Chapter 1

I stopped my chair outside Captain Basque's door and knocked.

Half an hour earlier, what I had overheard outside the lower storeroom still lingered in my mind.

I had meant to fetch some painkillers, and through the half-open door I saw the three of them inside.

Reno's broad back was against the sacks, and he was bent over kissing Lilia, the maid.

Lilia pushed him off, breathless. "Don't. Heloise will be hurt if she sees. You are going to marry her, after all..."

"Don't bring up that tiresome arrangement." Reno raked a hand through his hair, irritated.

“Father insists we owe her our lives and is forcing one of us to marry her to repay the debt. She has no tail now, she can't even walk, and her voice sounds like a broken bellows. Marrying her would be nothing but a burdensome obligation.”

From the shadows, Oslan pushed up his gold wire-rimmed glasses. He spoke calmly, as though stating the obvious.

“It's a debt we owe. There's no getting out of it. But marriage is only a title. Marrying her won't stop us from looking after you. Lilia, you took a bullet for me. To me, you and that cripple are nothing alike.”

My hands tightened around the wheelchair's armrests.

Three months ago, the fleet was caught in a storm in the Mist Sea. Basque was gravely wounded, while a sea spirit cursed Oslan and Reno, turning one into a toad and the other into an octopus.

In truth, I had quietly followed the fleet for years, and Oslan and Reno often leaned over the rail to play with me. I couldn't bear to see them doomed, so I sacrificed my mermaid voice and beautiful tail to the deep-sea witch to save their lives.

Back then, Oslan had clasped my hands, overwhelmed, and sworn to spend the rest of his life caring for me.

Now I had become the cripple they spoke of.

I didn't push the door open. I simply turned my chair and left in silence.

Yet now they believed I had sacrificed the most precious parts of myself merely to bind them to me.

I had loved them from the moment I first saw them.

That was why I had followed the Basque fleet for so many years and guided them out of the fog more times than I could count.

Now, whatever bond we had once shared was gone.

I pulled my thoughts back and pushed open the captain's quarters.

"Heloise, have you made your choice?" Captain Basque leaned back in his chair, looked at my ruined legs, and sighed.

“I know those two bastards have been neglecting you because of that maid. But don't worry. You saved this entire fleet. Whichever one you choose, Reno or Oslan, I'll drag him to the altar myself.”

I shook my head and spoke three words in a voice as rough as sandpaper, perfectly calm. "I'm marrying neither."

Basque stared. "What are you talking about? In your condition, how will you survive without them?"

"I'm not being ridiculous." I touched the faintly burning mark on my collarbone.

"I won't marry either of them because... I'm already engaged."

Basque's brow furrowed. He clearly thought I was bluffing.

I didn't explain further. I wheeled myself out of the cabin.

The moment I reached the deck, Oslan and Reno blocked my way.

Lilia shrank behind them, the picture of fragility.

When he saw me leave their father's cabin, Reno folded his arms. Irritation and condescending resignation tightened his features.

"Well? Finished complaining to Father? Go on, then. Which of us did you choose? Whichever it is, let me make one thing clear: Lilia stays aboard after the wedding. Don't imagine you can drive her away."

Oslan sighed too and stepped forward, his tone full of long-suffering tolerance.

"Heloise, you weren't always this jealous. I know losing your legs has left you insecure, but neither Reno nor I will abandon you. You don't have to keep targeting Lilia."

In their minds I had lost everything and could only cling to them, and this was jealousy dressed up as playing hard to get.

I looked at the two men who had once sworn in the deep sea to love me for the rest of their lives, and nausea rolled through me.

"I already refused," I said coldly.

Lilia looked from Oslan to Reno and stifled a laugh.

"You do want both of them, right?"

The line shredded what little patience I had left.

I closed my eyes and drew on the last faint trace of my mermaid power, hoping to frighten her away.

The calm sea suddenly threw up a huge wave that slammed against the hull.

The ship lurched hard.

Lilia shrieked, fell on the deck, and scraped her palm.

Oslan and Reno steadied themselves and lifted her up between them.

Lilia leaned into Oslan's arms as great tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Heloise, I was wrong, I shouldn't have made that joke. Don't be angry. Please don't hurt them."

Reno flew into a rage, jabbed a finger at me, and unleashed a stream of abuse.

"You vicious woman! Lilia made an offhand remark and you'd capsize an entire ship over it? You're jealous of her!"

I looked at Reno's furious face and found it beyond absurd.

"Jealous? What reason would a mermaid cast out by the sea have to be jealous of anyone?"

Oslan looked at me coldly, his eyes full of disappointment.

"You've changed, Heloise. Ever since Lilia came aboard you've gone after her at every turn."

I had changed?

Two weeks earlier, the fleet had clashed with another pirate crew.

Lilia was knocked down in the chaos, landed directly in front of Oslan, and took a stray bullet for him.

From that moment on, the brothers treated her as Oslan's savior.

Yet that same night, I saw Lilia holding a chisel and trying to bore a hole in a wine cask, a packet of white powder clutched in her other hand.

I stopped her on the spot and demanded to know what she was doing.

She apologized through tears and claimed it was only an ordinary sleeping powder. Everyone was exhausted, she said, and she wanted the fleet to stay in port a few extra days so they could rest.

Oslan and Reno came running at the noise.

But the moment they arrived, Lilia threw the chisel at me and bowed over and over as she begged.

"Don't kill me! I'm only a human orphan. I'll do anything you ask. Please, just spare me!"

I explained to them that Lilia had meant to drug us, and they didn't believe a word of it.

Reno picked up the chisel and accused me of framing her.

Oslan picked Lilia up and comforted her tenderly.

From that day on, I became nothing more than a vicious, jealous invalid in their eyes.

It didn't matter. I had already agreed to return home and accept the arranged marriage.

In seven days, someone would come for me.