The Mermaid's Scale
“……Huh?”
“That’s why! You’ve been acting so weird lately! I caught you red-handed, you bastard!”
My reasoning was flawless.
Since he had seen me when I was little, he still viewed me the same way I saw him—as a young child.
Still that tiny little girl!
That was why he was so desperate to protect me!
“How dare you!”
“What kind of ridiculous misunderstanding is this……”
“Then what is it! Why have you been staring at me like that lately!”
“Have I really been acting that strangely?”
“Yes!”
How dare he treat me like a little sister!
Of course I was younger than him and I did have older brothers, but still!
For some reason I couldn’t explain, the idea of Ash thinking of me that way was unbearably unpleasant.
“Tell me the truth! You’re seeing me as the same level as that little kid, aren’t you!”
“I’m not.”
“……You’re not?”
“You tend to have rather large misunderstandings……”
Then what was it? My brilliant deduction had missed the mark! That couldn’t be possible.
Ash shook his head firmly, and beside him Rai was also shaking his head in perfect sync. Their movements looked almost identical, though the meaning behind each was probably completely different.
[Ah, this is so embarrassing…….]
[What! So you’re not like that?]
[Of course not! To Ash, Master isn’t like a little sister!]
[She’s not?]
[She’s more like a ‘Master’! His owner! His lord! Just like me!]
Hmm, that actually made a lot of sense. I stroked my chin, recalling how hard I had been working Ash lately.
Had I accidentally awakened the sleeping servant blood within the prince?
Once I thought about it that way, everything made sense—how he had been following me around like a puppy these past few days, never taking his eyes off whatever I was doing.
I had thought he was just being annoying, but he simply couldn’t overcome his servant instincts and was trying to help.
Well, Ash did seem to have an excessively strong sense of self-sacrifice.
“Yeah, yeah. I see.”
“Jeanie? What are you nodding to yourself about……?”
“It’s nothing.”
“That makes me nervous for some reason.”
Could it be that my exceptional dominance didn’t just captivate spirits, but humans as well?
So that’s what Master of Demonic Charisma really meant. Everyone was just dying to be dominated by me.
[I can hear everything you’re thinking, you know? Your self-praise is getting a little excessive, Master.]
[Hey. Can you please respect my privacy?]
[Strong emotions come through whether I want them to or not! What am I supposed to do when your overconfidence is so blinding it actually stings?]
There was a saying that too much of anything was worse than not enough, but the privacy invasion I suffered was a special problem caused by the fact that Rai didn’t need to return to the spirit realm.
Other spirits didn’t stick around me twenty-four seven like he did, so they couldn’t read my thoughts this clearly.
[Master! I’m back!]
“There you are! My cute, kind, competent, and most precious spirit who will return to the spirit realm and protect my alone time—Undine.”
[I don’t know why you’re being like this again, but I brought everything you asked for.]
Everything?
[There were so many things floating in the sea. So I brought anything that looked even remotely similar!]
With a loud clatter, Undine poured out a bundle of various odds and ends wrapped in water right in front of me.
Dozens of damp objects, each one a small, faintly shiny item about the size of a coin. There were even a few actual rusted coins mixed in.
To think so much junk was drifting around in the ocean. It made me worry about environmental pollution at the strangest of times.
I crouched down on the deck and began rummaging through the unidentified objects.
“This is one half of an earring, a broken glass bottle…… I have no idea what this is. Not this either…… What even is this?”
Among them were pretty seashells with colorful patterns and large fish scales.
It was the young girl who spotted her brooch with hawk-like eyes amid the chaotic pile that even included seaweed stalks. She recognized her own item and quickly snatched it up.
“This is it! My brooch!”
Having seen far too many real treasures, the item looked rather plain to my eyes, but I knew that the degree of preciousness didn’t always match its monetary value.
“Is that the one? Good.”
“Thank you! To both you, big sister, and that blue fairy.”
“This is Undine.”
“Can I be friends with Undine?”
How pure.
She wanted to be friends with a fairy. I looked into the girl’s bright, innocent eyes and nodded positively.
“No.”
“Ah, I can’t?”
“Between you two lies an insurmountable dimensional wall. It’s even bigger than the wall between species.”
“……Dimensional? What’s that?”
“And even though Undine looks like this, she’s almost forty……”
“Jeanie.”
Just as I was seriously teasing the little girl, Ash tapped my shoulder as if to tell me to stop.
Then he picked out a fish scale from the pile of junk and pressed it firmly into my hand.
“You should keep this instead of throwing it away.”
“Why? It smells fishy.”
“……It’s a mermaid’s scale.”
“This?”
“Yes. I’ve seen the same thing before.”
I had sensed water energy from it, but I had simply assumed it was from the sea or from Undine.
Only then did I lift the scale and examine it closely. It shimmered with iridescent colors like mother-of-pearl, about the size of a child’s palm, with the most vivid shades of soft green and blue.
“I didn’t know. First time seeing one.”
When I held it up to the sunlight, I realized how much more beautiful those mysterious colors must look underwater.
“They say carrying it on your person prevents motion sickness.”
“That’s amazing?”
“I believe naval officers carry them often. I’ve also heard they’re traded at quite high prices.”
For a scale, it was surprisingly sturdy yet slightly flexible, so it seemed perfectly suitable to be made into jewelry.
“I didn’t know because I don’t ride ships that often. I wonder if it would work on warp sickness too?”
“I’m not sure. They say mermaids never get seasick even in the strongest storms thanks to these scales…… so maybe it only works against the swaying of water? I doubt it’s that universally effective.”
“Really? We can’t exactly test it by taking a warp……”
To me, that was on the same level as risking my life.
When the gods created me, they must have poured in far too much talent as a Spirit Master, beauty, and personality, then gone “Oops!” and given me warp sickness as a trial. That was how bad it was.
Anyway, it seemed like the perfect thing to turn into a necklace and carry around, so I carefully tucked the scale into my pocket for now.
“You’re lucky, Jeanie. Finding a mermaid’s scale in the middle of the ocean. Or rather, salvaging one would be the right word.”
“Yeah. Even I get confused sometimes. Am I lucky or unlucky?”
“You’re lucky. And see? Good deeds come back to you somehow, don’t they?”
“Hmph.”
When I openly sneered at him, Ash looked rather hurt.
But even so, I had no intention of feeling any sense of fulfillment from doing good deeds.
Everyone has their true nature, Ash. And mine was universally acknowledged as being the self-serving type.
The most precious thing in the world is me. This body! That is the one and only truth!
“Lil! What are you doing over there!”
“Oppa! Mom!”
“We’ve been looking for you forever!”
Two people came running across the deck calling for the girl. From the situation, one was clearly her older brother and the other her mother.
“……Hey! You said that was your mom’s keepsake!”
“Huh? It’s Grandma’s keepsake that Mom gave me? If I lost this, Mom would’ve killed me. I would’ve gotten my back smacked so hard.”
Damn it, so those tears were from fear of getting scolded?
I thought they were tears of sorrow from losing her mother’s memento!
“Um…… who are you two?”
While I was trembling with rage, the woman who appeared to be the mother hugged the little girl and looked up at me warily.
She was the one who let her child wander around alone, yet she was treating us with suspicion!
“Mom! This big sister found my brooch for me! I dropped it in the sea……”
“Lil! I told you to keep it safe!”
“I wanted to show it where the mermaids come out……”
“Oh my goodness, how would a necklace see a mermaid? No, this won’t do. Give it back to Mommy.”
“Lil, you idiot! Do you know how long Mom and I have been searching?!”
Now I understood. This kid had been a lost child. But it seemed she herself hadn’t realized she was lost.
Ash watched with an apologetic expression as the little girl got thoroughly scolded by her brother and mother, while I observed the bickering siblings with a lukewarm gaze.
“What did I do! I’m all grown up, you know!”
“Don’t make me laugh! You’re always causing nothing but worry!”
“No I’m not! You don’t know anything, oppa!”
That was when the thought of my own brothers suddenly crossed my mind—because they would have searched for me with the same desperate fervor if I had been missing somewhere.
When I was little, they said I would wander off to strange places the moment I learned to walk.
My brothers were always the ones who found me, and I would disappear again and again, making them cry every single time. And even now, we were still doing the same thing.
I wonder if those idiots are still out there looking for me?
The rumor that I’m alive needs to spread quickly so they can hear it and go home…… I suppose I should hope that news of my survival reaches them faster than finding a dragon.
I should send a telegram to Drike telling him to spread the rumor more aggressively.
After spending about three seconds thinking about my blood relatives out of courtesy, my mind immediately shifted to the fact that I was hungry.
“Our daughter caused you trouble. Thank you so much, both of you.”
“Let’s go, Lil! Dad is practically crying while looking for you!”
“I should get going. Thank you, big sister!”
I had assumed it was a single mother household with a sad story, but they turned out to be an ordinary, harmonious family.
After they left, I crossed my arms and turned to Ash. I felt strangely cheated.
“What was it again? You said we had to find it because it was her mother’s keepsake?”
“……”
“You have a mouth. Why don’t you say something?”
“The fact that you did a good deed hasn’t changed.”
“What? You dared to make me do a good deed.”
Since he stayed still even when I grabbed his cheeks and stretched them, I pulled both sides at once.
Ash was like a well-behaved dog. His cheeks weren’t so much squishy as they were firm and springy, perfect for kneading.
“You bastard. Hurry up and apologize.”
“Shoggy?”
“Yes! I don’t know what you did wrong, but just do it!”
“Shorry……”
[Master’s personality is so trash…….]
If I had to name the crime, it would be the sin of daring to tempt me onto the path of good deeds in an attempt to reform me.