Chapter 8
Prologue, The God of the Dream of Immortality
Beautiful ocean, isn't it?
In this village, you can see the sea from anywhere, but the view from here is the best.
In summer, people come from outside for surfing and swimming, and even in winter, some come to fish—so many visitors come that it's considered unusual for such a rural place.
That's why so many souvenir shops have popped up along the street like this.
Bit by bit, even now, more shops are opening, but whenever something new is built, everyone always leaves a little space between houses.
People from nearby villages say it's a waste of land, but it's so spacious here, you have to waste a bit to use it properly.
Some even say it looks ridiculous, like an old person's missing teeth, but hey, since all the customers are coming to our village anyway, let them be jealous.
Right, and by leaving space between houses like this, you can see the sea through the gaps.
In the mornings and evenings, when the light is strongest, the waves all shimmer at once, and it looks like fish scales.
Have you noticed? Many of the shops and inns in this area have mermaid paintings, right?
Yes, back in the day, before the village became this prosperous, there were no breakwaters, and the border between the wide, sandy beach and the sea was clearly visible. People said it looked like a mermaid with white skin and a scaly tail.
The beach was the skin of the belly, and the sea was the glittering scales. That protruding hill was the waist, the forest hanging from the cliff in the back was the hair, and beyond that... maybe you can't see it now because of the haze—what a shame. There's actually a mountain back there, not very big, with two humps. That's... oh dear. Sorry about that. Old ladies from fishing villages are like this. Haha.
Look, at our shop too, we sell mermaid-yaki—not ningyo-yaki. They're just regular dried horse mackerel and butterfish, but because there's a legend that mermaids live in this village and the fish are caught from that sea, they're all said to carry the mermaid's blessing.
Did you know? They say eating mermaid meat grants immortality.
It's a legend heard in many places, but in our case, it's true.
A long time ago, a fisherman who lived here lost his wife and was living alone in loneliness. One day, while walking along the beach, he found a woman washed ashore.
When he helped her up and looked closer, her lower half was shaped like the tail of a big crucian carp.
Anyway, the fisherman took her in—he was lonely after all—and brought her home to nurse her. Maybe she resembled his wife.
But here's the strange part—people who die at sea usually get battered by rocks and such before washing ashore, right? Same with the mermaid. She was covered in wounds, and it took a long time for her to heal.
The fisherman would go out fishing in the morning and come back at night to care for her. Eventually, the villagers found out, but since they were all kind-hearted, they brought medicine and food and helped take care of her.
But one night, the mermaid finally said she couldn't go on. She said she was grateful to the villagers and asked them to eat her flesh after she died, so they could all become immortal.
She said that and passed away, and everyone ate her flesh.
Only the fisherman who first found her didn't eat her. The next morning, he went out to sea and never returned.
Yes, it's a fairy tale.
But if you live in this village, you start to believe there might be something to the mermaid's blessing.
When I was a child, during summer when there's heavy traffic, I was almost hit by a speeding car driven by a young person. But I had a strange premonition, like a sixth sense, and jumped out of the way just in time without a scratch.
And you know, maybe as we get older, we start to cling to things like that.
The old men and women here all say that once they reach a certain age, they start dreaming of mermaids.
Of course, there's no such thing as true immortality, but they believe it. They say they're safe now, that death won't come, because the mermaid will keep it away.
They keep saying that right up to the moment they die, and they all pass away with peaceful, happy expressions.
Not just the elderly, even the young people too. Everyone who dies in this village is like that. I wonder if I'll see it too someday.
Really, no matter how horrible their death was, in this village, everyone dies with a smile on their face.