North x Northwest

‘Whenever a slave is freed, the slave can decide whether to head to Panichi, return to their hometown or serve in the League. They’re free to go anywhere. But in this case…’

“Who else knows?”

“It’s just me.”

“Then who opened the lid?”

“…I looked around and found it. It’s similar to the last Garni merchant ship, so I wondered if there would be any structures like that here as well.”

Lil closed the tank lid and stood up. Still perplexed, she returned her gaze to Cesar, without a single thought on her mind. Cesar’s expression was the same as hers. This felt similar to the time they discovered the powers of the red jewel. The two stood around the tank in silence, attempting to understand this implausible reality. Lil made the most of what she knew.

“Its skin is really glowing.”

“Yes.”

“How could that be possible?”

“…”

“Uhh… And mermaids are an ancient specie. They’re not capable of magic, are they?”

“If that were the case, it shouldn’t have been caught.”

After Cesar’s words, she realised her own ignorance. Lil walked past him and opened the door.

“We need to see Jacques Poussin.”

Not forgetting to search the captain’s office first, they went up to the captain’s room and read Jacques Poussin’s journals and books.

‘If one looks closely, one can tell that this merchant ship was looking for a mermaid. I would’ve laughed it off if I hadn’t seen the mermaid first, but the evidence is very much alive. This wasn’t an accidental capture either, it was archived by executing a detailed plan.’

Before long, two sailors brought the imprisoned Poussin and tossed him to the floor. Lil sat on top of the desk and adjusted her hat.

When no questions came, Jacques Poussin opened his mouth first.

“P… please spare me. I did it to survive. It’s been three days since we lost our way on sea and ran out of drinking water. Please understand…”

“The course of merchant ships is set. It’s been years since the Garni association cleared the southern route, and it’s been years since a Garni ship lost its way. So, what’s your real purpose?”

“Well, there’s no such thing…”

“I heard that this ship has no loot. Where’s your cargo from the South?”

“We lost it even before you got here…”

Lil tossed the journal she had been playing with. A booklet with a thin leather cover fell in front of Jacques Poussin’s knees, causing his face to turn white upon seeing it.

“Captain Poussin, do you think I’m asking you this because I don’t know? I’ve already checked your journal. What were you guys looking for in the southeast? You’ve been wandering around the region knowing that the wind is weak and the tide is quiet.”

“..!”

“What were you looking for? What is Mireille up to?”

“Hey, there’s nothing like that… Ohh! Water, please… Give me some water. I think I’m going to die…”

“Well. Do you only want to dampen your throat?”

“Yes… yes?”

“If you’re the only one to survive, you won’t be able to sail…besides, you aren’t even a real sailor in the first place.”

“..!”

Lil tossed the graduation plaque from the Imperial Clairaut displayed on Poussin’s desk. With a dull sound, the bronze plaque landed on the journal and continued to roll over to the floor.

“You came from the Imperial Clairaut. So, did you just blindly believe in science over experience?”

Jacques Poussin’s parched lips trembled endlessly. Each time his lips bumped into each other, the chapped skin on his lips crumbled.

‘He does look like someone suffering from a terrible thirst… This ship has food left, we could give them just enough water to keep them from dying.’

“My goodness… The duke’s idea of putting a scholar in charge of a ship is brilliant, how could he not have anticipated chaos? There must have been some sailors who tried to stop your genius idea of sending signals with sunlight, but you have completely ignored what they said and this is the result. How are you going to plan the rest of your voyage alone now?”

“If you give me one… No, if you give me two bottles of drinking water, I’ll give you a gold bar!”

“What bullshit. Your gold bars are already mine now. Besides, you seem to have forgotten something, you tried to kill us. So, what’s the use of doing charity? If you were going to buy our water with gold, you should have asked for a deal. Why did you attack?”

“That’s…”

“Shall I guess? Perhaps you did such a foolish thing because you were terrified of a leak, or because you were afraid that some outsider would get on this ship and while looking around to set a price for drinking water, discovers what you’ve been hiding, and steals your merits.”

“Please… mercy…”

“Oh, how annoying. I’m merciful, don’t you see me sitting here and talking? Else, you’d been publicly executed already. What were you so afraid of? What great achievements have you made?”

“My son has just been born… but I haven’t seen his face yet…”

The pleading Poussin soon dropped his head and began to cry. The sobbing from his dry vocal cords sounded terrible. When Lil got off the desk and walked in front of him, Poussin started to stagger like a dried branch and screamed in fear. His limbs were tied, so even if he made a move, there was no threat. Lil squatted in front of him and looked into his tearless eyes. Blue and lifeless. When their eyes met, Jacques Poussin inhaled a deep breath.

“I’m going to tell you one last time, so calm down.”

“..?”contemporary romance

Only then did he finally closed his mouth, but he couldn’t prevent his tightly pressed lips from trembling. He was holding on to his last bit of sanity, probably ignited by a personal desire. Lil thought it fortunate that the guy had still this much left.

“Let me make a suggestion. We’re tight on supplies ourselves, and our schedule has been delayed due to this battle. It has not rained these days, so we don’t have a single drop of water to give you either. Instead, I’ll tell you the location of this uninhabited island nearby. There, you’ll find a spring you can use. That area hasn’t been touched in forever, so I can’t estimate how much drinking water it has left. You should be able to arrive in a little over half a day. Hope is not far away.”

“So, wh… wha… what do you want from me?”

“I’ve been asking you what I need to know since a while ago.”

“..!”

Jacques Poussin stared down as Lil flicked through the pages of his journal one by one. She came to a halt in front of an image of a mermaid and pointed at it with her index finger.

“Tell me about your and the Duke’s intentions.”

“…”

Lil then stood up as Jacques Poussin raised his head to look up at her, his bound hands covering his mouth.

“You may not receive any honour for it, but at least you will be able to see your child’s face…”

***

The sun began to set.

‘The fact that it’s getting dark soon creates a great opportunity to avoid unwanted attention… I can’t say anything to anyone.’

Lil scratched her face as she looked up at the reddish sky.

Everything had been revealed by Jacques Poussin. He did, however, concede that he had no idea how to get the mermaid out. To capture it, they used a large dose of the blue powder anaesthetic, which was incredibly effective against the mermaid’s early rebellion. They then fastened a metal ball to its lifeless body and threw it into the tank. Although Lil threatened Poussin with a hole in Marian’s stern if he couldn’t think of another means to liberate the mermaid, Lil herself couldn’t come up with a solution. While she was pondering over this, she went to visit the water tank twice more. She tried to talk to it, but all she got back was growing anger and hatred. Lil wrapped her head and shoved her nose into Jacques Poussin’s desk.

“…What do we do?…”

Cesar, who was sitting on the bed, answered.

“If you shell the stern, the ship will sink. You wouldn’t do that, would you?”

“Um… Of course not.”

“…”

“…We can’t pump the seawater out of the tank, and it makes no sense to use the blue powder again if we can’t reach it on the bottom… ahhhh… what should I do?..”

“…”

‘I don’t know what to do…’

It seemed like she had gone over it a hundred times. Lil rummaged through the book next to her, closing and opening it over and over again. She couldn’t ask the Black Whale crew. The announcement that they would release the merchant ship they just seized was already causing too great of a backlash. Lil only managed to calm them down by using supplies and deadlines as an excuse.

‘Would they lift a finger to release a mermaid, who is sure to become the talk of the town? There will be a ship revolt. So, it must be done quietly. I was thinking of asking Alain or Jericho for help if I needed extra pairs of hands. I don’t want to even think about what Marenzio would say knowing he’s always believed in the existence of mermaids. But, before I even ask for help, shouldn’t I come up with a plan first?’

“I’m going crazy.”

A sigh came out.

‘In the first place, the appearance of a mermaid is enough to be completely overwhelmed by, but I never thought I would need to help one escape.’

Lil ran through her messy thoughts. Although she thought only about how to release it, she couldn’t overcome her unbearable curiosity, and a question popped up out of nowhere.

‘Even though they lived in a windless area, how could they not be discovered for thousands of years? No, have they been existing there ever since?’

Then, an answer also came to mind.

‘After all, mermaids are said to be the children of the Mother of All Things. Ed claimed that the mother loved humanity and landed them on the main continent because she couldn’t bear the thought of her own children becoming extinct. When you think about it, the existence of a species known as mermaids is not that absurd… No, could it even be called natural? Should I ask Ed?’

– – – – –

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