Instead of answering honestly, I just scratched the back of my head.
The mermaid’s setup was a little sloppy, but still—when in Rome, do as Rome does. In this world, it seemed mermaids needed a prince’s kiss. I decided to accept it.
The problem was the prince. I could not exactly go outside and bring back some prince on a white horse.
As I rolled my eyes, thinking, I met Varen’s gaze as he stood there stone-faced, and a mutter slipped out before I could stop it.
“...Does it have to be a specific prince?”
Varen was a dragon prince, technically.
And to break a princess’s magic, did it really have to be a prince on a white horse?
But at my words, Varen recoiled in disgust. At the same time, the mermaid in the tank suddenly shrieked.
“No! As if I’d ever allow my lips to some bearded brute!”
“You think I’m thrilled? The stench of fish is already overpowering!”
“Ridiculous! You’re the one reeking of smoke—so shut your mouth!”
My head throbbed at the childish bickering that felt strangely familiar.
I waved a hand between them, pushing into the space where sparks were flying by glare alone. She had asked for a prince, and I had thought of a dragon prince, but it was clearly a hopeless idea.
“Fine, just stop fighting and—.”
“Then you help me!”
The mermaid shouted something I could not make sense of, staring straight at me. Even underwater, her face turned bright red.
If there was anything I could do to help rescue a monster, I would. But this time, there was nothing I could do.
I did not have overwhelming mana like a dragon, and I did not have the ability to fetch her a prince, either—
“...Me?”
When I tilted my head and pointed at myself with my index finger, the mermaid bit her lip hard and nodded.
Even in human shape, a monster was different. Those jewel-like blue-green eyes made what she wanted painfully clear.
The instant I understood her intent, my blood seemed to run cold. At the same time, I could feel the dragon’s gaze behind me, hot enough to bore through the back of my head.
“Th-that... I’m not a prince....”
“You are a prince!”
“No. I’m—”
“I can tell at a glance you’re a prince! You’re a human prince, right? I know it the moment I see you!”
Ceryl’s looks were certainly refined, but I was not the prince meant to break a princess’s spell.
With both palms raised in a gesture of surrender, I backed away. I did not get far before my back bumped into Varen’s leg, rigid as a post.
I had done nothing wrong, yet I felt like a criminal. Swallowing, I looked up—and the blue eyes above me, slightly turned aside, stared down.
“I’m not doing it.”
“.......”
“I said I’m really not doing it.”
To begin with, I was not a prince, and I could not even be sure a prince’s kiss was truly necessary to change the mermaid’s form.
So there was no reason to gamble on an uncertain possibility the way one might gamble by setting an entire city ablaze.
I forced myself to ignore the mermaid as she kept shouting that I was a prince. Only after soothing Varen again and again did I finally escape the gaze that was squeezing my heart.
I let out a quiet sigh and swept back hair damp with cold sweat.
“I’m sorry, Princess. I’ll look ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) for another way.”
“Why? You just have to kiss me!”
This is not that kind of story.
I swallowed the words before they could leave my throat and stood up. My legs, numb from crouching so long, tingled as I patted them.
Either way, the monsters trapped here were meant to be saved by the Rebels. I did not know what method they would use or how long it would take, but even if Varen and I did nothing, the mermaid would return to the sea.
Only then did it occur to me that it had been quite a while since Noance left the warehouse. I turned toward the narrow, dark passage and started to speak—
“Uahahahaha! Ahahahah!”
“Kkyahah—kkyah! Stop, stooop!”
Laughter loud enough to shake the building erupted at once.
Startled, Varen and I looked at each other, then broke into a run toward the entrance without needing to decide who moved first.
“Human! Where are you going! Don’t leave me behind!”
The mermaid’s desperate voice chased after me. I waved over my shoulder and shouted back with certainty,
“I’ll be right back! Don’t worry—I’ll save you!”
Coming in had been quick, but trying to run between the narrow rows of cages made it feel like it took forever.
Only after a long while did we reach the entrance. Without hesitation, I threw the door open—and at the sight that greeted me, my brow furrowed instantly. Varen’s did too.
“Ahaha, it’s a rainbow—hey, stop! Just let me catch you!”
“Look, a chocolate river! I’ll drink it all!”
“I’m flying. I’m flying!”
The humans who had been watching the circus just moments ago were now wandering the hall, each of them intoxicated by hallucinations.
I stared around in disbelief, then quickly hardened my expression. Among the people with unfocused eyes, drooling helplessly, there were others walking about perfectly normally.
Their clothing was no different from the rest—fine suits, fedoras pulled low. By appearance alone, they looked like wealthy nobles with nothing better to do.
The one difference from true nobles was that they wore masks covering their noses and mouths.
“Lure them to the first floor. Now!”
The masked ones moved in tight coordination. Herding the dazed patrons into one place, they guided them outside.
The black market’s customers were blissfully lost in whatever visions they saw, pupils slack and faces bright with stupid joy. Conversation was impossible, but they obediently filed out as directed.
Watching, I belatedly clamped a hand over my nose. I could sense a cloying sweetness saturating the air, so dense my heightened sense of smell struggled to endure it.
Varen watched me quietly, then tilted his head.
“Ceryl, are you all right.”
“Mm—yeah, I’m fine. But what is this smell? It’s insanely sweet.”
“Erni powder. Enough that every human here has been intoxicated—so it’s a considerable amount.”
Erni powder was the byproduct of Erni that I had heard mentioned in the conversation we eavesdropped on yesterday. The hallucinogenic powder seemed to circulate among humans like a drug.
With dozens of people hallucinating at once, the amount released into the air truly must have been massive, just as Varen said.
But the problem was me. Wearing an awkward expression, I scratched my head again.
“It’s strong, but... why am I fine? Is it because you’re next to me?”
“No. You inhaled it before I could block it.”
Then why was I fine? I was glad I was not drooling like an addict, but still.
I deliberately took several deeper breaths. I swallowed Erni powder into my lungs, but aside from the sweetness that made my head ring, nothing happened.
The only ones fine after breathing it were the masked Rebels—and me. Watching the chaos in the hall, I questioned myself, then found the reason.
Snap— I flicked my fingers, and Varen’s gaze locked onto me.
“Ceryl Aylos. You really weren’t an ordinary noble.”
“Of course.”
When I leaned in, Varen lowered his head and listened. I dropped my voice further and whispered conspiratorially.
“I’ve eaten an unbelievable amount of Erni powder before. I guess I’ve built up immunity.”
“.......”
“It seemed pretty expensive, too. They say the rich stay rich for generations, even if they ‘fall.’”
At my plausible theory, Varen only nodded without comment. Then he straightened and surveyed the hall with a proud posture.
I watched the humans being led out of the building. Part of me wanted to crush every last one of those who had come to the black market.
But whether the Rebels were merciful, or simply avoiding unnecessary combat, or for some other reason I could not tell, it seemed they intended to evacuate people before launching the real operation.
Then, a shadow-like presence mixed into the crowd suddenly stepped in front of me. He appeared without a sound again, and my heart nearly stopped.
“H-huh—....”
Noance, masked, stared straight at me. His black eyes did not seem to register Varen at all—only me.
Clutching my chest with a trembling hand, I was about to ask what he was staring at, when Noance spoke first.
“You’re certainly not an ordinary human.”
His words were muffled inside the mask, hard to catch clearly. I started to bow my head toward Noance, who was much shorter than me—
“...Huh?”
In the blink of an eye, the scene had changed.
Noance was gone from in front of me, and Varen’s back was so close it nearly touched the tip of my nose.
“What do you think you’re doing, human.”
Varen’s voice carried a fury that seemed to boil and hiss.
It had happened too fast for me to grasp. I blinked dumbly and took a step back. Only then did I see that Varen was gripping one of Noance’s arms.
I followed his hold upward and sucked in a short breath. In the hand Varen had seized, Noance was clutching a thin, slender baton he had kept at his waist.
