Chapter 68
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 68
From the moment she was born, she was recognized by the sea.
Aria, the mermaid heir to the deep sea, had always been curious about the world beneath the sun—a realm she had neither the duty nor the authority to rule. And there, she met a human.
“Now, Aria. Look at this cross-section. Human skin has layers.”
“Is it different from a mermaid’s skin?”
“Quite different. A mermaid’s skin can withstand the pressures of the deep sea, after all.”
He was her teacher.
“What are you painting right now?”
“I was painting you, Aria.”
“But this is a painting of the sea.”
“The sea is the mermaid, and the mermaid is the sea.”
He was her friend.
“Understanding humans is well and good, but empathizing with them isn’t a bad idea either.”
“I doubt there is any difference.”
“Simple empathy can achieve far more than mere understanding.”
“…”
He was her family.
Giovanni was the only being who stood on equal footing with Aria, perhaps even higher. He was different from her younger brother, Iser, whom she had to protect and care for.
With Giovanni, Aria could share intriguing conversations. No matter what she did, Giovanni could handle her.
They were like perfectly interlocking gears.
“Aria.”
“Yes.”
“Please do not harm humans.”
She had thought of him that way—as her perfect counterpart.
“Why should I do that?”
“Because I don’t want you to.”
“How selfish of you.”
“Aria, what has this foolish priest always told you?”
“That a relationship is about being considerate and adjusting to one another.”
“I’m glad you remember.”
Aria believed she and Giovanni were gears that would never slip, but Giovanni didn’t think so. He was always wary of the hatred that could arise between their kinds.
“I am human, and you are a mermaid, Aria. Our ways of thinking and expressing ourselves are different, yet we were able to become this close. Until now, you have conceded many things to me, and you received corresponding compensation in return.”
“So you want me to do the same this time?”
“If you truly dislike it, fighting and defeating me is also an option. I prefer resolving our differences through dialogue rather than conflict, but you might prefer a more straightforward method.”
“Gio, I do not wish to fight you. So, I will yield.”
“It’s a wonderful thing, to be able to disagree without hating each other. Now then, shall we have your favorite grilled clams for dinner tonight?”
It was pleasant.
“Is this the human way? It’s quite troublesome.”
“Not all humans are like this. As I always say, humans are far more diverse and fickle than mermaids. If you wish to interact with other humans later…”
“I have no desire to interact with such vulgar creatures.”
“I see.”
Being with him was delightful.
It was a rare feeling, one she could never find among her own kind.
“I wish you would become a mermaid.”
“Regrettably, when I die, I will return to the sun’s side. That is my wish.”
“Well, humans do get cold easily. The sun’s side must be warmer than the deep sea. I’ll grant you that.”
“Thank you for understanding.”
Then, Gio.
“…”
“…”
When I went out of my way to let you go, you should have returned to the sun’s side.
“…S-Sister…”
“What happened to Giovanni?”
She had barely managed to rescue her younger brother, who had been dragged to a temple for helping humans, and had destroyed every single temple on the surface in the process. Yet, for some reason, she couldn’t find even a single fragment of Giovanni’s bones.
Her brother, regaining his senses after nearly a year, couldn’t even cry as he answered.
“I ate him.”
Her brother was smiling.
“I was hungry, so I ate him. The humans poured some kind of drug into that cramped water tank…”
“…”
“…The rest of his corpse probably rotted and dissolved in the water. Though I ate most of it.”
“Ah.”
Perhaps because she had already braced herself for the worst imaginable outcome, she wasn’t all that shocked.
Gio always worried that I would be hurt after his death, but I’m not as shaken as he thought I’d be.
She was quite calm.
“I see.”
Yet, she couldn’t stop searching for the last remaining trace of Gio, even if it was just the water he had dissolved into. She slaughtered every human in sight, endlessly searching for his corpse.
And finally, in the residence of the Pope, who received the greatest love from the sun, she found Gio.
“…”
He had become water.
“…It smells strongly of fish.”
It was like looking at seawater.
“Shall we clean it up, Princess?”
“No, leave it be.”
“But…”
“If we just leave it, it will eventually flow into the sea.”
Just how long, and with what, had they locked his corpse away? When they opened the large divine statue that had been used as a torture device, his body, melted into a thick sludge like seaweed sap, oozed out.
Not a trace of a human form remained.
“…”
No, it wasn’t even the shape of a living creature anymore.
“But the sea is far from here.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
She would simply drag the sea up to the land.
“So…”
Deep enough to submerge the sun.
“…”
Staring at the corpse that had turned to water.
“…”
Once she was left alone, Aria whispered.
“…I thought that when you died, it would be from natural causes, due to the limitations of your race.”
“…”
“Humans have shorter lifespans than mermaids. You age quickly and spoil easily. So, I thought that if we were to eventually part… it would be because your value had faded.”
“…”
“Whether your noble character was clouded by greed, or your weak body withered from disease, or you overcame all those trials to die peacefully and return to the sun’s side. Those were the only farewells I ever imagined. I had fully understood and accepted that.”
“…”
“Why did you have to die like this? Your value had not faded in the slightest, yet you were beaten to death by blind, ravenous ghouls who couldn’t see despite having eyes… only to end up scattered not in the sun, but in the deep sea.”
“…”
“To be able to hate someone so casually… humans are truly creatures worth studying.”
She couldn’t help but ask.
“Do you not hate humans?”
The mermaid hated humans.
Since the vast emptiness she felt facing their farewell stemmed from his mortality, she had never expected the end of this story to be so ridiculous and miserable.
“It must be cold down there.”
You should have gone to the sun’s side, you fool.
“You didn’t win against anyone.”
You died trying to protect a mermaid, and now you must shiver in the cold even in death.
Your value was not something to be torn down by a stupid racial conflict like this.
You shouldn’t have been barred from reaching the sun’s side, left with nothing but becoming a mere part of the sea.
“…”
Her younger brother, the only mermaid who defended humans, had shut his mouth.
“Ah…”
Giovanni, the only human who embraced mermaids, had lost his mouth.
“…That’s right.”
“…”
“Now, there is no one left to stop me.”
It was a great pity.
“…”
“…”
“Hey.”
Can’t you feel my sincerity?
* * *
“…Mr. Gio, you’re a good cook, too.”
Seo Gio smiled at Iser’s carefully chosen words.
“I’m glad you think so.”
“Are you particularly skilled in seafood dishes?”
“I’m generally good at everything.”
“Where did you learn this recipe?”
“Well, I just…”
Platinum-blonde hair, almost silver, caught his eye.
“I just wanted to try eating it this way.”
“I see.”
He saw blue eyes that resembled the surface of the water scattering sunlight.
“It’s just grilled over a campfire, but it’s so delicious that I had to ask.”
“If that’s the case, feel free to ask anytime.”
“Because sharing what you know is a joyful thing?”
“…Student Eun-ha, is mind-reading one of your skills?”
“I just had a feeling you’d say that.”
Because Giovanni, too, had always lived with those words on his lips.
As expected, he’s a little…
No, a lot.
He resembles him far too much.
At this point, the excuses he’d manufactured—telling himself this was just ‘someone who looked quite similar’—were no longer working.
I can’t keep acting like this.
He was fully aware that he was behaving foolishly. When the human named Yoo Seong-un cast a look that asked, Are you really okay like this? he felt too pathetic to even muster the words to call him insolent.
“Mr. Gio, where is your hometown?”
“I don’t know if you’d know it, but it was a very rural place.”
“The countryside…”
“I used to do some farming from time to time.”
“I see.”
He was also identical in how strangely easygoing he was for a priest of noble birth.
Ah, this won’t do…
He had lost the energy to play tricks.
Seeing how the atmosphere of the entire dungeon has lightened, Sister must be flustered as well. If even she is flustered, there’s no way I can remain unaffected. This whole affair wasn’t supposed to drag on this long… At this rate, leaving Earth as quickly as possible…
That would be the way to regain his former calm rationality.
“…”
But.
Was that really okay?
Is it truly right for us to leave, leaving only Gio behind in this dimension?
He had traveled through countless dimensions, but there had never been anyone he could be so certain of at a single glance—someone who made him think, Ah, this person is definitely Giovanni. Yet, no matter how much he thought about it, this man truly seemed to be Giovanni’s reincarnation.
But why does he possess divinity? Unless some Sun God from another dimension played a trick… No, but… a being on the level of a Sun God wouldn’t bother caring about what happens to humans.
It was a thoroughly confusing situation, but one thing was certain.
“…What do you plan to do after this?”
He had to get these people out quickly.
Looking at the situation, it’s going to be difficult to hold onto only Gio. It’s better to just send them all out together, consult with Sister to organize our thoughts, and then draw up a new plan. It won’t be too late.
It was Yoo Seong-un who answered that question.
“First, we have to find a way out.”
“A way out…”
“Usually, in cases like this, the methods are divided into three.”
Yoo Seong-un, who had roughly filled his stomach with fish, continued.
“The most standard way is, of course, successfully clearing the dungeon. But we don’t have that many hunters, and above all, we’re in a situation with a ton of civilians who will die the moment we look away. Even without people to protect, a clear would be difficult, so there’s no way we can resolve this with our current numbers.”
“Then what about the other methods?”
“We could use items that allow us to leave the dungeon, like Return Stones, but that’s not a very wise choice either. Looking around, this doesn’t seem like a dungeon where low-grade items would work… and even if they did, how many items would we even have? Only a few of us would barely manage to escape.”
“That’s true.”
“The last method is, of course…”
Yoo Seong-un’s gaze landed on Eun-ha—Iser—who was still smiling faintly.
“…”
“…”
Their brief eye contact broke, and Yoo Seong-un continued.
“The dungeon owner opening the gate themselves.”
Iser clicked his tongue inwardly.
Did he read my mind?
No, even before mind-reading came into play, it might have just been too obvious a conclusion.
To both the mermaids and the humans, Giovanni’s existence was far too unexpected. Since it was confusing for both sides, it seemed they wanted to regroup first and clash again later.
A C-Rank Hunter, who had been quietly listening to Yoo Seong-un, asked anxiously, “W-Will that really work? If this happened at the Temple of the Sun, the dungeon owner must have planned this deliberately… and there are so many people captured. It must be a very powerful owner.”
“It’s not entirely impossible,” Kang Seo-dam replied in the low, calm tone characteristic of a priest. “There is a saying that a dungeon is like a theater stage. The higher the rank of the dungeon, the more closely it is intertwined with its owner, and the challengers can examine the owner’s story in greater detail.”
“Uh… why is that…?”
“In short, if you follow the story well, sometimes the gate will open by luck. Stories of civilians escaping a dungeon because the owner was moved by the challenger’s dedication after learning the dungeon’s story aren’t mere rumors.”
“Heavens, I thought those were just tabloid stories…”
“It actually happens from time to time. Especially when the owner is intelligent enough to be a humanoid monster, the possibility of escaping that way increases. For a dungeon of this scale, the owner is bound to be close to humanoid.”
Yoo Seong-un chimed in at that point.
“We’re already seeing similar signs. Right after we were dragged into the dungeon, there were quite a few casualties, but look at us now. Even though we’ve openly lit a campfire and are eating, no monsters are attacking.”
“Indeed, for a dungeon where so many challengers have entered, it is showing a strangely stable state. It likely means there has been a change of heart in the owner who caused this incident. It feels as though they are going very easy on us.”
“Considering that, in our situation, the third option has the highest probability of success. If we play our cards right, they might just open the gate for us.”
“I have similar expectations.”
Ah, is that so?
“…”
Iser decided to just keep his mouth shut.
How annoying.
Their skill in conversing while pretending not to know his identity was top-notch.
Yoo Seong-un has already spoken to me directly, but Priest Kang Seo-dam must know my identity as well. Since I had no intention of hiding it and openly released the energy of the deep sea... I can’t exactly pretend to be an ordinary human child at this point.
Iser turned to look at Gio.
“I hope it works out either way. The fish here is delicious, but…”
“…”
“I really want to go home.”
At that, Iser asked, “What is your home like, Mr. Gio?”
“Ah, it’s just an ordinary cabin.”
“A cabin.”
“A cabin in a secluded forest.”
“…”
What a fitting home for you.
...Hearing him say that...
He couldn’t just keep him trapped here.
Iser decided to release the humans caught in the net.
“…”
After all, he could always capture them again.
Iser knew the greed of humans toward mermaids.
* * *
The people who had been dragged into the unrated virtual dungeon returned alive.
The survival rate reached eighty percent of the total, and everyone unanimously praised it as a miracle.
“I suppose this is a miracle in its own way.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Gio, stay just like that.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Yes… just like that.”
Yoo Seong-un shuddered at the efficacy of ‘Gio’s Portrait’.