Desharow MermanChapter 25

True world…

What is real in the world, what is fake. Everything that I wholeheartedly believed in came to thoroughly make fun of me at the end.

I lifted my head, allowing the heavy rain to fall onto my face. I suddenly wanted to laugh and indeed I did start laughing, however, tears began to once again flow down my cheeks, blending in with the rain. As the rising sea tide beat against my ankles harshly, my mind was in a chaotic state like the wind and waves pushing against each other on the surface of the sea. An absurd thought rose from the bottom of my heart, similar to whirlpool dragging me to the deep abyss of the sea—Is the other side of the ocean a totally different new world just like in Truman’s world? Am I living in a fake television studio?  

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Can I escape from this nightmare as long as I swim to the other side of the sea like how Truman did and tear open the haze forged by a curtain?

With curiosity crawling in my mind, I spread my leg and stepped into the waist deep water, and began to walk step by step further into the bone-chilling and bitter ocean.

  Ss4XEL

The sea water soaked through my clothes, and as I went deeper, it slowly passed up to my waist and abdomen, at this time, a voice suddenly reverberated in my mind, Desharow… come… back, come back… to my side….

That was Agares’s voice calling out. My body immediately became rigid as if I was motionless statue. I was not convinced that he could control my own mind, and thereupon, I used my own self-awareness to resist, and might as well dunk my whole head into the seawater, causing the bitter and salty water to instantly barrel into my nasal cavity.

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Dyinging like this may not be too bad… maybe this was just a nightmare…

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

I thought disorderly to myself, but the insistence to stay in the water only lasted for a mere second before the strong desire for survival made me instinctively raise my head out of the water, and cough out the salty sea water that was choking me from my mouth. I realized that I didn’t want to die at all, or at least didn’t have the guts to commit suicide.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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I coughed violently, my entire body knelt on the beach, holding onto my neck as I desperately suck in mouthfuls of air. Rhine’s deafening roar was heard above my head. “You are crazy! Do you want to commit suicide, Desharow?!” 

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I shook my head desperately, coughing and panting at the same time. My back was being held tightly and my entire body ended up in the embrace of Rhine’s arms. I pushed him away without much thought, and ended up falling back onto the beach floor. I responded with my hoarse throat, “I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die. I just want to escape from here, but thinking only left me feel muddleheaded. 

Rhine stood there, suddenly becoming quiet with no words being said. 

  8lqd46

I suddenly realized that maybe RhIne also saw what had happened back at the laboratory. Immediately, I huddled up my knees to my chest and buried my head deeply into them with my arms covering my face. How I wished I could become a hermit crab now, to hide in my own hard shell, not facing anyone nor anything. As long as I closed myself off, everything could be regarded as if it had never happened.

But in this moment, I could only shrink myself into my arms, allowing the violent wind and rain to tore around me continuously, without even the chance of letting oneself to be alone.

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“I warned you, Desharow.” Rhine’s stubborn voice was suppressed by repentance and unwillingness. “At that time, maybe you could have…”

“What’s the use of it!” As if I had been stabbed hard by a needle, I suddenly stood up and grabbed his collar harshly. “How could there be enough time at that moment? Yes, I was stupid to the extreme. Stupid to the point I didn’t realize that everything was nothing but a conspiracy! Rhine, this voyage is not for my graduation project at all, is it? Everything… everything was all deliberately planned. At that time, when you stubbornly picked me in the end, out of all the dozens of students you could have selected that had picked you as their tutor, everything was already arranged and set in stone right? Why, why do you want to involve me in this terrible scheme? Are you using me just as bait to catch merfolk?! You disgusting swindler, the scum of scholars around the world!”

  GzAlEd

“No, no!” Rhine suddenly became frantic, the blue veins on his forehead protruding as he grabbed my wrist. “I really did want you to participate in the government’s merfolk research program because of your outstanding achievements and because of my own selfishness. I don’t know why Sakarol suddenly made such a plan of making you…”

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He stared at me with wide eyes as if he had recalled something from seeing me. His pupil had shrunk to a points, resembling the tip of a needle due to his extreme emotions and irregular breathing. I knew he must be recalling the scenes where Agares had violated me and I couldn’t help feeling the extreme embarrassment. I closed my eyes and retreated from him weakly, before mumbling and raving nonsensically, “Rhine, Rhine, if you feel some sort of remorse or guilt, even if it’s just a tiny bit, please help me get out of here. I want to go back to Moscow. I miss home…”

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Rhine grabbed the front of my placket, pulling my fallen body to the air air. He looked at me with bloodshot eyes and went to grab my waist, pressing me into his arms once again. “Desharow, forgive me. With everything progressing to this point, you’re already caught in a dead end with no route of retreat. But I swear to you that I will never let that beast hurt you ever again…”

”I will never go back there!” I broke out of Rhine’s hold with brutal strength, however I could only take two steps away before my waist was being grabbed again. My entire body was hauled up into the air and onto Rhine’s shoulder, and no matter how much I kicked and struggled, the strength of his hold around my waist did not loosen. He carried me without effort all the way to the platform of the research institute’s mooring boat.

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There were a lot of sounds of people talking coming from the side, I shut my mouth, not daring to shout anymore to avoid making an embarrassing show out of myself. “Rhine, Rhine, put me down!” 

He turned a deaf ear to my cries and hurriedly walked up toward the platform, still carrying me. I struggled to lift my head and saw a three-story scientific research boat floating at the coast of the sea. Not far away was the dock where the boat was stationed at. There were three to five big and sturdy sailors carrying a large cylindrical object to the boat, on the outside, it was covered in layers of strong shark net. Behind them were five or six men armed with guns. The whole formation was just as heavily guarded as the police force ensuring a safe transportation of large sums of money.

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“Where exactly is this research ship heading towards? Fuck, answer me!”

I slammed my elbow on Rhine’s back as harshly as I could. He merely snorted, but his arms around me had tightened even more. He shouldered my body while keeping up in pace with the armed men, passing Agares’s large water compartment.

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In the next split second, I saw a set of gloomy and dark eyes through the gap of the iron net, causing my heart to thump. Suddenly, there was a loud slamming sound of something hitting glass. The water tank out of nowhere shook violently, scaring the sailors causing them to stagger.  Even the huge water tank couldn’t seem to withstand the vibration, nearly falling over to the side. People from all sides quickly gathered together to hold it. Rhine, at this time, loosened his hold, allowing myself to free my body before pushing him away.

The bottom of the tank touched the deck heavily. Fortunately, the metal shell was still intact, and there were still several people holding it in order to stabilize its center of gravity. Then, Agares’s pale face slowly floated upward to the only window on the shark cage.

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One of his webbed claws that was pressed against the glass window tightened. His head was slightly lowered, his eyes narrowed into slits as they roamed between Rhine and I. There were deep shadows engraved underneath his eyes, the mottled light from the waves reflected from below made his face look more dark and dangerous.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

I couldn’t say for sure what this deep-sea organism was thinking in that brain of his, but I could certainly say that he was angry as he towered in rage. His face was full of murderous intent as if his possession was in the hand of someone else.

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“Hmph, this animal can surprisingly feel anger out of jealousy,” Rhine sneered disdainfully, he pointed his middle finger at Agares while also pulling me into his arms, ignoring every other presence.

I turned pale from fright, I subconsciously placed my elbow against his chest to try and nudge him away and yet he only tightened his hold around me, keeping me still. My eyes couldn’t stop looking at the glass of the water cage. There was an extremely vague premonition in my heart and as expected, Agares’s face changed completely after he met face to face with the infringing glass window. He opened his mouth, showing his extremely white and sharp canine teeth, curled up his fist and aimed it at the glass————

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It was a terrible explosion-like sound, and all of us cried out at the same time in panic and fear. It was because the extremely strong tempered glass wall was actually actually broken with a large hole where Agares’s muscular arm was sticking out from it. The blue blood dripping down from his arm was mixed together with the pouring water, both splattering across the deck.

“My Desharow… my Desharow… let him go…”

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The dangerously low and hoarse voice overflowed from the opening. He unwaveringly stared at Rhine who was holding tightly onto my arm as he slowly yet demonstratively retracted his arm. The second punch smashed the glass of the window to completely to pieces, leading more water to gush violently out from the inside.

Everyone looked at each other with dismay. Among them were strange looks directed at me from sailors who knew me from before. My legs that lacked endurance naturally became like jello under the attention, I fell back a step or two until my back knocked against the wall. I used the wall to stabilize my unbalanced body and said in a flustered voice, “Don’t look at me. He didn’t call my name. Rhine, you ignorant moron. Don’t infuriate him anymore. You don’t know the power of that beast. He could come running out at any time!

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Several armed men were shocked when hearing this. Simultaneously, they raised their guns towards Agares inside the water tank, yet no one dared to get close to the smashed window. They were obviously afraid of him as if he resembled the T-rex portrayed in the movie Jurassic Park.

When he actually slaughter and kill, it really did seem like that way.

  T5Bsgi

“Are you this merman’s caretaker?” an armed man asked nervously. “It looks very dependent on you. I believe we need your assistance. It’s too difficult to control it. Some of our unlucky guys were ripped open while still alive!”

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

“Shit! I’m not… don’t ask me for help!” I angrily scolded as my forehead began to sweat profusely. I clutched desperately on my trousers at a loss, but at this time, I smelled the strong and exotic fragrance unique to Agares permeating from the inside the shark cage, spreading into the open air. As If I saw Agares’s phantom coming to get me, I began to panic. I fled into the open cabin in fright and shut the door, leaving Rhine who managed to catch up to me to be locked outside the room.

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“Mr. Desharow! Mr. Desharow! We need your help!” 

“Desharow, you let me in!”

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The door behind me was knocked loudly with the sounds of both Rhine’s and the armed men’s rallying calls. I defended the door with my back. Nervousness, anxiety, shame, and embarrassment simultaneously crashed into my brain hard, instantly causing everything to darken before my eyes. Even the last word, “Go away” could not be said, as my entire self ended up crumbling onto the ground.

After a brief loss of consciousness, I woke up again in a confused and bewildered state.

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The vast sea outside the window was moving, the water in front was cut apart by the ship, followed by a long track in the back which ultimately disappeared into the waves.

This ship… where is it traveling to? 

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I asked myself inwardly, becoming aware of how heavy and hot my head was, I didn’t even have the strength to feel angry over my own suffering, it appeared that I was having a fever.

No matter where it goes, Desharow, you are doomed to have no escape route to retreat to.

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Thinking this way, I let my head hit the pillow, feeling dejected. My brain had been burned to the point of being muddleheaded.

TBC

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