The Mermaid Who Swallowed a Ruby 21

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Chapter 21

Harriet rummaged through the shelf as if looking for something, then limped over. His normally downturned eyebrows were raised high.

He extended his hand with a slightly excited expression.

“Me too. Ender, give me your semen too.”

Surprisingly, Harriet was holding a small bottle in his hand. Ender blushed at those words and turned his gaze away.

‘What’s wrong with him?’

‘I don’t know.’

Anschel and Angela exchanged glances as they conversed. Even Harriet, whom they had trusted, was starting to act crazy. Something shattered in the back of their minds.

In contrast, Ender looked very shy, lowering his eyes and mumbling like a virgin giving away his first time.

“…Okay.”

While Ender couldn’t bring himself to meet Harriet’s eyes and kept looking down, genuinely embarrassed, everyone stared at him like he was some kind of monster. The merman prince was completely forgotten. How strange that he would be shy about such a thing.

It was a moment when Harriet, who had been like a blank white canvas, was gradually being colored by Ender.

Angela screamed and sobbed. It was a scream more shocked and desperate than when the Northern merman prince had appeared.

Harriet, who had received Ender’s promise to give it to him later, quietly placed the small bottle back on the shelf. Angela clung to Harriet’s waist from the side, wailing.

“Captain!! I’m sorry!! I won’t say anything anymore, so please return to being your normal self!!”

Her previous joking suggestions about Harriet changing his image now seemed ridiculous. Harriet stroked Angela’s brown hair and smiled softly.

The Northern Sea merman suddenly began to sing amidst the chaotic scene. Though it came out of nowhere, his tone was pleasant and his voice incredibly sweet.

Those hearing a merman’s song for the first time opened their eyes wide. Even Angela, who had been crying and sniffling, stopped immediately.

Ender, with closed eyes and flushed cheeks, quietly followed Harriet and sat down beside him. Anschel cleared his throat, wondering why he was the only one still standing. He stopped Ann from continuing his song.

“Merpeople love songs. Especially for those who are crying.”

Ann handed Angela a fake flower from the vase on the table with a bright smile. Anschel hesitated whether to stop this behavior or not, then cleared his throat again.

Because of those two idiots, the conversation had gone off track, but the situation was very serious. An enemy, a merman prince, had appeared in their military base.

“Colonel, it’s a merman,” Anschel whispered.

Ender, who had been blushing next to Harriet, changed his expression and responded to Anschel indifferently.

“I can see that.”

“……”

Of course he would know. This damn superior of his had every annoying trait imaginable except when it came to his seniors.

Anschel cursed inwardly but didn’t show it outwardly. There was no way Ender wouldn’t recognize a merman’s appearance, which he had to see daily except when eating and sleeping, as he swept across the sea and flew through the sky. Yet Ender remained calm despite the enemy before him.

Ender McGuire, the hero of humanity, had killed countless merpeople. As much as people praised him as a hero, Ender McGuire’s karma was accumulating.

Anschel had wondered if Ender killed merpeople because he hated them, but from what he observed, Ender surprisingly didn’t hate them. He didn’t particularly despise them either.

If he wasn’t killing them out of hatred, Anschel thought it might be loyalty to the government, but that wasn’t it either. Ender seemed to be driven by some sense of duty that Anschel didn’t understand.

Anschel suspected it wasn’t about wealth, honor, or power either. The McGuire family itself was extremely wealthy, and it was known that his officer parents hadn’t forced military service on Ender. Rather, his military parents reportedly wanted Ender to live a normal life.

Anschel observed Ender, who sat quietly next to Harriet with a face showing no particular interest despite the merman’s presence. He wondered why Ender was wearing a military uniform.

“So you’re Ender McGuire.”

Ann, who had stopped Angela’s crying, said this. Apparently, the name Ender McGuire was famous even among merpeople.

Ann’s face was handsome and beautiful. His blue eyes and hair felt mysterious. The blue hair of merpeople that contained the sea was something Anschel had once found beautiful too.

But they were a brutal species. They showed no mercy to people begging for their lives, sinking ships and massacring the people inside. Anschel kept his mouth firmly shut.

In the tense atmosphere of the office, Ender closed his eyes as if lost in thought while looking at the merman before him.

– We must reclaim the sea.

At that moment, with a crackling sound, Dante Maxim’s voice echoed from a distant radio that had suddenly lit up. The presidential election period had begun.

Anschel was startled and dropped the file he was holding. All media-related machines had turned on by themselves and fixed on one channel. The media was using their abilities to control the nation’s devices.

– We are facing the final battle with the cruel and warlike merpeople. The tragedy filled with anger and grudges from that time remains an unhealed wound, and I, Dante Maxim, had to send my beloved son to the sea.

Anschel bit his lip hard. This speech marked the beginning of the presidential election. For the past decade, no presidential candidate had been able to challenge Dante Maxim.

Dante Maxim’s speeches still evoked excitement in many people who yearned for the sea, helping him gain many affirmative votes. Anschel was also one of Dante’s supporters.

Things had come to this point because the merpeople had been ruthless and refused to share the sea with humans. If only the merpeople hadn’t sunk the Ellikiss that day, the situation wouldn’t have deteriorated this much.

The idea of a merman prince blankly listening to Dante Maxim’s speech was not even amusing. Anschel drew his spare gun from his waist and aimed it at the merman.

Angela jumped up beside him trying to stop him, but she couldn’t. Anschel had restrained her with a barrier. Unable to rise from her seated position, Angela struggled and squirmed.

“I’m arresting this merman.”

– Why does the sea belong to the merpeople! Why didn’t they choose coexistence!! Humans tried so hard to create a better world with the merpeople, yet what was returned was cruel death!!

Dante Maxim’s speech was becoming increasingly intense. Anschel’s breathing quickened in response.

Anschel glanced at Ender, but he made no move to stop him. All of Ender’s attention was directed toward Harriet.

What about Harriet? He too had a face with drooping eyes as if troubled, but that was just his naturally dull expression, not because the situation was difficult.

– My son… Alcita Maxim also worked hard and strived for coexistence with the merpeople. As a father who lost his son before being president, and as the representative of the entire nation, I want to bring this to an end. The war with the merpeople is now in its final phase. I alone, Dante Maxim, will bear the blame and accusations. This is the last presidential election, and I, Dante Maxim, will end everything and pass peace on to my successor.

“So now the royal family appears in a hurry because they’re about to lose the sea?”

Anschel glared intensely at Ann’s blue eyes, which merely blinked. Anschel was planning to subdue this prince and immediately report to military headquarters.

He intended to report that he had captured a royal member of the Northern Sea merpeople. He would suggest they experiment on him or whatever they wanted, adding his personal grudge to his words.

But when Anschel noticed Harriet sitting indifferently next to Ender watching the situation, he almost lowered his gun. He had momentarily forgotten that Harriet was a military experiment and an artificial merman.

“Why are these humans so angry?”

Merman Ann asked Ryan, who was sitting in front of him. Ryan, clutching a tiger tightly to his chest and anxiously examining the barrier restraining Angela, flinched in surprise.

The tiger cub growled threateningly, seemingly uncomfortable with the uniformed humans surrounding it. Ryan rolled his eyes nervously as he explained to Ann.

“…Um, you’re in a human military base. Even if it’s a bit shabby… and deserted.”

When Ryan spoke carefully, merman Ann clapped his hands as if he had realized something. Then, just as he had done with Angela, he plucked a fake flower from the table.

“Damn, I bought that for a lot of money in town.”

Angela grumbled from the side.

“Would you please stop being angry? You remind me of Toolie, the orca that lives in our sea.”

“…Too-Toolie?”

“Yes, a name I gave him because he’s always angry and grumbling. Of course, now he’s moved to the southern sea after having a precious cub.”

“Put that away. I’m not in a position to laugh and joke with a merman.”

Anschel could still clearly see his parents’ backs as they opened the door and left. They had to go to work without a moment’s rest for Anschel, who was an ability user. His parents, whom he could never see again no matter how much he cried from missing them.

“The prince of the merpeople seems incredibly carefree.”

Anschel bared his teeth at Ann. He too was a soldier who had trapped fleeing merpeople with barriers and cut off their escape routes.

Ender’s trademark military ship with the black eagle insignia was itself an object of terror for merpeople.