Sea Monster Stew Chapter 60

Biche recalled the long hair of the man from her dream, the strands that had tickled the small of her back and her nape. 

 

The Live-Skinner Kisa before her now had his hair cut short, like a criminal’s.

Come to think of it, the portrait she’d seen on the wanted poster not long ago showed his hair long enough to cascade over his chest.

On his now fully exposed nape, the brand symbolizing a convict was deeply etched. 

 

She suddenly remembered the mark Hildert had left on her own back. 

 

Without realizing it, Biche slowly reached her hand towards the man’s neck.

 

“Muir…?”

 

Uttering the name she had murmured in her dream, she cautiously traced his brand with her fingertips. 

 

Kisa’s eyes, which had been languid and half-lidded, flew wide open.

In an instant, he straightened from his kneeling position and stood up. 

 

Cupping her cheeks firmly with both hands, he forced her to meet his gaze.

 

“You remember me?”

 

He was repeating the absurd question he’d spat out on the warship. 

 

‘Do you remember me?’ Biche weakly moved her lips.

The Live-Skinner Kisa she remembered was a man with a menacing, unshaven face, contorted in a snarl as he swung a giant sword to shred sea monsters…

 

“No, it’s just…”

“Just what?”

 

“The name ‘Muir’… suddenly came to mind…”

 

Her voice, whispered like a sigh, was swallowed by his lips. 

 

Biche’s eyes widened in shock as he suddenly covered her mouth. 

 

A hot tongue pushed past her parted lips as she gasped for breath.

Her body slowly tilted back onto the bedsheet. 

 

Kisa frantically caressed her cheeks, his hot tongue passing saliva to her. 

 

Saliva and hot breath transferred between their tangled tongues.

In the midst of the dizzying kiss, one of the hands caressing her cheek suddenly moved away. 

 

Something fell onto her shoulder with a soft thud. Biche blinked slowly, a dazed look on her face.

 

“…Ah.”

 

Kisa gently broke the kiss and lifted his head. 

 

The string of saliva stretching between them snapped, and he brushed her lower lip with his index finger, whispering,

 

“Sorry. I got carried away.”

 

His eyes, damp with excitement and heat, slid sideways. 

 

Biche slowly turned her head, following his gaze. There, lying right beside her, was a large hand.

It was Kisa’s large left hand, the very one that had been gently caressing her cheek moments before. 

 

The left hand lay limp on the bed, like a leather pouch with all the stuffing gone.

She blinked blankly, then slowly turned her head back. 

 

Her eyes met Kisa’s, who was using his teeth to undo the bandage on his severed wrist. 

 

Between the faintly bloodstained bandages, she could glimpse the cross-section of his wrist, not yet fully healed.

She had prided herself on witnessing all sorts of horrors in the Karabas pirate archipelago. 

 

But she never thought she’d see a freshly severed wrist stump right before her eyes.

 

“Arco?”

 

The moment Kisa whispered her name with a sigh, the cabin door suddenly swung open and a woman appeared. 

 

The moment Biche saw the beaming woman, she couldn’t hide her astonishment. 

 

It was Admiral Moose, the one with the strongest magical power among the admirals.

 

“What are you doing, Captain? Rape isn’t allowed,” Moose said.

 

At her words, Kisa let out a short sigh.

“Who said I’m captain? And it wasn’t rape.”

 

“What’s this? If not you, then who will lead us?”

 

Biche desperately pushed Kisa’s large body away and looked at Admiral Moose. 

 

The terrifying Moose looked like her savior sent from heaven today.

 

“H-he kissed me without my permission!”

 

“Oh my, really? Great. It’s a rare reunion, why not give her a better present?”

But Admiral Moose showed not the slightest intention of helping her. 

 

Biche looked up at Moose, who was approaching the bed, with a horrified expression.

 

“I had my suspicions, but you really were in a relationship with Hildert’s assistant, weren’t you?”

 

“…Since when did you notice, Moose?” Kisa frowned as he fitted the fallen left hand back onto his wrist.

 

“I had a rough idea ever since Hildert was desperately searching for a grey-haired man. Though I never dreamed this girl was Duke Akstain’s granddaughter.”

 

“Um… I have no idea what you’ve been talking about since earlier,” Biche mumbled, struggling to sit up. “Wh-who was in a relationship with whom?”

 

“My, you seem really flustered. You keep tripping over your tongue.”

Moose plopped down beside the pale girl and laughed heartily.

 

“Kisa, don’t tell me you erased yourself from this girl’s memory?”

 

“I erased it.” Kisa nodded quietly with a sigh.

 

“At the time, I thought it was for the best.”

 

“You erased my memory? Why?”

 

“Because you’d be in danger if you stayed by my side. So I erased your memory and put you on a resistance ship to send you back to the Helio Empire.”

 

Biche stared at Kisa with an incredulous look. 

 

‘I’d be in danger if I stayed by your side? Of course I would! You’re the kind of man who draws his sword the moment he sees a sea monster!’

 

‘I had a secret relationship with this man, behind Hildert’s back? Impossible!’

 

Just how fearless had she been in her lost memories? To have a secret affair with a young officer who detests sea monsters, right under Hildert’s nose.

If their relationship had been discovered, she would have lost her life by Hildert’s hand. 

 

If her mixed blood had been discovered, she would have been beheaded by Kisa’s.

Either outcome was equally terrible, so what on earth was she thinking, getting involved with this man…?

 

Suddenly, the name ‘Muir’ she had heard in her dream surfaced in her mind. 

 

Biche found a clue in Kisa’s reaction, how particularly happy he had been at that name, and in his past where he had hidden his identity, living inside a giant’s skin.

 

“By any chance…”

“Yeah?”

“…By any chance, did you use a fake name and identity, ‘Muir’, without telling me you were the ‘Live-Skinner Kisa’?”

 

Kisa frowned slightly, seemingly surprised by her question.

“Well…”

He shifted uncomfortably, moving his lips silently for a moment, then glared at Moose, who was desperately stifling her laughter beside them.

 

“Aren’t you going to leave?”

 

“Ah, why? I came in to help.”

Moose, who had been holding her stomach laughing, finally rolled off the bed with a thud. 

 

Kisa sighed, glaring at her as she wiped her tears.

 

“You’re right. I couldn’t bring myself to tell you my true identity.”

 

“Why?”

“…Because you would have been disappointed in me.”

 

His uncharacteristically cautious, evasive demeanor made him look like a frightened boy. 

 

Biche stared at him, then without realizing it, buried her face in her hands.

 

‘How on earth did I end up in a relationship with the Live-Skinner Kisa…?’

 

If the situation in her dream wasn’t fiction but reality, it meant that she and Kisa had already been physically intimate. 

 

Biche was afraid of how Kisa would react when he learned the whole truth.

 

Thinking calmly, it wasn’t just Kisa who had deceived Biche. Biche had also deceived Kisa.

Probably until the day she left the Karabas archipelago, Kisa hadn’t known she was a half-breed sea monster.

 

‘The fact that I escaped the pirate archipelago with my life is proof of that.’

 

Biche gazed quietly at Kisa with trembling eyes. 

 

In the end, they had only deceived each other, so why couldn’t this man let her go even now?

 

“…Can you restore my lost memories?”

 

“I can try.”

 

He slowly raised his right hand and pressed it firmly against her rounded forehead. 

 

A frost-like energy slowly spread through her mind. An invisible force quietly emanated around them.

Biche flinched, her shoulders jerking with a bewildered expression. 

 

‘How much time passed?’ Kisa furrowed his brow deeply and removed his hand.

 

“What the? Why won’t the memories…”

“…come back?”

Moose clucked her tongue as she slowly crawled back onto the bed.

“Trying to restore erased memories? Do you really think that’s possible for someone like you without formal training? Even high-ranking witches of Whecoca, including me, absolutely cannot do that.”

 

Then, Biche’s dazed eyes slowly closed. Kisa quickly reached out and caught her slumping body, holding her close.

 

“Arco?”

 

He carefully shook her. Her unconscious face was as cold as ice.

 

“She’s like that because you injected too much magical energy. Let her rest deeply for now,” Moose said, stroking Biche’s head with her unusually long, jointed fingers.

 

“Let’s head for Whecoca first. Since Calyxo hates the Empire terribly, she’ll surely take us in.”

 

Holding the unconscious Biche in his arms, Kisa looked out the round window. 

 

A loud horn signaling departure sounded, and the busy footsteps of the crew filled the corridor.

 

And so, the pirate ship slowly turned its bow towards Whecoca, the island of the sea witches.