Chapter 1: Someone’s Watching Me...

I was taking a shower but I felt like I was being watched.

These days, I had been totally captivated by and restlessly researching merpeople day and night.

My fascination with this mysterious species had caused a merman to appear in my dreams a few days ago.

He was majestic, young, and about three meters tall. His upper body was muscular, and his tail was iridescent black. A tail so powerful that a single movement had the strength to produce a huge, engulfing wave.

But my dream wasn’t related to my research topic at all, because this merman was a demon!

And now I felt like I was being watched in the comfort of my own university dormitory bathroom.

The walls and the floor of my bathroom felt like they had turned into glass, and a pair of sharp glowing eyes were staring at me from below. My entire body, including my private parts felt exposed and peeped at by probing eyes.

At that moment, I wanted to quickly cover up my body with a towel.

Just then, a fragrance came over me, drowning all my senses. My hand weakly slipped from the wall and my entire body collapsed to the ground. I suddenly had no energy to pick myself up.

I was supposed to be lying on the ground but at this moment, my body seemed to be floating on the surface of water, drifting along with the current.

In an instant, my body felt like it was pressed against something cold. Its icy cold feeling was similar to seawater. The fragrance grew stronger and I started to smell the saltiness of the seawater.

I wanted to escape but I was unable to muster any energy, especially in my legs which felt like they were entangled in something wet and slippery.

I looked down and saw a black fishtail restraining my legs. The tailfin had red speckles on it, similar to a blood-stained dagger.

My upper body was stuck with another humanoid body. Although its body temperature was lower than a normal human being, its strength was incomparable.

It had a pair of hands, or more accurately, a pair of webbed claws with a transparent membrane between each of its fingers.

This pair of hands were moving up from my belly button bit by bit. Soon, they almost touch my chest.

A deep sigh rang behind me.

Right then, I felt a hard body against my back.

If I was not mistaken, it was the merman’s body! A body more solid than a normal man's was tightly hugging me from behind.

I felt alarmed and scared. ‘This brute intends to… but I am a human, what is this merman going to do to me?’

And the body that was pressed against my back stirred. He rubbed more closely behind me, then inadvertently touched my sensitive shoulder with his chin.

His agile tail slowly separated my legs and the tail fin traversed up towards my pelvic area.

My entire body started to shudder. I was resisting it mentally, but my body couldn't resist this feeling.

Just then, a fragrance filled the space around me.

My body flushed to a shade of red and unbeknownst to me, my legs were getting weaker and weaker. It was hard for me to support my body, so much so that I seemed to be leaning on the merman’s body even more.

I heard a chuckle come from behind me as I could almost feel the corners of the merman’s mouth curling up in my ear.

‘This must be a dream. I must have delved too deep into my research on merpeople, that’s why I’m having a dream like this.

‘Even if there was such a thing as a live merperson, why would it suddenly appear in my bathroom?’

But the dream felt so real.

I was left in disbelief even as that firm body seemed intent on entering my own, and I couldn’t stop myself from trembling.

Suddenly, the bathroom door opened.

“Ah!” shouted my roommate, “Linda, why are you lying on the floor?”

I was utterly embarrassed—was she going to see the look on my face as a merman bewitched me?

My mouth gaped open but I couldn’t utter a word.

The cool sensation behind my back was gone, and the strong fragrance slowly disappeared.

My roommate helped me up and said with concern, “You must have been tired out from your research on the merpeople and passed out in the bathroom.”

“You’re about to set off to find traces of the merpeople with the professor. You’ve got to take care of yourself, otherwise it might happen again at sea.”

Dazedly, I started to have suspicions about the experience earlier.

‘Am I really so tired that I just fainted?

‘So what happened earlier was just a dream?

‘Why do I keep having the same dream these past few days?’