CH 24

“Everyone’s out of their mind these days. Yesterday, a crayfish fell over his back and said that he’d try walking with his tail.”

“Auntie took the guppies and made them practice a tail dance. She even prepared some music for it.”

The mermaids exchanged the stories of these gifts and joked about what was going to happen during Ariel’s birthday.

Twenty guppies dancing in a line, a seahorse who would sing.

They even said that the shipwreck, where the banquet would take place, had already been decorated with many different kinds of pearls and corals.

While they were exchanging stories, Ariel’s hair was braided and loosened, shaped into various styles in the hands of the mermaids.

Ophelia didn’t know who they were, but it wasn’t difficult to recognize the situation.

“Sisters, you don’t have to try and read my mind.”

That they were all trying to gauge Ariel’s mood.

Eventually, Ariel smiled and waved her hand.

“No matter how much you say it, I won’t change my mind.”

And the mermaids around her grew dismal in an instant.

The pink-haired mermaid, whose expression was the worst among them, grabbed Ariel’s hand.

“Just why? Can’t you think about it one more time?”

“Yeah, Ariel. Even if it’s not that wish, there’s many other things you can wish for! You can only make one wish on your coming-of-age birthday. Isn’t this a waste?”

The mermaid, who was taking off the tangled seaweed on her head next to Ariel, gave up on her hair and held Ariel’s other hand.

“Does your wish have to be going up to the surface?”

“Yeah. I really want to see it.”

But Ariel was stubborn.

“Father doesn’t even let me stick my head up the water. I’ve had enough.”

“But that’s because you can’t use concealment magic.”

“But isn’t it the same for third-oldest Sister? She can’t use concealment magic either.”

Because they couldn’t think of a rebuttal, the other mermaids were momentarily left speechless.

Ariel carefully removed the hands of her sisters that were clasping hers, predicting what they’re about to say.

“I know. Mother was caught by humans and she passed away because of them. That’s why Father won’t let me go to the surface.”

“Ariel, if you know, then why do you continue acting like this? You talk about nothing but the surface!”

“That’s only something you can say because you’ve already seen it.”

Ariel swam up over them and said firmly.

“I want to see the surface first, then I’ll consider it again.”

“But Ariel…”

“Stop. Ariel’s right.”

The blue-haired mermaid, who brought out the clownfish earlier, spoke up.

“Big sister!”

“How can you say that, too!”

The other mermaids were swept into a commotion as they swam towards the blue-haired mermaid. But she was as stubborn as Ariel.

“Ariel will soon be an adult. I’m not siding with her. It’s just that the time has come for her to decide on her own.”

“Big sister…”

Ariel called out with a tearful voice, then she went forward to hug her.

“Thank you. I’ll really be careful. I won’t be caught by anyone!”

“I’ll trust you to keep that promise. If you even think about doing anything dangerous, remember our faces first.”

“Okay. I love you, Sister!”

Ariel hugged her sister and beamed, and the other mermaids went towards them to form one big hug.

Most of them still expressed their disapproval of Ariel’s decision.

But they still loved her anyway.

“Ariel, no matter what you decide, we love you.”

No, everyone in the sea loved her.

So that he would be part of the hug, the clownfish nuzzled into Ariel’s cheek, and the sweet voices continued telling her about how the entire sea was preparing for her birthday…

It seemed like all that the vast waters contained was there just for Ariel, the net-like water there just to cover her.

Rather than continuing to appease her sisters and tell them that she would be careful, Ariel smiled innocently, unaware of the future wherein an unexpected love would eclipse the faces of her six sisters.

Eventually, Ophelia woke up in tears.

Even after she had woken up, she continued crying for a long time, her face buried in her hands.

The memory of the short-haired mermaids who gave her the scale overlapped with the dream.

The letter he discovered inside Alei’s book now sounded clear.

She was sure that this was Ariel’s memory.

After swallowing the scale that Ariel gave Ophelia and returning to the past, it wasn’t surprising that one or two memories that the mermaid wanted to convey would remain in Ophelia.

As she lifted her head, tears already dried up on her cheeks, she looked at the calendar next to the bed.

As the sun rose early this dawn, the date marked by red ink on the calendar was revealed.

Only then did Ophelia realize why she had this dream.

‘It’s today.’

“The day she found Ian on the shore.

And today, she woke up unusually early.

It was quite strange considering that before going to Ronen, Ophelia was never an early riser.

She wasn’t sensitive to sunlight, but she went out on this day because she had woken up anyway.

‘And I met Ian.’

Ophelia walked alongside the promenade, recalling her memories.

The trail she was following was supposed to be a path between Ladeen Castle and the beach.

That’s why Ophelia, who was only taking a stroll, was able to accidentally find Ian.

‘But that’s in the past.’

The past when she didn’t know anything.

When Ian was kind to her, when she was naïve at the face of his heartlessness.

‘It would be nice if we never met ever again.’

She could do that now, as much as she wanted.

Since she knew the reason why Ian had drifted onto shore?

She could have asked Alei not to touch the ocean currents, or she could have just asked Sante to rescue a man from a sinking ship.

However, Ophelia did neither of these things.

There were some things that she could gain from Ian’s shipwreck.

However, in order to gain those things, Ophelia also had to endure some.

The past that afflicted her, the way she felt about Ian.

The things that troubled her over the past five years. Regardless of how it seemed as though they had been washed away, it did not mean that they disappeared.

This was clear when Ophelia ran away recklessly after meeting Ian at the Imperial Palace.

Therefore, as the coast got closer, Ophelia’s face got worse and worse.

By the time the waves were visible, she was already on the brink of tears.

But as the sea breeze brushed by her cheeks, no such tears had streamed down.

She scoured the coast, which the sun gradually brightened up.

She hoped that Ian would be there. At the same time, she hoped that he wouldn’t.

If she hadn’t dreamed of Ariel, she would have felt more comfortable.

But had reality ever been kind to Ophelia?

She eventually arrived at the shore, facing a sight that she wanted, yet did not want to see.

“Ian.”

The name slipped out of her lips unknowingly.

Shhhwaa.

The sound of waves, as they brushed across Ophelia’s feet, was deafening.

And by her feet on the coast was an unconscious man.

It was apparent that he got shipwrecked. From head to toe, he was soaked in sea water.

The ragged hems of his clothes might have been bitten off by fish or torn by a reef. His pale skin, which seemed like it was never touched by the sun, had many scratches all over the place. And it wasn’t clear if he was still breathing, or if his breathing was just too faint.

Funnily enough however, when she saw him, Ophelia’s muddled mind became clear.

After seeing the face of the man she once loved…

She realized that the feelings she had for him now were no longer tinged with affection.

No. Perhaps it had been a long time since this affection had disappeared.

However, because her view had been narrow, he was the only one she could see.

It was only a few days ago that she ran away after meeting Ian at the Imperial Palace.

This changed Ophelia’s view on him.

She no longer had the same narrow view. She now had a goal.

For Ophelia, at this moment, Ian was a complete stranger now.

Ophelia leaned closer and put a finger under the man’s nose.

She could feel a shallow breath going past her index finger.

He’s alive.

After confirming this, Ophelia stood up without any hesitation.

If it were any other person, they would have tried to call someone to help rescue him, or at least shook the man to try and wake him up. But not Ophelia.

She already made that mistake in her past life.

As Ophelia stood up, she turned her gaze to the reef at the other side of the coast. She saw red hair disappearing behind the reef.

Red hair that was exactly like Ophelia’s. And she knew who owned that hair.

‘There you are.’

Ariel.

t/n: i backtracked a bit on chapter 20 and realized that i made a mistake with one important line. instead of Ophelia thinking that after Alei stirred the currents, ‘There would be one less shipwreck,’ the correct passage is:

“Three days is enough.”

Enough to cause a shipwreck.

apologies for the confusion! i’ve already revised the chapter accordingly. the sentence structure for that one was tricky, so I got confused myself ^^;;