The Pirate King's Daughter - Chapter 23

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 23
‘No! Not like this!’
Bertho pulled his lips back and, for just a moment, smiled at me. Then he pressed himself against my back and shoved me away with all his strength.
I spun around at once and stared at him. He sank deeper into the water, waving his hand as if to say, Go on, hurry.
His eyes were slowly closing when Jellyfish seized my arm and dragged me upward.
I wrenched free of those tentacles and, without hesitation, kicked toward Bertho. Eyes already shut, he descended deeper, into darkness deeper still.
‘Just a little farther……!’
I stretched out my arms and pulled him into my embrace.
And in the moment I closed my eyes along with him, a brilliant light wrapped around my body.
I came to my senses almost at once and realized that breathing was far, far easier now.
‘What is this?!’
A soft, undulating sensation swept through the water.
That’s right—I had transformed into a mermaid.
‘Wait, I’ll think about this later.’
Cradling Bertho, I swished my tail back and forth. The speed was incomparable to any leg-powered stroke.
Strangely enough, it felt like flying through the sky. It wasn’t a thought suited to the moment, yet I felt oddly free.
‘Faster……!’
As I followed Jellyfish, shafts of light began pouring down from above through the water.
“Gasp!”
At last I broke the surface.
I hauled Bertho up at once, tilted his chin back to open his airway, pinched his nose, and started CPR.
Then I straightened my arms and pressed down hard on his chest.
Minutes passed. Sweat dripping, I kept up the rhythm—and finally Bertho coughed up water.
“Cough!”
“Bertho! Can you hear me?”
“Tatiana……?”
He was alive. The man who’d saved me and sunk into that darkness opened his eyes. My vision blurred.
“You stupid, stupid fool!”
I couldn’t bring myself to hit him; my raised fist just fell slack.
Instead I wept—truly wept—louder than I’d ever cried since childhood.
“I’m sorry.”
Bertho, flustered and unsure what to do, reached out and patted me gently.
“Hiccup!”
After a long bout of heaving sobs, hiccups seized me.
“Are you done crying?”
“I haven’t finished. So what?”
Bertho let out a low chuckle. And as I looked at him, I kept seeing that image overlaid—his face smiling as he sank.
Sometimes it struck me that this composed man annoyed me more than any of the other protagonists.
“What are you doing?”
Just then Bertho began unbuttoning his shirt, one button at a time.
His collarbone came into view, and before my eyes could meet what lay beneath it, I quickly turned my head away.
“You’re a grown man—where’s your shame? Put some clothes back on!”
“Then what happened to you?”
He peeled away the damp shirt from his shoulders. Turning his back to me, he displayed his muscular frame without a trace of modesty.
“Does it have anything to do with the fact that we’re alive?”
Startled by the low tone of his voice, I stopped my furtive glances. It was only then that I noticed my own appearance.
I was still a mermaid.
When my life hung by a thread, the ability Lucas had given me had awakened.
‘Why do mermaids always have seashells clinging to their chests like that?’
When does this tail disappear? At this rate I’d survive drowning only to be captured as some sort of creature.
“Are you dressed yet?”
“Not quite. One moment.”
I fastened the buttons, sneaking a glance at Bertho. His neck had turned completely crimson—something I hadn’t noticed when stealing those earlier looks.
‘Is there not a single bikini in this world?’
Though honestly, I’d seen plenty of men in swimwear back home, and yes, it had been a bit embarrassing.
“You can turn around now.”
The shirt was enormous. When I moved my arms, the sleeves hung well below my hands.
“Is this magic?”
Bertho rolled up the sleeves, folding them neatly as he asked.
“I said I wasn’t going to ask questions about weird things.”
“……I suppose I can’t take that back. So—can’t you return to your normal form? You can’t stay like this.”
“I don’t know either.”
Bertho didn’t press further.
“We need to get a fire going. It’s not cold, but wet clothes will give you a chill. I’ll gather some branches.”
“Okay.”
Bertho stepped out of the cave, and I splashed my tail through the water, looking around.
This seemed to be the Commander’s Embezzlement Passage—the cave I’d originally been trying to reach.
“What’s your relationship with him?”
“Ah! You startled me!”
Jellyfish, who’d been perched against a rock on one tentacle, suddenly spoke up.
“When did you……? Since the beginning, I suppose.”
“You didn’t even notice I was here, acting all lovey-dovey. You don’t seem to be dating, but are you about to start?”
“That’s not it.”
“Then you’re trying to die for someone who isn’t even that to you?”
Well, that’s Bertho for you.
Even in the modern world, such cases existed—citizens who save strangers and perish, hailed as heroes.
Bertho was exactly that sort of man.
“You talk too much. Don’t you have somewhere to be?”
“I can’t.”
It’s not that I disliked him—but what did he mean, he couldn’t go?
“I gave you a clear warning not to cling to us. If you don’t leave, I’m telling Bertho to drive you out. Don’t think I don’t know he’s an Aura User.”
I was a fox riding on the back of a righteous tiger.
“You’d threaten a small, delicate creature like me?”
“Yes. So leave.”
“I can’t!”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m bound to you by contract!”
“What……?”
Before I could ask what he meant, a scene suddenly surfaced in my mind.
The moment Jellyfish had handed me a small Treasure Fragment.
The circumstances had been so dire that I’d thought nothing of it, but there was definitely a warm sensation that had seeped into me—the same feeling as when I’d received Lucas’s ability.
As the realization struck me, I reached out toward Jellyfish.
“Ow!”
And Jellyfish did the same.
“You crazy jellyfish!”
I gathered up his tentacles and seized them; he grabbed a fistful of my hair.
“Let go.”
“You let go first.”
“On the count of three, we both let go at the same time.”
“Fine.”
At my proposal, Jellyfish nodded, glaring at me.
“One, two, three!”
Of course, neither of us let go.
“You treacherous contract-maker. In all my long life, I’ve never met a human like you!”
“I’ve lived quite a while myself! In my entire life, I’ve never met an animal as despicable as you!”
The childish argument that looked as though it would never end was cut short when Bertho came running at the sound of the commotion.
“Whoa!”
He ripped Jellyfish from my grip and hurled him away.
“Are you all right?”
“He tricked me with a fraudulent contract!”
Clinging to Bertho, I wailed like a child tattling to a parent.
“A contract?”
Bertho’s expression filled with bewilderment as he looked down at me.
“When he handed over that treasure to me earlier, apparently he snuck in a contract on his own terms. Something about him sticking with us.”
At this explanation, Bertho reached for the sword he’d set aside.
“Hey! I saved your lives, and now you’re going to kill me? What kind of humans are you?!”
“Explain yourself.”
“You’re terrible people. And I’m the one who got scammed by a contract…….”
After I’d transformed back into my normal form from the mermaid, I returned Bertho’s shirt and sat down before the crackling fire.
“Now then. Tell me about this contract.”
“It’s simple enough. I tell you where the treasure is, and you find it, and you earn the title of Master of the Sea.”
It sounded grand as “Master of the Sea,” but really it was just Pirate King.
“What do you get out of it?”
“Entertainment? The joy of watching the journey to find the treasure. Humans are quite fascinating, you see.”
As something that wasn’t human, his thought patterns seemed fundamentally different. Did he really need entertainment in such a convoluted way?
“Can you cancel it?”
“No.”
“What if we can’t find the treasure?”
“Then you can’t find it. But if you die, the contract dissolves.”
“So I don’t actually have to find it?”
Jellyfish fluttered indignantly into the air.
“Even so, finding the treasure gives a sense of achievement! Don’t you want to climb higher, to reach greater heights?”
“No. If I wanted achievement, I’d work harder. But that’s beside the point. Do you have to stay attached to me like this?”
“……Why are you asking that?”
“Because I don’t want to keep you around.”
“…….”
I expected him to come at me again as before, but instead Jellyfish sank to the ground and let his tentacles droop.
“What is it? Are you sulking?”
“……We’re already connected. It’s only natural that a contractor wants to be with their partner.”
At his dejected state, I found myself absently stroking his bouncy head with my index finger.
Then Jellyfish puffed out his lips a little and subtly rubbed his head against my hand.
‘He’s being cute.’
If I took Jellyfish with me, the navy would pursue me. Even if I didn’t search for the treasure, they’d worry about the emergence of a Pirate King.
And the second reason I was reluctant—it was Lucas. I was afraid because I couldn’t predict why he’d interfered with the original story.
“But you’ve lived so long—why do you have such a terrible personality?”
“Contractors tend to take on the nature of their partners when they form a bond.”
“……Even at the beginning you had a bad attitude. Stubborn and cocky.”
“Better stubborn than terrible, isn’t it?”
“…….”
Bertho, who’d been quietly listening to our exchange, finally spoke.
“Tatiana, you don’t need to decide right now.”
“That’s true enough.”
Jellyfish was somewhat like pudding—the soft, sweet, jiggly pudding I’d loved both here and back in Korea.
“What’s your name?”
“You’re only asking now?”
“You didn’t ask mine either.”
“……Goldwin Evandrus Lucian Alexander.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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