Author: Suisei
Translated by: Rinkage
Special thanks to: Solistia for contributing the Light Novel

Character page: here

The last part of chapter 9 will be posted next week.

-Rinkage

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Chapter 09: I tried to save the mermaid (part 4)

“Don’t look down on us, mermaids, when we’re in places with water. We won’t get hit by any storm here, and if push comes to shove, we can just dive into the water and escape.”  [Misaki]

“…Misaki, the cove here isn’t connected to the sea, so we won’t be able to escape.”  [Shike]

“Dang, you serious? Well, that makes sense. If it’s connected to the sea, Shike wouldn’t have been trapped here in the first place. Change of plan. Tomorrow’s the last day, then. If you guys are not here by tomorrow, we’ll just walk home.”  [Misaki]

That might also be dangerous in and of itself. But if I were to bring this up, this conversation would go nowhere. As such, I didn’t pursue it further and merely promised them that we would be here tomorrow.

After leaving the place, we returned to the bandit’s hideout to join Raven.

…..

Upon reaching the place, we spotted Raven, who was in the middle of commanding the knights. It seemed that they were still in the process of transporting the stolen goods and bandits away.

“Hmm, did something happen?”  [Youki]

As we drew closer, I noticed that something was awry. Apparently, one of the bandits, who had already awakened, was throwing a fit.

“This guy’s just as guilty as us. There was a mermaid in that box, but he must have hidden her when we were knocked out! And he has two more accomplices! I’m sure they’re also in cahoots with that mermaid in the cove. They’re just trying to pin all the crime on us!!!”   [bandit]

The leader of the bandits shouted at the knights. At a loss, the knights merely looked at Raven, who seemed to be contemplating on what should be done as he bit his lower lip. So this bandit leader was trying to take us down together? I could easily tell that from the way he was smirking.

“Damn him. He’s blabbering unnecessarily. Hey, you! We’re…”  [Youki]

“Uuogh!” [bandit]

Before I could cut in, the bandit leader was punched right in the face.

“Seriously. You trying to deceive us? Try as you might, you won’t be able to fool us even if you could fool the knights here. Isn’t that right, guys?” 

“Oooh!!”

Numerous deep, thick voices reverberated throughout the place at once, giving me a sense of deja vu.

Hold on, the crew members from the port are here as well?

“Hey, you’re… if I’m not mistaken, you’re the sailor named, Masa, right?”  [Youki]

“Hmm? Ahoy there! You’re that kiddo and the lady from the other day!” [Masa]

“Don’t ahoy me. Why are you guys here?”  [Youki]

“Yeah well, these group of knights was being really loud. So when we listened in, we realized that they have found our stolen goods. We couldn’t contain our excitement after knowing that, so here we are. We’re here to bring these things back.”  [Masa]

“I-I see.”  [Youki]

I smiled bitterly as I listened to Masa’s explanation while he laughed. On the other hand, Happiness unexpectedly uttered a single word, “Nice!” before tapping on his shoulder, although Masa was laughing so hard he was unaware of it.

“Damn you, I’m still in the middle of…”  [bandit]

“Uruaaaaaaaaaa—!”  [Masa]

The moment the bandit leader tried to complain, Masa brought his face close to him and roared loudly, drowning the bandit leader’s voice. The bandit leader’s eyes flew open in shock. Hey, is that okay?

“…Yer foolish vermin. You have the guts to pin the blame on our benefactors.”  [Masa]

“Uh, is that okay?”  [Youki]

“Us, men of the sea, never forgets a debt. Thanks to you all, we have gotten back almost all the stolen goods. Now our names will be cleared. It’s all… all thanks to you all. Thank you.”  [Masa]

He grasped my hand and shook it as he cried. However, probably due to his overwhelming emotions, he wasn’t able to control his strength, so his hands started moving at such tremendous speed that I could see the afterimages of my arm moving up and down as well as his hands.

“Ho-Hold it, I understand, so please let go of my hand!”  [Youki]

“…Run away.”  [Happiness]

“Ah! Happiness, you stop right there!”  [Youki]

Happiness, that damn harpy had forsaken me. She took the chance to flee when Masa, who was still in tears, hadn’t noticed her.

“Thank you, bro!”  [Masa]

“I get it, so let go of my hand!!!”  [Youki]

…..

After (finally) extricating my hand before my shoulder gets dislocated, I chimed in to help transport the items and move the bandits. The knights, who were initially confused, were perhaps finally convinced that those were merely the bandit’s trickeries, so they also resumed their task under Raven’s command.

“…Umph.”

“Ah, it’s dangerous. Let me carry that.”

“…Up.”

“Lady, it’s dangerous if you drop it. Leave that to a well-trained man like me.”

Each time Happiness tried to lift something up, the nearby knights and crew members would take it away from her. In the end, after looking around for a while, she heaved a sigh and sat herself in a corner.

Is she depressed? Leaving her like this makes me feel bad. Maybe I can get her to go back to the inn first.

Hence, after loading the items in hand onto the carriage, I made my way to her. That was supposed to be my plan before I noticed that someone was already there before me. It seemed that Raven was in the middle of a conversation with Happiness. It would be uncouth to interrupt them, and so, I enhanced my sense of hearing and listened in instead.

“Happiness, are you okay now?”  [Raven]

“…Yes. Anything?”  [Happiness]

“I’m currently making a checklist of the stolen goods. You saw all those empty boxes in the cove, right? The bandits claimed that they are all there, but I’ll need someone to go through them just in case. Not much physical strength is needed for this job and if you were to cooperate with the sailors…”  [Raven]

“…I’ll do it!”  [Happiness]

“T-Thank you. Then could you join the sailors standing before the cargo?”  [Raven]

“…Got it.”  [Happiness]

Although I was watching from a distance, I could see that Happiness’s eyes were sparkling. She then ran towards the cargo, looking highly motivated.

“I’m not sure if it’s just a coincidence, but… I’m glad for you, Raven.”  [Youki]

I murmured to myself before returning to the task at hand to carry the items. Unsurprisingly, we really did end up spending the entire day dealing with the bandits, transporting the stolen items, and making reports.

…..

The next day, we went to the cove, as promised.

“Hey, we’re here!”  [Youki]

The moment I shouted, the water surface trembled and two figures jumped out of the water: Misaki-chan and Shike-chan.

“Yo, been a while.”  [Misaki]

“G-Good morning.”  [Shike]

“We’re here today, as promised. Although, we kinda short on time here.”  [Youki]

We were done dealing with the stolen items in the bandit’s hideout yesterday, but there were things here that needed to be transported away as well.

“Hmm, that’s fine with us. We’d like to return home soon, too.”  [Misaki]

“M-Misaki! That’s rude.”  [Shike]

“I’m just kidding. Well, since we’re short on time, let’s start right away. The title of the song is ‘Thank you for saving us’.”  [Misaki]

“So it’s just as it is?!”  [Youki]

Misaki-chan grinned, seemingly amused at my retort while Shike-chan bowed apologetically.

The two mermaids then began to sing as they swam. Unlike the time when we fought against Shike-chan, the song this time was purely mesmerizing. Raven, similarly, seemed to be just as entranced by the song. Before we knew it, the mermaids’ duet was over, and the two of them were already standing at the same place as before. We had completely lost track of time.

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