Stop Thinking Chapter 44: Extra 7: What If… [Merfolk X Little Prince] 1 (Monster) 

Chapter 44: Extra 7: What If… [Merfolk X Little Prince] 1 (Monster) 

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

Under the scorching sun, with tongues of fire licking the sky, the sea, tinged with a deep blue hue, was warmed to a gentle heat. Each crest of the waves was adorned with dazzling white light, resembling molten silver. The fishermen on the small boat were swayed, squinting their reddened eyes against the piercing glare. However, even amidst such intense light, it couldn’t disturb the thick darkness that pervaded the depths of the cave.

This was a sea-eroded cave beneath towering cliffs, resembling a gourd in shape. Initially narrow and mysterious, the passage widened abruptly after a certain point. Within the cavern filled with briny seawater, there were several rocky platforms for footing. On one of these platforms lay a thoroughly soaked young man.

The rocks, immersed in the sea all year round, emanated a damp, salty, and chilling sea breeze. After lying on them for a while, even the warmth within one’s heart would dissipate. Therefore, Ruan Yu woke up from his fainting spell rather quickly. 

His small face and limbs were all pale from the cold, with only his lips retaining a hint of glamorous blood-red due to swelling and chapping. He looked around, trembling, quickly curling up his legs, his eyelashes fluttering in confusion and panic, pitiful beyond measure. His last clear memory was being on the ship.

The salty sea breeze mixed with the scent of sandalwood, invading his nostrils, making him feel even more nauseous. He was already prone to seasickness, and this smell made him even more nauseous. The well-trained sailors were busy loading offerings onto the small boat, and the deck was bustling with noise and activity.

This was an important ceremony, and every year, one of the princes from the palace was sent to supervise the proceedings and officiate the ritual. For the first two days of the ceremony, the sea was calm and serene. However, on the third day, a sudden storm swept over the ship laden with offerings and ceremonial objects.

Ruan Yu, the fifth prince in charge of this year’s Sea God ceremony, was reciting prayers on the ship at the time. The storm came too suddenly, and the ship was heavily tilted by a rare giant wave. Ruan Yu, unable to stand steady, stumbled and slipped on the wet deck, crashing into the railing. Then, another huge wave engulfed him, dragging him into the sea, leaving no trace behind.

The chief guard was terrified and dispatched all the small boats and capable swimmers on the ship to search for the fifth prince, but they couldn’t find a single hair… Of course, this is a story for another time.

Because of the extreme panic, Ruan Yu didn’t remember much after falling into the water. He was not good at swimming, and the turbulence of the storm was beyond human resistance. As soon as he entered the water, he swallowed a mouthful of it, causing a fiery pain in his airways and throat, making him see stars. He coughed violently but couldn’t catch his breath. Every time he opened his mouth, he only swallowed more salty seawater, feeling suffocated, nauseous, and experiencing a piercing pain… The combined taste of agony, even just recalling it afterward, made Ruan Yu frown uncomfortably.

The waterlogged robe felt like a thousand catties to Ruan Yu. It dragged him down like lead. In his daze, his fingertips seemed to touch the fine white sand at the bottom of the sea. When the pain and suffocation were at their peak, through half-closed eyes, Ruan Yu saw a dark figure swimming towards him, seemingly to rescue him.

Then, something firmly grasped him.

This lifeline should have made Ruan Yu ecstatic, but when he saw what it was, he felt nothing but icy dread. First, there was that strange hand clamped around him, narrow and long, with sharp bones protruding, tendons bulging, and between the fingers seemed to be translucent bluish webbing.

Though Ruan Yu was slender, his waist could be encircled by that hand, at least twice the size of an ordinary man’s palm. Moreover, the color of that strange hand was off. Too pale, terrifyingly white, not the pale of someone who rarely sees sunlight nor the delicate pink of someone pampered. It had a hint of grayish-blue, resembling the color of bronze, which was not what a living person’s skin should look like.

Ruan Yu was horrified. If he hadn’t been out of breath, he would have screamed. He had thought someone had come to save him, but now it seemed he was about to be devoured alive by a water monster. Ruan Yu felt as limp as cotton, his lungs aching, unable to struggle. Moreover, compared to drowning or suffocating, having his neck bitten off by the water monster might be a quicker end. So Ruan Yu decided to lie still, looking obedient, but out of extreme fear, his face was as pale as if he had been pinched eighteen times.

However, the expected excruciating pain did not come. Instead, Ruan Yu felt his lips touching something cool and smooth, then his teeth were pried open, and a precious stream of air flowed into his mouth, instantly rescuing him from the boundless despair and torment.

Instinctively, Ruan Yu followed the source of the airflow, trying to take more, without even thinking about what was blocking his lips. His reaction seemed to excite the monster. It eagerly and restlessly provided more airflow and something wet and slippery like a snake, filling Ruan Yu’s mouth. The feeling was so strange and unfamiliar that Ruan Yu instinctively resisted. His shoes and socks had already been kicked off, leaving only a pair of tender bare feet struggling and kicking, leaving several depressed lines in the finely powdered white sand at the bottom of the sea.

The monster seemed to sense Ruan Yu’s discomfort and withdrew its tongue, leaving only enough space for airflow. It stopped its antics. Ruan Yu, who had been breathless, finally regained his breath. His mind was no longer a blur. His amber-colored eyes regained some vitality, but he looked around in panic and fear. When he looked ahead, he met a pair of eyes staring straight at him. The pupils were deep black, resembling those of a living person at first glance. However, upon closer inspection, a faint silvery-gray phosphorescence could be seen, something only cold-blooded animals like snakes and lizards would have in their eyes, and there were sporadic pieces of green scales growing beside the corners of the eyes, eerie and sinister.

Seemingly human but not quite, far more terrifying than anything human. Even though he knew that this monster probably wouldn’t harm him, Ruan Yu, trapped underwater with no way out, seeing such a face so close under the eerie blue light of the waves… not being frightened out of his wits was already a miracle.

“Um… gurgle gurgle gurgle…”

The pitiful little prince was so frightened that his legs trembled, and he spat out a string of bubbles, fainting immediately in the arms of the monster.

When Ruan Yu woke up again, he was still here.

Recalling the cause and effect, Ruan Yu trembled even more violently.

The rocky platform was spacious, with a length and width of about ten steps each, but surrounded by seawater on all sides, with no way to escape. The entrance to the cave was very far away. From Ruan Yu’s perspective, only a small bright spot the size of a palm could be seen. With his swimming ability, he probably couldn’t even reach halfway there.

Moreover, even if he managed to swim out of this cave, what then? He was well aware that outside this sea cave was an endless sea.

“Is… is there anyone?” Ruan Yu, refusing to give up hope, shouted towards the direction of the cave entrance.

After shouting for a long time, there was no response.

The fishermen who lived nearby and made a living by the sea all knew the evil nature of this sea cave. There was a monster inside that one should never approach even if it meant death. They usually avoided going near it when fishing at sea. How could they hear the calls from inside the cave? Even if they did, no one dared to come and investigate.

Ruan Yu’s throat was sore from shouting, and he reluctantly gave up calling for help.

Looking on the bright side… perhaps it was just a hysteria?

All Ruan Yu could do now was to force himself to comfort himself.

At that time, he barely escaped death, choked on water, and was frightened. It wasn’t surprising that his mind was unclear and his vision blurred.

As Ruan Yu pondered, he nervously clenched his lips.

His lips felt numb, as if they were frozen, but he didn’t know how embarrassing and swollen they looked at the moment.

Just then, there was a sudden splash beside the rocky platform, something broke the surface of the water and leaped onto the platform.

Ruan Yu was startled, and trembling, he dared not look. But the current situation didn’t allow him to deceive himself. So, his pointed chin turned slightly, his big eyes widened, tears welling up as he looked sideways.

The first thing he saw was still that horrifying hand with webbed fingers.

It was indeed not a hysteria; everything he had seen before was real.

Following this hand upward, there was a section of iron-like, thin arm, connecting to a robust male body like a fortress, tightly wrapped in pale blue skin with bulging muscles. And beneath that human-like body was a sharp and shiny fish tail covered in scales, with broad fins on the elbows, tail, and dorsal ridge standing proudly like sails, almost proudly displaying his body, over a dozen feet long, as majestic as a sea god.

This was actually a merman.

Ruan Yu knew about mermen.

In a country surrounded by the sea on three sides, stories about rivers, lakes, and seas were abundant. Mermen had always been frequent visitors in folklore and legends.

Although folklore and legends were not to be taken seriously, seeing this monster in person, Ruan Yu couldn’t help but quickly recall those sensational stories…

The more he thought about it, the more scared he became.

A buzzing sound echoed in Ruan Yu’s mind.

The smell of seawater suddenly became stronger, the merman approached. He was about ten feet long, with the upper body similar to an ordinary man, just more robust and vigorous. The real length was in that fish tail, strong and agile, capable of slithering on land, possibly even faster than a human’s run.

“D-don’t… eat me…” Ruan Yu’s eyes tightly closed, trembling like a sieve, his voice sounding even more sticky due to crying.

His outer robe, soaked in water, had been stripped off by the merman, leaving him with only a set of indecent undergarments. Made of silk from the sky silkworm, the fabric was white and delicate, clinging damply to his body, revealing a blurred silhouette of flesh. His long silver hair, unique to the royal family, was scattered, pitiful and disheveled, dripping with water like a kitten caught in the rain.

The merman leaned down, his long and deep eyes staring at the cowering little merman, his gaze intense and fiery, like staring at a piece of delicious meat.

He didn’t understand anything else, but he understood that this pretty little mermaid was the bride offered to him by the land people.

Every so often, the land people would come to his territory on a boat, offering many kinds of livestock meat to him and his fellow mermen. The mermen would reciprocate, though the rule of “avoiding the world” was strict within their tribe, they still managed to assist the land people without showing themselves. The mermen would drive fish schools at the right time, ensuring a plentiful catch for fishermen, rescue fishermen in distress, secretly bringing unconscious drowning fishermen back to the beach. Furthermore, the mermen even influenced the outcome of naval battles when foreign enemies invaded…

Therefore, the land people’s annual sacrifices to the mermen were considered reasonable.

For some reason this year, in addition to a large amount of livestock, the land people also threw down a handsome young man from the boat.

This merman knew that the land people were also divided into males and females, but he couldn’t really tell—among the tough and robust mermen, the land people, whether male or female, all had fragile and slender bodies, only a few muscular warriors with dense beards appeared to be obviously male, while the rest were not easily distinguishable at first glance.

Anyway, for mermen, small-sized land people capable of bearing offspring could all be treated as females.

So, this one was his female mermaid, and the rest didn’t matter.

With more males than females among the mermen, and this trend becoming more pronounced in recent years, he had passed through thirty seasons of change, no longer a young merman, but had never touched a female mermaid. Other male mermen eager to mate would seize the opportunity to lure coastal fishermen. Although the appearance of mermen was strange, if one got used to it, it was a unique kind of beauty. Therefore, fishermen and even some men who were seduced would willingly devote themselves to those hungry male mermen.

But he had never done such a thing.

He was naturally indifferent by nature, having no great interest in such matters, and even less inclined to spare a glance at those sturdy fishermen with darkened skin and salt-crusted braids. He naturally disdained such things.

He had always thought this was because he was different from those male mermen.

Until he pulled up this beautiful little female mermaid from the water…

He realized that he was no different from other male mermen.

Things that had been dormant under his soft scales suddenly became painfully sensitive under the soft touch of the little mermaid in his arms, unbearable to endure.

In the language of mermen, there were no expressions like fate, love at first sight, or destined. So, he didn’t understand why it was like this.

He only knew that this little mermaid was fragile and timid, with a slender frame, trembling in fear, her bones felt like they might collapse at any moment, her hands and feet turning blue from the cold. She didn’t seem capable of such matters, at least she needed to be nurtured to be plump and sturdy, unafraid, before anything else could happen.

So, he settled the little mermaid in his cave and tried to find some suitable things for her.

Feeling the merman gently place something by his feet, Ruan Yu slowly opened his eyes, tears shimmering as he looked over.

It was a bulging package wrapped in a material Ruan Yu had never seen before, a cool blue, the fabric moving without wind, gently rippling like water, its color and shape constantly changing. It clearly was a package, yet it seemed alive.

This kind of fabric had been described in this book as mermaid silk, resembling flowing water but possessing the wonderful ability to repel water.

Fear was diluted by curiosity, so Ruan Yu glanced at the package and then at the merman, not understanding what he intended.

Seeing him hesitate, the merman reached out and used his razor-sharp nails to open the mermaid silk.

Inside was a pile of clothes of unknown origin, messy, and even included a woman’s jacket. Fortunately, they all appeared clean and dry. Ruan Yu was frozen stiff, too cold to care about anything else. Seeing that the merman didn’t seem to intend to slaughter him for meat, he gathered his courage and randomly pulled on two pieces of clothing, then turned his back to the merman and changed.

In the dim cave, Ruan Yu’s small and white figure stood out conspicuously.

The merman silently observed Ruan Yu, his pupils growing darker, and the tip of his fish tail silently tapping the ground, pondering something unknown.

 

 

 

 

 

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