Chereads / Palace Life: The Rings of Secrets / Chapter 80 - Chapter 77: Controlling The Darkness

Chapter 80 - Chapter 77: Controlling The Darkness

The scene starts with an underwater world of mermaids. From a distance, a long low note on a violin was heard. This brought the mermaids who were minding their own business to look up. One stood out in the mermaids' center as he had a golden crown and a golden trident. Obviously, he was the king of the mermaids who Leader played.

After the first violin note piqued their interest, the king led the mermaids to the surface, where they saw a band of merry sailors dancing on the deck of a lone ship in the middle of the sea. The ship's female captain played on a golden violin that glittered and shined under the sun at the center front. Her blonde hair shined under the golden sun as they continued to dance on the calm ocean waves.

Seeing the female captain, played by Beauty, on her golden violin, the king of mermaids was mesmerized by her playing or her instrument; the audience did not know as he ordered the mermaids to the ship. The mermaids quickly swam towards the ship as the merry sailors danced in sync to their captain's violin. Suddenly, the mermaids began to vocalize with the violin, instantly mesmerizing all the sailors as they each approached the sides of the ship, leaving the captain alone to dance with her violin.

The captain did not notice that the sirens' song was seducing her sailors as she happily played on her violin while the king of the mermaids watched her. Finally, the captain noticed that she was playing and dancing by herself as she saw that the sirens were luring her sailors into the sea. Before the first sailor could fall off the ship, she did a pirouette, and then she jumped to one side as her golden violin seemed to shine brighter while electricity was seen charging as she moved gracefully.

As she approached one side of the ship, she slid her hand on the fingerboard of her violin while the electricity left her violin and fell to the sea where the sirens were singing. The sirens went under the water, and the captain reprimanded her sailors before making the exact motions on the other side of the ship.

Seeing the sirens going under, they resumed their dance on the deck while the captain continued to play. The king of mermaids saw all of this and grew more determined as he swam closer to the ship. The sirens were persistent as they tried to lure the sailors to the sea, but the captain continued to fight them off with her violin's electric charges.

Suddenly, the king of mermaids jumped from the waters onto the ship. He landed on scaly legs as he startled the seamen, forcing the sailors to come to the captain's aid, forgetting the sirens' songs as they faced the intimidating king of mermaids. The king of mermaids danced with his trident, showing off how skilled he was with his weapon.

The sailors had no clue that he was summoning a giant underwater beast from its slumber. The waves began to turn choppy, and the sky turned dark as the winds grew stronger. The captain and sailors did not know what to do as the captain kept her violin charged as they watched the king of mermaids finish his summoning dance with a high lift of his trident.

Finally, a giant tentacle appeared from the waters' depth as a monstrous scream roared, making everyone there listening, silent. Even the captain stopped playing on her violin momentarily. More giant tentacles appeared as the sailors all gracefully ran to get their cannons aimed at the giant monster. The captain, upset that their day was ruined, began to fight with the king of mermaids as she kicked her leg up, aiming at his head as he fluidly bent his back in synch with her kicks. The violin was charged, so she threw quick electric charges at the king of mermaids while the sailors fought with the giant tentacle monster.

The king of mermaids would deflect her attacks with his trident as he twirled it around while she backed up towards her sailors. The giant tentacles had fallen on the ship, breaking the mast and the deck by this point. The ship was sinking fast as they tried one last desperate attempt at killing the giant monster. The sailors kept firing at the beast until they could no longer fire because their cannons had fallen, and they along with them into the sea, where the sirens waited with their cold open arms.

Eventually, the captain was the last one on the half-sunken ship as she persisted in fighting off the king of mermaids until a giant tentacle's shadow made her look up abruptly before the scene turns dark. The story ends with a closeup of the captain lying on a large piece of driftwood with her violin next to her hand near her face. Suddenly, the audience sees a scaly foot and leg walking on water before a hand reaches down to grab the captain or the enchanted violin. It ends with the audience wondering what the king of mermaids genuinely wanted.

The group applauded as the scene had turned black again. It was interesting that an entire story was told without words. Throughout the video, only the violin and a drumbeat were heard. Sometimes when the sirens would sing, their vocalizations would be heard. The violin was mainly used to express the current feelings throughout their play, whether it was joy at the beginning when they were only dancing or tension during their fighting.

The group was proud as this was their first sponsored video that they had. They could showcase their many talents to get more sponsors, hopefully, and to work with independent firms. They did not dare to hope to be contracted by more prominent firms as they mostly looked for older, more experienced performers for their campaigns. Sometimes, the more prominent firms would take an interest in what was currently hot.

The group had debuted roughly a year ago, and though they have gained fame by their performances, they were still relatively unknown. After Beauty had left their group to go back home, they started getting more contracts to perform for opening acts that they thought they seemed fresh enough to have on their stages.

Eventually, the group made enough to try their luck and tour by themselves. Their latest project is what had brought them to Glear. The competition they held was to help spread awareness of their existence and keep their resume looking active. They had a growing number of followers that would gladly support them on their website.

What they would later record during the party was what they would eventually post online. Of course, this was already mentioned when Prince Zander had nominated Elizabella for the competition.

Remembering this clause, Prince Zander frowned as he realized that they would need to perform together to satisfy the competition's winner. Looking at how there was a lot of chemistry between Elizabella and Leader whenever they performed together made him uneasy. He felt that any lingering feelings could quickly spring to life.

This thought brought him much anxiety as the video had finished, and it was apparent that they had history. Who could deny the way that they looked at each other? Was this not how lovers would reminisce when gazing at each other? Prince Zander felt like he had swallowed something foul. It was tough to keep his face from twisting.

Prince Maxen, however, was quietly keeping to himself as he looked at the black screen. Somehow, the dancing girl on her violin seemed to trigger an old memory that had been forgotten. He slightly frowned as it flashed briefly in his mind before it quickly disappeared. Prince Maxen appeared dazed as he tried to think what he had forgotten, so he never noticed Prince Zander's uncomfortable mood. If he had turned to look at him at that time, he would have been very startled to see his face morphing scarily.

Elizabella had felt uncomfortable since the start with Prince Zander. Now that he was trying to control his urges, she was afraid to turn around and look at him. She could feel that Prince Zander's mood stirred the darkness she hid deep inside.

It was as if heavy footsteps echoed in her soul, in rhythm with her heart. As the footsteps grew louder, the rage she kept at bay wanted to claw out. She tightened her fists as she felt her eyes turning black. No one noticed that she was struggling, except for Walliams that was in her shadow.

He had long understood that his Lady was trying her hardest to contain the darkness within. He even thought he knew who had triggered it as he had also felt Prince Zander's gloominess. Walliams quaked as he tried to calculate if the people around his Lady were in danger because of her unstable mood.

The last time she lost control, well, let us not think of it for now. Just thinking about that time made Walliams gulp as he trembled in the darkness of her shadow.

Finally, Elizabella let out a long, slow sigh, and her mood had lightened. Feeling that the danger was over, Walliams let go of his breath that he did not know he was holding. He felt his heart slowing down as he patted his chest and sighed in relief.

"These poor souls do not understand that a crisis was adverted just now. Must be blissful to lead such lives," thought Walliams as he continued to hold his chest when he noticed that a few people had been affected by his Lady. "It makes sense for those people to notice since they are like me. But I wonder if they can figure out that the overwhelming pressure came from my Lady."

Leader was the first to come back to his senses as he cleared his throat, gathering everyone's attention to him as he smiled.

"This was our first sponsored video that we did together as we won the sponsorship through a talent competition. We were told that we could do whatever we wished that would show our creative side. Many people that had joined had wanted to express themselves through singing. We almost did a song with lyrics but decided, in the end, to dance with our music. It is what helped us win as we were different from the rest. Do not get me wrong; there were other dancers, but our dance told a complete story, unlike the others that danced to the music," said Leader as he had realized that there was an uncomfortable silence that he tried to fill. "We are mostly known for our dancing and music creation, but we do vary in our talents. I am sure you are aware of Beauty's talent to direct different productions in your school as we have looked through her school page. Everything she has produced in your school we do in our group. I am curious about one thing, though, Beauty, now that you are married to the Crown Prince, will you still be able to produce what you have been producing in the past?"