I stayed silent instead of answering rashly. In a situation with no real solution, comforting him felt like deception.
Instead, I kept my head and pieced together what we had learned so far.
Noance understood the magic placed on the cages imprisoning the monsters. That was why he warned us not to touch anything, and why he said they would move the cages as they were.
So just how capable were the Rebels? Could they undo magic that even Varen could not? Or was their plan limited to a rescue from the black market, and nothing more?
As I organized my thoughts, pacing in place, something I had missed finally caught my eye. Between the cages stacked all the way to the ceiling, there was a narrow passage—and a human lay there.
Looking closer, it was a well-built man. There was no sign of movement, so I thought he might have fainted, but Varen said in a flat voice,
“He’s already dead.”
Frowning, I stared at the corpse. For someone who was dead, there were no obvious wounds. There was no smell of blood, and nothing looked broken or twisted.
At some point, Varen had moved up beside me. He threw a gaze of rippling vengeance at the dead human.
“That human... seems to be skilled.”
“...Yeah. We need to be careful.”
A killing technique that left no trace was unmistakably Noance’s work. Seeing with my own eyes what I had only ever read about sent a chill crawling down my spine.
It was sobering, but after having endured Noance’s suspicion head-on, it felt like sheer luck that we were still alive.
Varen did not seem to hear me. He only stared toward the end of the narrow passage. I followed his gaze, but I could not see anything in particular.
“What is it? Is something over there?”
Varen nodded, then lightly stepped over the corpse. I went on tiptoe, stepping between the corpse’s legs as I followed him.
Margon’s bulky frame filled the narrow passage completely. Watching him, I felt on edge—if he moved too broadly, it seemed like the towering stacks of cages might topple.
But Varen walked on without a word. We found several more bodies sprawled on the floor, yet he did not even spare them a glance. Under the pressure of his low, heavy mood, I could not bring myself to speak either.
Only when we reached the deepest part of the warehouse did Varen finally stop. He simply stared at one wall, his face rigid.
The moment I came to stand beside him, I let out a low sigh. I had been so focused on Varen that I had failed to tune into anything else—only now did I hear the soft, bubbling sound of water.
“So it was here.”
Varen said it calmly, and I gaped.
At the very back of the warehouse, a monster was imprisoned like some final boss. The difference was that, instead of bars, it was confined inside a thick glass tank.
Worse, the creature inside the tank was bound by three iron chains. It had no legs, so the restraints were fastened around both arms and its neck.
I stared at the captive and let out a hollow laugh. It felt like some unseen author was smacking me on the back of the head, as if to say that just when I thought I was adapting to this fantasy world, I had no chance.
“Of all things, I’m really looking at a mermaid princess.”
“How do you know it’s a princess.”
I did not answer Varen. I dropped to one knee and lowered my gaze.
Inside the tank, the mermaid’s red hair drifted loose, and shells covered her chest. A sleek fin swayed from the lower half of her body, which was covered in green scales.
Huh. Judging by her design alone, she belonged to a completely different genre.
And then something felt off. The mermaid did not spare me a glance. With murderous fury, she only glared at Varen.
Puzzled, I looked up at him. He stared down at her with a scornful expression.
“Absurd. The guardian of the sea, trapped in a mere fishbowl.”
At Varen’s words, a woman’s voice replied, muffled as though a filter lay over it.
“Tch... a dragon bastard is looking down at me?”
“Dragons are always higher than the sea. Of course I look down.”
“Hah. You’re nothing but kindling. Acting so high and mighty.”
Kindling—at a dragon. I nearly popped my eyes out at the provocation.
The original story I had read never featured a mermaid. So I had no idea dragons and mermaids were enemies.
No—“enemies” did not even quite fit. Varen and the mermaid in the tank stared at each other like sworn, irreconcilable foes.
Under that taut staring match, I covered my mouth with one hand and fell silent.
Well... if I thought about it simply, dragons wield fire, and mermaids live in water. Fire and water were bound to clash.
Still, why had Varen found her? When I lifted my eyes in curiosity, he frowned.
“I only came because I felt something damp and unpleasant.”
I could not understand why Varen, who called every monster “kin,” was openly hostile to a mermaid. I decided to ask about that later, and turned my attention back to the tank.
Either way, a mermaid was more than enough to capture my interest. Even in a dire situation, curiosity about a figure out of a fairy tale was hard to suppress.
I greeted her with courtesy.
“Hello. My name is Ceryl Aylos. I came to save you.”
At my greeting, the mermaid stared at me with startled eyes. When we met face-to-face, I sucked in a sharp breath.
Mermaid princess. I had thought it was just the title of a childhood fairy tale, but she really was a princess.
Her red hair undulated in the water like scattered petals. Her clear, translucent skin gleamed like pearl. Her eyes, a deep blue-green that blended blue and green perfectly, were jewels in their own right.
She was beautiful as though shaped by a god—the most stunning woman I had ever seen.
When humans see beauty that is too perfect, awe rises regardless of gender. For a moment, I went blank, the way I had when I first saw the golden dragon in that cavern.
“A human says they’ll save me?”
Her voice snapped me back to myself at once.
I shook my head lightly, scattering the daze, and smiled at her again.
“Yes. I’ll help you get out of here.”
“...R-really? You’ll send me back to the sea?”
“Of course. So don’t worry, just—.”
Mid-sentence, I stopped. Her upper body looked human, so it had felt natural, but in this world a mermaid was still a monster.
With that small realization, I stepped a little closer to the tank. The mermaid flinched and drew back in the water.
“You are a monster, right?”
“...Yes.”
“Then can you talk to humans?”
“What kind of question is that? I’m talking to you right now.”
Her prickly tone filtered out on its own. All that registered was the fact that she was the first monster besides a ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) dragon I had encountered who could speak with humans.
A mermaid, it seemed, possessed intelligence and mana on par with a dragon.
That would explain why, even while bound by three chains and having her mana steadily siphoned away, she had not passed out and remained in good condition.
If so... could a mermaid also escape chains the way a dragon could?
I asked cautiously, worried she might be in a situation like Varen’s had been.
“What’s your name?”
“My name?”
“Yes. Do you know your own name?”
My concern seemed to insult her pride. She pressed her face right up to the glass and snapped irritably,
“Do you think I’m an idiot because I’m trapped here?! What idiot doesn’t even know their own name?!”
When she spoke quietly, even her voice had sounded sweet like music. But when she erupted, her sound turned razor-sharp, as if it could tear my eardrums apart.
I forced my expression not to crumple and looked up at the idiot who had not known his own name.
As expected, Varen was glaring at the mermaid with open displeasure. He looked like he might shatter the tank with sheer force of will, so I hurriedly changed the subject.
“Ahem. I’m glad you know it, then. Can you change your form?”
“Change my form? Into what?”
“I don’t know. Ideally, into a form that can slip out of the chains.”
Dragons could shrink a body the size of a house into a human form—so what could a mermaid become?
To begin with, her upper body was already human, and the chains were around her wrists and neck, so changing into a human would not help.
When I fell silent, uncertain, the blue-green eyes watching me wavered. The mermaid nodded, her face struck by sudden shock.
“Yes. Why didn’t I think of that? If I turn into sea foam, I could slip free.”
“...Sea foam?”
The unexpected phrase made me repeat it dumbly.
The mermaid did not answer. She muttered in a grave voice,
“But the method... I can’t become sea foam on my own.”
I fell into serious thought as well.
A mermaid turning into sea foam—something like that did exist in the fairy tale, I was pretty sure.
But... could she become a mermaid again after turning into sea foam? More importantly, how did she end up turning into sea foam in the first place? I had read it so young that it would not come easily to mind.
As I stood quietly lost in thought, the mermaid flushed even underwater and whispered,
“There is a way... but I need help.”
“What kind of help?”
“...I have to receive a prince’s kiss.”
That sounded like the stories were getting mixed up. The princess who needed a prince’s kiss was not this one.
