The strange sound wasn’t noticeable at first until Gondola moved further and allowed them to recognize the melodies that suggested a song.
“Ohh, this feels nice!” Tulu closed his eyes and began to hum along.
In the beginning, Tulu was simply swaying his head with the changing tunes. But soon, his movement intensified until he slowly walked toward where the music came from.
In order to go after the music, he dangerously peeked his head over the edge of the boat. And before he could overdo it and fall over, someone’s loud snicker suddenly reached his good ear and “fished” his spirit out of the bewitching music.
In the next second, Tulu woke up as a bone-piercing chilliness invaded his body. This was when he saw half of his body already outside the protective barrier on the boat.
He jumped back with a start and saw Angor grinning at him. It was obvious that Angor just alerted him with that laugh.
Before Tulu could thank Angor for the timely help, he heard the strange music again and quickly covered his ears out of instinct.
On the surface of the sea brightened by the color of dusk, a group of pink-colored mermaids was playfully swimming around while singing, without noticing a flying boat well above their heads.
Tulu looked at the creatures, terrified.
“Mister Padt, I-I—”
“A simple means of mind manipulation,” Angor replied with an indifferent look. “Since you just escaped, you will know how to do it again by yourself next time.”
Tulu noticed that the music could still reach his brain despite his self-protection, so he simply lowered his hands.
As Angor said, as long as he was aware and did not intentionally enjoy the music, he wouldn’t get affected at all.
“I wasn’t expecting to see them for real. Those seem like younglings,” Angor commented while observing the mermaids below with an intrigued look. “I was wrong. The merchant ship was safe because these young ones aren’t at the age for hunting yet. Rather, they prefer sweets.”
The mermaids with pink tails all resembled teenage boys and girls if one only looked at their upper bodies. Some of the female ones were still munching on some rose cakes they received from the traveling ship.
“They don’t hunt? Then why did I—” Tulu wasn’t looking as scared when he learned that those were children.
“Similar to human societies, mermaids have their own education and training methods that are no less effective than ours. Naturally, their kids are under the protection of adults, and the adults are responsible for hunting. As for what just happened… the voice of a mermaid is naturally captivating to humans. This group of small fry doesn’t have to actively use their ability to charm you when singing. Of course, their power is a lot weaker compared to their parents.”
Angor lowered his voice into a whisper. “Telling from the thin film covering their bodies, these are Rogge Mermaids.”
While most mermaids had beautiful looks by human standards, the Rogges looked even better on average. Among all different mermaids, Angor was most interested in the Rogges because the transparent, silk-like substance that covered their bodies looked very similar to the scarves worn by celestial individuals mentioned in Jon’s mythology stories.
If a skilled artist were here, they would undoubtedly copy the divine scenery where these adorable creatures were swimming in the dusk and create another masterpiece for the whole world to admire.
However…
“There must be adults watching over them.” Angor looked around carefully. “These kids must be the high-class among their ranks too, so there got to be a lot of guardians around.”
As soon as he said those words, the peaceful seawater was suddenly unsettled by a giant tide.
Instead of moving away, the mermaid kids dived into the big wave and began to happily pull off all kinds of surfing tricks.
Angor widened his eyes slightly as he saw more mermaid children emerging from the water.
They all had colorful tails and shiny “scarves” that further added to their cute looks. Now, over thirty mermaids were playing around the tide as if they found their best toy.
And thanks to the increased number, their song was amplified before it reached Gondola again. While Angor was completely unaffected, Tulu was easily hypnotized.
When Angor saw Tulu moving to the edge of the boat again, he sighed in annoyance and deployed a spirit barrier around the boat. The barrier was intended for blocking off the mind-manipulation effect but without physically stopping the music from going in.
Tulu quickly noticed what happened to him and blushed. Angor wasn’t going to blame him since it was just right for a mortal to act so helplessly in the presence of supernatural creatures.
“Mister Padt, shall we speed up? I think your boat can leave this area within a minute if we go at full speed,” said Tulu.
Angor considered for a while and agreed to the plan. He did feel a bit interested in the mermaids, but it wasn’t enough reason for him to halt their travel. He might find the time and work on a project regarding the mermaids later, but definitely not now.
However, before Tulu could tend to the boat, Toby flew out of Angor’s pocket and made a series of wing signs at Tulu in protest.
Angor easily interpreted what his partner wanted. As a “music lover”, Toby felt like spending some more time enjoying the wonderful performance. According to Toby, it wasn’t as wonderful as true music performed by human masters, but the bird still preferred to stay here for a while.
Also, the enchanting power of the mermaids had zero effect on Toby. This was why Toby came out and stopped Tulu from driving the boat.
Angor chose to agree. Their schedule wasn’t tight. Taking a brief rest was acceptable.
He signaled Tulu to take it easy and strengthened the spirit barrier just in case.
Since Gondola was hidden among the clouds, the little mermaids minded their own games without noticing the observers at all.
After listening to what Angor explained to him, Tulu was carefully looking at the joyful scene while being extremely cautious. He knew that anyone foolish enough to get carried away and approach the playful creatures would soon end up as a pile of bones.
At this moment, Tulu couldn’t find any courage to appreciate the lovely music at all. He knew it was supposed to be a deadly weapon and only wished to get away as fast as possible.
Angor was fully aware of Tulu’s mindset. And compared to Tulu, he regarded the presence of mermaids more open-mindedly.
In the views of humans, mermaids were wicked predators and their enemies. Of course, Angor didn’t like them. But at the same time, he understood the laws of nature. Mermaids hunted human seafarers for survival, and it was written in their nature. Angor would rather behave like a neutral observer in this case and avoid making trouble as long as the mermaids did not attack him first.
Putting their cruelty aside, Angor would admit that the mermaids both looked and sounded marvelous. Unlike Tulu, who was fully concentrated on staying safe, Angor had what it took to admire the more pleasant elements shown by the mermaids.
Using their premature voices that would doubtlessly grow more charming in the future, the young mermaids praised different entities during their surfing games. The setting sun, the benevolent sea, and everything that existed with them… To these young spirits, everything in this world was beautiful and fun, just like human babies who had yet to learn how to tell good from evil.
And because of their innocent spirits, their songs were enthralling to all.
A moment later, the unharmonious noise of more tides came from the water and interrupted the show.
Angor looked below and saw a gigantic turtle as big as a cloud whale slowly rising to the surface, causing dangerous-looking tidal waves to travel in all directions even though it wasn’t moving very fast.
Strangely, the turtle had a big pile of colorful corals of different shapes placed on its shell.
The mermaid children began to climb onto the turtle’s body without showing the slightest hint of fear.
At the same time, another distant melody was heard from the turtle.
