Chapter 11
His name was Dante Maxim.
The representative of ground-dwelling humans and possessor of mind control abilities, he was an old man with a gentle and warm impression. He had been in office for about 20 years now and was on record as the president with the longest term in history.
And now he was facing an election for reappointment. Shortly after Dante took office, the humans on land began a war with the merpeople.
Many died with his signature. Young and talented, or old and powerless. And someone’s beloved sons, daughters, and parents were all drowned beneath the cold sea.
The man who had received countless blood and hatred behind his gentle face rose from his seat with a warm smile. Between his old, wrinkled eyes, his hidden blue pupils emitted a chillingly cold light.
When Ender knocked on the door twice and entered, Dante extended both hands to welcome him.
“Welcome.”
It was a friendly voice. Like that of an uncle greeting a cherished nephew. Ender removed his officer’s cap and bowed his head in greeting. Then he brushed his hair up and put his cap back on. At that moment, flashes suddenly went off.
The waiting reporters had begun taking pictures with their cameras. They pressed their shutters fiercely, as if not wanting to miss a single moment of this historic scene.
Although it was bright enough to hurt one’s eyes, neither Dante nor Ender blinked. Dante conspicuously took Ender’s hand and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. Ender’s red eyes narrowed slightly. While smiling at the reporters, Dante whispered to him.
“I heard you took care of the southern merpeople.”
It was a voice small enough that the reporters who were busily taking pictures couldn’t hear. Despite his cold and icy voice, his smiling face was nothing but warm. He grabbed Ender’s shoulder and pulled him closer, even more familiarly.
The reporters moved more busily to capture the friendly image of the two. A reporter with a pen wrote in his notebook, ‘The friendly appearance of the President and national hero Lieutenant Colonel Ender.’ Ender answered with an expression like he was watching a boring, tedious movie.
“Yes.”
“Good work.”
“……”
“Those filthy mer-bastards……”
Dante’s voice was laden with hatred.
The old man in power deeply hated the merpeople living in the sea. Ender almost snorted in derision but held back. The time to end this tedious play was approaching.
Not long after he took office as president, his beloved only son launched a massive trade cruise into the sea. Unfortunately, his ship somehow invaded the merpeople’s territory.
Ender thought the guy was an idiot. That idiot quickly called his father and begged to be saved. He cried that the cruise wouldn’t listen and kept invading the merpeople’s territory. Dante repeatedly pleaded with the merpeople not to touch his ship.
If he succeeded in circumnavigating the sea this time, that idiot planned to establish a company with a solid foundation. But the merpeople did not forgive humans who invaded their territory. Despite the father’s desperate pleas, they sank the ship to the cold bottom of the sea.
In fact, since the sea belonged to the merpeople, there were designated maritime routes that humans could use. Ender couldn’t understand why that idiot had changed course in that direction.
The incident was widely reported. The death of the president’s son aroused public anger. Humans who couldn’t freely use the sea became eager to dominate it.
Soon, human warships invaded the sea’s territory. The fighting continued more intensely than expected, and the military began to desire an entity stronger and freer than anyone else in the sea.
Humans cannot control water, and therefore cannot dominate the vast sea. So they needed something that could forcibly control the sea, and they would do anything to get it.
That greed produced tremendous results. An artificial merman, just a fourteen-year-old boy, sank over a hundred and ten warships and killed all the merpeople fleeing to the deep sea.
And the boy also developed a defect in one of his merman’s tails from that battle, making him unable to control his abilities. Thus, the eastern sea became a sea of silence. That terrible battle, where no one survived, remains one of the military’s secrets to this day.
“Yes… I’d like to recuperate in a countryside village.”
Ender was thinking of retiring from the military, but Dante had no intention of letting him go. He was a useful chess piece and there was no reason to release him.
Ender rolled his red eyes to look down at Dante. The old president, whose blue eyes in contrast to Ender’s fiery red ones, half-disappeared in a smile as he patted Ender’s firm back.
“…How is that merman doing?”
“……”
“We’ll need to call him soon, so keep him safe.”
With a loud smack on his back, Dante walked toward the reporters.
“Lieutenant Colonel, no, Colonel Ender! How do you feel right now……”
“Like shit.”
Ender briefly answered and closed the audience chamber door with a bang as he went outside. Inside, the murmuring grew louder. But most of them would interpret Ender’s words as they saw fit. They had done so before and would continue to do so.
Ender roughly dusted off the part where the old man had touched him, as if removing filth, and strode down the wide, massive corridor. With each step he took, the solid marble cracked and sank with a strange sound. Suddenly stopping, Ender grabbed a plaster statue on display with one hand and swung it emotionlessly.
CRASH-! SHATTER!
The plaster broke into pieces with a loud noise.
“!!!”
Anschel, who had been waiting in Ender’s office, jumped out at the sudden loud noise.
Why are you so angry again!?
Anschel wanted to scream but barely held back. Whatever had happened, Ender seemed very angry. He came in with long strides.
As if his anger hadn’t subsided, Ender’s red eyes darkened. Then he kicked over the desk.
BANG!
Once again, a loud noise filled the room. The heavy wooden desk tumbled on the floor all too easily. Anschel backed away.
What’s wrong with this crazy bastard all of a sudden!
Ender sat in a chair and carefully took something out of his pants pocket. It was a small rustling envelope. He opened it and carefully took something else out.
‘Something precious I found in the comb.’
Like someone searching for a sedative, as if this method was his last resort, he stared at something blindly.
“…?”
White thread?
Looking closely, it wasn’t thread but a weakly dangling, shimmering strand of hair. Ender blankly stared at it and closed his eyes. Then he brought it to his nose and smelled it. If he did this while wearing earphones, the image of Harriet would flicker before his eyes and then disappear.
“Beautiful… my Sunbae alone.”
The up-and-coming elite Anschel tried his best not to look between his legs.
* * *
Harriet opened the door for Angela and Ryan who had suddenly arrived. Water droplets dripped from the ends of his wet white hair.
Angela and Ryan, completely drunk, were babbling with flushed faces. Harriet tried to calm the two young people and said,
“What’s wrong?”
“Ti… ti-ti-ti, ti.”
“Ti?”
“Tiger!”
“…Tiger?”
“A tiger appeared!”
Angela and Ryan shouted as if performing a comedy skit.
“…A tiger?”
“Yes!!”
These two… they’re drunk. Looking for endangered animals here…
While blankly examining the two drunk individuals, Harriet slightly twisted his body to make space. And Harriet’s eyebrows, which had taken on a troubled expression, drooped slightly.
“It’s cramped… want to stay over?”
Harriet was worried about how drunk the kids were to be talking nonsense. But Angela was more serious than anyone. Even Ryan, whom he had trusted, was nodding beside her.
If Angela had told him she saw a tiger alone, Harriet would have just smiled a little and said, “Okay…” He might not have taken it seriously and just indulged it as cute drunken rambling from Angela.
But with Ryan involved, the story changed. Not because he trusted Ryan more as an individual, but because of his ability. Ryan had the ability to communicate with animals.
Occasionally, he could also empathize with humans by becoming attuned to their atmosphere or behavior, which made his ability too cruel for himself during the war. He had to face the fear and despair of merpeople before they died. That was why he came to this peaceful mountain village.
Thanks to his empathic ability, Ryan could also accurately grasp the essence or state of others. He immediately recognized when a criminal with transformation abilities had changed into a dog.
If Ryan, who could grasp essences so accurately, said he saw a tiger, it meant it wasn’t a mistake.
“…Hmm.”
Harriet let them into the house for now. Having suddenly come out during his bath, things were a bit disorganized. Come to think of it, water droplets were still dripping from Harriet’s white hair, soaking his black indoor clothes.
Angela and Ryan had knocked on the door so urgently that he had only thrown on clothes without time to dry off. Harriet took a towel, shook his hair, and tidied up the bathroom.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
