Case 02: The Mermaid from the Waterways

CASE 02:
The Mermaid from the Waterways

 

Saphentite Neikes was an albino lamia and there were many things that albinos had to be careful about in their daily life.

For example, because direct sunlight made them ill and damaged their eyes, they had to avoid the sun as much as possible. Sapphee protected herself by applying sunscreen regularly without fail and by wearing elastic underclothes that protected her skin from the sun. When it came time for her to go outside, she always took out the veil she stored in her nurse’s hat and used it to protect her face and eyes. In these ways, Sapphee never failed to deal with the effects of her albinism.

“What did albino lamias do about it long ago?” Glenn asked Sapphee one day. “After all, lamias give birth to albinos quite often, don’t they?”

A single gondola, steered by a human gondolier, continued down a canal in Lindworm. Riding in it were Sapphee and Glenn. Sapphee had covered her head with the veil she used for going outside. The specially sewn black veil protected her face from the sun even in the shelter-less canal.

“Yes, they do,” Sapphee said. “I’ve heard that albino-born lamias often avoided the sun altogether and were active at night instead.”

“You…can’t exactly do that, though.”

“That’s right. But you’re always looking out for me, so it’s not a problem,” Sapphee said with a smile. Her weak constitution was a thing of the past. Now she passed her days in good health as a pharmacist at the Litbeit Clinic.

Her good health, however, was because of the medicine she had. The sunscreen ointment was particularly valuable. It was made using wax and a variety of different herbs, in addition to purified water. Apart from the other ingredients, the purified water was one of the things Glenn couldn’t get ahold of himself. In Lindworm, getting it required a trip to the Merrow Waterways in the northwest district of the city.

“We wouldn’t be able to run our clinic if it wasn’t for the purified water the mermaids here prepare for us,” Sapphee said. “We need to make sure to show our gratitude.”

“You’re right… Coming out to the Waterways is the only way we can get it,” Glenn said with a sigh.

The Litbeit clinic handled a number of different medicines besides Sapphee’s sunscreen ointment. Though she was mainly in charge of creating the medicine, they both worked to procure the necessary ingredients. That day, they were out on one of their shopping days for the clinic and had come to the Merrow Waterways to buy various valuable goods that could only be obtained there.

The gondola rocked back and forth as it continued on under the guidance of the gondolier’s oar, situated in the back of the boat. While the gondolas were well-equipped, without the skilled technique of the gondolier, Glenn and Sapphee would have quickly crashed the boat into the sides of the narrow canals. Glenn had come here many times, but he always found himself admiring the exquisite skill of the gondolier’s rowing.

“I wonder…” Sapphee mused. “When was the last time I was able to have a day out like this with you, Doctor? I’m glad we’ve been given this opportunity.”

“We have been pretty busy as of late, haven’t we…?”

Even if he was only a general medicine doctor, there were still only a limited number of doctors in the city who could treat monsters. As one of those few doctors, Glenn could have easily argued that closing the clinic and spending the day shopping was a rather extravagant use of their time. True, they were out and about for business, yet despite that, there was still a part of Glenn that couldn’t settle down as long as he was outside the clinic.

The Waterways were one of Lindworm’s tourist attractions, thanks to its singular scenery and townscape. In addition to necessities like purified water, there were a number of souvenirs and gifts sold there as well, and a large number of tourists from around the continent flocked there in order to procure these items. Merrow glass, in particular, was sold at a high price due to its transparency and unique shades of color.

Coming to such a place meant that their shopping trip also served as a day of relaxation for both of them. To Glenn, however, it seemed that Sapphee’s jovial attitude wasn’t only because it was a rare treat—as her albino constitution made trips like these few and far between—or that she was simply happy to be outside.

The canal became even narrower, and the water grew more transparent. The Merrow Waterways had been completed under the direction of the representative of the Lindworm City Council—the “Draconess,” Skadi Dragenfelt—along with the aid of a large amount of tax revenue.

Upon coming to a canal that looked just barely big enough to fit a single gondola through, the gondolier gently brought the boat to a stop. Without tying it to the side of the Waterway, he hopped out onto the bank of the channel. A gondola without a gondolier!

He removed his hat and politely bowed his head to Glenn.“There will be another gondolier to replace me from here on out, Doctor.”

“Okay, thank you for your hard work.”

“Please enjoy all the Merrow Waterways has to offer,” the human gondolier said in response, bowing one more time. For the remainder of the trip, a human’s oar wouldn’t be enough. To continue down the narrow channels, a different kind of assistance was necessary.

The gondolier-less gondola once again began to move steadily forward, moving along with neither oar nor gondolier. Sapphee gazed indifferently out at the scenery of the canal as the gondola moved quickly ahead. Oar-controlled rowing simply couldn’t manage these types of speeds.

Glenn understood what was going on. Under the bows of the gondolas used to advance through the Merrow Waterways, below even the figurehead decorating the front of the boat, was a long, underwater handle that extended out in front of the boat. The new gondolier that had taken the place of the former held onto that handle and pulled it along as if the gondola were a rickshaw.

If one peered into the clear water of the channel, a number of different things could be seen below the surface. There were mermaids, selkies, scyllas and the like—monsters who had bodies suited for life underwater—all swimming through the vast underwater district that sprawled below.

The bustle of the many-layered cityscape didn’t reach Glenn’s ears through the thick wall of water separating them, but the lightly swimming figures made Glenn feel how truly lively the Waterways were.

The gondola slowed down slightly and a face popped from the water with a big splash.

It was the gondolier that had come in as a replacement. Naturally, his ability to stay underwater for long periods of time meant there was no way he could be human.

“Welcome to Merrow Waterways!” the new gondolier greeted them cheerfully. He was a young male whose lower body was that of a fish—in other words, he was a merman.

The gondolier pointed out an arched sign underneath the water. Written there in monster script were words welcoming visitors. On the surface of the water, both beyond and before the submerged arch, were humans riding in gondolas, many of them pulled by merfolk.

From here on out they would be entering the true Merrow Waterways—or at least, skimming its surface. For built beneath the water was a city district where aquatic monsters made their home.

 

***

 

Every year, a large amount of snow fell on the peaks of the Vivre Mountains.

The thickly-piled snow on the steep mountains melted with the coming of spring and formed the Great Vivre River that stretched all the way out to the ocean. The river that flowed through Lindworm was thought to be some of the most limpid on the continent and had become the recreational waters of choice for many aquatic monsters.

Pulling the great river into Lindworm had been one of the undertakings of Skadi Dragenfelt—the woman of influence in charge of building up the independent town of Lindworm, where monsters and humans lived together.

Rebuilding an old unused slum, all of the buildings had been waterproofed. After this followed a civil engineering project on a grand scale, which had diverted the river’s flow into part of the slum. The whole northwest district of the city had been submerged in water—thus was the underwater city completed.

It had been an extremely large-scale construction project that used up most of Lindworm’s budget. However, it had a worthwhile effect. The underwater district filtered the water that drained into the city, turning Lindworm into a cutting-edge metropolis, complete with equipment for sanitation and sewage. With the crystal clear river already flowing into the city, the drainage was arranged to pass through a completely separate route from the town’s inhabited areas, and was dumped outside of the city.

Thus, for the underwater denizens, the Merrow Waterways became an extremely livable district, said to be the best of the best.

“And all because a place for aquatic monsters was needed,” Glenn said and couldn’t help but give a dry laugh.

A pure and clean flowing water supply, and the latest in sanitation facilities… In order to make those two currents of water a reality, precisely controlling the flow of the Vivre Canal had been necessary. Ultimately, just as Glenn had mused, the complex construction of the canals was all because importance had been placed on making the city livable for aquatic monsters.

Nevertheless, while the environment was optimum for those who lived underwater, it was less so for humans and other monsters that couldn’t dive deep into the water. Such beings found it difficult to pass through by boat, as the project had changed the area into a floating labyrinth.

It was because of all this that Sapphee and Glenn had had to change gondoliers in the middle of their journey. Unless one was a denizen of the underwater town, navigating the bizarre and complex waterways was impossible. Steering a gondola with an oar in the narrow canals would have meant immediately bumping into the many other gondolas nearby.

Of course, there were also bigger canals where many smaller boats sailed back and forth, but to get to these area, one had to first go through the small canals—many of which were one-way or off-limits to boat traffic. It was next to impossible for a tourist to reach their destination without a guide. For these reasons, mermen and mermaids acted as gondoliers, joining with the boat as one and pulling it along.

Glenn and Sapphee’s gondola left the narrow canals, joining up with one of the major waterways. There, a number of small ships were lined up on either side of the canal. The number of gondolas sailing back and forth far surpassed the area slim channels they had been in but a moment before.

“Oh my!” Sapphee exclaimed. “Dr. Glenn, look there, look at all the Merrow glass! Should we buy some cups for when we make drinks?”

“Come on, Sapphee. Don’t forget why we’re here.”

“Whaaat? But…”

Glenn couldn’t hold back a smile. Today, they were only out to buy goods they needed for the clinic. Even so, Sapphee eye’s sparkled at all the merchandise on display in the boats.

All of the small craft were street stalls. Using the top of the boat like a display counter, the mermen and mermaid shopkeepers flattered and entertained customers with bright smiles. The merfolk, just as their names indicated, were all monsters with a fish-like lower body. That said, their appearances were quite diverse, as scale pattern, coloration, and fin shape varied greatly from individual to individual. Many of them were quite beautiful, with their multicolored fins and scales.

All in all, the line of merfolk along the Merrow Waterways was dazzlingly gorgeous.

The stall keepers were ingeniously negotiating and enticing the tourists riding along in their gondolas. Being tourists themselves, Glenn and Sapphee were captivated by the sparkling Merrow glass goods. If the stall keepers could get them to start talking about souvenirs, then they would no doubt win them over.

A canal filled with small gondolas darting back and forth, pulled by aquatic monsters; proud stall keepers displaying their souvenirs and gifts; tourists excitedly gazing at their wares—all this constituted the everyday scenery of the Merrow Waterways. It was one of Lindworm’s most famous spots to visit, a place where water-bound monsters, land-bound monsters, and people were all woven together.

“Oh my, that perfume bottle over there…” Sapphee said. Her wavering gaze had been drawn in by the canal stalls.

Their gondolier surfaced and looked back at her and Glenn. “Would you like stop over there, Doctor?” he asked, wanting to be sure he didn’t let her comment go unnoticed. After all, the gondoliers were also residents of the Merrow Waterways, and were most likely longtime acquaintances with the stall keepers. If a gondolier led their passengers toward a familiar stall, they might thus receive a copper coin from the stall keeper. These types of arrangements were a well-known part of doing business in tourist destinations, and were not at all a rare occurrence.

However—

“Sapphee,” Glenn spoke up. “The shopping for the clinic comes first. To Seventh Canal, please.”

“Whaaaaat?”

Ignoring her cry of dismay, Glenn gave directions to the gondolier. The suntanned merman accepted Glenn’s directions with a cheerful smile.

Unlike the gondolier, Sapphee seemed to be much more displeased about the loss of the sale. She didn’t say a word and instead looked back behind the boat, sulking. Not only that, but her long tail trailed behind the boat, as if reluctant to part from the perfume bottle. Glenn thought that if he had left her to her own devices, she would have wrapped herself around the stall’s gondola and not let go.

The glassware began with tableware and drinking glasses, as well as a variety of large and small bottles for a variety of different uses. They also sold animal-shaped glass figurines in quite a diverse selection. The multicolored sparkle of the glass really did give one the feeling that they were souvenirs aimed at women.

Although Glenn had told Sapphee they were just visiting for for work, that wasn’t actually true. Glenn himself thought their trip would also serve as some relaxation time for the both of them.

“We’ll stop by on the way back, Sapphee. Okay?”

“…That’s a promise, Doctor,” Sapphee said with a pout.

Glenn could only give a wry grin in response, knowing that her expression was exactly why he couldn’t refuse her pestering about the perfume bottle.

 

***

 

At Seventh Canal was a stall Glenn was very familiar with. It was a shop in an area that could be referred to as a back alley, run by a female selkie.

Selkies were a type of monster that wore seal skin on their head and looked exactly like a seal itself. The owner of the stall was no exception; she wore the skin of a seal on her head. As such, Glenn had never seen her natural face. Nevertheless, selkies were a beautiful and good-looking species, and as such the stall keeper’s gorgeous looks were without question.

She never said much when Glenn came to purchase purified water from her.

Such water wasn’t necessary unless one was a doctor like Glenn. If he hadn’t needed the purified water for surgery and making medicines, he could have got along just fine with well or river water instead. With all this in mind, it was likely that selling purified water was probably something akin to a hobby for the selkie shop owner. Glenn often wondered if she was really turning a profit on it.

As usual, the shopkeeper said very little as they made their transaction and then, when they were finished, saw their gondola off. In the back of the boat was now a large amount of bottled purified water, as well as alcohol for sterilization, and vinegar. All of it was pure and high quality. Loaded as it was with a great number of bottles, the boat was undoubtedly heavy, yet the gondolier pulled it along without issue. He was obviously well trained, but even just his ability to steer the boat without fighting the currents was an impressive feat.

With these supplies procured, their shopping duties were done. The amount of purified water they had purchased was more than enough to also help make Sapphee’s sunscreen ointment.

The goal of their trip achieved, the lamia assistant now stared meaningfully at Glenn. The gondolier swimming in front of them also cast his dark brown gaze back at them repeatedly.

“…We’d like to purchase some souvenirs. Would you happen to have any recommendations on where we could go to do so?” Glenn asked the gondolier, who then told him not to worry and began to pull them onwards.

Sapphee smiled brightly. Everything that followed was firmly within her realm of control. She kept an eye out for exactly what she was looking for as she carefully perused the stalls one by one.

In a normal marketplace, one could simply buy what they’d like and be done with it. However, though it was gentle, there was nevertheless a current flowing through the Merrow Waterways. And unless a gondola was in a loop or a fixed route, it could only move in one direction—which was why many of the canals throughout the Waterways ended up being one-way. Fittingly, the current in the big canal was strong and difficult to fight against.

All in all, coming across a souvenir you liked was an once-in-a-lifetime chance. While it was possible to stop the boat at one of the stalls, but it was extremely difficult to return to a stall one had already passed by. For this reason, many shoppers felt compelled to buy something they liked as soon as they came across it. It was another business practice particular to the Merrow Waterways and one that tugged on the heartstrings of the tourists who came to visit.

At long last, Sapphee found what she had been seeking.

“I’ll take this one, please,” she said and bought a perfume bottle made out of red glass. Despite all of the fuss she had made, it was a small, sophisticated yet inexpensive bottle—but all that was very much like Sapphee.

She looked very pleased that she had been able to get a good souvenir. With her shopping complete, Glenn directed the gondola downstream. Having procured so many goods meant they had, quite literally, a lot to carry on their shoulders—thus, they needed to stop the gondola somewhere and have one of the horsemen of Scythia Transportation pull them back to the clinic.

They left the lively main canal and moved into the side canals, which were relatively quiet, and the number of gondolas carrying tourists sparse. The stalls were equally few in number, only a few here and there.

“Not many people heading out yet, huh?” Glenn muttered, as their gondolier surfaced with a splash.

“Yes, that’s right,” the merman said.“There’s a show at night, you see. It’s only just past noon, so no one is heading back yet.”

“A…show?” Glenn said.

“Precisely.”

The gondolier explained that the folk of the Merrow Waterways had been lighting it up with glassware lamps as of late, illuminating the whole main canal. The merfolk played music and danced while doing so, jumping straight up out of the water.

“It’s a brand new entertainment show,” the merman said, “but it’s already a big hit. Would the two of you like to see it as well?”

Next to Glenn, Sapphee’s eyes were sparkling with desire and he himself certainly wasn’t disinterested in the mermaids’ performance. However, he wanted avoid going out of their way as much as possible, what with all the goods they had on their gondola.

“Next time, Sapphee—okay?”

“O-okay…” she said, placated, though she still looked reluctant to let it go. Glenn was thankful that the canals weren’t crowded at the moment, and decided that they’d immediately start on their way back.

At long last, an arched stone bridge came into view. Judging by its engravings, it was quite old, which made a certain sense, as the Waterways had a number of above-water buildings—all vestiges of the Waterways’ past as a slum. Whatever the case, for a town where the majority of residents could swim, a stone bridge was completely useless, the buildings above the water’s surface uninhabited ruins. It made one realize that the urban planning hadn’t been entirely thorough.

Beneath the bridge was a single, small boat. It was an undersized gondola. The waterproof coating it had been covered with was peeling off in one section. Inside in the gondola was one of the merfolk.

“Oh!” the sun-tanned mermaid exclaimed. She looked to be a young woman.

The innocent-looking girl suddenly smiled upon seeing Glenn’s face. “Hello!” she called. “You two over there, hold on a second!”

“Um… Do you mean us?” Glenn said.

“That’s right, that handsome-looking couple over there! Wait a second, hold on! Please come see my shop!”

It seemed to be some kind of invitation to her stall—but her boat appeared to be empty of salable wares.

“Oh my, saying we’re a couple like that… You’ll make me blush!” Sapphee said.

“You look like a nice, young lamia lady! And a lovely partner, too! Truly an example of the old adage: ‘a good wife and wise mother.’”

“Dr. Glenn, let’s stop by. This mermaid girl is sweet.”

Glenn thought that she had misunderstood the significance of “a good wife and wise mother,” but knew Sapphee wasn’t going to care after being complimented. Beyond that, Glenn knew it would be impossible to try and prevent her from stopping by the songstress, considering how completely carried away she had become at the mermaid’s words.

The gondolier tactfully pulled the gondola toward the side of the canal and found a reasonable place to moor the boat. Thus secured, they didn’t need to worry about being carried away with the current.

“Welcome to my shop! I’m Lulala Heine! Thank you for coming.”

She spoke with a far-reaching yet cool and refreshing voice. Her brisk way of speaking had a friendly feel to it. She looked to be about fourteen or fifteen years old. Her short hair added to the cheerful impression she gave. The way two of her pointed teeth poked out from either side of her mouth when she smiled was quite charming.

Her suntanned skin was surely a result of her spending most of her time on the banks of the canals. The pattern of her fish tail was beautiful, with black lines blending together with gold and white undertones. The midday sun shining down on the Waterways made them sparkle.

On the skirts at her chest and waist, Glenn could see decorations of glass and shells. She seemed to be young, but she was dressed as if she were a dancer. The sleeves on her outfit were wide, much like the clothes of a dancer—or so Glenn thought, but in fact, they were actually the fins on her arms. They were almost transparently pale and looked like decorative arm sleeves.

“And what type of shop is this, I wonder?” Sapphee had a big smile on her face as she spoke. She seemed to be extremely pleased with the fact she had been called “a good wife and wise mother,” although Glenn himself thought she was in fact neither.

“Here is where I advertise my singing,” said the mermaid. “One song is three copper coins! How about it?”

It appeared the mermaid girl was in fact some kind of performer.

On the main canal there had been many people advertising their craft—from floating minstrels to acrobatic street performers. It wasn’t at all rare for people to advertise their singing, but from Glenn’s limited knowledge, he had no memory of ever hearing one of the merfolk advertise their songs.

There were many kinds of merfolk: merrows, mermaids, and sirens, among others. However, their songs were generally reputed to tempt sailors and sink their ships. That was of course nothing more than legend, and their songs were not filled with any strange kind of magic.

In truth, it’s that—on their long journeys across the sea—sailors are condemned to deal with extreme exhaustion. In such situations, any man would be enthralled to see a mermaid singing. It was thought that in such situations, helmsmen steer their ship wrong and expose it to danger. In other words, though merfolk may be a primary, but indirect cause of a boat capsizing, that didn’t mean their singing had any ill intentions…

As for the small songstress, Lulala, her goal certainly wasn’t to capsize boats. It was to get coins from tourists.

“How about it? My singing is quite popular in the side canals!” she said, full of confidence.

Despite her claim, judging by the paint peeling off the side of her boat, it seemed that she wasn’t making good money. And the decorations she wore felt like they were all she could do to look her best. Not being to able to even spend any money on the tools of her trade was surely a sign of how strapped for coin she was.

A performer so poor certainly suggested something about her relative skill as a singer. However, Glenn’s attention had been captured by something else. Lulala’s clothes were made up of triangular pieces of cloth which covered her breasts and were tied together with string. The outfit was normal for one of the merfolk, as were what was to be found beneath it: right about where a human’s ribs would be located was three crescent-shaped slits. Her gills. No matter the subspecies of merfolk, all of them breathed in two ways—with their lungs and with their gills.

At the moment, Lulala was above the water, so her gills were closed. Underwater, however, was a different story. Submerged, merfolk breathed by taking water in through the mouth and sending it back out through their gills. Above water, they didn’t use their gills, so they would usually be tightly closed, but upon closer inspection of Lulala’s—

Her gills aren’t fully closed…?

From her gill-holes he caught a glimpse of their insides—the internal gill itself. As a doctor, Glenn could tell in his gut that something was amiss.

“Dr. Glenn.”

As he stood immersed in his thoughts, Sapphee had brought her face close to his ear, across which flickered a quick, cold sensation. It was Sapphee’s tongue. Stretching out longer than that of a human, her lamia tongue licked Glenn’s ear and conveyed her anger.

“What in the world could you be thinking about, staring so longingly at a tender mermaid like that?”

“Y-you’ve got it all wrong!” he said. “That wasn’t what I was doing!”

“Miss Lulala certainly has quite healthy, tanned skin, doesn’t she? Is that more to your tastes?”

“I didn’t say anything like that, did I?!”

Indeed, if Sapphee got a suntan or anything of the sort, her life would be in danger. Hadn’t they come all this way to the Merrow Waterways to buy purified water in order to protect her skin? Glenn wondered what, exactly, Sapphee thought all the effort they had gone to today was supposed to be about.

For the moment, Glenn put his doctor’s intuition aside.

Lulala was still smiling, but it was clear that she was confused by the fact that Glenn and Sapphee had neither paid any money nor hadn’t moved their boat. She was surely wondering if they were customers—and whether she should continue promoting her performance or not. She seemed to be struggling to come to a decision.

Or so Glenn thought.

Lulala clapped her hands together. “Oh, that’s right, do you two know? The other name of this bridge is the ‘Lover’s Bridge.’ In the middle of the war, a certain mermaid and a certain human man fell in love with each other!” she explained, smiling brightly. “But mankind and monster were enemies. The two decided to elope, so the man held the mermaid in his arms and took this bridge to escape the town. Then, after escaping the town, the two of them committed suicide together! That’s why this bridge brings blessings to your love life!”

The fact that she offered up a story that had no way of being proven and used words like “blessing for your love life,” gave the distinct impression that it was a made-up story for tourists, but—listening with rapt attention and sparkling eyes was the pharmacist of Litbeit Clinic.

Glenn felt fairly certain that there were no love blessings to be found from such a tragic ending. He also felt that—considering the way she had told it all with a smile— there were a multitude of problems with the way Lulala tried to pander to her customers.

“A daring escape with his lover in his arms... It’s so romantic, isn’t it, Doctor?” Sapphee said, her tail swaying back and forth as she spoke.

It seemed she was somewhat envious.

It didn’t particularly matter to Glenn if she longed for such romanticism, but while carrying a mermaid in one’s arms would already be difficult for a human, the idea of carrying a being with a long lower body like a lamia was quite incredible. Well, at the very least, it would have been difficult task for Glenn’s slender arms to take on.

“That’s just it!” said Lulala. “If you listen to my love song at this bridge, you will definitely find success in your love life. As a couple, you will have a long number of years ahead of you! So how about a song? How about it?”

Somehow, the cheerful mermaid seemed to have interpreted Glenn’s silence to mean that he was unsure whether or not he would have her sing for them.

She continued to pile on her sales pitch, while Sapphee—already entirely in the mermaid’s grasp—echoed her in a murmur, saying, “Success in love…”

Glenn sighed. It was only just past noon. Surely there wouldn’t be any problem for them to listen to one or two of her songs. He stopped Sapphee off as she went to pay, and took out three copper coins from his breast pocket.

“This is my treat,” he told her; Glenn wasn’t so incompetent as to make a woman pay for a love song.

“Oh, Doctor...” Sapphee said.

“All right then,” Glenn said. “We’d like to hear two songs.”

“Wonderful, thank you!” said the mermaid. “Oh, but two songs, you said? I’m sorry sir, the amount you gave is a little short…” She looked perplexed, though she kept smiling. The amount Glenn had given her was clearly only enough for one song.

Glenn, of course, had done this on purpose.“No, please sing for us for this amount,” he said.

“Are you asking for a discount?” Lulala said, affronted. “My voice isn’t that cheap, you know!”

Glenn looked once again at the area around Lulala’s chest and said, “I will pay for the rest in a different way.”

Just as he had thought, the gills under her breast were unnaturally open. He was a doctor—he simply couldn’t let himself ignore a potential disorder.

“The remaining amount I’ll pay with my consultation,” he clarified.

“Consultation?” Lulala tilted her small head. She seemed to think they were nothing more than a couple of tourists. In the clinic, they were always immediately recognizable, what with his white coat and Sapphee’s nurse uniform. However, the coat he wore for trips outside the office was nondescript—he looked nothing like a healthcare professional when he wore it.

To clarify further, Sapphee gave Lulala a short explanation of their line of work.

Whether it was because they didn’t look like doctors, or because she had never seen a doctor before, Lulala’s eyes widened in curiosity and surprise upon hearing the explanation.

 

***

 

Lulala sang an ancient monster song loudly.

It was in an old language that went more or less unspoken in the modern age. Glenn thought the language itself probably only survived in the songs of the merfolk. According to some theories, the language’s peculiar pronunciation—which required much trilling—had caused it to fall out of use before it became widespread. Glenn, however, had no way to judge whether or not that was true.

The language survived almost exclusively in written documents; only a few monsters were capable of pronouncing it properly. Whatever the reason—whether it because Lulala was singing in that rare language, or for some other reason—Glenn couldn’t help but sense something mystical in her tune.

What Glenn was certain of was that Lulala’s singing voice was relaxed and beautiful.

The songs of merfolk were said to seduce and befuddle the hearts of men. However, Lulala’s singing voice seemed to clear one’s mind and thoughts, seemed to ease one’s mental fatigue and stress. Glenn felt at ease as he listened to her song; it was like he had gotten a whiff of an herbal infusion.

With his mind now refreshed, he progressed with his earlier line of thought. Why was a merwoman with this much skill and artistry doing business on some side canal people took on their way home? She should have had plenty of work to take advantage of. Even imagining her making an appearance in the nightly show didn’t seem too far-fetched.

If there wasn’t any issue with her voice, then what was the issue—was there some other problem she had? If so, what in the world could it be?

“—Hnk?! Augh… Uckt!”

Glenn’s speculations—and Lulala’s sonorous singing voice—were interrupted by a hoarse, dry, heaving sound.

Pressing down on her chest, Lulala tried to repress her coughing fit.“S-sorry,” she said. “I choked a little… Koff! Koff!”

The coughing didn’t stop.

Her harsh hacking continued, but finally Lulala managed to take a deep breath. It appeared she had calmed down somewhat, but tears still rose to the corner of her eyes. Glenn was sure that the coughing fit had been considerably painful for her.

“Forgive me, sir and madam! As an apology, I’ll sing one more—”

“No, that won’t be necessary.”

“What?” Lulala looked at once as though she had been cast aside.

But then Sapphee held out her hand toward Lulala. “Please, come over here.”

“Huh? Um… Okay…”

Lulala dove into the water for a second, but was immediately lifted out of it by Sapphee. On top of the gondola, the lamia, the mermaid, and Glenn all sat together in the same boat.

“So, what is this?” Lulala asked.

“I told you, didn’t I?” Glenn said. “We’re going to give a consultation. Somewhere with fewer people would be better, though… Gondolier, can you move somewhere other people won’t come by and see us?”

The young gondolier replied with an “Aye!” and, after undoing the mooring rope, quickly began pulling the gondola. The boat continued on past the “Lover’s Bridge.” The gondolier’s ability to steer through the intricate and labyrinthine canals was truly remarkable. Since he was in the water and pulling from the front, it seemed as if he would neglect to check behind him—however, with boat and merfolk as one, he continued down the watery passage.

At long last, they came out into a big open canal, one nearly as spacious as the main canal. It seemed to be on the edge of the Waterways, and there are was devoid of tall buildings. Even upon looking into the water, there were few monsters to be seen swimming beneath the surface.

“This is the border of the Waterways,” Lulala explained. “The currents are swift in this area because the Great River flows directly through here.”

It was true that the current was quite fast. The gondolier looked to be doing all that he could to make sure the gondola wasn’t swept up by the current. As he had though earlier, Glenn mused that they must be near the suburbs of the Waterways.

“Gondolas don’t really come out here,” Lulala said. “It’s a good spot to watch the sunset though, so there might be a few boats that come to see it…Oh, see? Over there!” Her tanned finger pointed out a single gondola. A young mother and a small boy were in the boat. Waiting for dusk, the tourists had probably come to see the setting sun.

There were no other gondolas around.

“Dr. Glenn,” Lulala said.

At his assistant’s urging, Glenn nodded. “Yes, that’s right.” He paused, then said, “Miss Lulala Heine. As we promised, please allow us to examine you.”

“Examine…? But I don’t have any money! And I’m perfectly healthy!”

“You don’t need to worry about payment. I believe I said this would make up for the second song I requested… I can’t listen to a songstress’s music for free, after all. I just don’t believe that you are in good health. However, if you aren’t sick, then that itself is something to be happy about, is it not? Now then, will you let me examine you?”

There was something wrong with Lulala, Glenn was certain. With her coughing fits, Glenn didn’t doubt that Lulala was aware of it herself, too.

“I-If you don’t need any money, then I guess…”

“Thank you very much,” he said.

The examination had to take place in the boat. But Glenn knew that if his doctor’s intuition was correct, then the examination itself wouldn’t last long.

Sapphee picked up on Glenn’s intentions and swiftly went around behind Lulala. It was cramped and unsteady aboard the gondola. Glenn moved carefully and knelt down in front of the mermaid.

“Now then, Miss Lulala—please open your mouth.”

“Ahhh…”

Lulala did as instructed. Her thin lips and pointed teeth were certainly much like those of a young girl. Considering the cough she had, he suspected that there was probably something abnormal with her throat. If they had been at the clinic, he could have used a tongue depressor to hold down her tongue, but without one on hand, simply looking into her mouth would have to do.

As Glenn thought, it was inflamed, tinged with red. He was surprised she had been able to sing—surely the inflammation was painful. For her to have produced such a beautiful singing voice, while enduring that pain…

“Thank you,” Glenn said. “Now, next is your chest.”

“M-my chest?!” Lulala said. “By chest, you mean…? N-no way, that’s…way too embarrassing…”

“O-oh, uh, no…”

Lulala crossed her hands in front of her chest, her face turning bright red. The way Glenn had spoken to her was partly to blame, but even still her response felt like a bit of an overreaction.

“Dr. Glenn.” Sapphee cleared her throat with a cough.“Miss Lulala is a young woman—please try to be a little more considerate.”

“Th-that’s right, my apologies…”

Unable to challenge Sapphee’s sound reasoning, Glenn hung his head, reminding himself that telling a young woman to show him her chest was definitely something one would find unpleasant.

Glenn then reconsidered his current position.

He wasn’t speaking to a monster that had come to his clinic as a patient. She was simply someone who Glenn couldn’t ignore, in the middle of an examination above the surface of the canal. The exam was for medical treatment, yes, but that didn’t mean a young woman would want to show her body to some man she barely knew.

“Please let me listen to your breathing,” Glenn asked again, rewording his request.

“B-breathing?”

“I have a stethoscope. Right here.” Glenn took a stethoscope out of his bag. It was the only thing he carried around with him, as it was an indispensable item for a doctor.

Due to the complex inner workings behind the stethoscope’s casing, they couldn’t be mass-produced. What Glenn held was another high quality product the craftsmen at Kuklo Workshop had carefully constructed for him. It was a tool Glenn used often ever since setting up the clinic.

He held the cup of the stethoscope to Lulala’s chest. Slipping it under her bathing suit, it began to pick up the sound of her lungs. Since the rubber tubes were long, the stethoscope was bulky. Despite that, however, the Kuklo Workshop product was able to pick up the sounds of her chest with unparalleled precision.

Lulala stretched out her back as she hid her still-developing chest.Trying his best to avoid touching of her feminine areas, Glenn gave her instructions.

“Please take a deep breath.”

“Uuuuhhh… Haaaaa…”

He concentrated carefully on the sound coming through the stethoscope. There were none of the sounds characteristic of asthma or other such conditions. He changed the location of the cup to verify, but could find no abnormalities in her lungs.

“Uuuuhhhh—”

If there was an abnormality, it was most likely in her other respiratory organ.

Glenn removed the stethoscope from his ears and put it around his neck.

“Now finally, please let me see your gills.”

“Gills? By gills, you mean these?” Lulala asked.

The three crescent-shaped slits below her breast—the gills of a mermaid— opened and closed audibly. Inside a merfolk’s throat was a valve used to switch between lung respiration and gill respiration. While they were underwater, this valve adjusted to prevent air from entering the lungs.

Merfolk drank in water from their mouth and pushed it out through their gills; after extracting the oxygen from the water, the fluid was then discharged from the body. This phenomenon had been discovered in the first research study on merfolk, which had been conducted by Glenn’s teacher, Cthulhy.

Because of their gills, merfolk could live underwater. Conversely, when they were on land they had to use their lungs to breath air. As such, merfolk could only sing above water.

Glenn nodded when Lulala pointed to her gills. “Yes, those,” he said.

“Um, sure, I guess,” the mermaid said.

Lulala raised both her arms up. From behind her, Sapphee moved her hands under Lulala’s armpits and supported her movements.

Glenn brought his face close to her six gills, split into threes on the left and right sides of her body. Lulala smiled at the ticklish sensation, but just as she had said, it appeared she wasn’t opposed to a man looking at her gills.

Glenn began to observe them closely. From the small opening, he could see the mechanism that obtained oxygen from water via a complex fold within the gill. Out of the water, the gills had to be closed, but while underwater, the fold opened and respiration would occur as water pumped continuously through.

On the fold in question, Glenn could see an abnormal redness. It also looked a bit swollen. Indeed, the inside of her gill was just one step short of total inflammation. It wasn’t as severe as the inflammation in her throat, but if it got any worse, it was quite possible she would eventually have to deal with pain and breathing complications.

“Is it okay if I touch them?” he asked.

Lulala looked a little unsure, but nodded her head. “It’s…fine.”

“This might feel ticklish, but please try to put up with it for me.”

“Okay.”

Glenn felt her gills.

Along with the stickiness of the special mucous membrane, Glenn felt a slight heat. Typically, a merfolk’s body temperature was low due to their underwater lifestyle. They felt cool to the touch, much as Sapphee’s snake body did.

“How does it feel? Does it hurt?” Glenn asked.

“I-It doesn’t hurt, but…it’s a little…warm.”

“Sorry, please try to put up with it just a little longer.”

A human’s finger was indeed supposed to feel warm to merfolk. However, palpation was a necessary part of the examination, so Glenn opened up the gill slit and began to gently touch the inner part of the organ with stroking motions.

As expected, he felt swelling.

“Also…um, when you touch there, it feels itchy…sort of.”

“Itchy?”

If she felt itchiness more than pain, then there was also a danger of some bacterial infection. Glenn knew that if he didn’t treat her immediately, the infection might spread to others besides just Lulala. However, he had already come to realize there was another possibility besides infection.

“Excuse me for a moment, Miss Lulala,” he said and suddenly stuck his fingers deeper into her gills.

“Huh…? Hyaaa!” Lulala raised her voice in surprise. Sapphee glared reproachfully, but as it was a necessary step, he just had to bear with her ire. He was sure her surprise had just come from how suddenly he had moved his fingers further into the gills.

“S-sorry. I just wanted to check the deeper part of your gills.”

“Hnh… I-It’s okay…”

He began feeling the interior of the respiration organ. The gills, composed of a number of folds and mucus, were an evolutionary gift the merfolk had acquired from their long years living underwater. They were capable of complex functions far more advanced than those of normal fish, and with them merfolk were able to live underwater in either salt or fresh water.

“I’ll touch them slowly, okay?” he said.

“Nh… Okay.”

Glenn continued to feel the inside of her gill. The amount of mucus on the folds seemed to be low.

Typically, they would be covered in mucus much like one’s mouth and nose. A shortage of secretions meant her gills weren’t protected for life above water. Consequently, inflammation was occurring.

“All right… I’m going to start moving, okay?” he said.

“O-okay…Ah! Nh… Oh…”

“Just a little bit more.”

“I-I understand,” Lulala said. “I’ll do my best… Ah! Hngh…!’

As he felt Lulala’s mucus, Glenn wondered what had come first. Had it been the inflammation in her throat? Or maybe the bacterial infection caused the inflammation in her throat to spread all the way to her gills? No, Glenn thought, that can’t be it. If that had been the case, then the inflammation should also have spread to her lungs, as well, but he hadn’t heard any abnormalities there when examining her with the stethoscope.

The complication in her gills had come first. That was Glenn’s judgment. The inflammation of her gills was the cause and had extended up into her throat.

“Thank you,” Glenn said. “I’m all done. I’m going to take my fingers out.”

“S-slowly, okay?”

Glenn nodded. “Understood.” He pulled out his fingers, slimy from the gills’ mucus.

Lulala gave a relieved sigh; having Glenn’s fingers inserted so deep must have been difficult to bear, after all.

Sapphee immediately wiped down Glenn’s mucus-covered fingers with a handkerchief soaked in disinfectant alcohol. She did so as a precaution against bacterial infection, though Glenn was fairly convinced that there was no possibility that there would be any infection.

Sapphee made sure to wipe off Glenn’s fingers in a position where Lulala wouldn’t be able to see her doing so. Precaution against infection or not, Sapphee took care not to hurt Lulala’s feelings by disinfecting Glenn’s fingers right in front of her.

Unlike Glenn, Sapphee was a very thoughtful and considerate woman.

“Miss Lulala, may I ask you a question?” Glenn asked.

Lulala tilted her head just a little, but then quickly returned to her businesslike smile and responded brightly, saying, “Sure!”

“How much time do you spend out of water a day?”

“Wh-what…? I wonder… Well, I’m at the foot of that bridge from sunup to sundown every day singing!”

“Huh…? So you’re only underwater for a quarter of the day…?”

“If that’s what the clock says, then I guess so?”

Such a short amount of time underwater seemed absurd to Glenn. After all, merfolk lived their lives between both the sea and the land. They came on land to sunbathe and regulate their body temperature and swam underwater to eat, sleep, and protect their mucous membrane. However, according to what Lulala had just said, she spent over half the day living above water. Not only that, but she sat aboard a small boat and worked without break as a songstress, overtaxing her lungs and throat in the process.

It was much like if a human stood in the middle of a desert and continued singing nonstop without hydrating themselves. Glenn was not surprised that her gills were as inflamed as they were.

“Wh-why do you work so much?” he asked.

“Obviously it’s because I’m broke, isn’t it?”

Lulala’s boundlessly bright smile was charming—but for just a moment, a serious expression had crossed her face as she replied. It struck Glenn as being Lulala’s most honest expression and felt overwhelmed by it in spite of himself.

“You see, my dad ran away, and now I just have my mom!” Lulala explained. “On top of that, I got a ton of siblings! I’m the oldest one of four so I gotta work hard and earn money! There’s a lot of chances to make money at the Waterways, so if I can’t use my voice to make us money…our lives…”

Lulala grabbed Glenn by the collar as she desperately appealed to him, but as she spoke, she seemed to realize that saying all this to him wouldn’t change anything. She quickly let go of him and curled herself into a ball, despondent. For better or worse, the young woman was filled with emotions waiting to be expressed. Was this what it was like for a girl her age?

“Oh… Um, sorry. I…” Lulala started to apologize.

“Don’t worry about it,” Sapphee said. “Dr. Glenn isn’t upset.”

“O-okay…”

Sapphee put both her hands on Lulala’s shoulders. Having come to her senses, Lulala looked down dejectedly.

At last, Glenn understood. Lulala’s enthusiasm for her work came from her impoverished home life. But at this rate, if she continued her life above the water, the inflammation in her gills would progress, and she’d soon find herself unable to breathe underwater.

He was at a loss of how to explain this all to her, but she spoke up before he could even make an attempt. “Oh, but—but, you know! It’s okay!”

It seems that, considering her constant cheerfulness, she couldn’t handle awkward silences or dead conversations very well. Thus, when everyone grew quiet, she took the initiative and spoke up.

“So, they’re building a fountain in Lindworm’s central plaza, you know? And I’ve accepted an invitation from the City Council to sing there! I’ll be able to earn more than my work here at the Waterway. Once the fountain preparations are done, I can start singing there! With it, my number of hours will go down, too!”

“…Is that so,” Glenn mused. A reward suitable for her singing voice—and it seemed that the day she would be given that reward wasn’t all that far away, either. In that case, what Glenn had to do wasn’t that big of a deal.

“Miss Lulala, your symptoms—”

A shrill cry cut Glenn’s words off.

“Wh-what?”

There shouldn’t have been anyone else around. They had specifically come here to avoid the eyes of others. No wait, Glenn thought. There was someone else. Another gondola, separate from their own.

“Doctor, the child…” Sapphee said.

Glenn could see it too. The child that had come with his mother had fallen from the boat into the canal. The spray of water being kicked up was evidence of his struggles on the surface of the water.

“Someone! Anyone!” the mother shouted frantically.

The currents in the area were swift, and as such it was an area that aquatic monsters rarely frequented. Glenn worried about what would happen to a human child who fell into such a turbulent area.

“Gondolier, can you go help him?!” he shouted.

“If I went, then your gondola would be swept away!”

It seemed the merman was doing everything he could to maintain the gondola’s position. Glenn was sure the same would apply to the gondolier of the mother’s boat, as well. Their gondolier was a merman who looked to be in his prime, but he too could only look on as the child began to drown, unable to lend a hand to help.

“I’ll go!”

“Lulala?!”

“I can swim over to him!” the mermaid said. “I’ll grab him and come right back up!”

Glenn had no time to stop her.

Before he could say anything, Lulala’s tail smacked the bottom of the gondola and she launched into the air like a dolphin. From there, she dove lithely down into the water. Her beautiful movements made one truly admire the character of the merfolk, but—

“Gondolier! Get us over to that boat!” Glenn shouted, but the gondolier had already begun moving.

While all this was going on, the thrashing water churned up by the drowning child had settled. He seemed to have lost the energy to struggle. Without a fight, he would surely be carried away by the swift current. It was clear as day what would happen to the child.

Glenn’s gondola approached the mother’s. Sapphee extended her long snake lower body.

“I’m going to bring her to us, doctor.”

Using her snake body as a rope, Sapphee forcibly pulled the other gondola toward her and Glenn. The technique required a lot of strength, but it was possible with the hardy lower body of a lamia.

“My child! My child fell, and—”

“It’s all right. A mermaid has gone to save him,” Glenn said, desperately trying to soothe the mother, who looked on the verge of jumping in herself. Meanwhile, Glenn began to consider the situation. How long had passed since the child went down? If he wasn’t struggling any longer, there was a high possibility that he had taken on water, stopped breathing, and slipped into unconsciousness.

If he had stopped breathing, then treating him was a fight against the clock.

Finally—

“Doctor!”

“Yeah!”

The child rose to the surface, a tanned arm wrapped around his stomach. Lulala pushed the drowned child up from under the water and raised him up to the surface. Sapphee once again extended her snake tail and used it to pluck the boy out of Lulala’s hands.

Sapphee laid the child on the boat. Glenn quickly took off the child’s jacket and got down on his knees next to him.

“Miss, what is his name?”

“Huh…? J-Johann…”

“Johann, can you hear me?! Can you hear me?! It’s okay, you’re safe now!”

Glenn called out to the limp child, but there was no answer. Glenn put his face close to the child’s mouth and looked toward his chest. It was motionless—the boy had stopped breathing. He couldn’t feel any breath from the child’s nose or mouth, either.

“He’s unconscious. Respiration’s stopped. Sapphee!”

“He has no pulse. He’s in cardiac arrest.”

Sapphee was already at Johann’s neck, taking his pulse. Then, she tilted his head and cleared his airway.

“I’m going to begin CPR.”

Finding the boy’s sternum, Glenn placed both of his hands vertically on top of it. Then, he pressed down on it repeatedly, applying pressure.

Glenn was a doctor specializing in monster medicine, but he still had the fundamental knowledge required to treat humans, as well. He certainly had the know-how necessary to perform emergency first aid on a near-drowning victim, as did Sapphee.

Not much time had passed since the boy had gone under. Glenn continued to repeatedly press down on his chest. After doing so over thirty times, he went to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the child, when—

“Glaugh!”

The boy spit up water with a strong retch.

Glenn got sprayed by the spit-up water, but he didn’t mind—what mattered was that the boy was breathing again.

It seemed the amount of water he had taken in wasn’t too much after all. Quickly, Glenn tilted the boys head up in order to make sure none of the water the boy regurgitated kept him from being able to breathe.

“Ugh… Glaugh!”

“Oh, Johann!” The mother embraced her now-conscious son. The boy sat there stupefied, not sure what exactly had happened.

“He didn’t spend much time unconscious, so I don’t believe there will be any side effects to worry about. However, just to be safe, I think you should take him to a good doctor to have him examined.”

“Thank you so much! Thank you!”

Glenn’s treatment had been truly basic first aid. Nevertheless, the biggest achievement behind the boy’s return to consciousness belonged to the mermaid who had dove in after him. It was entirely because Lulala had immediately jumped in and brought the child back in such a short amount of time.

“Sapphee, where’s Lulala?”

“About that, doctor…”

For a little while, Sapphee had been searching around the gondola. Now, she strained to see through waves, but could see nothing.

“Miss Lulala isn’t down there,” she said.

“Tch.”

Glenn’s decision and duty as a doctor of monster medicine had become instantly clear.

 

***

 

She couldn’t breathe.

To merfolk, the water was a sacred place. It enveloped all of life. To them, water naturally surrounded them; they couldn’t go without it, just as humans could not go without air.

However, at that moment, things were different for Lulala Heine.

This isn’t…right… she thought.

A mermaid who couldn’t breathe underwater—it was absurd.

But in reality, Lulala was suffocating. By the time she’d brought the child to the surface, she had already begun having difficulty breathing. She had done everything she could to save the child, but as a result had been swept away in the fast current, and was now sinking further down into the canal.

With her consciousness fading, she couldn’t even struggle against the water.

Frantically, she opened and closed her mouth over and over again, drinking in water. To breathe with their gills, merfolk take water in through the mouth and draw oxygen from it by passing it back out through their gills. Just as fish open and close their mouths when they are on dry land, when breathing becomes difficult for a mermaid, they try to drink as much water as possible.

However, no matter how much water she drank, Lulala could not restore her ability to breathe. Her dwindling consciousness began to snatch away her ability to think. As she faded, she thought about a tale of mermaid disappearing into bubbles—the tale of “Lover’s Bridge.”

That story, which Lulala had told to the doctor and nurse couple, was said to have actually happened long ago. A pair of lovers, a mermaid and a human, trying to escape the war, lamenting that there was no place for them to find peace, held each other’s hands and sank down into the water.

The breath of the two drowning lovers became bubbles, and in the end those bubbles enveloped them and they joined each other in heaven.

Lulala wondered if she, too, would turn into bubbles when she died.

However, she was unable to even exhale any bubbles and could do nothing but desperately drink in water.

Someone!

Her voice refused to come out. Like a kaleidoscope, her life turned through her mind.

Her father and mother had gotten married and moved a young Lulala and the rest of her siblings to the Waterways. The war had ended and her father had been enthusiastic to begin their new lives.

However, their life on the Waterways hadn’t gone well.

Lulala’s father wasn’t flexible enough to adapt to the new life and the new city they lived in. The Waterways were brand new, and everyone had been desperate to try and establish a stable existence on the canals. But Lulala’s father left them. It was a heavy burden on her mother to look after the children he had left behind and earn enough money for them all to live, so as the oldest child, Lulala had had no choice but to take the initiative and start working.

There had been tough times as she worked in the side canals. There were some customers who would urge her to have sex, mistaking her for a prostitute of some kind, while other customers disparaged her singing voice and refuse to pay for her songs. The kindness of her merfolk neighbors was a small consolation.

But the City Council representative Skadi Dragenfelt had come and scouted her. She was going to be able to sing in the city plaza! It was a chance to finally get by without suffering from the hardships of her difficult life anymore. She’d be able to provide her mother and siblings with good food to eat. She’d be able to get by without having to endure the pain in her throat and forcing herself to sing with a smile.

Not like this… I don’t want it to end like this.

Lulala stretched her hands through the water.

The light of the setting sun filtered in from the water’s surface. That way was up. However, as a mermaid, the thought of heading for the water’s surface didn’t occur to her. It was only natural. If she couldn’t breathe, she only needed to dive into the water, and breathe with her gills instead. For mermaids, the surface of the water was far more dangerous.

Someone, save me! she shouted into the water. However, with her throat filled with water, her voice wouldn’t come out. Thus, her voice shouldn’t have been able to reach anyone, and yet—

“I will save you.”

Underwater, Lulala shouldn’t have been able to hear any voice. However, the voice of the doctor was nonetheless calling to her. The man named Glenn had definitely spoken to her—or at least, she thought he had.

As her consciousness faded away, Lulala was positive she could hear Glenn’s determined voice speak to her once again.

 

***

 

Glenn came to his conclusion quickly: Lulala was drowning. Realizing this, he tore off his tunic and jumped into the water. There would be some who would laugh at the thought of a mermaid drowning. However…

There was an example from the past…

Glenn dove into the swift currents of the canal. The eye-catching golden of Lulala’s body, the sparkle of transparent glass reflecting sunlight even under the water—both were easy to spot. Finding her was simple.

Instead of swimming against the current, Glenn went limp. It appeared to him that Lulala had already lost consciousness and had been washed away without her swimming at all. Therefore, if Glenn also went limp, and was pulled along similar to how Lulala had been, he would be able to head straight toward her.

In this way, he closed in on Lulala. He caught her in his arms, but she wasn’t responsive. Her eyes barely open; her consciousness seemed to be fading. She was opening and closing her mouth. Unconsciously trying to take water into her body.

A mermaid can drown when they’re underwater if they accidentally start breathing with their lungs.

As aforementioned, mermaids could switch between lung respiration and gill respiration using a valve in their throats—meaning that they could switch between taking in air and taking in water. However, if elderly merfolk or merfolk suffering from a throat disorder were to experience a sudden accident underwater, it was possible that the valve could fail to switch between the two.

Lulala’s case was exactly like that.

Her throat and gills had become inflamed from dehydration. Then, in that same state, she dove energetically into the water to save the child. Now, Lulala was using her lungs and taking water into them.

To make matters worse, when a mermaid’s breathing became difficult, they drank water—a common reaction for gill respiration; any mermaid would do so without thinking. However, by accidentally using her lungs to breathe and gulping down water on top of it all, she was only hastening her own drowning.

It was for these reasons that Lulala was drowning and beginning to lose consciousness.

Glenn had read data on drowned merfolk bodies a number of times at the academy. It was precisely because merfolk had both gills and lungs that they would end up drowning.

It’s…the only way!

It was clear to Glenn what he had to do. He supported Lulala’s body, made up his mind, and took in water.

“Gaugh…Uglh!” He choked, but kept the water in his mouth.

Then he pressed his mouth up against Lulala’s.

“Hnh?!”

Her eyes opened. Good, Glenn thought. It seemed she was still just barely conscious. Glenn pressed his tongue into her mouth, then forced water from his mouth into hers and down her throat.

While doing all this, he embraced her. He squeezed her back and made it arch backwards. Continuing to pour water down her throat with her body in this position was known as underwater artificial respiration. However, though it was artificial respiration, it wasn’t a treatment used for lung respiration.

If I can keep going…

Glenn held his breath and carefully checked Lulala’s condition.

By arching a merfolk’s back, one could clear their body’s internal waterway, which connected the mouth to the gills, much like their esophagus acted as a connecting airway. By encouraging a weakened breathing valve to move again, one could revitalize the functionality of a mermaid’s gills.

This was the aim of Glenn’s underwater artificial respiration.

However, it was not a treatment that a human was meant to give. After all, Glenn could only breathe through his lungs. If he took in water while underwater and poured it inside Lulala’s mouth, he himself would stop breathing.

It was a procedure meant to be given to merfolk by other merfolk, but at the time Glenn didn’t have any other options. Due to the lack of oxygen, he was beginning to feel dizzy. His vision was going grey, and there was an intense ringing in his ears.

Then Glenn felt water flowing over the arm he had wrapped around Lulala’s sides. The gills were open, water was flowing through them—Lulala had regained respiratory function in her gills.

Thank…good…ness…

But that was the end. With his consciousness fading, Glenn didn’t have the strength left to carry her back to the gondola. And though Lulala’s gill respiration was back to normal, she hadn’t immediately regained consciousness. It would still take some time for her to recover from her befuddlement and be able to swim again.

What…should I do…

Glenn’s mind—what he considered to be his only redeeming feature—wasn’t working. He wondered if there was anything—anything, even driftwood would be fine—that he could grab hold of and float up to the surface with.

There! A fishing…hook? Unconsciously, he reached his hand out, toward what looked like a white hook. It was emitting a mysterious light, gleaming faintly through the water.

Slithering, the scaled fish hook wrapped itself around both Glenn and Lulala. It was then that Glenn finally realized that it wasn’t a fishing hook at all. The world turned upside down as the giant white snake tail lifted the two suddenly from the water, launching them up into the bright, open world.

“Glaugh!” Spitting up water, Glenn was able to breathe again. “Augh… Ug… Ugh…” he coughed. Despite his hacking, however, he was very thankful he was to be breathing again.

Sapphee looked frantic as she pulled the two of them out of the water with her tail and dropped them both in the gondola.

“Th-thanks, Sapphee, you saved us…” Glenn gasped.

“Pulling two people up is tough even for me, you know!” Sapphee said. She was also breathing heavily, though she looked relieved. The chain of drownings, starting with the young child, then Lulala, and finally Glenn had been broken by Glenn’s reliable assistant. “Honestly, what were you thinking diving in without saying anything?! You need to be more careful with your actions, Doctor—”

“Let’s save the lecture…for later,” Glenn said wearily and looked at Lulala.

Though she could breathe again, she was shaking, her face a bright red. Glenn thought that she was perhaps plagued with some other abnormality, or maybe suffering from a different kind of trouble, but—

“How long are you going to keep hugging each other?!” Sapphee demanded.

At her reprimand, Glenn once again realized he had made a mistake. The young mermaid songstress in Glenn’s arms was trembling out of embarrassment.

 

***

 

In Lindworm’s central plaza, her back to the extravagantly built fountain, Lulala Heine’s voice reverberated loudly and cheerfully across the square.

“———————♪”

The bustling humans and monsters all stopped what they were doing and became absorbed by her singing. Lost in the crowd, Glenn and Sapphee, too, were both enjoying Lulala’s song.

It had been close to half a month since they had rescued her. The construction of the plaza’s fountain was over. The newly completed structure was specially made to draw water directly from the Merrow Waterways. The reason for drawing water from the Waterways simple—so Lulala could swim there directly and situate herself in front of the fountain.

There was a marble seat specially built for Lulala. The stage was underwater, made to accommodate a merfolk’s body. As such, she could sing in a natural position, with her body submerged in the water from the chest down.

“———————♪”

The ancient song finished. The song had a mysterious air to it, though it sounded as comfortable and relaxed as ever. Lulala smiled and waved at the audience’s applause, every bit the cheerful songstress. Her smile was a bright, full-faced, and radiant, her two small teeth protruding out of the sides of her mouth. That bright smile really does suit her, Glenn thought.

“Thank you! Thank you, everyone!” Lulala cried. “I’ll be singing here again at noon, okay? I hope you all come and listen!”

With her performances now occurring regularly in the plaza, one no longer had to go to the Waterways to hear the songs of the merfolk. The public interest in her performances was great; a considerable number of people came to listen to her songs. The Merrow Waterways were a very unique tourist attraction and as such, the flow of tourists who paid them a visit was ever strong. However, by singing in Lindworm’s city plaza, Lulala was able to grab the attention of a new, larger audience for her concert.

As aforementioned, her performances had come about at the request of the Lindworm City Council itself; the City Council representative Skadi had personally invited Lulala to perform, in order to make the newly remodeled fountain a centerpiece of the plaza. Therefore, Lulala wasn’t currently asking the audience for money in exchange for her singing—instead, she received a monthly wage. And because she sang in the plaza’s fountain at set times, her job also included telling the time for all of Lindworm.

She wasn’t some cuckoo tweeting out the time, but a mermaid who sang what time it was.

Her life seemed to have improved greatly for the better; Glenn couldn’t see a single cloud on Lulala’s smiling face.

“Miss Lulala,” Sapphee called in greeting, after the crowd had thinned out.

“Oh! Miss Sapphee… And Dr. Glenn…”

“Hello, Lulala,” Glenn said, his hand raised in greeting.

The instant Lulala recognized him, she sank down up to her shoulders in the water. The fins on her arms became drenched with water and expanded out under the surface as if they were shirt sleeves.

Incidentally, the reason Glenn had stopped calling her “Miss Lulala,” was because he had been told by Lulala that she didn’t feel comfortable when he spoke so formally. Sapphee, on the other hand, continued to refer to her this way, though Glenn figured this was because Sapphee was always polite no matter who she was talking to.

“After everything that’s happened, how have you been feeling, Miss Lulala?”

“I’ve been great!” the mermaid said. “Thanks to the medicine you gave me, my throat’s feeling a lot better and my singing has been perfect! I’m definitely not going to drown ever again! I, um… I really caused a lot of trouble for the two of you…”

Lulala glanced hesitantly toward Glenn, but didn’t try to make eye contact with him. She would only speak directly to Sapphee.

Well, Glenn thought, I suppose that’s to be expected after what happened and all.

Although it had been a necessary measure, ultimately Glenn had kissed her underwater and held her closely. Thinking about about it from Lulala’s perspective, he couldn’t imagine her wanting any of that done to her by a man she didn’t even have any feelings for. Especially as a mermaid in the full bloom of her youth.

“Are you applying the moisturizer we gave you?” he asked.

“Y-yes,” Lulala said. “Um, I put it on my gills when I go on land. And I take a medicated candy before I sing…”

“Good. Then everything’s fine, isn’t it?”

They had saved Lulala from drowning, but that didn’t mean that Glenn’s job had been completed. There were still vital treatments she needed for her gills and throat to heal. Indeed, after Glenn saved Lulala, they had returned to the clinic and made medicine. With Sapphee’s help, they made a moisturizer to protect her gills from dehydration. And then, in order to curb the inflammation in her throat, made candies from an herbal extract and passed those on to her, too.

Today, their purpose in stopping by the fountain plaza had been to see how she was progressing, yet…

Lulala wouldn’t once look Glenn in the eyes. Not only would she not look him in the eyes, but she sank further under the water and blew bubbles at him. Her cheeks were bright red, bright enough to see them even through her golden tanned skin.

“She’s angry because you assaulted a young woman,” Sapphee declared flatly.

Being reminded of the artificial respiration he had given Lulala, Glenn couldn’t deny what Sapphee said.

Lulala shot up out of the water. “Th-that’s not it!” she cried. With both of her hands on the marble fountain, she brought her face close to Glenn’s and said,“I-I’m truly grateful to Dr. Glenn—it’s thanks to him that I can even sing right now, and…that’s why…that’s why…!”

“More than anything else, I’m just glad you’re doing well, Lulala.,” Glenn said.

“Hnnnnnnnh!” It appeared that Lulala ultimately didn’t know what she should say.

Sinking back into the water with a splash, she then followed the canal and left the central plaza. Now and again her tail and fins, swaying side to side, would peek out from the surface of the water. The canal seemed to be very shallow, and Glenn could clearly see her as she fled.

“She absolutely hates me, doesn’t she…?”

“If that’s what you think, then I’d say that Dr. Glenn is still lacking in life experience,” Sapphee said.

“Why do you say that?” Glenn asked.

“I wonder,” Sapphee said, irritably settling the matter in her usual cold manner. “That said, Lulala feels like a younger sister to me,” she went on. “Even I’d like it if she could get along with you a little better, Doctor.”

“…Really?”

“Yes, of course. Just, not too much.”

The multi-level fountain spouted water upwards and painting the plaza with spray. Sapphee looked on at the complex structure and finally gave Glenn a smile. Unlike the incident with Tisalia, who the lamia seemed to be on bad terms with, it appeared that Sapphee had actually taken a liking to Lulala.

“Hey, Sapphee,” Glenn said.

“What is it?”

“I just wondering… Have you ever thought about about why mermaids have lungs when they spend a majority of their life underwater?” There was no longer any sign of Lulala, but Glenn was still thinking about her.

By nature, mermaids had almost no reason to come up on land. It is said that they come up on land to sunbathe in order to regulate their body temperature and kill bacteria—however, doing so was possible even in the shoals and shallow water. There was simply no need for them to have evolved lungs.

“You’re talking like Dr. Cthulhy,” Sapphee said. “I’ve never even given it a thought.”

Though Glenn’s teacher Cthulhy Squele was currently the director of a large hospital, she had originally been a purely academic scholar. She had conducted research into the nature of monsters and how they had evolved into their current forms. The result of her excessive and exhaustive research into the bodies of monsters meant that she was rightly recognized as an authority on monster medicine and treatment.

Glenn wondered… Water and mermaids were inseparable. And yet, at the same time, there was one other thing that was inseparable from their lives.

“I’m positive they have them so they can sing,” he said.

“Sing?”

In the water, songs didn’t reverberate like they did on land. The beautiful voices of the merfolk that tempted and lured sailors were meaningless underwater.

“They have lungs so they can breathe in air and sing with their beautiful voices,” Glenn explained. “That must be why, even when Lulala’s throat became hoarse, she refused to stop singing.”

“That’s unusually poetic of you, Doctor,” Sapphee said.

Glenn laughed self-consciously. She was right, he thought; it certainly was the typical kind of conclusion he usually came to. Cthulhy would have sneered at him if she had heard such a hypothesis.

“But, I like the idea,” Sapphee said. “I think it’s even more romantic than the story of the human and mermaid lovers’ suicide.” She smiled, the scales on the sides of her eyes bending with the motion.

Merfolk were often associated with tragic love, which was why the story was romantic. But sometimes a romantic story without any sort of tragedy wasn’t so bad. Next time, Glenn thought, I’ll have to tell Lulala about my hypothesis. He wondered how the still-innocent songstress would react to it. He smiled in anticipation and gazed out in the direction the mermaid had made her exit.

The morning canal’s waters sparkled now and then, illuminated by the sunlight. It was as if they were made of the Waterways’ famed and translucent Merrow glass.