Chapter 64

Immediately, I approached the Arowana Prince, who had come to visit, and broached the topic of replenishing the workforce.

"You want to hire mermaids?"

While munching on the pickled radish he always had as a snack, the Arowana Prince repeated our request.

"Yes! Right now, there’s a serious shortage of hands for making the pickled radish that my brother is eating and for other tasks! It’s in the field of pharmacological magic, which the mermaid race excels in!"

"……"

The Arowana Prince rummaged through his bag and pulled out a starfish.

He carries it around with him.

"Not that starfish!!"

Plati knocked the starfish out of the Arowana Prince’s hand.

But he couldn’t help repeating the same joke.

It was at this moment that I first realized they were siblings.

"Anyway! I have my limits in producing the pickled radish that my brother loves so much! So please, just a few hands would be great! Otherwise, I’ll only give the leftover pickled radish to my brother after presenting it to the teacher!!"

"That’s a problem. My dear sister. If you’re going to show favoritism, shouldn’t you favor your own brother?"

It’s quite rare for Plati, who is the Arowana Prince’s real sister, to personally entertain him when he visits frequently, almost weekly.

Usually, she leaves the entertaining to me while she stays in the brewery or goes hunting in the dungeon.

I might even suspect that she dislikes her brother, but the fact that she broke with tradition to entertain him herself conveyed the urgency of the situation.

Something seemed off.

"Plati, I can tell you’re in a bind. …Hmm, replenishing the workforce, huh?"

The Arowana Prince’s expression turned serious.

He continued to munch on the pickled radish.

"…Sir Saint, do you know what the land means to us mermaids?"

"Huh?"

Do you mean, how mermaids perceive the land?

Well, I don’t really know.

I’ve never thought about it before.

But seeing how Plati and others live normally, it seems like a pretty ordinary thing, right?

"It’s hard for me to say, but Plati is considered a very unusual mermaid. …An unusual mermaid? Gah!? Don’t kick me, Plati! Don’t kick your brother!?"

Yeah.

I kind of figured that much.

In other words, Plati, who chose to live on land, is a very rare case because she’s unusual.

"For most mermaids, the land is … hell."

"Whoa…!?"

First of all, mermaids can’t survive on land. They use magic potions to transform into land dwellers, which is a fundamental requirement for living on land.

That’s true.

Plati and the Arowana Prince can easily transform into humans and travel between land and sea, so it’s easy to assume that this is normal.

"Um, I know this might sound strange, but are the potions that mermaids use to transform into humans very valuable?"

"Very valuable indeed."

They seem to be valuable.

Since Plati and the Arowana Prince are part of the royal family of mermaids, they can drink as many of these valuable potions as they want without any issues.

"Indeed, for our family, the transformation potion is not particularly valuable. More precisely, for Plati."

"?"

"Before Plati developed a new potion, the transformation potions were of poor quality. There were time limits for staying on land, side effects like losing one’s voice, and even drastic potions that could cause a mermaid to disappear into bubbles when trying to return to the sea."

"Wait, what? Hold on a second?"

Until Plati developed the new potion, you mean …

"Yes, Plati, through her research, was the first to develop a perfect transformation potion with no side effects. It allows unlimited time on land, and to return to mermaid form, one just needs to take a dedicated reversal potion."

"So until then, the land was completely unknown territory for mermaids!?"

"Yes."

The Arowana Prince sighed.

"Mermaids sometimes used imperfect transformation potions with time limits for specific tasks, but if the effect wore off before they could return to the sea, it was the worst-case scenario. Plati’s new potion hasn’t been widely distributed, so for most mermaids, the land remains a realm of death."

If you think about it, that makes sense.

Conversely, if we asked humans to live in the sea, they would undoubtedly say, "That’s impossible."

This realization made me understand how unreasonable my request was for the mermaids.

And the new potion developed by Plati made it possible.

"Is Plati a genius, then?"

"Yes, you could say that. Sir, you could praise me a bit more, you know?"

A genius, but a thin line away from being a mad genius.

The Arowana Prince continued.

"Therefore, even with Plati’s perfect transformation potion, very few mermaids willingly go to land. Do you know the most common use of Plati’s perfect transformation potion?"

What is it?

"Exile."

An unbelievable answer came back.

In mermaid society, being exiled to land is a severe punishment, second only to the death penalty, for those who commit major crimes.

Of course, this is a relatively new system established after Plati developed the perfect transformation potion.

Mermaids are forced to drink the potion, which permanently transforms them into humans, and are then exiled to land.

Once transformed into humans, mermaids can’t return to their homeland, even if they want to, and must spend the rest of their lives in a foreign land.

For a typical mermaid, the land is a place of death, and they have no family or friends to rely on. The knowledge and skills they’ve cultivated in the depths of the sea are useless in this foreign land.

When put into words, it sounds like an incredibly harsh punishment.

The land is terrifying!

For mermaids, it’s extremely terrifying!!

"How many mermaids would willingly come to work in such a place?"

Would there be any?

No, there wouldn’t.

It’s a rhetorical question.

"Moreover, what you and Sir Saint are looking for are mermaids with a certain level of skill in pharmacological magic, who can help with making pickled radish and potion brewing. Sending such skilled individuals to a place from which they might never return, based on their own will, is … impossible!"

"Right?"

A job where one must be prepared never to return?

"If there’s another way …! No, that’s too much to ask …!"

"What is it!? Is there a good solution!?"

If there’s an effective solution, I don’t have the luxury to be picky.

"As I mentioned earlier, exile to land is a severe punishment for mermaids. Some mermaids, due to their high skills in pharmacological magic, go astray and manufacture banned potions or use attack potions to commit violent acts."

Ah, so you mean …

If you send such individuals here under the pretext of exile, there would be no problem, right?

"No! No way! It’s extremely disrespectful to treat the residence of the great Sir Saint as a penal colony!!"

Saying that, the Arowana Prince greedily munched on the pickled radish.

"Please forget what I just said, Sir Saint! I’ll say it again, our mermaid kingdom owes you a great debt! We will fulfill your requests with the pride of the mermaid race …!"

"It’s fine, isn’t it?"

Suddenly, Plati said.

"Fine, what’s fine?"

Without a subject, it’s hard to understand what Plati means.

"So, it’s fine to have exiled criminals, right? Such potion masters usually have exceptional skills, and they would be much more useful than well-behaved court potion masters."

"Plati? You can’t be serious …!?"

"Anyway, send three of the most dangerous and excellent ones, brother. That way, I can use them without holding back."