Mercury

Mercury (墨丘利) is the main antagonist that appears in Shining Nikki and the half-elf half-human founder and president of the Mercury Group.

Appearance
Mercury has silver-grey hair that reaches his neck. His ears are pointed and his eyes are green-grey and narrow. He normally wears a grey suit and black earrings.

Personality
Mercury is a cold and calculating man. He is extremely intelligent and perceptive. Because of his mixed heritage, he considered himself neither human nor elf. He does not believe in fate nor Gods.

History
Mercury was the illegitimate son of King August of the Kingdom of Pigeon, an Elf of Light, and an aristocratic human lady, Luowei.

Background
Mercury's father, August, met his mother, Luowei, when he was still the Prince in the Pigeon Cathedral. They fell violently in love with each other and had Mercury. The union between elves and human was strictly forbidden by the religion. Hence, the Prince sent Luowei and Mercury away and asked them never to return to Pigeon. He sent a secret agent, known to Mercury and Luowei as George, who pretend to be their neighbours to watch over them and had him report to him about their activities.

The fact that the Prince had a human mistress and a biracial son was forbidden to talk about by the conservative government. However, there was a group of revolutionary elf aristocrats who sought to unite elves and human in order to gain more power. They tried very hard to find the mother and son, hoped that they could use them as a tool to advance their cause. When the Prince finally became the King, in order to protect his own position, he ordered the assassination of the mother and son. By that time, his agent George had grown very fond of Mercury and Luowei, betrayed the King and told them the whole story. He suggested to Luowei that they should go and find the revolutionaries, seek their protection and return to Pigeon. Luowei did what he said and brought Mercury back to Pigeon. However, she was still executed in the end. Mercury was spared and was allowed to live in the court. Because of his mixed heritage and illegitimacy, he suffered a lot of prejudices and was bullied by the aristocratic children in the court. Princess Ophelia, his half younger sister and the King's heiress, was the only one who was kind to him.

By accident, Mercury also met the King of the Elf of Water in the dungeon of the palace, who was kept prisoner by the Elves of Light after his race lost the war. He frequently visited and talked to him, but the Elf of Water never said anything. When Mercury finally decided to escape the Palace, he went to say goodbye and gave him a piece of his mother's jewel as a farewell gift. In return, the Elf of Water gave him a beautiful sapphire.

After he established the Mercury Group and secured its dominant position in Miraland, he returned to the Pigeon Kingdom. He was received by the court, who were not aware that he was the illegitimate half-blood prince, with pomp and circumstance. He orchestrated a fake rebellion outside of the palace in the night of the Royal Banquet. He asked his man, Alan, to leak some information to Princess Ophelia, who would then lead the army to quell the unrest. When all the aristocrats escaped the palace and all the guards went out to oppress the rebels, he went to see King August, his father. He revealed his identity and then killed him with a dagger.

Because of Ophelia's bravery in the night of the rebellion, the people of Pigeon all praised her and thought that she was the hope of the Kingdom. She became the Queen after her father's death and released the King of the Water Elves. However, on her coronation day, Mercury finally revealed his identity to her too. He arranged his man into the ministry and nobility, hence seized the power of the court of Pigeon.

Main Stages
Mercury first appeared in Chapter 6 in the main stages storyline. He collaborated with Qinyi and orchestrated the auction of Qinyi's famous design, Ci Feng Que, and the manuscript of Lierlide, which was stolen by Qinyi in Chapter 4 from Nikki, in Lodden City. In Chapter 7, when Nikki finally met Mercury in the auction, she tried to use the power of the Shadow of Designer to control Mercury but failed. In Chapter 9, when A-huan captured Nikki and used her in her experiment, Mercury closely observed the whole process with surveillance television and found out that Nikki was indeed connected with Lierlide and the energy stone of Pigeon. In Chapter 10, he returned to Pigeon. He presented a bouquet of red roses on the funeral of Duke of Deliye, who was a very influential figure and mysteriously died of sudden cause, as an insult.

Ophelia
Mercury used to have a good relationship with Ophelia when he was still in the court. Despite the objections of her godmother and attendants, she secretly sneaked out to find Mercury and listened to him telling her stories about the outside world. He promised to help Ophelia to be free and take her to see the Flower of Aibona.

However, years later when Mercury came back to Pigeon as the CEO of Mercury Group, he killed their father, the old elf King. He seized the kingdom and made Ophelia the puppet queen. He said that Ophelia was weak, hence she cannot control her own fate and became the sacrifice of his power game. However, he seemed to still hold some feelings for her. He still remembered his promises to her and hoped that one day she could fight him back.

Lilith
Mercury chose Lilith to be his puppet in Ninier and helped her become the Queen. He was the only one to escape Yehai's spell and did not fall for Lilith. Lilith hence was very interested in him too and tried very hard to seduce him.

King August
Mercury resented his father August for his cruelty. To him, "'Father' is a meaningless word". Eventually, he murdered him himself, on a night when a rebellion planned by him was kicked out in the capital city of Pigeon.

Qinyi
Qinyi, as the head of the underground intelligence service, aligned with Mercury; however, neither of them trusted the other completely.

Shining/SSR

 * 1) 精灵哀歌 (The Elegy of the Elf)
 * 2) 星潮织梦 (The Tide of Stars and Dreams)
 * 3) 不渝今生 (Till Death do us Part)

Extraordinary/SR

 * 1) 雾夜咏叹 (The Aria of a Misty Night)
 * 2) 轻雪遥歌 (The Song of Snow)
 * 3) 甜蜜人偶 (Sweet Puppet)
 * 4) 黎光序曲 (The Prelude of Dawn Light)
 * 5) 花间馥梦 (The Dream in between Flowers)

Rare/R

 * 1) 街拍风潮 (Street Snaps)

Trivia

 * In the Mainland Chinese version, Mercury is voiced by Wu Lei, the same actor who voiced Victor from Mr. Love: Queen's Choice who is also a successful business genius.