Chapter 1952: Give us a chance

"Favoured sons of Aquaron, this is the choice that you’ve made in the end."

This time, the ministers couldn’t help being a bit taken aback.

But that wasn’t strange since it wasn’t just a representative of a god that was in front of them. This time, it was an actual god that was in front of them that was releasing this pressure.

Though that god was in a weakened form as a ball of blue light, that didn’t mean that they weren’t able to show the prestige that they possessed as a god when they had to.

The moment that Aestum said this, there was a strong pressure that fell over the Merman King and the ministers that came with him.

But the Merman King didn’t back down.

Instead, the Merman King looked right up at the ball of blue light that was sitting on the throne and gave a firm nod.

"It’s a foolish choice, don’t you think?" Aestum said with a trace of an insulting tone.

The ministers seemed to react when they heard this, even if the Merman King himself didn’t really react.

The Merman King just calmly looked at Aestum as if he was waiting for a response from them. Only it didn’t seem like Aestum was about to say anything.

So in the end, it was the Merman King who had to break the silence first. Even though it really seemed like there was a lot that the ministers wanted to say.

"This is the decision that we have come to after all this time. We want to be given a chance to make up for everything that has happened in the past." The Merman King said with a serious tone.

It didn’t seem like Aestum believed him with the way that the ball of blue light remained the same as before.

It didn’t seem like Aestum even had a reaction to the Merman King’s words.

Instead of responding to the Merman King, the ball of blue light instead turned to me and asked, "Holy Son, what do you think?"

I didn’t respond right away as I calmly looked from Aestum to the Merman King and his ministers.

In the end, I said, "I believe that they are serious about this. This isn’t just because of my connection to him, but what I truly believe."

The Merman King gave me a grateful look, but I just ignored this as I waited for Aestum’s reaction.

After a long silence, Aestum finally said with a sigh, "I want it to be known that it isn’t because I believe your words that I made this decision. It’s only because there’s really no other choice for my followers that I have to make this decision."

Then Aestum changed their tone as they said in a serious voice, "Those that wish to leave will be able to leave and return to the other place. Those that do not feel comfortable will not be forced to leave. That is the only concession that I can make when it comes to this matter."

The Merman King slightly bowed his head before saying, "Thank you for giving us this chance."

Aestum just said, "Only those that are willing will be allowed to leave. If you force anyone to come with you..."

The threat in their voice was more than evident enough when they trailed off like this.

"I promise that we will never force anyone to go against their wishes."

But then after a pause, the Merman King did add, "However, to ensure that the Merman Empire does not collapse...we will have to ask them to follow some rules."

"What rules?" Aestum asked in a displeased voice.

The Merman King had already been expecting this, so he said, "We can’t let the general populace of the Merman Empire find out about the past. If that were to happen, the very society that we’ve built will collapse and it will be dangerous for your followers."

"Then you want to sweep everything under the rug still?" Aestum asked in the same displeased voice.

"For now. When the time is right, that’s when we will reveal it. It’s just that this is not something that can be done all of a sudden for both sides." The Merman King said without any fear at all.

He had already put a lot of thought into this since he found out about the hidden past.

So he had made sure to come up with a plan that would be the best for everyone.

Aestum didn’t respond at first, but eventually they said with a sigh, "I understand."

Though it was just two words, there were some complicated feelings behind them.

But after a while, there was something else that Aestum had to ask, "How will you introduce my followers to your people then? It won’t be that simple."

"We have the Holy Son and your messenger." The Merman King said with a smile.

For the Merman King, the hardest part of this was trying to convince Aestum to accept this plan. Once they accepted it, it would be easy since there was plenty of power and resources that was at the disposal of the Merman King since he was the ruler of the Merman Empire.

It was just that if a god were to interfere, it really was hard for him to stop it since the other side was a god.

I had already agreed to help since I wanted to see what would happen.

There had to be a reason why Aquaron had cast away these other races, so I wanted to see what would happen if they were brought back to unite with the races he didn’t cast away.

While this might seem a bit cruel, I did hope to learn more about the gods like this.

After all, I did know too little about the gods right now...

The more that I knew about them, the better it would be for everyone in the future.

So even if it was a bit cruel, it had to be done.