The Main Character is the Villain

Lord Alu was fortunately not an idiot. He kept his silence the moment he saw me. He was definitely comparing my appearance in his head right now with the pool of candidates the kingdom could have dispatched. The kingdom had dispatched an expert to solve the mermaid problem, and that expert was a half-elf. And when it came to half-elf celebrities in this kingdom, there was only the 'Copulation High Priest'. Therefore, the person standing before the lord right now was the Copulation High Priest.

"...Please excuse my discourtesy."

Even while drunk, the lord wisely slammed his head onto the desk and apologized. Seeing how heavily intoxicated he appeared to be, I decided to grant him forgiveness just this once. Smashing the lord's head in was out of the question since public sentiment in this neighborhood was far too grim.

"Taking words spoken in a drunken stupor seriously is something only a petty person would do. What are you worrying about so much that you are drowning in alcohol from broad daylight, my lord? If you are worried about the territory's affairs, you can rest easy now that the perfect fixer is here."

The lord's gaze was directed at Cellu. He then looked at Eve's scale-covered feet. She was wearing shoes, but her scale-covered ankles were clearly exposed. Even in his drunkenness, the lord stuttered as he opened his mouth to ask.

"Those people are..."

"They are my wives."

"Ah, yes..."

Silence resumed. The servant quietly closed the door and left. It seemed I would have to be the one to drive the conversation forward. I asked.

"Yes. That is correct. Every village is in an uproar due to attacks from mermaids and monsters."

"Mermaids and monsters, that is a serious problem. Wait, monsters?"

I couldn't help but tilt my head at the word monsters. Monsters had vanished from the continent after the Demon King died. But there were still monsters left? The lord nodded his head, seemingly noticing my confusion.

"Yes. Monsters. Mermaids and monsters crawled out of the sea and attacked us. Those monsters, those bastards were nothing short of horrifying. Bulging eyes and sturdy limbs. Would attaching limbs to a fish create such bastards? We had no means to fight back against them other than the territory's knights. The soldiers were massacred and dragged into the sea."

I stared at Cellu. Cellu shook her head and said.

"I don't know anything about that. Monsters? We have no reason to be friendly with bastards like that. They tear apart and eat mermaids, too."

"That's why we killed them on sight whenever we ran into them during the Demon King's resurrection, too."

Eve chimed in. Marine monsters? Just what were they? There were so many possibilities that I couldn't get a solid grasp on it. But since both Eve and Cellu said they built walls between themselves and monsters, I couldn't figure it out at all. Just as I was thinking that it would be nice if they were female monsters with cunts, the lord spoke.

"It was a truly terrible event."

"Were there any other peculiar details?"

The lord frowned at my question. His face, flushed red from alcohol, swelled as if it might burst before shrinking back down slightly. Eve stared at the lord with an uneasy expression. The lord worried over it for a long while before opening a drawer and pulling out a thick stack of documents. I averted my gaze and stealthily peeked at the documents' contents.

[Current Status of Attack Damage by Mermaids and Monsters]

It was a damage report. He seemed to be trying to reference the damage testimony. I threw out another question while the lord rummaged through it.

"It's known to the public as a mermaid attack, but isn't the reappearance of monsters that disappeared after the Demon King's demise a more shocking fact? I'm curious why only the mermaid attack became known."

"It's because the monsters appeared recently. Furthermore, because there was a clear hierarchical relationship between the monsters and mermaids..."

"A hierarchical relationship?"

"They say that when traveling over the sea, the monsters carry the mermaids."

"Go out of their way to do that?"

"For what purpose?"

Eve and Cellu asked back at the same time. The lord flinched in surprise as he looked at the two of them, then gathered his mind and opened his mouth.

"I do not know."

Eve shook her head at the lord's words and asked.

"No, why would they do such an act? They could just swim there."

"Because it's comfortable? You traveled by ship, too. And so did Cellu."

"Is that so?"

"Riding a ship was comfortable, indeed."

Cellu nodded her head at those words. Eve also nodded her head with a serious expression and spoke. Cellu said.

"But riding monsters to attack doesn't quite make sense to me. They could just dive and ambush them without anyone noticing. But they go out of their way to travel like that? Besides, what does it mean to ride a monster? What exactly are they riding? A giant seahorse?"

"Well, they are bastards that look similar to humans..."

The lord picked up a pen and began drawing a picture on the white space of the paper. We focused and stared at the picture the lord drew.

"Wow, he's terribly bad at drawing. What the hell is this? What kind of monster is it? Is it even a monster? Aren't they just dragging around humans who know how to swim?"

Cellu nodded her head at Eve's words. I was also at a loss because I couldn't deduce the monster's identity just by looking at this picture. An obscure picture was drawn of stick-figure humans carrying a stiff stick-figure mermaid. They looked like pallbearers or perhaps palanquin bearers. The lord pointed at the picture and began his explanation again.

"In this manner, the monsters rushed at us while keeping the mermaids afloat above the water. Once they charged in like that, the monsters would first throw the mermaids onto the land, then pull out their weapons and scatter."

"Throw them?"

Eve looked at Cellu. It seemed she had remembered the mermaid throwing she had mentioned like a habit. Cellu stuck her tongue out and frowned at Eve's gaze. The lord nodded at Eve's question.

"They throw them onto the beach, and immediately draw their weapons right after."

"Why would they throw them? Aren't they the masters?"

Eve wondered. I pondered. Why throw them? Throwing their masters? Did they lack loyalty to the point of throwing their masters?

"How did they return when they went back?"

"When returning, they say the mermaids headed toward the mountains and the monsters swam back to the sea. So our knight order and guards checked the mountain side to see if there was a mermaids' habitat, but there was nothing. We suspect they might have escaped toward a valley or lake, but it is unknown why they scattered separately instead of going together with the monsters."

"What is that? That's too weird. Going to the mountains instead of the water, it's way too weird."

Eve grumbled. Just as she said, it was too strange. Why didn't they go into the water? They went out of their way to travel separately on the way back, the monsters went out of their way to throw the mermaids, and the mermaids went out of their way to ride the monsters. Why did they do that? Was there some profit in doing so? Why weren't the mermaids swimming? Were they even mermaids in the first place?

"Are you certain they are mermaids?"

"There is a track record of them capturing our merchant ships at sea, and several survivors from the merchant ships gave testimony that mermaids attacked and dragged them away. No one knows how to identify mermaids better than sailors. They are mermaids for sure."

"Then why do they hate touching the water?"

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't understand. Why did they hate touching water? They swam perfectly fine on the sea to capture ships and kidnap sailors, but when they actually came onto land, they came up in a way that avoided touching water as much as possible?

"Can we see the scene of the damage?"

"Yes, you can see it, but... Could you wait a moment?"

The lord grabbed his head and frowned, seemingly still not sober. He staggered across the room, opened a shutter in the corner of the room, and pulled out a wheelchair. Then, he unfolded it and pointed at Eve.

"Please seat her and cover her fins. Public perception of mermaids at the scene is the absolute worst, so I cannot help it either."

I discreetly looked at Cellu. Cellu shrugged her shoulders and said.

"It can't be helped."

The lord said.

"Then I will fetch a dress suitable for her to wear."

Lord Alu was surprisingly a good guy.

****

Cellu looked like a doll in the dress. A porcelain doll made for display. Wouldn't a doll displayed in an antique shop look like this if put in a wheelchair? The fins slightly poking out at the edge of her skirt flapped. Eve seemed pleased to see her mother's unique look, and she adjusted her outfit to make it neat. Cellu seemed thoroughly uncomfortable becoming our display doll. She scratched at her clothes and said.

"Let's finish this quickly. This is uncomfortable."

"Why not just wear it around? You're super cute."

"That's right. You're cute, Cellu. The cutest in the world."

"Hehe, I like those words, but mermaids don't wear clothes."

"Being the first mermaid to wear clothes isn't a bad thing either."

"I'll think about it."

We stepped outside. The lord was slumped over inside the carriage. His snoring could be heard all the way out here. The servant gave a deep bow and said.

"I apologize. My master has been suffering greatly from heartache lately over the case of Young Master Alu Ted... I will guide you in his stead."

The lord remained completely passed out from the world while we followed the servant to the scene. Since he seemed quite heavily intoxicated, I decided not to make an issue of it. Eve pushed Cellu's wheelchair on the way there. It was like watching an older sister taking care of her sickly younger sister, so I naturally formed a pleased smile. Eve spoke to Cellu.

"Mom. Want me to massage your shoulders?"

"Massage them."

Cellu leaned back against the backrest and closed her eyes. Eve began massaging her shoulders while pushing the wheelchair with her body. In the meantime, a desolate and brutal atmosphere lingered in the villages we crossed through. A farmer swinging a sickle on the dry land glanced at us before shifting his gaze back to the field.

A cart carrying corpses brushed past us. The stench of rotting corpses and flies drifted by us. The more we walked, the worse the smell of corpses became. The stench of blood, uncleaned corpses, women who had lost their minds from wailing, and a devastated pier entered my sight. It was no exaggeration to call that place hell. If you turned your eyes, there were corpses, and even if you plugged your nose, the stench of rotting corpses wafted through. The servant said.

"This is the place where the most recent attack occurred. It was once a decent fishing village, but it ended up in this wretched state due to the monsters' attack."

"How horrific."

I shook my head and said. The damage was more severe than I had expected.

"Keheuk."

"What's that?"

Startled by the sudden strange scream, I turned my head. The servant who guided us, Eve, and Cellu all looked around with flustered faces. On one side of the pier, someone was struggling to climb up. We held our breath and watched the sight. An unmistakable human hand grabbed the pier and pulled a body up.

"Keheuheuk!"

However, the thing that hand pulled up was not human.

"What the fuck is that!"

It was a monster. A monster whose true identity was completely unknown.

"It's a mermaid's subordinate!"

The servant shouted. I shouted right along with him.

"This isn't the kind of monster I was expecting!"

"Keheuheuk!"

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