The memories rolled on mercilessly, laying the filthiest truths bare before every eye.
In a gloomy coral-cave corner, Jondy knocked the struggling, sobbing "Lucy" senseless, his face empty of pity—only cold calculation.
Then he handed the unconscious mermaid to human slavers disguised as pirates, counted the blood-soaked Berries with practiced ease, a greedy grin on his lips.
The final still frame: Lucy in heavy chains, shoved onto a ship bound for Sabaody's auction house, her once-loving eyes now ash-gray with despair.
This was only the beginning. Image after image flashed by—first Lucy, then more beautiful mermaids all given the same name.
Different hair, different tails, yet identical fates—
wooed by honeyed lies and false affection, betrayed by the very ones they trusted, and finally delivered into the fire to be sold as Slaves.
Seli, Nelly, Aofi, and Ersha appeared again and again, driven by jealousy or blind "love" for Jondy, helping to lure their own kin.
They naïvely believed the vanished "rivals" had simply been driven to other seas by Lord Jondy, never guessing that their "friendly" hands had pushed those sisters into an abyss.
"No… it wasn't like this… Lord Jondy said… he only chased them away… told them not to bother us…" Aofi collapsed, sobbing.
"What… what have we done… what have we done…"
Ersha clapped a hand over her mouth, but her body shook violently, tears flooding out, remorse gnawing like a viper at her heart.
Seli and Nelly were white as paper, trembling so hard the shattering of their faith nearly stopped their breath and buckled their knees.
They had lived inside a carefully woven lie of jealousy and sham affection, and become the sharpest blades against their own race.
"Seen enough?" Charlotte Linlin's voice broke the silence. She looked at the four mermaids, her gaze mixed but mostly ice.
"This is the 'devotion' you served, the 'blessing' you defended."
She turned from them to Jondy, whose face was the color of death. Black arcs coiled round her scabbard as she pointed at the culprit.
"Toying with hearts, betraying trust, selling your own kind… your crime is unforgivable."
Her voice rang like final judgment. "In your next life, remember to be—no, you won't have a next life."
"Thunderclap—Judgment!"
No chance to beg: two black lightning bolts burst from her blade-tip and devoured Jondy and Old Eight beside him.
No earth-shaking boom—only a short scream swallowed by thunder.
The villainous Jondy and his filthy ambition turned to dust on the seabed.
From those memory flashes Charlotte Linlin had glimpsed a dark corner of Fish-Man Island.
She didn't know how many mermaids were taken by force, but clearly many had walked into the trap willingly, lured by their own kin's tales of "a better world."
She couldn't understand: scraps of paper called Berries could drive people to such lengths? She herself hardly paid for anything these days—thick skin was enough.
With the chief evil gone, Charlotte Linlin's gaze swept the four mermaids sprawled on the ground, hollow-eyed.
"As for you… accomplices of a tyrant, stupid beyond belief."
Seli jerked her head up, tears shimmering with resolve: "Can… can we still make amends?"
Nelly struggled to her knees, clenching her teeth: "We want to atone! We don't want to live like this anymore!"
Aofi and Ersha nodded hard, eyes full of loathing for their past and hunger for a new life.
Charlotte Linlin studied them. After a moment she said, "That's your affair, none of mine."
She looked toward the nearby lake surface.
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