Being Strong On Your Own

Chapter 54: Mermaid Island

Erik called his grandfather from below with a shouting voice.

"Grandfather I brought customers here."

"I'm not deaf, don't yell like that."

Arina thinks what's wrong with this grandfather's granddaughter.

They were gathered on a stone made to resemble chairs and tables.

"So, I'd love it if you guys would rent my boat. Unfortunately as you can see we can't get out of here because the gap is too narrow."

More precisely because the ship was too big.

"That kind of thing doesn't matter, I'm sure Arina can destroy it with magic."

"Truly, I can do it."

"Thank God grandpa."

"Well, there's finally a chance to get him to sail."

Not wanting to waste any more time they start pulling anchors to the surface and letting the current carry them.

"Arina I leave it to you" Grey said with a warm smile.

"Give it to me."

He stood in front then stuck out his staff to create a giant magic circle.

"Flame Arrow."

With two words a shot of fire was shot through it shattered the narrow gap until it turned into a giant hole.

Everyone could feel the gust of sea breeze passing through them, except Eir everyone seemed to show an expression of happiness.

The sails were stretched out and they left the land.

"Yosh, let's go to mermaid island," the grandfather shouted excitedly.

Moving the ship in winter they have to be clever looking for a gap, sometimes there are a few chunks of ice that can make the ship sink.

With Erik's navigation and his grandfather's experience they were able to get through the problem until finally from a distance they could see a large island. Since there were some chunks of ice around it, the ship had to stop and from here Grey and Arina were going to go there, while Eir was on the ship to keep watch if bad things happened.

"Nearly, thank you."

"I'm now sure why they won't come here."

The two of them reached the island and saw that the mermaids had welcomed them in human form with their feet.

"They're not naked, usually they don't wear anything on their bodies."

"It's natural, in cold weather no one will do that."

"Sorry Grey disappointed you."

"I have no intention of seeing such a thing" he argued.

In short they use foliage as clothing although obviously it is not effective.

"Thank you for coming, I'm Olivier's leader in this tribe."

"I'm Grey, we came after seeing the letter."

"Thank you very much, this is also thanks to Arina."

"That's not a problem for me."

"Please follow me to our settlement."

They were guided to come to a settlement containing simple huts.

Grey glanced to and fro and asked.

"There's no men here?"

"Grey, there are no men in the mermaid tribe, we can reproduce same-sex and give birth to other mermaids, of course we do it without bonds such as marriage or family, he said, we're all mothers to the mermaids who were born, by the way I'm going to tell you how we did that."

"Arina shouldn't be ashamed to say that outspokenly."

"What's wrong, Grey's a grown man."

"There's actually something you can't hear even if you're a grown man" Grey's words couldn't reach anyone.

They went into a small wooden hut where Olivier casually poured tea into a cup to serve them both.