After asking Baek Seonwoo for an Intermediate Potion, I hung up the phone and headed straight for the sea.
I needed to confirm the Dragon King’s symptoms with Sailun.
‘Oh, I should contact Minjun as well.’
When I called Minjun and explained the situation, he happened to give me the confirmed date.
the confirmed date was two days from now.
He said he had pushed back one task that wasn’t urgent.
As we talked, the salty scent of the sea eventually brushed against the tip of my nose.
My footsteps naturally led me to the meeting place where I always met Sailun.
‘It’s quiet.’
Only the sound of the crashing waves echoed in my ears.
I felt a strange sense of desolation.
Was it always this quiet?
“Sailun! I’m here!”
I couldn’t feel any sign of presence.
Then again, he wouldn’t just be waiting here without knowing when I’d come.
“Hello! Is anyone there! Merfolk!”
I need to know the symptoms quickly to start manufacturing the right medicine….
I have no choice but to wait here.
I’ve been repeatedly staring blankly at the crashing waves and then looking out at the distant horizon for two hours now.
Even if it’s flat, a rock is still a rock, and my butt is starting to hurt.
‘Did the Merfolk go somewhere as a group?’
I should have brought a fishing rod.
It would have been fun to fish instead of just sitting here like this.
Eventually, I brushed off my seat and stood up.
Just then, a voice came from the sea.
- Do Minho! You were here!
In situations like this, they always show up right when I’m about to give up and leave.
“Hello, Sailun.”
As I looked in the direction of the voice, a fish grew larger and took the form of a Merfolk.
- I am Seira.
“Seira?”
I couldn’t see well because she was far away, but looking closely, her hair was long and the curves of her body were….
“Gah!”
I hurriedly turned my head away.
“I, I didn’t see anything! I really didn’t!”
- Pardon? What do you mean by that…. Ah-!
The Merfolk named Seira came up onto the land.
She hopped toward me, but I kept my eyes cast down because I couldn’t bring myself to look at her.
Because she was a female.
- It’s okay to look.
“Pardon? Oh, well, still, it’s a bit much.”
- Merfolk wear clothes too.
At Seira’s words, I rolled my eyes and stole a glance, and just as she said, she was wearing clothes.
To be precise, they were scales in the form of an off-shoulder outfit.
I felt this when I saw Sailun too, but Seira was also as beautiful as a heroine who had jumped out of a comic book.
They are an enviable race.
“I, I’m sorry. I’ve shown you something unsightly.”
- It’s fine. More importantly, I didn’t know you would be here.
“I have something I want to ask. But I didn’t see a single Merfolk….”
Since she said the scales were clothes, I looked at her properly and asked.
Then, Seira’s complexion darkened noticeably.
- That’s right. Everyone is gathered at the Dragon Palace right now because the Dragon King is unwell. It’s the same for Sailun. More importantly, you said you had something to ask?
“I see. I wanted to know the Dragon King’s symptoms. It’s possible we might have a medicine on our side, and even if we don’t, if I know the symptoms, I might be able to develop a new one.”
Seira listened to my words and then slowly nodded.
- I suppose you could think that way. However, the Dragon King’s illness cannot be solved with ordinary medicine.
“Did he catch a special disease? If it’s not ordinary medicine, then what on Earth….”
At that, Seira seemed to hesitate, looking as if she were debating whether to speak or not.
She just needs to talk about the medicine to cure the illness or the ingredients for it, so why is she hesitating like that?
Something is suspicious.
As I waited silently, Seira finally opened her mouth.
- We need the liver of a Beastman.
“A Beastman?”
- Yes.
The Other Races discovered worldwide are Dwarves, Elves, and Merfolk.
A Beastman was a race I was hearing about for the first time.
The existence of Beastmen had never been known until now.
“Are there Beastmen here as well?”
- Of course. They are spread widely across Earth just like us.
“It’s my first time hearing about it.”
- I suppose that could be the case. They extremely dislike revealing their Human forms. Even if they die, they try to maintain their animal forms as much as possible.
Anyway, even if they are a different race, they are still an Other Race.
But to need their liver.
I think I know why she was reluctant to speak.
“If they aren’t caught in their Human forms, it would be impossible to distinguish whether they are a Beastman or just an animal.”
- That’s right…. That’s why it’s very difficult for us to distinguish them and obtain a liver. Especially since we Merfolk have physical characteristics that make it difficult to operate on land.
Just as Seira said, even if Merfolk transform into Human form, only their upper body is Human, while their lower body remains a fish tail.
Seira’s appearance right now was the same.
In that state, they’d be lucky not to have their own livers taken by the Beastmen instead.
“So the illness grew deeper because it was difficult to supply the liver.”
- That’s right. We’re gathering everything good from the Sea to prevent it from getting worse. But for a complete recovery… the liver of a Fox Beastman is absolutely necessary. The problem is that they are sensitive and quick-witted, so even approaching them isn’t easy.
“Since when has he been unwell?”
- Since about 160 years ago.
160 years?!
Even calculating by Earth’s time, that’s 5 years.
I couldn’t even begin to guess.
“But why does it have to be the liver of a Fox Beastman? There could be other ways.”
- …Actually, it’s not a disease, it’s a Curse. A very powerful one at that.
“A Curse?! if it’s a Curse, I might be able to perform a Curse Dispelling. Among the plants I grow, there’s a herb that helps with Curse Dispelling.”
- Are you talking about the Porti of Elia?
Seeing as she knew it was Porti as soon as she heard it, it seems Sailun told her after seeing it in the Farmland when he fled from my house during our first meeting.
But she knows about Porti and yet they don’t use it?
“Then you can just use the Porti to weaken or lift the Curse.”
- We already tried that over 100 years ago. But it’s not a Curse that Porti can handle. It’s much more powerful than that.
She has been saying the Curse is ‘powerful’ since a while ago.
It probably means the Curse Grade is high.
I’ve heard that there are grades for Curses as well.
If you look at the information for Curse Dispelling Artifacts, it’s a known fact that they are divided into grades that can be removed and grades that cannot.
However, because Curses are so diverse and not well-known, not much is known about the types of High-grade Curses.
“But I still haven’t heard an answer. Why is the liver of a Fox Beastman absolutely necessary?”
Of course, there’s no reason for Seira to tell me, a person she’s meeting for the first time.
Conversely, I wouldn’t have been this curious either.
But to have been suffering for 160 years despite knowing it’s a High-grade Curse and even knowing how to perform the Curse Dispelling.
To protect the Dragon King, shouldn’t all the Merfolk have stepped up to obtain the liver of a Fox Beastman?
These parts felt strange to me.
- I should first tell you the truth about this Curse. 160 years ago, those accursed Vampire bastards cast this terrible Curse on us. And as if to mock us, they told us the method for the Curse Dispelling. They said, ‘Eat the liver of a Fox Beastman.’ Truly… words cannot describe how cruel and wicked an act this is.
I had heard it once from Minjun.
He said he had encountered a Vampire in a Dungeon once, and it was really difficult to deal with because it cast powerful magic and Curses.
So Vampires were also called Blood-suckers, and I knew them as high-level Monsters that appear in Dungeons….
But communication is possible?
Moreover, to have directly cast a Curse on the Dragon King!
It’s a known fact that Monsters use their own languages or make sounds.
But for a Vampire, which I thought was a Blood-sucker, or a Monster, to be an Other Race.
Unlike other Other Races, they are an aggressive race that harms Hunters, so should they be called Monsters as originally intended?
“A Vampire did such a thing…. They are bad guys.”
- No matter how clever a Fox Beastman is, we could have obtained a liver if all the Merfolk joined Force. ‘Normally.’