Chapter 6.
'The only ones able to do such a thing are...' I trailed off in my head, a wave of cold dread washing over me.
'The Royal family of each merfolk tribe. Only those with ancestral lines dating back to the ancient days possess blood potent enough to accomplish such a feat.'
I tried to recall the details of the webnovel, my mind racing through the chapters I had once mocked.
Royal merfolk were supposed to be legendary, creatures of myth even within this world.
The Empire of Leones, where the protagonist originated, hadn't seen a single one in over a century.
Only later in the story did the protagonist encounter one, and that was during the brutal, sudden war between the Shark Merfolk and the Empire.
'Wait...' A memory clicked into place right then and there. 'Didn't the Shark Merfolk tribe go to war because they discovered a Princess of theirs had been killed by a Leones citizen?'
My eyes widened in disbelief, and I slowly turned my gaze toward the woman sitting before me.
'Don't tell me... she's that supposed princess?' The thought caused my heart to tremble in disbelief.
If she was the catalyst for a world-ending war, then my situation wasn't just a personal disaster... It was no different from a ticking time bomb.
But, then again, whether I ended up being killed by her now or after her death, I'd basically die either way.
' .... I'm starting to wonder whether I stood up lady luck in the past at this point.'
******
"Hmm? What's the matter?" She raised a brow, her voice cutting my internal monologue short.
"You've been staring at me with a look of utter idiocy for quite some time."
"O-Oh, it's nothing, Mistress," I stammered, my webbed hands twitching nervously. "I just... I recalled something from my past, is all. It was but a momentary lapse in focus, hahaha!"
I tried to mask my shock with a light laugh, but the sound was thin and brittle, echoing awkwardly against the piles of bones surrounding us.
"Does my servant dare lie to his mistress?" Her expression shifted instantly, her brow furrowing into a frown that made the temperature in the cave seem to drop.
"Of course not, Mistress—"
"Then out with it. What were you thinking of just now?" She spoke coldly.
Facing that frosty stare, I gulped, the salt-heavy air sticking in my throat. I let out a fake cough, desperately trying to knit a plausible lie together.
"Forgive me, Mistress, but I just thought... well, wouldn't it be unnatural for the both of us to share the same nest? Now that I am, for all intents and purposes, a merfolk as well..." I let the sentence hang, hoping I sounded like a concerned subordinate rather than a panicked prisoner.
"What do you mean by that?" Her head tilted, the predatory curiosity returning to her gaze.
"I mean, would your family be alright with a male sharing your quarters?" I tried to make my voice sound as humble and considerate as possible.
"Perhaps it would be for the best if I created a separate nest for myself nearby... to preserve your honor, of course."
In truth, my heart was racing with hope. If I could just get a few yards of rock and water between us, I might finally have the breathing room to plan an escape.
'Hehehe, as a princess, she's sure to agree,' I thought, feeling a spark of triumph. 'What royal would risk her reputation for a common servant? If I get even a little distance, I can disappear into the deep.'
"Is that all?" she asked, her tone shifting from curiosity to flat annoyance.
"P-Pardon?" I muttered, the wind knocked out of my sails.
"Well, unfortunately for you, I have no such family," she said matter-of-factly, waving her hand dismissively.
"Which reminds me, as your new mistress, I'll have to show you around the area, won't I?"
'She doesn't have a family?! Then how the hell was she able to turn me?' My brain felt like it was short-circuiting.
"B-But, your image, Mistress!" I blurted out, my voice rising in a pitch of desperation. "What if others see us and think—"
"Who cares if anyone knows?" She stared at me as if I were a particularly slow-witted crab.
"They can think all they want. In fact, that would be a good thing. Maybe then those idiots will finally see that I don't need a single one of them..."
For a fleeting second, the sharp, arrogant edge of her voice softened, and I heard a faint, hollow hint of loneliness.
It was the sound of someone who had been cast out long ago. But I was too busy mourning my failed escape plan to offer any sympathy.
'Did I just dig my own grave?' I slumped slightly, my new tail swishing dejectedly against the wet stone.
"Why the downcast look? Were you really that eager to part from your mistress so soon?" Her voice carried a sudden, dangerous edge of amusement that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
"Of course not, Mistress!" I forced a cheeky, subservient smile onto my face, hoping she couldn't see the terror behind it.
"As your humble servant, I was merely worried for your sake, is all. I only want what's best for your reputation!"
She merely chuckled at that, a sound that was both beautiful and terrifying, but she offered no further explanation.
'F*CK, what is going on here?' I felt a surge of vexation. 'Wait, just because she says she has no family doesn't mean she isn't the princess.
She could be a bastard child, or maybe she was lost at birth. The blood doesn't lie; only a royal could have changed me.'
But if she didn't know she was royalty, how did she know her blood would work? Had she done this to someone else before? The mountain of skeletons behind me suggested she usually just ate her guests.
Yet now I was wondering whether she ate one person she managed to turn in the past.
'Sigh... well, it looks like I won't be getting away tonight. But that doesn't mean I never will.' I took a deep breath, trying to steady my nerves.
"Alright," she said, standing up with effortless grace, her human legs looking perfectly normal despite the monster hiding within.
"Since I can't eat you anymore, I need to find something else to fill my stomach. You'll be coming with me to help find a suitable replacement."
"What?!" My eyes widened. The thought of hunting in the open ocean with a shark-woman was not on my bucket list.
"Is there a problem?" She narrowed her eyes, her hand twitching toward the water.
"N-No... none at all, Mistress," I said, my voice barely a whisper. "I just thought... well, looking for a human now would take a long time since we're so far out at sea, wouldn't it?"
"And who said anything about catching a human?" Her frosty expression thawed into a genuine, dark laugh.
"But you said..." I trailed off, completely lost.
"Make no mistake, finding you out there was a stroke of incredible luck. It's not that easy to find a lone human this far out into the sea.
I normally don't get the chance to taste your kind at all. That was why I was so happy when I found you. But here we are." She shrugged, her scales shimmering as she turned toward the pool.
"Umm... Mistress, if we aren't going after humans, then what exactly are we going to hunt?"
"Enough with the questions. Follow me, and you'll know eventually," she commanded.
With a single motion, she leaped into the pool.
A faint, shimmering light emerged on the water's surface as she submerged.
A moment later, her head and shoulders popped back up, her wet pink hair clinging to her shoulders.
"Well? Are you planning on making me wait all day?" she asked, her serrated teeth glinting in the light thanks to the bioluminescent rocky outcrops at the top of the cave.