Mermaid Care Diary - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The Mermaid woke up early the next morning.

From the monitoring room, I could clearly see the look of astonishment on its face as it opened its eyes and took in the surrounding seawater.

As it turned out, a Mermaid’s eyes were a clear, glazed glass color.

I took a bite of my steamed bun, watching as it swam an excited lap around the large tank.

It quickly reached the edge of the glass.

This wasn’t the ocean.

To the creature, it had simply moved from one cage to another.

The Mermaid swam another lap, touching the edges in disbelief until despair finally set in.

After finishing my bun, I changed into my lab coat and entered the laboratory carrying a basket of fish.

The Mermaid noticed the movement immediately.

It sat silently on a jagged rock, watching me with a wary gaze.

I tapped on the glass and gestured for it to look at the medicine in my hand.

According to the coordinator, Mermaids were capable of simple communication with humans, but this one refused to make a sound, no matter how much pain it was in or how close it came to a breakdown.

Because of this, they had concluded that it was a mute Mermaid.

“Take your medicine, and the wounds on your body will heal faster.”

From behind the glass, I performed an exaggerated pantomime of taking the pills.

I dropped the medicine into the tank.

The Mermaid didn’t budge, watching coldly as the pills sank into the crevices of the rocks.

Fine, the kid was being difficult.

Sighing, I took out a fish, stuffed a pill into its belly right in front of the Mermaid, and tossed the fish in.

This time, the Mermaid reacted.

During yesterday’s examination, I had noticed its stomach was completely empty; it looked like it hadn’t eaten in a long time.

The Mermaid extended its sharp claws to snatch the fish.

Then, it quickly realized its claws weren’t as long as they used to be.

Staring at its neatly trimmed claws, the Mermaid’s eyes filled with surprise.

I had only clipped the parts that were overgrown.

After three months without hunting, its claws had become somewhat deformed.

It lowered its gaze and swam toward the glass.

Then, right in front of me, it gutted the fish, plucked out the hidden medicine, threw it aside, and swallowed the fish in one gulp.

After eating, it licked its claws and gave me a chilling look.

With the animals I’d handled before who refused to take their medicine, I would usually just grab them by the neck and force it down.

But a Mermaid… this was the first time I’d ever raised such a large creature.

“If you won’t take the pills, do you want a shot instead?”

I tried to reason with it.

“You can feel that your body is in bad shape, right? This medicine suppresses the virus inside you. If you try to tough it out without it, you won’t last three days.”

I held up three fingers to emphasize the point.

The Mermaid stared at me fixedly, then slapped a passing Sea Turtle away with its tail-clearly displeased by my threatening words.

The poor Sea Turtle ended up upside down, spinning helplessly in circles.

“Don’t throw a tantrum.”

I tapped the glass and showed it two identical pills in the palm of my hand.

I stuffed one into a fish and swallowed the other one myself.

“Now, do you believe me?”