Chapter 131: The Secret of the Merman Island (2)
The kiss tasted salty, unsurprisingly so, considering my body was soaked in seawater.
Was this the goddess's mercy, allowing me one last pleasure before death? Or was it the grim reaper tasting my lips to steal my last spark of life?
In my hazy consciousness, all I could do was passively endure the kiss.
"…Wake…up…please…"
My chest felt increasingly tight, as though a giant's hand was squeezing the life out of me. Breathing was impossible. Meanwhile, someone continued stealing my lips intermittently. Whoever this grim reaper was, they certainly enjoyed kissing. Or maybe they were a woman.
'Not that kissing is what you're supposed to do in this situation…'
According to the latest resuscitation guidelines, pausing chest compressions to perform mouth-to-mouth breathing was more dangerous. Risks of infection, vomiting, or airway obstruction were higher. Resuscitation was better achieved through continuous chest compressions.
'Also, isn't this body too light?'
The hands pressing against my chest were slender, lacking the weight needed for proper compressions. The tail prevented her from putting her full weight into it, so all it felt like was someone gently kneading my chest.
'The fact that I can think about this means I'm alive.'
I didn't have the strength to open my eyes yet, but my consciousness was returning. Although my ears still felt waterlogged, muffling sounds, I could tell Mary was repeatedly pressing her lips to mine and putting her hands on my chest, desperately trying to revive me.
'Wait… is she straddling me to perform the resuscitation?'
I could feel something rough, like scales, against my lower body. Around my ankles, I felt the slap of a tail fin. Given the sequence of events—kissing followed by compressions—it seemed like she was lying directly on top of me, aligned with my body, to carry out the resuscitation.
'So Mary is sitting on me right now...'
As absurd as it was to think about in this situation, the realization that a woman was on top of me made my lower body start to react.
'Guess it's been a while since I relieved myself… no self-control left.'
I could feel the corners of my lips curling into an involuntary smirk. Normally, I'd keep my expression in check, but half-conscious as I was, I couldn't control it.
'Huh? She stopped.'
Mary seemed to have realized what was happening, judging by the growing hardness pressing against her lower body and the smirk plastered on my face.
A moment later, the weight on my lower body disappeared, and then—
Smack!
"Gah!"
A powerful impact struck my chest, forcing seawater out of my mouth, nose, and ears. My eyes shot open.
"Ughhh!!"
I had swallowed so much seawater that it came spewing out from every orifice—eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. It was so salty that I couldn't tell whether I was crying or just expelling more seawater.
"You're… alive…?"
Finally, my ears cleared, and Mary's voice reached me. Her normally pleasant voice was now hoarse and broken. Her face was swollen—not just from being in the seawater for so long, but from crying so much that the moisture had puffed up her cheeks.
"Ughhh!"
I spat out the remaining salty water stuck in my throat, and my mind started to clear. When I opened my arms, Mary immediately threw herself into them.
"I thought… you were going to die…!"
"Haha… yeah, me too."
This crybaby mermaid, after all her efforts to save me, was sobbing her heart out again.
"It's a good thing I'm alive."
If I weren't alive, I wouldn't be able to wipe her tears, hug this crying mermaid tightly, or feel the relief of holding her safe and sound.
My body was in terrible condition, but my mood wasn't bad.
'Except for the fishy smell.'
Aside from the lingering stench of merman guts on my hands, everything else was tolerable.
---
"Ahh… It hurts. Could you be a little gentler…?"
Though Mary had managed to drag me to safety, she'd taken her fair share of injuries during our escape. Maneuvering through underwater rocks and coral to evade the mermen had left her lower body with patches of missing scales and a significant wound on her back.
'The cuts look sharp, like they were made by a blade. Did a merman scratch her? Or did she scrape against a rock?'
As I poured freshwater over her wounds to rinse away the seawater, Mary flinched, her shoulders trembling from the pain. I felt sorry for her, but I had no choice—I needed to apply healing potion, which meant I had to touch and clean her wounds.
"Ugh…"
I dipped my fingers into the healing potion and gently massaged it into her wounds. Thankfully, the cuts were clean, so as long as the potion took effect, she wouldn't be left with significant scars.
I carefully dabbed the potion along the wound that stretched from her spine down to her hip. By the time I finished, the potion bottle I had been conserving so diligently was completely empty.
'That stuff's expensive...'
Healing potions couldn't reattach severed limbs or regrow destroyed organs, but they could seal cuts with minimal scarring and completely heal minor wounds. For knights, who often got injured, they were essential.
This time, though, Mary had sustained far more injuries than I had.
"All done."
"Thank you…" Mary whispered softly.
Now that the pain seemed to be subsiding, Mary straightened her shoulders. Watching her, I couldn't help but think—if it weren't for her, I would have been overwhelmed by the endless waves of mermen and died fighting.
Not that they were trying to eat me, but seeing how they frantically charged forward for their breeding instinct, I could've easily ended up with my body covered in eggs and semen, turning into a breeding ground for mermen.
'And in the end, those so-called mermaid eggs turned out to be merman eggs, just as I thought.'
With that, my mission was essentially complete.
Since the mermen were swarming en masse, the Baran Duchy would no doubt deploy their military to handle the situation formally. The time for quietly dealing with mermen had clearly passed.
"Do you know anything about mermen?" I asked Mary.
"They live deep in the sea… they're not intelligent, so unlike us mermaids, they're like ordinary fish—they only eat other fish and reproduce."
Her answer matched what the sailors had concluded and what I had observed myself. Watching them charge mindlessly, even as their kind were slaughtered, it was clear their intelligence was barely above that of beasts, more akin to regular fish.
"They usually live in the deep sea... I never thought they'd come this far…"
Maybe something was happening in the ocean, or perhaps the rising water temperature made it easier for them to breed. Whatever the reason, it wasn't my concern—scholars could investigate that. My job was just to report.
"With this, my mission is over."
"It's all over…?"
"Yes. The mission wasn't to deal with the mermen swarming the area but to confirm the source of the mermaid eggs. Mary, did you come here to investigate because of the mermen?"
"Huh? No, that's not really why…"
Mary hesitated, looking a bit troubled by my question.
"Well… my mother ordered me to…"
"Your mother?"
"She told me to rescue stranded humans and take one as a husband… But nowadays, ships are so well-made that there aren't many stranded people…"
Hearing that, I couldn't help but feel a sense of familiarity with the situation.
"So, you came here looking for a husband and got caught in a discarded net?"
Mary nodded quietly at my remark.
"T-That's true, but… I think it's too early for me to get married, so… I just wanted to see what humans were like…"
"Don't male mermaids exist? Surely it's better to marry someone of your own kind than to marry a different species."
"We're… all female…"
"But in mermaid legends, isn't there a king—the father of the princess?"
"That's… a misunderstanding, I think. Mother plays the role of a father too, but… we're all female…"
In other words, mermaids were a monosexual species.
Monosexual species have only one gender in their population. Since they can't reproduce among themselves, they need to mate with males of other species. Offspring are usually born as the mother's species.
'Now that I think about it, other than the tale of the Little Mermaid, I've never heard of male mermaids.'
Apparently, mermaids had been breeding by rescuing stranded sailors and taking them as husbands. That explained why mermaid legends were passed down in the Baran Duchy. While the sailors taken by mermaids likely disappeared without a trace, people who witnessed mermaids carrying off shipwrecked sailors must have spread the stories.
"So, did you find a husband?"
Mary froze for a moment at my question, then blushed deeply, averting her gaze as she mumbled softly.
"The only human I've seen… is you…"
"Well, that's a problem. Shall we head out together tomorrow and look for a husband for you?"
"Ugh… I'd appreciate it if you didn't tease me…"
I knew, of course, but her adorable, teary reaction every time I teased her was just too cute to resist.
"Is that why you were calling my name while comforting yourself?"
"I-I've never done that…! Don't make baseless accusations…"
Ignoring her protests, I slid my hand down her smooth skin, avoiding her wounds, until it reached the curve of her lower back. I began tracing the soft, raised spot near her tailbone.
With the cramped bathtub leaving her no room to escape and no real desire to resist, Mary quietly let herself feel my hand stroking her ass.
'Technically, she's an outsider… but from a mermaid's perspective, it probably doesn't matter if it's a sailor from the Duchy or a knight from the kingdom.'
"Your touch feels… indecent… It's like your fingers keep pressing into all my sensitive spots…"
Splash.
Looking at her tail fin, which was pressed awkwardly against the tub's wall, I thought about how I could make her more comfortable.
"Should we go out to the sea?"
"I like it here…"
"Other places might have people watching. That's embarrassing… And with my back injured, seawater would sting…"
That reminded me of her wounds.
"Well… then let's try working on this together."
From behind, I wrapped my arms around her, letting my hands glide over her smooth, firm stomach. Slowly, one hand slid lower, reaching the previously untouched slit in her ta il—a mermaid's equivalent of a human's pussy. My fingers began to gently rub along the sensitive fold.