Chapter 150
Chapter 150
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: Swim
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I'd impregnated two women. To think I'd be repeating such an awkward sentence to myself.
Despite having barely any dating experience, let alone marriage, I'd already fathered two children since coming here.
I placed my hand on Aria's belly near her navel, quietly sensing what lay within. Nothing could be felt yet, but surely the fetal movements would come soon enough.
"...Yeah, it's a good thing."
That didn't mean I could frown. I didn't want to show the overwhelming burden weighing on me.
Aria was genuinely delighted by the presence of the child nestled in her womb. It was undoubtedly thanks to this small, precious life that she could endure my absences and the jealousy toward the other women.
"What's there for you to be happy about, Joo-ho? It's a child that came from my own stubbornness anyway."
But on the other hand,
Aria hadn't yet sorted out her feelings about me and the child.
I'd already deceived her multiple times and run away from her. That clearly showed I had no desire to stay by her side.
Aria knew that full well. She understood that I was a being with my own will, one who couldn't stay by her side forever.
However, with a child on the way, things had grown complicated. The option of running away had faded into near obscurity.
So Aria felt a sense of relief that I wouldn't leave, while a corner of her heart harbored another thought.
'Joo-ho must hate me and the baby.'
When we'd been trapped in the mermaids' cave,
Aria had tried to chew through my ankle.
But in truth, if she hadn't intervened, the other mermaids might have severed my legs long before. Instead, Aria had persuaded Granny to let me keep both my legs intact.
Back then, Aria had been a woman with a pure smile—one befitting the mythical [mermaid] from human legends. A beautiful, innocent smile...
But I'd ultimately abandoned her, and it felt like everything had gone wrong from that point on.
I was the one who'd made her this way. I'd turned her into a tough, nagging mermaid who bit her nails incessantly from the void I left behind.
"Hey, Joo-ho... I'm really awful, aren't I?"
Aria, who'd been backed into such a corner, spoke to me while barely holding back her tears.
"Hehe, but it's okay. You'll come see me at least once in a while from now on, right?"
We sat side by side on the lakeshore, feeling the unusually sluggish flow of time. The more serious our conversation became, the more her emotions seeped into her voice, slowing everything to a crawl.
"Actually, when you went to the desert, I thought you'd left for good."
Meeting Aria's eyes was painful. I turned my gaze to the lake's surface rippling in the breeze, but even there, her bitter smile reflected back at me.
"I don't really know what was on your mind when you came back. But with this child... you'll definitely come see me again. Yeah. You will. You're so foolishly kind—you even came back to me after I nearly killed you. So how could you leave the baby behind? I win. Joo-ho, you're my husband now. Hehe."
No,
I couldn't see it anymore.
Aria covered her face with both palms and finally let the tears fall.
She hadn't hesitated to use violence and threats to claim me,
but in truth, she wasn't cruel or wicked enough to endure all of this.
"Hate me if you want. I get it. But please... don't hate our child."
Even with her face fully covered, her voice brimmed with sobs.
No matter how strong the women of this world were said to be, the emotional maelstrom sweeping through Aria's inner world was far too much for her to bear.
"No... don't hate me either. Please... just don't hate me. I'm begging you..."
Her weary shoulders trembled. I couldn't even begin to imagine the thoughts and emotions that had tormented her during the month I'd been away in the desert.
Perhaps she'd viewed our last time together as a farewell.
And if she'd gotten pregnant from it,
maybe she'd planned to raise the child alone, resigned to the fact that I would never return?
"I kept thinking about it while you were gone... I don't think I can go on without you anymore. Really..."
At first, that might have been the case.
But she'd realized it eventually, even if too late.
"I won't ask for anything else. Just... don't hate me and our baby..."
Her sobbing shoulders looked so small and forlorn that, before I knew it, I pulled her into a tight embrace to comfort her.
Once, she'd been stronger than me,
pushing me through life-and-death ordeals.
But in the end, she was just one woman.
She had a tail of scales in place of legs and unique organs that let her breathe underwater, but in this moment, as I looked at her, she was unmistakably a woman lost in love.
Tormented by it,
yet craving it all the same.
It's no wonder humans gave this heavy, beautiful phenomenon the name [love]. A complex, subtle emotion clearly distinct from mere animal instinct...
It was time for me to take our relationship more seriously. As I'd thought in the desert, I probably couldn't leave these women behind after all.
"I won't hate you. So don't cry."
Aria's body, still cold from the lake water where I'd hugged her tight, began transmitting her warm body heat into mine.
"Let's figure out a way to live together from now on. Or... for today, let's just rest."
I gently stroked her beautifully cascading hair,
carefully sharing my own warmth with her trembling, tearful form.
Mermaids couldn't come onto land. If they left the water and set foot on soil, they'd plummet straight to the bottom of the food chain, threatened by everything around them.
But conversely, inside the water, they reigned at the very top. Nearly all other creatures faced movement restrictions when submerged, leaving them no chance against mermaids.
"I've thought this before, but you swim so prettily, Joo-ho."
"Yeah?"
Thus, the mermaid race became endlessly at ease in the water. Aria watched my profile with a notably softened smile.
"Not scared of the water?"
"Nah. I was terrible at other sports, but swimming? I was pretty good. Thanks to that, I could study more while the other kids floundered around."
Curiously, she loved listening to my stories. Whenever I spoke, Aria's eyes sparkled from the side, brimming with curiosity and delight.
"That... biology stuff you mentioned?"
"Yeah... sort of. To even study biology, I had to memorize all sorts of random trivia first."
"Sounds no fun. Why'd they do that? Just let people do what they like."
"Tell me about it."
This personality trait must have been influenced by their ecology as well. They preferred settling in one place, so they reacted especially keenly to the tales brought by males.
"But you must've been the best. Right? You picked up our language in just a few days. You're super smart!"
"Nah. There were tons of people better than me back then."
"No way. Really?"
Even so, if we lived together in an underwater cave, all conversation topics would run dry in a few short years...
"Nope. You're the best, Joo-ho. A child like you would definitely be just as smart and cute."
Aria's sparkling eyes overflowed with unending curiosity and sweet affection.
She didn't have Arachne's thirst for knowledge or pursuit of strength. She simply wanted to know every last thing about the one she loved.
"Gotta build a bigger, cozier home before our pretty baby arrives. Right?"
"Mm, yeah. But what about the other sisters? You planning to live completely separate?"
"Hehe, dummy. You know we head to the sea once we have a child. Why pretend you don't?"
Aria mentioned the sea.
But the word "sea" didn't conjure images of a new home with her in my mind. Instead, a flood of sea-related memories erupted simultaneously.
I recalled the beautiful sandy beach I'd walked along with my parents, stepping on sand and waves between them.
And then,
the Paradise Ship, crashed and wrecked somewhere along the coastline. Inside lay countless corpses and scorched laboratories. Yet around it, a few survivors still thrashed desperately to stay alive.
"...Yeah, the sea sounds nice."
I briefly kissed Aria's forehead, sweeping away all the other scenes.
Only then did a beautiful sunset and a modest wooden house appear before my eyes.
But she wasn't the only one beside it.
Countless silhouettes and shadows stretched out in the twilight.
Yet Aria, unfazed,
gazed only at me, smiling as she used the coastal waves for her blanket.