Forgotten Sea: Chapter 3
MC: More than half a day has passed. Why have we circled back to this intersection…
MC: You’re not one of those people who gets lost easily, are you? Or is it that you fish don’t have very good memory?
The little fish shakes its tail, leaving me behind, and swims towards the direction of even more people.
MC: Hey–and where are you planning to take me this time…!
MC: Forget it, I’m actually trying to talk to a fish…
After swimming for a long time, the little fish stops next to a coral reef. It swims downwards a little, and worms through a gap at the foot of the city wall.
MC: I really have to go out this way?
Little fish: Glub lub lub, glub lub lub.
MC: All right…
I squeeze through the gap and pat the sand off my knees. Looking back, I really have left that magnificent and beautiful underwater city behind me.
MC: How wonderful!
MC: Please apologize to your master for me. No matter how you say it, he did save me.
Returning to shore, there is no telling what my will be, but staying in Whalefall City, being with this strange Sea God, I also won’t live very long.
MC: I haven’t thought of a way to repay him yet. How about from now on, at every annual Sea God’s Ceremony, I’ll in for him from the shore?
Rafayel: Did you have fun on your Lemuria day trip?
MC: !
The voice comes from the shadows of the beautiful garden behind me.
Behind the rolled-up gauze curtains lies a person, seeming to appear and disappear behind the flapping silk.
MC: Rafayel?!
Rafayel: No need to shout so loudly.
He raises a finger and the little fish circles a couple of times, then changes into a glowing blue scale on his palm.
I was tricked, this little fish was conjured by him!
MC: You did that on purpose?
Rafayel: Just a little, that’s all.
Rafayel: What Elder Amund said wasn’t wrong. Promises made by you humans cannot be relied on.
MC: When did I make a promise with you?!
Rafayel: Just before I went to sleep, didn’t I ask you to wake me up before it got dark?
He yawns, looking lazy.
Rafayel: Also, when I saved you from the rolling waves, you promised me something like this—
Rafayel: I can save you.
Rafayel: But in return… you will offer me your all, and become my follower.
MC: That, that counts as a promise…
MC: You’re already the most esteemed Sea God of the entire underwater world. Can’t you do a good deed, be a good person, and let me go?
Rafayel: I’m not the sort of god .
Rafayel: Besides, the Sea God’s Ceremony is just over a month away.
Rafayel: You should know, things like ceremonies, there’s always a need for—
He intentionally draws out the last syllable, narrowing his eyes and looking threatening.
MC: You—you want a follower… on land, there are plenty, the kind that wear long robes, men and women, young and old, praying at the Sea God temple every day. They’re far more devout than I am.
Afraid I will really become some sort of ritualistic sacrifice, I hastily think of everything I can to dispel Rafayel’s notion.
Rafayel: All right, then return to me that life of yours I saved.
He stretches his hand out before my eyes, as if gripping an invisible thread in his fist, with the other end firmly wrapped around my neck.
MC: Cough… cough cough…!
Seawater suddenly rushes into my nose and throat, and I almost can’t breathe.
MC: I, I promise you! It is whatever you say it is, okay…!
Rafayel smiles slightly, loosens his tightly closed fist, and only then does my breathing finally smoothly resume.
Rafayel: What I want isn’t just lip service, what I want is—is the faith from the deepest part of your soul.
MC: … Faith from the of my soul?
Rafayel: No matter whether the tides swell or ebb, or if the sun rises and the moon sets, you must only think of me, only have faith in me.
MC: What do you mean…?
Rafayel: Then I’ll state it more simply, in short—
He pokes my chest above my heart, a matter-of-fact expression on his face.
Rafayel: You must think of a way to get this heart of yours to like me.
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