Chapter 49
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 49
Chapter Title: Deep Sea and Dark Sky
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“Even so, since you're from the sea folk, if you'd behaved yourself, we wouldn't have hurt you!”
All of this was something this pathetic nymph had brought upon herself.
It was the moment Orion let out a roar and reached out with a hand larger than her head to seize Nesneria's snow-white neck.
“Don't touch me.”
“What?”
In a voice so cold it was hard to believe it came from the same nymph who'd been acting like a child just moments ago, she spat those words.
Nesneria took a step back before lunging straight into his embrace.
And then.
-Whoosh!
“Huh?”
For some reason, as the snow-white shadow danced into his arms, Orion suddenly felt his body lift into the air.
His legs flailing in empty space. The ground somehow now above his head.
And in that split second, a glimpse of a pebble embedded in the earth falling toward his head.
“What the...”
-Crunch!
Before Orion could even scream, a pain like a meteor crashing down exploded through his skull.
“?!!”
It was a picture-perfect suplex.
The full force of his forward-leaning legs and the weight of his massive frame had turned into pure destruction hammering his head.
Lightning-like agony shot from his skull straight through his neck bones and spine. His limbs spasmed uncontrollably as they thrashed.
In the midst of it all, a pair of coldly gleaming blue eyes looked down at him rolling grotesquely on the ground.
“Impressive, right? Dianes told me. It's a martial art where even a little kid can take down a giant.”
“What'd he call it again... uh... fireman's carry? Suplex?”
A flawless counter straight out of the pankration matches at the Olympian Games.
But as Orion ground his teeth at the fact that this dainty nymph had pulled it off on him...
“Y-You...!”
“Got it? There's only one man allowed to touch my body.”
“Wh-What...?”
She crouched by his head, chin resting on her hand as she peered down at him. Those blue eyes still sparkled with innocence.
But the innocence they reflected wasn't kindness or joy—it was pure cruelty.
“What's that smell? It's not flowing, not crashing, just rotting pathetically like stagnant water? You thought you'd rub that on me? Dianes would hate it.”
Nesneria wrinkled her nose in disgust and covered it with her hand.
Orion glared up at her, writhing in agony but grinding his teeth at the unprecedented insult.
“Sh-Shut your mouth! Don't compare me to that mongrel bastard who doesn't even know his own bloodline?!”
“What?”
Nesneria blinked in confusion. Had she heard that right?
What was this idiot even saying?
“Dianes, what do you mean by that? Are you saying Lady Nesneria will get blood on her hands?”
“What? Blood?”
Puhaha!
I couldn't hold back the laughter.
Were all the heroes of this Greek land blind or something?
Acting like the idea of a nymph killing a hero was some earth-shattering revelation.
“Heracles, remember that ki technique that burrowed into you during our morning spar?”
“Ugh... It wasn't a joke. Take a look at this.”
Heracles hiked up his tunic, revealing bandages still tightly wrapped around his chest, soaked in medicinal salve.
“Speaking of which, what the hell was that anyway? Magic?”
“You Greeks lump anything beyond punches and sword strikes as 'magic.'”
I knew a fair bit about magic myself.
The mages and alchemists from Europe beyond the Western Regions I'd met in the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
I'd had chances to learn from them.
Magic and martial arts were fundamentally different.
“Magic twists the flow to manifest according to one's will.”
Magic dams rivers, builds levees, raises barriers to control and manipulate the flow.
“Ki arts make the flow bend to one's will and run as desired.”
Ki arts carve new channels, create fresh currents, and achieve one's goals within those flows.
“Now, here's the question.”
Brooks and springs, rivers.
And the source of all waters they all reach.
The oldest flow, the embodiment of the greatest origin—what if she had awakened to the method of adjusting flows to fulfill her own will?
-....
The four of us gathered here had witnessed it firsthand.
The small gesture I'd used moments ago to leave the young great hero the gods had sent on the brink of death.
They knew that if I'd been a bit crueler, Heracles—who I'd allowed that one strike against me—might not even be here.
But what if that feat was recreated by another hand? A delicate nymph's hand, no less?
I could guess the picture they were imagining.
Which was why I had to wet my parched throat with repeated gulps of wine before continuing.
“To her, flows are just everyday life. Ocean currents, river streams. Even the blood flowing through a human body.”
“...No way. You mean...?”
Asclepius, who'd learned about qi and meridians from me, seemed to grasp what I meant.
“Yeah, a nymph? Just a nymph? That pitiful, beautiful nymph?”
Hahaha...
I could only let out a dry chuckle.
“An eternal embodiment of the sea who can see, hear, and perfectly replicate all my flows just by listening to my heartbeat?”
The snow-white wave that first made me shiver at mysteries beyond my perception when I arrived in this world.
The innocent fairy who taught me what it means to be human again—I cherished her.
Yet whenever that white wave enveloped me, blushing as she pressed against my heartbeat and met my eyes, I glimpsed the pitch-black deep sea churning beneath.
“Purity, innocence. Yes, Nesneria. That beautiful nymph is innocent. Like a clear spring, like a white wave.”
But that purity could be more cruel and merciless than any malice.
Like a tsunami sweeping away all things without distinguishing good or evil.
Like an earthquake devouring heaven and earth without thought of karma.
“And her pure will doesn't tolerate malice approaching without her permission.”
And the end of malice that doesn't receive permission...
No one here except me could even imagine it.
Finally understanding my words, the trio excluding Heracles exchanged tense glances with stiff expressions.
“Th-Then shouldn't we hurry and stop her, even if for a different reason?”
“Stop her? Why?”
I tilted my head at Jason's stammering absurdity.
“No! Even if it's scum like Orion and his gang, someone might die...”
Ah. So Jason, for all his rough talk, had a soft heart deep down.
But I shook my head and forced him—who was trying to stand—back into his seat.
“Ack!? Wh-What strength... More importantly, why?”
“Shut up and sit. Unless you want to get swallowed up in their place.”
“Dianes is right. Let the fools pay their own price for their folly.”
“Heracles! You too?!”
They say fire leaves ashes in its wake, but water leaves nothing.
Jason was basically saying we should run off to save the idiots swept away after ignoring a tsunami warning.
If I went, I could probably rein in Neri even if she went berserk, but the problem was I couldn't be bothered.
“Neri needs a change of pace sometimes too.”
I picked up a sizzling meat skewer from the grill and dipped it lightly in white yogurt sauce before taking a bite.
The savory fat, chewy texture, and spicy spices harmonized perfectly with the tangy sauce.
“Grilled just right, huh? Once Nesneria brings back some mushrooms, we can skewer 'em together. It'll be amazing.”
“Mm, delicious. But you can forget about those mushrooms from Neri.”
“What're you talking about?”
What else?
For Neri, foraging was just a game of collecting fun, pretty things.
“Lucky if we don't end up touring the River Styx after eating them.”
Let's see.
If I put fresh meat on now, it'd be perfectly done by the time Neri got back, right?
Imagining Neri munching happily on a skewer, I smiled contentedly and started grilling more meat with Heracles.
Nereid nymphs.
Those who sing all the world's ocean currents, born of the pure waters that first quenched all life.
If they listened, the streams flowing through earth and forest whispered songs to them.
They would press their ears to a beloved's chest and blush at the warm blood pulsing through his heart.
From the abyss where even Apollo's sunlight couldn't reach, to the shores where white waves crashed—they traversed light and darkness freely.
That was why she knew.
Dianes.
The black gem deeply embedded in her heart was an existence incomparable to this vile demigod who'd incurred sister Amphitrite's wrath.
The first time they met.
When she'd reached out to his hair, black as the moonless sky that night.
Nereid nymph Nesneria knew.
The currents swirling in his blood ran deeper than the deep sea's flows.
The scent rising from his body was richer than the deepest moonlit night's fragrance.
His heart was a gem risen from depths not of this land.
His soul was a gift from a distant place beyond this night.
In this vast Greece, the secret she alone cherished—his secret, one even he didn't know.
If that old half-demon hadn't pulled him from Pasos, Nesneria would have hoarded his secret, monopolizing his time all to herself.
As years passed and time flowed, as his flesh ripened then withered into her arms, Nesneria would have descended with him into the deep sea.
The abyss currents would strip away that cumbersome body, and she—as his snow-white bride—would embrace the pure, beautiful him she'd glimpsed in his heartbeat.
“In the end, even the darkest night sky sinks beneath the sea.”
That was what sister Amphitrite had said.
You couldn't hold a man by binding him tight.
A human body was but a fleeting moment compared to their time—ultimately, the sunken black night would return to her embrace.
Letting him enjoy this world a little was courtesy to eternal lovers, she'd claimed.
“Yet you, who inherited even half the sea's eyes, can't see it because of your own filth.”
Poor thing.
Pity or mockery—it was impossible to tell from her tone—as the snow-white nymph finished speaking and rose, interest apparently lost.
“She's still acting cocky!”
“Nymphs should just lie there quietly and sing!”
“She's using weird magic! Hekateris, bind her!”
“Ah, got it!”
As their leader went down in an instant, the gang snapped out of their shock and lunged at her.
The son of some minor god tried manipulating vines to bind her.
Unarmed as if they hadn't planned to actually fight a nymph, the three thugs charged bare-handed.
One hand reached to defile her snow-white locks.
Another sought her soft neck.
But the sea's daughter had no intention of allowing any of it.
Even sisters of the thousand-fold waves embracing vast oceans wouldn't deign to accept such ugliness into their crests.
“Dianes... did it like this, right?”
Tap, tap, tap.
A light, ephemeral sound like water droplets bouncing.
The sound of her snow-white fingers brushing past the hands lunging to violate her.
“Huh?”
“Wh-What's happening?”
“Ugh... Aaaagh!”
Have you seen water droplets dancing merrily in a deep ballroom set atop flames?
From springs and rivers, reaching the blaze, they rise slowly into the air, bubbling and singing lightly.
Nesneria loved watching water droplets dance over flames with Dianes.
And as much as that impossible moment, she adored Dianes' dance embracing the flows of all things.
“So I combined something fun with something I love.”
Like this!
The snow-white nymph burst into innocent laughter.
The three beasts surrounding her clutched their bubbling, boiling arms like scalding oil and began to dance with screams as accompaniment.
“Aaaagh! Hot, so hot!!”
“S-Spare me! I was wrong!”
“Gaaah! Kiii...”
The water's dance, sparked by contact with her snow-white fingers, soon spread through their entire bodies.
Intense agony as if all their blood had turned to boiling oil.
Surpassing the limits of flesh, the three sinners forgot even to scream, collapsing and flopping like deflated swine on the ground.
Orion, still unable to rise from the shock ravaging his body, and the mage trembling in forgotten terror, forgetting to even cast spells—could only stare blankly at their gang's demise.
And amid the frenzy, only the snow-white nymph's chatter echoed.
“What was it...? Dianes worked hard preparing something like Hekate-sister's alchemists...”
What was it?
Nesneria tilted her head innocently, as if she couldn't recall.
But her eyes soon sparkled, and she clapped with a giggle.
“Oh yeah! Fireworks, he called it!”
As if her claps were the signal, cheerful explosions rang out inside the mage's barrier meant to hide their misdeeds.