PBGS 01

Chapter 1

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“Where the hell did that brat Rinka go?”

“Forget it. I’ve already called the knights. You lot surround the harbor for now. She could’ve hidden in an empty ship, so search those too.”

“Yes, sir!”

“My lord, there’s word that a pirate ship has appeared nearby. The lord is requesting you return at once…”

“What? Damn it, how bothersome. You keep chasing Rinka. I’ll send the knights toward the pirate ship.”

“Understood!”

Rinka held her breath until the sound of men splitting up and running in different directions finally faded away.

Carefully checking for any remaining presence, she slipped her body out of the crate without making a sound.

Her short, unevenly chopped hair dangled loosely at her neck.

“Mecard, that lunatic. He really mobilized the navy just to catch me?”

He used to call her his only friend. He used to claim he had no one else to rely on but her.

There was no way she could allow herself to be caught. She didn’t even know what those chasing her wanted. Why follow blindly, only to end up in who knows what kind of trouble?

Grinding her teeth, Rinka straightened her knees.

The pirate ship Mecard’s underling had mentioned…

That was the only vessel that could leave this harbor right now. And Rinka was one of the few who saw it drop anchor just yesterday.

“The pirates must already know the Cather navy is after them. They’ll leave in a hurry for sure.”

She wanted to leave this harbor town anyway, but she had never planned to actually enter the water. Drifting helplessly on the open sea? Absolutely not. But now there was no other way.

She hated the sea. Truly.

The only saving grace was that the people chasing her believed she couldn’t swim. After all, she’d spent her seventeen years in this harbor town insisting she would never, ever enter the ocean. They couldn’t possibly suspect.

This will be the last time.

Just this once. If I escape this town, I’ll go somewhere far from the sea.

Her mind drifted briefly to the house where no one waited anymore.

An empty home. But everything she treasured remained inside.

If Mecard was insane enough to mobilize the navy, though, that house was already under siege.

“You can breathe underwater. Because you are—aren’t you?”

Rinka stopped thinking and bolted toward the sea. Then she leapt in.

“Haa—”

Good thing she’d cut her hair short.

The chill of the water wrapped tightly around her body.

She slowly opened her eyes beneath the surface. Her orange irises bled into a deep ocean blue, until her gaze looked as if the very sea itself dwelled within.

And suddenly, the darkness of the depths lit up as clear and bright as land under daylight.

The spray that foamed with each wave.

The flow of currents brushing against her fingertips. The soft whisper of coral reefs.

And yes—breathing felt as natural as it did on land.

Not the time to get distracted.

There was no room to marvel at the sea for the first time.

She swam down to the deep cove where the pirate ship had anchored. Clambering out, she wrung her hair roughly and wrapped her drenched outer garments tightly around herself.

Pressing her palm against the silver scales rising faintly on her neck, she noticed the pirates’ stockpile of provisions.

The heavy crates were nearly all loaded already.

Nowhere good to hide…!

Thud.

As she hesitated, unfamiliar footsteps drew closer.

At the same time, cannon fire thundered from the harbor toward the sea. Likely only for intimidation, but for the pirates it was an urgent threat.

There was no time to linger.

“Turn invisible, turn invisible…!”

Anyone else would call her crazy. Begging wouldn’t make her disappear.

But to Rinka, fresh from the seawater, it was possible. For a short while, vanishing was no trouble at all.

After all, hadn’t she once saved a dying man crushed under rubble?

This much—I can do this…!

Her sea-washed coral eyes squeezed shut, and silver light rippled from her nape.

Her body shimmered like moonlight on water, then slowly vanished, as if a veil had been drawn around her.

Just as she disappeared completely, the pirates appeared.

“These sacks the last of it?”

“Yeah. Captain splurged on flour this time.”

“Think we can haul it all in one go? Let’s finish up quick.”

While they busied themselves with the sacks, Rinka inched cautiously in the direction they had come from.

Ugh.

Pirates were said to have sharper senses than ordinary men. If they noticed her, it would be over.

Holding her breath, she crept right up to the ship.

The sounds of boots and gruff chatter pressed close around her.

“You’re still not done? Why so slow?”

“The sacks aren’t tied. Got any rope?”

“Here. This work? Take both.”

Thud!

Timing her move with the coil of rope tossed overboard, Rinka clambered atop the piled sacks.

Please don’t notice this one’s heavier than the rest… please!

Then a voice from above:

“No time to mess around. The Cather navy’s moving. Looks like we’ve been found.”

“They found here?”

“Not sure. Thought this strait was beyond their reach…”

The navy.

So Mecard really had unleashed them.

They weren’t after pirates—they were after her. First searching every ship in port, and now discovering the pirate vessel too.

But she was already hidden. If she could just endure this busy loading area, she’d make it onboard.

“Hoist it up.”

“Pulling!”

Her worries about the weight proved needless. The pirates lifted the entire plank of sacks and hauled them up onto the deck.

They didn’t seem able to detect invisible Rinka at all, and so she was carried into a storeroom with the provisions.

As soon as they landed, she slipped to a corner, lying flat and letting out a shaky breath.

“—Captain’s calling.”

“Again?”

“On shore—”

The men shouted back and forth, then with a screech the door shut, leaving Rinka in complete silence.

Only after her body shimmered back into visibility did she finally exhale loudly.

“Phew…”

Her golden hair, pale skin, and ordinary neck were back again. The silver glow had vanished as if it had never been.

“But… pirates toss stowaways straight into the sea, don’t they…”

She’d hidden herself on a pirate ship, yes—but her goal was land, far from any sea. Being thrown back overboard was the last thing she could allow.

Because—

“Rinka, beware the sea. Half-blooded mermaids are prey for sea monsters.”

Rinka was a half-blood. Born of a mermaid and a human.

And half-bloods could not live in the sea.

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Rinka Marybell.

She had grown up in the small harbor town of Cather with her mother.

Her mother had once arrived alone, cradling an infant, and settled there.

Though never stated outright, both Rinka and the townsfolk assumed her father was dead.

Until—

“M-Mother…”

The truth came when Rinka was eight.

In the tiny port town where mermaids had long since faded into legend, she had run home drenched after a bucket of seawater overturned onto her.

But the soaked skin along her thighs, waist, and neck began sprouting silver scales, spreading up to her left cheek.

They gleamed softly, warm as seawater.

Crying, Rinka had fled to her mother.

“I planned to tell you when you were older.”

Her mother, Soinia, embraced her tenderly and explained at last.

Her father was a merman. He had fallen in love with Soinia, and Rinka was born—but he had been forced to return to the sea.

The pearls and jewels he left behind had kept them secure, but that wasn’t the important part.

“Listen well, Rinka. Far out west, if you sail long enough, there lies a vast deep sea. A dangerous sea monster slumbers there.”

“A… monster?”

“If it sees someone who is half-mermaid, half-human, it will awaken from its long sleep and rise to devour them.”

“Half mermaid, half human… that’s me! Waaah!”

She had no desire to die as some sea monster’s meal.

As she wept, begging to live long, her mother gave her two warnings.

First: the sea. No one knew when the monster would awaken.

Second: people.

Though Rinka lacked a tail and looked ordinary except for being able to breathe underwater…

“…What did you just do?”

Whenever her scales surfaced, she gained powers beyond humans. Not just underwater breathing—her body grew scales and she could wield a short-lived “word-magic.”

Just like when she begged to turn invisible and actually vanished.

The power only lasted while her whole body shimmered, but it was enough to reveal her as something other than human.

She had avoided seawater her entire life, so only she and her mother knew her secret.

Well… until Mecard, heir to the Cather lordship, found out.

She had slipped once—soft-hearted after hearing he was injured.

At least he didn’t seem to realize she was half-mermaid. Which was why she could even attempt escape now, hidden among pirates.

Rinka brushed flour from her now-dry clothes and crawled out of the sack.

“Why is this place so… huge?”

 

The storeroom before her eyes was vast—far too vast for a pirate ship’s hold.