The Conquerors Path

Chapter 1034: Chapter 1032-My Peaceful Life!

Elowen’s mind was spinning faster than a whirlpool in a storm as the merman’s fake tears continued to pour down his face. The crab’s pincers clicked ominously, the sound sharp and threatening in the luxurious VIP room. The two shark guards had already moved closer, fins twitching with barely contained excitement at the prospect of violence.

“I told you already.”

Elowen said, trying her best to keep her voice calm and lazy, like she was discussing the weather rather than her impending doom.

“I don’t know this idiot. I literally just met him today when I was leaving my home, a new neighbour, just a neighbour! This is clearly some kind of setup. A very stupid, very annoying setup.”

The merman let out a heart-wrenching sob that would have won awards in any underwater theatre. He clutched his chest dramatically, tears streaming down his face in perfect little streams.

“Big Sis, how can you say that?! After all those nights we spent planning this together? You even drew the maps for me on how to cheat the dealers without getting caught! You said I was your favourite little brother because I had such an innocent face!”

Elowen’s eye twitched violently.

‘This little shit… I’m going to drown him myself later. Slowly.’

The crab’s beady eyes narrowed further, its pincers opening and closing with increasing speed like it was sharpening knives.

“Maps, huh? That sounds pretty detailed for someone you ‘just met’ today. Care to explain, Miss Elowen?”

“I didn’t draw any maps!”

Elowen protested, her laid-back attitude cracking just a little under the pressure. She really, really didn’t want to fight. Fighting meant effort. Effort meant sweating. Sweating meant she’d have to take another long, annoying bath and probably drink twice as much fermented kelp wine to recover from the whole ordeal. Her entire second-chance philosophy was built on avoiding exactly this kind of unnecessary hassle. Peace. Quiet. Gambling. Drinking. That was the dream.

The merman, sensing blood in the water like the opportunistic little shark he was pretending to be, doubled down with Oscar-worthy betrayal acting. He threw himself halfway across the table, reaching desperately toward her with trembling hands and big, watery eyes.

“Big Sis, please! Don’t abandon me now! Don’t you remember all the time we spent together!/ the plans and schemes we made!? You promised you’d protect me if I got caught! You even said the boss was too stupid to figure it out anyway!”

One of the shark guards growled, stepping forward with a menacing grin.

“We found these on him.”

He slammed down a small stack of papers onto the table, crudely drawn maps with little notes like “Big Sis’s genius plan” and “Don’t forget the sugar excuse” written in what suspiciously looked like Elowen’s own handwriting style. There were even little doodles of crabs with angry faces and the words “Too dumb to notice” scribbled in the corners.

Elowen stared at the fake documents in utter disbelief.

‘How the hell did he even get my handwriting? When did this idiot have time to prepare this theatrical nonsense? Did he stay up all night forging evidence just to screw with me?’

The crab’s pincers clicked faster.

“Interesting. Very interesting indeed.”

“Those are fake!”

Elowen snapped, trying to keep her cool even as her peaceful retirement flashed before her eyes, her peaceful life waving its hand away as if giving her a bye.

“Look, I don’t want any trouble. I’ll just leave quietly. No need for all this drama. I’ll even pay a small fine if it makes everyone happy. Let’s all just calm down and go our separate ways. Everybody wins, right?”

The merman interrupted with another loud, theatrical wail that echoed through the VIP room like a bad opera singer.

“Big Sis, you said if I got caught I should blame everything on you because you’re the smart one who never gets caught! You said the crab boss is just a fucking useless piece that can’t even do anything for himself, you said even if we do it in front of him, he is too brain-dead to figure it out anyway and that we’d split the winnings fifty-fifty after I did all the risky work!”

The crab’s entire body froze mid-click. The room went deathly silent for a split second before the crab’s pincers snapped together with enough force to crack the expensive table. A small piece of coral decoration fell to the floor with a sad little clink.

“Brain dead?” the crab repeated dangerously, its voice low and bubbling with pure rage. “He called me brain dead? ME? The great Kim Tim, owner of the finest gambling den in the trench?!”

Elowen pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling a massive headache coming on that no amount of alcohol could fix later. This was exactly why she hated dealing with people. One idiot with a sob story, and suddenly everyone was ready to throw hands, pincers, and probably a few teeth. She just wanted to go home, drink some fermented kelp wine, gamble away her night in peace, and maybe take a long nap. Was that too much to ask from her second chance at life?

“Look.”

She said, trying one last time for a peaceful resolution, her voice as calm and lazy as she could manage.

“This is clearly a misunderstanding. I don’t know this guy. I have no interest in cheating your establishment. I’ll just leave right now and never come back. Everybody wins. No need for violence or police or any of that nonsense. Let’s all just laugh about this later over a drink.”

The merman, still in full dramatic mode, clutched his chest like he’d been stabbed in the heart. The shark guards were now cracking their knuckles, looking positively delighted at the prospect of violence. The crab’s pincers were snapping so fast they were almost a blur, its beady eyes burning with fury.

Elowen could feel her peaceful retirement slipping away like sand through her fingers. She slowly stood up, trying to back toward the door without looking too obvious about it.

“Alright, fine. If you want to believe this clown, that’s on you. I’m leaving. Have a nice day.”

The merman saw her trying to escape and went for the kill shot. With tears still streaming down his face, he pointed dramatically at her and shouted at the top of his lungs, “Big Sis, don’t run! You still owe me for the special ‘cheating tools’ I bought you last month! The ones with the hidden compartments in your favourite gambling dress! The dress you said made your breasts look amazing for distracting the dealers!”

Elowen froze mid-step.

‘I don’t even own a gambling dress, you absolute menace. And what the hell is wrong with your brain?’

‘Big sis, your foot!’

Right, no Elowen was slowly forming PTSD to even hearing the word big sister, every time she hear dit form that kid’s face grew her desire to just kick his teeth in and beat him black and blue!

The crab slammed its pincers on the table with a loud crack.

“Enough! Guards, hold her. We’re calling the authorities. This kind of blatant cheating cannot be tolerated in my establishment! Especially when the cheater insults me personally!”

Elowen’s face went completely ashen as the shark guards started moving toward her with menacing grins. Her mind raced desperately for a way out of this ridiculous situation she never asked for. Fighting would be too much work. Running might work, but then she’d have to find a new city again, and that was also annoying. Her entire second life was crumbling because of one dramatic merman with a death wish.

She took one step back toward the door, calculating her chances of slipping away before things got violent, when the merman delivered the final, Oscar-worthy blow with a tearful performance that could have brought the entire room to tears if it wasn’t so obviously fake:

“Big Sis, please don’t leave me here! I promise I’ll be a better little brother next time! Just don’t let them take me away! I still haven’t paid you back for all those gambling lessons and the special ‘Big Sis Special’ drinks you made me!”

The crab pointed one massive pincer directly at her.

“That’s it. Call the ocean police. We’re pressing full charges on both of them. No one insults Kim Tim and gets away with it!”

Elowen’s eyes widened in pure panic as she realised her lazy, peaceful second life was about to turn into a complete disaster. The shark guard lunged forward, and she bolted for the door like her life depended on it.

‘Oh no… not the police…’

She was already halfway out the door when the crab’s voice boomed behind her.

“Stop her! Don’t let the cheater escape!”

Elowen didn’t look back. She just ran.

Her peaceful retirement was officially over.

And somewhere in the back of her mind, she was already planning how to drown that merman the next time she saw him. Slowly. Painfully. With a smile on her face.