Chapter 43

Translator: Cheonsa

Editor: notthepineapple

Chapter 43

　　“Agares, let me go! If they see you here, they will shoot you!” Turning pale from fright, I attempted to pry off his hold but it was to no avail as the merman’s arms were as sturdy as steel bars, strongly binding around me to the point I couldn’t move. The fishtail below my body tightened even more, allowing the thick, hard, weapon-like object to poke further upon my buttock. 

“I won’t… let… you go…” A deep growl sounded lowly in my ear. 

　 I felt Agares’s fangs scrape down my nape towards my shoulder where he took a huge punishing bite. I couldn’t help trembling from sudden fright, and my voice let out a muffled groan. 

　　His bite wasn’t hard at all, it didn’t tear through my skin, but I knew that he had left a bite mark on my body, one that won’t be able to disappear for a while. However, I didn’t dare continue to struggle. Agares’s temperament was very fickle. Who knows if I were to further annoy this beast, he might give me a bite where his teeth would tear straight through my neck! 

　　Upon seeing Lafarre, Eva and the others getting closer to us with each step,  my nerves tightened to the extreme. I didn’t want them to see me looking all disheveled in Agares’s embrace, and even more, I didn’t want them to use force thinking Agares was attacking me.<b> </b>

I suppressed my panic and tried to appease Agares by gently pressing my hand on his webbed claw.  “Hey, I swear I’ll return to your side. I know where your den is! There are some important things I need to finish first. But as soon as I’m done, I’ll go to the Merfolk nest to find you, is that okay? It’s only right for me to repay you!” 

　　“Will you，Desharow？”

　　Agares’s webbed claw followed up along my chest to caress my chin. He pressed me closer to his shoulder as he lowered his head to peer at me. 

　　His eyes were shining unusually bright right now. His pupils reduced to resemble a tiny nail jabbing down onto my bubble of lies, and in misconception, I thought I heard a pop which made me feel guilty. 

I instantly want to take back those words because Agares looked like he wanted to take advantage of my mistake, not allowing me to go back on what I said.

　　“Will you？”

　　Those thinly sharp lips slightly split open to repeat those bewitching words one more time. 

　　I held my breath as I stared directly into Agares’s eyes. Ominously, I felt like I’m signing a contract with a mysterious old creature on a bet that I was destined to lose. 

My surroundings turned quiet and even the air felt thick and heavy. I couldn’t feel the passage of time either as all of my memories of Agares were rewinding quickly like a movie film, until it stopped on a scenery of a cold sea’s surface—

　I heard a familiar voice sounding far in the distance yet close at hand, “Little boy…Will you come back for me?”

　　 (Will you come back for me?)

　The voice completely overlapped with Agares’s question just then. 

　　Tfr, fnfgsatlcu kjr vfralcfv ab yf.

　　Djmx atfc, Cujgfr tjv jigfjvs jrxfv wf atlr, la kjr pera atja P kjr j rlz-sfjg-biv mtliv atfc, jcv P kjrc’a jyif ab gfwfwyfg jcsatlcu.

　　Just like that, fifteen years passed by and I had completely forgotten about this matter. However, with his subconsciousness buried deep inside me, he had lured me down the same path again, where I was caught in the long prepared net spread by this old, intelligent creature, like a moth flying into an open flame.

　　Zs ojaf tjv yffc aegcfv atf nfgs wbwfca P olgra wfa tlw. 

　　……

　　“Gfrtjgbk! Lfs, ibbx, atja rffwr ab yf Gfrtjgbk!” 

　　”Look again, there’s a Mermaid that has captured him!” 

　　The sound Lafarre, Eva and the others made pulled me out of the sluggish, dark trance. I turned and saw groups of black shadows in the fog rushing towards us with guns and rifles in hand. My mental state turned messy and chaotic. I took a deep breath and blurted out, “Yes, I will!” 

　　“So，I believe you, Desharow.”

        （So, I believe you)

　　Agares’s voice completely passed through my eardrum, turning my entire scalp numb from its vibration. My body was then suddenly released. 

　　The long, unusual, black tail set off a huge wave in the water on the lateral side of my body and, in just a blink of an eye, he dived deep into the water. When I turned to look, I only saw his figure quickly disappearing into a faint, dark underwater cave in the lake. It might be a route that directly led to the merman’s den and this left a lingering fear—— I should be glad that he hadn’t just simply taken me back to his old den. 

　 “Hey, Desharow. Are you injured?” Lafarre shouted from ashore.

I promptly swam to the bank with a few flutters and, as soon as I crawled ashore, I was hastily taken by the arm and assisted. Eva suddenly let out a cry of fear, “Oh God, your shoulder was bitten, but… how come the wound on your waist is… all healed?” 

　　”Uh… I don’t know what happened to me. All of a sudden, I woke up in the middle of the night, and I just ran toward the lake.” I immediately covered my shoulder. In a panic, I wanted to cover my body but earlier my jacket had been ripped into a few ragged pieces so I had nothing to cover myself with. I couldn’t stop myself from looking down at my pants. Fortunately, other than the broken belt, it was still intact.  

　

At this time, our wristwatches clearly showed that it was eight o’clock in the morning, but the nightly scenery here was denser than last night, even the only illuminating moonlight disappeared without a trace. Among the shadows of misty trees, there were fragmented floating globes of dark blue lights, resembling those ghastly ghost fires you could find everywhere in tombs. 

　　We maintained a high degree of vigilance, each holding a gun in our hands while walking along the path, wearily watching for any movements around us. 

　　”Hey, you guys look, what’s that thing? The compass kept swaying in its direction as if there’s an existing magnetic force.” 

　An armed man in the front suddenly shouted, and following the direction of where the congregated flashlights were illuminating, I vaguely saw an ash gray outline exposed from a low shrub ahead of us. Unexpectedly, it turned out to be a broken cylindrical-shaped pedestal and there seemed to be some chisel-carved marks on it. Perhaps there was originally a sculpture-like artifact on it. 

　　“Oh look, there’s more over in that direction. Oh my god, there’s so many here…”

　　The flashlight scanned the area and I immediately discovered in our surroundings there appeared many ash gray and white ruins , and there was one right beside me. I immediately squatted down to take a closer look with my flashlight. In front of me is the top of a grayish-white building part in which half of it was still buried in the ground so that the overall outline couldn’t be seen. But I had a faint feeling that this was part of a tomb. 

　　It was covered in a lot of damp rattan so I gently and cautiously used a broken branch to peel it away. Then, I saw numerous, unrecognizable symbols carved densely together on the stone wall. I also found a lizard-like three-dimensional statue on the very top, just like those mythological guardian animals that were carved on gravestones to play the role of guarding the souls of the dead.  These were shown to be their ancient history and marked the civilization that was left on this island.

　　Eva murmured in both surprise and admiration, “Remains. These are the historical remains of the merfolk civilization!” 

　　”God!” I exclaimed incredulously while squeezing the flashlight. 

　　So actually, it turned out that the legend of the merfolk civilization wasn’t just a pointless legend, it was real. I suddenly understood why Agares had such high intelligence and EQ. Like humans, merfolk have their own ancient civilization and culture and were not uncivilized barbarians. This may just be what our ancestors had said, this may be the part of Atlantis that was left on the sea. 

　　“Hey, I think we should rip off a piece and take it away with us. This is actually priceless!”

　　A guy next to Lafarre suggested and while talking he readied his gun and approached the nearest ruin, but Lafarre grabbed him by the arm, “Wait! Don’t move, there’s something wrong with the ground here!” 

　　I also became vigilant again. I saw Lafarre squat down to pick up a big stone and threw it hard in front of him. However, I didn’t hear a normal thud. The ground sounded with a splash and, interestingly, the stone disappeared on the ground it landed on. 

　　Everybody simultaneously sucked in a cold breath.

　　In front, or perhaps surrounding us, was a swamp with a range we could not determine.

　　 “Rustle, rustle.”

　　At this moment, there were sounds of something moving quickly through the trees coming out of nowhere, and the entire team became highly alert, and began to look around.

　　Suddenly, not far away from the west, I saw a basin shape with a triangular black outline floating up from the ground. Beneath the head that was covered entirely with armor like scales, was a pair of evil dark-red pupils of a beast, staring deeply at us, emitting an aura of bloodthirstiness.

TBC

Hello! Translator here! Did you guys miss me!!! Haha.

I’m not suppose to be back for the entire month of April, but due to the Covid 19, my AP exams had been pushed back to two weeks later, so I decided to help my Co-translator (she did an amazing job on translating the last 4 chapters!) and translate the next 2 chapters so she could rest for two week and do her own things.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy Chapter 43. You’ll be meeting our ML again next chapter. However I must say, the next chapter on, I will be making clear on many of the Warning tags. There was a list made by a good friend of mine, and I don’t think many people saw it before starting to read this novel so I will put a link to it in the next chapter.

Happy Reading and please stay safe!

-Cheonsa