4. Sir Rabbit
I looked over the shelf just in case, and saw writing on the bottom of the potion containers placed next to each other.
[Oh, my. Put it down.]
[This isn't it. If you eat it, you'll die.]
[Why don't you just give up?]
[Don't come to land.]
[If you don't want to die young.]
As if she knew I would come to the cave today.
'Die young?'
Neoul paused for a moment at the sea priestess' use of the delicate word.
But he quickly moved his hand again and continued checking the bottom of the next potion container.
[Even if I tell you this, you won't listen, right?]
"As you know."
Seeing the message loosened the lips of a man who was sure to get what he wanted soon.
[Yeah. Now I don't know.]
[Do as you wish.]
[What the prince wants is inside the chest.]
[Necklace.]
Neoul immediately turned his head to the lower left. The large chest on the floor seemed to be a storage box containing gold and silver treasures that the sea priestess had carefully collected.
When he opened the heavy lid, it was filled with all sorts of gold and silver treasures. And a necklace was placed on top.
It was obvious that it was placed there on purpose.
It was a necklace with an uncut, fingernail-sized stone. The stone, a mixture of greenish gray, black, and blue, gave off different radiances depending on the angle at which it was viewed.
On the inside of the chest lid was a message left by the sea priestess.
[The voice was postpaid.]
Neoul rolled his eyes and pretended not to see the words.
This was not a transaction, it was theft. No thief pays for stolen goods. I picked up the necklace with a shameless thought in my mind and put it on my neck without hesitation.
"..."
No change occurred.
"Is it for eating rather than wearing around the neck?"
It would have been better if you had written down the instructions for use instead of playing around with useless jokes.
Neoul tried biting the necklace and putting it in his mouth to try to dissolve it in water.
When there was no response, Neoul spat the necklace out and put it back on his neck.
'The sea priestess is playful and eccentric, but she is not a great person who would lie about something like this.'
....
No, is she really that great..?
Thinking of her giggling face, the back of my neck slowly pulled.
The sea priestess never showed her true form in front of others. She was good at transformation, so she took on the form of a half-human, dressed like a human, and walked around with only eight arms in the form of an octopus.
On the inside, she looked like an old woman who had aged over two thousand years, but on the outside, her face was smooth and wrinkle-free.
If her appearance had aged slowly with her age, it would have been more trustworthy.... But she didn't age, and whenever I saw her, she always giggled and teased me, so she just seemed like a devil.
Neoul shook his head. The more he thought about it, the more his trust dropped.
'But there's no other way.....'
For now, I have no choice but to trust her and go to land.
I carried my bag on one shoulder and looked through the pile of clothes that the sea priestess had collected.
What criteria did she use to select and collect them? The clothes were all different in size, shape, color, and pattern.
What should I wear...?
For a moment, he was confused, but in fact, there were only a few clothes that fit his body. His options were greatly reduced.
He stuffed a loose-fitting top and pants with a wide waist into his bag and zipped it up.
Crack!
At that moment, Sangsang, who had been unable to overcome his curiosity and had followed him in, touched one of the potions on the shelf near the entrance.
"Sangsang-ah...!"
The transparent container slipped between its sharp teeth and shattered into pieces. The white drug that spread out covered Sangsang-ah's entire body.
"Stardust! Don't come!"
Oh no.
Even Stardust, who had followed to stop Sangsang-ah, was completely exposed, unable to avoid the drug.
The drug flowed toward the entrance of the cave along the current flowing out from inside the cave, slowly diluting and dispersing.
However, Sangsang-ah and Stardust-ah had disappeared without a trace in the place where the drug had obscured their vision.
"This is...!"
Neoul looked down blankly, frozen solid.
On the floor, two stuffed animals that were just big enough to fit in his arms were lying there.
Neoul knew that they were called 'dolls' because he had received a large teddy bear as a gift from the sea priestess when he was young.
"Stardust-ah. Sangsang-ah."
The doll didn't respond.
"..."
Neoul picked up the two baby sharks that had become dolls, stroked them, and carefully put them in his bag, zipping it up.
'I have to find the rabbit and meet the sea priestess.'
She would know how to turn them back.
Neoul quickly swam north after getting out of the cave.
Swish.
The blue-ringed octopus, who had been watching from hiding, caught her startled heart.
'A shark...!'
She had never been near the cave because she was afraid of the sea priestess. It was because of the rumor that 'the crazy sea priestess made a potion with a terrible curse.'
'Oh, the rumor was true...!'
She trembled and hurriedly followed after Neoul.
She usually crawled on the seabed, so she was not good at swimming. She had to swim desperately until she was out of breath to chase after the prince.
'What if the prince is cursed too?'
The blue-ringed octopus felt like crying.
***
The mermaid poked his head out of the water. He saw a beach full of black rocks with holes and fine sand.
It had been a long time since he had come up to sea level like this.
'Because Abamama really hates me going outside the Dragon Palace....'
It's dangerous outside the Dragon Palace. Don't go too far outside. The Dragon King sternly admonished him, but he didn't listen.
So the mermaid was disciplined in his room whenever he had the chance, but the indomitable mermaid, couldn't just stay in his room.
Whenever he was bored, he would sneak out like a loach. Thanks to that, he was able to save Sangsang-i from the net and meet Stardust and become friends.
But this was the first time he had come this close to the beach.
'It's amazing.'
The large palm leaves swaying in the wind seemed to be waving and greeting him.
A noisy noise mixed in with the sound of the waves.
There were quite a few humans swimming or walking around the beach.
Neoul opened his bag, took out his top, and put it on roughly.
Since there were many humans on the beach, he took out a box with [Human Language] written on it, and also took out the most important [Rabbit Language] and swallowed two pills. Then he put his bag away again and went a little closer to the beach.
The water became shallower and the humans became more clearly visible.
But there was one strangely shaped creature among them.
'It certainly looked like a human, but.......'
Its face was particularly white, and its long, large ears stuck out from the top of its head.
— ʀᴏʏᴀʟ ꜱᴇᴄʀᴇᴛᴀʀʏ ᴅᴏ! ʙᴜᴛ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴅᴏᴇꜱ ᴀ ʀᴀʙʙɪᴛ ʟᴏᴏᴋ ʟɪᴋᴇ?
—ɪ'ᴠᴇ ʜᴇᴀʀᴅ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɪᴛ ʜᴀꜱ ʟᴏɴɢ ᴇᴀʀꜱ, ɪꜱ ᴄᴏᴍᴘʟᴇᴛᴇʟʏ ᴡʜɪᴛᴇ, ʜᴀꜱ ꜱᴏꜰᴛ ꜰᴜʀ, ᴀɴᴅ ɪꜱ ɢᴏᴏᴅ ᴀᴛ ᴊᴜᴍᴘɪɴɢ.
This one with white skin, big ears, and long legs ran around the beach busily, talking to other humans and jumping again.
The other humans did similar things, but this one seemed to jump faster and more nimbly.
Its hair, fluttering in the wind, also looked soft and untangled.
"A rabbit...?"
Is that a human or a rabbit? Were humans and rabbits perhaps related?
With a puzzled expression, Neoul swam toward the creature presumed to be a rabbit. More than half of Neoul's upper body was exposed to the water.
The moment his tail fin, which had been swimming freely, kicked the sand under the surface, his body sank down.
"!"
Neoul flopped down into the water and blinked.
The necklace reflecting the sunlight glowed blue. Under the water surface illuminated by the midday sun, the long tail that had been mysteriously silver and light green had transformed into human legs.
But as he sank, his entire body went back into the water, and in the blink of an eye, he returned to his scaled tail.
'What just happened?'
He was startled and touched his tail fin. Then he bent down and moved toward a wide rock.
He leaned his upper body out of the water, holding on to the oddly shaped black rock full of holes, and his body tilted again.
But this time, he was able to hold on with the strength of his arms and not fall back into the water. He put his bag on the rock, took out his pants, and put them on his legs.
— ᴘʀɪɴᴄᴇ. ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ɢᴏ ᴀʀᴏᴜɴᴅ ɴᴀᴋᴇᴅ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴀᴛ, ʏᴏᴜ'ʟʟ ʙᴇ ᴄᴏɴꜱɪᴅᴇʀᴇᴅ ᴀ ᴘᴇʀᴠᴇʀᴛ ᴀᴍᴏɴɢ ʜᴜᴍᴀɴꜱ?
When he was young, the sea priestess would say things like this and dress him in various colorful clothes.
The mermaid Neoul, who was still a baby, was uncomfortable with clothes that kept rubbing against his skin, but he didn't want to be called a pervert prince, so he endured it and tried on all kinds of clothes.
Then, the sea priestess took a square machine in a plastic bag called a waterproof bag and took pictures of Neoul, who was wearing a sullen expression and wearing a sullen outfit.
—ᴏʜ, ʜᴏᴡ ᴘʀᴇᴛᴛʏ. ᴇᴀᴛ ᴀ ꜱʜʀɪᴍᴘ.
Neoul had no memory of doing anything pretty, but he ate the shrimp that was given to him.
Then, the sea priestess smiled happily like a grandmother who saw her grandson's tricks, but soon teased him by saying, "A pig is going to chase after you to be its friend."
—ᴡʜᴀᴛ'ꜱ ᴀ ᴘɪɢ?
—ɪᴛ'ꜱ ᴀɴ ᴀɴɪᴍᴀʟ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴀ ʙɪɢ ꜱᴛᴏᴍᴀᴄʜ ʟɪᴋᴇ ʏᴏᴜ!
She giggled so it was obvious that she was teasing him, so he closed his mouth tightly and glared at her. Instead of calming him down, she teased him even more, saying that his swollen cheeks looked like a puffer fish.
'You annoying old hag.'
Anyway, thanks to that memory, he was able to dress up nicely from top to bottom. Having avoided becoming a pervert, Neoul crawled up onto the rock with both arms.
Then he looked curiously at his ankles and pale feet that were exposed under his pants that covered him from his waist to his calves.
When he exerted strength as if he was moving his tail, all ten of his toes wiggled at once.
"Oh!"
Neoul succeeded in pushing off the ground with his arms as if he was giving a rebound. In that state, he hurriedly turned his eyes to find the rabbit.
He must have come close now!
'Oh, there it is!'
The rabbit spoke briefly to someone, and when the other person shook their head, it turned around and tried to run away.
"Rabbbiiittt!"
I shouted loudly at the rabbit.
A strange language that I had never spoken before came out of my mouth. It seemed to be thanks to the [Rabbit Language] pill.
'Not only can I understand the rabbit's words, I can also spit them out!'
A smile came out of my mouth in relief that there would be no problem communicating.
The rabbit, who was about to run away, suddenly stopped and turned around to look in the direction where the sound came from.
When their eyes met, Neoul shouted again with a moved expression.
"Rabbbiiittt Teeaaacherr!"
I thought I was too rude at first, so I changed my address to be very polite.
Then Rabbit hurriedly ran towards Neoul. Neoul hurriedly continued what he wanted to say to the approaching Rabbit.
"Sir Rabbit. I beg you this. Abamama's illness is serious, so I need Sir Rabbit's liver. I heard that Sir Rabbit can live without its liver. Please take pity on me and give me some of your liver. If you can't give me all of it, how about giving me just a little bit?"
The rabbit, who had been coming closer, stopped in place with a puzzled expression when he heard those words.
Then it asked in a cautious voice.
"Hey... It's Byeoljubujeon, right? But, it looks like you fell into the water. Are you okay?"
"Byeoljubujeon! Do you know Byeoljubujeon?"
Neoul's eyes widened.
Rabbit paused for a moment, wondering what he was thinking, and then answered.
"Of course... I know, right...?"
—