Treat Others As You Wish To Be Treated

Several dozen minutes after landing on Miguel Island, Captain Pires secretly sent a few sailors to get a small boat.

As requested, it was just big enough to fit two people snugly.

Turan boarded the small boat with Arma, whose merfolk features were hidden under cloth wrapped around his entire body.

"The moon! I wonder how long it's been since I've seen it!"

Arma muttered while looking at the full moon in the sky after boarding.

Even the merboy himself didn't know how long he had been trapped in the pirate ship's hold.

No sunlight or moonlight had reached the ship's bottom hold.

He could only guess it had been about one or two months based on the amount of food eaten and time spent sleeping.

"Huh? Looks like Sir Knight is going somewhere..."

"He said he has some business to attend to. He'll be back soon, so don't worry about it!"

Though some sailors were surprised to see Turan boarding the small boat with Arma, when Captain Pires cut them off firmly, everyone quickly lost interest.

They thought that while boarding another large sailing ship would be one thing, surely he wouldn't leave alone on such a tiny boat.

"More importantly, are the landing preparations done?"

"Of course!"

"Good. Tonight, whether it's taverns or wherever, enjoy yourselves freely! But be prepared for whipping if you're not assembled tomorrow!"

"Woohoo!"

Leaving behind the sailors' cheers following Captain Pires's order, Turan connected the merfolk's arms and legs to the boat with chains he had prepared.

Arma complied quietly and asked as if confirming.

"You'll really let me go if there's treasure there, right?"

"Yes."

"It's not my fault if it turns out to be something useless."

"I understand, so just guide us well."

Shortly after, the small boat carrying the two began cutting through the darkness across the sea path.

Turan initially used magic as if simply moving the boat with force, but changed his approach partway through.

The trick was to target not the boat but the seawater around it.

By pushing aside the water in front while simultaneously using the water behind and beside the boat to push it forward, it took much less effort and the boat moved more smoothly.

Trying it himself, moving such a small boat with magic wasn't bad at all.

Though it wouldn't be suitable for long-distance travel given various problems.

"But while getting there is one thing, how do you plan to get back? You won't be able to find the way without me."

"Are you worried about me?"

"No, I'm worried you might not let me go because of that."

"I have something in mind, so don't worry."

Turan pulled out a small compass from his chest.

According to this item he had received from Captain Pires in advance, they were moving slightly south of west.

When returning, they would need to go slightly north of east similarly.

Though there would be some error, he could scan about ten kilometers radius with detection magic.

Well, if they still got lost... heading straight southwest would eventually lead to land anyway.

Probably.

"I want to jump in..."

"Be patient."

Turan lightly scolded Arma, who was complaining while looking down at the sea, and focused his consciousness on the boat's movement.

After driving the small boat for what felt like an hour to an hour and a half.

Something finally started becoming visible ahead.

It was an island that seemed uninhabited, incomparably smaller than Miguel Island where they had been earlier.

"Is that it?"

"Yes."

"Good, then just a moment."

Before landing, Turan stopped the boat and used detection magic while scooping up a handful of seawater.

Using his sense of smell, targeting merfolk.

Even after closing his eyes and smelling scooped water three or four times, he sensed nothing.

It meant at least he hadn't been tricked into being led to a merfolk stronghold.

Watching Turan do this, Arma tilted his head.

"What are you doing?"

"Checking."

What had startled Turan when first using detection magic underwater was the lack of usable senses.

Smell would be meaningless since water would just make tears flow the moment it entered the nose, and sight and hearing also had much shorter detection ranges than on land, perhaps due to water interference.

In comparison, this method of scooping water to smell made it difficult to determine exact locations but easy to confirm the presence of targets.

Even now, changing the detection target to whales or sharks immediately produced strange smells.

Anyway, having confirmed safety, there was no need to hesitate.

They stopped the boat at a suitable shore and went inland on the uninhabited island.

The merboy looked around as if searching here and there while speaking.

"I think it was somewhere around here..."

According to what he had heard during conversations over the past few days, this island was like a secret villa for Arma.

When life in the merfolk community – or as they called it, the merfolk kingdom – felt too stifling, he would occasionally come up for walks?

During one such time, he had accidentally discovered it in an underwater cave inside the island.

It was quite an unfunny story how he had been caught by pirates' fishing hooks while swimming back to report to his father the king, shocked by his discovery.

"Found it! Here!"

Just then, Arma shouted, pointing at a small pond.

"There?"

"Yes. We need to go inside... can you breathe underwater?"

"No."

While nobles of the Kamain bloodline might be able to breathe underwater, this was an ability not granted to Turan.

"It's not too deep, is it?"

"About a hundred meters."

"Alright, that should be manageable. Wait here."

Turan thoroughly tied Arma to a nearby tree with chains brought from the boat.

The merboy, who had been quietly waiting for this, shouted in surprise.

"W-wait a moment!"

"What?"

"If you happen to suffocate and die in there, won't I starve to death here?"

"Let's hope that doesn't happen. For both our sakes."

After confirming perfect restraint, Turan stripped off all clothes except for his guardian bracelet and underwear, then attached a dagger to his belt.

Then, taking a deep breath until his flat stomach swelled, he dove straight into the pond.

First, he created a thin membrane to keep water from touching his eyes to secure vision, then pulled his body through the water using the same technique he had used to drive the boat.

By feel, he could maintain this state for easily thirty to forty minutes.

'Where...'

Scanning the pond bottom, he soon saw a hole leading downward.

That must be the cave connecting to the sea.

Relying on water's help to descend further and further, his ears ached slightly but otherwise it was quite bearable.

'Swimming isn't bad at all.'

He thought that when he had time later, he should properly learn how to move his body underwater.

Just mastering such techniques would greatly reduce magical power consumption for moving underwater.

Though he wasn't sure if he would need to go underwater again in the future.

After descending to the bottom and looking around, something came into view.

'Found it.'

Though it was pitch black without a single point of light, having come deep into the already dark night sea, darkness could not be an obstacle for Turan of the Zahar bloodline.

A large life form visible in the distance...

Though knowing it was not alive, the sight of the monster was enough to make one's knees weak involuntarily.

'Is this a great sea serpent?'

A snake several meters thick and nearly a hundred meters long in body length lay dead, coiled in various ways.

So much time had passed that layers of green moss had accumulated on it, making it look like a geographical feature unless examined closely.

Moving slowly along its body, the head finally appeared.

With four horns rising above and teeth densely packed in its wide-open mouth, its form was closer to a lizard.

And one being with his hand deeply embedded in the middle of its skull.

"Ah..."

Turan let out a gasp, forgetting he was underwater and releasing bubbles.

The one who appeared outwardly like an ordinary human man was covered in moss all over his body like the great sea serpent.

But amazingly, except for his chest pierced by a broken fang, his body appeared perfectly intact without any sign of decay or damage.

Though most of the armor he would have originally worn seemed to have rotted away, unable to withstand the passage of time.

He appeared about thirty years old outwardly and, as Arma had said, had blue hair.

His wide-open eyes looked like they might move at any moment if not for their lack of focus.

And... as Arma had said, he looked surprisingly ordinary like a human otherwise.

'Is this being truly of the Prea god-folk?'

He considered trying an attack with magical power but soon abandoned the thought as it felt too irreverent.

If he really was a god that would go without saying, and even if he was just a powerful wizard, he was someone who died fighting the great sea serpent that was humanity's enemy.

As a descendant, he didn't want to abandon even minimal respect for his ancestors.

'Come to think of it, why didn't this person, or being, become undead?'

It was common sense that those with magical power become undead when they die.

Yet it was strange that neither of the two who killed each other underwater had become undead and remained.

Even if someone had come first and absorbed their magical power, surely they would have retrieved that mysterious object too.

Was it because he was truly a divine being? Or was there some other reason?

He tried absorption just in case but got nothing in return.

If he had gained the power of such beings, he would have become several to dozens of times stronger in an instant.

Putting aside his questions, Turan firmly etched the man's face and appearance into his mind.

The color of his hair and eyes, his facial features, the color and shape of the armor fragments that had almost completely crumbled away...

Later, he could find clues by looking for any similarly described gods in myths passed down in other regions.

After spending several minutes perfectly memorizing that appearance, he finally turned his attention to his original purpose for coming here.

'Excuse me, but I'll borrow this, ancestor.'

Though the chances of this man being Turan's direct ancestor weren't very high whether he was a god or wizard, Turan showed such courtesy before checking the man's waist.

The unidentified round metal was barely hanging on a half-rotted belt, gleaming as if it alone had escaped the passage of time.

The question was whether he could take that object out.

Hadn't Arma said some unknown force pushed his body away when he tried to touch it?

But contrary to his words, the round metal simply allowed Turan's touch.

'Hm?'

Then, an alien sensation transmitted through his fingers.

It felt as if something extending from the metal was searching for something inside Turan's body.

A few seconds later, there was suddenly a clicking sound in his head as if something had fallen into place.

The moment he heard this, he could intuit.

Though he couldn't guess the context, through that process just now, this object had become his possession.

'Does the object examine qualification for ownership? The object itself?'

Though he had been half-doubting until just now, he was starting to think this object might really be a holy relic.

After all, there were quite a few traditions of great treasures choosing their owners.

After obtaining the object, Turan felt his breath running out and moved his body back toward where he came from.

After swimming hard for about a minute until moonlight became visible, he felt some strange sense of disparity.

'This is...?'

Though only faint moonlight was visible above the surface, he could intuitively sense something was there above, around the pond's edge.

A strange sensation difficult to define with any of the five senses...

"Phew..."

"Did you find it? Did you?"

"For now."

While answering and catching his rushed breath, Turan realized the identity of the sensation he had felt earlier was that merboy as he looked at Arma.

Not only that, he could see something unidentified inside Arma's body with his own eyes.

A very faint, pale blue light that looked like it might go out at any moment.

It was faintly spread through what appeared to be Arma's webbed ear fins, gills on his neck, and heart area.

'What is that?'

It wasn't hard to guess why this phenomenon suddenly occurred.

This round metal still tightly gripped in his left hand...

It was clearly a phenomenon caused by something, whether a holy relic or magical device.

"What?"

"No, nothing."

After climbing onto land, Turan completely dispelled the moisture from his body and got dressed.

Then he immediately put the round metal down on the ground.

'So it was because of this after all.'

The moment he separated from the object, the light visible inside Arma instantly disappeared, and the sense of recognizing his presence could no longer be felt.

For now, this object seemed to have two functions.

First was detecting the presence of nearby living beings, and second was detecting something inside living beings' bodies.

He would need to learn more to understand what that was.

"Th-then now...?"

"Yes. I'll let you go. Leave."

With just a light gesture, the chains binding Arma came undone with a clank.

Despite being freed, the mer-prince showed signs of hesitation instead of immediately jumping into the water.

"Why?"

"N-no... I didn't expect to be released so easily."

"You thought I'd capture and sell you again after getting this?"

"To be honest, yes."

"Because I promised."

Though heteromorphic races that eat humans should be killed, he didn't particularly want to kill one who claimed he had never eaten humans himself.

Moreover, if the other side had properly guided him to the object without deception, responding accordingly was the moral view Turan had learned from his mother.

Treat others as you wish to be treated.

"Th-thank you, kind demon. If we ever fight humans later, I'll ask Father not to touch you."

"Stop the nonsense."

Arma looked back several times before throwing himself into the pond where Turan had dived earlier.

With a splash and bubbles, a small baby shark was seen diving deep into the water.

It seemed his claim of being mer-royalty wasn't a lie.

Looking back now, he had been honest from start to finish.

'Well then... shall we head back?'

Turan fondled the round metal in his hand while walking toward where he had docked the boat.

Finding out what this object was seemed like it would be quite interesting.