QT: I hijacked a harem system and now I'm ruining every plot(GL)

Chapter 424: Alira

I say goodbye to the other merfolk and swim home. If I am late, my mother is going to nag at me.

She is so overprotective. My other mother pretends to be less involved, but it does not matter how far I swim or run—I always see the purple bird.

Genuinely just as overprotective, even if she pretends not to be.

The water becomes shallow. I switch—from tail to paws, my body shifting with the ease of someone born between two worlds. My paws hit the wet sand. I walk home on all fours, the familiar rhythm of the panther form settling into my bones.

The island is quiet. It is always quiet here. I like it.

The closer I get to the cabin, the louder I hear sounds from Mother’s show—that show with the odd-looking people. I smell something sweet too. Mum must have been baking.

I do not use the front door. Instead, I sneak through the kitchen door, planning to steal some cookies.

I stalk the tray of cookies sitting just there, arching my back, preparing to pounce. Once I have them in my line of sight, I leap—but I do not land on the cookies.

Instead, I am caught mid-air.

I twist, trying to escape.

"Oh no you don’t." Mum says.

I give up escaping and switch back into human form.

"You know the rules. A bath first," she says.

"I do not need to bathe. I am literally merfolk. I am always clean." I argue.

"You are not only merfolk. You are also like me. And we get dirty."

"Now, off you go." She places me down. "You smell like fish."

"I am a fish," I shoot back, begrudgingly walking toward the bath.

*

Mother sleeps a lot these days. She has no energy for some reason. And when I hear her heartbeat, it slows sometimes... too slowly.

We do not even get to go on our mother-daughter swims as often as we used to anymore.

Like now. I wash my dishes and walk to the living room. As expected, there she is—asleep on the chair.

I walk closer. I climb on top of her.

She wraps her arms around me without waking.

The merfolk say I am now too big to act like an egg, to want to be this close to my mother.

But I cannot help it. I feel best around her.

Mum says it is because I was in her arms for ten years. It is only natural I do not want to be apart.

I slowly close my eyes and fall into dreamless sleep.

At some point, I feel myself in the air. I am once again wrapped in a warm embrace.

*

I open my eyes and look around. This is not my room. It is their room. But I am alone, and the bed is cold.

I hear music.

I get off the bed. I go to peek.

I am not surprised to see them dancing.

Mother and Mum are in the middle of the room. Their hands are intertwined. Their bodies are close. They sway together, slow and gentle, as the music fills the cabin.

I watch from the doorway.

Some merfolk say it is weird to have two mothers. And on days when I visit Aunt Marina on the ship, I hear whispers about how odd it is that Aunt Marina is with Aunt Nancy as life partners.

But Mum always says: Love has no form. It takes whatever shape it wants to be, despite what people believe is normal.

And how can love be wrong?

Watching them dance now, I can see the love. It cannot possibly be wrong.

The world that deems love to be wrong—that world is the wrong one. Not the love.

Mother says I am the result. The tangible proof of their love. That their love was so strong, it defied the laws of the world and brought me into it.

That makes me incredibly special.

Besides, I love having two mums. I get double the mother’s love. I have seen men on the ship and mermen, and I am glad I am not born from them.

They are weird. They are not soft. Most are aggressive and rude and firm. So... wrong.

My parents are soft. Kind. Caring in a way that is impossible for them.

Mother holds me like I am precious. Mum paints me like I am art. They never raise their voices. They never make me feel small. They never make me feel like I am anything less than everything.

Just then, Mum kisses Mother.

Yuck.

I go back to bed.

*

"Mum, are you really a devil?" I ask, sitting on the stool as she cuts my hair with the scissors.

"Why do you ask?" She sounds amused.

I look at the tap on the bathroom sink and the shower in the mirror reflection.

"All these things," I say. "Most people have never heard of them."

I think about how people have to poop in holes and have to get water from wells. This is why I like home. The rest of the world is... I do not know what to say. But I do not think I can live anywhere not home.

Mum pauses. The scissors hover mid-snip.

"A devil?" She sets the scissors down. "What do you think a devil is?"

"Hmmmnnn." I tilt my head. "Something people are afraid of. Something with out-of-world powers."

"I guess I am a devil," Mum says. She continues to cut my hair.

"That makes me one too," I say.

"Well..." She meets my eyes in the mirror. "You are my daughter. So I suppose you are a mini devil."

"Okay," I say.

She finishes cutting my hair. I cannot keep really long hair like Mother and other merfolk. It just gets too long sometimes. I like it short.

"Okay." Mum sets down the scissors. She brushes the loose hair from my shoulders. "Let us go play in the forest, my mini devil."

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