In order for a spirit to step into the heavens, it must endure three hundred years of hardship. After three hundred years of training, it embarks on another three hundred years of journeying to understand the world of mortals and humanity. The remaining hundred years are spent questioning whether the foundation it has built is genuine, completing its millennium on the last day.
On that thousandth night, the spirit ascends towards the sky to become a dragon, and if someone sees it and calls it a dragon, it becomes one. If called an Imugi, it reverts to that form and must undergo another thousand years of training.
“Ah…..”
Now, call me a dragon.
Can you see this magnificent form? Can you see the shining scales of light?
Soaring high into the sky, grasping the clouds in my hands, the descendants of this land must surely look up to me in awe.
If you call me a dragon, a great blessing will fall upon you. If you call me an Imugi, I shall cast an unending curse from your children to your grandchildren and beyond.
“U…AA…!”
So, can you see me?
If you see me, speak, girl.
What do I appear as?
“U..AA…UUU…”
Oh dear, are you frightened?
Well, no living being could look upon the form of this magnificent spirit and not display reverence.
But fear not.
There’s no need to ponder.
Just say it as it is.
Speak.
Speak up.
Who am I?
○○○○
“………It’s a troubling dream.”
It has been far too long since I last slept, and every time I recall the old memories, none are pleasant.
Not a single wish of mine has come true, so why am I still here?
As she stifled a soft chuckle at herself, she opened her eyes to find the familiar blue world reflected in her sinister gaze.
She is the Mermaid Princess of the Sinister Eye.
Mermaids, by nature, do not possess names.
Like naive and ignorant children, mermaids do not think of complexities. They seek to live joyfully and peacefully every day, unaware of evil and lacking in malice, thus never assigning names to themselves.
You, me, us.
That was enough, but the Mermaid Princess with the Sinister Eye was an exception.
Though there were no kings, let alone a kingdom among mermaids, the Sinister Eyed Mermaid was the oldest among all her mermaid sisters. Having lived for so long, she became a poor mermaid princess who leads these pitiful and lacking mermaids, acting as their sister and mother.
“You’re ugly again today.”
What is so good about still trying hard to live?
Pathetically alive, aren’t you?
Why are you still alive?
Can’t you just pluck out those eyes and die?
“…Shut up.”
The mermaid princess, looking at her own sinister eyes reflected in the shining coral, frowns and covers her eyes with her hands.
The reddish-gold hair is alright.
She had kept the headband and jewels gifted by the children for so long that she couldn’t bear to take them off.
But these eyes… she just couldn’t see as anything good.
Even to herself, they were dreadful, ugly eyes.
Unlike her sisters’ beautiful, jewel-like eyes, her sinister eyes overflowed with curses and resentments, trickling black liquid as if sinking or melting. In the center, there seemed to be a scar-like cut across her pupil.
No one should see her covering her eyes with an eye patch made from her own scales as she emerged from the Abyssal Cave.
Having had her eyes covered for so long, there was no problem discerning her surroundings anyway.
Mermaids can distinguish objects through various tactile sensations felt on their scales rather than sight.
As the Mermaid Princess of the Sinister Eye emerged from the cave, countless mermaid sisters opened their eyes as if waiting for her.
“Sis…”
“Sis…”
“It’s the princess!”
“…Hehe!”
“Sis, it’s Princess Sis…”
But none of them could swim freely.
The sisters lying nearby the Abyssal Cave had not healed from their wounds again today.
This was a place where wounded and hurting sisters gathered.
It was not just one or two.
Hundreds, perhaps even thousands of mermaids could be found, struggling to cling to the surrounding rocks, unable to swim properly.
As these children, who oscillated between life and death, experience a painful demise, they flock to the Mermaid Princess of the Sinister Eye to gain a sense of peace in their hearts.
Being near the Sinister Eyed Mermaid makes one feel better despite the body’s pain.
The wounds caused by the enormous anchor chain left them infected with metal poison and were gradually consuming the mermaid sisters’ bodies.
What wrong did these children do to endure such pain?
The Sinister Eyed Princess petted the children who lay unable to move their fins.
“Does it… hurt a lot?”
“…Hehe, hehe…”
This naive, foolish, and pure child must have felt better just from having her forehead stroked, and so she beamed a carefree smile.
Yet even in the process, the wound from the harpoon worsened.
It should hurt; it must be painful… but they couldn’t even die.
“Eat.”
“Hehe, gulp… Gulp, gulp… Hehe… Hehe…”
The princess fed the fallen child crushed apple coral, but the injured child still couldn’t eat as much as before.
Once, the child would joyfully spin and swim if given apple coral, but now, she couldn’t eat much like she used to.
Unable to heal their wounds, the princess caressed the children and brought them coral and seaweed they loved, yet there was no improvement.
At least those who were stabbed by harpoons or injured by the anchor chain had it a bit better.
“Kk… Kkeuk… Huh…”
“………..”
The Sinister Eyed Mermaid Princess, caring for numerous injured children one by one, searched for another mermaid.
She spotted a child who lay still on the bottom of the deepest abyss, as if it were her bed.
The child’s body was beyond mangled; broken bones swayed with the movement of the currents.
Yet even so, the child could not die.
“Are you… okay?”
“Hi, hi…… Hi… eh…”
Even while speaking, the princess felt a tearing in her heart.
There was no way they were okay; asking if they were was the most pitiful thing about herself.
The child could neither live nor die, only feeling pain all over, day after day…
No, not even for a single moment could they find peace, just struggling in a world filled with agony.
With half of the body in ruins and the beautiful fins torn apart, the Sinister Eyed Princess bit her lip at seeing the feebly twitching fins of the mermaid.
The glittering shards of coral made even this deep abyss surprisingly visible, causing blood to flow from the princess’s lips. The expression of the child, whose upper body was wrecked, suddenly turned grim.
“Hi, hi… hi… hi…”
“……..”
The child managed to lift their remaining good arm and touched the princess’s lips.
Your lips are bleeding, princess.
Princess, you’re in pain.
You seem like you’re going to hurt more.
Don’t do that, Princess.
It seemed to say that.
Of course, the children couldn’t articulate it that proficiently… but it was in their innocent nature to worry more about the Sinister Eyed Princess’s hurt than their own pain.
“…If I had made a different choice, you all… wouldn’t have ended up like this…”
“Hi… hi…”
The child, almost devoid of internal functions, could be fed nothing.
Even if food were given, it would seep from the wrecked side of their body. If food were to leak out, the cruel parasites and scavengers of this ocean would swarm to feast upon it.
The Sinister Eyed Mermaid Princess, stifling her tears, gently stroked the child for a while.
She untangled the hair that had knotted from lying still for so long, comforting them by stroking their cheeks and forehead.
There was nothing she could do.
The fact alone felt utterly despairing to the Sinister Eyed Princess.
Thud
Thud
Thud
“…..It’s time to go.”
Feeling a section of the gate opening, the Sinister Eyed Mermaid Princess floated up.
She was the only one who could protect this sea and those children.
She was the one who bestowed the curse, so it was her responsibility to protect them.
“Hi… Gk, hi, this, hi, hi…”
“I’m sorry. I have to go now.”
“….Hi, this, this… hi, this…..”
The child with half their body wrecked clung to the Sinister Eyed Princess, as if pleading her not to leave.
It was a feeble grip that could barely push her away, yet still, the princess felt as though an enormous weight were on her.
Her breathing quickened, her chest rose and fell.
But she had to go.
Though she wished to stay here forever, if the gate opened, what had hurt those children would soon pour in.
She couldn’t let even the healthy children end up in such a state.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”
Ultimately, the Sinister Eyed Mermaid Princess turned her head, leaving the child on the bed of the abyss, and began to move towards the sound of dissonance.
Upwards, upwards.
Today, she felt the rough ocean currents sharply against her skin.
But something was strange.
The sisters she usually saw around here were nowhere to be found.
She couldn’t hear the sounds of the Lava Serpent that tormented her sisters, nor did she even hear the sounds of the gate opening.
Initially suspicious, the Sinister Eyed Mermaid Princess began to feel anxious and envisioned terrible thoughts.
Could it be that humans were not satisfied with lowering the anchor chains?
Could it be that humans invaded directly to take her sisters away?
Yes, that had to be it.
You humans must have come in directly to take the sisters away!
Just like before, you would treat them worse than slaves, rendering them unable to die or live, letting their bodies rot away…!
Splash!
“I won’t let it slide…”
As the Sinister Eyed Princess clenched her fist, the ocean currents stopped.
The flowing currents froze, and the physical force that should have moved them began to gather in the Sinister Eyed Princess’s hands.
No wonder she hadn’t shown any aggressive behavior for a while; it must have been to prepare for this large-scale invasion!
The Sinister Eyed Mermaid Princess opened her eyes from beneath the eye patch.
Typically, she wouldn’t have opened these hideous eyes, but seeing her sisters absent from the coral colony, she couldn’t gather her wits in anger.
Ah, she could feel it.
Something not of the mermaids had invaded this sea.
The wretched presence of something, something like a rotten corpse that was not a mermaid, was with the children.
Having been trampled countless times, was this still not enough?
She held no grudges or anger about one day settling the score.
But you are crossing the line…!
Where the Sinister Eyed Mermaid Princess, filled with rage and venom, was heading to…
“Hehe, this massive salmon is delicious.”
“Delicious!”
“Delicious!”
“Sal-mon!”
“Eh-heh-heh!”
– Hahaha
– Seriously, are you eating all that? LOL
– That looks like at least 200 servings.
– Still, they probably ate less since they ate it with mermaids, right?
– Can you even say that after seeing them gorge like that?
“………”
She spotted a white pig wearing a Jellyfish Hat sharing a ten-meter-long salmon with her sisters.
And what is that…?
Isn’t that something the humans call a drone?
“What the…”
What is going on here?
When did pigs learn to swim in the ocean?
