By Zephyria 
No matter how well I tread water, can I compare to a fish?
With my left arm around Ruben and my right arm parting the water, the path forward was more arduous than I expected.
Partly because I had dressed up with the intention of visiting the Yulan Royal Castle, making my body heavy, but more so because the currents generated by the deep, vast water were twisted at right angles or oblique angles to our intended direction.
Ruben, who had been diligently paddling his arms and kicking his legs when we first started swimming, began to breathe heavily about an hour after we left the cave.
I wished he would just cling to me and let me carry him, not knowing how much more stamina I would need, but I didn’t force him, as the child refused with all his might.
Still, it was fortunate.
Thanks to the sunlight pouring down from the surface, illuminating the colorful coral and white pebbles on the seabed far below, I could see for a great distance.
The Mermaid, with the lower half of her body like a fish and webbed hands, swam ahead and then back, never quite leaving my sight.
Five or six large fish flowed with the current from right to left, and nearly bumped into me right in front of my nose. I watched blankly as the school of fish startled and fled upwards. Ruben, startled along with them, let out a puff of hot breath against my cheek, so I paused my swimming for a moment.
The air bubbles created by the Sylphs would encircle our heads like perfect spheres when Mika and Ruben drifted apart, and merge into one when we drew close. This allowed us to hear each other’s voices clearly when we brought our heads close together.
Careful not to sound like I was blaming Ruben, I asked again.
“Shall we rest for a bit?”
“No, no… I’m fine.”
“Aren’t you cold?”
“…No.”
Even as he said he wasn’t cold, he wrapped his arms around my neck and clung to me.
I gently touched his cheek with the back of my hand to check his temperature. The water wasn’t warm, but it wasn’t freezing either. Considering it was the dead of winter, that was quite fortunate.
Ruben’s cheeks were also warm from the exertion of constantly swimming forward. Still, as this was something he had never done before, I worried about him in many ways and kept wanting to look at him.
Splash.
The Mermaid tapped the water in the exact same way as before, urging us on.
This time, I didn’t follow immediately. Wanting to give Ruben a moment to rest, I gently stroked his lower back and stopped in the water, looking around.
The child held onto my waist and rested his chin on my shoulder for a moment. In the water, he wasn’t heavy no matter how much I leaned on him. Of course, even out of the water, Ruben’s weight alone had always been easy for me to handle…
Watching us, the Mermaid circled Mika and Ruben three times before suddenly diving down.
Surely, she wouldn’t abandon us here. I mentally pictured swimming to the surface and heading for land if things went wrong. The Sylphs were still by my side, so I planned to coax them into telling me the direction of Yulan. Thinking that, my mind felt a little more at ease.
Just then, Ruben suddenly began patting my back and shoulders frantically.
Wondering what was wrong, I looked down where the child was pointing and was greatly surprised. Two sharks were leisurely swimming up towards Ikyun. Their gaping mouths were packed with sharp, menacing teeth.
I turned Ruben behind me and drew my sword. I wasn’t unfamiliar with sharks. I had heard rumors several times that the fins on their backs were quite delicious. But what kind of shark was this large, like a house?
Their gaping jaws looked large enough to swallow me and Ruben in one gulp with plenty of room to spare.
Setting aside the difficulty of moving freely, there wasn’t even a solid surface to stand on. I wasn’t sure how much power my sword would carry without Sword Energy.
Even I had never conjured Sword Energy underwater. I couldn’t risk testing dangerous maneuvers with Ruben so close, so I decided I would have to chase them away with the strength of my arms alone.
However, if I cut one, the scent of blood would spread, and if we got splashed with that blood, other sea creatures would be lured in… Thinking that, I became greatly worried. Ruben seemed to be mumbling something, but because the air bubbles were separated, his words were muffled and I couldn’t hear them.
Holding my breath and waiting for the right moment, I swept my left arm back, pushing the water behind me, and swung my sword with my right hand.
“Gurgle?”
“What—!”
From between the sharks, the Mermaid poked her head out familiarly.
I tried to retract my sword immediately, but it was too late. It was a sword swung with considerable force to overcome the water resistance. Fortunately, I managed to change the angle of the blade so it wouldn’t make contact. The sensation of the soft, firm skin deflecting the sword remained in my palm gripping the hilt.
“….”
“….”
The shark, struck on the side of its head by the sword, reeled backward and then vanished without a sound.
Now, only four bewildered beings remained here. Me, Ruben, the Mermaid, and one shark with an unreadable, vacant expression. Four of us in total.
The Mermaid looked at me with an expression that clearly said she had a lot to say. Every time she opened her mouth, several air bubbles rose with a “gurgle.”
“…You should have told me beforehand.”
“…Glug.”
But since we couldn’t communicate, there was no room for excuses. I simply endured the silence.
It seemed the Mermaid had brought the shark to be used as a mount, like a horse or a camel.
The Mermaid demonstrated how to ride the shark first. She grabbed the lower part of the shark’s dorsal fin with her left hand and tapped its side with her right hand. The shark immediately began to swim forward. To stop, she pressed and rubbed the shark’s side with her right hand. Then it stopped.
Ruben watched what the Mermaid was doing and then made a gesture with the edge of his hand, moving it left and right. How do you change direction? In response, the Mermaid tapped her chest. I understood from her gesture that she would handle it all herself.
Next, Ruben mimed grabbing something with his left hand, then shook his head, and then mimed grabbing with his right hand. He was asking if he could grab with his right hand instead of his left. This time, the Mermaid shook her head. She showed him again, gripping the shark’s fin with her left hand. It seemed she had only considered right-handed riders when training the shark.
As I nodded without much thought, Ruben pulled me close and wrapped his arms around my waist. The air bubbles popped and merged into one.
“…Huh? What?”
“I’ll do this, Mika.”
“No… Why. …Ah.”
After changing it to a light splint, I had forgotten about it by not keeping my left arm pressed tightly against my shoulder. Still, I thought it might require a lot of strength, not knowing how fast it could go, but Ruben was insistent. Fine, I thought, it’s not much different from holding the reins, and I allowed it.
Since there was only one shark, Ruben and I became close again.
I am quite large. Now a full-fledged young man, I was even a finger’s length taller than Ruben. Because I might receive more resistance from the water if I rode on Ruben’s back, making it difficult, I did as he instructed and let him hold me in his arms.
However, not wanting to leave the entire responsibility to the child, I overlapped my right hand on the shark’s dorsal fin and wrapped my left arm around the child’s waist. It felt… awkward.
It was a peculiar posture.
Being pressed between Ruben and the shark was bearable, but the child’s breath constantly touching my nose was very awkward. As I averted my gaze a few times, unsure what to do, the child smiled softly.
“Lean your head on my shoulder, Mika. Like I was doing.”
“…Yes.”
As Ruben instructed, I rested my chin on his shoulder and looked back. Once I was ready, Ruben used his right arm, which had been around my waist, to tap the shark’s side.
The shark swung its large tail, and the water immediately parted, rushing away. Coral reefs and fish were receding at a speed clearly faster than swimming. The pleasant thumping of Ruben’s heart echoed from his chest against mine.
…He seemed to be enjoying it. I was dumbfounded.
Whatever the case, if the child was happy, I was happy too. The tension left my shoulders. The muffled sound of the water sounded like a song. The Sylphs occasionally laughed among themselves for unknown reasons, but for the most part, they remained quiet. So did I.
❖ ❖ ❖
There was a castle in the sea.
The colorful coral clusters were red, white, blue, and yellow. I was greatly surprised to see a white castle visible between the anemones, which swayed like flowers. It was a building that shone white, as if the Yulan Royal Castle had been moved underwater.
Except for the path leading to the castle’s main gate, there were recessed spaces on either side. In these spaces, pools of water deeper than the surrounding water had gathered.
The distinct scent of Mana. …The Clearstone Oil I had seen in the Mana Cave before was here too. Not knowing if I could covet it freely, I deliberately looked away. I couldn’t leave Ruben in an unfamiliar place and greedily engage in Circulating Qi.
More spirits than fish were watching Ikyun. Ruben, having dismounted the shark, wriggled his hands and rotated his stiff shoulders. Had it been very difficult? I massaged his shoulders, and Ruben returned a gentle smile.
The Mermaid urged us on. This time, she didn’t slap the surface with her tail, but simply gestured for us to follow her. I walked along the path, as there was ground to walk on. Apart from my body wanting to float upwards more than on land, I could walk forward without issue.
The door opened silently.
There was a wall, yet the Mermaid, instead of simply climbing over it, insisted on opening the gate to guide us in, implying there was a reason.
I wondered what precious being was inside that had summoned me and Ruben here.
Would we see another god here? And what kind of disposition would that god possess?
My mind was in turmoil as I thought about all the questions I needed to ask.