North x Northwest
Chapter 94

Lil tightened her grip on the edge of the tank. Because she completely missed the occurrence, her heart froze over.

‘No, seeing that the light is receding, It’s clear that he jumped in himself rather than falling in by accident… And he was right, the darker it gets, the brighter the balsam becomes. The brightness is still clearly visible even though it keeps descending. If it’s so intense when viewed from above, then there’s no way the mermaid couldn’t have seen it…’

Lil’s heart pounded as soon as that thought crossed her head. Sure enough, the motionless blue light wiggled visibly, a chill ran down her spine when she noticed movement from the creature they thought was asleep. Nevertheless, the white brilliance went towards the mermaid.

“Did you get caught? …Well, you jumped in so loudly… Damn it!”

All the blood from her fingertips seemed to drain away. In an instant, the pale hand chucked away the triangular hat she was wearing. When she looked around in desperation, she noticed a pulley hanging from the ceiling.

‘Judging from the fact that it’s installed above the tank, the object they intended to move with it is probably the mermaid.’

Lil unhooked the ring of the second pulley connected to it and untied the bundle of ropes. Despite the intricate structure, consisting of various pulleys linked to one another, she knew that pulling the longest rope would elevate the pulley with the iron ring and letting it loose would lower it. It was a tool that was widely used to move nets or boxes. When she studied the mechanism she noticed that the rope she had to pull was attached to a spool on the floor.

Upon pushing the pulley with the ring into the water, Lil measured Ed’s weight. She had only Cesar to compare, so he came to her mind naturally.

‘Ed’s taller than Cesar, but his body is similar or somewhat slimmer. Obviously, his weight will be comparable to Cesar’s. I’m not sure how many times I have to pull the rope to get him out of the water… Regardless, it’s rather fortunate it will cost less strength because the water-resistance will make him lighter.’

As a test, Lil yanked the rope one time.

“Damn it.”

‘At this rate, the only things I will recover are the remains of a ravaged body… Wait, do mermaids even eat people? I don’t really know, but I wouldn’t insist on it being a herbivore seeing the way it attacked me earlier.’

When she thought the ring had sunken deep enough, Lil pulled the handle next to the spool to secure the rope. She then took off her vest and wrapped her hands around it.

‘It would be much faster to pull directly with my hands… But I have no idea what’s going on inside the tank. Don’t tell me it’s a friendly atmosphere?’

Lil held on to the rope, but when the silence prolonged, she hesitantly let it go and stepped toward the tank. Approaching the tank empty-handed felt a bit unsettling, but she had no other choice, with both her hands still wrapped in the vest, it was impossible to hold a gun. The fish tank’s opening appeared ominous like it could spit out a monster at any time. Neither Ed’s nor the mermaid’s light were visible, so Lil clenched her teeth and moved in closer. At first glance, it seemed like a small ray of light ascended through the tank.

“…Huh?”

Lil strode forward. Out of nowhere, the pulley rope, suddenly supporting weight became taut and vibrated as if it could snap at any moment. She looked up before quickly casting her eyes down again. However, Ed was still nowhere to be found. She could only see a cluster of froth rushing towards her. Beneath that, the blue ray of light was swimming at an alarming rate. With its mouth wide open, the figure roared towards the white light, ready to devour it. In a panic, Lil jumped, grabbed the rope hanging in the air, and ran to the opposite wall. When there was no more room left to run, she started yanking it with all her strength. Even though it wasn’t heavy, there was a long distance to cover. Lil had long since lost her vest, so she had to deal with the chafing of the rope on her forearms. Still, she threw all her effort into it, knowing that if she stopped for even a second, she’d lose all her chances of succeeding. Lil clenched her teeth, hoping it wasn’t too late.

Soon the centre of the tank bulged up. The water broke like a condensed eruption before a large volume soared up. White light radiated from within the foam which slipped around the mass of water like a loose net. It was Ed. Lil pulled the rope with all her might. The wriggling surface became transparent like a thin film and slid down in the shape of a human.

– Schwaaaak! –

Ed emerged like a cub tearing away the amnion. He gasped for air while clinging to the iron ring, possibly out of breath. He then coughed forcefully to vomit all the water he had inhaled. The liquid that burst from his mouth poured down like firecrackers. The entire warehouse was flooded in an instant, as if it had rained heavily. Meanwhile, the sound of raging waves could be heard from the tank and it wasn’t caused by the overflowing of the water.

When the face of the predator rose through the rubble, Lil’s vision instantly turned blue. It was only then that she realised how bright the mermaid’s light was. The intensity could be compared to the rising sun, spreading its morning rays over the world. Lil blinked due to the brilliance that remained like a dizzying afterimage before her closed eyes.

Upon opening them again, she witnessed a set of dense teeth, full of fangs, that sprang up to Ed’s knee and caused her to scream loudly.

“Ed!”

Its large mouth was extended so far that it made its cheeks hollow, while its blue tongue pierced through them moving like a snake.

“Keeeeek!”

Ed turned to the rising spray and shouted something in a hurry. To Lil, it sounded like a foreign language that was completely incomprehensible.

However, the monstrous cry ceased. Its hair, which had swelled due to the instinct of a beast in front of its prey, settled down. Even its tongue, which was wriggling like an independent creature only moments ago, froze. Unbelievably, the mermaid stopped all its fluctuations as if Ed’s shout contained some kind of magic.

The scene was so unrealistic that Lil’s mouth fell open, dumbfounded. When little drops of water dripped from her forehead and blocked her view, she thought time had stopped. But then…

– Splash! –

The bluish light disappeared in an instant. Lil clearly saw a change in the mermaid’s expression just before it was swallowed by the water. If she saw it correctly, the mermaid displayed an expression of embarrassment before disappearing in a panic. Lil groaned and stood frozen in her place.

‘Was it an illusion? …A fantasy?’

Ed, still hanging from the pulley, looked down at the tank and smiled. On the other hand, Lil didn’t even think about moving her widely opened eyes. Ed jumped to her side and brushed through his wet hair.

Droplets of water dripped from a single strand that wasn’t swept back.

– Tuk. Tuk. Tuk. –

Time seemed to move slowly.

Lil barely reacted when Ed pulled the handle to secure the rope she was holding, before turning towards her. She muttered with the most dumbfounded face he had ever seen.

“…Ma… Magic?..”

Ed looked at Lil and started laughing.

“Hahahaha! Captain! Your expression… hahahaha!”

“Hey, did you use ma… ma…magic? It was just…”

The left corner of Ed’s mouth twitched. He licked his wet lips with his tongue and spoke.

“Yes. That was magic.”

“…”

When he said so, Ed extended his hand and waved it in front of Lil’s face. The fact that she didn’t respond confirmed she was still in shock due to her reality being shaken. Her head felt dizzy, her stomach had turned, and her vision began to blur. She couldn’t tell what was the floor and what was the ceiling. She had never experienced an earthquake, but for her, this appeared to be a much greater disaster than an earthquake. The floor beneath her feet and the ceiling above her, everything was falling apart. In the meantime, Ed turned his hand, palm side up and wiggled with his fingers as if he was imitating fire.

“See?”

But nothing entered Lil’s line of sight. She dropped the rope as she had no strength left in her fingers. For no apparent reason, her hand, that was now empty, touched the area around her neck in search of her necklace. In this absurd situation, she could only rely on the small jewel. Lil held it as if it were a lifeline. Because she was still lost, Ed’s face became more and more distorted.

“Pffft…”

Ed suddenly bent forward and started to laugh, sounding like he was about to die of laughter.

“Hahaha! Hahahaha!”

“..?”

He grabbed his stomach while his whole body shook, but Lil couldn’t understand what the hell was going on.

“You’re so naive!”

Finally, the realisation slowly hit her as she was still clutching the necklace.

‘Did this crazy guy play along just for a joke? Magic? Magic…’

Lil stammered with a red face.

“You… you!”

There were tears in Ed’s eyes upon laughing so much. Ed wiped his eyes with his finger and chuckled. Lil, who started stomping her foot in anger, aimed her boot at the squatting body, but Ed simply avoided her by twisting his body with a rabbit-like jump. Lil couldn’t stand it, so she turned to try stomping Ed on his other foot…

“Ahhh!”

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