The Little Merman Demands Legs from the Sea Witch - Chapter 42
“You mean that woman selling the potions?”
“And what do you plan to do if you find her?”
“I’ve got some business with her.”
The man with the gold tooth snickered as he knocked the skewer out of Kashmir’s hand.
“Ah…”
Seeing the skewer fall into the sand, Kashmir’s irritation boiled over, and his long-suppressed anger finally erupted. He grabbed the man with the gold tooth and threw him into the sea.
“What business do you have with her?”
“You think you can touch me and get away with it?!”
As the man splashed around in the water, he yelled angrily.
“I’m part of the infamous Black Sand Pirates!”
The man, who had barely managed to swim back to the shore, started spouting nonsense, claiming that the Black Sand Pirates would take over Kokoya Village tonight, even though no one had asked him.
But Kashmir was no less notorious. He clenched his fist and struck the beach. A loud thud echoed as the ground trembled.
Using his powers might reveal his true identity, but what did that matter? There was no witch left to get angry about it.
As Kashmir punched the ground several more times, the surface of the water shook, and soon a massive wave surged forward, swallowing the pirate ship whole. The large vessel was shattered to pieces in an instant. The man with the gold tooth stood in shock, his jaw practically on the ground.
“So, why were you looking for the woman who was with me earlier?”
Kashmir’s cold glare made the man swallow nervously. Trembling, the man admitted that he wanted to capture Iko, the woman selling the mysterious potions, to find out where the potions came from and make a profit.
“So you were someone who shouldn’t be left alive. You won’t get away with messing with the wrong person.”
Kashmir grabbed the man’s chin and pressed down with enough force to make him scream in pain as he opened his mouth.
“Come to think of it, that witch likes valuable things. Gold is valuable, too.”
Without giving the man a chance to resist, Kashmir yanked out the gold tooth he had been bragging about. Even though the man had messed with something beyond human, he should have considered himself lucky to be alive. But just as he thought he was safe, his body was lifted off the ground and thrown back into the sea.
This time, he was dragged under by an unseen force, unable to swim back up to the surface.
Kashmir looked out at the now-calm sea, then picked up the fallen skewer. He brushed off the sand with his hand and took a bite, only to find that some of the sand still remained. It tasted terrible.
Yet Kashmir forced himself to eat the entire skewer, feeling no satisfaction or sense of accomplishment from it. He wondered why he even bothered eating it when all it did was upset his stomach. He couldn’t understand why he had done it.
Was it because he wanted to go to Iko and show her that he had eaten it all without complaining? Did he think she would be pleased by that?
No, Iko wouldn’t even pretend to care. She had told him not to visit her like a friend anymore, so she wouldn’t even open the door for him. She was a cold, heartless witch.
“I miss her.”
But despite that, he missed even her cold face. He wanted to eat her warm food instead of this sandy skewer. In truth, it didn’t even have to be warm—even if it was cold, everything she made tasted good.
Even if she didn’t make it for him, he would be happy just to hear her scold him for messing up the meal, saying that anything the prince touched turned out bad.
Something wet rolled down Kashmir’s cheek.
It was… the first time he had ever shed tears.
The tears that dripped from his chin quickly hardened and turned into sparkling beads.
Kashmir felt like he was going to go crazy from missing her. He wanted to swim back to the witch’s house right now. But as Iko’s words, telling him never to show his face again, echoed in his ears, he couldn’t bring himself to move.
“How could she say something like that? People were right when they said witches are cruel.”
Kashmir continued to cry in sorrow, and soon a small pile of beads formed in front of him. Iko had once asked him to give her a merperson’s tears, and he had told her to try making him cry if she could. Now that she had really made him cry, Kashmir’s pride was wounded.
Even so, he diligently collected the tears he had shed. She wouldn’t care about the skewer, and while she might be tempted by the gold tooth, it wouldn’t be enough. He thought about offering more of his scales to her, but she already had plenty from the potions she had made.
But the merfolk’s tears were different. This was something she had longed for. If he offered them to her, that greedy witch would definitely agree to another deal.
It felt pathetic to go to such lengths just to see her, but what else could he do? He missed her that much.
‘But I shouldn’t give her all of them at once. If I do, she’ll just kick me out again, saying the deal is over without even batting an eye.’
Kashmir decided he would hold on and only give her one tear at a time, whenever he felt like he couldn’t take it anymore.
