Baby System: I'm the Beast World's Only Hope!-Chapter 217: Episode : Only Mercy I can Give.

Roxy blinked, her hands still raised in the air near Nerissa’s hair. She let them drop to her sides and gave a small, awkward shrug.

"Well," Roxy murmured to herself, watching the three most powerful predators in the ocean vibrate with synchronized rage. "I guess that settles the ’what are we doing today’ question."

Nerissa did not sit back down. She stood tall, her shadow stretching across the throne room floor like a spreading ink stain. Her tentacles, which had been relaxed moments ago, were now writhing with a violence that cracked the stone dais.

"Guards!" Nerissa’s voice was a thunderclap. "Bring the Gilded Worm to me. Drag him by his fins. If he resists, break them."

"I will go," Caspian snarled, his hand already reaching for the hilt of his blade.

"No," Nerissa commanded, her eyes fixed on the doors. "You are the King. You do not chase refuse. The Royal Guard will fetch him."

The guards scrambled, swimming out of the throne room with terrified speed.

The silence that followed was suffocating. The festive atmosphere of the Seafood Boil had evaporated, replaced by a pressure so intense it made Roxy’s ears pop.

Nimue, sensing the murderous tension, fluttered nervously toward the dais. She looked at her mother’s towering form, then at Caspian’s clenched fists, then at Kaia’s hand resting on her dagger.

"Mother," Nimue squeaked, trying to force a bright smile. "Your hair... it really does look magnificent. Roxy has gifted you such volume! It flows like the night current. Surely, such beauty puts you in a forgiving mood?"

Nerissa slowly turned her head. Her eyes were voids of pure black anger.

"The softness of my hair," Nerissa said, her voice dropping to a terrifying whisper, "will not soften my wrath. Do not speak of forgiveness to me, child. Not for him."

Nimue flinched and retreated, swimming backward until she bumped into Roxy.

Roxy caught her, stabilizing the trembling Princess.

"Hey," Roxy whispered, leaning close. "I... I just wanted to get him in trouble. Maybe get him banned. Your mom looks like she’s planning a public execution."

Nimue looked at Roxy, her violet eyes wide and darkened with a fear Roxy hadn’t seen before.

"You do not understand," Nimue whispered back, her voice barely audible over the thrumming mana in the room. "It is not just about the insult to you, Roxy. It is about me."

"You?"

"Lysander..." Nimue swallowed hard. "When he left me, he didn’t just leave. He mocked the Lineage. He told the court that the daughter of the Matriarch was a ’defective siren’ who couldn’t keep a male. He shamed Mother. He shamed the bloodline."

Nimue gripped Roxy’s arm, her nails digging into the silk wrap.

"Mother has hated him for three cycles, but she could not touch him because he is of the Gilded Fin nobility, and she had no ’cause’ without looking petty."

Nimue looked at the doors.

"But now... now he has insulted the King. He has insulted the new Queen. You gave her the cause she has been waiting for."

Nimue looked at Roxy with a grim certainty.

"You are going to see blood, Roxy. A lot of it."

Roxy felt a cold knot form in her stomach. She looked at Nerissa. The Matriarch wasn’t just an angry mother-in-law defending her; she was a predator who had finally trapped the prey that got away.

I shouldn’t have said anything, Roxy thought, a wave of nausea hitting her. I just wanted him slapped. I didn’t want this.

[Well it’s too late now.]

The heavy doors groaned open.

Lysander was thrown into the room.

Literally thrown. Two hulking hammerhead guards hurled him across the water. He tumbled, his golden tail flashing, before crashing onto the rough coral floor at the foot of the dais.

He wasn’t smooth or oily anymore. His violet hair was a mess. His sapphire pendant was gone. He looked up, terror etched into his handsome features, and saw the tribunal waiting for him.

"Your Majesty!" Lysander gasped, scrambling to his knees. "Matriarch! There has been a mistake! I was merely—"

"Silence," Caspian said.

It wasn’t a shout. It was a simple command backed by the full weight of his Kingly Authority. The water around Lysander seemed to solidify, crushing the air out of his lungs.

Kaia stepped forward. She didn’t look at Lysander with disgust anymore. She looked at him with the cold, professional detachment of a butcher eyeing a slab of meat.

Kaia announced, her voice ringing through the hall. "Solicitation of the Queen. Defamation of the Crown. Slander of the Princess."

"I was joking!" Lysander pleaded, looking at Roxy. "Your Majesty! You know how we jest in the plaza! It was merely banter!"

Roxy opened her mouth to speak, to say ’Okay, you scared him, let him go,’ but Nerissa cut her off.

"The punishment," Nerissa declared from her throne, "is the flaying of the vanity."

The court gasped. Even the guards looked pale.

Roxy frowned. "The what?"

Nimue covered her eyes. "Oh no."

Kaia moved. She swam down to Lysander, pinned him to the floor with one hand, and with the other, she drew a small, curved knife.

"No!" Lysander screamed, thrashing. "Please! Banish me! Send me to the Trenches! Anything but—"

Kaia didn’t hesitate. She jammed the knife under one of the large, golden scales on Lysander’s tail.

A sickening, wet tearing sound echoed in the water.

Lysander’s scream was a high-pitched, garbled shriek that grated against Roxy’s bones.

Kaia flicked her wrist, tossing the bloody, golden scale onto the floor.

"One," Kaia counted.

"He prizes his shine," Nerissa watched with cold satisfaction. "So we shall remove it. Scale by scale."

"Two," Kaia counted. Roxy flinched. Merfolk blood began to cloud the water.

"Bring the Eels," Caspian ordered.

Two guards swam forward carrying a cage filled with writhing, crackling electric eels. They opened the cage and dumped them onto the thrashing merman.

The eels, agitated by the blood, latched onto the exposed, raw flesh where the scales had been ripped away.

Lysander convulsed. The electricity fried his nerves, locking his muscles in a rictus of agony, only for Kaia to rip another scale free a second later.

"Three."

It was a slow, methodical deconstruction. It was torture designed to last for hours. It was the worst punishment the Deep could offer, stripping away a merman’s armor and frying him in his own blood.

"Four."

Lysander was sobbing now, incoherent begging bubbling from his lips. "Kill me... please... just kill me..."

Roxy felt bile rise in her throat. She looked at the court. The nobles were watching with morbid fascination.

She looked at Caspian. He looked grim, but righteous.

She looked at Nerissa who was just smiling.

This is wrong, Roxy thought. He’s a jerk. He’s a narcissist. But this... this is monstrous.

"Five."

Lysander’s eyes rolled back, then snapped forward as another jolt of electricity hit him.

Roxy couldn’t breathe. The smell of the Seafood Boil was still in the air, now mixing with the copper tang of blood. The contrast made her head spin.

She was the Queen. She had started this. And if she let it continue, this cruelty would be her legacy too.

"Stop," Roxy whispered.

No one heard her screaming.

"Six."

"I SAID STOP!" Roxy screamed, her voice amplified by a sudden surge of her mana, that Roxy was surprised she didn’t have.

[Which is me by the way.]

The room froze. Kaia halted, her knife under the seventh scale. The eels stopped crackling.

Roxy pushed off the dais. She swam down to the floor, her silk wrap flowing behind her like a battle standard. She ignored Caspian’s outstretched hand.

She landed beside Lysander.

He was a mess. His tail was ruined. His skin was charred. He looked up at her with eyes that were already dead, filled only with pain.

"Roxy," Caspian called out, his voice warning. "Do not look away. This is justice."

She looked at Nerissa. The Matriarch’s smile had faded, replaced by a challenge.

"He insulted the blood, Little Pearl," Nerissa said coldly. "He does not leave this room alive."

"I know," Roxy said. Her voice was steady, though her hands were shaking.

She knew Nerissa wouldn’t let him go. If Roxy begged for his life, Nerissa might grant it, but she would lose all respect for Roxy. She would see Roxy as weak. There was no saving him. There was only saving his dignity.

Roxy turned to the nearest guard.

"Give me your trident," she commanded.

The guard hesitated, looking at Caspian. Caspian nodded once, slowly.

The guard handed Roxy the heavy weapon. Roxy turned back to Lysander.

He looked at the trident. He didn’t flinch. He looked at her with pure, desperate gratitude.

Roxy stepped closer. She didn’t want to do this. But she was a Queen. And sometimes, a Queen had to clean up the mess.

She raised the trident. She positioned the tips directly over Lysander’s hearts.

She leaned down, bringing her face close to his, so only he could hear her final judgment.

"This isn’t forgiveness, Lysander," Roxy whispered, her eyes sad but hard as flint. "And it isn’t vengeance."

She tightened her grip on the shaft. She drove the trident down. One clean, powerful strike.

"This is the best grace only I can give you."