HTWBB Chapter 22

'No good.'

That small boy would surely stop breathing before lasting long. Just as her past self had nearly done.

Rietta turned her gaze farther out. No one could pinpoint the position where the merchant vessel had run aground, but everyone spoke in unison that it was to the west.

If her memory was correct, the currents in this area were jagged and fierce to the point of being difficult to predict. Of course, it wasn't that there was no regular pattern. It was just that even knowing it, it was so capricious as to be useless. If it was a ship from those days, no matter how solid it was, it would have been difficult to overcome the waves joined by a storm.

Rietta slowly closed her eyes. With this much wind, she could tell the flow below without bothering to check.

'If you fall, it'll be over without even one breath.'

This time, it might truly be as he said. She might drift here and there endlessly in the deep sea and die with her breath cut off.

All the things she'd done to reclaim what was hers would become futile, and perhaps she'd disappoint the boy who would be waiting for her tomorrow morning.

But these lost emotions would also all evaporate and disappear. Rietta lifted her foot toward the void.

"Not bad."

An unfamiliar floating sensation wrapped around her body like before. Soon after, wind as sharp as a storm shook her violently. A fall rapid enough to make her heart drop followed.

Rietta recalled that moment when she was pushed by another's will. The moment she heard that he would cut down her only sibling before her eyes, and not satisfied with that, would also harm all her remaining family.

In that brief instant when all her magic had drained and even moving a finger was difficult, she could barely spit out one sentence.

To Jeffrey with red-gold hair and red eyes who so resembled the current imperial family, a wish that must be fulfilled.

Splash!

The pitch-black sea ruthlessly swallowed Rietta, who had fallen like a bird that gave up flight. The large splash that rose quickly subsided and became calm as if nothing had happened.

"What, someone fell in again last night?"

"Yeah! I saw it clearly, I tell you! How they climbed all the way there in that darkness, really."

The small inn was bustling. The topic being discussed with serious faces was one thing. Around five people had gathered around a man with a bushy beard, each adding their own comments.

Among them was the owner handling all the work in place of the porter who had the day off, so nearly all the people currently staying at this 'Blue Wave' inn had gathered.

"Tell us in more detail. Was it a woman or a man?"

"How would I know when it was so dark! I only went out to smoke and saw something useless. Bah, ptui!"

"Where do you think you're spitting right now?"

"Ah, I'll wipe it!"

A brief squabble continued. People who pushed them aside continued another discussion about how someone broke through the deliberately blocked path.

Melian, listening to the conversation from the landing right above, immediately turned around as the trivial talk continued.

When he returned and closed the door, the room was utterly silent except for occasional wave sounds. He stepped on the floor that let out aged creaks and headed toward the bed. The marigolds he'd gifted sat obediently in a vase that hadn't been there yesterday.

With faint magic perceptible, it seemed Rietta had worked on it. Melian lightly touched the delicate petals. They wouldn't wilt for a while even without watering.

'Thank you, Melian.'

Rietta's rare smile was drawn before his eyes. He forced his gaze down lower. A note torn and folded from some book corner lay there.

He'd discovered it as soon as he woke but didn't unfold it immediately. He couldn't. His gentle companion had answered "no" to the question of abandonment, but he'd encountered too many who spoke lies while seeming truthful to blindly believe those words.

Melian slowly rubbed the edge of the paper. The bearded man downstairs said he'd seen someone jump from the cliff. After the sound of falling into water late at night, no other sounds came for a long time, he'd said.

And now Rietta wasn't by Melian's side. Taking a small breath, he looked at the sea sparkling in the morning sunlight. It was dazzling enough to be hard to look at directly.

"...It's okay. No."

After patting himself on the back several times, he finally picked up the note. The thin paper that would fly away if blown on felt as if it weighed a thousand pounds.

Melian squeezed his eyes tightly shut and unfolded the creased part. After quite some time, the gap between his tightly closed eyelids opened. Through narrowly restricted vision, he saw a very briefly scrawled message.

「It'll take about three days. It might be delayed, so use the extra expenses from the backpack.」

The breath he'd been holding poured out all at once. Melian blinked rapidly and read the single line of instruction several times.

There were no words saying to wait. However, the meaning that she'd return was clearly contained. He belatedly came to his senses and hastily turned the backpack upside down. Though she had few belongings to begin with, there were at least things she always carried. His gaze, busily going back and forth over the spilled items, stopped and his stiffened face finally melted gently.

Except for one top, everything was in its place. Since the very purpose of coming to Clémora was to find the "Mermaid's Heart," she must have gone to find it. Melian wasn't unaware of why Rietta had spent all day going around the shopping district with him.

'So she's still in Clémora.'

She'd taken few things, and hadn't looked at every place in the city yet. But there was definitely a place he could guess. Since Nick, swept by the waves, was the first discoverer of the wrecked merchant ship, she was probably...

Melian turned his head again to the endless horizon.

'You smell like the sea.'

Why of all things did that unpleasant guy's words come to mind? His brow furrowed naturally. If Abel's words and Melian's own guess matched to some degree, there was no need to worry even if she'd jumped into the sea. He could accept the reason she left him, a forest nymph, behind.

However, if by any chance Rietta was an utterly ordinary human, the story changed. Melian forcibly pressed down the anxiety rising like a heat haze.

The Rietta he'd observed so far moved extremely efficiently. If there was even a slight hindrance, she chose to eliminate it rather than accept it, never started things with possibility of failure, and always found the optimal method to finish in the shortest time.

Therefore, this time too, he just needed to wait. Quietly, until she returned.

Ears stuffy as if forcibly blocked, hair moving on its own, cold water touching skin. Rietta savored the feeling of sinking down very slowly, very slowly.

Anticlimactic to the terrifyingly fast fall, the descent in the sea was tediously leisurely. Like a fish that lost its fins, or perhaps like a jellyfish drifting wherever the flow takes it for life, she entrusted her body to the current in the water.

The sea was never noisy. Only occasionally did the sound of breath escaping rise burble-burble like bubbles. A moment completely cut off from the world, remaining utterly alone.

She didn't know the exact direction with eyes closed. However, the unfamiliar current diligently led her to an unknown place.

'I'm afraid of the sea.'

One buried fragment suddenly raised its head.

'Why?'

'Look at that mountain. Even without going close, can't you see about where the peak is?'

'Mm. I can certainly see it well.'

'But with the sea, you can't know how deep the bottom is or where the end of the horizon is.'

The gray-eyed woman stared at Rietta intently after saying that.

'That's why you frighten me.'

'Really? Jeffrey didn't seem that way at all though.'

'The prince is cunning but stupid.'

At those words, Rietta burst into laughter. Then she held out her hand to the pitiful knight without hesitation.

'Don't be afraid.'

'Pardon?'

'Everything is scary before experiencing it properly. Once you dive in, you'll come to like it.'

Her endlessly sinking body stopped at some point. And from below, an abnormal flow began to be felt. Only then did Rietta open her closed eyes. Eyes half-dyed blue sharply examined the surroundings where not even seaweed was visible.

Each time waves undulated, sunlight shining through sporadically illuminated her face before disappearing. It was certain. There was a suspicious current not far away. Unlike what she'd ridden, large and small forces seemed to be mixed in the current, rapidly gathering in one place.

Rietta gauged the amount of magic she could use. It was woefully insufficient to swim there and back for confirmation.

'Can't be helped.'

It wasn't a problem solved by just worrying. She could run into it first, then find a solution. If there was none, another breakthrough would arise.

Rietta put strength into her body that had been lazily relaxed and moved her legs smoothly. Despite the long absent from swimming, her form remained surprisingly natural. However, it was much stiffer than the movements in her memory, and her pace was also noticeably slow.

Large and small fish passed her by. Sometimes they skillfully slipped between strands of her mottled hair. Searching like that for quite a while, Rietta stopped all movement and straightened her waist.

'That's...'