A hollow, low melody drifted over from the distant sea, plaintive and mournful, as though countless spirits were singing aloud upon the moonlit ocean.
However, they were still some distance away, so they could only hear the song intermittently, and not very clearly.
"Mr. Hastur, is that the song of mermaids?"
Xio excitedly pulled Fors over with her, while Audrey's eyes also lit up.
Mermaids! These were the legendary spirits of the sea.
Not only were their voices beautiful and melodious, their appearances were supposedly flawless as well. They often had long, blue hair and liked to emerge from the depths of the sea on moonlit nights, sitting upon reefs above the surface and softly singing beneath the moonlight.
"It really is the song of mermaids. They're in the waters not far ahead."
Hastur gave them an answer that delighted them greatly.
Xio eagerly asked, "Then can we go take a look at them from a distance now?"
"Wait a little longer." Hastur wanted to give Klein more time to get farther away, lest they accidentally run into him later and interfere with his advancement to Marionettist.
"Where did Mr. Wilson go?"
After chatting for a while, Audrey keenly noticed that Mr. Wilson, whom she suspected to be Mr. World, was currently not aboard the ship.
Combined with the fact that Mr. World had previously asked about clues regarding mermaids at the Tarot Club...
Everything seemed to overlap. That naturalist was Mr. World. He had probably already gone off to find the mermaids and begin advancing to a higher Sequence.
This discovery made her a little excited. She wondered whether she should reveal that she knew his identity once Mr. World returned.
And there was also Miss Fors. She probably still didn't know Audrey's true identity either. But Mr. Hanged Man had previously said that meeting offline wasn't a particularly good choice.
Audrey wrestled with the matter for a short while before Xio and Fors pulled her to the bow of the ship to carefully listen to the mermaids' singing.
About an hour later, Hastur arranged a small boat and rowed it manually, taking Audrey and the others, along with Susie, toward the waters where the mermaids appeared.
As the boat drew closer, the mermaids' singing became increasingly distinct. The low chants that seemed to come from the depths of the sea made the listeners' hearts feel ethereal and tranquil.
Audrey had already closed her eyes, earnestly listening to the melody of the sea while gently tapping the rhythm on her knee with her fingers.
After drawing closer for another stretch, Hastur stopped the boat and did not continue forward.
From here, they could see graceful figures sitting atop the dark reefs ahead, singing softly toward the sky.
Aside from those kept by the Church of the Evernight Goddess, mermaids had already become an endangered species of the sea. Whenever strangers approached them, they would quickly dive into the depths of the ocean to avoid being captured by humans.
"Can we only go this far?"
"Yes. If we get any closer, we'll disturb them."
"It's a pity we can't clearly see what they look like."
"Sometimes, seeing something too clearly makes it lose its sense of mystery."
Hastur, for his part, would rather he had never clearly seen the true appearance of so-called mermaids.
In human imagination, a mermaid was a beautiful woman with the tail of a fish. Aside from the difference in the lower half of the body, everything else was identical to a human.
But that was merely a human fantasy. Real mermaids were actually nowhere near as breathtakingly beautiful as the legends made them out to be.
In terms of appearance alone, Audrey could crush all of them by herself, and even Fors could compete with them.
What made them special was that their chests were wrapped and covered in dark-red scales, while their lower bodies consisted of enormous fish tails.
These distinctive features gave their appearances a peculiar kind of beauty, especially at night.
Of course, there were always some people whose preferences were rather unusual.
After watching for a while, Hastur suddenly thought of a question. Roselle had proclaimed himself the protagonist of an era, so could it be that he had never taken an interest in mermaids?
How had he not left behind even a single line saying that mermaids were quite enjoyable?
Given Roselle's personality, if he had really done something like that, he definitely would have secretly written it in his diary. After all, respectable people didn't keep diaries.
So, had Roselle ever tried it or not? This truly was a historical question worthy of deep contemplation.
"They're swimming toward us." Xio suddenly lowered her voice.
The mermaids within their field of vision seemed to have been frightened by something. One after another, they leaped from the reefs into the sea and began swimming toward Hastur and the others.
At this moment, aided by the brilliant stars in the sky, Audrey and the others finally managed to clearly see the mermaids from the front.
They indeed had human heads, and most of them possessed appearances that combined purity with allure. The scales covering their chests and their fish-like tails were the parts that drew the eye most strongly.
Xio secretly gestured at the length of her own legs and was shocked to discover that her legs couldn't even compare to someone else's fish tail!
No, no. This definitely wasn't because she was too short. Humans and mermaids were two completely different species. How could they be casually compared like this?
The beautiful singing continued to drift over from the waters ahead, ethereal and otherworldly, like a gentle sea breeze brushing across one's heart, slightly ticklish yet extremely comfortable.
"Mr. Hastur, can I ask you a question?"
"Go ahead."
Xio spent a moment gathering her courage before quietly asking, "How do mermaids reproduce?"
Although Audrey and Fors were somewhat embarrassed, they quietly leaned closer as well, wanting to hear the answer.
"Like humans, they give birth to their offspring through birth."
"As for the method of fertilization, you can refer to ordinary fish."
"This was once quite an interesting research subject. As early as two hundred years ago, some scientists dissected mermaids and conducted detailed studies of their species and individual physiological characteristics. They even published a book on the subject."
Hastur tried his best to keep his tone calm and objective, without mixing in any of his personal feelings.
"So that's how it is."
Xio covered her obviously burning cheeks with her hands and hid behind Fors. Audrey and Fors both looked away as though they hadn't heard anything, though their cheeks were similarly tinged with red.
Fortunately, Xio hadn't asked what kind of offspring would be born if a human and a mermaid mated.
In fact, there really had been mad scientists in the past who conducted experiments on this. The offspring produced by those experiments ultimately turned out to be malformed, which finally put an end to quite a few people's peculiar preferences.
Otherwise, there had once been quite a number of nobles who specifically captured mermaids from the sea and kept them in their own aquariums, artificial pools, or lakes.
After all, as long as one didn't look at their lower bodies, mermaids weren't all that different from ordinary humans. However, descriptions of such ugly deeds committed by nobles were recorded in only a handful of books.
Audrey normally had no access to books of this sort, much less ordinary people.
As the stars moved across the sky, the groups of mermaids on the reefs finished their singing and dove into the depths of the sea one after another, waiting to emerge again the following night.
After they finished admiring the mermaids, Hastur rowed the boat and brought Audrey and the others back to the Hope.
By the time they boarded the ship, dawn was already beginning to break. Klein had also finished his advancement and returned to the ship. After taking a bath, he had already fallen into a deep sleep.
...
The next day, Klein walked out of his room looking refreshed and invigorated.
After successfully advancing, he was now a Sequence 5 Marionettist. Not only did this Sequence possess powerful self-preservation abilities, its offensive capabilities were also particularly strange and unpredictable, causing his combat strength to rise dramatically in an instant.
If he encountered Rear Admiral of Ailment again, he was confident he could defeat her with ease.
"Good morning, Mr. Wilson." Audrey walked over and naturally greeted Klein.
Klein bowed slightly. "Good morning, Miss Audrey."
"When the mermaids began singing last night, Mr. Wilson didn't seem to be aboard the ship?"
"I'm accustomed to observing these legendary creatures alone, so I didn't leave together with Miss Audrey and the others."
"Oh, I see." Audrey nodded and did not continue pursuing the topic.
She ultimately decided not to expose Mr. Wilson's true identity. These occasional intersections between their identities were rather interesting in their own way.
After breakfast, Klein originally intended to bid them farewell and leave. After all, he still owed Mr. Hastur 1,000 pounds. He needed to hurry up and hunt pirates so he could earn bounty money and repay his debt.
"Mr. Wilson, aside from searching for mermaids, we're also going to look for the legendary Fountain of Youth on this trip. If you want to head back now, you'll have to take a small boat by yourself."
Klein thought about it and decided to first follow Hastur and the others in their search for the Fountain of Youth, then leave this Sea of Ruins together with them afterward.
Traveling alone in a small boat was far too risky. If something unexpected happened, he had no desire to drift onto another deserted island and reenact Robinson Crusoe.
A few days later, under Hastur's guidance, the Hope gradually approached the waters overflowing with the aura of life.
The originally golden waters were cut off by a stretch of black ruins.
The waves here were exceptionally violent. Several times, the Hope nearly ended up being smashed directly against the ruins.
The Hope circled the ruins once but still failed to find any place where it could sail straight through.
Clearly, if they wanted to find the so-called Fountain of Youth, they would have to cross the black ruins before them on foot.
After being eroded and battered by seawater for countless years, the stones throughout the ruins had been corroded into all kinds of shapes, resembling blocks of tofu riddled with holes.
Once inside, there was always the danger of the ruins collapsing on top of them.
Hastur let Audrey and the others decide for themselves whether they wanted to enter. Fors was the first to opt out, while Xio and Audrey were willing to go exploring. Klein also followed them into the ruins, while Susie was left aboard the ship.
The moment the four of them stepped onto the black ruins, the scenery before their eyes suddenly changed.
A river shimmering with silvery-white light flowed beneath their feet. Before them stood a magnificent complex of palaces that had yet to collapse.
The main colors of the palace complex were gold and silver, sacred and resplendent, rather than the blackened ruins they would later become.
This was the handiwork of Ouroboros, the Angel of Fate!
Hastur and Klein simultaneously sensed the abnormality of this place. It was obvious that they had stepped into Ouroboros's river of time and arrived in the era before this palace complex had collapsed.