From Mudblood to Atlantis' Owner

In Atlantis, only godblood mermaids are allowed to live. Mudbloods are crushed at birth. The rest are fed to sirens in the abyssal hell. Princess Rosalie was born a mudblood. Her mother, Queen Helen, burned her own life force to cast dark magic that disguised Rosalie's black hair as blue. On her coming-of-age day, Rosalie married Xavier, a godblood mermaid. She believed he loved her. The day she gave birth, her mother's magic failed. Xavier called her a liar and a lowly mudblood. He took their child. Her father, the king, ordered her scales stripped, her tendrils pulled, and her flesh thrown into the abyssal hell. Her mother was dragged to the ice dungeon for eternity. Rosalie died to the sound of desperate cries.

Then she wakes. Blue hair. The palace. Her father asking which young lord she wants to marry. She has been reborn — back to the day she is meant to choose.

Before she can speak, Xavier declares himself. He refuses Rosalie. He professes love at first sight for her half-sister Vivian and demands the king's blessing. Rosalie sees the hatred in his eyes. He has also been reborn. In their past life, Vivian married a common general, bore a child, and dyed its hair to pass it off as godblood. Xavier never knew. He chose Vivian believing she could give him a pure heir. Rosalie grants their wish and steps aside.

Xavier is not finished. He produces the truth umbrella, an artifact that pierces all deception. Under its light, Rosalie's hair turns black. The court recoils. The king strips Helen of her crown and condemns her to the ice dungeon for eternity. He disowns Rosalie and throws her out of the sun palace. Gravely wounded by her father's blow, she drifts through waters where common mermaids sneer at her to stop dirtying their sea. Vivian finds her and gloats. Xavier climbed into her bed a month ago. Rosalie calls him a piece of trash and keeps moving.

She cannot fall. Her mother suffers in the ice dungeon. She sells her mother's birthday gift and descends to the slave market in the deepest part of the abyssal hell. To save her mother, she must produce a pure godblood. Vivian and Xavier can at best produce an ordinary one. Rosalie needs Poseidon's direct bloodline.

In the market, a slaver beats a mute captive who has been unsold for a month. The slave cannot even scream. Rosalie watches. Another outcast. But from the flow of water around his body, she senses a power. Purer and more terrifying than any godblood she has ever felt.