Chapter 9
Harriet first met Ender not long after the experiment ended.
Land that wasn’t near water was too painful for him, and he spent most of his time in an aquarium prepared by the military, except during the day when he attended the academy.
From the moment he could transform into a mermaid, everything changed. His freedom to run with two legs, to breathe freely and move around on land was taken away.
The experiment was quite painful, but Harriet didn’t really care. Curled up in the spacious aquarium trying to sleep, Harriet sensed someone opening the door to his room—a place where no one was supposed to enter—with a creaking sound.
The sound turned into vibrations, creating ripples on the calm water surface. Since Harriet himself was classified information, the people who could enter this place were extremely limited.
An unexpected visitor.
Harriet felt someone watching him from below the tank. In the massive aquarium, which looked even darker and more spacious with glass walls all around, Harriet slowly swam downward.
Indeed, an unexpected visitor was there. Like a lost kitten, a small boy with black hair and red eyes was staring blankly up at Harriet.
He looked much younger than Harriet. The red irises embedded in the large eyes of the boy with the very small and cute face resembled the ruby Harriet had once seen in a book.
Harriet made eye contact with the boy who was staring blankly at him, lowered his eyebrows, and smiled. The boy slowly placed his hand on the glass wall. Harriet, staring at that small palm, extended his hand and placed it against the boy’s as if holding hands.
The boy was outside, and Harriet was inside the aquarium filled with water. They were clearly in different places, but the space they occupied was the same.
That was the first meeting between Harriet Alster and Ender McGuire.
* * *
Anschel’s head was aching and confused about how to handle this situation. If there were someone passing by, he would want to ask loudly about this situation. He couldn’t bring himself to ask Ender, who was even shedding tears of emotion… and he had learned things he didn’t want to know, making it impossible to speak to him.
And now Harriet was calmly wiping away moisture with a cloth. Ender even carefully received the cloth that Harriet had used to shake off the remaining moisture from his hair. With his red eyes sparkling as if he possessed all the treasures in the world, he folded it very neatly.
…Anschel wisely pretended not to see that too.
Chirp chirp-
The chirping of birds echoed through the mountains. Like the mountains that had found peace, the sky was also clear and bright. The weather was nice enough to enjoy a picnic.
Harriet had removed his wet uniform and was receiving an outer garment from Ender. Ender, with a bright smile, personally draped his clothes over Harriet’s shoulders.
Anschel was the only one confused here, like a puppy needing to pee. He was a pitiful being who couldn’t ask anyone even though he wanted to.
He couldn’t ask what the artificial mermaid created by the military was, or if Harriet was really that experimental subject. The more he thought about whether Harriet Alster was a mermaid or not, the more Anschel’s confusion increased.
The lake had regained its calm, but the lakeside was a mess with soil and broken debris scattered everywhere. Since it was the military’s job to handle this, Anschel picked up the already broken radio, tapped it a few times, and then rummaged through his pockets.
Fortunately, he had brought a military mobile phone as an additional means of contact. Anschel glanced back and made a call.
– Lieutenant, what’s going on?
“Is reinforcement coming?”
– Yes.
“It doesn’t seem like they’ll be needed much… but we’ll need to send a few cleaners.”
Anschel reported that the suppression of the southern mermaids was complete. All mermaids were reported as deceased. Since there weren’t any specific orders from above to capture the mermaids alive, there shouldn’t be any major issues.
No, the problem isn’t there, but here.
It felt like he had learned something he shouldn’t have known. Anschel tried to shake off that anxiety as much as possible and approached the two. Harriet, whose hair and eyes had turned blue, had already returned to white, like color-drained paper.
Perhaps the reason Ender deliberately brought the southern mermaids here was to see Harriet Alster’s ability again…
He was Anschel’s superior, but he wasn’t in his right mind.
“Are you alright?”
Anschel, who had allowed GPS tracking, put his phone in his pocket and approached the two. He tried his best to ignore the cloth carefully held in Ender’s hand. His instincts were warning him not to get close to it.
“Yes.”
It was a truly concise, matter-of-fact, and indifferent answer. Despite his secret being unintentionally revealed, there was no wariness or panic in his response.
Harriet looked exactly the same as when they met and greeted yesterday. Anschel was confused, wondering if he was the most abnormal one here for being confused.
“Yes…”
Harriet was wearing only shorts with Ender’s outer garment. Because Ender’s red eyes were shining so intensely that they seemed like they would pierce through anything… Anschel turned his gaze away from the two.
“I’ve had a car wait below. Let’s go back.”
Harriet got up, limping. In the end, Ender didn’t give the cloth Harriet had used to anyone. Anschel, afraid to ask about its purpose, decided to just forget about it.
“Captain!!”
Angela, who had been waiting at the foot of the mountain, spotted the three coming down and ran toward them, raising her voice. In one hand, she held Harriet’s cane.
Receiving the cane with the red gemstone, Harriet sighed. Indeed, it was easier to walk with the cane. Ender, who had been supporting Harriet, swallowed regretfully and fidgeted with his hands as he watched Harriet’s back moving away.
“Was everything okay?”
“What about you, Captain? Were you okay?”
Bang-! Bang-!
The sound of bombs dropping had been continuously heard from somewhere, and vibrations had persisted all the way to the foot of the mountain. It was a secret that Angela had anxiously cried out that the captain, who had no abilities, might die.
Harriet patted Angela’s head, leaned on his cane, and limped. Then he blinked slowly, as if tired.
Not even a few hours after suppressing the southern mermaids, Ender’s return orders came down. With orders coming down without even a day’s rest, Harriet didn’t have time to properly enjoy his reunion with Ender.
Anschel said that the southern sea mermaids had declared surrender. It hadn’t yet been made known to the humans on land, but it was scheduled to be announced through the mass media soon.
Harriet came out of the office to see Ender off as he left. Ender handed a beautifully wrapped small gift box to Harriet with a somber expression.
“Senior, this.”
“…?”
“It’s a wiretap.”
“A wiretap?”
“Yes.”
Anschel’s expression turned pale. What kind of madman would proudly give a wiretap as a gift, even wrapping it?
But Harriet accepted it after making a troubled expression. Thinking that since Ender gave it, he must have some reason for doing so.
Anschel wanted to immediately grab that ominous evidence of crime and smash it, but he didn’t have that much courage.
Inside the wrapping was a very cute egg-shaped accessory—a wiretap.
“I want to hear your words from anywhere.”
“What about the phone…?”
“Just talking on the phone isn’t enough.”
“I see…”
Harriet fell into contemplation about where in the house he should place this as decoration. Beside him, Anschel wore an expression like he was dying to say something, then hunched over as if his stomach was hurting.
“Alright… I’ll put it somewhere in the house.”
“Thank you.”
Since he liked reading books and didn’t talk much, there wouldn’t be any sound no matter what he did at home…
How long would his troublesome junior continue to act spoiled? Harriet smiled slightly.
“I hope we meet again, Ender.”
They met on a mission because of the southern mermaids, but it wasn’t bad seeing his junior after a long time. It was unexpected that the young junior who had followed him so devotedly had grown up like this, but his ruby remained the same.
“Yes. Senior…”
While Ender looked back a dozen times, Harriet stood blankly, holding the gift he had received. Angela, who had been watching from the side, approached with a suspicious face. She was a fan of Ender, but wrong was wrong.
“…Aren’t you going to throw that away?”
“It’s a gift.”
“…”
She wondered how the definition of a gift that she knew differed from the definition that Harriet knew. Though she had questions, Angela didn’t ask either.
Ender, who had boarded the military vehicle, smiled bitterly as he took out earphones from his pocket and put them in his ears. Anschel spoke with an expression that said he really didn’t want to talk.
“…I hear they’ve accepted the surrender from the southern sea mermaids.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“The President will present a commendation…”
Ender was scheduled to receive a commendation from the state soon. Having conquered the eastern, western, and southern seas, Ender’s future was wide open. He would be revered as a hero by many.
Perhaps he could become the youngest colonel at the young age of twenty-eight. Then the pension he would receive and the wealth that would come to him would be vastly different from now.
“I don’t need it.”
Ender, who spoke indifferently, smiled as he took out a wooden chopstick from his pocket.
“???”
A wooden chopstick?
Anschel tilted his head.
“I’m thinking of retiring now.”
“…What?”
No, what kind of nonsense is this?
Regardless of what expression Anschel was making, Ender leisurely smiled and cherished the wooden chopstick.
“It would be nice to retire and return to a place like the countryside.”
Surely that return wouldn’t be here.
The military wouldn’t let Ender go. But the strangely ominous feeling didn’t leave Anschel’s nape.
Ender stuck out his tongue and licked the chopstick.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
