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chapter 30
Before she knew it, the cabin had sunk into darkness. Only the gentle sound of waves and the faint rocking of the ship quietly filled the night.
Rinka sat by the window, watching the moonlight ripple across the sea, when the sound of footsteps behind her made her turn her head.
“Is it okay for you to be up?”
“Just lying down gets pretty boring, you know.”
Ananta’s face was still pale, but his smile carried the familiar ease she was used to.
Wearing a thin coat, he slowly came closer and stood beside her.
“Want to go out on deck?”
“…Right now?”
“It’s better because it’s now.”
When they stepped onto the deck, the cold sea breeze brushed against their clothes.
It was still quiet.
Over the endless night sea, the stars sparkled as though they were about to pour down.
“I like nights like this,” Ananta said.
“Our house, you know, has a view of the sea.”
He whispered the words.
Rinka looked at his profile. With his hair scattering in the wind, Ananta seemed far more serene than usual—yet somehow sad.
“I always wondered… if I went to the sea, would things be okay?”
Would things be okay…
Then what was it that hadn’t been okay?
But Rinka didn’t ask.
“Have you ever wanted to run away, Ananta?”
He placed his hand on the railing, his gaze drifting along with the waves.
“Countless times.”
“…Why?”
“Ever since my father died, it’s always been that way.”
Rinka couldn’t respond. In his casually spoken words, she could feel the loneliness hidden there. The sorrow woven into his smooth tone was proof of the solitude he had lived through.
And then Ananta gazed silently at her.
―Eat it.
The blood of a monster.
His mother, who, burdened by guilt for giving birth to something cursed, had feared leaving the mansion for the rest of her life. His father, who never considered him a son.
The cry of the sea that never faded, even through the splitting pain in his skull, urging him to devour something.
Ananta had never been able to tell anyone.
Never able to share it with anyone.
“I learned how to deceive people before I learned how to trust them.”
“…”
“Killing was easier than saving. Honestly, it was too easy.”
Among the cursed direct bloodline of his family, he was the strongest.
Behind the curse—
The stronger the curse inherited, the stronger they became.
Strange, isn’t it? Laughable, really, that the more pain you bear, the stronger you grow.
He had also learned, through his father’s death, that the easiest way to escape the suffering was to pass on the curse and flee into death.
But he could not bring himself to create another victim like his mother.
And yet, he could not break the curse either.
―Devour it. Then it ends. All of this.
“I don’t know much…”
A clear voice cut through his thoughts. Ananta’s blue eyes lowered.
“But you didn’t kill me. You saved me. If I had been cast out of that ship, I’d either be dead… or living a life worse than death.”
A woman who thanked him for letting her live.
A smile touched Ananta’s sculpted face.
“I like hearing that—that I saved you.”
“…Because it’s true.”
“Mm. Then, Rinka—”
“Yes?”
A long silence hung between them.
Ananta spoke slowly.
“Then one day, you save me. Just once is enough.”
His words pierced Rinka’s heart like sudden starlight spilling from the sky. She couldn’t answer, only nodded.
Words couldn’t capture it.
Would she ever even have the chance to save someone as strong and beautiful as him?
But in that moment, she felt she had glimpsed a fragment of his true self.
Rinka closed her eyes briefly. There was a faint sound beyond the waves—so low and deep that no human ear could fully catch it.
It sounded like the sea breathing… or a song carried from a place impossibly far away.
“…I will.”
The next morning.
Rinka took a deep breath before bursting open the captain’s cabin door, ready to confess what she had agonized over all night.
“…Huh?”
But what she saw was—
―Child, look at this! These fellows are cooking a meal just for you!
The sailors had gathered early in the mess hall, cooking stew, with Pearl flitting about among them.
Since only she could see Pearl, that wasn’t the problem—but why were they suddenly preparing a meal?
“What are you doing?”
Even after hearing Pearl, Rinka approached the sailors and asked directly.
With awkward smiles, they guided her to sit beside the captain—across from the navigator, Digory.
Why here?
That seat was practically the place of honor, where different people sat depending on the occasion. Except for a few times as a new recruit, Rinka had never sat there before.
“Sit down, Rinka.”
“Yeah, yeah. You saved the ship with us yesterday, so you’ve earned that seat today.”
Her eyes prickled with tears.
She had always assumed people would hate her once they saw her powers.
“Are you a witch?”
“Let me go!”
“If you weren’t, you couldn’t possibly do something like this.”
She had worried they’d respond coldly.
But even if they did, she still wanted to protect this ship—Ananta’s ship, and the people who had been kind to her.
Perhaps she had unconsciously assumed they’d call her a witch too, just as Macard Cather, her longtime friend, once had.
―Oh my, child! Why are you crying? My heart is racing!
‘Please, quiet down…’
Thankfully, before her tears could fall, the little spirit’s chatter beside her let her smile brightly instead.
“Thank you.”
She managed to say it aloud.
After taking a big spoonful of stew, she drew another deep breath, placed her hands together, and straightened her back.
“There’s something I need to confess to everyone.”
What was the point of hiding now, after she had already used her powers?
With a firm expression, she confessed.
“Yesterday, that was my power. I am…”
In the peaceful silence, only the sound of the waves marked the passing of time.
“…I am a mermaid.”
Though only half.
The sailors, wide-eyed as though they had all heard her clearly, soon erupted with amazed exclamations.
But they didn’t seem overly serious.
“I’ve wandered the seas for years, but never seen a mermaid before.”
“Weren’t mermaids supposed to have tails? Is it just you who doesn’t have one, Rinka?”
“Eh? I don’t really know?”
…So it wasn’t that big a deal after all?
Maybe they had seen so many strange beings already that a mermaid hardly fazed them. Their calm faces looked more like people who had just found out the evening menu early. Rinka felt all her tension melt away at once.
“So then, was your mother a mermaid? You said you lived with her before.”
“Ah, no. My mother’s side was human…”
“Oh, really? Then your father?”
Better not to say.
“My father returned to the sea when I was young, so I don’t know either.”
“Not knowing your father… that must’ve been hard.”
Was it really okay for them to treat her so normally?
That they worried more about her growing up without a father than about her being a mermaid—it still felt unreal.
But she didn’t dislike it.
Rinka realized she wanted to be honest with these people. And she wanted their acceptance.
All without noticing the one person behind her—whose face had gone stiff.
