Chapter 131 The Runaway Siren

Everyone came to the living room, and Shakira was surrounded on the sofa in the center of the room, occupying the entire thing all by herself. "Gun," seeing this scene, was very displeased and meowed for a long time, indicating that the armrest of the sofa was his territory, before being coaxed away with a large pile of biscuits by Hao Ren.

Shakira curiously looked at the house full of cat demons, werewolves, and vampires, clicking her tongue in wonder, "I've never seen anything like you anywhere else. So many mixed races living together without fighting? I heard werewolves and blood clans are mortal enemies."

Hao Ren pointed to Vivian and Lily: "They fought when they first came, but it's much better now. We believe in peaceful coexistence here. No matter how you fought with other aliens outside, you're all family here. The arrogant one sitting across from you is even a demon hunter."

Shakira subconsciously shrank her tail upon hearing that, but her nervousness was only fleeting: "Wow—how did you manage that?"

"Siren aren't too afraid of demon hunters?" Hao Ren saw Shakira's reaction and couldn't help but ask Vivian quietly.

Vivian nodded: "I've said before that sirens are the only race that hasn't been hunted much by demon hunters. When the two races meet, they try to stay out of each other's way, so to sirens, demon hunters are just a bunch of guys who sound scary but don't actually have any feud with them."

"Let's talk about what's going on with you," Nangong Wuyue said at this time, also turning into her sea serpent form, so she could get closer to Shakira. She tapped the other's tail with her own, "Why are you injured? Why is the Deepsea City capturing its own people? What does the Queen's Guard want?"

"This is a long story, let me start from the beginning," Shakira took a deep breath and slowly recounted her experiences, "I came ashore a hundred years ago, one of the last teams of sirens to come ashore. I remember there were still wars going on on the surface back then... anyway, it was a mess. I even got shot at by coastal artillery. Under the guidance of the predecessors who came ashore earlier, we dispersed and contacted the hidden alien families. I first went to South America and lived with a group of werewolves, and then I came to Asia."

Hao Ren suddenly interrupted: "We know this part. After you came ashore, did you maintain organized activities? Contact each other?"

"There's a little contact, but not often," Shakira replied, poking at Nangong Wuyue's tail with her own, "We roughly know where our contemporaries went, how many of them had accidents and where they were resurrected, but other than that, we don't communicate. We all have our own missions, just complete them peacefully and wait for news from the Deepsea—of course, I didn't expect the news from the Deepsea to be bad news."

Hao Ren's heart stirred: "What is your mission? Is it to spread the prophecy of the 'Day of Return'? What is this prophecy about?"

Shakira hesitated for a moment, and Vivian keenly noticed this: "Can't you just say it? It's okay to tell us—anyway, you're telling these messages to various alien sanctuaries, and we're a sanctuary, too."

Shakira's expression was a little subtle: "It's not that reason... it's just that I don't know how to explain it to you. The messengers who came ashore were only responsible for passing on the message. The content of the prophecy was told to us directly by Her Majesty the Queen—but she didn't tell us the specific meaning of the prophecy."

Everyone looked at each other in dismay, while Shakira tapped her forehead, trying to remember: "Let me think... oh, the original words were these: The Day of Return is coming, and the primal power from the homeland is calling its lost children. The age of dark chaos is about to end, and all things will return to the glorious ancient times. A door will open, and you will hear that voice, and before that, you must reorganize your clansmen, so that everyone has the opportunity to contact the glory of the Day of Return, be sure not to leave anyone out—these were the original words Her Majesty the Queen told us, and then we told these prophecies verbatim to the aliens on the surface, occasionally explaining them slightly according to our own understanding."

"The Day of Return is just these few sentences?" Hao Ren stared, "And you sirens who came ashore only know how to recite these few sentences, but don't know what they mean?"

Lily, who was next to him, shook her head and muttered, "Many families say you messengers are mysterious and profound, talking about prophecies like fortune tellers, but it turns out it's because you don't even know how to explain them yourselves?"

Shakira wasn't embarrassed at all: "Yeah, if we don't know how to explain them, of course we can only make things up. How would I know why the races on the surface see this as profound?"

Vivian turned those vague words over in her mind several times and looked up at Shakira: "Where did the siren queen learn these prophecies? Did she tell you anything more than just to pass these words on to the surface races?"

Shakira shook her head: "I don't know. The Queen must have her reasons for doing what she does, and she has her arrangements for what comes next. We're just a few small soldiers, why bother asking so much?"

Hao Ren spread his hands: Well, this is just another happy-go-lucky siren.

Even Nangong Wuyue was a little speechless at her fellow clansman. The corners of her mouth were a little stiff: "Then what's the situation with the Queen's Guard suddenly grabbing you back? How do you know they're grabbing you back instead of picking you up to go home? Haven't you been waiting for news from the Deepsea?"

"At first, no one cared when people were taken back to the Deepsea," Shakira's face showed some lingering fear, "But soon things didn't seem right: the Queen was forcibly bringing people back. We've been ashore for over a hundred years, and some of our companions live very close to humans, have adapted to life on the surface, and some have even married land dwellers. These companions don't want to go back—but the Queen sent people to forcibly drag them away. This isn't what we agreed on. When we came ashore, we were told we could act freely, and after completing our mission, we could choose when to return home when we received the news, but we never said we'd be dragged straight out of our homes."

As Shakira said this, she raised her tail and shook it: "Then some companions began to issue warnings. It's not clear where the specific news came from, maybe it was said by a soldier of the Queen's Guard, but it's said that the Queen's temperament has changed drastically and she wants to open a door of return ahead of schedule. The sirens who are captured are to be used as sacrifices or raw materials... Anyway, it's all very mysterious. I ran away quickly, but I was almost caught. Tell me, how unlucky am I? Who did I provoke?"

Hao Ren couldn't help but frown after hearing this.

Something big really did happen in the Deepsea—he had always heard from Vivian that sirens were a peaceful and non-contending race, and the Shakira in front of him did reveal this trait in her personality. However, whether it was the siren queen, the strange prophecies, or the current situation of the Deepsea sending people to capture their compatriots, all of this was clearly inconsistent with the words "peaceful and non-contending."

Lily rolled her eyes and asked a question: "What kind of person was your queen before? Was there anything abnormal about her when she ordered you to come ashore?"

"The queen was a very good person before, very open-minded," Shakira scratched her cheek, "But now that I think about it, I do remember some things that made me uneasy... The Queen suddenly decided to send messengers to the surface. There was no warning at all before that, and she had a strange feeling for a few days before and after she decided to send the messengers. She always locked herself in the palace. The attendants said she was thinking, and even until we, the last group of people, set off, the Queen had hardly left the palace... um, why am I telling you this?"

Hao Ren quickly leaned forward: "These things are very important! Maybe I can help you solve this trouble—not just you, but also the sirens who were captured back to the Deepsea."

Vivian also chimed in: "That's right, look around you, there are all kinds of races here. Our team is happy to help. Tell us about any strange behavior the siren queen had when she sent people ashore... or any anomalies that occurred in the city where you lived at that time, this is very important."

Shakira blinked her eyes and looked at the circle of weirdos around her, deciding to cooperate. She frowned and thought hard for a long time, then suddenly remembered a detail: "Right, I don't know if it has anything to do with this—in the days before the Queen ordered people to come ashore, we caught a strange sea monster. Now that I think about it, the Queen started acting strangely not long after catching that sea monster."

"Sea monster?" Hao Ren and Vivian exchanged glances, "What kind of sea monster?"

"A strangely shaped mass of red flesh, with tentacles," Shakira gestured, "It looked like a swollen brain."