TMTML 06

Chapter 6

I had a dream.

I was carrying Mel, who was cold, and heading somewhere.

It was impossible with my own strength, but in the dream, I could do it.

We were standing on a snow-covered plain.

I thought the snowflakes settling on Mel’s wavy, midnight-sky-colored hair looked like stars.

Suddenly, I stopped and wondered.

I looked up at the pitch-black sky as snowflakes fell from it.

Where had we been heading?

The sea?

Or the aquarium?

Where had I been trying to take you because you were cold?

In the distance, I could see the sea I had never visited and had never actually seen with my own eyes.

It was a sea that existed somewhere beyond the forest behind the mansion if one crossed it all the way through, but to me, it was a landscape I had only ever seen in pictures.

After taking Mel in, I had read countless books about the sea where he had once lived.

On the other side, there was an aquarium.

It was the very aquarium Mel had arrived in.

But there was no water inside it.

I knew where I had to take Mel.

“Mel.”

I quietly called his name, but Mel didn’t open his eyes to look at me.

Could I live without you?

I gently kissed his forehead.

I entered the sea with Mel.

Except, I had overturned the aquarium, climbed inside it, and submerged myself in the sea.

As soon as we returned to the sea, Mel began swimming happily.

His face was filled with a lively smile I had never seen before.

His beautiful silver-blue tail swayed as Mel moved farther away from me.

“Mel. Look this way.”

My voice didn’t reach his ears.

I sank into the endless depths of the ocean while Mel swam closer to the shimmering surface.

We continued drifting farther apart.

Before long, the world around me was filled with pitch-black water where even sunlight could not reach.

And that was our farewell.

There was not enough oxygen inside the aquarium, and there was no one to pull me back toward the surface.

If this could really be the last moment between you and me, wouldn’t that be wonderful?

I smiled as I watched Mel grow farther away.

“To think I can go to the sea with you. It’s something I’ve dreamed of for so long.”

I followed Mel with my eyes.

“Isn’t it, Mel?”

When I opened my eyes, I was clutching a letter in my hand.

Because I had crushed it in my grip, the maid never got the chance to take the letter.

“Not yet. I can’t let you go yet.”

I wrote a new letter.

The weather wasn’t terribly cold yet.

I could write those things later.

Even though I painstakingly wrote another letter and handed it over, the news the maid brought back remained the same.

“He didn’t respond today either…”

I had expected it, but it seemed Mel truly hated me.

He had never once answered after hearing my letters.

Knowing how pathetic I must have looked, I still questioned the maid relentlessly about Mel.

“How did Mel react after hearing the letter?

Even if he didn’t say anything… his expression or something like that.”

“When I read your letters, His Highness the mermaid would only come close to the surface. He never comes out of the water, so I can’t see him very well… Sometimes he shows his face, but only for a moment.”

“I see…”

I didn’t know whether I should be sad that I couldn’t learn much about Mel’s reaction or happy that the maid hadn’t been able to see much of him.

As time passed, there were more and more days when I didn’t even have the strength to write a letter.

I was either unconscious or so sick that, when I was conscious, I could barely breathe.

“…There isn’t a letter today. Just check on him and come back to tell me how he is.”

And so, there were many days when the maid went to see the mermaid in my place and simply brought me news of his well-being without a letter.

“Miss, are you awake? I went to see the mermaid today.”

Whenever I was conscious enough to hear her, the maid told me how the mermaid was doing.

But I was rarely awake for long, so I only heard the news in fragments.

“Miss, the mermaid is doing well. At a glance, it seemed like all his wounds have healed.”

“That’s a relief. What did his expression look like?”

“He didn’t seem unhappy.”

The maid who went to see Mel every day brought me rather interesting news one day.

It had been nearly a week since I had last been able to write him a letter.

“Miss. Today, the mermaid asked about you for the first time. He asked when you were coming, and why you hadn’t been writing letters.”

I tried my best not to smile as I calmly asked,

“…Really?”

“Yes. And when the mermaid asked about your health, I told him that you were simply busy, as you instructed, but otherwise healthy. I also told him that you hadn’t been able to write because you didn’t have time.”

“Good. Keep telling him that from now on, and… tell him I miss him. Tell him I’ll be there soon.”

Perhaps my words about going soon had made her anxious.

The maid’s smile suddenly disappeared.

She didn’t answer either.

It was an impolite attitude, but I decided to understand.

Their livelihoods were at stake, after all. They might be worried that I would recklessly go outside.

She had worked for me for such a long time that I had intended to overlook it.

But she made it impossible.

Her complexion had turned cold.

“When?”

“What?”

“When are you going to see him?”

Perhaps because I was sick and my nerves were on edge, I wondered if I was simply interpreting her words as a challenge.

I raised my head and looked at the maid.

She was staring straight at me.

More precisely, she was glaring at me.

“I suppose this is what happens when I spend so long lying here, barely breathing because I’m sick.”

I sighed dramatically, as though lamenting the situation.

Then I tilted my head to the side and looked at her.

“I’ve spoiled you too much, haven’t I?”

The maid stood there blankly, seemingly unable to understand what I meant.

Then she came to her senses.

“I-I’m sorry, Miss! I was just… I was just anxious! Please forgive me…”

Belatedly, she fell to her knees and begged for forgiveness, trembling all over.

I looked down at her without expression.

“Quit your job and leave this mansion.”

“N-no! I must have gone mad!

I’ll do my job properly from now on. Please, just forgive me this once! I have so many younger siblings…”

“Leave.”

“Miss… Please. Please…”

I looked at the maid’s tear-streaked face as she lightly clutched my arm.

My heart began to soften.

After all, I had known her for quite a long time.

Until what happened today, she had worked well at the Duke of Noxirel’s household.

For example, even though she must have been desperate right now, she wasn’t gripping my arm tightly.

She had become so accustomed to taking my condition into consideration that even now, she couldn’t bring herself to hurt me.

“…I’ll overlook it this once.”

“Yes! Yes…! Of course. Thank you, Miss!”

Since she had done well until now, I decided to forgive her.

I wasn’t so heartless that I would cast someone out over a single mistake.

But it was a rather foolish decision.

If only I had known how to distinguish deliberate deception from an honest mistake before showing such mercy.

Afterward, the maid resumed doing her work properly.

If anything, she became excessively timid, constantly watching my expression.

“Miss, are you awake…?”

“Yes.”

“I see…”

Sometimes, seeing her like that made me wonder if I had been too harsh.

I even felt sorry for her.

She said she had many younger siblings.

Was it really too much to tell her to quit her job?

While I was thinking that, the maid continued telling me about Mel.

The story was no different from usual.

“I went to check on the mermaid today. His Highness the mermaid didn’t ask about anything…”

“I see.”

The maid had begun doing her work properly again.

But a problem arose for me.

She came faithfully to report on Mel every day, but I was often unconscious and unable to hear her.

“Miss, the mermaid asked about your health, so I told him what I always do.”

“Is she sleeping?”

“Can’t you tell? Be quiet and leave.”

I realized that the maid who had been assigned to my letters had come, but my body wouldn’t move.

Another maid, thinking that I was asleep, quietly scolded her.

“You’re not even reading a letter today, so go help out in the kitchen.”

“It’s true that Miss had you read letters to him, but she never told you to do nothing else.”

Despite the other maids’ words, the maid assigned to my letters said nothing.

At first, I thought it was because she had become timid.

But then I realized from what I heard afterward that she was simply ignoring them.

“Hey…! You’ve been really strange lately. You know that?”

Click.

The maids huffed angrily, but perhaps they were worried that they might wake me, so they didn’t say anything more and left.

But I could still sense someone beside me.

“…His Highness the mermaid…”

My hearing had already weakened because of my frequent fevers.

She spoke so quietly, almost mumbling, that I couldn’t hear her properly.

But her tone was so flat and monotonous that I assumed she was telling me, as usual, that Mel was doing well.

“His Highness the mermaid was so beautiful today, too. Isn’t it such a waste for only you to see him?”

“If Miss dies, will His Highness the mermaid become mine?”

“If I could have him, I think I could do anything.”

“Today, Mel asked when you were going to send him back to the sea.”

“I told him I would send him back after you died.”