Life at sea was boring for the most part. The last time, I had Den’s company and I also had a lot of people I could talk to if I got bored. Besides, it was my first time on a medieval boat!

This time however, it was just Alustur who barely ever talked and Shia, who… for better or worse was bored out of her mind herself. It wouldn’t just be a one or two-week journey. Even in the best-case scenario, it would take a month and a half to reach Moon port. I didn’t even want to think about the worst-case….

Without anything to do, I whipped out some fishing gear and sat by the railing, not really trying to fish. I mean, the ship was moving pretty fast and rather smoothly, so what was the point in even trying?

There was no way in hell any fish would actually-

“Oh?” I stared at the line, and how frigging straight it was.

“What?” Shia said.

It was somewhat midday but she’d been staring at sky for a while now. This same girl used to run around the frigging academy about a hundred times every day. She hardly ever spent time in her own room. But she was just lying down today, doing nothing.

“I think I caught something.”

In a split second, some color came back to her face as a grin replaced that ever so boring glare. “Nice!” She sprung up and grabbed the line, together we started pulling.

Whatever the hell it was, it was definitely heavy. And it was running around wildly in the water- frantically pulling on the wire.

“Whatcha kids up to?” A wild demon showed up. Nah, he was just one of the crew. Barbus, the red dude with barb like horns.

“We caught something!” Shia yelled, excited for sure.

‘I’ caught something, dear sister. But oh well.

Barbus lent us a hand and in no time, we pulled off the mermaid.

Wait, “Mermaid!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “Oh wait, it’s just a dude with flaps,” I shrugged.

Apparently, we’d hooked into the bottom portion of a Mer-definitely not maid- thing. It didn’t have anything on and I wasn’t sure if the water on his face was just water or tears.

“Wah!”

“Definitely tears,” I said. “Unhook him and throw him back in the water?” I said.

“What? NO!” Shia and Barbus yelled in unison.

“We either cook him or kill him,” Barbus said. “Otherwise, the whole ocean’s about to come for us.” He quickly unhooked the thing and we took it inside.

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“Huh? Why? Because we accidentally caught him?”

“Yes. They wouldn’t take our word at face value.”

“But we don’t’ have to kill him,” I said. “As long as the kid explains, it’s fine, right?”

The kid in question was about nine or ten. A bit older than me. A little on the thicker side. Yeah, like you’re one to talk.

“And you’re going to trust the lives of everyone here on that assumption?” Shia said.

“Well, you have me there.”

“Besides, mermaid flesh is one of the best kinds of meat. And it’s said to have healing properties. Eat enough and you may even become immortal!!” Barbus sure seemed excited. “And plump flesh like that…” He almost drooled. No, he did drool.

Soon enough we garnered the attention of everyone else and I was surrounded by them. The mer-thing hid behind me and was definitely frightened to its core.

I suppose his instincts were good cause he recognized I was the only one on his side.

“Won’t it be fine if we reached Moon port and then let him go?” I tried.

“But he’ll garner hatred for the rest of his life and-” and Shia went on but as she stared at my face she sighed. “Fine, but if our lives are in danger, we’ll eat him.”

“Okay,” I said. “Alustur, can I trust you with keeping him and us safe?”

“Very well.”

Almost everyone else sighed in disappointment and left. Just how bad did they want to eat the poor thing.

I had a feeling my bored fishing bit screwed us over but honestly, there wasn’t much I could do. What was done was done, but I didn’t just want to murder a child knowing they had very similar intelligence compared to us.

Speaking of the child- “So, basically, you are our prisoner for now.” I spoke one word at a time in sea tongue.

The boy paid a lot of attention at my face and stopped crying.

He did not speak a word though.

He wasn’t a girl, so obviously he didn’t have boobs. But I didn’t even see nipples, which was hella weird. Felt like I was looking at a homunculus or something.

“We want to let you go but, we fear your family might want to eat us,” I said. Obviously, that wasn’t my fear, but I had a feeling mermaids wouldn’t be too pleased about us abducting their kid either. Actually, how come we were going to get away with murder or something like that but not minor damage to the kid’s tail? “Oh and, does human medicine work on you?”

I tried to speak faster and was sure I knew what I was talking about but… my pronunciation wasn’t the best.

He nodded.

So he understands me at least.

I got some ointment and rubbed it on the spot. He flinched but was otherwise cooperative.

We arranged a large bathtub and filled it up with sea water. I asked whether he’d like to eat anything but he didn’t say anything so I didn’t bother.

We left him in a room on the bottom floor. Afterwards I went over to Alustur. Incidentally Shia was also here.

“How come we’re okay kidnapping the kid, but not releasing him?”

“There’s a covenant between the Merfolk and port cities. If we’re caught capturing one of them, we’ll be killed without any trial. However, even if he’s captured on board, as long as no one saw us doing the capturing, we’re exempt from the execution. Of course, we might still be hunted by the merfolk regardless.”

“But in that case, if we just let him go-”

“He could claim he was captured, show the wound and have us executed. They can do that.”

“That’s why we will have his wound heal, and release him after reaching moon port, right?” I asked, just to clarify.

But honestly, the situation seemed a bit more complex and unreliable than I’d imagined.

“If that’s what you want to do, yes.”

I mean, fair enough. “What does he eat?”

“She eats algae and anything green. Though I have heard some mermaids eat meat, most don’t, since they don’t like eating fish.”

“Did you just say she?”

“Yes, she’s a mermaid.”

“That’s clearly a guy,” I said.

“There are no male mermaid, Sol,” Alustur said. “She’s a late bloomer, but I assure you, that’s a woman.”

“Huh? Come again?”

“Tch,” Shia stumped the wood. “It’s a girl, you moron.”

Huh… then where the fuck are the boobs?