TMTML 03

Chapter 3

Splash!

Mel entered the lake.

I watched him with satisfaction.

I thought that soon, Mel would rise to the surface, smile, and thank me.

But what is he doing?

The moment his body touched the lake, however, Mel swiftly moved his tail and plunged deeper into the water.

It happened in an instant.

His fluttering dark navy curls disappeared into the lake without a trace.

“……Mel?”

I murmured blankly.

The servants around me looked flustered.

I calmly asked, slowly.

“Mel? What are you trying to do?”

“Young Lady! You mustn’t go into the lake!”

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to do something that stupid.”

I waved away the servants’ concerns and slowly leaned forward, bringing my face closer to the lake.

The sight beneath the rippling surface gradually came into view.

The water was as clear as glass, so I had no trouble seeing Mel.

Mel was swimming frantically.

He darted busily from one place to another.

It hardly looked as though he were exploring his new home.

When Mel’s eyes met mine, his expression looked as though he were about to scream, and he moved even more desperately.

But his graceful swimming through the vast lake lasted only a moment.

Mel’s body suddenly stiffened, and he began thrashing.

“Ghk, k-keugh……………… Aaaaaaah!”

Mel clutched his own throat and writhed in agony.

His desperate scream was loud enough to reach us outside the lake, and the servants panicked.

“W-What’s happening, Young Lady?”

“Young Lady?”

“Haha…………….”

I covered my mouth with one hand, barely suppressing my laughter.

The servant who noticed that I was laughing stared at me uneasily.

“How cute. Did you mistake the lake for the sea?”

I gazed lovingly at the mermaid struggling underwater.

Even his suffering was adorable to me.

My unfiltered thoughts slipped quietly from my lips.

“If the water in this lake were connected to the sea and tasted salty, do you really think I would have let you go here?”

“Y-Young Lady…… Is it really all right to leave him like this?”

The servants fidgeted anxiously as they listened to Mel’s screams.

I looked at them coldly.

“Mind your own business when it comes to my mermaid.”

“Ghk! Cough!”

At that moment, after struggling desperately while clutching his throat for what felt like an eternity, Mel finally managed to rise to the surface.

His trembling body emerged slightly above the water.

“Cough! Cough! Kekh!”

The thought that he was breathing the same air as me, and that if I reached out my hand, his skin could touch mine, filled me with happiness.

I immediately put on the most sympathetic expression I could manage as I looked at Mel.

But Mel’s gaze fixed on me was anything but ordinary.

I smiled faintly as though I knew nothing and asked him,

“Mel? Why are you looking at me like that?”

Mel glared at me with bloodshot eyes.

Even through his pain, his face twisted with rage as he shouted at me.

“What did you do to me?!”

“What are you talking about?”

“What the hell did you do to the water? Cough! Hngh!!”

Mel, who was suddenly breathing air rather than water, was in agony.

His previously bloodless face had become flushed from all the coughing.

He was so beautiful that it stirred something sadistic inside me.

I admired the sight for a moment before slowly opening my mouth, pretending not to know what had happened.

“………………Ah. You were surprised because the water is freshwater?”

“Fresh………………water? What is that?”

“It means water without salt. Unlike the sea, this water isn’t salty.”

I dipped my finger into the lake and brought it to the mermaid’s lips.

“What are you………………doing—”

“Stay still.”

“Mm!”

I slipped my finger through his slightly parted lips and touched Mel’s tongue.

It was soft and cold.

Before Mel could come to his senses and close his mouth, I gently withdrew my finger, letting it brush lightly over his teeth as well.

His neat, tiny teeth were as cute as white pebbles.

“It tastes different from saltwater, doesn’t it?”

I smiled faintly and stroked Mel’s cheek with the back of my hand.

Even then, Mel simply stared up at me with a dazed expression.

Mel’s skin was cold and soft to the touch.

It was definitely different from glass.

How long had I yearned to feel that texture?

Taking advantage of the opportunity, I carefully ran my fingers over the ends of Mel’s dark navy curls as well.

“Ah…… ngh, hngh……………….”

Unable even to push my hand away, Mel could only let his tears fall.

This foolish, gentle mermaid couldn’t even think to scratch me.

He could only cry.

“……Don’t cry. You can’t reach the sea from here, but this is a much larger new home. You just need to get used to it.”

“If you really think you can’t live here, do you want to go back into the tank? I’ll fill it with the seawater you’re accustomed to.”

Despite my sincere attempt to comfort him, Mel looked at me with nothing but resentment.

But his gaze was far too weak to make another person feel afraid.

I secretly hoped Mel would say he wanted to return to the tank.

But even though he couldn’t speak because he was crying, Mel shook his head.

Seeing that, I smiled crookedly.

“You prefer this place to being by my side, even if it hurts?”

“You were crying because you were in so much pain, yet I suppose this is still better than living with me. Haha.”

A hollow laugh escaped me.

But soon, I decided to think positively.

If he was willing to stay in the lake, then perhaps living in freshwater wasn’t unbearable for him after all.

Suppressing my disappointment so that it wouldn’t show, I said goodbye.

“I’ll come every day. Even if you get bored, just put up with it.”

“……Don’t come.”

“See you tomorrow.”

I decided to give him some time to adjust to his new home alone.

I was considerate, after all.

I left Mel alone and turned around, heading back toward the mansion with the servants.

I could hear a faint cry behind me that sounded like the sound of the sea, but I didn’t turn around.

At the time, I didn’t realize it, but it was deliberate avoidance.

Because once I started comforting you, I didn’t know how far I would let myself be swayed by you.

I promised him.

What am I going to do?

I had promised that I would come see him today, but when I opened my eyes that morning, my condition was alarming.

My fever had risen so high that I felt as though my brain were dancing inside my skull, accompanied by a horrific headache.

“Ugh, haaah…………….”

It was probably because I had been exposed to the cold wind for so long the day before.

“Young Lady! Please wake up!”

Through my blurred vision, I could see the maids rushing about frantically.

Someone hurriedly placed a wet cloth on my forehead, while someone else went to call the doctor.

Ever since Mel had entered this house, I had been so absorbed in him that I had forgotten my pain for a while.

My body was pathetically weak.

“Servain! What is the meaning of this? Why has my daughter’s condition worsened?!”

My father rushed into my room and demanded answers from the servants.

The servants glanced nervously at me.

Because of the splitting pain in my head, I couldn’t stop them from speaking.

“To tell you the truth……………… yesterday, the Young Lady went outside to release the mermaid into the lake.”

“What?”

My father’s expression turned cold.

The servants trembled in fear.

They hurriedly fell to their knees and begged for forgiveness.

“W-We’re sorry!”

“………………It isn’t the servants’ fault.”

At my barely audible words, my father immediately turned toward me.

The servants looked at me with expressions of relief, as though they had just been spared.

“And…….”

It isn’t the mermaid’s fault either.

I wanted to say that too.

But consciousness left me first.

My breath was unbearably hot.

My entire body was burning and aching as though I had fallen straight into hell.

Perhaps this was punishment from the sea.

When I opened my eyes again, two whole days had passed.

“Young Lady…… Young Lady……………….”

The maids looked relieved when they saw me awaken, and some even wiped away their tears.

If I died, they would likely be in danger as well, so they must have suffered terribly while watching over me.

“Perhaps I shouldn’t have let him go.”

I looked at the empty tank in the room.

The fact that I couldn’t see Mel the moment I opened my eyes made me regret letting him go to the lake a little.

Because I had been unconscious for two days, my vision was still hazy, and sounds seemed to reach me from far away.

But I immediately climbed out of bed.

“Ugh.”

My legs suddenly gave out, and I nearly collapsed, but I endured through sheer willpower.

“………………I have to go.”

Mel would be waiting for me.

I was late, but I had to go now.

Just as I was about to prepare to leave, the maids hurriedly stopped me.

“You can’t, Young Lady.”

“I’ll only go to the lake for a moment and come back. I’ll wear warm clothes.”

“No………………. You really can’t, Young Lady.”

The maids anxiously tried to dissuade me again and again.

But they could only stop me with words.

My body was so fragile that even the slightest touch could make me stagger, and ironically, because of that, the maids couldn’t even lay a hand on me.

Unable to decide what else to do, the maids could only stamp their feet helplessly.

So, out of consideration for them, I suggested another solution.

“I’ll let you carry me. Then it’ll be fine.”

“……L-Let’s go somewhere else instead. If you’re feeling restless, why don’t we go to the garden?”

One of the maids forced an awkward smile onto her anxious face.

It was strange.

The garden was allowed, but the forest wasn’t?

I realized that the reason they were preventing me from going outside wasn’t solely because of my health.

At that moment, a thought flashed through my mind.

The only thing in that lake is my mermaid.

“……What are you doing to my mermaid right now?”