Chapter 1

Humans were hunting me.

They were capturing merfolk in droves and keeping them as household pets.

They had even developed sonic devices specifically to disrupt our powers.

The enchanting songs we merfolk were so proud of no longer worked.

All we could do was flee for our lives.

At first, a whole group of us had fled together.

By the end, I was the only one left.

After swimming through countless days and nights, I finally spotted a beach and a fishing village.

Merfolk had a bad habit.

We liked using our songs and our beauty to enchant humans into giving us everything we wanted.

Mine was acting up.

It was the middle of the night. All the fishermen were asleep.

I cleared my throat and began my wicked singing.

But it was heartbreaking.

Ever since I entered these waters, my powers of enchantment had weakened drastically.

I hadn’t lured in a single person.

I looked down at the sorry state I was in.

My clothes hung off me in tatters.

Even my hair had lost its beauty. It was full of seaweed.

Hideous.

Merfolk were an incredibly vain race.

We weren’t much use in a fight, though.

Mostly, we liked to lure people out at sea and toy with them.

Or swindle them out of gold, silver, and jewels to adorn ourselves.

We seemed impressive, but when it came to catching fish, we could only manage small ones or stupid ones.

Hungry, ugly, and helpless. I honestly wanted to cry.

I had to find some sucker to look after me for a while.

Refusing to give up, I gritted my teeth and kept singing.

I sang until my throat was raw and my voice hoarse.

At last, someone came outside.

He was tall, lean rather than bulky.

A white ribbon covered his eyes, but it didn’t seem to affect his steps at all.

He stopped some distance away and asked quietly, “Who’s singing?”

He must have fallen under my spell.

Every human’s first instinct on hearing a merman sing was to find him.

Then their desire would swell out of control, and they’d try to claim him for themselves.

But when it came to beguiling hearts, merfolk were stronger than humans.

As long as those damned sonic disruptors weren’t around.

I let out a relieved breath and swam to shore.

I transformed my tail into legs and put on a helpless act.

“Hey, mister. I fell into the water and hurt myself. Help me?”

Well, it wasn’t entirely an act.

I really was weak right now.

I’d only just reached adulthood and had only recently learned to form legs.

I’d been fleeing through the sea ever since. I’d never walked upright.

My legs were so limp they had no strength at all, never mind enough to walk on.

I waited and waited. The man didn’t move.

His lips were pressed together. Who knew what he was thinking?

I nearly exploded.

A mere human. A mere human!

Hadn’t I enchanted him?

Why wasn’t he obeying me?

All merfolk had bad tempers, but ever since the hunt began, I’d decided humans were worse.

Still, I didn’t dare push my luck now.

He was the only person who had come looking for me, and I had no strength left to catch fish.

If he ran off, I might starve.

All I could do was act wounded while being genuinely furious.

“Mister?”

The man startled, then finally answered.

“…Yes.”

“Can you come over here yourself?”

“Any farther and I’ll reach the seawater. I can’t get seawater on me.”

I didn’t understand.

It was so shallow. He couldn’t drown in it.

What was there to be afraid of?

“Why?”

“I’ll become very dangerous,” he replied.

What was that supposed to mean?

If he was so afraid of seawater, why live beside the sea?

Was this that thing about facing whatever frightened you most?

Maybe I ought to learn from him.

I took a breath and swallowed my anger.

Using both hands and feet, I practically crawled along the ground.

In a position so humiliating it hardly bore thinking about, I dragged myself over to him.

Thank goodness he couldn’t see.

Otherwise, I’d have died before doing it.

An absolute disgrace to merfolk.

That wretched blind man had the nerve to turn his nose up at me.

I’d crawled all the way to him, and he still wouldn’t pick me up and take me home.

He actually hesitated, then ran back for an enormous piece of cloth.

Only after wrapping me up tight would he carry me home.

Did he think I was dirty?

I was furious enough to faint.