Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume2 Phase01 (section)

===Part 5===

The ocean was enshrouded with the late-night darkness.

Since Laguntreat’s primary selling point was as a health retreat, the night was fairly peaceful for a tourist location. The giant crab Karkinos was flipped over, fast asleep. It had something like white bubbles coming from its mouth, but not because it was suffering.

A Lizardman must have shed their skin at some point because a skin shaped just like one was sitting there on the beach.

The moonlit ocean looked different than it had during the day. A faint and cold light rose from its surface and thin, pier-like walkways connected the cottages built over the water. Someone was slowly walking along one of those.

It was Teleria Nereid Aquamarine.

“…”

She had snuck out of their cottage and she doubted anyone had noticed. They had fought a hard battle on the ocean train during the day, they had played in the ocean, and they were staying in an unfamiliar place. Mamilis and Henrietta must have been exhausted, not to mention Ayato. It was hard to tell from the outside whether he was sleeping or performing that mental work of his, but one of his strongest points was his ability to sleep anywhere and quickly recover through that sleep.

That was why no one caught the blonde girl.

For a Mermaid, the ocean was best at night. The view from the walkway was so enticing she wanted to jump right on in, but the ocean at night was also heavily associated with death.

She was here to check on something.

She wanted to see again how she viewed herself.

“Ah.”

Her lips moved slightly when she saw the moon reflected in the dark ocean.

Once the figurative ball began rolling down the slope, there was no stopping it.

“Okay, fine!! How am I supposed to resist this!?

She stripped.

She started with her blue blazer and blouse, she skipped to her leather shoes for now, she took a detour to the twin holsters for her guns, and then she hesitated a moment before removing her white bra too. At that point, there was no use in waiting any longer, so she unzipped her skirt and stuck her thumbs under the sides of the black tights she wore. Those were actually a Mimic Option, so once she pulled them down, her hidden Mermaid lower body was revealed with a sticky sound.

The moonlight shined palely on her silhouette, which contained a combination of immature and mature.

“There.”

The rest came naturally to her.

She leaped into the ocean, traveling in a beautiful crescent moon arch from the pier-like walkway.

Any Mermaid would be itching to dive in after seeing that watery expanse before her. She had been resisting it the entire time they were on the ocean railroad and the beach cottage had been the last straw. The ocean was way too close by. The clear seawater, the strong scent of the sea breeze, the crashing of the waves, and the summer sun on her skin had all pierced directly into her instincts.

The dark water inspired fear in some, but it was more comforting than a bed sheet to her and she could not resist wrapping her entire body in it.

“Pwah. Maybe I overdid it.”

She made that belated realization after bringing her face above water. She had been starving for the ocean, but fulfilling that urge may have helped clear her mind. Even Laguntreat’s ocean had things floating through it, but all of that would break down naturally. Teleria grabbed a palm leaf floating in the waves and wrapped it around her ample chest with practiced hand. She had trouble with detailed needlework, but that was because Mermaids did not do much sewing.

“Nh.”

Mermaid clothing was generally made by wrapping waterproof fabric or giant leaves around their body or by drilling holes in shells and passing thick strings through that to create a shell bikini.

She lay on her back and spread out her arms to look up at the moon and float on the surface for a while.

She could live in human society with her Mimic Option, but using it for too long left her lower body bloated and the pressure of keeping secrets from people built up inside her like sediment. She wanted some kind of release. She wanted to blow off some steam. And the azure sea of her home ground was far too powerful. Not even visiting a cake buffet the day after a diet would have permeated the core of her being quite like this.

“Ayato, you dummyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!”

She had managed to fool him today, but what about tomorrow?

She also had to wonder why he could not see through her lies.

“He’s so dumb I can’t believe it,” she said much more quietly.

Achieving your goal did not always feel good. Keeping up her act for another day pricked at her heart like a small thorn. The foolish boy was left behind with his happy dreams while this girl continued to grow.

[[Image:SorceryHacker_v02_BW03.jpg|thumb]]

When would she finally be able to reveal this to him?

She was so very jealous of Mamilis who could reveal her long Dark Elf ears around him and even get him to rub her head. She knew that jealousy was an ugly thing, but she could have had that position for herself. If she had chosen differently back at the beginning, she was certain she would not have had to hide her Mermaid tail from him.

But she did not see that happening as things were. In the end, Teleria was Teleria. She could not do what Mamilis did at this point.

Too much time had passed.

The supposed trust she had built up with him only worked against her now.

She only had herself to blame. This was a comedy brought on by her weak will and her self-serving logic, so she knew all her resentment had to be directed at herself.

“Sigh.”

(I wish I could just go to sleep out here. I wish I could turn to sea foam and dissolve into the water.)

She knew that could never happen.

She even knew she would tearfully beg for her life if it did come to that.

And just then…

“…!?”

Her incoherent thoughts were dragged back to reality by an intense pressure. She flipped over from her back, dove down into the ocean, and then treaded water with her hips on down below the water.

This was not a blatant attack.

She could not sense any killer intent or even hostility.

She felt a violent “aura” like a wooden hammer to the heart, but it was more like someone stirring or rolling in their sleep than anything.

“It…can’t be.”

She could only think of one possibility.

Her gaze slowly rose from the ocean surface. The mountain visible from anywhere on Laguntreat was capped with thick clouds and white snow despite the tropical climate. All the island’s water came from there. Beyond the cloudy curtain was a silhouette of something very different from a mountain ridge.

It was 540 esoule<ref>Approximately 450 meters.</ref> long.

That gargantuan winged fish slithered along the land like a snake.

But the weird people who had been observing it for many long years would notice that its position had changed. It had clearly moved closer to the base of the mountain.

The blonde Mermaid spoke with extreme caution in her voice.

It was only a whisper, but her voice was quavering.

“Mother?”

That was Water Lord Fleurelisia Nereid Aquamarine.

That Ocean Queen was one of the Four Lords of the demons.

She was also like a horrific alarm clock that would trigger a collapse of balance for everything here.

The Water Lord, who was Teleria’s biological mother, was moving for the first time in several combo-years?

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