Siren Lullaby

Rubros, who ran to the shouting soldiers who were looking for him, found a woman with dark blue hair and a white dress.

I wonder if she's just had her coming-of-age ceremony. The woman, who appeared to be in her late teens, had long straight hair that came down to her waist and white skin that seemed pale. The pleated dress that went down to her ankles made her delicate figure stand out even more.

The way he looked at the soldiers with a bewildered look with his eyes that had the same color as his hair as if he could not understand their reaction. Rubros slowly approached the woman. Up close, she looked like a little girl with a head smaller than herself.

"Who are you?"

The woman, who was momentarily perplexed by his question of identity, said something in a language he did not understand.

'Which language does she speak? I don't think it's Pandera…..'

Rubros, who was paying close attention to her outfit, wondering if she was a foreigner in distress, realized the identity of the clothes she was wearing and wriggled his eyebrows.

A peplos-type dress with a gold rim around the sleeves and waist. This was a costume that only the goddesses of the Orca Empire could wear. The problem was that the owner of the clothes she was wearing, he knew way too well.

For a moment, Rubros's mind remembered the words of the adjutant before leaving here.

'Recently, Siren, which attracts sailors in waters off Andemos, is in full swing. Please be careful as the sea is getting fierce from time to time due to the anger of God.'

Dark blue hair that comes down to the waist. Blue-ish skin color. Even an appearance reminiscent of a little girl.

The woman in front of him looked exactly like Siren in the old book.

Rubros gritted his teeth and growled in a low voice.

"Was that what you did, Siren?"

This time, the woman made an expression that she could not understand the English language, and with a nod, she spoke out an unknown language again. Rubros suddenly grabbed the woman's neck in anger. It wasn't tight enough to make her die, but the woman struggled, probably because it was hard to breathe.

Dissatisfied with her appearance, he shouted in a slightly stronger tone.

"I asked you if you did it!"

But the woman just struggled to get out of his hands and had no answer. His grip grew stronger and stronger in anger.

At that moment, when she was struggling to breathe, he heard a sudden gust of wind and the sound of an angry wave.

Curious, the soldiers began to look at the shore. One of them looked at the sea and shouted.

"This is the wrath of the god-! The sea is raging-!"

At the shout of the soldiers, Rubros relaxed his hands and looked at the sea in a hurry. On the shoreline seen in the distance, strong waves raging wildly as if they were about to overturn the sailing boat.

"What's this….!"

Clearly, until a while ago, it was a beach where only a gentle breeze blew, not even waves. Before he could take off, the woman out of his grasp fell helplessly to the floor. His eyes were on the woman who had fallen for a while.

She didn't even move as if she had lost consciousness, but it didn't seem like she was dead, as her chest occasionally went up and down.

After staring at her for a while with a complicated face, the rough waves calmed down again as if they had never been.

Recognizing that, Rubros's expression became more confused.

'Isn't it the siren's fault for the wrath of God? But when I try to kill the siren, the sea goes wild, what is this……'

Did she notice his confused feelings? The deputy, who had been silently watching the situation from the beginning, approached him and asked carefully.

"What are you going to do with this woman?"

"......."

Rubros had no answer for a while to the deputy's question. He looked at the woman and the sea alternately, consolidating his thoughts for a long time, then finally opened his mouth.

"......take him to the castle. I think we need to investigate it a little more."

Rubros's expression, looking down at the woman, became complicated again.

* * * *

There was blue sea water everywhere.

And Iran was singing while standing on a cliff on the shore with a clear view of the sea.

'Ah, this is….'

Iran instinctively knew that she was dreaming. Perhaps it was because what happened on the coast the day after falling on an uninhabited island was strongly memorable.

On the day when she sang on a cliff along the coast to overcome her fear of being alone, a white creature came toward her from the distant sea.

A white, smooth, streamlined body that reflects and shines in the sun's light. Triangular flat fins. The true identity of the creature with its lovely black eyes was none other than the white dolphin.

「.......You've come, Seiren.」

A mysterious voice that seems to resonate in my head, not my ears. In the sunlight and sparkling blue seawater, a white dolphin. It seemed to have been seen on the coast of Jeju Island, sticking its head out of the water.

"You're…. the one I saw a while ago…...?"

But dolphins don't seem to understand Iran, do they? All they could do was make a noise. Come to think of it, my voice was a little different. The voice I just heard was like a little boy, not a woman.

"Did you bring me here?"

The fact that she was talking to the dolphin itself was unrealistic, but somehow Iran felt that the dolphin understood what she was saying. Then, a voice rang in my head again.

「......I'm not the one who called you. I came to see Siren at the request of God.」

God? Iran paused for a moment at the unfamiliar word, but that wasn't the point now. Iran first asked the most curious questions.

"Better than that, where am I? I was definitely on the beach at Jeju Island….."

「This is the sea of Edel. This is what humans call the Andemos Islands.」

Andemos Islands. It was a place I've never even heard of. She asked a second question.

"Then did God bring me here? Why? For what?"

Then the dolphin spoke again in a slightly subdued voice.

「……Siren has sinned. God tried to punish Siren, but God's child begged him. She asked for one more chance.」

"My name is Iran, not Siren."

「The soul is the same. That's why you were able to come here.」

Iran couldn't even understand what the dolphin was saying. What do you mean by soul and being able to come here? No matter how many times she thought about it, she doesn't believe it's just about being washed up on an island.

As I stared blankly at the dolphins because I was speechless, I heard a desperate voice again.

「Please, Siren. Please put Anima's anger to rest. You're the only one with a human soul that can do it.」

Iran immediately recalled the voice of a clear woman on the beach of Jeju Island.

'And please..... put Anima's anger to rest…..'

'What is Anima? What the hell am I supposed to do?'

But even before Iran could ask about it, the surrounding area became brighter and brighter, and the dolphin's figure started to fade away little by little.

* * * *

"Sigh.... when the land will come out."

Iran leaned against the railing of the ship, staring at the sea endlessly.

It has already been three days since she left the uninhabited island by the ship. It was only for a short time that she looked at the endless sea because it was amazing, and now even it withered as a small island continued to be invisible.

To make matters worse, she felt dizzy and uncomfortable because of the seasickness that she had never experienced before. For now, she just wanted to step on the ground as soon as possible.

Fortunately, they didn't lock up or starve Iran, but they only provided dry bread and a little water.

'Well, if it wasn't for the dolphin, I don't think they would have treated me this much…..'

Iran lowered her head to the bottom of the ship. The white dolphin she saw on an uninhabited island had been following them by the ship for days.

After being strangled by the hand of an unknown man, Iran woke up in the dark ship's warehouse. It was a sign of gratitude to the dolphin that she was able to be free, who had been locked in a place where the entrance was tightly sealed.

'Siren's friend.... they said.'

A white dolphin that was constantly bumping into the ship as if to protest against those who wanted to take her. Irritated by the action, the men took Iran, who was trapped in a warehouse, to the deck. And the dolphin stopped attacking the ship only after hearing Iran's voice.

'Looking at the fact that he didn't try to harm the dolphin, he's like a spirit creature.'

It seemed that she was the only one who could talk to the dolphin. To prove that, after Iran appeased the wild dolphins, they no longer locked Iran in warehouses. It can be also because of her mood, but the way they looked at her that day seemed to have softened a bit.

'By the way, the guy. Why did he attack me out of the blue?'

He didn't mean to kill her, but she thought she had at least a blue bruise because her neck was still burning.

She still vividly remembered the dark red hair, peremptory figure, and the reddish-brown eyes that turned sharp as soon as he saw Iran's clothes. He hasn't shown a face since Iran sweetened the dolphin, apparently deliberately avoiding her.

'I wish I could communicate with you…..'

At that time, when she sighed deeply in frustration, she heard a longship horn from the mainmast.

Ppuuu-! Ppuuu-!

And with that sound as a signal, the people in the cabin started coming up to the deck one by one.

Iran followed them to the front of the ship and she looked at the bow (the front of the hull, the bow).

Small islands began to be seen one by one on the distant sea.

As the ship got closer and closer, the number of islands visible gradually increased.

'Wow…… how many islands are there? they said it's Andemos Islands….. maybe they're islands like the Philippines?'

From small islands like the uninhabited island where Iran used to be, to large islands of unknown size.

She looked around frantically.

The sailing ship, which had been traveling between numerous islands, soon set its course toward the highest and largest island.

At first glance, she could tell that the ship's destination was there. Even from a considerable distance, buildings stacked with white bricks stood out.

As if reminiscent of Santorini in Greece, the island had a structure that gradually increased toward the center. It was so vast that I couldn't see inside, but the white brick road that started from the beach spiraled upwards along the slope, winding up around the island.

The whole island looked like a huge city.

'I've been Following them…. Is that a good thing to do?'

If she wanted to run away, she would have escaped the ship with the Dolphin's help, but she knew it wouldn't be a fundamental solution. Whatever the case, she made up her mind to try something first.

'Yeah... even if it's the worst-case scenario, I'd only add death.'

She had already suffered twice as much as death. After all, there was nowhere to go now.