Translator || Jaiden
Editor || Cheonsa, Pigeon
Chapter 78
As soon as the thought struck me, a drove of astonishing sparks exploded loudly from the front of the ship. Then suddenly, many frantically fleeing figures appeared right before my eyes. A young man dressed in a kimono also came running out from inside. Immediately, I recognized him as Yukimura, the same person I had met back at Merfolk island.
I instinctively yelled his name, but it was like he couldn’t see me at all. He only looked around while wearing a desperate expression.
The bitter cold sea wind tore at the flap of his kimono robe, making him appear like a pitiful and sad, yet beautiful bird. He staggered back towards the edge of the ship, like he was extremely afraid of something.
I followed his line of sight and saw the thing that he was afraid of——
It was a merman with a deep purple tail. The luminous scorching fire and sparks shined on his blood drenched body, making him seem more sinister within the night, like a vengeful spirit who had crawled up from its grave. He unhurriedly crawled up the flight of stairs that stretched from the bottom cabin up to the deck. His damp, jet-black hair dragged behind with his tail, like a crowd of parasitic eels. Then I noticed a katana was pierced through his back and came out from the front of his abdomen, but it didn’t seem to hinder his mobility. Swiftly, he brutally captured people that were escaping, tearing their bodies apart without mercy, like a seasoned butcher. Within moments, the deck was turned into a bloodbath. Furthermore, during the span of these events and actions, he was unblinkingly staring at Yukimura, his eyes full of a certain frantic emotion that was closing into madness.
I felt certain that the look in his eyes wasn’t hate, rather it was the opposite.
Cut-throat love.
These words popped into my mind. However, I didn’t dare guess what kind of entanglement they had with each other, because the protagonist of the story shown before me wasn’t me. Yet as though spellbound, I dazedly stared at this extremely hair-raising scene as it unfolded, like I had accidentally peered into a corner of a page of a diary that recorded another’s secret past.
“I’m sorry…” I suddenly heard Yukimura shout, with glistening tears reflecting the surrounding blazing sparks sliding down his fair skin. Leaning against the side of the ship, he sank to his knees. Nonetheless, he still maintained traditional etiquette under the frantic situation. He prostrated on the ground in a manner similar to offering himself up as a sacrifice, bowing to that merman and raising his head again, laughing as he wept. “You are a god of the sea… How could I dare offend you? I beg you to turn a blind eye for the people on this ship and just pretend you have never met me…”
“Session… Session……”
The merman chanted out this word like a curse as he snaked through the piles of dead bodies on the deck, slowly approaching the prostrating Yukimura and lifted his jaw up with a blood riddled hand, forcing the latter to raise his head to him.
Yukimura looked at him obediently. He stretched out a trembling hand like he wanted to touch the merman’s webbed hands, but he left it in suspension, his fingers trembling. There was a deep yearning suppressed in those beautiful eyes. I felt like he was in love with this merman as well, but apart from this, from his expression, I could read a deeper feeling of desperation and pain.
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.
Suddenly, a foreboding premonition surged through my heart. Then in the next second, my feelings were confirmed.
I saw Yukimura grabbing the handle of the katana at an astonishing speed and thrust the sharp blade fully through the merman’s body from behind, with the tip piercing into himself as well. He then embraced the merman tightly, bringing both of them to fall backwards and into the vast ocean together, like an intimate couple dying in the name of love…
“Texlwegj!” P mbeivc’a tfiq yea ijs bc atf rlvf bo atf rtlq jr P ibbxfv lcab atf bmfjc, sfiilcu. Snfc atbeut P xcfk atlr kjr jc liierlbc gfmbgvfv ys atf wjucfalm olfiv bo jc fnfca atja bmmeggfv vfmjvfr jub, P kjr ralii tbgglolfv. Aera ktja tjv agjcrqlgfv yfakffc Texlwegj jcv atlr qegqif-rmjifv wfgwjc obg atfw ab wffa remt j agjulm fcvlcu? Qtfc P lcfnlajyis gfmjiifv ktja Texlwegj wluta tjnf ubcf atgbeut jcv rjk tlr ibcfis, yief-alcufv rlitbefaaf lc atf bmfjc, la wjvf ws tfjga atgby lcfzqilmjyis.
“Session…”
At this time, the same faint calling was heard again from behind me, and before I could turn around, my nose picked up a revolting rotten stench. A vicious venom-like liquid trickled down my shoulder and a boney, withered, black claw stretched out and around my waist from behind without my realization. A sudden deep chill penetrated my back, making me feel like an ice cellar. I realized that the monster who I didn’t know how to address was the merman who was previously involved with Yukimura. But now, it was likely that he considered me as a shadow of Yukimura……
“Hey… I’m, I’m not Yukimura!” My mouth trembled. I lifted up my kneeling kneecaps and pressed against the ship’s railing. Only one thought went through my head: Run!
Yet at the same instant, I heard a spine-chilling hoarse laughter from behind, the claws resting on my waist climbed upward to wrap around my throat, catching me off guard. From my peripheral vision, I could see him expanding his jaw to the monstrous size of a shark, reaching as far back to the side of his ears, before chomping harshly down on my shoulder!
I screamed uncontrollably in pain and my vision went dark, “Ah——!”
“Derte, Derte!”
At this very second, I heard a familiar voice shouting my alias’s name as drops of ice-cold droplets dripped onto my face. I immediately opened my eyes, breathlessly gasping for air and saw the faces of Rodia, Nick and a few other comrades from Poseidon in front of me. After I was pulled to set up, I was surprised to find that I was lying on Poseidon’s floor deck, and all the horrifying visions from just now had vanished into thin air.
I couldn’t help knocking my head over on whether I was just having a nightmare? But why would I be dreaming about Yukimura’s past? I don’t know anything about his matter—something’s seriously wrong.
I wiped away the water from my face, my head still seemingly trapped deep within the vortex until just now. Thus, I doubted if I had actually come back to reality or was still dreaming. But then a hand that was placed on my shoulder brought me back to the present reality. “Derte, how come you are lying here? We all thought that you fell into the sea!”
“I don’t know either.” I said, lifting my head and looking at them bewildered. “Did you guys… see or experienced anything out of the norm just now?”
“Mist. Just now we sailed into an infamous zone where ships go missing and got caught in a large mass of mist. But we had already sailed out of the area, and now we are not far from Hiroshima. But when it comes to strangeness, aha, I don’t think there’s anything more stranger than this Derte, you should come take a look.” Nick supported me to stand up. I raised my arm and stretched it, but pain bursted out from the area where I was previously bitten. Nervously, I felt around that area but sensed that my skin had no open wounds, only swelling in one place. This was really freaky.
I followed them all the way to the captain’s room. At a glance, I saw that on the radar scanner screen, a large object was shown to be only a hundred meters away from us. It appeared to be either a small island or an abandoned ship.
“What is that thing?” I pointed at the screen.
“The wreckages of a ship!” Nick expressed excitement at it, cracking his fist in eagerness. “We are close to approaching it. I have a good feeling about it. We are gonna make a fortune again.”
“I feel the same. We ought to be glad that our speed was faster than our new boss. According to the law of the sea, they can’t get a piece of the pie. It’s first come first serve.” Rodia snapped her fingers and chuckled.
“Ship?” I stared at the image that was gradually getting clearer. A chill seeped into my spine and even my teeth fought back a chatter. Turning around, I shook my head. “Don’t go there, believe me, it’s dangerous there.”
“That’s not possible, my friend.” Shilok, who was equivalent to being a captain on the Poseidon, patted my shoulder. “We must go through here to get to the radiation point of our destination.” He pointed to a green route on the navigator system next to the radar’s screen. “This is the route set for us by our new boss. From here we go around, then we pass through this strait here to reach the final destination—Yama’s…. Forbidden Cave, I think. That’s probably what’s it called, but regardless. Anyway, that ship wreckage is within the vicinity of the strait’s entrance.”
Nick clapped his hands, “Oh, this must be a stroke of luck sent by the heavens. I have a hunch that we’ll be billionaires! After we’re done with this, we won’t have to drift all over the place anymore. I want to immigrate to America and find myself a young, pretty Californian woman..…”
“Hey, hey, hey!” I couldn’t bear but break his daydream. Pressing on Nick’s shoulder, I looked at these people who were courageous but threw caution to the wind when it involved these desperadoes who are bolder than life, and said in a “Listen, don’t be impulsive, my hunch is totally the opposite of you guys! Listen… I saw a monster just now.”
“What monster?” Rodia looked at me jokingly, “Did you encounter one when sleeping here on the floor deck?”
“He probably dreamt of a sexy Mermaid!”
The others burst into laughter. I kneaded my forehead, knowing that from the start, there was no way they would ever believe the vision I saw. Making them give up on the wealth that laid right under their nose was practically impossible.
Just when I was thinking deeply on what to do, the speed of the navigation gradually slowed down. I could hear a simultaneous beeping sound coming from the navigation system and radar. From the darkness outside the window, one could make out the vaguely towering outline of the two sides of the strait. Using my night vision, I narrowed my eyes to peer into the distance. Sure enough, I saw a big ship anchored at the entrance of the strait, rising and falling with the wave. From time to time, the hull of the ship hit against the cliff, obviously showing that it had been abandoned for a long time.
As the distance got closer and closer, I gradually saw that the hull of the ship was covered with some black things attached to it. Like it was covered with a thick coat of mud that made the ship indistinguishable from its original appearance.
But I was certain of one thing: this wasn’t the Japanese ship that I saw in that vision. That ship was way bigger than this, perhaps even bigger than the rumoured Titanic. This one here was a cruise ship. A wrecked cruise ship was the most wanted goldmine any marine salvage teams would want to covet as inside the ship, it housed the remnant items of rich elites that were of incalculable value. So to ask these guys on the Poseidon, who were willing to throw their lives away for money, giving up was something impossible.
I furrowed my eyebrows at the people who had already popped open celebratory drinks. One by one, I took down the few guns and rifles hanging on the walls and held them in my arms, before smashing their beer cans in a foul spirit. “Hey, hey! Don’t get too carried away. Take these weapons along with you!”
“Derte, since when did your behavior become so alike Kolov’s?!” Rodia gave an unconcerned laugh and took the gun. “Are you not going, our most adventurous knight?”
“I…” I tightened my grip on the rifle’s long body. God knows just how much I wanted to go down with them, but there was still Agares who was locked up in my cabin; I was a nurse now. I couldn’t leave a sick patient, no I mean—a sick merman behind. Hence, I turned to pick up my pager and raised it, showing that I would stay behind as reinforcement and wait for any news from them.
A few people quickly packed up some luggages and arrived safely on the black ship via iron chains. As I looked at their searching figures on the deck, the pain in my shoulder increased and a buzzing sound in my ears terrorized my mind, rendering me unable to even stand properly. My instinctive intuition decided that now was the best choice to go look for Agares, so I hurriedly turned and rushed back to my own cabin.
The second I was in front of my door, I could hear the clashing of chains from inside. My breath hitch. Afraid that Agares might be in that abnormal state again, I carefully opened the door by just a crack. When I saw him turn his head towards me, I could see his eyes hadn’t changed to that pure black color, and relief soared through my heart. When I locked the door behind me and walked to his side, I could see that the shackles that bound him had become deformed from his constant pulling. and on his skin, there were litters of deep purple bruises as well. Those noises just now were evidently caused from his struggles.
I couldn’t help but bend down to kiss at the areas bruised by the chains one by one. His body was unusually dry right now and his skin was slightly peeling off like one would when sunburned. This made me feel uneasy. After all, Agares was an aquatic creature, and long term detachment from the sea may turn him into a huge dried fish! I should give him some water to keep him wet. Once I thought about this, I immediately went under my bed to take out a small wooden cask for bathingbut it was swept aside by Agares’s lower tail. “Where have you been, Desharow?”
I lifted my head and met his gaze which was filled with unconcealed worry.
“On the deck.” I obediently laid on the bed, huddling next to his arid body and closely faced him. I felt that his lips were so dry that it was peeling as well, making me instinctively lick at it before confessing, “I experienced something weird, though. I saw an illusion. It had something to do with the merman named ‘Yukimura’. Do you know him?”
“Yukimura?” Agares raised his eyebrows in question. “Unlike humans, we don’t use our vocal cords to address each other, rather, we use a soundwave that you guys can’t hear. Also I can’t guarantee that I have an impression on each and every one of my people, except for some special existences.”
“Then what’s your original name?” My thoughts immediately deviated into another direction.
“My name is a taboo, Desharow. Only the corpses on their funeral are permitted to hear my name.”
“Why? Could it be that it’s also related to dignity and honor, just like humans do?” I lightly chuckled.
“We don’t have that sort of restriction, Desharow. We use our strength and lineage to decide the monarch. My name is a string of secret codes for rebirth. Once I say my name with my own mouth, our mother nest would awaken and open her life passageway to give generate a new life.”
He said in a low voice word by word next to my ear. I immediately pictured the structure of a beehive in my head. I finally now understood how mermaids reproduce. They all hatched from the mother nest, and they used the diverged spore to select and assimilate humans for the purpose of expanding their race without needing to go through the process of giving birth like what mammals need to do. This conclusion was even harder to believe than the recordings of UFOs. This was the best evidence that proves mermaids were indeed a miraculous race. It was a pity that all these mysteries were not discovered from my research, but instead was informed personally by the leader himself. This certainly made one dispirited. However, the most disappointing fact was that I wasn’t able to document this down, so that I could only satisfy my thirst for knowledge.
“I assume this is why those Nazis see you as such an important aspect.”
I stroked Agares cheek, and he closed his eyes, brushing his lips against my palm. But then, he glared daggers at my shoulder like he had smelled something unpleasant, and said, “Desharow, take off your shirt, let me take a look at your body.”
“Damn it, I nearly forgot. I was just about to show you this.” Only now did I wake from my daydream before unbuttoning my shirt to expose half of my shoulder, showing where I was attacked. Looking down, I was surprised to find that it had become more swollen. A dark welt had bloomed under my skin matching Agares. Furthermore, it was moving faintly beneath my skin. My heart plummeted into the abyss. I looked at Agares in disbelief. His face froze up and his lower eyelids twitched, keeping quiet for a moment before speaking. “I will hurt you, but I have to do it that way”
My heart swayed. My mind nearly ran astray after hearing these rather ambiguous sounding words. When I nodded my head, he lifted his neck and I sling my arms around his head in the passing. His lips hovered and sucked on the skins and flesh there, the fangs in his mouth appeared to be finding where to bite so it’ll be less painful for me. While he was hesitating, his drying hair tickled my bare chest. I couldn’t help but lower my head, rubbing my lips against his cheeks teasingly, “It’s okay, go ahead, Lord Chief…”
He swallowed his saliva, lingering a little around my shoulder, giving me light butterfly kisses before his fangs harshly pierced my skin, tearing open a hole of a similar width to an index finger. After he sucked out a mouthful of scarlet-red blood, I was surprised to see black, hair-like filaments being dugged halfway out of my skin. But it was moving, attempting to burrow itself back into my shoulder. However, it was grabbed immediately hooked on by Agares’s mouth before I knew it, it was pulled out of me in one go and spat onto the ground. Within that second, a pain Within that second, a pain, like having my skin and tendons ripped off, course all over me. It felt so painful that it left me trembling all over, but I was glad that the torture only lasted for a few seconds. Agares’s tongue was like an anesthetic, bringing relief to my suffering.
“What was that thing just now, Agares?” I buried myself in his neck as I panted.
“It’s a ‘yoila’ that has been affected by the dark matter and it belongs to a young species that has been contaminated. You are being targeted by it, Desharow. The contaminated ones are very dangerous, they can appear at any point in time, space or location, because their life forms have undergone a terrible variation.”
“Time, space, and location?” I exclaimed in disbelief, the existence of this thing surpassed all three-dimensional existence. It practically should be called a four-dimensional creature instead. No wonder that that damned thing was capable of attacking me without me noticing. They were not restricted to time and space, after all. Aren’t they just as frightening as ghosts?
TBC
Announcement!
Hello, it’s the DM Eng translation team. It comes with heavy hearts that we decided to no longer allow retranslations of using our English version of ‘Desharow Merman’ due to what was brought to our attention. For more info, you can check out DM’s Novel page of CG’s website.
Thank you for the chapter ❤❤
Thank you for the chapter ❤❤
I wonder what his real name is 😲
Thanks for the chapter!!
So if he has a name what about agares
Thanks for the chapter ❤❤
The name Agares was explained to be the name that one calls their husband or their marriage partner :-:
What a ride this chapter is. I mean I got shivers thinking about dear Desharow being bitten. Again, Agares throws more mysterious and tantalizing information into the story. I’m sad for lovely Yakimura ending up that way. I often wonder about that red-headed merman. Is he still around? Did I miss something about him? Thanks so much for the translation!!! It’s the highlight of my week when a new chapter is posted. 😁
Yuki and his merman can be consider as the side couple in Desharow. And thank you for reading! As for the red-head merman, he’s still alive
This purple merman sounds like he was similar to Agares. Wonder what happened.
Thanks for the great translation ♥️
They are pretty much the only “side couple” (if you want to call them that)
thanks for the chapter <3
Can’t wait for next chapter 😍
<3