under hope

Mermaids are a species that have survived on this planet very early. They are a branch that evolved when the great gods created humans.

Human civilization was first born in the central part of the Western Continent, where the earliest traces of prehistoric civilization can be found and are the roots of all human races.

The first discovered ancient murals contained the image of mermaids. According to historians' research, they believe that mermaids probably came inland through rivers to communicate with humans.

Traces of mermaids can be found in almost all continents, and their images have been found on some unearthed pottery and handicrafts.

In the era known as the Classical Century, human civilization had slowly developed the concepts of cities and countries. It was at this time that wisdom descended from the sky.

Literature began to sprout, and documents recording mermaids began to appear in this century.

""With a body like a fish and a beautiful appearance" is the unified description of the appearance of mermaids by all classical literature. There are even fantasy stories of mermaid princesses among the people.

In the era known as the Renaissance Century, there were even more stories about mermaids, and their images Most of them were women, and they were active in paintings, sculptures, window grilles, books and even symbols of rulers.

A nobleman in the Western Continent Renaissance century was called the"Mermaid Lord" because his family coat of arms was engraved with a double fish emblem.

However, What makes today's scholars wonder is that the civilization of mermaids ushered in a very strange big break at the end of the Renaissance.

From the end of the Renaissance, there are no new records and legends about mermaids in history.

In this way, mermaids It slowly disappeared into the long river of history until Xilu's submarine discovered the shocking underwater ruins at the bottom of the ocean. After five days of all-night investigation, Xilu scholars measured the area of ​​the ruins to be about 1,530 meters. Ten square kilometers - this is larger than the capital of today's empire.

In the ruins there are handicrafts produced by humans in the classical century and a few damaged tools made of coral.

Apart from these small objects, there is nothing in the ruins. It is said to be a waste, but actually it is more appropriate to describe it as an empty city.

This underwater city is deserted, and even fish are extremely rare.

Scholars believe that the mermaids carried out a great migration for some reason, and they took away almost all the Objects, leaving only these useless crafts and broken tools.

However, it is worth mentioning that the time when the mermaids disappeared coincided with the arrival of the great meteor shower.

Some scholars have put forward the hypothesis that the meteor shower may have brought mermaids to the mermaids. Facing the disaster, they hid in the deeper sea.

However, some people hold different opinions and believe that the mermaid civilization was destroyed by the meteor shower.

Others believe that the mermaids invented the spaceship very early and collectively immigrated to other planets.

Everyone The views were inconsistent, and they couldn't come up with a statement that was convincing enough for everyone.

So, the research on mermaids stopped there.

People saw mermaids again during the Strange War, and various countries had many navies. The members all said that they were helped by mermaids when they were fighting those monsters at sea. The theory of mermaid hiding gained a firm foothold, but unfortunately, mermaids only helped eliminate the strange beasts at sea and never touched land.

After the Strange War, The mermaid disappeared without a trace again.

The famous occult detective Edward Pierce once explored this creature.

Edward came alone to a small fishing village in the southern part of the Western Continent, which miraculously was not invaded by sand beasts.

The villagers They are very simple, working at sunrise and resting at sunset every day. There are very few electronic products in the village, so the children are very curious about Edward's watch with holographic projection function. The people here live an isolated life. Originally, Everything was peaceful until Edward asked about the mermaid

"Foreigners, go away!"

"This is what uncle is here for. Unfortunately, you can only get out as soon as possible."

"Why do you ask this? We don't know anything."

The villagers' reaction to the mermaid was very unusual, and their attitude towards Edward also changed drastically.

All the villagers treated him coldly, the women talked about him, the children spat at him, and some strong men had rolled up their sleeves. Wanted to do something to him.

The village chief also issued an ultimatum to him. Because it was getting dark, the village chief agreed to let him stay here for one night.

"Get out of here tomorrow morning and don't go out at night, lest the patrolling villagers beat you to death as a thief!"

These were the original words of the village chief at the time.

But Edward was not an obedient person, at least not in this situation. At midnight that day, he quietly left the B&B and launched an investigation into the village in the darkness.

The sea was now at high tide. The sea breeze filled with the smell of blood brushed against his face maliciously, and Edward had a bad premonition.

He saw a faint light in the village square, and tiptoed over. The scenery in front of him made him discover the evil secret of the village..Many ugly monsters gathered in the square. They were dressed in shabby fishermen's clothes and knelt down before a six-eyed stone sculpture with a human body and a snake tail.

——That is the god of the sea.

There was a dying female mermaid lying in front of the stone sculpture. She secretly used an instrument to conduct a long-distance scan and found that the mermaid only had one breath left.

When Edward hesitated to rush out to the rescue, the scene that followed almost made him vomit on the spot.

The monsters carried the mermaid to each instrument and performed the four cruel steps of scraping scales, whipping, breaking bones, and picking tendons.

The village square, which had been full of life during the day, was now littered with broken scales and copious amounts of blood.

And while doing these steps, the poor mermaid never stopped breathing. Every time she moaned, the monster would hit her on the head.

Edward watched the monsters put the bloody mermaid back in front of the stone sculpture.

The sea suddenly became rough, and in Edward's shocked expression, the bloody mermaid transformed into an ugly creature that was exactly the same as those monsters.

He now knew why the mermaids disappeared. It was the sea gods who enslaved them.

The god of the sea used cruel torture to torture the mermaids, forcing them to accept his blessings and transform into dependents.

The goal has been achieved, and Edward has begun to prepare an escape route. Sadly, the monsters still discovered him.

If his lovely partner hadn't arrived in time, Edward would have suffered another period of physical torture.

However, being chased by those monsters also allowed him to get some valuable information.

Edward calls those monsters"tidewalkers""

——They have a snake-like long tail and an upper body similar to humans; there are fins at the end of the tail, and the fins are retracted when moving on the ground; their bodies are covered with scales, their armpits have gill-like tissue, and their eyes have no eyelids.

After typing the last letter, Edward finally completed his work. Looking at the fishing village gradually disappearing, he let out a long sigh of relief.

"Huh--it was such a risk, I almost got caught."

Edward poked his head out of the window and enjoyed the salty sea breeze.

"I said can you be careful? I don't want to wipe your butt all the time."

My partner sitting in the driver's seat complained in an extremely dissatisfied tone.

"Accident, this is just an accident."

Edward took his head back and tore open the package of fried potato chips placed on the seat.

"Here, eat one."

Edward handed the potato chips to his partner's mouth.

"Huh, there's no other way... I'm the only one who has the ability to help a guy like you deal with the aftermath."

My cute partner"Ah woo" ate the potato chips in one bite and couldn't help but feel happy.

"Speed ​​up~"

After the brisk prompt, the speedboat split through the dark sea water like an arrow that had left its string, and gradually disappeared on the sea level with Edward's wailing sound as he fell because he couldn't stand firm.