Chapter 16
The news was showing the middle of the sea where black smoke was rising.
Back then, Anschel was too young… he had wanted to see his parents, but not to face them again in this way.
“It’s a lie…”
Anschel had begged and begged for the merpeople to show mercy. Though some part of the ship had malfunctioned and intruded into their territory, he had hoped the merpeople would be somewhat benevolent toward humans. After all, humans had accepted the underwater merpeople as a race.
But the merpeople were aggressive and cruel. Such a large ship, with countless crew members and passengers aboard, along with the president’s only son and Anschel’s parents, never returned to their families.
The two people who had lived solely for their son left their young son alone in the world and were submerged to the bottom of the sea as cold corpses.
After seeing his parents’ backs for the last time as they promised to earn a lot of money, Anschel could never see them again.
Since that incident, Anschel had hated merpeople. That’s why he had volunteered for the military’s frontline.
“Yes…”
The two people who had lost loved ones to merpeople might be similar in some ways. President Dante smiled with satisfaction at the hatred in Anschel’s eyes.
“…You’re being reassigned to the village at the end of the land.”
“…Yes.”
How nice it would be if he had the courage to say, ‘No, I really don’t want to go’… Anschel held back tears for a different reason.
“Make sure you monitor well from there.”
“Pardon?”
“Our merman.”
“…”
“Because he’s a crucial key to ending the war.”
If Anschel had heard this without knowing anything, he wouldn’t have understood the president’s words. But he already knew who the merman the president was referring to, and his expression revealed it in an instant. The president smiled at Anschel’s expression.
‘Damn it!’
Anschel should have brazenly pretended not to know until the end.
Harriet Alster.
The first merman created by the military. That merman with many side effects and difficult to use…
“…”
“Make sure that merman doesn’t harbor other thoughts.”
Recalling his conversation with Dante, Anschel drove smoothly while checking the back seat through the side mirror. There sat Harriet and Ryan, looking at a small makeshift cage.
Inside it, the tiger lay collapsed, appearing exhausted. Around the tiger’s neck, which had shrunk to the size of a cat, was a small collar made by the military.
The collar had several functions, including a GPS tracking feature and a function to suppress the tiger’s abilities. Moreover, it was designed not to break under any impact and would tighten around the tiger’s neck if it grew larger.
It was unfortunate, but they couldn’t leave the tiger, which hated humans after being experimented on by the military, on its own.
The tiger was handed over to Ryan. Ryan, who had been observing the tiger with sympathetic eyes from inside the car, clenched his fist resolutely and said:
“I will definitely become friends with this little one.”
That’s not a kitten though…
But Harriet just smiled slightly. Ryan glanced nervously, worried that he might have troubled Harriet, but Harriet wasn’t thinking about anything right now.
“Yes… you can take leave.”
As long as he doesn’t write something like ‘I want to become friends with the tiger’ on the reason form.
The car soon stopped in front of Ryan’s house, and he got out with the tiger. Then he saluted to see off the car.
Harriet waved his hand to say goodbye to the cat, no, the tiger. The tiger then roared loudly, its golden eyes flashing. Even though it was small, a tiger was still a tiger, and the birds in the mountains seemed startled as they all flew up into the sky with a flutter.
After Ryan got out, Ender quickly moved to the back seat, leaving Anschel alone in the front seat to drive. But Anschel was actually more comfortable without Ender beside him.
Silence filled the car.
“I apologize for the late introduction…”
Unable to bear the atmosphere, Anschel spoke up.
“I’m Lieutenant Anschel Lee, reassigned to this place.”
“Ah.”
Harriet turned to look at Ender, who was sticking close to him. Ender, who was fixing his black hair that had become a mess due to the explosion, turned his red eyes and seductively smiled as he received Harriet’s gaze.
However, the problem was that no matter how seductive his expression was, he wasn’t attractive at all because of the tiger’s claw he was preciously holding in his hand.
He had grabbed the front paw of the tiger, which had shrunk to the size of a cat, and had cut its claws with nail clippers. Anschel couldn’t even look properly, not knowing whether to laugh or cry at the sight of someone of his stature holding down a cat and trimming its claws.
“Sergeant Harriet Alster…”
Harriet’s rank was much lower than the two who had been assigned here, and he hadn’t received officer training. Now, all responsibilities and follow-up here had to be handled by Ender McGuire, who had the highest position.
But Anschel highly doubted that Ender would give orders to Harriet. He couldn’t gauge at all how the titles should be organized or who should perform the role of unit commander.
Silence filled the car again. Anschel was anxious, wondering if Harriet might be harboring other thoughts. That tiger was an experimental subject of the military, and Harriet was probably in a similar situation.
Anschel recalled the president’s words. The instruction to monitor the merman cruelly created through military experiments. He remembered that there was not a hint of regret in his tone.
“…Don’t you hate the military?”
“??”
Harriet didn’t understand Anschel’s words for a moment.
“Not really…”
“…”
“It hurt, but it doesn’t matter.”
It seemed like an empty statement, but his words and gaze appeared genuinely thoughtless. Blinking his white eyes, which showed no emotion, Harriet said:
“I’m not really that angry about it.”
“…”
Yes, Harriet wasn’t particularly angry. When it hurt, he simply thought, ‘This hurts.’ But since it was bearable, it didn’t matter much.
When he became a merman, he had useless thoughts like, ‘If I commit a crime and can’t live on land, I’ll escape to the sea…’
Am I the only one who thinks this situation is serious?
It was an answer with slightly more sincerity than someone who would say, ‘I just got hit a few times. I didn’t even lose a tooth, so it’s fine~.’
“The pension comes regularly too.”
Harriet spoke as if that was what he liked the most.
Right… money is very important in this bleak world to survive.
Anschel wondered if he was the only one taking this so seriously. The president had clearly got the wrong address. Harriet was someone who didn’t need any monitoring.
“By the way, that tiger earlier… it seemed to dislike me, right? Ender.”
“What? There’s no being in this world that dislikes you, Sunbae.”
Of course not. Because he would eliminate such a being.
Ender confirmed as if he had heard something absurd.
“Maybe it dislikes me more because I’m a fish.”
“…”
Anschel was confused about whether this was humor in this situation. It was too sensitive to laugh at, and honestly, not even funny.
He couldn’t joke with Harriet, who had become an artificial merman through military experiments, by saying, ‘Hahaha, if you’re a fish, shouldn’t felines like you!? Because you’re prey. Oh, was the tiger trying to eat you?’
But his superior, Ender, was an even more tremendous weirdo than expected.
“Hahahahaha!!! Hahahahaha!!!”
Anschel gripped the steering wheel tightly, afraid that Ender McGuire might have gone mad after eating a poisonous mushroom. After laughing for a while and clutching his stomach, Ender looked up. Tears had even pooled in his eyes.
“Such excellent sense of humor too… Sunbae, what on earth can’t you do?”
Ender, who believed his senior had great humor, beautiful abilities, and was the most wonderful, beautiful, and intelligent person in the world—basically perfect in every way—wiped his tears with his fingers.
Anschel’s eyes cooled as he looked at Ender.
“…Really?”
Surprisingly, if it was indeed humor, Harriet smiled slightly with a satisfied look. His eyebrows, which usually drooped, lifted slightly with confidence.
‘Can I really get along well with these crazy people…’
But that wasn’t the problem.
* * *
“Sunbae… I will fulfill your wish. So… please make me your aide.”
A small, cute kitten. With black fur and cautious, but eventually opened his heart—a cute little boy.
In the academy where there were no joyful memories, there was one scene Harriet thought was uniquely pleasant. The short boy, growling with caution, circled around Harriet for a long time.
On the first day, he kept his distance, raising his fur in alertness, but after ten nights, he gradually reduced the distance. After a month, the boy approached and spoke.
“What’s your name?”
Harriet smiled and answered the question. After two months, the little boy told Harriet his name was “Ender.”
‘Cute… my cute Ruby.’
Harriet was smiling pleasantly as if having a pleasant dream. And outside the room where Harriet slept, a figure stuck to the window was staring intently at him.
With red eyes that appeared in Harriet’s dream, shining more beautifully than anyone else’s.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
