Baby System: I'm the Beast World's Only Hope!-Chapter 271: Episode 269: It really happened

She knew I was coming...

Roxy knew that this was the moment she would finally get to know what was going on.

Queen Nerissa did not speak as she guided Roxy through the winding corridors of the royal castle. The ancient octopus-mermaid moved with a terrifying grace, her eight magnificent tentacles propelling her effortlessly through the water.

Roxy followed closely, her heart hammering a frantic rhythm against her ribs. She kept her eyes forward, terrified that if she glanced down a side hallway, she might catch a glimpse of the royal nursery. She couldn’t afford any distractions.

Finally, Nerissa pushed open a set of heavy, pearl-inlaid doors, ushering Roxy into her private sanctum.

For the first time, Roxy was able to truly see the beauty of Queen Nerissa’s room. It was a breathtaking, abyssal garden. The walls were lined with soft, glowing anemones in shades of lavender and deep rose, casting a warm, comforting light.

Floating curtains of spun ghost-jellyfish silk swayed gently in the currents created by a hidden thermal vent in the floor. Ancient, massive clam shells served as tables, piled high with waterproof scrolls and stone tablets etched with forgotten lore. It felt incredibly safe, a hidden pocket of ancient wisdom at the bottom of the world.

"It is beautiful," Roxy breathed, her voice filled with genuine awe as her tail flicked to keep her hovering over the soft moss carpet.

"It is a cage adorned with pretty lights, little Queen," Nerissa replied smoothly, her tentacles settling elegantly beneath her as she rested near the center of the room. Her dark, knowing eyes locked onto Roxy. "But you did not risk the crushing depths to admire my decor."

"No," Roxy said, her posture instantly stiffening. The urgency of her mission crashed back over her. She couldn’t linger. Every second she spent down here was a second the plague inched closer to the Iron-Wood. "I wanted to start speaking immediately. I need your help, Nerissa. And I need to be fast. I can’t stay, and I cannot linger anymore because I... I don’t want to see Zale. And I don’t want to see Caspian. If I do—"

"It is too late for that, child," Nerissa interrupted. She looked past Roxy’s shoulder.

The heavy, pearl-inlaid doors to the sanctum burst apart.

The water pressure in the room spiked so sharply Roxy’s ears popped. A massive, terrifying shadow filled the archway, radiating an aura of absolute, crushing possessiveness that made the glowing anemones dim in submission.

Caspian had arrived.

The Merman King looked devastating. His midnight-blue scales shimmered with agitated energy, his silver, flowing hair whipping wildly around his incredibly handsome face. His chest heaving, his sharp, predatory eyes swept the room until they locked onto Roxy.

The shock, the disbelief, and the overwhelming, ravenous hunger that exploded in his gaze made Roxy’s breath catch in her throat.

"Caspian—" Roxy started, raising a hand.

He didn’t give her the chance to speak. Before Roxy could even utter a single syllable, Caspian crossed the massive room as fast as possible.

He crashed into her, his powerful arms wrapping around her waist and pulling her flush against his hard chest. His hands swept up to cup her face, his long fingers tangling desperately in her dark hair, and he crashed his mouth down onto hers.

He kissed her so deeply, so fiercely, it felt as though he wanted to physically consume her.

It wasn’t a sweet reunion. It was a desperate, starving claim. Caspian’s tongue invaded her mouth, tasting the salt of the ocean and the lingering scent of the Surface, trying to devour the distance that had separated them.

His thumbs stroked her cheekbones, his heart hammering against hers with a frantic, booming rhythm. He kissed her with all the grief of a King who had let his world walk away, and all the euphoric madness of a male who had suddenly, miraculously gotten her back.

Roxy’s heart violently pulled in two different directions. She melted against him for a fraction of a second, her hands instinctively clutching his broad shoulders, returning the desperate pressure of his lips.

When Caspian finally broke the kiss, he didn’t pull away. He rested his forehead against hers, his eyes squeezed shut as he fought to steady his jagged breathing.

"You came back," Caspian breathed, his voice trembling with a raw, naked emotion that broke Roxy’s heart. "You came to visit me."

Roxy swallowed the thick knot forming in her throat. She looked at the devastating hope in her husband’s eyes and felt like an absolute monster.

"Caspian, I..." Roxy’s voice cracked.

"I didn’t know," Caspian continued, completely swept up in his own joyous adrenaline, his hands running frantically down her arms to assure himself she was real. "If the guards had sent word, if I had known you were descending, I would have arranged a grand banquet for you. I would have lined the trenches with pearls. I would have—"

"No, Caspian. Please, stop," Roxy pleaded, gently but firmly pushing against his chest.

She stepped back, putting an agonizing foot of water between them. Caspian’s hands fell to his sides, his joyous expression faltering as he registered the sheer, desperate sorrow in her green eyes.

Roxy shook her head, her heart hurting so much she wanted to cry. "There is no need for a banquet. I am not moving back, Caspian. I am only here because of an emergency. And I will be leaving as soon as I have spoken with Queen Nerissa."

The silence that followed was deafening. The vibrant, chaotic energy Caspian had brought into the room instantly flatlined. His jaw clenched, the sharp, aristocratic lines of his face hardening back into the cold, ruthless mask of the Abyssal King. The brief, blinding flash of hope was extinguished, leaving behind a cold, dark void.

Before the King could let his heartbreak curdle into anger, Nerissa’s smooth, ancient voice drifted through the water.

"It takes a profound strength to return to the sea when your heart belongs to the land," Nerissa observed, her tentacles shifting gracefully over the moss. She looked at Roxy with a deep, piercing empathy. "Will you at least go to the nursery? Would you like to see your son?"

The mention of baby Zale only twisted the ache in her heart.

Did she want to?

Fuck no!

Every maternal instinct in her body was screaming at her to swim down the hall, to scoop her tiny, beautiful Mer-Prince into her arms, and to press kisses to his soft, chubby cheeks. Her breasts actually ached with the biological phantom pain of missing him.

But she couldn’t.

Roxy shook her head violently, her dark hair swirling in the water.

"No," Roxy sighed. "No, I can’t. If I see him... if I look at his face and hold him in my arms, I won’t be able to leave. My heart won’t let me let him go a second time. And I have to leave. My pack on the surface will die if I don’t."

Caspian’s eyes widened. The anger he had been about to unleash completely dissolved, replaced by a sudden, sharp alarm. He looked from Roxy to his mother.

Nerissa understood instantly. The ancient Queen did not push, did not judge, and did not offer empty comfort. She recognized the terrible, agonizing sacrifice of a mother choosing the survival of her family over the comfort of her own heart.

"I understand," Nerissa said softly, her dark eyes entirely serious. She glided forward, her massive tentacles settling around her as she leveled her gaze at the weeping Queen. "Dry your tears, Roxy. A Queen does not weep when she has a war to fight. Tell me. What do you need?"

Roxy took a shuddering breath, forcing the image of her baby out of her mind. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. She looked at Nerissa, entirely ignoring the stunned Merman King hovering beside her.

"There is a plague on the surface," Roxy explained, her voice stabilizing into a rapid, clinical urgency. "They call it the Wither-Rot. It is moving up from the Southern Swamps. It is a highly contagious, necrotic disease, but it doesn’t operate like a normal sickness. It specifically targets and corrupts active mana cores. It feeds on Surface magic."

Nerissa’s tentacles completely stopped moving.

"My mates, Zarek and Ren, have incredibly potent mana cores," Roxy continued, her hands curling into tight fists. "If they catch it, they will go feral, and they will die. I brought a vial of Kraken venom. I thought, because it paralyzes deep-sea leviathans, that we could use it to temporarily freeze their mana cores and starve the virus. But Syris and I need the exact abyssal synthesis to make it work. I came to you because you know the old magic. Have you ever heard of a sickness that specifically targets the magical grid of a Beastman?"

Caspian looked completely lost, but Nerissa’s reaction was entirely different.

Nerissa slowly lowered her gaze to the stone table, "And so..." Nerissa whispered, "...it really happened."