even though I wanted to be alone to think this through.

So in the end, I gave a simple nod before gesturing for her to sit down.

However, she just shook her head before saying, "Not here, let’s go to another place."

I couldn’t help raising a brow when I heard this, but I slowly gave a nod and stood up to follow her. Though before leaving the room, I made sure to pick up another cup and bring the bottle of whiskey with me.

A drink like this would certainly make whatever we were planning to talk about easier.

As I followed behind Ariel, I couldn’t help feeling confused as to where she was leading me. But it didn’t take long for me to figure it out since the path that she took me on was a familiar one.

It was one that led to a place that I had prepared for her.

This was the path to the castle’s pool.

When we arrived, I couldn’t help being surprised by the sight of it.

This pool had been worked on during the time that I was away and it was twice as large as it was before. At the same time, there were facilities that were added that made it even more perfect as a pool.

With the current weather, it would have been the perfect condition for everyone to go for a night swim, but there wasn’t a single person here.

It wasn’t as if the pool wasn’t open to outsiders.

Other than being used for training, it was also open to the staff of the castle in the evenings. Sometimes it would even be used in the afternoon, but that depended on the needs of the royal guards.

As such, this pool was usually quite the busy place other than in winter when it was too cold for it.

But with the current spring temperature, it really was the perfect weather for swimming.

The fact that there was no one here meant that everyone had evacuated this place on purpose.

It seemed that they were all giving Ariel the space that she needed.

While I was looking around the pool, Ariel already moved to the side of the pool and seemed to be pulling something out. After pulling this thing out, she suddenly took off her top and bottom which caught me off guard.

But I saw that her legs started to change.

They came together until they formed a tail.

She was turning back into her mermaid form.

As she took her mermaid form, Ariel turned to face the pool and dived right in with a large splash.

The ripples continued for a bit before disappearing as Ariel sunk under the surface. With how quiet it was, it really didn’t seem like she was there anymore.

But then there was a large splash as she suddenly jumped out of the pool and did a flip in the air.

I was caught off guard by this, so I couldn’t stop myself from being splashed by the water that came from her jump and her landing.

When she landed, she came up to the surface of the water and said, "I want you to watch something. I have a performance that I want to show you."

I was surprised to hear this, but I could also see the determined look on her face.

So I just gave a simple nod in response.

With that, Ariel started to swim in the pool, but she did it on the surface of the pool so I could see what was happening.

While she was doing this, the expression on my face changed.

That was because I recognized the dance that she was doing...