GRP Chapter 18

Oze, who had been suffering from the mermaid's screams, staggered to his feet. His eyes remained closed. Seeing how he'd been the first to detect the attack and how he'd reacted most sensitively to the mermaid's song, Oze seemed to have excellent hearing.

"Uh, there don't seem to be any more."

Snow mermaids were a species that traveled in groups. If you found one, you had to assume there were dozens more. It went without saying for a queen leading a tribe, so this was a very strange situation.

People clustered around where the snow mermaid's corpse lay. At the center of the group were Garthe and Samthyeon crouching down. They rummaged through the corpse without hesitation.

"Looking at the jewel on its chest, it's a queen."

"A distinguished guest graced us with her presence."

Garthe lifted the arm sprouting from the mermaid's shoulder blade.

"Wouldn't have these as decoration. A regressor?"

"Its size exceeds normal dimensions, it's deformed, and it has aggressive tendencies rare for snow mermaids... The possibility is high."

On one side, they conversed peacefully; on another, someone sipped their drink stealthily. The atmosphere felt peaceful enough to make the battle that had just occurred seem insignificant.

Garthe stood up from his spot, sat on the edge of the table, then swept the space the intruder had scattered with a sharp gaze. Mariaeks, standing awkwardly alone, got caught right in it.

"Mariaeks."

The cold voice poured over her confused mind. Light returned to Mariaeks's eyes, which had been dazed for a moment. The living Garthe was twice as threatening and frightening as the dead mermaid. She approached him, suppressing her body's trembling with calm steps. As she stood before him, the man's eyes turned downward. He seemed to be looking at where the mermaid had licked.

Garthe's rough, long hand grabbed Mariaeks's chin. The moment she slightly frowned at the strong force, the man's face came right up to her. A ticklish breath came first, then a hot tongue next, brushing across her cheek.

Mariaeks remained frozen, only blinking her eyes. So, the man had suddenly licked the wound on her cheek. His prominent Adam's apple moved greatly. Gulp. Having achieved his purpose, the hand released Mariaeks's chin without lingering.

"......"

Dozens of pairs of eyes moved back and forth between Mariaeks and Garthe. He smacked his lips a few times like someone who couldn't feel the gazes.

"Tastes like blood."

"Well, would it taste like wine...?"

The man who had severed the mermaid's neck, Salenoke, retorted as if dumbfounded.

The feast ended early. A drinking ban was issued to everyone due to the regressor's appearance. The humans whose alcohol was confiscated wailed miserably. In the midst of it all, only Samthyeon seemed pleased to have obtained the mermaid queen's corpse. Leaving the chaos behind, Mariaeks followed Garthe out of the banquet hall.

A wooden bathtub had been prepared in the room. White steam rose gently from the warm water filling the tub. She thought it was prepared for Garthe, but he just sat on the sofa, looking uninterested. A voice tinged with boredom fell over the prolonged silence.

"Don't tell me I have to bathe you too?"

The man leaning back against the sofa gestured with his chin toward the tub. Those words and that action. It seemed he was telling her to bathe.

It was the most welcome thing she'd heard since meeting him. From the new white cloak to the shoes he'd put on her himself, everything was dirty with food, blood, and bodily fluids. Her body, which had been soaked in cold sweat several times and dried, also felt uncomfortably sticky.

Mariaeks slowly removed her cloak and dropped it to the floor. Then she took off her shoes, the cloth wrapped around her feet, and the loose tunic in turn. Cool air clung seamlessly to her bare skin. Her body trembled.

She felt a gaze. Mariaeks turned her head following the presence. Garthe sitting on the sofa was looking at her with a rare different expression. His straight eyebrows were twisted, and his mouth that always held a faint hint of laughter hung open ambiguously. That unfamiliar reaction brought tension. After a moment, Garthe, having erased the strange expression, smiled coldly.

"First time I learned the dressing screen was decorative."

At his reproachful tone, Mariaeks hesitated, then picked up the clothes from the floor and hung them on the screen. Garthe's eyebrow twitched up. Thinking this wasn't it, she also neatly placed the leather shoes and checked his reaction, but the man had already lost interest and turned his gaze to a book. A truly capricious human.

"Just bathe."

Mariaeks headed for the tub inside the screen. Though the room was cold, inside was quite warm. After confirming that Garthe was completely invisible, she quietly scooped up water and drank. After drinking about eight scoops, her thirst was completely quenched. The snow mermaid's attack had been bewildering, but it had created an opportunity to drink water, so it wasn't entirely a bad thing. They say good and bad things come together. Mariaeks simply buried her face and gulped down water. Until her stomach was taut with liquid.

When the sensation of liquid sloshing made her stomach feel uncomfortable, Mariaeks entered the tub. The warm water felt like all the tension up to now melted away in an instant. Ullri and Baen occasionally prepared bathwater for her, but never water this warm. In Heimdrykze, firewood was hard to obtain, so at best it was lukewarm, or barely unfrozen cold bathwater.

Immersing herself deeply up to just below her nose, the warm temperature spread through her entire body. She unconsciously let out a sigh. Suddenly a stinging sensation brushed her skin. Looking below the surface, blood was spreading from wounds. Mariaeks rubbed hard at the places the mermaid had licked. The sticky, slippery sensation crawling slowly up seemed to still remain on her legs. Her hands washing her legs trembled violently.

Whoooo—beyond the window, the blizzard raged. Mariaeks recalled the mermaid's face rushing blindly toward her, not even glancing at the humans. If it had been simple killing intent, she could have understood. But the emotion permeating the mermaid's song and eyes was closer to fervent desire. The mermaid had desperately wanted her. When licking her blood, it even trembled with rapture, seemingly forgetting pain and death.

'What on earth...'

What on earth was that. What was it. What happened. Why my blood?

A water droplet that had run down her forehead pooled on the wound on her cheek. At the stinging sensation, she carefully stroked her cheek. A faint drop of blood stained her fingertip. Mariaeks licked her bloodstained fingertip.

'Tastes like blood.'

Well, it wouldn't taste like wine.

Though she'd been born and lived in Heimdrykze, which many creatures guarded against most vigilantly, she'd rarely felt crisis like this. It was because she'd always been under the protection of the greatest and strongest being. Threats had only been Rhaevydie's wickedness, avalanches, extreme cold, heavy snow, or hunger.

Was it because she'd spent a hundred years in a safe place? She hadn't anticipated at all that outside Heimdrykze would be this dangerous. She couldn't even count how many times she'd nearly died. Multiple times to Garthe, once to the mermaid. Not even two days had passed and already she was in this state. How on earth was she supposed to endure a full year?

Mariaeks thought of the old, small temple. The safest place in this world. The unchanging, eternal place. She desperately wanted to return to that location. Mariaeks hugged her knees and buried her head deeply.

Garthe was reading a moderately boring and moderately useful book when he suddenly looked up.

'...Quite some time seems to have passed.'

The woman who'd gone to bathe was completely silent. Looking toward the screen, not even warm steam was rising anymore. More time had passed than he'd thought.

"Mariaeks?"

No answer came. Though she usually expressed her intent only by shaking or nodding her head, it was a bit strange that there wasn't even the sound of water splashing.

Garthe put down the book and stood up. He didn't even need to go behind the screen. Thanks to his considerable height, just standing up let him see the scene beyond the screen clearly. Garthe's eyebrow rose crookedly. He let out a short sigh and strode past the screen.

Slosh...plip. Gurgle... plop. A weary sound echoed. It was the sound made by the woman sitting in the tub, hugging her knees with her head bowed deeply. She had fallen asleep.

'Should I leave her like this?'

The first plan that came to mind was immediately discarded. He too had traces of battle left here and there. Only after pulling Mariaeks out could he bathe or not bathe.

"Requires quite a lot of attention in many ways..."

And I'm not exactly the helpful type. Garthe rolled up his sleeves to his elbows and lifted the sleeping Mariaeks up. Her small head touched his chest lightly. Zzzz, hmm. Regular breathing sounds echoed from within his embrace. Even while he dried her body and laid her in bed, she showed no signs of waking. At this level, it wasn't sleep but fainting. He couldn't understand how such a dull and weak god had survived in Heimdrykze.

The woman's white naked body absorbed the candlelight and glowed softly. Like snow piled gently reflecting moonlight faintly.

Garthe had been a hero with his name known across the continent since long ago. As was common for those strong and renowned, he too had received countless temptations. He'd met over a hundred people called "the continent's greatest beauty" alone. Could the word "greatest" really be attached to that many people?

There were those adorned with glittering gold and silver treasures, and those who tempted with their natural born appearance. Soft and voluptuous bodies, silky smooth hair, moist glistening eyes, plump lips as if holding fruit, and fragrances that stimulated the five senses—any human's heart would be moved.