"Dear, you're a very smart girl. I'm sure you knew the risks, and besides, why would I be angry at you for doing something I do every day?" I said. Shelly looked away from me, face bright red in shame.

I was slowly swimming along the reef, with Shelly following beside me. Normally, even though Shelly was no pushover, she wouldn't dare be out in the open like this. However, with me here, even if the sky fell, she'd be fine.

"Y-yeah, but still... I shouldn't have fought it..." She murmured. Silly girl, when there's a battle to be fought, you either win it or you flee. She still had the advantage against that octopus, and she probably would have won even if I didn't show up.

"Enough. The past is the past." I tried to finish the conversation, only for Shelly to blurt out the same words she'd said at least 4 times already. "Y-you're really not angry at me?"

"I will be if you keep asking if I am. Now, be a good little mermaid and show me your progress." I said with an exasperated mental sigh. Even though I was still stuck in a body that felt no emotions, somehow, this girl was driving me crazy.

"Okay!" She said enthusiastically. I stopped swimming and faced her, unblinking eyes staring at the cursed princess. She too stopped swimming and closed her eyes, and through my aura sight, I could see her preparing her spell.

I will still insist that magic is really cool, but being 100+ meters long is cooler, and it's totally not my jealousy speaking when I say that my beautiful, huge body is far superior to some meager water blades.

Shelly's eyes were shut close as she concentrated on her attack. After a couple of moments, she let out a yell as four lightning-quick 'blades' of pressurized water materialized around her and charged at me.

Even if I wanted to, at this distance, I wouldn't be able to evade it with my large and cumbersome body. However, I hardly needed to, as the blades harmlessly struck my scales, not even managing to make me feel anything other than some mild amusement.

Shelly's face fell and she pouted at the sight. I would have laughed at the sight, as she looked like a puppy having been denied her treat.

Except, you know... I'm not one for fake laughs.

"Shelly, you improved massively. If it was before my evolution, that attack might have hurt." I consoled her as I swam over to her, my massive body surrounding her.

"Yeah, I guess..." She murmured, making her way over to my head and grabbing onto the back of it. "You're mean, Ms. Snake. I worked so hard, and you don't even praise me..." She whined through our connection.

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"I literally just complimented you, dear. Stop spouting bul-... nonsense. Now, do tell me how you've been during my absence." I retorted, causing the little bipolar princess to light up and immediately begin to rant about her days.

Either she'd missed me quite a lot, or she was just a natural talker. Probably both, considering she didn't shut up until the sun was coming down, only stopping for a brief lunch pause. 

Her eyes had a drowsy look to them as she had stopped talking through our link now, and began to murmur stuff in her own language. She was lazily draped over my body, and soon enough, her eyes closed and she fell asleep.

I stared at her for a while, pondering just what to do with her. I couldn't leave her now, not after letting her rely on me so much. However, what else could I do?

My food intake wasn't actually that large. Just a ton of flesh would be enough to sustain me for at least a couple months, years even if I didn't move a lot. However, that didn't mean I'd be happy with so little food and so little progress.

I couldn't stay in the reef to do that, and I couldn't bring her with me... An idea popped up into my mind. I pondered it for the entire night as I let little Shelly sleep, liking the idea more and more.

When Shelly finally woke up, gently stirring from her dreams with a smile on her face, I immediately tried giving her my head. She was still a bit drowsy with sleep though, so it took a while for her to realize I wanted to talk.

"Good morning, dear. Had a good sleep?" I asked. She nodded happily, staring up at my eyes that were bigger than her entire body, and then some. "Yeah, it was great!"

"I'm glad. I wanted to ask, can you use that telepathy spell of yours to connect two beings that aren't yourself? Like, say, connecting me to another mermaid while you cast it?"

Shelly tilted her head slightly, looking at me with confused eyes. "I think so? Why? Are there other mermaids around here?!" She finished, excitedly looking around with wide eyes.

"Nope. I was just... asking. Now, how about we go look at those pretty rocks?" I diverted her questions, and like the gullible little mermaid she was, she fell for it.

I spent the next couple of days both playing and supervising Shelly's training. I can't really do much else other than give her a safe environment in which to murder cute little fishies, but that alone was enough for me. Her level had already jumped up to 20, which, according to her memories, was the level of an elite soldier back in her country.

In short, it wasn't great, but it was enough. She was, however, desperately lacking in magic theory, which she claimed she'd been learning from her mother before they did the whole shebang and vanished. 

And so it was that, on the eve of the fourth day after my return and evolution, I told Shelly of my plans.

"Dear. We're leaving the reef." I told her after she'd woken up and eaten. Her head whipped up, staring at me with her oh so wide eyes. "W-what? Why? I like it here!"

"Don't worry, dear. We're going to an even prettier place, but the journey might take some time. Hence, I want you to pack everything up. Trust me, you're going to love it." 'maybe', I secretly thought.

"Alright..." She pouted, heading off to collect whatever it was she wanted.

It's good she doesn't know my plans, or I doubt she'd be willing to go along with them.