## Chapter 963 – The Sea

I was already wearing beach shorts anyway. And I needed to wash off the fishy blood I was covered in. More than anything, if there were fishmen pouring out in droves, I needed to catch one and find out what was going on.

After securing enough distance to get a running start, I sprinted down the beach.

—콰앙!
—콰앙!
—콰앙!

It was a truly devastating run-up, scattering sand like a storm. Finally, I trampled the boundary between dry and wet sand.

—투쾅!!!

I launched my body like a cannonball.

“Propulsion exceeding the creator’s expectations by far, yeeeeaaaaaah!!!!”

As always, I shouted coolly, savoring the feeling of weightlessness. This jumping power is truly incredible. As I flew, I looked at the sea, but the person’s head was long gone.

Did it completely disappear?
Did I see it wrong?

I memorized the coordinates anyway. Someone like me can imprint the location in my head with just one look at the target. If it was a hallucination, I’ll just wash up and come back. If it’s a corpse, I’ll haul it up and search its belongings.

—풍덩!!

Soon, my energy-depleted body plunged into the sea.

—파앙!
—콰앙!

As soon as my body entered the water, I unleashed a powerful freestyle, slamming my arms down to propel myself forward. I heard that a marlin can reach speeds of about 100 km/h. Of course, I can’t reach that speed in the sea, but this is fast enough.

—파앙! 파앙!
—파앙! 파앙!
—파앙! 파앙!

And so, I slapped the sea’s ass as I traversed the ocean.

Before long, I arrived at the spot where the person’s head had been seen. As expected, there was nothing near the surface. Then I’d have to dive.

“츠압!”

I took a deep breath and plunged my head into the water.

—푸확!

The water wasn’t too dark, so I could see the scenery clearly. It was even more beautiful than I thought. All sorts of fish were moving in schools. I decided to save the appreciation for later and surveyed this three-dimensional space.

Was it a person, or a corpse?

If it was a corpse, it wouldn’t be too far away.
The same goes for an ordinary person.

But it’s unlikely that an ordinary person would be in the sea at this time.

“…”

As I looked towards the open sea, I saw…

—…

I could see a fish the size of a person heading that way powerfully. No, it wasn’t a fish. It was fluttering its hair. Could it be a killer fish carrying a human corpse?

—푸확!

I immediately came up to the surface.

“What the hell?”

It was a mermaid.

An undeniable mermaid.

“What is this?”

Anyway, I started freestyle swimming again and returned to the beach. I didn’t think I could chase and catch it in the water.

But there are mermaids?

Come to think of it, I didn’t see any mermaids when the fishmen and marine crustaceans attacked.

I don’t know the relationship between fishmen and mermaids in the first place, but I haven’t found a single real mermaid. That’s probably because, unlike the fishmen with two legs, mermaids have fish tails.

Mermaids can never come ashore and be active. That’s as obvious as a person not being able to live underwater.

Marine crustaceans have proper legs, so I guess only those with legs are coming ashore.

“Hmm.”

I shook the seawater off my body and thought for a moment.

Sea God… yes, Sea God.

If mermaids are a race with intelligence similar to humans, they would naturally fear those Sea God types. The same goes for sea serpents.

They would fear them as much as we humans fear giant monsters.

So, did the mermaids come to see the Sea God after hearing the news? I don’t know the details. Mermaids are like fish, so they might just swim around as they please.

But somehow… I can’t just let it go.

A mermaid appeared?
This is suspicious enough.

Especially if there’s been an incident related to the sea.
They have intelligence.

Let’s go up for now.

* * *

“Mermaids are, in a word, a hostile race.”

I went to the barracks and asked an officer about mermaids.

“It’s always been that way. They consider attacking fishermen or destroying fish farms as their life’s work. The worst ones even support human pirates because they kill humans anyway. But since they are an intelligent race, it’s not impossible to communicate with them. But even if you talk to them, they ignore the conversation, saying that the sea belongs to them, so why are land-dwelling humans infringing on their rights?”

He kindly took the time to explain, serving me tea.

“It’s absurd to even think about diplomacy with monsters, but we’ve made several diplomatic attempts. Historically. Anyone who’s a lord of the coast has tried to talk to mermaids. But there’s never been a single successful conversation. For mermaids, the sea is theirs without compromise. Diplomacy with monsters is impossible after all.”

It was a pretty detailed explanation.

He said he was a soldier born and raised by the sea. He has a lot of experience fighting mermaids in the sea, and his expertise is remarkable.

“In their position, it’s a natural protest, but how can everything in the sea belong to the mermaids? There are other races besides mermaids, and not everything on land belongs to humans either. Likewise, there is no owner of this sky.”
“Hmm… I see.”

That’s right.

Just because they’re mermaids doesn’t mean they can think that everything in the sea belongs to them. That’s the kind of thinking that only madmen would have.

“Mermaids are claiming their rights with nonsense and causing terrorism. If everything in the sea is theirs just because they were born in the sea, then since I was born on this land, the golden plains of the Merqudia Kingdom are mine. Haha. But that’s not the case, is it?”
“That’s right.”

I nodded and drank a cup of tea.

—호록.

It didn’t really taste like anything.

“They are quite 독선적. They are probably the most intelligent race in the sea. Fishmen just seem stupid, don’t they? But mermaids have heads similar to humans. So, they probably think they are superior to their marine monsters and think they are the managers of the sea. That’s what we think. That’s why we have to catch and kill them whenever we see them.”

He seemed to have a lot of resentment towards mermaids.

“Fishmen certainly seem to be a hostile race.”
“That’s right. They even support pirates. It’s a real headache. In the past, they even rescued vicious pirates from sunken pirate ships, asking them to kill more humans. So, there are even pirates who worship mermaids. They willingly kill and plunder people to follow that faith.”

He nodded and smiled as if he was very happy that I agreed. Was he impressed by the fact that a Paladin acknowledged him?

He even raised his fist and said solemnly.

“This is a bit like orcs on land. Normal orcs are stronger than seasoned soldiers, right? Those guys keep trying to plunder, so we have to subjugate them. The same goes for mermaids. They are really strong in the sea. If a small number of them come, it’s okay, but if an army of mermaids comes, you have no choice but to run away unless you have a fleet.”

The sea is the mermaids’ territory.

“Well, they’re roughly like that… The history of fighting mermaids is very long. Of course, we don’t fight to the death like we used to, but there’s still a lot of damage caused by them. In conclusion, mermaids are very dangerous in the sea and hostile to humans.”

This sea officer has been fighting mermaids throughout his service.

—투욱.

I put down my teacup and said.

“That mermaid appeared in the nearby sea. I’m saying this because I saw it myself. I felt something strange, like the officer just explained, so I came to let you know.”

I’m also wondering why those vicious mermaid bastards suddenly appeared on the coast. Isn’t the fact that the Sea God came ashore quite significant in the first place?

Something’s fishy.

“Thank you for the report.”
“Do you know why?”
“Hmm… I don’t really know, but mermaids coming to nearby waters is… not that common. It’s like a border. There’s no point in coming here without a good reason.”

I guess so.

“Of course, there are still guys who don’t care and attack fishermen or destroy fish farms, claiming sovereignty or protecting the sea. That’s very tricky. We don’t even know where the mermaids’ kingdom is. We can only defend.”

They’re really tricky bastards.

I can’t forgive these guys.

I’m not a racist, but I can’t forgive mermaids who claim that everything in the sea belongs to them without any attempt at agreement. More than anything, they support those pirate bastards? That’s already in the realm of supporting terrorism.

“More than anything, mermaids don’t all move with one mind, and one of them might have just come to see the land without any particular reason… But we’ll have to strengthen our defenses. Thank you for letting us know.”
“It’s nothing. I just came to ask because I wanted to know more about mermaids.”

I roughly know about mermaids now.

Then let’s ask about something else.

“And one more thing I’m curious about, what did you do with the lunatics you arrested? The ones who were babbling about the call of the sea.”
“Ah… you mean those suspected heretics.”

The officer scratched the back of his head awkwardly at my words.

It’s no joke, but when the Sea God came up, many people were caught babbling about a sea prophecy containing land destruction.

Having worked hard as a Paladin, I had a strong feeling that there might be impure elements with strange beliefs in this coastal area.

Of course, I couldn’t just interrogate them with that alone, so I just put them in jail with some appropriate words. In fact, other paladins would have beheaded the madmen as soon as they heard those words, but how could I do that?

“They’re saying they don’t have any memories, just like the others. When the Sea God appeared, the residents and tourists, as well as our soldiers, went crazy and tried to go down to the sea, right? For now, that’s what we’re judging it to be…”

That could be the case.

This is just a suspicion, so if that’s the case, there’s nothing I can do.

“Is that so? Then there’s nothing I can do. Deal with it appropriately.”
“I understand.”

I got up from my seat.

“I enjoyed the tea. It was delicious. See you next time.”
“Ah, yes. Thank you for your hard work, Paladin.”

I asked the officer, who bowed and greeted me, one last question.

“By the way… do you know anything about the mermaids’ faith? I’m judging that the word Sea God didn’t come out for no reason.”
“Hmm… that’s a difficult question. Of course, they have faith, but to be honest, I don’t know the details.”

Oh well.

“But if you’re talking about the Sea God, you can just understand it as a belief unique to sea people. There are a lot of monsters in the sea. Even very large and transcendent monsters. Humans haven’t yet dominated the sea. Of course, there’s probably something huge in that abyss…”

Ominous beliefs about the deep sea exist everywhere.

“Sea God is just such a belief. In fact, in the past, there was a custom of praying to protect ships from storms or marine monster attacks. Maybe they were terrified by that and came up with that.”

I left the building.

* * *

The Sea God is dead and left behind its remains.

I made a contract with the lord to sell part of his corpse and started work on summoning workers to tear off the scales. These large scales were so hard that they seemed to have many uses.

I decided to take his head home.
This could be called a souvenir.

“Paladin. We don’t have enough cash on hand right now. Killing that overwhelming Sea God is a tremendous feat. So, I’d like to pay you with land or a business instead.”
“Land?”
“That’s right. How about it, would you like to think about it?”

Needless to say, we saved this city. Frankly, if it wasn’t for us, the Sea God would have destroyed everything. The baron showed a low profile in front of us with such power and brought up those words.

Land.

My land?
This is a bit interesting.

“I’ll think about it and make a decision.”
“I understand.”

Still, I should leave this to Liz noona for now. She knows more about this than I do.