CH 116

A hunter had once captured many mermaids, and the Merqueen was the one who released them. However, nobody expected such an end.

She had unrivaled magical powers, so they all thought that she would return to the ocean without any difficulty.

And yet, as the days passed and she did not return, the ocean turned vicious and tumultuous by the day.

It was the first time the ocean had been so violent, as the magic tower could recall it.

The merfolk were usually as gentle as the waters, which did not boil easily, however once the typhoons started to rage, it was difficult to calm them down as well.

The Merking’s patience had reached its peak—it was not even enough to sink all the ships that passed through his sea—and so he soon sent tidal waves towards the shores. His children were not so different.

They shuddered in fear, dreading the thought of losing their mother. In the end, they came to the magic tower.

“Lord Siren, Lord Siren. Are you listening?”

“Lord Siren, you can find out where our mother is, yes?”

“We can’t leave the waters, but Siren, our mother’s old friend, can’t you send your children away as many times as you want?”

“Please show us mercy. Please help us just once.”

The six mermaids cried every single day, saying that the magic tower couldn’t close his eyes to this forever.

Even so, this wasn’t necessary because the magic tower, too, was starting to worry about his old friend.

‘There’s no way she wouldn’t say anything like this.’

She did not come back, and she did not even contact anyone. It was suspicious no matter what.

In the beginning, the first mermaid and siren were the ones who shared the providence of the skies and the seas, allowing their fellow merfolk and sirens to use magic.

Those two individuals were the Merqueen and Siren Tower.

The first siren eventually gave up his winged body and became an enchanted entity called the magic tower, and the first mermaid, too, became part of nature. Until then, the names by which they were originally called became what their families and tribespeople were called.

Along with his friend, Siren watched many lives and deaths pass.

If he was the god of the sky, then she, as the first mermaid, could be called the god of the sea.

This also meant that she could not live away from the sea for an extended period of time.

When she was in the waters, she was close to immortal. However, if she were to leave her domain, the countless years she had lived would double and crash down on her at once. She would dry up as fast as a fish thrown beneath the scorching sun.

It’s not as if she didn’t know this, but why hadn’t she contacted anyone?

The answer came to him sooner than he expected.

Ultimately, Siren could not continue turning a blind eye to the mermaids’ cries and anxieties, and so he borrowed the body of one of his fellow sirens to visit the Merqueen.

“Siren…”

There was a child by her side who looked exactly like her.

Besides that, the Merqueen wasn’t even a mermaid when he saw her. Her lifeforce was much weaker when she was on land, and she had two legs instead of one fish tail.

Her mana had once been so enormous that she could fill up the entire ocean, but right now, it would be difficult to even fill a small puddle. This was because she had been away from the waters for a long time. Her mana even looked like a different color compared to what Siren could remember.

“What on earth happened to you?”

“The king of humans desired to have a child with me. Perhaps he was wondering what kind of life would be born between us…”

She wasn’t even sure about that herself, yet the mermaid laughed bitterly.

The smile on her lips now was only a fragment of what she had to go through all this time, until she was moved to this place to gain two legs and a child.

This made Siren even more frustrated.

“Couldn’t you have returned after you gave birth to the child?”

“But look at this child. She’s human.”

“And what’s the problem with that?”

“If I go back to the waters, there would be no one left to take care of my child. The human world is much more dangerous than ours, Siren. I don’t want my child to be orphaned.”

“What about her father? You’re not the only one who created that child!”

“…Siren. Compared to truly losing one’s parents, the scariest thing is to live like an orphan even when the child’s parents are still there.”

This meant that if she were to leave, the child would be as much as an orphan, with or without her father.

“Is that even such a big deal? You’ll die if you stay. Do you not even think of your husband and other children in the sea who are crying for you?”

“Why wouldn’t I think of them?”

In the end, the mermaid’s voice grew sharp as she answered. And it was evident that this sharpened tone was not truly directed at Siren, but at herself.

“I’m already weak. Of course I can’t completely go back to the sea, and even if I do, I’ll die soon enough.”

The moment she received these legs, she felt that her fate had been sealed. She would never be able to return to the body she once had. No longer could she swim freely in the waters once more.

Still, she thought of returning to the sea. She had just been delaying it.

Until her child was born. Until her child could walk. Until her child could speak…

When she came to her senses, her child was already running around, and she was already about to die.

“…If I can’t go back completely anyway, I at least want to protect her, even a little. My husband and my other children will be fine without me, but not this little one.”

“That’s the child who made you like this. And yet—”

“But I’ve come to love her. My daughter, my Ophelia… Even the children I’ve left behind, I wish I could still embrace them all like this…”

Her voice trembled, and at last, she cried.

She could not go back to the sea and leave this child behind, and neither could she call the family she had left behind and bring them here to the land.

“If I die, this child will be thrown bare to the bedrock. That’s why Siren, please, I leave this child to you.”

“I will never come back to this revolting place ever again. And I have no intention to meddle in anyone’s affairs.”

“Then at least watch the child. Please protect her if she’s ever in danger. I’ve staked my own life to raise this child.”

“That’s too heavy of a price for another’s life.”

“Yes. Because in my stead, this child will be happy.”

As she said this, her voice trembled. No matter how much she was facing it, death still induced fear.

As her voice was tinged with various emotions, she remained silent for a long time. And in the end, she said just one final thing.

“Please take care of this child, Siren.”

This was her dying wish.

* * *

‘It must have been quite a while since then.’

As he lived as the magic tower, he eventually lost a clear grasp on the concept of time.

Every time he turned his eyes away, time flew by so fast that he wasn’t used to it anymore. This in itself was a fact.

This time again, while he briefly closed his eyes, the Merqueen’s human child grew up and appeared in front of him.

Red hair, blue eyes that contained embers within them. Everything about her resembled her mother, and this made Siren miss his old friend after a long time.

‘Your child grew up well, Amelia.’

As he spoke to himself, the magic tower closed his eyes.

His friend, the Merqueen Amelia, was right.

The child would be overflowing with so much happiness. Enough to make up for her life as well.

* * *

“…lia, Ophelia!”

“Are you awake?”

As she was being shaken with force, Ophelia woke up. Above her was a ceiling she didn’t know, two faces she could recognize.

“…Yennit? Cornelli?”

“Haa, still, I didn’t think that you’d lose consciousness… We were so surprised to find you here, collapsed on the ground.”

“What a huge relief. You don’t look like you got hurt anywhere.”

“I was already wondering how I should tell Lord Alejandro in case you lost your memories.”

The whispering sounds were unfamiliar to her. Surely she had been standing amidst a pink sea just a moment ago.

She also talked to the magic tower, and saw memories of the past that she had once forgotten.

And…

“Ophelia!”

Ophelia rose to her feet. Startled, Cornelli and Yennit’s eyes grew wide at this, however Ophelia had no time to notice this.

There was something she needed to check right away.

“You’re a patient, Ophelia!”

“You need to rest more!”

“I’m fine. I’m not hurt anywhere.”

“You fainted at the gauging room, but that’s what you’re saying? It’s the first time that someone collapsed in there!”

The gauging room.

Ophelia was in the middle of a scuffle while trying to walk past Yennit, but she stopped in place. She suddenly remembered what she had forgotten.

As she glanced back at the two young mages, there was an unreadable look in Ophelia’s blue eyes. It was a very different gaze compared to how she looked before she entered the gauging room.

“The results, have they come out?”

“…You’re even asking that right away.”

As if she was pondering about the current situation, Yennit narrowed her eyes.

“If we’re to put it in simple terms, it’s the best result ever.”

t/n: the magic tower’s pronouns were they/them before this chapter because it was all in Ophelia’s perspective—his gender wasn’t evident to her. But in this chapter, since it’s clearer now in his perspective, the pronouns used were he/him.