I used my [Screened] to check Delmare’s stats to confirm what Emilia said.
[Name: Delmare
Title: Sweet Cookie, Lullaby, The One With The Voice
Race: Siren
Gender: Female
Current Mood: Confused
Stats:
28 Strength
130 Dexterity
25 Endurance
600 Magic
Skills:
Singing (Tier 3), Cooking (Tier 2)
Magic Skills:
Mana Management (Tier 1), Siren Voice(Tier 3)]
I even checked the other girls and indeed, all of them had ‘Siren’ in their race though Delmare had the highest tier in her Singing skill and Siren Voice magic skill. Not to mention also the highest Magic stat as well, holy hell, what has she been doing to raise it that high?
Looks like Emilia was right… They really weren’t Mermaids… But does this mean that the two races looked the same? Or do Mermaids become Sirens after learning that specific magic?
Speaking of magic, I know that god who brought us here said that the magic we could choose in the character creation screen did not contain all the magic in the World and that there were more out there, but this is the first time I’ve seen one example of it.
I was fully expecting these Sirens to start attacking us but they actually looked confused by the situation instead, their stats also reflect the same emotion too.
“What’s a Siren?” Allure asked with a tilt of her head.
Cherith gave Emilia a concerned look, “I’m sorry, but I assure you that we are not these ‘Sirens’ that you speak of.”
Emilia’s narrowed eyes clearly say that she does not believe her.
Even Odeta looked ready to fight. I’m guessing she must have met hostile Sirens while travelling with sister Ardi.
The thing was that I had a feeling these girls actually genuinely believe themselves to be Mermaids and weren’t lying to us on purpose, otherwise their mood would not be ‘confused’.
I decided to step in, “Sorry… But why are we so hostile to them just because they’re Sirens?”
Odeta furrowed her brows, “Because they make you drown yourself, sister Aster.”
Emilia nodded, “When they use their magic to sing, you become so enchanted by their voice that you would do anything to listen to more of it including throwing yourself into the sea. This is also why the Tunnel Stalker avoided this cavern altogether because it knows it would die if it even stepped foot here.”
Delmare’s face grew pale, “N… No… That… That can’t be true! I’m… I’m definitely a mermaid! I’m not a Siren!”
Emilia shook her head, “You are able to empower your voice with magic to sing better, right? That’s definite proof that you are a Siren.”
“No! No! No! You’re wrong, you’re wrong!”
Oh the poor girl… I can understand her reaction since that would mean she was the cause of those deaths for those men who had been shipwrecked here. But her reaction at least confirmed that she really didn’t know about her real race.
The other girls moved to console the distraught girl, making soothing noises at her.
“But what made you think you were mermaids?” I asked.
Diona made a face at me, “Our parents told us of course.”
“And… Where are they?”
Cherith sighed, “They left while we were really young… Saying that we were being chased and they had to leave us here for safety while they went out to protect us… They haven’t come back since.”
Emilia narrowed her eyes, “They willingly went out to the open sea where the dangerous monster was instead of the safety of these underwater tunnels? Tunnels that no one else except other Mer creatures can reach you?”
That made them pause since it really did not make sense to them either, unless of course their pursuers were Mer creatures as well. But if that was the case, they would have been able to reach them after catching up to their parents, right?
But I suppose there’s also the issue of the monster as well, which brings about the question of how their parents even got them in here in the first place.
That was when Emilia dropped the bomb, “I’m going to assume your parents did not swim out of here but actually ran away on a ship, didn’t they?”
Diona furrowed her brows, “What are you talking about? Of course they were swam–“
𝒐𝓋𝓛xt.𝒸𝞸𝔪
“Wait! You’re… You’re right!!” Cherith gasped, her eyes widening. “Now that you mentioned it… They were with a bunch of other people on a boat as well and they left us in a pool on this island before they went back to the boat! I… I didn’t think much of it back then but… But… They aren’t actually our parents… Are they?”
I’d think that would have been the first thing you noticed but I assume they were too young to understand back then.
Emilia sighed and lowered her hand from her katana to sit on the ground in front of them, “I’m sorry, but all of you are victims of slavers. Those people probably snuck into your home and captured all of you but were found out. They then decided to hide you here while they went back out to sea to pretend they weren’t the slavers your people were looking for. Seeing that they did not return for you, I can only assume they did not survive and your location also died with them. I’m also willing to bet this monster was told to you by those guys to prevent any of you from trying to leave this island.”
Damn… I was most certainly not prepared for something like this when I came to this island… How young they must be for them to actually think those guys were their parents when they were taken? It’s practically a miracle that they even survived this long on their own.
The five girls all looked like their World had just collapsed around them.
Delmare seemed to be hit the worst as she buried her face in her hands and cried, “I… I killed those people… I drove them to their graves…”
Unexpectedly, Emilia cleared her throat to get her attention, “Actually, I can help you ease the guilt for that.”
The Siren scowled at her, “What? Are you going to tell me that it’s not my fault because I didn’t know about my curse?!”
“Actually, I would say that you saved your sisters here.”
All of us gave Emilia a perplexed look.
She grinned and pointed to the upper half of her left arm, “I’m willing to bet those men all had a marking of a skull on their left arm over here, am I right?”
Ephyra gasped, “How did you know?”
“Hehe~ Two Creas and I’ll… Oh wait, you probably don’t have any money huh… Do you?”
The girls looked at each other before Cherith spoke up, “We don’t know what this ‘Crea’ is but… We found some shiny things washing up on this island from time to time. We thought they were sweets at first but it turns out they weren’t.”
She took out what appears to be a large ruby from within her shirt and Emilia’s eyes immediately turned into money symbols, “Oh! That would do perfectly! Give me that and I’ll tell you everything!”
The Siren easily passed over the ruby that was most definitely worth more than two Creas to the Nekomata.
Emilia quickly stored the precious stone away in her sleeve before clearing her throat to act like that didn’t just happen.
“Ahem… So… As I said, I’m a ship captain right? We passed by this area some time ago and those men you met were pirates we had fought off and our battle sunk their ship. I’m assuming some of them survived the fight and made their way to this island. Those guys definitely did not have good intentions for you and would have probably tried to rape or even capture you all to sell to slavers eventually. So to be honest, you did everyone a favour by drowning them.”
Delmare seemed to be a little relieved to hear that but it was clear she still had some doubts about it.
Ephyra suddenly gasped, “Miss Emilia! Does your ship pass through this area often?”
“Hmm? I suppose so? Why do you ask?”
“Then do you have to fight these kinds of pirates often as well?”
Emilia nodded, “This area is a hot spot for pirates, but most of the time they don’t engage my ship since I’m quite famous actually. Oh! All these things around here drifted on this island didn’t they?”
She was referring to the furniture and books that were placed around the cavern and I kind of understood where she was getting at.
Cherith nodded, “We find these things drifting here from time to time and we thought these belonged to ships that were destroyed by the monster we were led to believe to exist outside the island… That’s why we never dared to go out to check…”
So these things were actually the belongings of those unfortunate ships that were sunk by pirates or the pirates bring sunk themselves.
Allure propped up her chin with her hand, “But if all that you’ve said is true… What are we supposed to do now? We’ve lived here our whole lives… We don’t know what to do…”
Ephyra turned to her, “Isn’t this our chance to experience the outside world like what we always dreamed of?! We can go wherever we want to now!”
Delmare hugged herself, “But… We don’t know what’s out there outside of the books we read here… We’ve been lied to our whole lives… The singing I’ve been so proud of… It’s just a curse now… I don’t even… I don’t even know who I am anymore… Is it even a good place for us to be?”
That was when I got this really crazy idea.
“How about you sing to us, or at least to me, right now?”
Hey, I did say it was a crazy idea…