Chapter 129: Mermaids Aren’t Really Lewd, Are They? (3)
After a few days of restful recovery and regular application of healing potions, Mary’s skin had completely healed, leaving no trace of even the smallest scratches.
Her smooth skin was enough to make me hard just thinking about it, but I let it slide for now. After all, even when she was covered in wounds, I still got hard.
Thanks to her fully healed skin, Mary could now comfortably submerge herself in seawater without the pained expression she had when the saltwater irritated her wounds.
Previously, she would only soak herself in the water while at the villa, but this time, since she intended to swim, she was grabbing the starfish again to stick it to her chest.
“Is that really necessary? It hurt so much before.”
“It’s fine in the seawater… And, you’re not going to watch, are you?”
She removed the clothes I’d given her, neatly folding them by the shore, and turned around to attach the starfish to her chest.
“Hngh… It’s been a while, so it hurts a bit…”
I knew this would happen.
While the rest of her skin had healed, her nipples were still raw, so attaching the starfish again was bound to hurt. In the end, I had to step in and remove the starfish from her chest.
“No, you can’t… I need it when I swim…”
“You only need it for high-speed swimming. It’s not necessary when you’re teaching me how to swim, is it?”
It was as if Mary’s nipples had some kind of adhesive for starfish. Normally, starfish don’t stick well to human skin, but they clung stubbornly to her nipples. I had to pull it off forcibly, and its suction was so strong that her chest stretched and her nipples were tugged painfully. If I didn’t remove it before it began secreting digestive fluids, her nipples could get damaged.
When I finally yanked the starfish off, Mary’s small chest was exposed. Her breasts were perfectly proportioned to her slender, toned abdomen, honed from countless hours of swimming. In other words, they were quite small. Even so, she hurriedly covered herself as if there was something to see.
“Taking away my swimsuit is too much, you know…”
“If your nipples get raw again, we’ll have to start treatment all over.”
“Humans are such perverts…”
Reluctantly, she gave in and put on the shirt I had given her again, tying it at her waist for easier movement.
“So, do you know how to swim?” she asked.
“No. I only know the general idea that if you stay still in water, you’ll float.”
“That doesn’t seem likely…”
“Hey, 70% of the human body is water, so we naturally float. Especially in the sea…”
Determined to prove the merits of human physiology to this skeptical mermaid, I stepped into the seawater.
Theoretically, if you relax and don’t flail around, your body should naturally float… or so I thought.
‘This… this isn’t right…’
To be fair, I did float.
The problem was that most of my face sank underwater, with my nose partially submerged, letting seawater trickle into my airways.
I tried holding my breath and staying calm, thinking that would help me float higher. But no matter what, only the tips of my toes, a small portion of my chest, and barely the tip of my nose would surface. Could this even be called floating?
In the end, I gave up and stood back up, exiting the water.
Cough, cough! “Why can’t I float?”
“With a body that muscular and heavy, it’d be strange if you could float…”
Now that I think about it, I remember something said during knight training.
Between a flabby noble who barely exercises and a knight whose entire body is pure muscle, the knight is more likely to drown if both fall into the water.
Fat is lighter than water, so it floats, whereas trained muscle is heavier than water and sinks.
“Still… we mermaids also lack body fat, so we’re naturally heavy. But as long as you keep swimming, you won’t sink. So just don’t stop swimming.”
While explaining this, Mary prepared to dive off a rock.
For the first time, Mary’s usually timid and unconfident expression was replaced with a confident smile, as if she wanted me to watch closely. She then dived gracefully into the water.
‘Now she looks like a mermaid.’
Up until now, she’d seemed like just an ordinary girl lounging in a tank with her tail tucked away. But now, Mary was elegant, diving swiftly and effortlessly through the water before leaping high into the air.
As she broke through the waves, leaping above the water’s surface, I couldn’t help but gape at her in awe.
Was this the beauty of nature itself?
She swam gracefully yet powerfully through the rough waves, diving to distant spots before returning toward the shore. Occasionally, she would leap out of the water, clearly showing off for me. I stood there, entranced by the sight.
After about five minutes of her display, Mary swam back to the shore and reached out her hand toward me.
"Want to try it together?"
Her usual tone dragged at the end of her words, but her voice carried so much confidence that I couldn’t help but take her hand and jump into the water with her.
“We mermaids have tails and fins perfect for swimming…”
The lower half of her body, which outside the water was just a sleek tail covered in smooth scales, now shimmered in the sea as if blending with the water. The translucent scales reflected the light, shining beautifully like liquid gemstones.
It wasn’t hard to understand why legends spoke of people being mesmerized by the sight of mermaids swimming gracefully in the ocean. No jewel, no matter how precious, could compare to the mesmerizing sight of a mermaid’s tail glowing and moving dynamically in the water. Her tail seemed to ride the waves with its gentle, rhythmic motions, radiating elegance and vitality.
‘The creature that fits this ocean best must be a mermaid.’
Though I had theoretically learned swimming techniques before and was confident in physical activities, immersing myself in the water proved to be more challenging than I’d expected. The stinging saltwater on my face distracted me, and even a small mistake in breathing caused seawater to flood my throat and nose. It was harder to learn than I’d thought.
Thankfully, I wasn’t afraid of water.
If I’d had a fear of drowning, I wouldn’t have even attempted to swim. But without that fear and with a calm mindset, I managed to pick up the swimming lessons from the mermaid. By the time the afternoon rolled around, I could at least manage a basic swim.
“You’re supposed to exhale calmly with your face underwater before breathing, not gasp for air like that…”
I still had the problem of sinking if I stopped moving, but at least I’d learned enough to swim from the dock to the island I saw the other night.
“Isn’t this good enough for long-distance swimming? To learn this quickly—it’s terrifying, my natural talent.”
“I think it’s less about swimming skill and more about how absurdly strong your stamina is…”
“Whatever works. As long as I can reach the island, it doesn’t matter. Tonight, I’ll make it to that island we saw.”
“Swimming at night is much harder than during the day, you know…”
“Do you think I’ll die?”
“Most men who die say something like that just before they do…”
As she hesitated, Mary asked, “The place you’re checking out—does it have something to do with mermaid eggs?”
“Yes, this time it’s certain.”
“Then… shall I come with you?”
It seemed the mention of “mermaid eggs” in the product name bothered her. Her reaction couldn’t be explained simply by the annoyance of humans mislabeling fish eggs as mermaid eggs.
‘It feels like Mary has something else on her mind…’
Still, considering how difficult it might be to reach the island by myself at night and based on her behavior over the past few days, I figured she didn’t have any intentions of harming me.
‘Usually, thinking gets you stabbed in the back…’
But when she got flustered and avoided my gaze like that, it was hard to think of her as a bad mermaid. She might have her reasons, but I doubted they were sinister.
While having dinner and mulling over the situation, I came up with a plan: the splashing noise I made while swimming would be too loud to sneak onto the island quietly. The best solution was for Mary to swim underwater, using her tail to move us forward, while I clung to her body for the ride.
“This is basically me swimming alone, though…”
Unlike Fiona, who had no qualms about physical contact and even enjoyed swimming while our bodies were locked together, Mary was far too shy for that. She said it would be too hard to swim if I held onto her, so we decided she’d tow me by tying a rope around my waist.
I improvised a simple flotation device by blowing air into an old leather water pouch I used to carry. Hugging it tightly, I let Mary pull me through the water.
‘This is fine and all, but… her swaying ass is right in front of me.’
Unlike lamias, whose bodies transitioned from a human torso to a snake tail at the hips, mermaids had a partial human ass extending down to the start of their tail fins. The slight sway of Mary’s hips as she swam kept drawing my attention, and I could feel my body reacting despite myself.
‘If she notices, she’ll definitely leave me behind… Calm down, calm down…’
Desperate to suppress my erection, I slid my hand into my pants and tried to think of anything else.
‘But the view is just too good…’
To be honest, I’d been holding back for days.
When I first arrived at this port, Fiona’s unforgettable dolphin-style sex had left me… wanting. Since then, living with a mermaid like Mary but not even masturbating had been torture. And considering that Mary was shameless enough to masturbate while I wasn’t around, was it so wrong for me to indulge myself now, watching her swaying hips in the moonlight?
‘Just one quick rub. They say a man’s intelligence goes up after he releases, don’t they?’
There’s a common belief that pent-up semen clouds a man’s judgment, and releasing it helps him think more clearly. Given how often men do dumb things when their lower half takes over, maybe clearing the tank would actually help me focus better.
‘And those abs… When I touched them earlier while swimming… they were so firm.’
Mary wasn’t just a slender girl; her body was toned and athletic from years of swimming. Her stomach was completely smooth, with no trace of excess fat. The translucent scales shimmering under the moonlight, the sway of her hips, and her tail fins occasionally brushing against my groin as the rope pulled me along… It was all driving me crazy.
‘She won’t notice if I do it underwater.’
She wasn’t a dolphin using sonar to sense her surroundings. There was no way she’d realize I was jerking off while watching her. If she didn’t know, there’d be no reason for her to feel offended, and I’d feel better. It was a win-win.
“That looks like the island… Ah!”
Mary suddenly stopped swimming, causing me to collide with her ass. My groin hit her lower body, and though the water cushioned the impact, the heat from my erection startled her. She froze, then noticed I had unzipped my pants.
“W-what the hell were you doing?!”
“A healthy human male gets hard at least six times a day.”
“That doesn’t explain why you had it out of your pants!”
“I thought the cold seawater might calm it down… Actually, no, I was horny from watching your ass. I’m sorry. It was too tempting. Couldn’t I just rub one out real quick?”
Since we were already at the island, I brazenly admitted it, and Mary was left floundering for words.
“Y-you were looking at me like that all along?!”
“…To be honest… Yes. A lot. I’m sorry.”
How could anyone blame me when Mary’s body was this erotic? Even if I tried to hide it, my erection had already betrayed me.