Transmigrated as the Cuck.... WTF!!!

Aquis Vanlur.

Even after three months, the name still rolled in my mind like a tide dragging debris. A place shrouded in mysteries I could neither explain nor fully grasp.

An oceanic civilization carved into the Silver Sea, sprawling coral towers and bridges that gleamed faintly in the filtered light of the deep. A city that felt alive, both wondrous and suffocating.

Its architecture was bizarre, its beauty almost alien. Marble domes shaped like shells, pearl-threaded columns twisting like coral, windows opening directly to the sea.

Schools of fish replaced the flocks of birds, their glimmering scales catching faint rays of light that leaked through the endless blue.

And yet, beneath the spectacle, there was always that taste of rot—the suffocating politics, the quiet discrimination of race, the hushed whispers about the "hag of a million years."

Wannre.

When I first met her, I thought she was a fool. A senile old hag with too many years behind her and too much saltwater in her head.

Then I thought she was clever. Then terrifying. Now… I knew she was all three. A wolf dressed in the sagging skin of a sheep, and the sharpness of her fangs was something no veil could hide.

That wolf sat across from me now. Reclined in her seat like a queen, one leg crossed over the other, a porcelain cup of something steaming clasped delicately in her hand.

She sipped with eyes half-lidded, sighing with a bliss so absurdly human it almost unsettled me more than when she smiled like a predator.

"Ahm." I coughed into my fist, clearing my throat deliberately loud.

Her head did not turn. Her eyes stayed shut. She kept sipping.

I stared at her for a long moment. Nothing. Not even a twitch of acknowledgment. So I did the only rational thing—I sulked.

My elbow thunked against the table as I leaned my cheek into my palm. My gaze drifted lazily out the tall, glassy window to the side.

Outside, the sea was alive. Clouds of tiny fish—blue, yellow, striped, dotted—swam in synchronized bursts.

A manta ray drifted by like a passing shadow, its wings carving arcs into the endless dark water.

For a second, I let myself think it was beautiful. Textbook postcard-pretty. For a second, I could almost forget the monster across from me.

"You seem very eager to know why I summoned you," Wannre said suddenly, her voice dripping with amusement. "Truthfully, I am equally pleased to know you share the sentiment."

I sighed hard enough to fog the glass. "Yes. Eager. Desperately curious. In fact, I am also very interested to know what interesting new way you have chosen to make my life a living hell."

"Ha!" Her laugh rang out, high and cheeky. She even bothered to half-hide her mouth behind her hand, fingers curling in a delicate little curtain.

I blinked at her. She never did that.

My expression must have said everything.

"Oh?" She tilted her head, a brow arched high. "Surprised, are you? Is it because I hid my laugh?"

I didn't waste breath. A single, firm nod. My face told the story: Yes, old hag, you're acting suspicious, and I'm noticing.

She leaned back and smirked. "Do not overthink it. A reflex. I've had meetings with the other merfolk on the council. I cannot exactly show them my face. They would be… entranced."

She sipped again, eyes narrowing. "And that would be a problem. Losing a council member, I mean."

The way she said it, casual as a breeze, made the air around me feel heavier.

She had just admitted it. Blatantly. If someone fell prey to her beauty, she would kill them. Simple as that. Not an exaggeration either—from what Luris had told me, her entrancing powers weren't just rumor.

Whoever saw her bare face lost themselves instantly, mind devoured by desire until all they could do was lunge for her like beasts.

And Wannre's solution had always been simple. She killed them.

She had the track record for it too. Enough that she had isolated herself in her chambers, not for humility or shame, but because it was easier to avoid slaughtering her colleagues one by one.

I dragged a hand down my face. "I understand that. I do. But I would also like to understand something else." My eyes met hers, steady even if my gut knotted. "Why did you call for me?"

Her smirk did not falter. If anything, it curved wider, a ripple of amusement flickering behind her half-lidded eyes.

"You've been dodging the question since I got here," I pressed, voice sharper than I intended. "So may I assume it's something serious? Or should I just brace for one of your little games?"

Because truthfully, with this hag, it could be either. And that was the part that terrified me most.

So, much so that I was sure. She would send me back to the Astral Plane.

But.

Fortunately that thing didn't happen.

"Hah… I should be very blunt with my words. I want you, Arawn, to be my disciple. And learn under me to control your element."

The sentence hit like a cold current. I felt my breath snag in my chest and for a second all the water in the room seemed to freeze.

Wannre sat there, serene as stone, as if she had not just tossed the next level of my life into the air and watched it fall.

"What did you say?" I repeated, because the simplest trick is to pretend you misheard something absurd. "Can you please repeat those words? Cause, I think I may have misheard them."

She didn't smirk. She didn't look offended at my theatre. She only took another lazy sip of whatever she was drinking.

"I want you, Arawn, to be my disciple. I have noticed for a long time now, you can't seem to grasp your element. You struggle maintaining… that form of yours."

My gaze tightened. She had been watching me. Of course she had been watching me.

"So, can you tell me about your element? So, I can help you better control it."

That was the blunt part. The asking-that-wasn't-innocent part. The surface request hid a probe: she wanted information because she could not read it herself.

Her smile didn't reach her eyes. There were calculations behind it—slotted, cold thoughts clicking into place like trapdoors.