Lothar couldn't shake the feeling, perhaps it was just his imagination, but Mera seemed to be looking at him strangely.
Especially at breakfast, her usual surprise at his prodigious appetite was gone, replaced by an inexplicable... heartache?
Lothar wasn't entirely sure. Because whenever he asked Mera what she meant, she'd just smile gently, shake her head, and say nothing.
And every time this happened, Woz, still diligently refining the "Mother Box Energy Impact Plan" in his wristband dimension, would feign adjusting his glasses, then seriously pull out a copy of "A Comprehensive History of Romance" to study.
He meticulously recorded Mera's and Lothar's reactions, cross-referencing them with the book's descriptions to ensure they weren't straying from the proper path.
This was a book Woz had discovered when connecting to the world's database at the library.
Within books, there are houses of gold; within books, there are beauties like jade.
No wonder Lord Thanos valued knowledge so highly; Woz, immersed in reading, truly understood now. It had to read more, absorb more knowledge of this world, to better help His Highness Lothar shine even brighter.
Woz pushed up its glasses, silently cheering itself on, offering encouragement.
"Wait, Lothar! Where are you going? We're here, it's right here."
Holding the map Woz had given her early that morning, Mera, after following it to the correct location, quickly called out to stop Lothar.
"Here?"
Lothar turned back, a hint of doubt in his eyes. The house before them looked dilapidated, showing signs of severe disrepair. Could anyone actually live in this crumbling place?
"It should be correct. Woz's map indicates that the writer who collected all the legends about the Golden Trident lives here."
With that, Mera had already knocked on the door.
"Coming, coming, who is it?"
The old, decaying wooden door opened, and a man with an incredibly disheveled appearance stood before Lothar and Mera. His messy stubble made it impossible for Mera to determine his true age. His slovenly attire gave him an especially world-weary aura, not to mention his unruly hair. She couldn't tell if it was naturally curly or permed.
"You, who are you?" The man, who hadn't had visitors to his small house in a long time, put on his glasses, finally getting a clear look at the two strangers. He was certain he didn't know them.
"Montgomery?" Mera tentatively spoke the man's name.
"Who exactly are you? Why do you know my name?" Montgomery suddenly began to panic.
"Don't be nervous, don't be nervous, Montgomery."
"Listen, we mean no harm. We're just very interested in the legend you've been investigating."
"Do you remember? Many years ago, you self-published a book called A Compendium of Obscure Myths, which mentioned ancient Atlantis and the Golden Trident." Mera quickly raised her hands, indicating she meant no harm, and swiftly explained her purpose.
"Atlantis? The Golden Trident?"
"I remember. What about it?"
The disheveled man asked, puzzled, then suddenly seemed to remember something: "Wait, you're not trying to prove that Atlantis actually existed, are you?" Montgomery scoffed, using what he believed were harsh words to shatter the beautiful woman's chuunibyou fantasy. "Atlantis is just a myth—"
"Scram."
A cold voice cut him off, and the rambling ceased abruptly. The dense killing intent emanating from Lothar nearly suffocated Montgomery.
"Woz, begin scan."
On the blue light screen, a flickering red dot directly located what Mera was looking for—an old parchment scroll and a sketch.
On the ancient parchment scroll, a man clad in golden armor held the Golden Trident, his foot trampling a sky-devouring beast. The entire underwater world trembled prostrate beneath his feet, his power boundless.
"That's the First King of Atlantis!" The keen-eyed Mera immediately recognized the figure on the scroll. And the giant beast beneath this King of the Ocean's feet was the legendary creature whispered about in the Seven Kingdoms of the Sea—the mythical ancestor of the Trench: Karathen.
As for the other sketch, Mera also recognized the monster drawn on it—a Trench member.
"Where did you get these two items?"
Given the gravity of the situation, Mera set aside her complaints about Lothar and instead asked, holding the two drawings.
"This, this was given to me by my teacher..."
The disheveled Montgomery was thoroughly terrified by Lothar, stammering out the origin of these two items.
His teacher was an avid fan of Atlantean legends.
As a renowned scholar, his teacher spent his life searching for traces that could prove the real existence of Atlantis. Then, his teacher found the parchment scroll and map left on land by the First King of Atlantis.
Following the map, his teacher didn't encounter the King, but rather the monster from the sketch.
Since then, his teacher had gone completely mad.
"What about the map?!"
"The map, my teacher said the map was destroyed by that monster..." Mera's persistent questioning made Montgomery so anxious he was almost in tears. He'd been there for so long, finally laying his teacher to rest, only to encounter two more idiots obsessed with the Atlantis legend.
"Destroyed..." Mera fell silent.
"Why don't you just go find this Trench creature?" Lothar found Mera very strange. It was clear there was something amiss with the Trench. Otherwise, how could someone with a map go there, lose the map, and then come back?
"You don't know, Lothar, although the Trench are also counted as one of the Seven Kingdoms of the Sea, in reality, they've degenerated to a point where they live purely on biological instinct."
"According to records, after Atlantis fractured into pieces, the members of the Trench Kingdom began to degenerate to protect themselves due to the worsening living conditions."
"Now, every single one of them can be considered a mindless beast."
Mera informed Lothar of the current state of the Trench Kingdom. Now, the Trench Kingdom had become a place of exile for the other six kingdoms. Former Queen Atlanna of Atlantis was exiled there and has been unheard of since.
"Then what about it?"
Lothar raised an eyebrow, pointing to the sky-devouring beast Karathen on the parchment scroll.
"Karathen is said to have disappeared with the First King of Atlantis."
"So the Trench Kingdom is now an unknown land that no one knows about?"
Lothar's battle instincts told him there was definitely something fishy going on.
"Why do you think that?"
"If you were dying and didn't trust your weapon to an unfavorable successor, what would you do?"
Lothar, narrowing his eyes, put forth a theory that completely overturned Mera's worldview.
The First King of Atlantis didn't favor his successor, so he wanted to choose another heir. But for some unknown reason, the designated Second King of Atlantis learned of the First King's intentions, leading to a secret struggle for the throne.
The preemptive Second King severely wounded the First King, who, to protect the Golden Trident, fled to his mount's kingdom, the Trench Kingdom.
Karathen, the leader of the Trench Kingdom, was willing to sacrifice the entire nation's future to prevent the Golden Trident from falling into the wrong hands.
"Are you serious????" Mera was dumbfounded.
"Otherwise, give me a reason why the First King of Atlantis disappeared without a trace, and why the entire Trench race degenerated into beasts, turning the Trench Kingdom into a place of exile."
Lothar sniffed out a conspiracy, retorting with righteous indignation.
Atlantis split into seven kingdoms, and yet only the Trench Kingdom, where the First King's mount resided, completely degenerated into beasts?
The First King, whose power spanned the seven seas, ended up simply "missing"?
What a joke!
Lothar's extensive combat experience told him that the deception here was immense.
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