MRG Chapter 29: The Siren Underwater

Translator: Kii

Editor: yuki_shuichi

Generally speaking, citizens of the Oz Empire have a three to four month break between graduating from high school and the start of university. However, military academies were different; they required over two months of physical training for new students before school officially began. As a result, Mu Chen now had less than two weeks left before reporting to school.

And Light recently was working on returning to the border. After all, Mu Chen’s birthday banquet and university matters were settled, and Jorah had accepted his decision to cancel the engagement, so there was no need for him to stay in the capital in the near future.

Although he still didn’t approve of Mu Chen’s decision to study at a military academy, he could only accept this fact.

But when Light had told Mu Chen that he was preparing to return to the border in two weeks, the latter unexpectedly began to “complain first.”

Mu Chen’s upper body slid from the armrest of the sofa to the cushions little by little like a fish, his long legs dangling out of the sofa. He looked upside down at Light. “Gege just came back, why are you leaving again? Who knows when we’ll see each other again next time?”

Light ignored his unreasonable behavior and lifted the unruly person from the sofa. “You’ll be starting school school, how can you still act like this?”

No. 1 Military Academy had strict and almost abnormal rules and regulations. Also, in that closed environment, everyone’s external economic conditions and social background were stripped away, leaving only the identity of “freshman.” After entering, nobody cared who they were. Every year, many noble families or elite families’ children chose to drop out because they couldn’t bear the burden.

But the little merman had been spoiled in the palace since he was young, so Light naturally was worried Mu Chen wouldn’t be able to adapt after school started. Now seeing how simple-minded he looked, Light was even more worried that Mu Chen had no idea what kind of place a military academy school was.

As expected, after being pulled up by Light, Mu Chen still had no intention of sitting up properly. He leaned on Light like a boneless person. “Will Gege come to see me when the time comes?”

In principle, family members have no right to visit military academies.

But Light was the general of the Mecha Army and the highest commander of the base. If he wanted to visit the school, it was just a matter of saying the word.

Also, No. 1 Military Academy was located on Roy Island, north of the Oz Empire, which was not far from the military base border of Konaren, and only an hour’s flight away.

“This is not in compliance with regulations.”

After a moment of silence, Light reached out to push Mu Chen’s shoulder and spoke in a business-like tone.

Mu Chen’s eyes drooped, and he grumbled distressedly, “Then I can only see Gege during winter vacation.”

It was really uncomfortable to be stared at by those blue eyes so aggrievedly. Light somewhat stiffly avoided his gaze, then immediately stood up from the sofa, leaving only his back to the other person.

“You’ll get used to it soon.”

The reason the merman was spoiled into this state and loved to act unreasonably was closely related to his blind indulgence.

But studying at a military academy was no laughing matter; since Mu Chen was determined to take this path, he must be mentally prepared in this regard.

Once Light’s figure completely disappeared from Mu Chen’s sight, he curled his lips and smiled silently…

How long can Gege persist this time?

……

Before entering the military academy, all prospective new students must go to an institute approved by the school for a comprehensive physical examination. Mu Chen’s situation, on the other hand, was rather special. Because he was an SSS-level rare and protected species on Blue Planet, the school hereby approved the report issued by the Royal Institute of Biology.

In the brightly lit research institute filled with the smell of disinfectant, Mu Chen, familiar with the layout, easily navigated the winding corridors and maze-like labs until he reached an office. Behind him was a sunken, semi-open pool that towered four or five stories high. Beneath the deep water surface, countless aquatic plants, corals, and reefs were intertwined, while giant shimmering sea creatures swam leisurely among them.

As Blue Planet’s only existing merman, he would visit the research institute to see Kole every few months over the past six years. Apart from his regular check-ups, he also intermittently provided the research institute with some valuable research materials.

Presently, Mu Chen knocked on the office door twice, then pushed open the door and walked in as usual.

There wasn’t a trace of Kole beside the empty office chair, only a human baby that could barely reach the height of the chair cushion and clearly looked too young to suck its fingers.

The little girl had two pigtails and stared blankly at Mu Chen with her round eyes. Then, as if she had discovered something new, her eyes suddenly lit up with excitement. She stumbled to the door with her short legs and hugged Mu Chen’s legs. “Fishy!”

Her enunciation was still a bit unclear.

The uncle from earlier told her that the merman would come over. Mermen were good-looking, and this gege was also very good-looking, so this gege should definitely be a merman!

Mu Chen bowed his head and looked at the baby hugging him like a pillar, his back stiffening for a moment. His eyes widened like a startled cat, his expression was blank for a rare moment.

He didn’t like children; he was especially afraid of dealing with creatures like babies.

“What’s wrong?”

Light, following behind Mu Chen, saw that he suddenly stopped at the entrance of the door and asked with a bit of puzzlement.

Mu Chen looked at the human baby who couldn’t even walk properly but was tightly clinging to his calf, his expression stiffly looking back and seeking Light’s help.

The little girl raised her head, revealing her baby teeth which had just grown in, then smiled foolishly at Mu Chen. “Want…fishy!”

Upon seeing this, Light placed a hand to his lips, curled the corners of his lips, and said nothing.

Mu Chen’s gaze constantly looked in Light’s direction, as if silently accusing him of inaction.

Finally—

“May, come here.”

A woman’s voice came from the inner room, saving Mu Chen from the fear of being dominated by the human child.

The woman in the white lab coat slightly smiled as she pulled the little girl to her side—she was Kole’s assistant.

“Your Highness, apologies, this is my daughter. I’m too busy with work to take time off, so I brought her here. It could be that Dr. Kole told her a lot of stories about mermen, which is why she keeps thinking about ‘Fishy.’”

The little girl ran to her mother, yet her eyes were still fixed on Mu Chen. “Mama, gege…can change, big tail?”

The woman smiled as she rubbed her head. “You have to call him Your Highness.”

Little girl, “Oh, then can His Highness change into a big tail?”

The woman smiled apologetically at Mu Chen and Light. “She’s still young and always says whatever comes to her mind.”

Mu Chen covered his mouth with his hand and coughed, his eyes glanced elsewhere. “…It’s fine.”

The woman made a “please” gesture. “The two of you can follow me. Dr. Kole is inside.”

Mu Chen and Light followed her toward the inner test area.

Halfway, Light suddenly turned his head and said to Mu Chen, “You were also like this when you were little.”

Mu Chen, “…”

Recalling the kid’s silly appearance just now, he raised a brow. How could he be like this when he was younger?

Moreover, how old was he when he entered the palace? How could he be compared to a three-year-old child…

When the two of them walked into the central area, Kole had just come out of the storage room. He was holding something and walking out in a rush.

The moment he saw Mu Chen, he evaded his eyes and stuffed the thing in his hand into the cabinet drawer.

Mu Chen was puzzled. “What’s wrong?”

After so many years, he wasn’t as repulsed with this research fanatic as he was at the beginning. After all, Kole was still very professional in the academic field. It would be even better if he weren’t so obsessed with making all sorts of strange merfolk-related things.

“Ehem, ehem,” Kole coughed twice. “It’s nothing…”

He pulled up a document on the terminal and started browsing. “I’ve read the medical checklist you sent me; come over here to draw some blood first.”

Mu Chen sat in front of the table, and while the assistant helped draw the blood, Kole was looking through the document while mumbling to himself, “The other indicators are fine, all can be matched, but the mating period might be a bit troublesome. After all, most people don’t encounter this kind of thing. You’ll probably have to take leave from school when the time comes…”

After saying that, he suddenly looked at Mu Chen, “Your mating period hasn’t come yet, has it?”

“No…” Mu Chen paused. “How will I know if my mating period has arrived?”

Kole, “You’ll know when the time comes.”

Seeing Mu Chen still looking at him with doubt, he added, “It’s an instinctive reaction.”

And just at this moment, Light, who was sitting on the sofa reading, also looked over. Kole could only continue explaining to them—

“Theoretically, the mating period should be a behavior evolved by the merfolks in order to find a suitable mate. During this period, a special gland in their bodies secretes a pheromone to attract partners of the opposite sex. Whether this has any effect on humans is still unclear, but we can wait and see once your mating period arrives.”

“Your mating period should be arriving soon; within these two years at most. I’ll write a note and you can hand it in together with the medical examination report.”

“Oh.”

Mu Chen nodded, feeling that he was treating him as a guinea pig.

After finishing a series of tests, Kole had him turn into his merman form to go into the pool; mainly to help him measure the length of his tail fin.

Mu Chen arrived in a separate area, took off his clothes, and jumped into the enormous pool. There was a succession of splashes appearing on the water’s surface, and then a silver ripple appeared across the dark blue water surface before immediately disappearing.

In the spacious central hall, Kole and his assistant were engrossed in discussing the data of the tests they just did. The extremely bored little girl could only move her body to look around. Suddenly, she noticed the movement coming from the pool opposite—something shiny was darting through the aquatic plants. Her eyes lit up, and she let go of the two fingers she had been holding onto her mother’s hand, slowly making her way toward the open pool.

The two conversing adults were completely unaware of this.

May arrived at the side of the pool alone. She curiously propped up her upper body and looked at the deep pool surface.

Noticing the silvery light flashing under that dense vegetation, she wanted to reach out and grab it, but her center of gravity unconsciously leaned forward, followed by a splash sound—she fell into the ice-cold water.

The part of the pool that was exposed above the ground was very shallow, but the entire pool was dug underground, which was more than ten meters deep. Moreover, it was filled with lush aquatic plants and animals.

“May!”

Hearing the peculiar sound, the woman and Kole finally snapped out of their deep conversation, but when they looked over at the deep pool that had already returned to tranquility, they could no longer find the figure of a child.

Fortunately, when it happened, Light was in the resting area next to the pool. The moment he heard the sound of something falling into the water, he jumped into the enormous pool.

He had dived into the pool following the spot where the little girl had fallen, pushed aside the layer of surrounding seaweed, and lifted the little girl who was struggling desperately in the drowning water. Seeing this, the people at the edge of the pool immediately reached out and carried the child out.

After finding May, Light stomped his legs and prepared to emerge to the surface, but just then, he felt a heavy tug dragging him down.

He furrowed his eyebrows as he looked down, only seeing at the bottom of the dark pool, that dense aquatic plants had entangled his legs at some point.

The aquatic plants with dense roots swayed with the flow of the water. Because of Light’s struggle just now, they were entangled even more tightly. He turned around and tried to untangle the aquatic plants. As time went by, fine bubbles continued to overflow from between his lips, and the air gradually slipped away.

The suffocation from lack of oxygen began to envelope him.

And at that moment, a shimmering bright figure broke through the darkness and swam toward him—it was a dorsal fin of a merman, adorned with magnificent fin veils.

Even if his vision was blurry in the water, Light could still clearly feel the merman’s two-foot-long tail’s translucent scales. Mu Chen’s soft silver hair was completely spread out, and coupled with that beautiful face, he looked like a siren from the deep sea.

Mu Chen swam to Light, reached out his hand to hold the other party’s lower back, and his fish tail swung around Light’s body. He used his sharpened claws to cut through the aquatic plants.

In the cold and dark pool water, it was the first time Light had touched the merman’s tail after he had grown up.

The surface of the scale was smooth and hard like those cold-blooded animals, while also feeling like cold jade. The raised lines under his palm were especially obvious.

Mu Chen quickly cut apart the layers of aquatic plants and brought him to the surface while swaying his fish tail.

In this position, the two people were clinging close to each other, and the wet clothes outlined Light’s tight waistline. Mu Chen’s large palm was resting on Light’s palm, and inadvertently, he touched the other’s particularly tight and raised butt, as well as the slender and powerful leg.

With a splash sound, the two people emerged to the surface.

“Hah…cough…”

The long period of lack of oxygen caused Light to cough severely the moment he breathed in the fresh air, even the corner of his eyes turned red.

Under the water, the fish tail’s soft touch on his military boots brought him back to his senses.

Light raised his eyes and was met with those blue eyes.

The dripping droplets of water ran down Mu Chen’s high-nose bridge. At this moment, his original ears were replaced by mica shell-shaped ear fins, adding a bit of inhuman beauty to Mu Chen’s god-like face. The two sharp fangs were revealed under the merman’s half-opened thin lips, and a faint blue light was shining in his narrow pupils. For a moment, Light seemed to be in a bit of a daze.

“Be careful, Gege.”

Mu Chen’s voice broke through the originally silent atmosphere.

He lifted Light’s thigh and put him on the edge of the pool.

“Apologies, Your Highness. I got distracted and didn’t look after the child closely.”

“Thank you…Your Highness.”

May stumbled over to Light to give her gratitude; she also knew she was in the wrong and fiddled with her fingers helplessly.

“Sorry, I…”

“It’s fine.” Light rubbed off the traces of water on his face. “Don’t get too close to the edge of the pool next time.”

“Got it.” May nodded, yet she was looking at the merman half-submerged in the water from the corner of her eyes, her eyes almost popping out.

A child’s fondness was the most undisguised, and the fact that she was interested in the merman in the water was obvious to almost everyone.

Upon seeing this, the assistant shook her head. “Don’t randomly touch.”

“Oh.” May’s eyes drooped visibly, but she obediently withdrew her gaze.

Mu Chen quietly watched the person at the edge.

There was no way he couldn’t see through the little girl’s thoughts.

He wasn’t fond of human babies, but…

He went near May, his head stuck out a bit from the water.

A little touch won’t kill him…

Looking at the beautiful merman right in front of her, May’s eyes twinkled at once, but she still looked over at her mother and Light for approval. Seeing that neither of them raised any objections, she then carefully extended her plump little hand and gently touched the merman’s ear fin.

It felt cold.

The merman’s ear fins shook, shaking off a string of water droplets.

May raised the corner of her lips, showing a child-like, innocent smile at Mu Chen.

“Beautiful…”

“Fishy.”