TGHD Ch 15

Swish, swish…

The sound of water rippling incessantly tickled Ryubeom’s ears. It was as if he was passing through a vortex, the fierce noise echoing endlessly before gradually subsiding. At that moment, Cheon Ryubeom slowly opened his eyes. As the bubbles dispersed, his vision began to clear underwater.

Currently, Ryubeom was being dragged through the river by the tail of a mermaid. Pretending to be unconscious, he kept his eyes closed and remained still, ensuring they would not suspect anything. He minimized his spiritual energy to maintain just enough breath.

It was a gamble. He reasoned that perhaps they wouldn’t consume the most tempting prey immediately, or perhaps there was something else more important to them at the moment.

Fortunately, as he had hoped, the mermaid that had caught Ryubeom was taking him somewhere. He remained compliant as they cut through the water, waiting for the right moment. When they finally stopped, he opened his eyes slightly to assess the situation.

Three mermaids were attached to something. The scene was bizarre. Though nothing was visible, the way they clung to it made it seem like there was a building there. Ryubeom guessed that this was the faint structure he had glimpsed when he had fallen into the river under the illusion of the mermaids last time.

Believing there was something hidden there, Ryubeom focused his spiritual energy on his vision, and a small building faintly came into view. The mermaids circled around the dome on the building’s roof, whispering amongst themselves.

[We must kill them…]

[All of them…]

[If only we had that core…]

Their voices were strange, a mix of female and male, old and young. It was both clear and murky, cheerful yet cracking.

Ryubeom stared at their backs, finding them unfamiliar. The mermaid in the center was the largest, with long hair trailing down to the tip of its tail fin. The ones on either side were smaller in stature with shorter hair. The center mermaid’s tail fin shimmered with a faint blue hue, while the others had yellow and green hues, respectively.

The way the mermaids’ scales faintly shimmered like black mother-of-pearl in the water felt eerie. The sight was almost hypnotic, and Ryubeom barely managed to tear his gaze away, focusing instead on the “building” they were looking at.

The single-story structure had no windows, with the only view inside through the dome on the roof, but the mermaids were clinging to it, making it impossible for Ryubeom to see inside from his position.

[…First, use the tiger’s… spiritual power to open the door…]

[No… we need to wait a bit longer…]

The mermaids conversed back and forth. Though he couldn’t hear them clearly, Ryubeom guessed that he had been brought here to be used as energy to either kill someone inside the building or destroy the building itself.

Since all three were focused on the building, Ryubeom began to look for a way to escape. Just then, he noticed a path leading into the building in the distance.

Seizing the right moment, Ryubeom carefully slipped out from between the mermaid’s tail fins. The mermaid holding him was the smallest and seemed to perceive him only as a bundle of spiritual energy. So, he concentrated his energy and left it in his place before moving away.

His plan worked, and fortunately, he wasn’t caught as he ascended to the surface. As soon as he emerged, the cold, crisp air rushed into his lungs, and Ryubeom stifled a cough.

After a brief moment to collect himself, Ryubeom scanned his surroundings. It was an empty clearing. The space was silent, with only the dried reeds from last winter stretching endlessly, yet he could faintly sense the presence of others nearby. Though dusk had darkened the surroundings, the darkness wasn’t much of an issue for him.

Ryubeom began to silently follow the faint presence. In the darkness, he spotted two figures walking somewhere. From their shape and scent, he could tell they were human men. Holding his breath, Ryubeom trailed after their shadows. The tiger’s stealth abilities were among the best in the predator family.

The rustling of reeds filled the air as the men, unaware that a tiger was following right behind them, continued their conversation.

“Ugh, this path is always so inconvenient. The old one was much easier.”

“Well, what can you do? The mermaid destroyed that path. We should be thankful we even have this emergency route.”

The men, pushing through the reeds that reached up to their chests, soon opened a hidden door in the bushes. A staircase leading downward was revealed as the door opened silently with a fingerprint scan, and they walked down, as if familiar with the path.

“The animal hospital made for a good cover, but…”

Clatter—a small sound came from behind.

The man with scruffy hair and glasses quickly turned around, but all he saw was the closed door. He shrugged his shoulders and continued walking.

Only after they had moved on did Cheon Ryubeom, who had been clinging to the ceiling, carefully land. He had been so startled by what he overheard that he had almost lost his footing when they suddenly turned around.

“Phew…”

Ryubeom quietly calmed his breath and organized the information. The clues connected with their complaints about the inconvenience of the path and the mention of the animal hospital. When he had visited the animal hospital before, it had seemed as if they had left in a hurry, with all their belongings still there…

Was there originally a path leading from the animal hospital to this place, which the mermaid destroyed, forcing them to change routes urgently? Even if the hospital was above ground, they might have fled, thinking it was within the mermaid’s reach of destruction.

But what on earth was happening in this place?

Ryubeom checked his phone. It had broken after being submerged in water. Besides, he hadn’t charged it properly while wandering outside for the past three days, so the battery was completely drained. After pressing the powerless button a few times in vain, he moved on.

Following the direction the men had gone, Cheon Ryubeom carefully made his way forward. Perhaps it was a vague sense of dread about what he might encounter, but his stomach churned slightly. As he descended the stairs, step by step, his heart grew colder with each step, as if chilled by anticipation.

When Ryubeom finally reached the underground, the sudden brightness of the space assaulted his vision. The stairway had been somewhat dim, but now the room was blindingly bright, and Ryubeom had to blink a few times to adjust. Only after suppressing the stinging in his eyes could he take in his surroundings.

And then he froze, momentarily forgetting to breathe.

“Oh, we’re going to get a lot of tail fur this time.”

“Deer antlers are getting harder to come by. The requests keep coming in, though…”

The room, which resembled a laboratory, was filled with numerous cages. Inside the glass-fronted laboratories, there were various “beastmen” trapped, and humans in white coats busily moved about the corridors lined with these labs. Some were jotting down notes, while others peered into the labs to check on the beastmen’s condition.

A faint smoke periodically emitted from the labs, causing the beastmen inside to slump helplessly. Both men and women, young and old, were trapped, their animal ears and tails fully exposed. The smoke seemed to cloud their minds and prevent them from transforming back into their human forms.

Sheep beastmen, rabbit beastmen, raccoon beastmen—most of the captives were small animals. The two men Ryubeom had seen on the stairs earlier were conversing in front of a lab where a rabbit beastman lay unconscious.

“Sunbae-nim, I heard that in the face of a significant threat, they can completely transform into an animal form. Why don’t we use that method?”

“Don’t. If you push them to that extent, who knows what might happen? We need to maintain some boundaries.”

The man, who was called Sunbae, shrugged as if upholding some high moral standard. After responding, he looked around, then suddenly jumped in surprise and shouted.

“We were told not to mess with foxes as much as possible!”

And where the man’s gaze landed, there were triplets. The children were slumped inside the lab, and like the other beast-people in different compartments, their ears and tails were fully exposed. The strong effects of the drug seemed to affect the young children more, as even their hands and feet were covered in fur.

As the man gasped, his junior sheepishly defended himself.

“But there are a lot of requests for fox tails. They even offered a huge amount of money this time…”

“That’s because it’s that dangerous! Do you even realize how powerful the fox clan is?! Ugh, there’s this ridiculous rumor going around that possessing a part of a beast-person’s body can grant you their spiritual energy… But the problem is this weird rumor that says the fox clan is so wealthy because they receive the blessing of wealth.”

“Well, it’s not entirely baseless, is it? And besides, these kids don’t seem to have any guardians.”

“No guardians?”

“Yeah, there was supposed to be someone coming to pick them up, but when I asked if they were beast-people, they didn’t say anything. If they were, they could have just answered yes, so why hide it? Plus, they said no one would be home even if they returned, and they were easily lured with candy, so it seems like they haven’t received much proper education.”

As the junior explained, the man with the messy beard slowly nodded, thinking that since the fox clan was large, not everyone might be closely connected.

“Hmmm, so maybe they’re not important members of the fox clan. Given how easily they fell for this trick, it’s clear they don’t have much spiritual power…”

“Oh, should we not extract from them then?”

“What are you talking about? We’re going to scrape out every last bit of spiritual energy.”

Listening from afar, Cheon Ryubeom’s face gradually turned pale. The reason the triplets remained silent when asked if their guardian was a beast-person was because of him. He had told them not to reveal that he was a tiger beast-person, so they hadn’t answered the question at all.

Soon, the two men moved to the center of the building. Ryubeom, frozen, followed them with his gaze.

In the very center of the laboratory stood a massive capsule. Inside that capsule floated what looked like a jet-black orb, and it didn’t take long for Ryubeom to realize what it was.

That’s spiritual energy from beast-people.

It was a mass forcibly gathered by extracting and mixing the powers of various beast-people. The amount of spiritual energy was considerable, indicating it had been collected over a long time. They must have scraped the spiritual energy from all the beast-people they had kidnapped until there was nothing left. After all, powerful beast-people with abundant spiritual energy wouldn’t have been captured by them in the first place.

“Spiritual energy is truly amazing.”

That admiration felt eerie. As Cheon Ryubeom stared intently at the capsule, he noticed transparent engravings on the surface. His jaw dropped as he checked the walls and ceiling of the space. The reality he faced hit him so hard that his head buzzed.

They were using the spiritual energy stolen from beast-people to create a barrier around this space.

[…If only I had that core…]

Only now did he realize that the ‘core’ the mermaid had mentioned referred to this. The mermaids outside intended to kill the humans here and steal the core.

The engravings on the capsule, walls, and ceiling were spells of protection and concealment. These spells emitted waves that would confuse anyone who approached, hiding the building from detection. The protection spells also served to block external impacts, but faint cracks could be seen here and there, suggesting that there had already been a few clashes with the mermaids.

Just then, a loud thud sounded from outside.

“Ugh, they’re at it again.”

“They won’t be able to get in anyway. It’s such a hassle. Can’t we just hunt them down first?”

“Well, the director has been saying we should get rid of them soon. Once we gather a bit more spiritual energy, it should be possible.”

The men spoke indifferently, as if they were used to these loud noises. They didn’t even bother looking outside or paying any attention to the commotion, making Cheon Ryubeom feel cold inside.

In fact, the reason the mermaids were angry right now was because of Cheon Ryubeom.

[……!]

[…! ……!]

There was a small, semi-transparent window in the center of the ceiling, through which the silhouettes of the mermaids could faintly be seen. They seemed to have just noticed Ryubeom’s absence, scolding the smallest mermaid, and then irritably peering inside.

Their ominous demeanor made Ryubeom a bit anxious. Although he had used them, surely they wouldn’t try to kill him.

Ryubeom now understood why the mermaids were so furious. While he also understood their anger, he had a gut feeling that if they obtained the “core,” they wouldn’t stop at just punishing the humans in the lab. The strong ominous energy spread across the entire Han River was telling him so.

Once they gather all the spiritual energy from the kidnapped beast-people here, the core would finally be complete. The researchers’ talk of having “enough spiritual energy to kill the mermaids” was about that, and it was the moment the mermaids had been waiting for. If the core fell into the mermaids’ hands and was used for malicious purposes, it would lead to a great disaster.

Ryubeom began to carefully plan his next move. He needed to escape with the kidnapped beast-people. Fortunately, the humans here were so focused on their experiments that they seemed completely unaware of the unusual signs outside.

There were ten humans in total. Most moved in pairs or threes, and their energy wasn’t particularly threatening. However, they had tools. The walls were lined with anesthetics, and some had guns strapped to their belts.

Could he win if he confronted them head-on? Ryubeom calculated the odds, but the outcome didn’t look good. In that case…

Ryubeom’s gaze quickly swept across the space and landed on a dynamo. There were three humans between him and the dynamo. After confirming their numbers, Ryubeom took a deep breath and began sprinting along the wall. He moved so quietly that the researchers in the hallway only felt a strong wind passing by.

“Huh, was that something…?”

Bang! Just as one of them turned in confusion, the lab lights went out with a loud crash. Without hesitation, Cheon Ryubeom had struck the dynamo, crushing the machine with the force of a tiger.

Amidst the sudden chaos in the lab, a buzzing sound echoed—a signal that another emergency generator was being activated. Ryubeom moved quickly to seize the opportunity. In the darkness, his eyes glowed with a golden hue.

“Kids, can you walk?”

He opened the lab where the triplets were and called out to them. However, their eyes were glazed over from the drugs, and they just blinked drowsily. In the end, Ryubeom rushed inside, quickly scooped them up, and carried them out.

As they clung to his chest, the dazed Keum-O mumbled as he clung to Ryubeom’s neck.

“Mm… Beom-ah… I kept the secret…”

Ryubeom paused for a moment, then bit his lip tightly before finally responding.

“…Yeah, thank you. Let’s play together when we get outside.”

Holding them close, Ryubeom took a deep breath and began moving again. He opened other labs and called out to the beast-people inside. Fortunately, the adult beast-people hadn’t completely lost consciousness, and they staggered out, though unsteadily. As the power to the space was cut off, no more sedative gas was released, and a few regained their senses.

The beast-people supported each other as they struggled to move. They looked at Cheon Ryubeom with faces that seemed to have encountered a miracle.

“H-how did you get here…?”

“Thank you, thank you so much…”

Ryubeom had no time to respond to their startled and incoherent expressions of gratitude.

By then, the distant labs had also realized what was happening. The beast-people’s eyes glowed in the dark as they started banging on the glass walls. They were intentionally causing confusion among the researchers.

“What’s going on? Who’s…?!”

“Just shoot them!”

Bang! The researchers began firing warning shots. However, since they couldn’t accurately discern each other’s positions, their attacks were half-hearted. They hurriedly pulled out their phones to light up the area, but the light only reached a small radius.

In the dimly lit space, a large shadow flashed by, further disorienting them. The fleeting sound of breath near their ears was like the breath of a wild beast, sending shivers down their spines.

Bang, bang! More shots were fired. Ryubeom skillfully dodged them as he tried to open the remaining labs. He had entrusted the triplets to other beast-people and was rushing around, but eventually, he reached his limit. The beast-people were sluggish from the drugs, and time was running out.

Suddenly, the space was flooded with light.

The emergency power had finally kicked in. In just a few minutes, Cheon Ryubeom had pushed himself to the limit, but he couldn’t save everyone.

“Who is that guy?! Who brought him here?!”

“No one did! Who would bring him here?!”

The researchers aimed their guns at Cheon Ryubeom. Some held tranquilizer guns, but before they could move, Ryubeom took a deep breath.

“Stop!”

His shout, like a tiger’s roar, echoed thunderously through the space. The fierce growl, filled with the menace of a predator, made everyone hesitate. The primal fear of encountering a top predator in the wild gripped their bodies. Some even gasped and took a step back, cold sweat running down their spines.

The command, charged with spiritual energy, made the very air tremble. The overwhelming presence that swept over them affected not only the humans but also the smaller and herbivorous beast-people. Some of them fell to the ground, trembling, as all attention focused on Cheon Ryubeom.

“Stop the experiments immediately and leave this place.”

“…W-what did you say?”

The researchers, frozen in tension, stammered as they tried to respond. They seemed to barely understand, and Ryubeom was about to speak again when a scream erupted from behind.

“Aaaah, aaahhh…!”

A researcher had taken a beast-person hostage. Realizing that Cheon Ryubeom’s goal was to help the beast-people escape, they dragged a beast-person out from the back of the lab and held a gun to their temple. The beast-person winced in pain as their hair was yanked, but the man’s grip only tightened.

“Don’t get swept up in this nonsense! There’s only one of him anyway!”

“We can handle one wild animal!”

Bang, bang! Gunshots rang out in quick succession. Now that they had pinpointed Cheon Ryubeom’s location, they could aim accurately. Ryubeom could dodge them all, but there were other beast-people behind him. He kicked the edge of a desk and lifted it like a shield.

Carrying the heavy desk with ease, Cheon Ryubeom guided the beast-people to safety. He kept low, trying to get them out of the line of fire. The others helped him, using their spiritual energy to protect one another.

Boom…!

But then, something flew towards Ryubeom and exploded next to him. The blast radius was small, like a grenade, but the smoke that followed tickled his nose, causing him to cough. As soon as the smoke entered his lungs, Ryubeom realized what he had inhaled.

It was the same smoke that had filled the lab earlier.

“How dare you….”

He had only inhaled a small amount, so his transformation didn’t immediately reverse. He barely managed to suppress his ears and tail from emerging, but faint black stripes started to appear on his face—the stripes of a tiger.

Seeing Ryubeom’s canines sharpen as he exhaled briefly, the researchers hesitated.

“Wait, a-a tiger?”

“Are you kidding me? We weren’t expecting a predator like this.”

“Shouldn’t we be careful with a tiger? The Cheon clan…!”

Ryubeom struggled to suppress his rage as he spoke, trying to stay as calm as possible, though his words came out in a snarling tone as if he were chewing them.

“You should stop this right now….”

But before he could finish, swoosh! A sharp sound cut through the air as a tranquilizer dart embedded itself in Ryubeom’s arm. The sedative was potent, and unfortunately, Cheon Ryubeom was already at the brink of exhaustion after several sleepless nights. He tried to hold on, but his body began to sway.

“One tiger should be manageable, right? If we just bury it instead of skinning it, the clan might not even notice….”

The researcher who fired the dart spoke in a clear, confident tone. He had a shaggy appearance and a gentle demeanor—the junior that Ryubeom had been pursuing.

His suggestion intrigued the other researchers. Beast-person pelts were in demand because they carried their spiritual energy, but tigers were too dangerous. The tiger clan was small and known for their strong sense of unity.

But if they could dispose of the body without leaving a trace, it might be okay. Besides, tigers usually lived in groups, but this one had come here alone. They began to wonder if he might be an isolated member of his clan.

As he saw the growing anticipation and relief on the researchers’ faces, Cheon Ryubeom sighed. He lamented how greed had clouded their judgment, and then his eyes caught sight of a “crack” behind them. The barrier protecting the building was breaking. The crack had formed during the clash between the beast-people and the humans.

And the beings outside did not miss this opportunity.

Boom!

With another powerful blow from the mermaids, the crack widened. As everyone turned to look, the wall of the building crumbled.

“What, what’s happening?!”

“A mermaid…!”

“Just a moment ago, everything was fine!”

The researchers screamed in panic. As soon as part of the wall collapsed, water began to flood the space at an alarming rate. One researcher, who had been close to the collapsed section, was instantly swept away by the current.

A mermaid’s face suddenly appeared beyond the broken wall. Its mouth stretched into a wide grin, as if it eagerly awaited the complete submersion of the area. It then tried to break more of the wall. The murderous intent of the mermaid filled the space with a chilling atmosphere.

“Ha…”

Cheon Ryubeom sighed deeply as he pulled the tranquilizer dart from his arm and stepped forward. A barrier. As he murmured softly, a golden string of characters spiraled around his hand. The unfamiliar sensation in his hand made Ryubeom clench and unclench his fist a couple of times before raising his arm in a broad arc.

Golden spiritual energy spread out like a blooming lotus, forming a dome-shaped barrier. The barrier only covered half of the lab. This technique required more spiritual energy than the barrier he had used in Hyojomyeon, and Ryubeom’s current condition prevented him from covering the entire space.

No water could enter the completed barrier. The humans, who had been desperately fleeing towards the back stairs, cheered and hurried their steps. But the way to the stairs was already blocked by thick, dark blue energy. When the wall collapsed, the mermaids’ energy had flooded the space, and they had blocked the escape route.

“We need to get out of here!”

One of the researchers tried to break through the energy, only to be caught and lifted into the air. The dark blue energy wasn’t just an obstacle; it engulfed the man’s body in an instant. It took only seconds for the writhing energy to completely envelop him.

Thud…

When the man fell to the floor shortly after, he was nothing but skin and bones. It seemed that the mermaid had drained all his life force, leaving his skeletal arm trembling before he passed out, perhaps even dead.

The researchers gasped in horror and backed away from the stairs. In an instant, two of them were dead. They finally grasped the terrifying reality—they were completely trapped in this space. Water was flooding into the lab, and the mermaids beyond the barrier were trying to kill them.

The researchers hesitantly moved into the barrier created by Cheon Ryubeom. Some pointed their guns at the mermaids outside, but their hands were trembling uncontrollably. Ryubeom didn’t bother to push them out of the barrier.

A mermaid with yellow fins, who had been watching the situation, spoke to Cheon Ryubeom. The face peering through the collapsed wall looked familiar—it was the same mermaid he had encountered at the Han River.

[Tiger, tiger. Why do you try to protect humans?]

“I’m not trying to protect them….”

Cheon Ryubeom replied in a slightly weakened voice. The smoke he had inhaled and the effects of the tranquilizer made him increasingly drowsy. He shook his head vigorously and bit his lower lip, trying to stay alert.

He took a step forward and reinforced the barrier with more energy.

“…I’m trying to protect this core.”

Cheon Ryubeom stood next to the core that contained the spiritual energy of the beast-people. His determined voice made the mermaid blink slowly. With eyes as deep as the ocean, devoid of any whites, the mermaid stared at Cheon Ryubeom before opening its mouth in a smile.

[Why? What do you think we’ll do with it?]

“You’ll kill the humans.”

[Even after seeing what they’ve done, shouldn’t they be killed?]

[They say the tiger is the protector of this land, but you’re quite a biased protector.]

“If you absorb this core, calamity will spread to every place the Han River touches, and I’m trying to prevent that.”

Cheon Ryubeom calmly explained, then pointed out another issue.

“And if your energy grows stronger, the beast-people who were kidnapped here will be in danger. They’re already in poor condition and won’t be able to withstand such strong malevolent energy….”

In fact, the beast-people were already trembling. They were even paler than when they had heard Cheon Ryubeom’s earlier roar, and some had even collapsed. Even within the barrier, the murderous intent emanating from the mermaids in the water was overwhelming.

Beast-people were more sensitive to malevolent energy than ordinary humans. If the mermaids absorbed the core, the resulting explosion of energy would undoubtedly sweep away the beast-people first.

Ryubeom hoped that this argument would resonate with the mermaids. Since they harbored resentment towards the humans who had exploited the beast-people, they might be swayed by the argument that the beast-people were in danger.

Soon, the largest mermaid appeared. Crash… As it approached, the wall crumbled further, revealing not just the mermaid’s face but its entire body. The lab was now half-submerged, with only the area within Ryubeom’s barrier remaining dry.

The large mermaid swam slowly towards Cheon Ryubeom, towering over him as it moved. Its massive body and equally long hair flowed as if in a dream, its dark, shark-like scales glinting coldly.

This mermaid was the leader. Perhaps it was even the original form, with the two smaller mermaids circling it possibly being fragments of its own body.

As Ryubeom observed the connection between their energies, the blue-scaled mermaid also gazed at him, then smiled wickedly.

[They’ve already been poisoned.]

“…Poisoned?”

[This poison burns, tears, and squeezes the body, forcing out all spiritual energy. All the beast-people captured here will die. Their fur and skin will be stripped, their tails cut off, and in the end, even their spiritual energy will be drained. They’ll die shriveled and dry.]

“…”

[Wouldn’t it be better for us to absorb them and give them a painless end?]

Cheon Ryubeom’s mouth slowly fell open. The mermaid’s words were shocking. When had they been poisoned? The smoke that had spread in the lab? He had inhaled it too, but he hadn’t felt anything… until he remembered the candy.

His face darkened instantly. No wonder the mermaids had destroyed the lab as soon as the crack appeared. They hadn’t anticipated Ryubeom forming a barrier—they simply didn’t care because they knew everyone was already doomed. From the start, the mermaids had planned to use Ryubeom to destroy the lab, without any concern for the beast-people who had been kidnapped.

Seeing Ryubeom’s expression, the mermaid grinned with delight.

[You ran around trying to save them, but in the end, it was all in vain. Now, you must agree with our anger, don’t you? So, hand over the core.]

[We will take revenge for you.]

The short-haired mermaids tried to persuade Ryubeom. The researchers behind him trembled, staring at Ryubeom with fearful eyes. Feeling the many gazes on him, Ryubeom slowly let out a sigh.

“…I can’t do that. If I do, the Gwimun will open.”

The core was made by forcibly gathering the spiritual energy of the beast-people, so it held a great deal of resentment. If that resentment mixed with the mermaids’ anger, it would undoubtedly bring disaster.

The mere presence of the mermaids had already opened the path for malevolent spirits. If the path were further tainted with the resentment of numerous deaths, it would finally reach the ‘Gwimun.’ If the Gwimun were to open, the boundary between the afterlife and the mortal world would blur, and not only evil spirits and monsters but also beings from hell could cross over.

At that point, the destruction wouldn’t stop at just one city but would spread across the entire country.

“The beast-people who took the poison—there must be another way to treat them. I’ll find it somehow….”

[Ha! Do you really think you can find a cure in just one week? That poison is not something that can be easily removed.]

The mermaid scoffed at Ryubeom’s words. But Ryubeom didn’t waver and shook his head again. Now that he knew he had only a week, he needed to get out of here quickly to search for a cure. However, to reach the surface, the mermaids would have to clear the way…

Closing his eyes tightly, Ryubeom spoke in a voice that seemed to be choking.

“But I understand the anger you hold against these humans. So… regarding them, I won’t interfere.”

He meant that if the mermaids allowed him to take the core and the beast-people out of this place, he wouldn’t stop them from killing the researchers. This was a choice that would haunt Ryubeom with immense guilt. He felt as though he was sacrificing others because he wasn’t strong enough, a feeling of self-reproach. Even though the researchers were evil, offering humans to monsters was something unthinkable for a tiger like him.

But to Ryubeom’s surprise, the mermaid tilted its head at his offer.

[What if we don’t agree?]

“…What?”

[Why do you think we would accept that deal?]

Suddenly, the mermaid’s face moved closer. Ryubeom, now staring directly into eyes as deep as the abyss, tensed up, raising his guard.

“If malevolent energy spreads throughout the Han River, the capital will descend into chaos. Many humans, including innocent ones not involved in this research, could die….”

[And so?]

“…What, did you say?”

[Why should we be merciful?]

The blue mermaid’s voice turned cold. It was as if it had rolled through an endless, dark abyss, trampled and shattered countless times. For a moment, its voice seemed to blend with the sounds of many others, adding a disturbing note.

It was as if countless resentments had come together.

[The world has never shown us mercy, so why should we show any?]

[Was I not innocent? Did I deserve to die like that?]

A stinging realization struck him. The mermaid’s words about the fate of the beast-people who had inhaled the poison earlier echoed in his mind. Why did they know so much about what would happen here?

Each of the mermaid’s scales, gleaming ominously in the dark water, seemed to hold a trace of a desperate scream.

[We were born from their despair.]