People become broken when they fall in love.

Dante recalled this teaching passed down from his father, Count Garcia. However, he never expected to witness its truth through none other than Kian von Larson. A man who once showed no interest in women suddenly brought in a mistress whom he cherished obsessively, only to completely lose his mind in the end.

After his mistress fled, anyone could see he was no longer in his right mind. For a while, he sealed off the territory and searched meticulously for his runaway mistress. Dante had even heard that Kian braved storms to scour the coastline, determined to find at least the body of the woman who had jumped into the sea.

Strangely, while performing such dangerous acts, he remained unharmed—yet this time he nearly drowned and hovered between life and death for four days. This was a man who had been unmatched in swimming during their military academy days. He must have entered the water deliberately seeking death.

Having regained consciousness, he should be resting quietly, but instead, he immediately summoned Dante. His unpredictable behavior seemed even more precarious now.

“Are you feeling better?”

“…I’m fine.”

Despite his claim, there was something vacant about him, like someone who had lost his senses. When Dante had previously been commissioned to investigate Vivianne, he found no traces of her except for one piece of information—rumors about a woman found collapsed n*ked on the beach, just like her.

When Dante had offered to investigate this lead, Kian flatly refused. Though curious about his reasons, Dante hadn’t pressed the matter. After looking into it independently, he was glad Kian had declined—the woman had told him stories that were difficult to believe.

Now, however, Kian wanted to pursue this very lead. What had changed his mind remained a mystery, especially since rumors widely circulated that his mistress was already dead.

Dante couldn’t understand why Kian was so intent on digging into his deceased mistress’s past. Looking at his disheveled appearance, however, Dante thought it better to humor him, even if it seemed pointless.

“I didn’t think you’d believe me, so I brought her directly.”

“You brought the person herself?”

“Yes. But I should warn you—she seems somewhat unhinged. I told her she’d be compensated for speaking honestly, but she keeps saying strange things.”

“What kind of things?”

Dante glanced around cautiously before hesitantly answering, “She claims she was originally a mermaid or something.”

“Bring her in.”

A glint appeared in Kian’s eyes.

“Right now.”

* * *

The woman Dante brought clearly appeared unsophisticated at first glance. Kian carefully observed her as she sat across from him on the reception room sofa, her head lowered.

Like all merfolk, she was beautiful, but her current human form was dressed shabbily, suggesting she wasn’t of high status. Her complexion revealed obvious signs of exhaustion.

“Um… you’ll compensate me properly, right? That’s why I came. My child is very sick, and I need money.”

The woman, who had been nervously glancing around, spoke first. She seemed desperate, and her inability to fix her gaze suggested considerable anxiety.

“I’ll assign a dedicated physician to care for your child, so don’t worry about medical expenses. I’ll also provide separate compensation to ensure you don’t face any financial difficulties.”

The woman’s eyes widened, apparently surprised by the generous offer.

“Of course, everything depends on how thoroughly you answer my questions. If you lie, you’ll face the consequences.”

“…Yes.”

The woman nodded and adjusted her posture, looking slightly tense.

“What’s your name?”

“Alice, sir.”

“Good, Alice. I hear you were once a mermaid. Can you tell me how you became human?”

Alice swallowed hard before beginning her story.

“I fell in love with a human male at first sight. He treated my wounds when I got caught in a net, then released me… but I couldn’t forget him and wanted to meet him again. I wanted to become his female and bear his offspring.”

Her word choice was strikingly similar to Vivianne’s—terms like “male” and “offspring” that seemed unrefined for human speech.

“To stay near humans, I needed legs. A witch told me she could give me legs if I made a contract with her.”

This too was something Vivianne had tearfully mentioned.

“What exactly did this contract entail?”

“I sacrificed half my soul for temporary legs. But it was truly temporary… When the red moon rises, I needed to be carrying that male’s offspring to become fully human.”

Kian recalled Vivianne’s expressed desire for offspring. Her eyes had undulated like waves, and even while clinging to him desperately for physical intimacy, she had possessed a yearning beyond mere passion.

“Otherwise, the witch would take my remaining half, and the contracted mermaid would dissolve into sea foam and disappear. In other words, complete annihilation.”

Vanishing without a trace—it was a chilling thought. Unaware of this, he had given her contraceptives. Kian had done so because of his mother, who had died from childbirth complications.

He had been anxious about subjecting the frail Vivianne to the ordeal of childbirth. Yet he never sought her consent. Deceiving her with chocolate’s sweetness, he had mistakenly believed he was acting in her best interest.

Vivianne had even overdosed on the contraceptives without knowing what they were. Her despondent behavior after fainting from that incident now made sense.

“Conversely, is it possible to transform back into a mermaid while having legs?”

Theodore had claimed to have seen Vivianne transform that night when she was caught swimming. However, it had been dark, so he might have been mistaken.

Still, if she couldn’t transform into a mermaid, the chances of Vivianne surviving her leap from the cliff were extremely slim. Therefore, he wanted to confirm this first.

“Because the witch’s potion isn’t complete, there’s a side effect where you can transform back into a mermaid. It happened to me too. Until the red moon rises, you’re not fully human. When your feet hurt, a tail can appear at any time, so you need to soak your feet in seawater.”

“If she grew a tail, she would be in the sea then.”

“No. While that’s possible briefly… just as she’s not fully human, in that state she’s not fully a mermaid either, so she can’t stay in the sea for long periods.”

“You mean… she must come ashore?”

“Yes. After a certain time, the tail reverts back to legs. Until the red moon rises and she becomes human, she remains in an unstable state.”

Kian’s eyes widened. This meant Vivianne couldn’t remain indefinitely in the sea. If she could only stay underwater temporarily but had to return to land, then she could be found.

If she were alive…

If he searched the entire country…

Could he meet Vivianne again?

His heartbeat quickened.

“Do you know someone named Vivianne?”

It was a somewhat impulsive question, born from the slender hope that if Alice was also a mermaid, perhaps they knew each other.

“Vivianne?”

Alice repeated the name with a start, suggesting recognition.

“Vivianne is definitely… the youngest princess. Other merfolk can’t use the same names as royalty.”

A princess.

He recalled how Matilda had confidently described Vivianne as a “nobly raised young lady.”

“So you know Vivi.”

“Yes. Probably no mermaid doesn’t know her. I worked as a lady-in-waiting at the mermaid palace, so I saw her often. Since she was very young then, she might not remember me.”

Alice’s face brightened, apparently pleased to discuss someone familiar.

“But how do you know the princess?”

It was natural for her to be curious about a human knowing a mermaid.

When Kian remained silent with a contemplative expression, Alice seemed to think she had overstepped and didn’t press further.

“The princess… was the palace’s treasure. Until she disrupted the ritual.”

“What do you mean?”

“The princess diverted the sacrifice meant for the ritual… causing problems with the ceremony. She received a curse from the temple.”

A memory suddenly flashed through his mind.

“The master of Larson should know about the ‘Mermaid’s Sea.'”

“The ritual isn’t elaborate. The direct bloodline of Larson simply sails out and throws the sacrifice into the sea.”

It related to the “Larson duty” mentioned by the previous Duchess.

“But why… did you return alive?”

“You were the sacrifice. You should have died, devoured by that sea that day. So why are you my son? How could a sacrifice that should have consumed the vessel be here?”

Eleanor von Larson’s resentful voice echoed in his ears.

That night, Kian had been the sacrifice for the Mermaid’s Sea. And the one who saved him from that fate was Vivianne.

“The princess who saves the sacrifice becomes another sacrifice herself. That’s the content of the curse.”

He had to find Vivianne.