Chapter 8
It was a night when sleep wouldn’t come.
The unfamiliar place was uncomfortable, and everything was new and strange.
Of course, it wasn’t because the boy was shy or sensitive. It was all predetermined, like fate.
Splash.
At the sound that seemed to come from the academy’s small pond, Ender moved toward it as if entranced. The place was glittering with light.
Yes, that’s where he first met him.
.
.
“Noel might explode!!”
Anschel exclaimed in shock. Meanwhile, consecutive explosions erupted from within the lake, causing water to splash high. The cliff surrounding the lake trembled with loud noises.
Anschel anxiously wondered how long his ability could withstand Ender’s tremendous attacks. Noel’s body swayed back and forth in the lake.
The mermaids who had dragged Noel were fleeing deep into the lake to avoid the explosions. The bodies of mermaids who couldn’t escape the blasts floated to the lake’s surface, swaying.
‘Two? No, three.’
Anschel, who had counted the visible mermaids amid the chaos, took out the rifle he had prepared.
Each time Ender attacked, the space within the lake was momentarily revealed. Anschel spotted a mermaid in the exposed space and pulled the trigger.
Bang-!
With a loud sound, a mermaid was briefly seen clutching one arm and bleeding before disappearing underwater.
Boom-!
Another deafening sound echoed as if the mountain would collapse.
“Control your power a bit!”
When Anschel shouted, Ender looked around and sighed. As the attack ceased, the lake calmed down again. Meanwhile, one more mermaid corpse floated up.
There could be two or three mermaids left. Anschel grabbed Noel’s body rising from the lake and dragged him to the shore.
Surely he’s not dead.
After slapping the water-soaked face a few times, Noel’s breath opened up and he coughed up water. Fortunately, the barrier seemed to have protected his body well.
“I think it’s best to retreat until reinforcements arrive.”
Anschel said while taking care of the unconscious Noel. Just confirming that the southern mermaids were seething under this lake was a significant achievement. Support would arrive soon since they had called for reinforcements before the radio broke.
It was clear that if Ender used his ability to overturn the lake, the mountain would collapse. They couldn’t afford to lower Ender’s evaluation during such an important time.
Anschel collected the mermaid corpses and signaled Ender to retreat. But Ender narrowed his eyes and stroked his chin, lost in thought. Eventually, he nodded slowly.
“Such beauty…”
Anschel sighed and placed the two mermaid corpses side by side. By human standards of beauty, mermaids were considered very beautiful.
While their webbed ears and fin-like lower bodies were far from human, their upper bodies were distinctly human-like. And exceptionally beautiful at that.
He had read reports of mermaids being kidnapped and kept in private aquariums or fish tanks. They were certainly appealing to aesthetes.
All mermaids had blue hair and blue eyes. They seemed to embody the sea even in their appearance. Anschel sighed, clasping his hands as if praying before them.
Meanwhile, Ender effortlessly carried Harriet somewhere.
“You go down and take Noel to the hospital.”
Van nodded at Anschel’s words and walked in the opposite direction of Ender, carrying Noel on his back. Anschel turned around, glared at the calm lake, and then turned back.
A stillness that silenced even the mountain birds’ chirping lingered at the lakeside. With a splash, something emerged on the water’s surface. Beautiful mermaids with blue hair. Surprisingly, the two mermaids coming to the shore had human legs instead of fin tails.
They came out of the lake with splashes and embraced their dead companions. The two stroked the bodies of their comrades who had died with their eyes open, shedding tears. The falling tears were beautiful like jewels.
Bang-! Bang-!
With gunshots, the two mermaids collapsed.
Anschel sighed, emerging from behind a tree a bit away from the lake, holding a smoking gun. This is the sorrow of war, having to use such cowardly methods. With a somber expression, he locked the gun.
Harriet looked down at the mermaid corpses while rubbing his shoulder. His throat was dry. He had brought water, but it wasn’t enough, and it seemed difficult to endure until they went down the mountain.
Harriet sighed and brought his face close to the lake. Anschel, who was examining the mermaid corpses, shouted:
“It’s dangerous!”
It was risky to approach the area where there might still be surviving mermaids. However, Harriet nonchalantly moistened his lips and raised his head.
Splash-!
A hand suddenly emerged, grabbed Harriet’s nape, and pulled him down into the lake.
“!!!”
Harriet’s body plunged into the lake without any resistance.
Splash!
It happened in an instant. Before Anschel could cast a barrier, Harriet’s body disappeared into the dark bottom of the lake.
In Harriet’s mineral-like white eyes, dragged under the lake by the sudden attack, reflected the face of a crying mermaid. The mermaid continued to cry. The sadness and anger of losing their home and comrades were palpable.
Harriet closed his eyes slowly, as if sighing.
“Shouldn’t we save him?”
Instead, Anschel approached Ender with a pale face. His expression was anxious, fearing Ender might rush into the lake at any moment.
Though Ender was strong and a terror to mermaids, that was only when he was on land. No matter how skilled Ender was, it was difficult to defeat a mermaid underwater.
Mermaids were strongest in water and also cruel. The mermaid remaining in the lake had witnessed the death of its companions. It would surely tear Harriet’s body apart, even at the cost of its own life.
But Ender was calm.
“The one who needs to step back is you, Anschel.”
Surprisingly, Ender was smiling. His excited face was flushed.
“…?”
“Sunbae can’t distinguish between allies and enemies. Since the control mechanism is broken.”
Why could he be so calm? Anschel was too bewildered to speak.
The once calm lake started to ripple, and the surface churned as if pulled by enormous pressure from below. As Anschel turned his head, a water spout shot up from the lake.
Boom-!
A deafening impact sound was heard. An even brighter smile appeared on Ender’s face. Anschel had never seen him smile like that before.
“Beautiful…”
Ender murmured, entranced, as he gazed at the lake. A water spout rose, and the entire lake whirled like a typhoon.
“Beautiful, truly beautiful, sunbae!”
Ender shouted in excitement. His eyes reddened as if in ecstasy, on the verge of tears.
Anschel stepped back a couple of paces with his mouth agape. Between the whirling columns that threatened to overturn the lake, Harriet was supporting his upper body, standing. Or rather, “standing” wasn’t quite the right word.
“…Impossible.”
Anschel’s neat 2:8 parted hair was completely disheveled.
Harriet Alster’s appearance was strange.
He looked like… yes, like a mermaid.
His once snow-white hair had turned bluish, and his white pupils had a faint blue tint. From his back to his tailbone extended fins, and his tail, covered with white scales, shimmered in a mysterious color. He was undeniably a mermaid.
Currently, humans were in an intense war with the mermaids of the sea. So how could he, a mermaid, be affiliated with the land’s military? Though demoted to a rural village, he was definitely a soldier.
And although mermaids couldn’t stay on land for long, he had been active on land without any issues. It was unbelievable that Harriet Alster was a mermaid.
A mermaid, propelled by the water spout, fell back into the lake as a cold corpse. Harriet, standing amid the whirlpool, looked as if he were trapped in an aquarium.
“Sunbae is the military’s finest synthetic mermaid. He’s just a bit broken.”
One side of Harriet’s beautiful tail fin was grotesquely distorted. It was an injury from when Harriet participated in the Eastern Sea battle for the first and last time.
At that time, Harriet was only fourteen years old. In that battle, Harriet sank everyone in the east, regardless of friend or foe. To use him, the military had to bear an enormous risk.
“Beautiful, my own mermaid…”
Ender murmured with an ecstatic expression. Anschel, watching Ender who was crying with emotion, had to turn his head away.
Surprisingly, Ender was erect.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
