I Am King

My name is Mera.

I am the Queen of Atlantis.

My husband is named Arthur.

He is the King of Atlantis.

In fact, when I first met him, he wasn't even considered an Atlantean.

He was just a young man living by the sea with his father, possessing exceptional swimming talent.

No, not just exceptional.

He was born to live in the ocean.

Because he had half of Atlantis's blood in his body.

Royal blood, at that, because his mother was once the Queen of Atlantis, Atlanna.

Of course, for certain reasons, Atlanna was no longer queen. Her other pure-blooded son, Orm, was about to become the new king of Atlantis.

And I, by birth, was destined to marry the next king.

But I didn't like Orm.

Because Orm had publicly stated more than once that once he became king, he would unhesitatingly launch a war against the surface world.

"Tens of thousands of years ago, the surface world rightfully belonged to us Atlanteans."

Orm's eyes burned with undisguised ambition.

"But now the surface belongs to humans. We can continue to live in the sea, and never interfere with humans."

"No, they are gradually encroaching on our territory."

I knew Orm was referring to the surface nations. Their technology was very backward, and they produced a lot of industrial waste that they couldn't process.

For the sake of saving resources, some people chose to dump this waste into the ocean.

Every time Orm spoke of this, his face was filled with undisguised disgust.

"We developed clean energy technology and immensely powerful magic tens of thousands of years ago. We should reclaim our land and then lead the backward humans into the next era."

I knew I couldn't convince Orm, but fortunately, I still had enough freedom before the wedding.

So, I could only try to avoid him, avoid Atlantis, and even avoid the ocean.

Then I met Arthur.

A "surface dweller" who could fully meet the laws of Atlantis and compete with Orm for the throne.

His eyes always maintained a lazy peace, completely different from Orm's ambition and anger.

He might not be a suitable king, but he could definitely bring peace.

I began to approach Arthur and told him that, theoretically, if he wanted to, he could shed his surface identity at any time.

From the son of a lighthouse keeper, he could become a candidate for the Atlantean royal family.

But Arthur just smiled.

He refused me without hesitation.

"I'm not going to be the king of Atlantis. I just want to live my life on the surface forever."

Many things happened after that.

Many, many things that made the originally sunny and cheerful Arthur grow more and more silent, and more and more unable to control his own fate.

Arthur's superpowers grew stronger and stronger. He joined the Justice League, and with the help of my reliable comrades and me, he defeated Orm and ascended the throne of Atlantis.

I knew Arthur still didn't want to be the King of Atlantis.

Most of the time when the Justice League wasn't contacting him for missions, he would be gazing upwards from the depths of the ocean, as if his gaze could penetrate the dark seawater and see something on the surface.

But something had bound Arthur, holding him firmly at the bottom of the sea, on that golden throne that never saw him smile again after he sat on it.

"Peace connecting the ocean and the land."

"The people of Atlantis need his leadership."

"A king should bear the responsibilities of a king."

I had said these things to him, his Justice League comrades had said them, and even Orm had said them.

So, when he and I looked at the items dug up and dismantled from the Atlantean treasury, Arthur's brow was furrowed for a long time.

He was very unhappy, but he managed to suppress his emotions for over ten minutes.

He turned around and told me that this matter could not be known to a second Atlantean.

"It's normal for Batman to do things like this,"

Arthur said to me, perhaps fearing that I, as the Queen of Atlantis, and for the sake of his dignity as king, would go and hold someone accountable.

"The last time Wonder Woman found a bunch of listening devices in her apartment, she went and had a huge argument with Batman, and they almost broke up."

Arthur tried very hard to make the past event sound funnier.

He was worried, and also looking forward to my reaction.

I placed my hand on his arm, rested my head on his shoulder, and showed him with my actions that I would always support his decision.

"Don't forget, it's not just you who's a member of the Justice League; I'm also on the roster."

Arthur managed a smile, then turned to look at the listening devices. I could hear the anger he was still suppressing in his voice.

But I also knew my husband; he was a man with a big picture perspective.

"Put these things away. The next time we go to the Watchtower, I'll pretend to be furious and throw these things in Batman's face. While we're at it, I can yell at him a few times."

Until an urgent order brought a guard storming into the royal palace's main hall.

The guard said they had found something terrifying beneath the city of Atlantis.

When Arthur and I arrived at the scene, Atlanteans were crowded everywhere, blocking the way.

There were ordinary residents, guards, and ministers.

And also some scientists with extremely high authority.

Everything was such a coincidence.

The few hours the young man named Shane had "played" with Arthur, the continuous shockwaves had caused structural damage to the seabed in a certain cavity.

It was precisely these few hours of the willful king's antics that kept everyone in Atlantis from resting. So when the building above the cavity collapsed, nearly half the city's population rushed to see the commotion.

The people saw the King and Queen arrive and spontaneously made way.

Arthur walked into the huge fissure with a grim expression.

Accompanying him were a few Atlantean scientists who had gone down to investigate first.

I was suddenly overcome with immense panic.

Ignoring the objections of the attendant minister beside me, I also rushed into the underwater fissure.

The previous structural collapse had caused some seawater to bypass the magic bubble and seep into this natural cave through small cracks in the seabed.

It was pitch black, with only my husband's and a few authoritative old scholars' voices echoing.

"How powerful is it?"

"At least enough to affect all of Atlantis."

I could feel the surrounding seawater gradually freezing. The Trident in Arthur's hand suddenly emitted bursts of golden light.

"Anything else?"

"Reporting to the King, the technology used is very familiar. It should be Black Manta's doing."

I hurried forward, loudly covering the whispers behind me.

"Black Manta has always harbored resentment towards Atlantis. Quickly decipher and dismantle it. Tomorrow, I will go to the Justice League with Aquaman..."

The old scholar frowned.

"It has already been deciphered once, and something else has been added. But the technology inside, I haven't seen before."

I was about to speak again when Arthur suddenly raised the Trident in his hand.

The authority of the Seven Seas converged in his hand. Even though this place wasn't completely filled with seawater, the stone walls surrounding this underground cavity were damp.

With a dripping sound, every water molecule was Arthur's eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Every single minuscule plankton was an extension of his limbs.

Anything underwater was under his complete control.

Even small clusters could exert great power.

A piece of rubble was pried loose by the united tiny creatures, and a small device fell into Arthur's palm.

It was too familiar. Just a few minutes ago, Arthur and I were discussing how to deal with these things.

In the darkness, Arthur's figure flickered. He slammed the Trident down heavily to support his body.

I don't know how I walked out of that cave.

I don't think Arthur knows either.

The King's subjects swarmed forward. They all knew how dangerous the thing inside was, and expressions of fear were passed from person to person.

Some voices began to rise.

"King!"

"King!!"

A little girl was pushed to the very front.

"You'll protect us, right?"

I saw my husband crouch down and ruffle the child's hair.

"Yes, I will."