Case 06: The Mermaid with a Twin

Case 06:
The Mermaid with a Twin

The diva of the central plaza, the mermaid Lulala Heine, had just woken up.

Lulala’s eyes opened to the morning light streaming into her underwater home. Her bedroom décor included a modern bed made from a giant clamshell and a waterproof arachne mattress. It was extremely luxurious—worth ten coins—but this clamshell ensured she slept soundly.

“Mmmm. Morning already?”

Lulala’s two sisters were in the clamshell with her.

Lulala was the oldest of five children. She had two younger sisters and two younger brothers. The rent for Lulala’s house was cheap, so they didn’t have a lot of room. A bedroom for each child was a luxury they couldn’t afford.

“Remy, Soula, hurry! Wake up!”

“Mmmaah.”

“Just five more minutes.”

“No. Go help Mom.”

“Glub, glub.” Both of Lulala’s sisters let out bubbles of protest as they left the clamshell bed.

Once she had them out of the room, Lulala began swimming. When merfolk slept, they were essentially naked. Traditionally, it was normal for both mermaids and mermen to spend their lives naked. Clothes only got in the way in the water, so there was no need for them to hold to the same customs as the women, men, and monsters on land.

But nudity wouldn’t fly in Lindworm.

The underwater clothing made by the arachne had recently become quite popular among the merfolk. Furthermore, if Lulala didn’t wear a bathing suit when she sang in the central plaza, not only would people judge her, but it would reflect on all the merfolk living in the Waterways.

More than anything, Lulala was embarrassed to show her chest in front of men.

She hadn’t had this sense of shame in the sea. It was something she’d developed only after living in the city, though she still didn’t mind being naked among her own people.

Lulala put on her waterproof garment, made from a triangular piece of cloth, and a mesh skirt. She could worry about her accessories, made from merrow glass, later.

“Okay!”

She was still a bit sleepy.

Lulala slapped her cheeks, ready to begin the day.

The morning sun was growing brighter and brighter in the canal.

***

Breakfast was a feast: freshwater squid wrapped in waterweed, fish-meat sausage stuffed in shrimp shells, and several freshly caught river fish. Each of the small dishes were lined up on the table, which was made from a sea turtle shell. Lulala didn’t think they’d be able to eat so much in one morning. She gave her a mother a look.

“M-mother, what is this?”

“Hehehe. A man at the market said he got a big catch today.” Lulala’s mother was grinning. She’d probably gotten a good deal.

Lindworm was far from the ocean, so most of the fish were caught in the Vivre River. Fish were one of merfolk’s main food sources, and the river contained a wide variety. In one area of the river, there was even a breeding ground where waterweed, shellfish, shrimp, squid, and octopus were grown for food. River fish weren’t generally eaten on the mainland because they smelled and went bad quickly, but that wasn’t an issue for merfolk. Fish tasted the best when they were freshly caught and served raw with seasonings.

The foods merfolk ate were very different from those eaten by land dwellers. Generally, merfolk didn’t cook. They also didn’t eat liquids, like soups or sauces. They loved natural, freshly caught seafood.

“I want sausage!”

“Hey! I was gonna eat that!”

“Finders keepers, Van!”

“Syd! You’ll make Soula cry again!”

“She’s fine. The waterweed squid is good! Om-nom-nom.”

“Lulala! Can I have seconds?”

“Syd, don’t eat so much! Make sure everyone gets their share.”

The growing children had healthy appetites, and all their favorite foods were lined up on the table. Some said that merfolk couldn’t cook, but if you asked Lulala, just heating something up over a fire wasn’t cooking. Merfolk were skilled at making foods delicious, even underwater.

Lulala loved eating the shrimp-shell sausage, shell and all. She looked at her mother as she took a bite. Her mother looked happy surveying the lively dining table.

“Mom?”

“Oh—sorry. I think I might cry.”

“Why, did I do something?”

“No Lulala. It’s just…I don’t think we’ve ever eaten like this before. Ever since you started singing in the plaza and earning money, everyone has been eating well. Syd, Remy, Van, and Soula, and you, of course. I made you suffer so much before.”

“Don’t cry! You’re so dramatic.”

Lulala’s mother worked harder than anyone. The family had originally lived in the sea, but, one day, their father suddenly told them they would be moving to the new Waterways. But his business there didn’t go well, and he soon found a new woman and returned to the ocean. Lulala didn’t harbor any anger toward him, or his failure at being a father, but she did wish he’d at least left them some money. In that way, Lulala was a realist.

In that way, she thought, she was unlike her mother.

Her mother had light skin and delicate features. She was thin for a mermaid, perhaps because she was from a deep part of the ocean. She was more like the merfolk in fairy tales. Lulala’s skin was tanned, and she was envious of her mother’s fair complexion. She also wished she’d inherited her mother’s graceful and composed mannerisms.

“Lulala, you’ll be home late tonight, right?”

“Yes, today is the celebration for Tisalia’s promotion.”

“Well, have fun! And don’t drink too much!”

“This is work, Mother!” Lulala raised her voice. Her mother seemed to think she was going out to have a good time.

Tisalia had recently been promoted to rank two, so Kay and Lorna had called all of Tisalia’s friends to a celebration at the Giant Squid’s Inn. She wondered how many people in the town would come to a celebration for the sole daughter of Kimmeria and Hephthal Scythia. Sapphee, the lamia from the clinic, would probably stop by. No matter what they said, she got the feeling Sapphee and Tisalia were close.

And if Sapphee were there, then Dr. Glenn would be too…

“Got it!”

“No!”

Her brother Syd was trying to take her waterweed wrap. Lulala stopped him by quickly slapping his hand away. Syd always tried to take things from people. As his older sister, she needed to discipline him properly.

“When will you guys be done eating? Don’t you have work to do?!”

“Yessss!” they all answered in unison.

Syd was apprenticing as a sailor; Remy worked on decorations for the canal parade; and Van helped out at the gondola stall. Now that everyone had a place to work, the Heine household’s circumstances had improved significantly. The youngest, Soula, stayed home and helped their mother.

There was a saying, There is no leisure for the poor. The truth was that, as a family of six, they were still struggling.

Lulala was the breadwinner, and as the oldest sister, she disciplined her younger siblings strictly. While she had gained popularity as the diva of the central plaza, she still didn’t make nearly as much as the more experienced divas in the canal.

I need to work harder…

“Okay, I’m leaving now, Mother.”

Lulala put on her merrow glass accessories and was ready to go.

“You’re going so early?”

“It’s not that early. I have to greet the madam at the inn, too. And I have a meeting with the orchestra. Goodbye!”

Lulala’s home was a series of ruins that had been rebuilt for the merfolk, sunken at the bottom of the canal. The inside was protected from the strong current, but once Lulala swam outside, she found herself on a one-way path full of aquatic monsters. Lulala’s mother and siblings saw her off as she disappeared into the crowd.

She stuck out her tongue just a little as she swam.

Lulala took out a sausage she had hidden in her skirt and felt only a little guilty for hiding it from her family. She headed not toward the Giant Squid’s Inn, where she would be working today, but to the deserted No. 4 canal.

She had lied. She didn’t need to be at work so early.

As she swam closer to Canal No. 4, she saw fewer and fewer monsters.

But…

Lulala had important business to attend to that day.

***

“Ptooey!”

When Lulala arrived at a dead end at the edge of Canal No. 4, she poked her head above the surface of the water. The moment she did, her body switched from branchial to pulmonary respiration. She spit the excess water out of her mouth and began breathing air. Lulala had almost died from a respiratory disease once but had recovered thanks to Glenn’s treatment.

Canal No. 4 wasn’t used often. Since it was a dead end, and because there was a sewer nearby, there were no stalls and very few tourists. In the Merrow Waterways, the sewage canals and the residential canals were strictly separated, but there was no way to mask the unpleasant smell in the air. As a result, land dwellers never passed by Canal No. 4.

So, why had Lulala come this far?

“Hello? I’m here.”

The merfolk language was specialized for speaking underwater, so when Lulala was on land, she used the official language of the continent. Before Lulala even knew whether the thing could understand language, she had repeatedly tried speaking to it. It seemed to somewhat understand the official language.

The thing was sitting motionless in one corner of the canal’s dead end. As far as Lulala knew, it never moved from this spot. But she didn’t think it was incapable of moving.

“Were you a good girl?”

Lulala spoke to the thing as if it were a child.

It didn’t reply to her, but after some time, it nodded.

So, it does understand the official language.

The thing was Lulala.

“I only brought a little. It’s raw, but do you think you can eat it?”

“…” The thing—a young girl with Lulala’s face—nodded in response to her question.

The thing took the shrimp-shell sausage Lulala had brought for it. At first, it just stared at it, but, eventually, it put it in its mouth.

Lulala didn’t know what the thing liked to eat, but it finished all the seafood she brought from home. It never complained, so Lulala figured it was probably fine. Probably.

It was the doppelgänger that everyone in town was talking about.

It really concentrates when it eats, Lulala thought as she watched this thing with the same face as her.

She had heard the rumors: people saying they saw something that looked exactly like someone they knew. But Lulala never thought it would appear with her own face.

“Hey, if you’re going to mimic me, make sure you mimic my beautiful singing voice too.”

“………”

The doppelgänger said nothing. It looked exactly like Lulala, but there were two differences, one being that it didn’t talk. It seemed to understand language, but it never spoke.

The second difference was obvious if you looked at its lower body. There were no scales or tail like you would find on merfolk. Instead, it had grown two human legs.

That’s right, the other Lulala was completely human.

“You’re not going to mimic me exactly? That’s weird.” Lulala splashed the water forcefully with her tail.

She jumped out of the water with the skill of a dolphin and sat on the stone street. If someone saw us sitting here together with the same face, it would certainly cause a fuss, she thought.

Two weeks had passed since she first met the thing. Lulala had just happened to have some extra time, and she ended up in Canal No. 4. There weren’t a lot of people here, but sometimes copper coins flowed down this way. Tourists from the main waterway dropped things, and they ended up at the end of the waterway. Lulala hadn’t been able to break the habit of searching for change from back when she was poor.

The first time she met the doppelgänger, it didn’t have Lulala’s face. So, whose face had it been? She couldn’t describe it. It looked like someone she knew. It looked both male and female. It was a face with a mysterious composition, like an illusion. But Lulala, who liked to care for things, couldn’t leave it alone.

The doppelgänger hadn’t run away like she’d heard in the rumors. It just seemed forlorn. After their first meeting, Lulala went home to collect some food for it. When she came back, the doppelgänger had already changed its face to look exactly like her. It was just like staring into a mirror.

Lulala had met the thing many times since then. The biscuit she’d received from Lorna went to the doppelgänger, which happily gobbled up the homemade treat—or at least, it looked that way.

“I don’t know what your situation is, but you’ll feel better if you eat something.”

“…”

The thing nodded.

It seemed timid, or maybe lacking in self-confidence, which reminded Lulala of her mother and little sister, Soula. Perhaps that was why she couldn’t just leave it alone.

“You ate it all up. Were you hungry?”

“…” The thing nodded.

“I don’t know how long I can keep bringing you food. You need to search for things to eat on your own… But you don’t have any clothes. I guess you can’t go out to the city like that.”

“…” Another nod.

“Hmmmm. I could ask Arahnia. But—”

“…?”

The doppelgänger was unexpectedly friendly. Even though it didn’t talk, it stared intently at Lulala, changing its facial expression in response to her words. It seemed especially interested in hearing about Lulala, her family, and the women she admired, Sapphee and Arahnia.

“Tell me, why do you have legs?”

“…?”

“Don’t you know any fairy tales? The little mermaid traded her voice for legs. Then she went to meet the man she loved.”

“…” The thing shook its head.

“If I were the little mermaid, I would probably look like you.”

“…”

The man she loved.

The man Lulala loved…was the man who’d saved her when she nearly drowned. It wasn’t like they were separated by the gulf between land and sea. She saw him sometimes in the central plaza, so she didn’t need to sacrifice the voice she was so proud of to get legs. Even so, when she saw the doppelgänger with human legs, she couldn’t help but imagine.

“Ugh!”

A fantasy was playing out in her head. Lulala had become human and was walking through the shopping street in Lindworm, arm in arm with Dr. Glenn. When she cried out, the image disappeared.

“Ugh! Ugh!”

“…” The thing looked around frantically.

Seeing an emotionally unstable Lulala flustered the doppelgänger. It couldn’t do anything for her, even though the entire reason it had taken on that form was because of Lulala’s anguish. It wasn’t like Lulala to push her troubles onto someone she didn’t know.

Still, Lulala hoped she could find a way. Saphentite was a lamia, but she liked Glenn all the same. Marriage between humans and monsters was legal in Lindworm, and there were many inter-species couples. It wasn’t impossible simply because Lulala was a mermaid.

“So, what are you going to do now?”

“…”

“Do you want to find Miss Kunai? She’ll talk to Skadi for you. Or maybe it’s better to go to Tisalia? They take in orphans at the mansion. Ah, but maybe that’s only centaur orphans. That won’t do.”

“…”

“Come on! Say something!” Lulala laid her hands on the stone.

The doppelgänger narrowed its eyes as if it were thinking about something, but it didn’t speak. Perhaps the second Lulala, whose voice had been stolen by the sea witch, couldn’t speak even if it wanted to.

“Today, there’s a celebration for Miss Tisalia.”

“…”

“Miss Sapphee will be there, and Miss Arahnia too. But I’m sure all of them…like Dr. Glenn.”

Dammit! thought Lulala.

Glenn Litbeit was a desirable man. What’s more, he was sought after by many monster women. The reason was clear: No matter what kind of monster, he always did everything he could to save them. And he never looked more handsome than when he was intently administering treatment.

Lulala’s specialty was love songs. Perhaps that’s why she was especially sensitive to signs of love.

“…”

“Hmm? What?”

The doppelgänger was patting Lulala on the shoulder, of its own accord. That had never happened before. Lulala had almost never even seen the doppelgänger move on its own. Whenever she met the doppelgänger, she gave it food, and, in exchange, the doppelgänger listened to all her complaints. But now the fake Lulala was patting her shoulder gently.

She found it encouraging.

After the doppelgänger had been patting her for some time, she realized that she longed to receive that kind of support from someone. All she did was sing in the central plaza—songs for people’s safety, love, and life. That was Lulala’s job, and she enjoyed it. She could even make a living at it, so she didn’t want to complain, but…

Oh.

The reason she talked to this doppelgänger, who did nothing but nod, was because she wanted strength. The strength to sing for people.

“Hmmm… Thank you.”

“…” The doppelgänger smiled.

It was the same smile she’d seen so many times in her reflection. But it felt…different. For the first time in her life, she understood just how encouraging a smiling face could be.

Strange.

This doppelgänger had the city in an uproar and everyone scared, but to Lulala, it was a comforting companion.

“Okay! I feel a lot better. Maybe it’s time to sing!”

“…?”

“Don’t worry, it’s fine. I have to sing at the inn today, so I need to warm up my voice first. No one else will hear me here. It’s rare for me to sing for just one person.”

“…” The doppelgänger nodded.

“What should I sing? A rhapsody? An aria? A requiem? Since it’s a special occasion, maybe I should do a medley?”

She knew just the medley.

Lulala sang; she sang from her heart. She sang various types of songs, believing it was the best way to show how she was feeling.

The doppelgänger smiled and clapped its hands as it listened.

“Hmm…”

Lulala’s throat was in perfect condition. Her gills were fine too. She was sure work would go well today. Even if she was unsure about love, she was sure she could do great things as a performer, no matter what.

“Thank you. I’ll come back after I’m done with work.”

“…” The doppelgänger nodded.

It wasn’t as if Lulala never thought about what she was, why she was here, or how she’d ended up in this situation, but none of that really mattered to her. Today, in this moment, as she and the doppelgänger smiled at each other—like smiling into a mirror—she knew for sure that she had gained a best friend.

Apparently, Lulala didn’t have very high standards when it came to choosing friends.

***

That night, things went just like the rehearsal.

“———————♪”

Lulala sang with everything she had, filling the Giant Squid’s Inn with her voice. She sang a traditional waltz from the western side of the continent, singing it with all her heart, accompanied by the orchestra. She sang with all her might, directly to Tisalia, who was sitting on the balcony.

The Giant Squid’s Inn had a kraken madam and a small terrace seating area that reached to the canal. An impromptu stage had been constructed, just for the day, and Lulala sat on a chair, with half her body in the water. The orchestra was made up of people who performed in pubs around town as well as the Waterways parade. Their music blended well with Lulala’s voice.

Lulala sang with all her ability, and the performance was perfect.

---

---

When she finished singing the waltz, the crowd broke out in applause.

“That was amazing!”

The first one to say it was the guest of honor, Tisalia. Her hooves clip-clopped as she ran to the waterway, nearly knocking Lulala over with her greeting.

“Lulala, that song you sang for me was so amazing! Thank you so, so much!”

“Heh… Congratulations on your promotion, Miss Tisalia!”

“Ohh, hohoho! Feel free to praise me as much as you want tonight! The arena has finally seen what I can do!” It was just like Tisalia not to show any modesty here.

She stood out from the crowd, adorned in her beautiful dress. And whenever she laughed loudly, her guests called out things like, “That’s great, my lady!” and “I knew you could do it, Princess!”

“B-but, Miss Tisalia, you’ve really gone all out today.”

When Lulala pointed this out, Tisalia’s face grew red.

“Uh.”

The bust of Tisalia’s dress was wide open. It was only held on by a string tied around her neck. Most of her back was also exposed. As usual, her hair was up in a bun, baring the nape of her neck as well. Lulala blushed just from looking at her.

“Oh, this… Kay and Lorna… Um, well… Don’t look…”

“What are you saying, my lady? You’ll never use those in battle. This is your chance to get some use out of them!”

“Don’t say such things!”

Seeing Tisalia in a dress like that, which showed off her impressive cleavage, Lulala knew that there was no way she—or anyone—could compete for Glenn’s attention. That must have been part of Kay and Lorna’s plan when they selected the dress. To someone as small as Lulala, this realization was like a punch to the gut.

In terms of exposure, Lulala’s water clothing matched Tisalia’s, but she wasn’t even on the same scale when it came to her bust.

“Let’s stop talking about this! Lulala, come over here. There are still plenty of the madam’s delicious dishes left. Kay, Lorna! Show the diva where the food is.”

“You’re changing the subject from your naked body?”

“My lady, to secure the doctor’s admiration—”

“That’s enough! It’s just as important to show the diva a good time!”

“Yes, my Lady.”

“This way, Miss Lulala.”

“Okay!” Lulala jumped out of the canal and slid on her belly across the stone terrace. Her movements looked like that of a seal, but merfolk could move quite quickly over the ground in this manner.

She squirmed up onto a chair. Salted caviar on crackers were spread out in front of her.

“Don’t mind if I do!” Lulala had had her eye on the most expensive dish in the venue ever since she’d started singing.

It was a celebration worthy of the famous Scythia Transportation, a name that resounded throughout the continent. The table was full of food made from ingredients found in the sea where Lulala was born, which made her nostalgic. She also felt a little guilty eating without her family, but the food was part of her payment, so she ate to her heart’s content.

The terrace of the inn was covered with a massive awning to keep out the rain. The framework of the awning made it look like a giant squid’s legs were holding it up. It wasn’t clear if the awning had been made to match the name of the inn, or if the inn was named for the awning.

Lulala looked around as she ate her caviar and crackers. Since it was a celebration for the heir of Scythia Transportation, there were many centaurs in attendance. But there were also some other familiar faces.

“Umm… Miss Tisalia?”

“Oh, is everything alright? Are you having trouble eating something?”

“No, it’s not that… There are a lot of people here, huh?”

“Yes, we invited everyone we see regularly. Memé from the workshop makes my armor and our practice spears, Arahnia makes the cloth parts, and though it was only a formality, we invited the City Council representative as well.”

“What? What did Miss Skadi have to do with your promotion? Some kind of backroom deal?”

“We would never do something like that! It’s hard to explain, but there’s a deep connection…”

“…?” Lulala cocked her head to one side.

There was no way for Lulala to know that Skadi had interfered the day Tisalia was promoted. Tisalia mumbled, “Oh, and we know each other from the clinic, too.”

“Oh, yes, I knew about that.”

“How in the world am I going to get this home?” Tisalia was looking at a giant frame.

Inside the frame was…a snake? No, it was the exuvia of a lamia. As far as Lulala knew, Tisalia was good friends with only one lamia. In the corner of the frame, it said, “Congratulations on your promotion. From, Litbeit Clinic.”

“W-wow, a lamia exuvia…”

“At first, I thought it was a prank. I mean, lamia exuviae are highly coveted as good luck charms. And I don’t know where I could display it in the company offices…”

She was complaining, but the fact that Tisalia was even thinking about displaying it meant that she must have really liked Sapphee. Also, the fact that Sapphee had put her own flawless exuvia in a frame was also a sign of friendship. It must have taken a lot of effort for Sapphee to shed it. But the contributor of the gift was nowhere to be seen.

Lulala looked around the room. Generally, wherever Sapphee was, Glenn would be close by. While Lulala searched for Sapphee, she also looked for Glenn.

“She ordered some expensive wine too. Where did that serpentess run away to?”

Lulala’s heart beat faster. Had Tisalia read her thoughts? Or noticed her yearning for Glenn? Tisalia probably wasn’t the jealous type, even if she had noticed. But if she were to discover how awkward Lulala was when it came to love, even though she sang so many love songs, it would be embarrassing, to say the least. Lulala wished she could leave her feelings for Glenn at the bottom of the canal whenever she came up on land.

Ahh.

That made her remember the doppelgänger. It was probably still in the corner of the canal. She wished it could hold onto her yearning for her.

“Who are you calling a ‘serpentess’?” Sapphee suddenly appeared, patting Tisalia on the back of the neck.

“Heeee?!” Tisalia screamed and nearly jumped out of her own skin. “Hey… Ugh! What are you doing?! You smell like alcohol!”

“It’s an open bar.”

“Go ahead, get your drink on! But if you pass out, I’m not carrying you home!”

“Have I ever passed out before? Oh, good evening, Miss Lulala.” Sapphee took a glass of wine from a nearby waitress with her tail. Lulala wondered how much more she was going to imbibe, given how clearly drunk she was already. Sapphee liked to drink.

“Weren’t you the one singing?” Sapphee smiled at Lulala, completely ignoring Tisalia’s guffaw. “That waltz was perfect for me!”

Lulala thought of Sapphee as a sweet older sister, and she knew Sapphee felt the same way. She’d been kind to Lulala when her gills were damaged, and since then, Lulala had seen her a few times for various reasons. Yet, even though Sapphee was in a position Lulala should respect, she always felt uneasy around the lamia for some reason. And whenever she saw Sapphee, she looked around in hopes that Glenn would be with her.

“Oh, where is the doctor?” Tisalia said what Lulala had been thinking.

It seemed all the girls wanted the same thing.

“Well, he…ummm.”

“What is it? It’s not like you to slur your words.”

“He was with me until not too long ago… Then he said he was going to see Lulala.”

“Huh?” Sapphee cocked her head to the side and looked at Lulala.

Coming to see her? But Lulala hadn’t seen Glenn at all that night. She had been looking for him ever since she got to the Giant Squid’s Inn. If she had seen him, she would have spoken to him.

“Maybe he missed you?” Tisalia jumped in. “But you were singing here the entire time. I don’t see how that’s possible.”

“Maybe he went to the central plaza?”

“What?” This time, Tisalia cocked her head to the side as if she had no idea what was going on. Lulala felt the same way.

“But…why?”

“If I knew that, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. He was muttering about something, saying that he wasn’t going to be able to have any fun at the party, so I left him.”

“Y-you… Do you have any idea how I felt when I invited him?! And this embarrassing dress that I’m putting up with… You mean to say he’s not coming?!”

“Settle down, Tisalia.”

“How can I settle down?! Oh, Doctor… When I invited him, he promised he’d come… Am I really that unimportant to him?!”

“I told him that you wanted him to celebrate with you. He said he’d definitely stop by later…”

“You better be telling the truth! I’m trusting you, Sapphee!”

“Please don’t get upset. The doctor will come, so long as he hasn’t forgotten.” Sapphee took another drink of wine.

Lulala wondered if it was okay for her to drink so much. Merfolk didn’t drink alcohol, so she didn’t really understand the appeal.

She had a bad feeling. Going to meet…me? She’d been at the inn the entire time.

The inn wasn’t that far from the central plaza. Surely, by now, he would have discovered she wasn’t there and returned.

Lulala remembered something. The other Lulala.

But how could Dr. Glenn know about her…

She didn’t know, but she was sure about one thing: If Glenn saw the doppelgänger, even with its human legs, he would definitely think it was Lulala. It had the exact same face as her. Even Lulala thought so.

“But I’m here,” Lulala said.

She decided to laugh out loud. Even when her gills were swollen and her throat was sore, Lulala sang with everything she had. And she never stopped smiling. So…she was fine, so long as she kept smiling.

Lulala felt a sharp pang of anxiety in her chest, like she was being stabbed with a knife. But hiding that sort of feeling was her specialty.

“That’s so strange. What was the doctor thinking?”

“Seriously.” Sapphee drained her wine glass and let out a sigh. “The doctor was…strange today. I wonder if it was really him.”

“Huh?”

“Maybe it was the doppelgänger…” The lamia laughed, as if she were joking. If Sapphee couldn’t tell whether Glenn was real, then no one could.

Lulala thought back to when she’d lived in the sea.

The sea was bottomless. As a child, Lulala had once swam so far away that she sank into an abyss where no sunlight could reach. She’d been chasing after beautiful fish and had forgotten about the depth. But she immediately knew she was in an abyss by how cold it was. In a world with no light, the coldness of the deep, deep water tells you that you’re entering a danger zone.

“It couldn’t be…” Lulala let out a fake laugh. She was feeling a coldness like that deep-sea water throughout her entire body.

She laughed hard with Tisalia. She exchanged words with Kay and Lorna. She made small talk with Sapphee and spoke with Arahnia, who looked like she was enjoying being alone. Then she acted as a go-between for Memé and Illy, who were taking jabs at each other about something or other. This all happened in a short amount of time as she moved around the venue.

If a merfolk’s body is wet, it can slither around on its belly. Lulala used that trick to move around the inn and make sure all the guests saw her. Most of Lindworm’s monsters were at the celebration that night. So long as she showed her face here and there, no one would notice if she snuck out for a bit. She wasn’t just an innocent singer; she was strategizing, though no one would ever suspect that from looking at her face.

Lulala was cunning, desperate to live, loved to make money, and would do anything for love. The mermaid in the fairy tale was the same way. She’d wanted legs so badly that she was willing to give up her voice.

Lulala snuck out to the Waterways, making sure the splash as she entered the water was small that no one would notice her leaving. She headed to the fountain in the central plaza, her normal place of work.

Once she arrived, she didn’t come out of the water right away. She only poked her head up furtively.

They’re not here…

Many monsters have a nictitating membrane in their eyes. It is an organ that birds, reptiles, frogs, and other animals have as well. Basically, it’s a translucent film that protects the eyeballs. It is also sometimes called a horizontal eyelid. Merfolk protect their eyes when they’re in the water by closing this membrane. The merfolk nictitating membrane is highly advanced and, even if it is closed, allows for clear visibility.

Lulala looked around the plaza with her membranes still closed. She was nervous, afraid of getting caught for something she shouldn’t be doing.

Maybe he didn’t mean the plaza…

Lulala moved away from the fountain, still hidden under the water. It seemed like the doppelgänger would want to avoid places with a lot of people, and the plaza was always bustling around the fountain. Maybe Glenn and the doppelgänger were on a back street. There was a narrow alley not far from the central plaza.

I’ll go check.

The Waterways were everywhere in Lindworm. But that didn’t mean they were all comfortable for merfolk to travel through. The area around the central plaza was better, but, even there, the water flow was stagnant compared to the canal, and it was hard to breathe with gills. In the southern area of the town, the water flowed even less, so Lulala tried her best to avoid it. The closer she got to the back streets, the weaker the current became, which meant less oxygen in the water.

Damn…

There weren’t many other merfolk in the Waterways at this time of night. There were even fewer lamps, and it was getting hard to see in the water.

Ouch!

But all her trouble was worth it. Lulala finally spotted someone in a white coat at the end of an alley. Lulala stuck her head out of the water to get a better look.

He wasn’t alone.

What? Miss Kunai?

For some reason, Kunai was next to Glenn. There was no reason for her to be invited to the celebration, so it wasn’t strange that she was out here. What bothered her was that Kunai had something on her back… A casket? It was big enough that it could have easily held Lulala.

Is it a date? No… No way.

The combination of Glenn and Kunai was… Well, it wasn’t impossible. But the fact that she was holding a casket made it seem unlikely that they were on a date.

Then Lulala saw a familiar face behind them.

There it is!

So, Glenn had gone to meet Lulala’s doppelgänger. She still didn’t know why Kunai was there, but it looked like the three of them were talking about something. Lulala couldn’t hear what they were saying from where she was.

Hey… It can talk!

The fake Lulala was arguing about something. It had never spoken to her down in the canal, had never let her hear its voice. Lulala wanted to hear what they were talking about, but she balked.

What am I doing?

Why was she following Glenn and peeking out of the Waterways? She’d come to express her love, but she’d never intended to take it this far. Even if they weren’t on a date, whatever this was, it was none of her business.

It’s nothing to do with…me.

All she’d done was give the doppelgänger food.

Glenn was probably only there to provide medical treatment for someone. She didn’t want to get in the way of his job, and, most of all, she didn’t want him to know that she had followed him.

If only she had legs like that doppelgänger. Would Glenn see her as a woman then? She wondered if he’d heard her singing at the inn.

Ahhh… Lulala sunk back into the water.

It was a stupid idea. If she grew legs, she wouldn’t be able to sing anymore. She might be able to walk next to Glenn, but she’d lose the voice she was so proud of. If she couldn’t choose Glenn over her voice, then she couldn’t become the little mermaid.

That was when it happened.

The thing appeared.

“What?”

Just when she was about to go home. Lulala stuck her face out of the water and looked at the thing carefully.

What was it?

Lulala couldn’t explain what she was seeing. Skadi knew a lot of things, so maybe she’d know. But Lulala had no idea how to describe the doppelgänger’s true form, even though she’d seen something similar in the sea before.

To be blunt, what she saw was…a lump of flesh.

It’s a blob…

That was the closest thing Lulala could think of.

Having lived in the sea, she knew that massive chunks of flesh were sometimes cast ashore. They looked frightening. Land dwellers called them blobs or globsters, but they were nothing to be repulsed by. The original forms of these blobs were usually rotten whale or orca carcasses washed ashore by the waves. For some reason, though, they didn’t look like whales to humans.

But it went without saying that carcasses didn’t move.

This lump of flesh moved, however.

It’s…alive?

It was a frightening sight. The lump of flesh had something that looked like horns, and it was making writhing motions. Its flat appearance made it look like a sea slug moving across the ocean floor, but its red and black surface made it look like a corpse whose skin was peeling off. The bottom of it was full of gaps which looked like mouths. Lulala wondered if the chunk of flesh had a real mouth as well. A big one. She imagined it opening that mouth wide.

She decided to call it a blob, for the time being.

Glenn, Kunai, and the fake Lulala didn’t seem surprised at the appearance of the blob at all.

“There it is!”

Lulala heard Kunai’s voice.

Kunai threw down the casket and stood in front the others, confronting the blob. As bodyguard to the Draconess, she showed no fear facing the unknown chunk of flesh. Kunai balled her fist, looking straight at it with her keen eyes.

The blob opened its mouth wide, making a glub-sound.

I was right, thought Lulala.

The chunk of flesh looked just like a frog when it opened its mouth. What was Kunai going to do? Her specialty—boxing—wouldn’t do anything against a blob.

It would be better to try defeating them with a water gun. Just as Lulala thought that—

GULP.

“Aaaaghhh?!”

Kunai was swallowed whole by the blob’s giant mouth.

“Noooooo!” Lulala immediately realized her folly in letting her voice be heard.

Glenn turned around when he heard her scream. Now he would definitely figure out that she’d been following him.

“Lulala?! What are you doing here?”

“Oh. Uh! Don’t worry about me! What about Miss Kunai?!”

“Oh, she’s fine.”

“Whaaaat?!” Lulala screamed again, frustrated by Glenn’s lack of interest.

But Glenn was calmly observing the blob. Having swallowed Kunai whole from her head to her feet, the blob was now acting strange. It wriggled and squirmed, as if it were in pain. Something poked out of its body, but not like a tentacle or a horn; something else. The blob no longer looked like it was rearing up to attack.

“Does it seem like it’s…in pain?”

“Doppelgänger, is this right?”

Even though their faces were identical, Glenn seemed to be able to distinguish between the doppelgänger and Lulala. He didn’t think in the slightest that Lulala had grown legs. When Lulala thought about it, it seemed obvious. She was glad. She wasn’t the mermaid from the fairy tale; she wouldn’t grow legs.

But that was fine. She felt like Glenn was telling her that she was a mermaid, so it was only natural that she had a mermaid’s body and lived in the Waterways. Even if it were only her own assumption, she felt it was proof that Glenn saw Lulala as a mermaid.

It may have been her imagination, but Lulala thought she saw a streak of light appear in the blob’s body.

“Oof.”

The blob’s body tore from the inside. The amorphous flesh split, and Kunai appeared with a dagger in her hand.

“It’ll be a cold day in hell before I let you eat me!”

After being swallowed, she’d made her escape from inside the body with a dagger. Kunai’s martial arts skills were so advanced that she could do things Lulala never would have dreamed of. She’d easily bisected this unknown thing.

Kunai jumped out of the blob’s body. She rolled down the alley and landed on one knee. She was covered in some sort of sticky slime, but unharmed.

“I’m sure I wouldn’t taste good anyway,” she said, in a self-deprecating way.

After being sliced through with a dagger, the blob was limp. It didn’t show any signs of movement. It seemed like Kunai had exterminated it by pretending to let herself be eaten.

But it was all a mystery.

What was the relationship between Glenn and the doppelgänger? What was the blob that had suddenly appeared and eaten Kunai? Lulala wanted to ask Glenn to explain, but he was staring at the blob intently.

“Dr. Glenn, thank you for your help.”

Kunai looked down into the waterway. Her keen eyes stopped on Lulala’s face.

“Lulala! Behind you!”

“Huh?” Lulala felt something slippery. She turned around.

Behind her, in the waterway, was another blob with its mouth wide open. It was about to swallow her.

“Aggh!”

Lulala moved quickly. She used her tail to slap the surface of the water with all her might. On the rebound, she jumped out of the water. Her landing didn’t go well, and she ended up smacking the ground with her stomach, but she gained some ground. Then she used her slimy body to slip away.

But—

Agh… It’s too fast…

The blob jumped out of the water and thrust itself at Lulala with its mouth wide open. The one that had swallowed Kunai was nothing compared to the speed of this one.

Ahh.

Lulala now realized that the last one must have already been in a weakened state. When she thought about it now, these blobs were like a cross between a sea slug and a frog, adapted to the water. The one that had been in the water until only a moment ago had strength to spare. It wriggled forward quickly, aiming for Lulala.

Agh!

Lulala closed her eyes without thinking. She was sure she tasted better than Kunai, a corpse. She had been chased by a shark in the sea before, but this blob was far more massive than the shark had been…and it was quick. She couldn’t run away.

Somebody called her name; it was either Glenn or Kunai. Maybe it was both of them. Lulala had closed her eyes in fear of being eaten, so she didn’t know who was calling out to her.

“Lulala!”

Who was it that called her now?

She heard her name a third time. Something hit her and sent her flying. That’s when she opened her eyes. In front of her was a face identical to hers.

Lulala had protected Lulala.

“Oh…”

It couldn’t speak. It was like the fairy tale, as if its voice had been stolen. She wanted to call the doppelgänger by its name, but Lulala didn’t know what the girl with her face was called.

GULP.

At that moment, the other Lulala who had protected her was swallowed whole by the blob.

***

Glenn Litbeit had some regrets.

He hadn’t realized that Lulala was in the alley, and that was why Lulala had been put in danger.

“Doctor… Doctor!”

“It’s okay. You’re okay, Lulala.”

“It’s not okay. I-I was eaten!” Lulala must have been confused. She was crying and yelling.

That doppelgänger did have the same face as Lulala. If they’d had any sort of exchange in the canal, then it would make sense that they had the same face. Glenn held Lulala, calming her down as he checked the situation.

The chunk of flesh that had first appeared was still, same as when it had thrown up Kunai. It was exactly how the doppelgänger with Lulala’s face had described it. It looked horrifying, but it had lost all its will to act. Sure, it had mistakenly eaten Kunai, but now it had gone limp. The other chunk of flesh, which had eaten the Lulala doppelgänger, was soaking wet but silent. It didn’t seem like it had lost its strength, nor did he think it would stop moving just because it ate the doppelgänger.

“Umm, Doctor… What should I…”

“Listen to me, Lulala. This is very important, so I need to you listen closely. The doppelgänger was your friend, right?”

“Friend—yes. Yes, it was! I’m sure we were friends…” Lulala had had her doubts until she saw it with her own eyes.

“In that case you don’t need to worry. Those are all doppelgängers.”

“Huh?” Lulala’s eyes widened.

It wasn’t something even Glenn could fully understand.

“Let me explain.” Kunai moved to a spot where she could shield Glenn and Lulala. Her movements were that of an experienced bodyguard. Lulala couldn’t have asked for more.

Kunai continued speaking without taking her eyes off the chunk of flesh. “The Lindworm patrol team was concerned about the rumors around town, so they have been tracking the doppelgänger for some time now. They couldn’t catch it, but then Dr. Cthulhy shared her opinion with the Draconess that the doppelgänger was traveling through the Waterways. The patrol team took extreme care and was finally able to track down the doppelgänger, but—”

“Th-they didn’t catch it?”

“The opposite. They caught too many.”

“What? What?”

Glenn had, of course, been dumbfounded when he heard this report too. The shapeless chunks of flesh—the true form of the doppelgängers—had been found in the Waterways. Many of them.

“Within a few days of searching, they found ten creatures that looked like those chunks of flesh. Each one was about the size of a piglet, and they were all slow-witted. It was easy to catch them.”

“Oh…”

“But once they were caught, the problem was keeping them. At first, they were put in sealed bins, but the doppelgängers were able to open them from the inside. They ran away immediately. Then, they were kept in a locked room, but they stretched through the cracks and unlocked the door. It was really quite the problem.”

That had been the case with the heart at the hospital as well.

These doppelgängers couldn’t be contained. Someone had come up with the idea to collect them all in one place and burn them, but the Draconess wouldn’t allow it. She wouldn’t stand for the death penalty when no crime had been committed.

“Th-then what happened?”

“Dione from the harpy village gave us the biggest hint.”

“The…Giant Goddess? Illy visits her often.”

“That’s right. The Giant Goddess wrote us a letter.”

Dione had written a letter to Glenn.

The letter said that the doppelgänger was, in fact, an ancient being called a shoggoth. It was especially adept at dividing itself into pieces. As well—

“It seems the doppelgänger has a nucleus that can instruct all of the pieces.”

“A…nucleus?”

“The doppelgänger was able to collect various, disparate pieces of information to circumvent the arena guards and the patrol team. That would be impossible for just one monster. Dione figured out that not only could it collect this information, as easily as fairies can, it could also integrate that information and give appropriate instructions based on it. The doppelgänger was actually a group of many individuals.”

“A…group?” Lulala had nothing but questions for what Glenn was saying.

“So we’ve been searching for the piece giving the instructions, directing the divided parts—the nucleus. We figured we could reason with it.”

“Th-this is confusing…”

Squish.

The chunk of flesh that had eaten the fake Lulala moved. No—the fake Lulala must have instructed it to move—and to eat it. If Lulala understood everything she had been told so far, that fake Lulala was the nucleus Glenn and the others had been searching for.

“Lulala, the doppelgänger that you met was the nucleus.”

“Wh-what? What?” Lulala still didn’t quite understand.

The chunk of flesh wriggled and stacked itself on top of the other chunk of flesh, the one that had failed to eat Kunai. So, these chunks of flesh were being directed by the fake Lulala, and that’s why they gathered here. The doppelgänger scraps that had scattered throughout Lindworm were now becoming one.

“The celebration was a front for the plan to bring the doppelgängers together. We figured that if everyone was at the celebration, then no one would be in this alley.”

“S-sorry…” Lulala apologized, feeling as if she were being blamed.

“No, that was my fault. I don’t know what the patrol is doing. I told them to keep watch so that no one would come in…” Kunai shook her head. She had a gentle smile on her face. If Lulala had snuck through the Waterways, then the patrol team wouldn’t have noticed her.

Glenn was watching the chunks of flesh that had just become one. They were no longer the hideous red and black forms that they had been only moments ago. They had turned into a translucent slime-like form, as if the chunks were more controlled as a single unit.

But that thought only lasted a moment. The gel-like body converged, and the doppelgänger changed forms again. The process resembled a slime’s transformation. Now, the previous chunks of flesh were out of the nucleus’s control, probably because they’d been separated from it for so long.

“Doppelgänger, can you hear me?” Glenn didn’t know if this was the correct way to address it.

But the small form, which now looked like Skadi, nodded.

“You took on the form of Skadi and infested her body. When you were cut out of her, you needed a new food source. Were you searching for a new host?”

The doppelgänger nodded again.

The objective of all parasites was clearly to use the nutrients of their hosts. This doppelgänger had become Skadi’s heart and altered her veins, taking in her blood. Dragon blood was a precious alchemical material and had no equivalent. It must have been a valuable source of nutrients as well.

But Glenn had removed the doppelgänger from Skadi’s body.

“Have you already found a new host? After separating into pieces and circulating Lindworm, did you find a suitable place?”

This time, the doppelgänger shook its head. It hadn’t.

The doppelgänger had an extremely high aptitude for learning. It knew well why it had failed at infesting Skadi’s body—it had affected the body of its host. Plus, there was a doctor in this town. Infesting someone else just meant it would be removed again. To figure out how to live without being a parasite or wanting for nutrients, it had taken on the form of people in the town so that it could observe other living beings.

“I am a doctor. And you are having trouble living. In other words, you are not in a healthy state, and I want to help you.”

“…”

“Skadi said she will forgive you. She is still recovering, and she doesn’t plan to hold a grudge. But if you are going to cause harm to the residents, you can’t stay in this town.” Glenn’s face was stern.

While it wasn’t a problem that the doppelgänger had divided and spread throughout the city, it was a problem that each of the individual parts had begun acting on their own. The chunks of flesh weren’t trying to infest people as parasites; they were trying to obtain nutrients, as predators. The possibility of residents being attacked made Glenn anxious.

In the letter from Dione, she said that if the doppelgänger lacked nourishment, there was a possibility it would cause direct harm by becoming predatory. When that happened, the piece would no longer listen to the directions of the nucleus and would continue hunting.

Lulala had narrowly escaped being eaten.

But before that could happen, the doppelgänger had bravely shielded Lulala. The doppelgänger was unlike other living creatures, but that didn’t mean it was incompatible with them. It did not view life lightly. Glenn believed that meant he could reason with it.

“Lulala, as its friend, you understand, right?”

With the help of the patrol team, they’d found the nucleus hidden in the Waterways. When Kunai heard the report, she was surprised. She didn’t understand why the nucleus looked exactly like Lulala but didn’t have the lower body of a mermaid.

The nucleus hadn’t become predatory because Lulala had been sneaking it food. Therefore, the nucleus hadn’t lost the original intent of the doppelgänger and was trying to figure out a way to become one again with all of its divided parts. This was in line with Skadi’s desire to immobilize the doppelgänger.

“The Draconess has a proposal.” Kunai, who had been standing by listening, pulled over the coffin. “Doppelgänger, if you plan to live in the town…she will prepare an appropriate occupation for you in the district on the north side. The duties of the job are probably too easy for you.”

“…”

“The conditions of the deal are that you are not allowed to attack anyone ever again. What is your answer?”

The doppelgänger was silent.

The coffin Kunai had prepared held a skeleton. Skadi had come up with the whole idea. She thought the doppelgänger might be able to become the face the town needed with these bones. In other words, by borrowing the face of someone who was no longer part of this world. That way, the doppelgänger would no longer take on the image of others.

The bones in the coffin belonged to a skeleton that had already passed—the former manager of the graveyard city. Skadi was proposing that the doppelgänger occupy the skeleton and become the manager.

The doppelgänger looked at Lulala and nodded. “I…accept assignment.”

The doppelgänger shifted its body. It turned into its slime form and pressed its jiggling body into the coffin. In a moment, the coffin was filled to the brim with a semi-transparent gel-like substance. It wasn’t long before the skeleton began to change. A protean substance was attached to the manager’s bones, and that flesh started to take form.

The doppelgänger had never met the previous manager, but it seemed to be reproducing its living form based on the shape of the bones. More and more flesh covered the skeleton. At the very least, the face and the hair were a reproduction of what the skeleton might have looked like in life. The body was still semi-transparent, and the skeleton inside showed through. Something like small air bubbles dotted its torso.

The face was pale, the goggling eyes striking—a defining characteristic of this new being. It was strikingly beautiful, and seemed cold, but those eyes gave it a certain charm.

“Acquiring body information from bones. Reproducibility, 47%. No impediments. Glenn Litbeit. Lulala Heine. Kunai Zenow. Acknowledged. Commence activity. Am I conversing?”

“Y-yes it seems fine.”

“No impediments in conversation ability, communication.” The doppelgänger stood up.

It was completely naked, but it just looked like gelatin stuck to bones. There was nothing suggestive about its appearance. Its method of talking was stiff, but that seemed to be the nature of the doppelgänger’s thoughts.

“Permission requested to ask a question.”

“Uhh… You don’t have to be so obedient. We are residents of the same town.”

“Understood. No obedience. Glenn Litbeit categorized as ‘town resident.’” The response was still stiff. The doppelgänger looked straight at Glenn with its goggling eyes. “We are currently acting in the interest of nutrient supply. We have no objection to executing the new duties, but if there is no nutrient supply, activities will cease or…a shift to predatory state is possible.”

“You will be paid a salary, and you can also send for fresh foods from the Aluloona Plantation.” Kunai answered the doppelgänger’s question.

The doppelgänger let out a breath of either disgust or exhaustion, Glenn didn’t know which. It was hard to read the cold expression in its big eyes.

“Understood. We will execute duties under those conditions. That was all we were looking for when we divided. A new nutrient supply…”

“What kind of food do you like?”

“Beef.” It answered right away. Considering it essentially preyed on other living things, this seemed like a natural request. “Acquired body for activity and means of nutrient supply. Will now execute duties as manager of graveyard city. Lulala Heine.”

“Huh? Oh, yes?”

The doppelgänger had called on Lulala without changing its facial expression. She hadn’t been expecting it to speak to her. She was having enough trouble following all of this.

“Thank you.” The doppelgänger smiled. Its face was supposed to have changed to someone else’s, but in that moment, the smile looked just like Lulala.

Lulala was dumbstruck.

Just when she’d thought that the doppelgänger with her face had been eaten by a blob, it recovered and used the bones of someone it didn’t know to become human. Lulala had heard of the graveyard city, but she hadn’t realized that the manager was gone. And now the doppelgänger was the new manager?

She couldn’t keep up.

“Thanks to Lulala Heine’s aid, we were supplied with nutrients. That made it easy to maintain the nucleus, and we were able to propose a solution to Glenn Litbeit and Kunai Zenow. We will be able to return to a single existence.”

“Ah, y-yes?”

“Also, of the many imitations, the Lulala Heine imitation provided the greatest opportunity for learning. We collected information about language and emotion, and details about the human relationships and social order in the town.”

“I-I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

The words the doppelgänger was using were too difficult for Lulala, who had never attended school. But she did understand that she was being thanked many times over. All she had done was treat the doppelgänger as a friend, but it seemed that that had been good for it. She’d never thought that simply bringing it food and speaking to it would lead to this.

“In that case, we will use a means of communication other than language.” The doppelgänger held out its hand.

The hand was covered with a semi-transparent purple substance, and bones were visible through it. But the doppelgänger’s bones weren’t eroded like the corpses Lulala had seen in the ocean. The skeleton must have been skillfully embalmed.

Lulala knew what it meant when a hand was extended, so she grabbed the doppelgänger’s hand. It felt a bit slimy, but that wasn’t a problem for Lulala, who lived in the water.

“Lulala, what did you tell it?”

“Oh, uh well…”

“That is a confidential matter. Set to maximum security level. In local slang terms, ‘girl talk.’” The doppelgänger used difficult words, but it was still understandable.

Perhaps it really is a mischievous being, thought Lulala. It was hard to tell from the lack of facial expression, but its words seemed humorous.

“Oh, Doctor, the celebration…”

“Oh… That’s right. I wonder if Sapphee is mad. I haven’t greeted Miss Tisalia yet, even though she invited me…”

Lulala remembered why she was there.

When she thought about it, she’d gotten caught up in this mess because she went searching for Glenn after noticing he wasn’t at the celebration. It would have been the perfect opportunity to see him…but he had this all planned out.

She’d almost been eaten by a blob.

That was right. It was all Glenn’s fault.

Lulala was on land now, and Glenn just happened to be holding on to her, supporting her upper body. If she’d grown legs, there would be no need for him to do so. She decided to stay put for a bit and enjoy the moment, even though she could never tell Sapphee about it.

“Let’s sing a song.” The doppelgänger abruptly spoke. “A song Lulala Heine sang many times.”

“Huh?”

“We speak with a great deal of difficulty. We have determined that it is challenging to correctly express gratitude. Songs rapidly improve the rate of conveying feelings.”

“Oh, ummm…” She didn’t really understand.

Before Lulala could stop it, the doppelgänger began singing.

“———————♪”

It was a requiem.

The voice was exactly like Lulala’s. So, it wasn’t just appearances that it could mimic, it could also imitate voices. The vibrato, trills, and breathing were all precisely the same as Lulala.

The doppelgänger wasn’t singing. It was simply reproducing Lulala’s singing voice. But the sound was still full of emotion.

“…”

It was just like the doppelgänger had said. Even though its voice was really her voice, its feelings were conveyed clearly.

Lulala tightened her hold on Glenn. He would probably stay by her side for as long as she was on land.

I wonder if it’s okay.

She glanced at Glenn, wondering if her feelings of love would be conveyed to him through the doppelgänger’s song, even though that was an impossibility. Someday, when she grew up—when she was Sapphee’s age—Lulala thought she might have the courage to tell Glenn how she felt. Even if she never grew legs, she would always have her voice. And if she became a charming mermaid, then maybe she could charm him.

For now, she would keep her feelings hidden in the water.

Lulala chuckled to herself, mischievously imagining Glenn’s face when she would tell him about her feelings. She was looking forward to it.

Full of emotion, Lulala joined the doppelgänger in singing.

The two voices rang through the night.

Lulala felt as if meeting the girl with the same face as her had made her life as a mermaid more fun, as if she had been given courage…and a secret.

She was so, so very happy.