BLOSM 06

Chapter : 06

Sharkrof continued speaking.

“So I’ll circle around Miss Marina every day and gradually slip into her heart. As time passes, Miss Marina will eventually find it hard to endure even the short time when I leave for the sea. You’ll miss me terribly. In the end, because you won’t want to be separated from me even for a moment, you’ll follow me to the Kingdom of the Sea.”

It seemed Sharkrof had the bad habit of honestly revealing his grand schemes to the very person he was targeting.

I didn’t think things would go according to that plan, though.

“Would that really be okay…?”

I trailed off.

“Don’t tell me you dislike that idea too?”

Sharkrof asked with anxious eyes.

“No, it’s not that.”

I fell into thought.

Sharkrof’s proposal wasn’t something I particularly disliked.

Summer was gradually beginning. That meant I needed to find help as soon as possible.

Fishbone Town was a typical seaside resort.

Every summer, the town was packed with travelers.

Of course, every summer also meant struggling with a shortage of workers.

I still vividly remembered wishing last summer that anyone—literally anyone—would help out.

Although when I said anyone, I never imagined borrowing a shark’s help (or rather, a shark’s fin).

Still, it was an appealing proposal.

Whether Sharkrof could actually handle work on land was completely unknown, though…

“Alright. If we end up short on help, I’ll try asking Sharkrof too.”

I said.

“Really?”

“Yes. Summer will be here soon, and things will get busy…”

At that moment, I felt Phineas staring at me desperately from the side.

It was obvious what he wanted to say.

What nonsense was this about hiring Sharkrof as an employee?

I reassured him.

“I’ll only ask him to help with simple tasks, so don’t worry too much.”

“Even so… working with a guy like that…”

Phineas shook his head helplessly.

After finishing the cleaning, we went inside the shop.

Sharkrof followed us in. I turned and asked him,

“Come to think of it, Sharkrof, it’s breakfast time. Did you eat?”

“No.”

“You must’ve been exhausted swimming all the way here from the open sea.”

“I’m a fast swimmer. It wasn’t tiring.”

“Still, I’d like to offer you something. It’s nothing special—just something simple I made for myself. Would you like some?”

“Sure. Thank you.”

Sharkrof nodded.

But something felt strange.

The way he kept glancing at me looked oddly uneasy.

When I placed the sandwich I had made in front of him, his uneasy expression became even clearer.

“As expected, it’s food from the land. I can’t eat food that smells like the land.”

Sharkrof said.

“What?”

“I was actually a bit nervous, thinking land food might appear. It makes me sad to refuse Miss Marina’s kindness, but it can’t be helped. Land food has a smell I absolutely cannot tolerate.”

“What kind of smell?”

“A disgusting smell—like flour that crumbles like dry sand, baked in an unbearably dry fire. I don’t want to bite into it. I’m sure it would leave a horrible taste in my mouth.”

“If flour baked in fire smells like that, you mean bread, right?”

Phineas asked, puzzled.

“That’s what they call it.”

Sharkrof replied calmly.

“What’s wrong with the smell of bread? It’s great.”

“You think it’s great? As expected, the taste of ordinary land people is horrifying.”

Sharkrof narrowed his eyes at Phineas, then turned his gaze back to me.

“But someone like Miss Marina, who possesses the spirit of the sea and carries the scent of pearls and coral, would never put such unpleasant things like bread into her mouth.”

“Actually… I made this for myself.”

I said as I took a bite of the sandwich he had refused.

Sharkrof fell silent for a moment at the sight.

After a brief pause, he spoke again.

“Anyway, I don’t want to eat things that come from the land. They’ll probably all taste strange.”

“You have a unique diet. What do you usually eat?”

I asked.

“Fish, of course.”

“Only fish?”

“That’s right. I’ve never eaten anything from land.”

“So you’ve never even tried it, yet you’re convinced all land food tastes bad?”

I asked with a laugh.

“I don’t need to try it to know.”

But unlike me, Sharkrof looked completely serious.

“Why don’t you just try one bite as an experiment? There’s another one right there. You might end up liking it.”

I pointed at the untouched sandwich.

“That’s impossible. Land food…”

Sharkrof looked at the sandwich cautiously, like it was something dangerous.

Yet his fingers kept pushing and pulling the edge of the plate.

As if he were debating whether to try it.

It looked like curiosity and caution were battling inside him.

After all, there was a saying about sharks.

They’re naturally curious and tend to bite unfamiliar objects just to find out what they are.

Sharkrof seemed to be struggling to suppress the urge to bite into this mysterious object called land food.

Finally, he seemed to make up his mind.

“Alright. Since Miss Marina asked me to try it, I will. I’ve decided to listen to anything Miss Marina asks of me.”

“I didn’t say you absolutely had to try it…”

“Anyway, it’s not because my curiosity got the better of me. It’s simply because you asked. Just one bite.”

Sharkrof timidly bit off a small corner of the sandwich.

His face darkened strangely after tasting the bread.

For such a tiny bite, it took him quite a while to chew and swallow.

Eventually, he swallowed it.

After a moment of silence, Sharkrof spoke quietly.

“That’s enough. I still don’t like things from the land.”

“Really? Well, it can’t be helped. I’ll clean this up.”

I took the plate away.

Without saying anything, Sharkrof stood up with an anxious expression and disappeared somewhere.

I was a little worried. I hoped his stomach hadn’t gotten upset.

Come to think of it, I didn’t even know if sharks could eat bread in the first place.

I carried the plate back to the kitchen.

After placing the leftovers on the counter, I turned to do something else.

Then I heard a suspicious rustling sound behind me.

But when I turned around, no one was there.

Thinking it was just the wind, I tried to continue my work.

Then the sound came again.

This time there was also the sound of something being dragged.

How should I describe it? It sounded like a ceramic plate scraping across a wooden counter.

Pretending not to hear anything, I suddenly turned around.

Finally, I caught the source of the sound.

Sharkrof was standing in front of the counter.

In an awkward half-standing posture, he was just about to bite the sandwich from earlier.

When our eyes met, Sharkrof’s lips moved awkwardly like a fish pulled out of water.

“What are you doing?”

I asked.

“Well… you see…”

“You’re going to eat the rest? I thought you said it tasted bad.”

“Yes. Since it’s come to this, I should be honest. To put it generously… land food wasn’t as bad as I thought. I’m not saying it was amazing. Just… it wasn’t as terrible as chewing sand.”

Sharkrof said defensively.

“Alright. So it was tasty after all. That’s good. You don’t have to be so stubborn about it.”

“I’m not being stubborn. I’m simply stating the truth. It just wasn’t as bad as eating sand. I heard from others that land food basically tastes like sand. It just wasn’t that bad.”

Sharkrof protested with a tone that sounded extremely prideful.

“Okay, okay. If you say so, Sharkrof.”

“Really.”

Seeing me smiling, Sharkrof muttered gloomily.

Although Sharkrof usually had a cold and sharp aura, moments like this made him seem endlessly clumsy and innocent. I found it a little amusing.

I handed him a teacup.

“I’d like to give you some dessert, but I don’t really have anything. Would you like some tea instead? Though since you think land food is only slightly better than sand, this probably won’t appeal to you either.”

“Yes, exactly. Accepting food that’s only slightly better than sand would damage the dignity of a shark-man who is the ultimate apex predator…”

Sharkrof hesitated.

But soon, he quietly accepted the flower tea from the land—which he had claimed was barely better than sand—and began drinking it obediently.