Sea Monster Stew Chapter 49

‘…I’m starting to think even working for Hildert’s tides was better than this.’

The moment she unwittingly let out a bitter smile, a deep sense of hurt and loneliness seeped into her very bones. 

 

She wiped the smile away and silently shed tears in the darkness.

“Mother… Father…”

She had been lost in tears and sorrow for a long time when a faint sound of footsteps echoed from beyond the firmly shut door. 

 

Suddenly, she heard the lock being undone from the outside. The doorknob was turning quietly.

Startled, Biche scrambled backward. 

 

‘Who could it be at this hour?’ 

 

She stood up, fully alert, just as a man in a black robe revealed himself through the door crack.

It was a young knight with intelligent eyes. He didn’t seem to be a knight of the Ducal house.

“Wh-who are you…?”

As Biche stared at him in surprise, the knight put a finger to his lips and whispered softly.

“Shh, calm down. I have no intention of harming you whatsoever.”

The young knight hurriedly scanned his surroundings, then promptly handed Biche a clean robe.

“Put this on. Quickly.”

 

Biche took the robe in a daze. 

 

She was so drained she could barely stand, unable to tell if the scene unfolding before her was a dream or reality.

 

“Hurry!”

The knight urged her with an anxious voice. 

 

Only then did Biche snap back to her senses and carefully put on the robe.

 

“…Who are you?”

“No time to explain. Please, follow me quickly.”

He hurriedly led Biche down the spiral staircase. 

 

Pulling the robe’s hood deep over her head, she moved her feet cautiously.

The man skillfully concealed himself in the inky shadows, leading Biche out of the castle. 

 

Feeling the night breeze mixed with the scent of grass, Biche wore a bewildered expression.

“Where are we going…?”

The knight remained silent, merely passing through the quiet central courtyard. 

 

Shortly after, he led her out to the rear garden, stopping before the high castle wall.

Someone was standing tall in a secluded spot hidden among the tall trees. 

 

Count Fion was waiting for them, his hands clasped behind his back.

 

“You’re late.”

“My apologies. I missed the moment when the guards left their posts.”

The knight bowed respectfully to the Count. 

 

Biche, catching her breath after the hurried walk, mumbled in a daze.

 

“Count…? Why are you…?”

“No time,” the Count said, pointing to the waterway that led outside the castle walls. 

 

Water was trickling out through an arched opening beneath the wall.

“Follow this and keep swimming; it will lead you straight to the sea. With the blood of a sea creature flowing in your veins, this path should be safer for you than the land route.”

Biche looked up at Fion with a startled, confused expression.

“Why… why are you helping me?”

Fion stared at her with his somber, sunken eyes for a moment, then let out a sigh-like whisper.

 

“It’s not for you. It’s all for Arwen.”

Hearing her late mother’s name, Biche’s eyes widened.

“Did you… truly love my mother?”

 

“…I did love her.”

Count Fion smiled bitterly. Biche blinked her dazed eyes slowly.

Could this even be called love? Saving the illegitimate child born to the wife who had spurned him all his life.

And that illegitimate child wasn’t even fully human, but a half-creature. The bastard born from his wife’s affair with a sea creature slave…

Biche simply couldn’t understand Count Fion’s heart.

“Go now.”

Count Fion adjusted Biche’s robe once more as he spoke.

“Always remember that Arwen can only rest in peace if you are happy.”

“If it gets out that you saved me, the Duke won’t let this slide. Your family’s house might…”

“Don’t worry about me. Just think of your own path ahead.”

 

For the first time, Count Fion offered a faint, seemingly kind smile.

 

“Although the Count’s house influence has waned, we are not so fragile as to crumble like a sandcastle before the Duke’s anger.”

He gave a quiet signal to the young knight. The young knight pulled an old leather pouch from his waist and carefully offered it to Biche.

“I’ve put some jewels inside, enough to buy a small house. You must not lose it.”

 

“Thank you…”

Biche mumbled her thanks with an awkward expression and accepted the pouch. 

 

She moistened her dry lips and studied the two men’s demeanor. Perhaps they knew where Calante and Fui had been taken?

“Excuse me, but… do you happen to know where my friends, who were captured with me, are…”

At that moment, the sharp sound of metal scraping through the air rang out. Multiple footsteps suddenly approached from the darkness.

The Duke appeared with a fierce expression, flanked by knights who had drawn their swords. 

 

He glared at Count Fion, his eyes filled with rage and contempt.

“Count Fion. What exactly are you doing in my castle, with the child my daughter bore?”

The Ducal knights rushed in instantly and restrained the Count’s young knight. 

 

The knight struggled briefly but was struck on the head with a sword hilt and lost consciousness.

Count Fion himself resisted two knights and was wounded in the shoulder by a sword tip.

 

The pungent smell of blood spread through the darkness.

 

“Count!”

Startled, Biche tried to run towards him. A knight blocked her path and firmly seized her arms.

“No! Stop… stop! Please, stop!”

The Duke showed no reaction to Biche’s pleas. 

 

Instead, he let out a scornful laugh and turned his head to stare down at Count Fion.

“I took in a good-for-nothing as a son-in-law, and now he runs wild without fear of consequence.”

“Kuh…”

“Do you think Fion is still the same man he was twenty years ago? Had I known you were a man so unable to read the tides, I would never have sent my Arwen to the Count’s house.”

“……”

“Then again, being such a pathetic fool, it’s no wonder you lost my daughter to a mere creature.”

At this taunt, Count Fion’s head dropped as if broken. 

 

The knights dragged the bleeding Count and the young knight away, out of the castle. 

 

Biche, held firmly by knights on both sides, trembled from head to toe.

“Let… let me go!”

“Come along quietly.”

The knights held Biche’s arms and took her into the castle. They passed down wet stairs, descending underground.

The air grew progressively cooler, the chill and darkness biting into her skin. The deeper they went down the stairs, the harder it became to breathe.

After passing damp stone walls, an underground prison appeared, with old puddles scattered here and there. 

 

Could they possibly be imprisoning her in a dungeon now, finding the tower insufficient? Biche’s heartbeat quickened, her fingertips turning icy cold.

Knights who had arrived earlier slowly opened a heavy iron door. A fishy, watery smell wafted out from the air leaking from within.

 

Biche was dragged by the knights into the doorway. They only released her, almost throwing her down, after she had crossed the threshold.

Rubbing her stinging arms, she bit her lip hard. The room, without a single lamp lit, was pitch black.

Just as her eyes were adjusting to the darkness, Biche was met with an unexpected sight.

In the middle of the room stood two large tanks. 

 

In one of them was Calante, a beautiful merman with a shark’s tail fin, imprisoned.

 

In the other tank was Fui, a sea creature with twisted horns and fangs.

“Calante! Fui!”

As Biche rushed to the tanks in shock, Calante shrugged his shoulders and let out a sigh. His long tail fin swayed slowly on the water’s surface.

“Calante! Are you okay? Are you hurt…?”

 

‘I am fine. I am not hurt, so please do not cry.’

‘Those bad people! They crushed, trampled, and mocked our master!’

‘Fui. Be quiet.’

 

Their voices, uttered from within the water, seemed inaudible to the knights. 

 

The knights watched Biche conversing with the two, then twirled their fingers near their temples.

Then, the Duke slowly stepped forward from among the knights guarding the doorway. 

 

His gaunt shadow stretched long across the prison floor. 

 

The Duke looked alternately at the creatures in the tanks and Biche, a cold smile on his lips.

 

“How close you monsters are with each other.”

“You…”

“‘You’ to your grandfather? If you don’t want to see your friends thrown into a firepit, you will mind your manners.”

Biche clenched her fists tightly, rage welling up inside her. 

 

Her throat felt hot and swollen, but in the end, she had no choice but to press her lips together and bow deeply to the Duke.

“…I beg of you. Please spare them.”

 

‘What are you doing? Lift your head at once!’

 

From behind her came the sound of Calante pounding loudly on his tank.