Do You Happen to Know a Mermaid?
Do You Happen to Know a Mermaid?
Mermaids.
Guardians of the sea, protectors of all creatures that dwell within it.
In the oldest legends, they were the ones who helped raise the first emperor to his throne, aided the empire in conquering the continent, and even stood against the Demon King himself.
But now, they had vanished without a trace.
Ever since they disappeared—for reasons no one could say—they existed only in stories.
A race that kept watch over the far oceans, holding back the deep-sea monstrosities that no one was even certain still existed.
Gerard did not believe they were gone.
"They exist. I'm sure of it."
Mermaids were real.
His gut told him so.
The problem was, no one could simply walk into the ocean to go find them.
The empire's technology had advanced by leaps and bounds, but all of that was on dry land. The deep sea was still an unknown frontier.
Humans could not breathe underwater.
They couldn't survive there, much less operate freely.
And the deep was home to monsters against which resistance was meaningless.
That was precisely why the empire couldn't send its ships into the open sea. Not that it had ever been a pressing inconvenience. The continent was vast, and even without the ocean, there were plenty of resources and enemies on land to keep everyone occupied.
Which was exactly why Gerard saw the sea as a treasure vault.
An unexplored world.
An entire realm of the unknown.
Who knows how many islands lie out there? For that matter, there could be another continent entirely, not just this one.
He refused to accept that the world was limited to the single landmass the empire now controlled.
Islands beyond counting, a new continent waiting across the sea.
Just the words alone made his heart race.
This was why Gerard was so relentlessly searching for mermaids.
If the old tales were true—that the mermaids had driven back the leviathans of the deep—then they were the only ones who could. The sole key to crossing the oceans.
A race that could move through the sea as easily as humans walked on land.
Unfortunately, Britten Territory had yielded no useful leads.
Which meant he would have to go to the coastal villages where the sightings had supposedly occurred.
"But something keeps nagging at me."
He found his attention constantly drifting back to the small restaurant before him.
A place where the Saintess herself had allegedly dined.
Yielding to the strange pull, Gerard made his way toward the establishment.
Worth looking into.
He stepped inside.
Perhaps because it was not yet opening time, the place was quiet.
Seated at a table were a man who looked to be the owner, a group of laborers so well-built they didn't quite pass for ordinary farmers, a woman with sea-blue hair, and an elf.
That woman.
The one who had been pricking at Gerard's instincts.
So she was here again today.
They were all eating variations of the same dish.
Unfamiliar noodles, vegetables, and meat coated in a vivid red sauce.
The elf and a few of the knights were eating theirs alongside strips of seared bulgogi, grabbing the meat and noodles together and slurping them up in one go.
"I'm telling you, it's better with the meat! These sauced ribs are the ultimate pairing with naengmyeon!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about. The raw fish naengmyeon with fresh fish sliced right in is clearly superior."
"Hmph. I pity you for not understanding the glory of meat."
"That's my line."
The elf and the blue-haired woman were squared off, their auras crackling.
The hostility in their mutual glare sent a chill through Gerard's body even though he had nothing to do with the argument.
Beside them, a dark-haired man with red eyes ate his noodles in silence before offering a diplomatic comment.
"This naengmyeon is quite excellent. On a hot day, I could see myself reaching for this more often than gukbap. Although, personally, on a not-so-hot day, I still prefer a steaming bowl of gukbap—"
"Shut up, you."
"Sir Knight, stay out of this!"
"Urk."
The two women shut him down instantly.
The man who appeared to be the owner was watching their argument with a placid smile.
The atmosphere was, to put it mildly, intense.
I might have walked into the wrong place, Gerard thought.
But if he didn't ask now, he might never get another chance. Steeling himself, he addressed the two combatants who looked ready to breathe fire.
"Pardon the intrusion. I came here hoping to ask a few—"
Every eye in the room snapped to Gerard.
The instant he met the baleful gazes of the blue-haired woman and the still-simmering elf, Gerard backpedaled a step before he knew it.
What kind of look is that...?
That elf's eyes felt oddly familiar.
They reminded him of the elf he'd met in the Winter Mountains.
No, that can't be right.
The elf from ten years ago had been leaner, harder, all corded muscle.
This one, on the other hand...
Her chest, her hips, her thighs—they were remarkably generous for an elf.
"Can I help you? I don't believe we've met."
The owner's question snapped Gerard out of his thoughts.
"Ah, yes. My name is Gerard. I'm an explorer. There's something I wished to ask about."
That was when it happened.
"Gerard!"
The moment they heard his name, the strapping men who had been eating next to the owner shot to their feet and shouted.
"You're the explorer Gerard?"
"The one who's written all those accounts of journeying through the uncharted hinterlands!"
"We heard you've even discovered ancient relics!"
Heimer, Hamilton, and Briar had all risen at almost the exact same moment.
The knights' reaction puffed up Gerard's shoulders in spite of himself, though the owner and the two women clearly had no idea who he was.
"He's that big a deal?"
"Absolutely! It's thanks to the mountain routes he blazed that the empire was able to establish strategic footholds in the Winter Mountains."
"Oho."
"Ahem, ahem. That ascent remains the single most memorable undertaking of my entire career."
Even now, a decade later, Gerard's name was still synonymous with the Winter Mountains throughout the empire.
Once he proved that humans could conquer those peaks, countless others had followed.
It was one of the achievements Gerard held closest to his heart—a leap toward a new world.
"The snowman meat there was quite good."
The elf, Andrea, murmured the words almost to herself as she listened.
"Snowman meat? You've eaten snowman?"
"Yes. It's tough to eat—the meat has a distinct gaminess and it's terribly chewy—but it's edible enough. When you're in the barren north with nothing but snow around you, you make do."
"Is that so?"
"They're called snowmen, but they're closer to bears. Monsters with no capacity for communication whatsoever."
Andrea spoke while bundling meat and noodles together into her mouth, and Gerard found himself staring at her without meaning to.
"You said you've eaten snowman?"
"...Yeah."
Her tone made it clear she had no interest in further conversation.
"When exactly was that?"
"Why should I have to tell you?"
A response as chilly as the winds that swept the Winter Mountains.
The moment Gerard heard it, a jolt of recognition struck him. That voice. He'd heard a voice very much like it before.
That frostbitten expression, the tone that pushed everyone away.
"When I was exploring the Winter Mountains ten years ago, an elf saved my life. Could it be...?"
Andrea fixed Gerard with a gelid stare.
"You really don't remember me?"
"Ah. The vermin."
"V-vermin?"
"The type who can't recognize their own limits, who let ambition swell bigger than sense, and then go charging into reckless challenges. A man who throws his life away. I wondered when you'd get yourself killed. Still alive, are you?"
"You've... changed your look rather a lot."
The voice that cut like a blade, sharp and contemptuous.
That was it.
It was that elf.
"What are you doing in a place like this...?"
"A place like this? And what exactly is wrong with this restaurant?"
"No, no—I didn't mean it that way. It's just... an elf who struck me as a wandering hunter seems far too... cozy here for a workplace."
Gerard rushed to explain himself to the owner, Lucas.
"It is cozy here," Andrea said, nodding in agreement with Gerard's words.
"I was grateful back then. You saved my life."
She offered no reply.
As if she intended to erase that past entirely.
Lucas addressed Gerard, who was awkwardly scratching at his face.
"You mentioned you had something to ask?"
"Ah, yes. I came because I heard rumors that a mermaid had been sighted in this territory."
"A mermaid?"
"Indeed. Do you happen to know anything?"
Perhaps it was because he was still distracted by his unexpected reunion with the elf from long ago.
Preoccupied as he was with Andrea, Gerard failed to notice the way Michelle's body flinched—a sharp, startled tremor—where she sat across from Andrea, eating her raw fish naengmyeon.
***
"Mermaids?"
I'd heard the legends.
The novel never brought them directly into the story, but it did mention them as creatures of myth, beings whose treasures were said to be worth staggering fortunes.
"Have you ever seen one, by any chance?"
At Gerard's question, I shook my head.
"I've only heard the stories."
I didn't think mermaids were pure fantasy.
Earth in the 21st century, maybe. But in a world overflowing with magic, crammed full of elves, gnomes, dwarves, beastkin, and every other race under the sun, it made no sense for mermaids with fish tails to be the one thing that didn't exist.
We've even got horses with horns on their heads.
If unicorns were real, why not mermaids?
What I did know was that they never came out of the water anymore.
Mermaid tears fetched exorbitant prices. Mermaid scales were worked into extravagant ornaments. And mermaids themselves were all too frequently captured and sold as decorative slaves.
After the death of the first emperor—the one who had vigorously protected them—the escalating conflicts with humanity eventually drove the mermaids to abandon the continent and disappear.
And so they became a race that existed in this world and yet, for all practical purposes, did not exist.
That, at least, was how I understood it.
"In any case, I am searching for them. The legends say mermaids have gleaming tails, faces of stunning beauty, and voices so sweet they sing enchanting songs. What's more..."
Gerard's fervor kindled as he went on.
"I've also heard that they are the ones who drive back the great sea-beasts of the open ocean. If only I could secure their aid, discovering a new continent would not be a difficult task at all!"
His eyes shining like a boy's, Gerard practically bounced on his heels.
New expeditions. A new continent.
The man was drunk on the very idea.
Unfortunately for Gerard, I knew nothing about mermaids.
"Sadly, we don't know anything."
"Hmm, is that so?"
"Afraid so. The rumors around here tend to be more phantom than fact."
"Hnn. My apologies, then. I let my eagerness to ask get the better of me. I've imposed on your meal."
Gerard dipped his head, let out a heavy sigh, and rose from his seat.
"Enjoy the rest of your food, then."
Gerard departed.
I turned my gaze to Michelle, who sat across from me trembling like a leaf.
"Miss Michelle, is something the matter?"
"Wh-what? No, no. It's nothing."
She kept her head bowed, mouth clamped shut, chewing at her lips.
What do I do? What do I do?
She couldn't hold still, restless with anxiety and agitation.
"You don't look well."
"Ah, I'm fine. Ha-ha-ha."
I had watched her face grow paler and paler every time Gerard pressed on with his talk about mermaids.
"Ahem. So, um, Mr. Lucas—what do you think about mermaids?"
Michelle lowered her voice and whispered to me.
"You mean mermaids?"
"Yes."
"I'm not sure. I just know them as creatures of legend."
"Then, hypothetically—what if mermaids weren't just a legend? What if they really existed? How would you feel about that?"
"...I'd find it fascinating?"
"Only that? You wouldn't want to... catch one and keep it as an ornament? Or enslave one? Or dissect one? You wouldn't do any of those things?"
What a horrifying list.
"Why would I do any of that? We've got an elf sitting right here, and dwarves in the world too. They're just a little unusual. Aside from that, they're no different from humans."
"...Is that so."
Was Miss Michelle connected to the mermaids somehow?
My gaze drifted, almost on its own, to the shell-shaped ornament in her hair.
