Meanwhile, when junior seamaid Natalie Wave, still unaware of her promotion, was about to swim to bed, someone knocked on her door. Groaning, she answered it, finding the personal butler of a noble merman who insisted on coming back to his master with her, not even letting her change. Forcing her outside in her pajamas, how rude! And of course, when in front of count Neptune, the noble jerk immediately blamed it on her. "How DARE you come in front of me wearing such garbage? I left you enough time to change into your uniform, miss Wave!"
‘Except you didn't and you know it, count Jerktune. Just like you know I should be called junior sub-seamaid Wave.’ Was instantly thinking the young Natalie. (She still don't know she got promoted to junior seamaid, remember?)
Alas, she couldn't say, so instead she stayed far more polite. "I'm sorry sir. Did you need me for something? More complaints maybe?"
"In fact, yes. I heard you caused your superior, Adjutant Neptune, to kiss some human, making her form a deep-bond with him? A DEEP-BOND!?!" Before she could correct him, added "Oh, of course you didn't do it yourself, letting poor Ambrosia do it. But YOU SHOULD HAVE STOPPED HER! IT WAS YOUR JOB!!!"
"Are you saying YOU can predict what your niece will do? Because no one could so far." ‘Honestly, how the Adjutant's mother could have been married to someone like HIM?!?’
"I don't want to hear any more excuse, miss Wave. Instead, you're going to pray this human can still be killed, and end his life." Sneered Ondine's step-father.
‘Oh, great…’ Natalie shook her head. "Do you have the royal approval necessary to give me that kind of mission? Because you HADN'T forgotten that killing without the king's accord is highly illegal."
"I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR PROTOCOL!!" Screamed the maddened lord, who took his sword and attacked Natalie before she could react. But somehow, something interposed itself between the two before he could impale her on his blade.
- – — – -
Mark Neptune, half-brother of Adjutant Ondine Neptune (even if the law say otherwise) and son of the current Count Neptune, a title Mark's father got only because his wife died and Ondine is a siren, was hidden in his usual post, listening to his monster of a dad's supposedly-secret meeting. (Something Mark did every-time that kind of meeting was happening.)
Then he saw who his father was meeting, and his eyes lit-up. It was that nice siren that worked with his sister, the one that was so nice with him and, sometimes, gave him messages from his sister. If only asking her on a date couldn't land him in jail…
When he saw the Count drawn his sword he didn't hesitate, he jumped between it and his crush, stealing a kiss while he could.
Alas, his intervention wasn't even enough to protect Natalie from being embroched with him and, while a deep-bond started to form between them, it was too few, too late.