It took Roxanna nearly fifteen minutes to convince Calen that the Kraken hadn’t lifted him into the air because it wanted to eat him.

At first, he still looked suspicious. But the moment he learned that Azul was actually part of the Kraken’s family, he immediately turned to stare at the fish beastman with a strange expression.

"I can kind of picture you as a crocodile," Calen said, clicking his tongue. "But a Kraken..." He shook his head several times. "Yeah, no. That’s really hard to imagine."

"No one asked you to imagine it anyway," Azul replied flatly.

After finally calming Calen down and asking the Kraken to lower both him and Zeir back into the water, Azul reached into Roxanna’s bracelet and pulled out two blue pearls.

He tossed one to each of them. "Eat it," he said. "The blue pearl will let you breathe underwater for a day."

Calen narrowed his eyes suspiciously. The pearl looked strange, the situation was strange, and everything about today was strange.

But after spending so much time struggling to breathe underwater, he was honestly willing to try anything. In the end, he tossed the pearl into his mouth and swallowed it.

Meanwhile, Zeir didn’t ask any questions at all. He simply swallowed his pearl immediately.

"It tastes like nothing," Calen complained.

Zeir let out a sigh. "I’d rather it taste like nothing than something weird," he replied. "Besides, we only have to swallow it. It’s not like we have to chew it."

Calen thought about that for a moment. "That’s actually fair."

The moment everyone swallowed the blue pearls, talking underwater suddenly became much easier.

There wasn’t any more struggling, no more awkward pauses, and no more trying to rush their words before running out of breath.

Unfortunately, breathing wasn’t their only problem, swimming was.

Both Calen and Zeir looked awkward as they tried moving through the water.

Their arms and legs flailed in different directions, making them look less like warriors and more like confused fish.

After all, neither of them had grown up in the ocean, so swimming wasn’t something they normally did.

"Just take it slowly," Roxanna said as she reached out and took their hands. "It was really difficult for me at first too. But as long as you stay calm, you’ll be fine."

To be honest, people who spent their whole lives on land naturally felt uneasy underwater. Without solid ground beneath their feet, it always felt like they were about to sink.

"We just need to make kicking motions," Roxanna explained. "Like this."

She demonstrated with her legs and Calen immediately tried copying her.

A second later, he accidentally spun sideways. "AAAA!"

"You’re fine!" Roxanna quickly said.

"I’M NOT FINE!"

"Calen, you’re floating," she said calmly.

"Oh." Calen paused, and then he looked down. Sure enough, he wasn’t sinking.

A few seconds later, he puffed out his chest and proudly declared, "I think I’m naturally talented at swimming!"

Not far away, Azul could only shake his head while holding Azura securely in his arms. After a moment, he said, "We need to find my mother as soon as possible. If any of you are having trouble swimming, you can hold on to the Kraken."

Calen and Zeir both turned to look at the giant Kraken. Then, almost at the exact same time, they replied, "We’re fine."

Zeir nodded firmly. "I think we’ll be okay."

"Yeah," Calen agreed as he looked at him. "We can just hold each other’s hands."

Zeir immediately gave him a look of pure disgust.

"Or not," Calen quickly corrected himself. "That’s fine too. No problem."

Roxanna couldn’t help laughing. "We can hold each other’s hands if you want."

In the end, as they swam deeper into the ocean, Calen and Zeir held on to Roxanna, while Azul guided her by gently holding her arm and carrying Azura in his other hand.

Moving like that wasn’t easy. They were slower than usual, and more than once, Calen accidentally kicked the water into someone’s face. Fortunately, as time passed, everyone gradually became more comfortable underwater.

Before long, Calen and Zeir were able to swim on their own without needing to hold on to anyone.

"Azul, can I ask you something?" Roxanna suddenly said. "It might be a little bit sensitive for you."

[He barely talked about his parents earlier.]

[Even though he said he doesn’t remember much about them, I think he must have remembered at least a few things.]

[Wouldn’t most people talk about their parents the moment they started remembering them?]

[Unless...]

[Did they not treat him well?]

"They treated me well." Azul’s sudden reply made Roxanna jump.

At that point, she finally realized that her husbands could hear her thoughts even when she wasn’t mentally screaming.

Normally, Azul would have teased her or distracted her before she could think too deeply about that. But right now, his mind seems to be occupied with other things.

"At least from the few memories I have," Azul said softly, his gaze drifting toward the dark water ahead, "they didn’t seem like the kind of people who would hurt me."

His voice grew softer. "But..." He hesitated for a moment. "I’m not really sure."

The smile on his face faded slightly. After all, those memories were incomplete. They were nothing more than scattered pieces of a life he could barely remember.

"Do you mind telling me what you remember about your past life?" Roxanna asked in a gentle voice.

The moment she asked that question, Calen and Zeir, who had been swimming behind them, slowly drifted closer.

Neither of them said a word. But, their behavior made it painfully obvious that they were trying to listen. They looked exactly like two nosy grandmas who couldn’t stay away from a good piece of gossip.

"I’ve already told you a lot about my past," Roxanna continued. "So... maybe it’s my turn to learn more about yours."

Azul looked at her for a moment before gently pulling her a little closer to his side.

"Of course," he said, nodding. "You have the right to know about my past."

For a few seconds, only the sound of water moving around them filled the silence. Azul seemed to be sorting through his memories, trying to decide where to begin.

Then he finally spoke. "If I remember correctly, I was born in the Aquilian Kingdom." His voice was calm, but there was a hint of uncertainty in it. "A kingdom located in the Lupherion Ocean."

As he said those words, his eyes drifted toward the endless blue water around them, as if he could still see fragments of that distant place hidden somewhere in his memories.

"My parents had twenty children. five sons and fifteen daughters. I was the youngest of them all."

For a moment, nobody said anything, and then Calen blinked. "Wait." He raised a finger. "Twenty?"

Azul nodded. "Twenty."

Calen looked genuinely shocked. "Your mother gave birth twenty times?"

"No," Azul replied. "Some of my siblings were born in the same pregnancy."

"That somehow makes it even scarier," Calen muttered.

Even Roxanna couldn’t help letting out a soft hiss. Just imagining herself giving birth to twenty children was enough to make her head hurt.

But then again... she had five husbands. At this point, things she once thought were completely impossible seemed to happen all the time.

Maybe twenty children wasn’t as impossible as she wanted to believe.

[Don’t worry, Host!] the system said cheerfully. [You have a very strong body, and pregnancy won’t ruin your figure because of your amazing healing ability!]

[Besides, the more children you have, the more you’ll get used to it! And your lifespan—]

[Yeah. Yeah. I get it. Shut up.]

Roxanna immediately cut the system off before it could continue.

She really wasn’t in the mood to listen to a lecture about how many children she might end up having in the future, especially when the number kept sounding more and more terrifying every time she thought about it.

"So what happened to your siblings?" Roxanna asked, hoping to steer the conversation toward something a little lighter.

But the moment the question left her mouth, the mood around them changed. What should have been a simple question suddenly became something much darker.

"Dead." Azul’s answer came without hesitation. His voice was cold. In fact, it was probably the coldest tone Roxanna had ever heard from him.

The usual warmth in his voice was completely gone. "All nineteen of them are dead," he said.

The ocean around them suddenly felt much quieter and Roxanna froze in her place. Even Calen and Zeir stopped swimming for a moment.

Azul lowered his eyes to Azura, who was resting peacefully in his arms. "And I’m the only one who survived," he continued lowly. "Apparently... my brother sent me to the beach before he took my memories."

His fingers tightened slightly around his daughter. "That’s the only reason I’m still alive."

For a few seconds, nobody knew what to say because no matter how they looked at it, there was only one conclusion: something terrible had happened to the Aquilian Kingdom.