Chapter 195 — The Intelligence Brought by Tyr

Tyr the sea siren took up residence in Lord Cecil's manor, becoming a neighbor to Hetty and Rebecca.

To this young siren lady, who had spent her whole life in the deep sea, the human world was fresh and fascinating. It was true that sirens occasionally went ashore to travel, but that was the sort of thing only the restless, over-curious ones did. For Tyr, whose greatest joy in life was hibernating until she slept herself to death, such an idea—a colossal waste of time and energy—would obviously never have crossed her mind. Had she not swum the wrong way, she most likely would never have set foot on this land west of the great ocean in her entire life.

But now, by sheer mischance, she had swum to this place and seen the human world, and Tyr suddenly felt... that running about outside now and then seemed rather interesting after all.

These human houses built upon dry land, the crops growing between air and soil, the strange and wondrous cultures and traditions—they did seem a bit more interesting than curling up at home and sleeping all day.

And Gao Yang arranged a "bed" for the siren lady that suited her requirements.

In a guest room on the manor's ground floor, Gao Yang had a great wooden chest brought in that took up a full third of the room's area, and had Hetty reinforce it with magic. Then he filled the chest with clear water (salted, of course). It was hardly a match for the real ocean, but Tyr was quite satisfied: what this siren lady insisted upon was sleep itself; so long as there was enough room for her to stay in, that was fine.

"Not bad. Plenty of room to sleep in here," the siren lady said with satisfaction, stirring the water in the chest with her fingers. "Thanks for the trouble."

Gao Yang looked over the room's arrangement. With such an enormous "fish tank" installed, the space left for furniture had naturally shrunk. Now, apart from a table and chairs and a storage cabinet, there remained only a small single bed—one he had deliberately kept. "Actually, you might try sleeping in a bed. It should be a unique experience."

"I'll try it, I'll try it," Tyr said, waving her hand impatiently. Then, right in front of Gao Yang, she leapt backward in a fish-like arc into the great chest full of clear water. Water splashed everywhere, and out of the spray a long tail rose from beneath the surface and gave a little flick in the air. "But I still like sleeping in here~"

Gao Yang froze at the sight of that tail tip. It was not the fish tail he had seen before, but a tail like a sea serpent's!

Amber beside him could not help crying out: "Whoa, how did your tail change?!"

"Oh?" Tyr blinked, turning her head to look at the sea-serpent tail swishing behind her, and was surprised herself. "Seems I changed it wrong... Never mind, doesn't matter. I won't be swimming around much here anyway, and a snake tail is easier to move with."

"So you sirens can change your tails at will?!" Gao Yang again felt he had acquired some incredible new knowledge (though it seemed utterly useless). "I thought upper half human, lower half fish was the standard siren form..."

"Land folk have such narrow horizons," Tyr said, pointing at Gao Yang with the tip of her serpent tail. "That's just your imagination falling short. I could turn my upper half into a fish and my lower half into a human, you know! If you don't believe me, I'll show you right—"

Before she finished, Gao Yang had already pictured in his mind a fat-headed fish with a pair of long white legs running past in front of him, and goosebumps rose in three layers all over his body. "Stop, stop, stop, no need, no need. I get it—you sirens are endlessly transformable..."

"...Such a jumpy bunch," Tyr said, tossing her hair and sinking her upper body into the water, leaving only her head floating on the surface to look at Gao Yang. "Anyway, do you have any other questions? If not, I'm going to sleep... I swam all the way here from the Endless Sea without a single break. I'm exhausted."

"One last question," Gao Yang said quickly, before the other could fall asleep. "About seven hundred years ago... do you know what I experienced back then in siren waters?"

"You're asking me about things you went through yourself?" The siren lady looked at Gao Yang in surprise.

"I slept for a very long time, and when I woke, I found my memories didn't quite match reality," Gao Yang explained. "Besides, humans and sirens see the world differently. What I experienced might look like something else entirely through your eyes..."

"Seven hundred years ago..." Tyr rolled her eyes up in a thinking pose, her tail resting unconsciously on the chest's rim and swaying gently. "Honestly, I don't really know. You did pass through our waters back then, but you only had a little dealings with us sirens. And I was busy getting home to sleep—I just took one look at you from far off on the sea surface and left. What I know about you, I heard from the sisters who talked with you, after they came home. Let me think... ah, right. Back then you were looking for something called the 'Object of Revelation,' but in the end you and my sisters never did manage to make clear just what that so-called 'Object of Revelation' was. So my sisters did as you asked and took you to a place shrouded in a powerful magnetic field. As for what you went through in those waters... I'm not clear on that."

The Object of Revelation? Waters shrouded in a powerful magnetic field?

Gao Yang regretted that Miss Tyr could not provide more intelligence, but from her account, even the sirens who had direct contact with Gao Yang Cecil back then could likely say no more than this: the sirens had merely given him directions. The truly important intelligence was precisely these two key points Tyr had named!

Was that sea region shrouded in a powerful magnetic field the legendary Sea of Eternal Darkness? And what connection did the Object of Revelation have with that towering spire that reached the heavens beneath the starlight? Could it mean those crystals that could amplify satellite signals? Were the crystals Gao Yang Cecil brought out of the tower the Object of Revelation?

"About that sea region shrouded in a powerful magnetic field—are you familiar with it?" Gao Yang asked, unwilling to give up.

Tyr thought for a moment. "It's outside our waters. Not far, but we never go in. The strong magnetic field is only a minor problem—the real trouble is that something called the 'Ancient Wardens' roams about inside, attacking intruders at random. Honestly, when you insisted on going in back then, we all thought you'd gone mad. To think you actually came back alive... and even revived?"

Now there were Ancient Wardens too...

The steady stream of new intelligence stirred in Gao Yang an urge to set out to sea at once, but he knew well that the productive forces and technology of his present territory could not possibly support such a rash ocean voyage. And moreover, some kind of "ancient guardian" of formidable combat power might well exist in that Sea of Eternal Darkness. Still, he added one more remark: "If there's ever a chance in the future, I hope you can take me to that place again."

"You humans really are an adventure-loving species," Tyr said, yawning lazily. "But we'll see if there's a chance. I'm not planning to go back for now. I swam so far to find a place like this—going straight back would feel like such a loss."

As she spoke, the siren lady lifted her eyelids and glanced at Gao Yang. "Besides, swimming is exhausting. I want to rest~"

The subtext was that she could not be bothered to answer any more questions.

"All right, rest first. We'll talk again when there's time," Gao Yang said with a nod, stepping back half a pace. "If you need anything, go to Betty, or come find me directly. I've already shown you the way around in here."

"I know, I know."