PBGS 13

chapter 13

Rinka woke from her dream, breath coming short and fast.

Her heart was still pounding, and in her ears lingered the vivid echo of screams that had once reverberated through the sea.

—Don’t you want to protect them?

That low, gentle voice slipped into her ear, blurring even the senses of reality.

Unconsciously, she rose from her bed. She glanced toward the captain’s cabin window where moonlight poured in, then clutched her blanket tightly. The world was quiet, yet it felt as though the sea was swelling around her like great waves.

With a trembling hand, Rinka touched her neck. Her palm was cold.

It could all be a lie.

The promise to make her human. The promise to protect the ship. All of it might be nothing but a lie.

Come to the sea, it said. A command to step into the very place where her identity could not remain hidden—how could she ever trust such words?

And yet… why?

Rinka found herself swayed by the thought, “Maybe it doesn’t matter.”

Even if it was a lie, she had nothing to lose. She wanted to believe, just once, that perhaps it was possible. Even if she could never truly become human, she wanted to bet on the possibility.

She rose from her bed, the blue seashell necklace still hanging around her neck.

By chance, the captain was away at that moment.

No one was there to stop her from leaving the captain’s cabin.

She opened the door. Cold night air slipped in, carrying the scent of the waves.

In that instant, the moonlit sea spread before her, glimmering like silver scales. The deck stretched wide beneath the sky.

Stepping onto the deck, her eyes took in the night sea. It was not the abyss she had seen in her dreams.

“Strangely enough, the sea isn’t scary at night.”

Only… it seemed as though silver light flickered within the silent black waters.

Then, the voice whispered in her head again.

—Come to the sea.

As though following the sound of waves, she stepped closer to the railing. Below her, the waters rippled and swayed.

In that moment, the vision of the sinking pirate ship from her dream overlapped with the sight before her—
The captain and crew’s screams, the sea’s whisper.

Rinka exhaled a trembling breath and stretched her hand toward the sea.

“How much time have I even spent with them, that I’d feel this attached?”

Since her mother’s death, the only one she had ever wanted to protect was her childhood friend. But he had betrayed her, tried to seize her.

On this ship, she had thought she would simply live idly until the day she disembarked.

Even knowing it was just a dream, her hands still shook. Her heart pounded, quickened by fear.

The icy sea wind tangled her hair, wrapping itself around her body.

At last, her toes touched the edge of the railing. The waves before her seemed to stretch out like an endless abyss, waiting to swallow her.

Closing her eyes, she once more heard the whisper beneath the waves.

—Come to me. If you enter the sea, you can be free.

Her fingertips grazed the sea breeze.

Now her hand clutched the railing by only the thinnest margin.

If she fell into the water, the markings would spread across her body, revealing to everyone nearby that she was a mermaid. But at the same time, she would finally answer the question she had always carried.

What kind of power could she wield?

She knew she had been lured here by something. But she also knew she had chosen, herself, to go to the sea.

“What if I can’t come back out?”

She whispered to herself, tilting toward the moonlit sea.

“…Then I’ll just have to believe that won’t happen.”

Even if she had been deceived.

In that instant, the sea cast a shadow upon the waves as though something alive moved within it.

A faint gleam of silver scales appeared—then the deep-sea monster that had introduced itself as Leviathan surfaced, its vast, dark-blue body rising like the depths themselves.

Its form writhed at the border of shadow and wave, and from beneath the water, a massive red eye fixed directly on her.

It looked like a serpent.

Of all things—why a serpent?

But somehow, she felt no fear. This creature was not the same as the sea monster that had once haunted her with terror.

Even now, there was no hesitation in Rinka’s eyes.

Exhaling a shivering breath, she threw herself into the sea.

The freezing waves swallowed her whole, and the voice within the currents resounded louder.

—Young mermaid.

The strange voice echoed, neither male nor female, almost laughing.

—Now you are mine. The blood that flows through the sea, and the power. Everything.

Rinka’s body sank deeper into the frigid waves. The water was so cold it felt as if her heart would freeze—but instead, her heart pounded as if awakening within that chill.

Heat surged from the back of her neck, burning her as though to defy the cold.

Her sunset-colored orange hair spread and tangled with the water.

Slowly opening her eyes, she saw the darkness of the sea—and within it, the gleam of two great red eyes staring directly at her.

—You’ve come, young mermaid. Come closer. You can swim, can’t you…

Leviathan’s voice rippled through the waves. The tone, once resembling her mother’s, now sounded darker, heavier.

—Come to me. Give me your blood.

Her body trembled at the whisper, but she clenched her teeth and lifted her head.

So it called her because it knew what she was.

—Why don’t you answer? Surely you don’t die just by entering the water, like humans. Ah, don’t tell me…

Though she was being pulled steadily closer to the massive black serpent, Rinka did not change her course, drifting down slowly. Her hair, once dangling lightly by her shoulders, soaked through and darkened to the shade of the sea.

—Did you die because you’re only half a mermaid?

At that moment, the seawater seeping down her throat ignited something inside her like a spark.

Her fingertips glowed faintly. A wavering blue light shimmered like waves.

This feels strange.

Her chest tightened as though she couldn’t breathe. Watching the light on her hands, she clenched her teeth again.

The sea doesn’t feel foreign anymore.

Could the sea she had feared so deeply feel this comfortable?

Neither the situation nor the water frightened her now.

“Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not dead.”

—Good. That’s how it should be. For a moment I almost thought you were no different from humans.

“How do you even know who I am?”

She cut off Leviathan’s words, her voice steady. She now floated right before its vast, unblinking crimson eyes.

—How could I not know? I have wandered this sea endlessly. For the first time in centuries, the aura of a young mermaid drifts in my waters. The mermaid’s pearl that can grant anything floats within my sea—how could I not know?

Mermaid’s pearl?

She had never heard of such a thing.

“Pearl? What are you talking about?”

—You really don’t know anything, do you?

“Yeah. I grew up with humans.”

—Then I’ll tell you. After all, it will be mine. I can at least teach you this much.

There was amusement in the vast eye’s gleam. Strange, to think such a thing while staring into a serpent’s gaze.

Rinka pressed her palms together as if to cup the currents. Water gathered between her hands and dispersed again.

It was a power distinct from spellcasting.

But she didn’t act—she waited for Leviathan’s answer.

—Every mermaid has a pearl. But it is one with them. It can never be removed. Even if a mermaid is devoured, it cannot become another’s.

The serpent’s voice rumbled in her mind. Though the weight of it was familiar, like a headache, Rinka showed no sign of discomfort, nodding silently as if urging it to continue.

That seemed to offend Leviathan.

—So arrogant.

“You said you’d explain this much, didn’t you?”

—…But half-bloods are different. From them, the pearl can be taken out. With that power, I can defeat ‘him’ and place the entire sea beneath me.