Nelisa finished with the official business and took a half-step back, shifting into a slightly more relaxed posture.
“You two have been busy at sea for many days; it’s time you took a rest.” She raised a hand and pointed toward the end of the pier. “The guest rooms are ready; they were tidied up the day before yesterday. Hot water and a change of clothes have been prepared. If you have any dietary restrictions, just let the kitchen know directly.”
Klein gave a grunt of affirmation but didn't say anything else.
Nelisa waited a beat. Seeing that he had no intention of leaving yet, her gaze drifted slightly toward the ship.
“That one—Miss Aphros’s accommodations... shall I lead the way for her as well?” she asked naturally.
Klein thought for a moment and shook his head.
“Just tell me where the pool is. Ophelia and I will handle the arrangements ourselves.”
Nelisa’s hand paused for a fraction of a second.
She briskly gave him the location and added, “Everyone there recognizes you; they won't stop you.”
“I still have some matters to attend to, so I’ll take my leave first.”
With that, she nodded to the two of them and turned to walk back along the pier. Her pace was neither hurried nor slow, her hem tracing a clean arc around her ankles. After walking about ten paces, she leaned her head toward the worker who had caught up and whispered a few words; the worker nodded and ran off.
From beginning to end, she didn't look back even once.
Klein watched that dark gray silhouette disappear around the corner of the harbor warehouse and let out a long breath.
His shoulders finally dropped.
It wasn't the kind of tension where he was deliberately bracing himself, but rather the sudden collapse that follows days of his mind hovering at a constant level of alert once the support is removed.
He rolled his neck, and his cervical spine gave a loud crack.
“Alright.” He clapped his hands and said to Ophelia beside him, “Everything seems to be settled.”
Ophelia’s gaze remained on the direction Nelisa had gone, only pulling back after a moment.
“She reacts very quickly,” Ophelia remarked. Her tone held no praise or criticism; it was a simple statement of fact.
“In her line of work, anyone who reacts slowly would have been eaten alive long ago,” Klein said, already walking toward the side of the ship.
The two of them stood side-by-side at the gunwale, looking down.
In the shadow cast by the hull, the seawater was dark and murky. Nothing could be seen clearly.
Klein crouched down, one hand braced on the deck, and spoke at a normal volume. “You heard all that, right?”
The water’s surface shimmered.
Aphros’s face emerged from the shadows. More accurately, it was half a face—she still only showed the part above her eyes, the tip of her nose just touching the water. Her grayish-green eyes darted around, looking first at Klein and then at Ophelia. Only after confirming there was no one else on the pier did she lift her entire face out of the water.
“I heard you,” she said, her lips still wet, some syllables muffled by the water droplets. “I’ll stay quietly in that... pool.”
She emphasized the word “pool,” her expression a bit subtle.
Klein couldn’t help but quirk the corner of his mouth. The way she looked now, if the setting were different, she’d look just like a child who had followed a stranger and only started having second thoughts after arriving. She knew she had already come this far and couldn't back out, but she still felt like something wasn't quite right.
“What are you afraid of?” Klein asked.
Aphros’s gaze drifted toward the pier, her voice kept very low. “That person... she was watching me the whole time.”
“That’s Nelisa. It’s normal for her to look at you—you’re a new face, a new species. She manages this place, so she has to confirm your situation.” Klein’s tone was very level, no different from how one might coax a child. “As long as we’re here, she won’t do anything to you.”
Aphros didn't say a word. She rested her chin on the water’s surface, her mouth puffed out, sending up a couple of bubbles.
Ophelia watched for a while and then suddenly crouched down beside Klein.
“You don’t like being watched?” she asked Aphros.
Aphros tilted her head, thought about it, and answered seriously, “It’s not that I don’t like it. It’s that I can’t understand what she’s thinking. I can understand the expressions on you two. But hers... I can’t.”
Klein and Ophelia exchanged a look.
Ophelia didn't mind, but Klein felt a bit disgruntled—the way she put it made it sound like he wore his heart on his sleeve.
“You’ll get used to it slowly.” Klein stood up and brushed the dust off his knees. “Let’s get you settled first. Once I find a way to alchemize some legs for you, you’ll be able to walk around on land. Then you can show whatever attitude you want to whoever you want.”
Aphros blinked.
“Legs?”
“Yes.” Klein raised his hand and gestured toward his own legs. “These. With these, you can walk on land.”
Aphros looked down at her fish tail hidden beneath the water, then back up at Klein’s legs. Her expression was filled with a very pure confusion—not questioning whether it could be done, but simply unable to imagine what it would feel like to have those things on her own body.
“Walking... what is it like?” she asked.
Ophelia’s lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but she didn't speak.
Klein pondered for a few seconds and realized this was a genuinely difficult question to answer.
How do you explain the sensation of walking to a fish?
“You’ll know once you have them.” He decided to skip the question, leaning over to untie the mooring rope from the pier’s post. “Let’s go. To your new nest first.”
“Nest?” Aphros tilted her head again.
“A place to stay,” Ophelia translated for him.
Aphros gave an “oh” and shrank back into the water, her tail flicking under the ship and sending up a spray of water.
“Then how do we get there? You can’t expect me to crawl on the ground, can you?”
Klein didn't answer. He raised one hand, palm down, fingers slightly spread.
The moment his mana surged, the nature of the seawater beneath Aphros’s feet—or rather, beneath her tail—suddenly changed. That section of seawater was lifted whole, severed cleanly from the surrounding surface as if cut by a knife.
Aphros was lifted along with it.
She was stunned for a moment, looking down at the mass of seawater floating beneath her, then peered over the edge—below her was no longer the sea, but the flagstone ground of the wharf.
“!”
Her mouth fell open, but no sound came out. Her tail snapped back, curling into the very center of the water mass.
Then, she plucked up her courage and reached out a finger—she extended it halfway before pulling it back, hesitating for a breath before finally touching the boundary of the water mass.
It bounced back.
It didn't break.
She simply started swimming, doing a lap inside this sphere of water that had been separated from the ocean. Her tail kicked up a ripple as it brushed the boundary, but the water mass itself remained perfectly still.
Ophelia watched this scene, her lips twitching involuntarily.
Klein held his hand up, maintaining the spell, and glanced at her. “Don't laugh. This is exhausting.”
“I’m not laughing.” Ophelia smoothed her expression and paused for a beat. “...Let’s go.”
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