### Chapter 242 – Room 202, Cursed Room – ‘Mermaid Princess’ (20)
—
– Elena
“Are you okay, Elena?”
Suddenly awakening, I found someone I missed sitting right in front of me.
“Oh… Sooho… I suddenly have a bit of a headache.”
“Is it because of that cursed nightmare again?”
“Not this time, I think.”
Where am I…? Oh, it’s the dining room! A very upscale and exclusive restaurant catering only to VIP customers. I remembered the beautiful atmosphere and the lovely melodies wafting through the air. The food on the table looked immaculate.
“You need to take good care of your health. You’re going to be doing important work on the island, right?”
“The important work is my sister’s responsibility.”
“That’s the case now, but you never know what could happen in the future. Even Lee Bang-won wasn’t the eldest son—”
“Let’s stop here. That’s really not funny.”
Here comes that dreadful sense of humor from this guy again. Does he think my sister Serenade and I are some kind of political rivals? This isn’t the Joseon Dynasty!
I decided to be a bit bolder today.
“Every time I hear trash like that, I just want to slap you and walk out.”
“… I’m sorry. I’ve been told I lack the gift of gab since I was little.”
“It’s not that you lack the gift, Sooho; you just mistakenly think you’re funny.”
“It’s been a while since I’ve heard such sharp wit. It’s rather charming.”
“Charming? That’s definitely not what I intended.”
“I apologize. Unfortunately, it seems this will be our last conversation like this.”
“Really?”
What sort of nonsense is he talking about now? A strange joke—
“Elena, I’m sorry, but we don’t have much time, so I can’t get lost in memories. Can you focus, please?”
“…”
“Calmly recall what just happened.”
What happened today?
I woke up after being under medication for a long time. My hotel colleagues—
Hotel colleagues. That’s when it hit me.
Crash!
Startled, I stood up, sending plates and forks flying everywhere. At the same time, the surrounding space crumbled away to reveal an old-fashioned café.
“Haha! I really miss this place.”
“What in the world is going on?!”
“Nothing significant. Miss Elena was knocked out by the Administration Bureau, and I was just about to die when I used the power of ancient letters to send a message to you.”
“About to die?”
“Sorry, I am indeed about to die. It seems this time, it’s unavoidable. My opponent was just too well prepared.”
After saying that, Sooho’s expression turned hollow.
Strangely, I felt a surge of intense sadness somewhere deep within. Is this the emotion of the ‘second daughter of the Sea God’? I suppose from her perspective, it’s a devastating situation where her lover has declared he can’t escape death.
Regaining my calm by gulping down some iced water, I reminded myself that, from ‘my’ perspective, he’s just an NPC in Room 202.
“Do you have anything to say? You didn’t come just to say goodbye, did you?”
“Of course not. Please listen to me for a moment. All of this started 21 years ago with the former sea deity’s saintess, Imelda.”
What kind of being is the daughter of the Sea God?
Politically, she could be seen as the leader of Sea God Island. Embracing the cultures from the mainland, Sea God Island has been integrated into South Korea, and the saintess of the deep sea holds an official title of ‘Governor’ now.
Biologically, or in supernatural terms, the daughter of the Sea God keeps the merfolk as ‘people.’ If she were not the daughter of the sea god, the merfolk would naturally become creatures of the sea, unable to live on land. What sort of ‘rebellion’ could the merfolk attempt against her?
The title of governor is merely a name tacked on to pretend there’s democracy, while the daughter of the sea god, above all, is essentially the queen of Sea God Island.
Moreover, they are the most unfortunate beings on the island.
Every daughter of the Sea God must accept a single fate upon awakening to that destiny: an ominous future of enduring unbearable psychological torture every night for the rest of her life. There’s no way to avoid this, and there’s a limit to how much they can tolerate.
Out of torment, the daughters of the sea god rarely live into their forties. Most either lose their minds mid-way and end up hospitalized or take their own lives.
This is how Serenade, at merely in her late twenties, could ascend to the throne of Sea God Island. Only daughters of the Sea God, who control the fate of the merfolk, can rise to power, and since they can never achieve longevity, being in their late twenties suffices.
Twenty-one years ago, Imelda, the saintess of the deep sea, fell into despair over her grim fate. At that moment, salvation arrived from the mainland. And the greatest sin ever against the merfolk was committed.
*
“… That’s how it is. Do you understand now? Time flows differently in this place, so think carefully, and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.”
I got it. It wasn’t that difficult to comprehend. The hard part wasn’t the content I received, but where my thoughts were wandering.
“I’m curious about what you think. And what do you expect me to do for you?”
Instead of answering, Sooho smiled. As he laughed, his body started to slowly disintegrate. First, the scales that covered his upper body, then his entire body, began to twist out of shape.
This was more than enough of an answer.
… After awakening as the saintess of the deep sea, he had touched far too ancient memories and lost his identity as a human. Now, he was merely ‘Rudakh,’ faintly holding onto the memories of the human Sooho. He was asking me for vengeance against his kind.
I woke up. Three days had passed.
*
“Elena, don’t get tense; go slow. You shouldn’t exert strength; in fact, you should relax. Should I demonstrate again?”
“… No, thanks.”
“Come on, just watch my hand closely.”
The hand reaching out to the water tank in front of me was incredibly beautiful. From her hand, a strange pulse resonated softly, almost like a heartbeat.
“Did you see that?”
“… Is this how it should be?”
“Oh! That’s a bit better than before. That’s how it works.”
A few days earlier, in my last conversation with Sooho, he had assured me that the Administration Bureau wouldn’t harm me. I predicted they would do everything they could to draw me into their fold, and that prediction was accurate.
Technically, I was in a situation where I had been kidnapped by some unknown research facility, but my reception was exceedingly courteous, and no one, not the staff or the researchers, treated me lightly.
After finishing the ‘Rudakh management’ duties in the morning, I sat in the lounge for a moment.
Imelda, who had despaired over the dreadful fate assigned to her as the daughter of the Sea God, struck a deal with the Bureau, transferring all the secrets the merfolk possessed. In the process, the Bureau realized the existence of ‘Rudakh,’ a supernatural being that could turn humans into merfolk, and was inspired.
Infinite possibilities to mutate humans into fish, regardless of age, gender, or physical strength! If they could turn people into fish, there would be no way they couldn’t cure diseases!
But that’s not all. Could they possibly overcome the inherent weakness of the human body? What if they could be a bit faster and stronger? Imagine how much progress could be made with just a slight improvement in memory and thinking speed!
For this touching ‘leap,’ one critical being was required: the ‘Queen Rudakh’s’ host, the daughter of the Sea God, who could communicate with Rudakh and control the speed of growth and direction of mutation.
Of course, as Department Chief Park put it, there were some obstacles to this grand leap that could rival space exploration.
The first obstacle is, of course, the god of Rudakh, Kadarudakh. The Bureau, especially the control faction, considers it a minor issue if a few ‘mysterious snails’ die in the process of experimenting with Rudakh for humanity’s great leap. Of course, the Sea God might see things differently, as even Chief Park acknowledged.
The second obstacle is people’s pathetic prejudices. For the great leap, it’s no big deal if they sprout scales or endure ‘a bit of pain’ every night or connect mentally with some obscure sea god. However, because there are people who react sensitively to these minor issues, tight security is necessary until the plan is complete.
…
“Ah, thinking about it again, these guys are truly insane.”
“Huh?”
“Never mind, keep working.”
“Uh… I’m just a staff member here to serve Miss Elena.”
“To serve? Not spy?”
“I’m sorry.”
It would be pointless to torment some poor research staff. Let’s think more realistically. A few questions came to mind.
First, why isn’t an escape or solution appearing? While the Bureau nurtures lofty ideals, wasn’t the source of the curse the Sea God?
For whatever reason, the Bureau has managed to eliminate Sooho just in time, halting the Sea God’s awakening. As a result, I’ve ended up watching miserable scenes of innocent sea snails being tortured all day long in the Bureau’s research lab, but that’s hardly a catastrophe that threatens the world, is it?
I just couldn’t understand why neither escape nor solution was being revealed.
Second, I have no clue what I’m supposed to do now. Blow up the research facility and flee?
To be honest, I could have escaped ages ago. The only thing the Bureau knows about my abilities is vague horrors. And in terms of scenarios, those horrors were already recognized by the Bureau as the ‘powers awakened as the Daughter of the Sea God.’
Yet, they were clueless about ‘justice.’ If it were the past, I might have been confused, but I had just had a confrontation over ‘justice’ with the prisoner from Room 104, so I could tell the difference.
For instance, there were plenty of soldiers at this research lab who had participated in shooting up the hotel party. Each soldier was a ‘trigger’ for me. If the Bureau had known about justice, they would have ensured no soldier who could trigger me was nearby, maybe surrounding me with minors instead!
But what good would it do to step outside? If escaping had already been an option, wouldn’t it have appeared by now? My head was starting to throb. For now, I figured I should stay a bit longer to gather more information.
The third, are there any surviving companions left?
When I asked the soldier involved in the ‘execution’ during the hotel party, he nonchalantly told me that everyone present had died. In fact, they regarded me as the Daughter of the Sea God, believing the hotel party was a Bureau operation. Thus, they completely failed to consider I might feel revenge or anger over their deaths.
I cautiously inquired about Seungyub and Perro too. It seemed that Seungyub had bypassed in time and didn’t know the truth about the ‘project,’ so he was likely not marked for elimination, while the parrot from the scene had vanished at some point.
“Elena, you forgot our ‘pleasant sleep’.”
“Imelda, thank you.”
I downed the little cup of medicine Imelda held out. Ever since I started taking this medicine, I hadn’t had a nightmare.
As I glanced at Imelda, gently holding my hand while giving me the medicine, I pondered anew. Sooho, whose identity had come to lean more towards Rudakh than humanity, once called her the eternal witch.
To me, Imelda felt just like a human. I completely understood the motivation to wish for an end to the nightly torment. The act of passing off ‘mysterious sea snails’ as research material to the Bureau—well, humans have always sacrificed other beings to survive anyway.
I even felt a strong sense of kinship with her as someone who had undergone the same torment, just like the other daughters of the Sea God, namely me and Serenade.
In other words, if it came down to just this woman, I could perhaps act however I wanted. The problem was Department Chief Park Jinsung, who was essentially in charge of this facility. If I could figure out how to deal with him, I might find the freedom to shake things up around here…
The next day, I heard the absurd news that Park Jinsung had died. I sensed that the time had come.
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