TMTML 07

Chapter 7

At some point, the maid began coming to me only when my consciousness was half-submerged in sleep to tell me how the mermaid was doing.

Since most of my days were spent in that state, I could barely understand what she was saying.

“Today… haha! And then…”

Even through my hazy consciousness, I could tell that the maid’s face was unusually bright.

“…Are you listening, Miss?”

Sometimes, whenever our eyes met, her expression would visibly stiffen.

But if I failed to respond, her face would soon brighten again as she continued speaking.

What kind of time did you spend with Mel that you’re so happy?

I had told you to read my letters to him.

You were only supposed to be my eyes and mouth. You weren’t supposed to do anything else.

Why are you smiling?

I wanted to grab the maid’s arm and ask her after she had finished laughing and chatting and was about to leave.

But my body wouldn’t move.

Jealousy welled up inside me, and at the same time, I missed Mel terribly.

You never smiled at me, yet did you smile so beautifully at that maid?

“Even so, I won’t get angry.”

I stared at the ceiling through my blurred vision.

I could sense that a very long sleep was approaching.

“I… won’t get angry at the person I love…”

Sleep came over me again.

Strangely, a darkness that didn’t hurt enveloped me.

It truly didn’t hurt.

It was a peaceful sleep, almost like death.

When I opened my eyes, I had to push aside a thin white cloth that was blocking my vision.

My bed was surrounded by all kinds of scented candles, their flames flickering softly.

The window was open, allowing a cold, desolate wind to blow directly into the room, while the sky outside was pitch-black.

Beautiful moonlight, as lovely as Mel’s skin, poured through the window.

As the cold wind brushed against my face, I realized something.

“Did they think I was dead?”

My room had been decorated like the room of a dead person.

I wasn’t surprised.

Perhaps… I really had died for a while.

How many days had passed?

I had told them to tell Mel that I would come to see him soon.

I moved my stiff legs and climbed down from the bed.

The moment my feet touched the floor, several of the candles went out in the wind.

Step. Step.

Once I crossed the boundary of scented candles, I encountered another boundary—one made of white flowers.

I passed through all the objects that seemed to symbolize death and opened the door.

Click.

“…No one’s here.”

I couldn’t hear a single sound of anyone nearby.

It seemed to be the middle of the night.

I considered lying in bed until morning, but soon changed my mind and began walking.

My body was still in poor condition.

But this much was bearable.

“Today, I’ll really go see you. I promised I’d come soon, so I have to keep that promise…”

This time, I dressed in thick layers.

I even combed my hair while looking in the mirror, trying not to look like a sick person.

But there wasn’t much difference.

Once I finished preparing, I took a small lantern and stepped outside the mansion.

It was the first time I had ever gone to the lake alone at such a late hour.

Perhaps because it was night, the forest was extremely dark, cold, and eerie.

Whoosh—

The wind blew, and I heard the branches of the trees knocking against one another.

The sound of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of branches and thin leaves rubbing together sounded almost like people talking.

“…Look. Hurry!”

…No.

That really was a human voice.

Step. Step.

I quickened my pace, listening carefully to the faint voice of a woman.

I had just been hovering between life and death, so perhaps it was a ghost.

But I wasn’t particularly concerned.

I stopped.

With the lake directly before me, I hid behind a large tree.

Someone was standing beside the lake.

Afraid that person might notice me, I even extinguished the light of my lantern.

The figure there wasn’t a ghost.

“Hurry up and come out! Can’t you hear me?!”

Splash!

“I’ll keep throwing rocks until you come out, so you’d better know that!”

The person standing there was the maid I had sent to read my letters to Mel.

“Why haven’t you come out these past few days?!”

She was throwing stones into the lake.

No matter how hard she threw them, I knew the stones wouldn’t be deadly enough to seriously injure whatever was beneath the water.

But if Mel happened to be coming out of the water when one struck him, it could be fatal.

I felt like I should go snap that wrist immediately.

But why did she come to see Mel on her own at this hour?

I was furious.

But considering my fragile body, which collapsed whenever I became too stressed, I forced myself to suppress my anger.

Ripple.

“…Dapin?”

Then, accompanied by the faint sound of water, a beautiful voice reached my ears.

It had been so long since I had heard it.

And yet, because the first word I heard was someone else’s name, anger surged through me.

Had Mel ever called my name?

No.

He hadn’t.

Even when he was facing the threat of death, he had started to call my name but stopped himself.

And yet, he called that maid’s name so familiarly.

I couldn’t bear it.

“You’re mine.”

I muttered quietly.

I shouldn’t have sent a maid here in the first place.

I shouldn’t have worried about sending you back to the sea because I was afraid you might freeze to death.

“You should have just stayed in my aquarium. Whether you lived or died, you should have died in front of my eyes.

That way, you wouldn’t have had the chance to fool around with anyone else.”

Then Mel’s voice came again.

“Why did you come at this hour?”

There was a slight trace of fear in Mel’s voice.

Only after hearing it did I regain my senses.

Apparently, this wasn’t the situation Mel had wanted.

If so, I shouldn’t blame Mel.

I pressed my fingers against my temple, trying to hold onto my fading focus.

“Ha ha ha ha!”

Suddenly, the maid began laughing loudly.

It was the same laugh I had dismissed as a hallucination countless times while hovering between life and death.

Dapin cried out in a voice filled with delight.

“Do you remember? She’s finally dead!”

“…What?”

“Servain Noxirel! That woman is dead!”

Her voice, filled with malice, echoed through the forest.

Then there was silence.

The only sound was the steady dripping of water from Mel’s hair.

I decided to remain where I was.

I could have gone over and cut down the throat of the maid who had deceived me.

But I stayed still.

What promise had Mel made with her?

Had Mel also been waiting for my death like that maid?

A bitter smile escaped me.

Of course.

That was normal.

If Mel was happy about it, if he had made some kind of promise centered around my death…

“Even so, you can’t leave.”

I hated that you had thought such a thing, but it wasn’t enough of a reason to kill you.

I couldn’t kill you.

And I couldn’t let you go.

Even if this separation was something that would inevitably come someday, for now, you had to remain by my side.

But unexpectedly, a frantic voice rang out.

“What are you talking about…? Servain is dead?!”

Mel swam closer to Dapin in a panic, without even considering the danger he might be putting himself in.

“So that’s why she couldn’t write? What happened to her?! Don’t tell me… you killed her?”

“If I did, so what? You should be happy! I told you I’d send you back to the sea once that woman died!”

“How could you do that to another person?!”

Mel became angry.

At first, he was furious.

But soon, his voice began to tremble with tears.

His voice was filled with such pain that it sounded as though he had just heard something truly horrifying.

“How could you… do something like that…?”

Strange.

Perhaps I really had died.

There was no way something like this could be real.

And yet, it was real.

Mel was angry about my death.

How could you possibly be like this?

How could someone be like this?

Come to think of it, Mel wasn’t human.

He was a mermaid.

A foolishly pure mermaid who had been too kind even to say harsh words to the person who had imprisoned him, and could only shed tears.

“Shut up! That wicked human is dead, so why are you reacting like this?!”

“Servain… was bad to me, but… she wasn’t truly a bad person. She wasn’t so evil that she deserved to be murdered by someone.”

“Are you stupid? Is your intelligence really that low just because your tail is a fish’s? Don’t tell me you forgave that woman just because she sent you a few letters?”

“She tried to be kind to me by sending those letters…”

“You actually think all that sweet talk was sincere?! You’re unbelievably stupid!”

Mel said nothing for a while.

Perhaps he hadn’t answered my letters because, deep down, he thought they were lies.

Just as the pain in my chest was becoming unbearable, Mel finally answered.

“They were probably sincere. She wasn’t cruel by nature.”

“I… I caused this… because of me…

Because I couldn’t control my ability. You hurt someone like her because of me…”

Mel’s voice trembled.

An ability.

So he really did possess some kind of power that could enchant people.

But what difference did that make?

He was mistaken.

First, even without such an ability, Mel was undeniably lovable.

His gentle and delicate nature remained unchanged.

Second, I had always been like this.

The damned Duke of Noxirel’s family had been notorious for generations for having heads of the family with mental disorders.

I didn’t want to admit it, but I wasn’t normal either.

I loved Mel.

Whether the feeling called love had been created because I had been enchanted, or whether I had been enchanted because I loved him…

What difference did it make?

To me, they were the same.

Dapin’s delighted voice interrupted my thoughts.

“It’s none of my business. She’s dead anyway. I didn’t even have to get my hands dirty. She was going to die eventually.”