Azul had remembered many things since entering the ocean, but for some reason, when it came to his family, the memories were still blurry.

"There must be a reason for that," Roxanna said at last. "Maybe your mother is also connected to why you can’t remember much."

Before Azul could respond, Calen jumped into the conversation. "Whatever the reason is, can we focus on the problem right in front of us?" he complained. "How the hell are we supposed to swim all the way to the bottom of the ocean?"

Azul slowly glanced at him. "No one said you have to come with me," he replied. "You can stay here if you want."

Calen nearly choked on the salt water after opening his mouth too wide. He quickly spat it out before glaring at Azul. "I wish I could!" he snapped. "But one of your friends destroyed our ship!"

He rubbed his arms dramatically. "And this water is freezing! If I stay here for another hour, my skin is going to wrinkle like a tree bark!"

Behind him, the Kraken slowly lifted part of its massive head above the water. Its bright yellow eyes stared silently at Calen.

A moment later, it let out a strange little sound. It almost sounded like a puppy whining, but if that puppy had somehow swallowed a lighthouse alarm.

"No, you’re not cute at all!" Calen shot back fiercely. "If we were near land, I would definitely catch you and roast you—"

Calen stopped speaking when the Kraken let out an even softer sound, like a giant puppy that had just gotten scolded.

"Never mind," he muttered, clearing his throat awkwardly. He turned his face away, but everyone could tell he was trying very hard not to say anything nice about the Kraken.

"Just don’t do it again."

He snorted softly when the Kraken made an even cuter sound.

On the other hand, Roxanna had never imagined that she would live long enough to see a legendary sea monster acting like a giant puppy.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to enjoy the moment for long because the ocean suddenly started acting up again.

"The waves..." Zeir spoke up as his crimson eyes caught sight of the water around them moving more violently. "The waves are getting higher!"

Roxanna turned around and immediately widened her eyes when she saw the ocean waves rising as high as skyscrapers.

"Calen! Zeir!" she called out. "You can’t get separated! You need to hold onto each other!"

She wished she could reach them herself, but they were too far away.

"Why would I—"

"Just shut up!"

Zeir smacked the back of Calen’s head and grabbed his arm. He was usually the calmest one, but in the middle of chaos, even Zeir couldn’t control his emotions as well as he normally could.

"Roxanna!" Zeir called out. "Whatever happens, I promise we’ll be fine! So you don’t have to worry—"

Before he could finish speaking, the massive wave crashed into them.

Roxanna didn’t even have time to take a breath before her head was submerged underwater again. She desperately held onto Azul’s hand while Azura clung to him as well.

She squeezed her eyes shut because the salt water hurt her eyes when she didn’t have the ability to breathe underwater.

Her lungs felt like they were burning, and she wanted nothing more than to breathe fresh air.

[Damn it! I should’ve learned how to dive back then! At least I would’ve been able to stay underwater longer!] Roxanna thought desperately.

[But at least Azul and Azura will be fine, so I don’t need to worry about them.]

That thought gave her a small sense of peace, even if she drowned here, she could accept it. As long as Azul managed to bring Azura to the bottom of the ocean and cure her illness, that was enough.

But as more and more dark thoughts filled her mind, something unexpected happened. A hand suddenly reached for her pearl bracelet and one by one, the pearls were pulled free from the string.

Moments later, a single blue pearl was pressed between her lips and before Roxanna could react, it was gently pushed into her mouth.

For a brief moment, she panicked. [What is this?!]

Her first instinct was to spit it out, but before she could, the pearl suddenly melted inside her mouth.

The pearl didn’t crack at all. Instead, it melted into a cool stream of energy that flowed down Roxanna’s throat.

Roxanna froze for a moment as the burning sensation in her lungs slowly disappeared. The pressure that had been crushing her chest gradually faded away as well.

Without realizing it, she accidentally inhaled, and her eyes immediately widened in shock when she realized she could breathe underwater.

"I just remembered that the blue pearl I gave you came from a magical blue clam," Azul said. "It allows people from the land to breathe underwater."

To Roxanna’s surprise, his voice sounded even clearer inside her head now, despite the fact that he was still speaking through telepathy.

"One blue pearl allows you to breathe underwater and send your words through telepathy to sea creatures," Azul explained with a small smile. "We should probably tell Zeir and Calen about this too."

Still stunned by the blue pearl’s ability, Roxanna could only nod absentmindedly. She was even more surprised when she realized that her body felt much lighter while swimming.

The water no longer felt like it was pushing against her body. Instead, it felt as if the ocean itself was helping her move.

"I can swim much more freely now!" Roxanna shouted through telepathy.

She kicked her legs a little and immediately shot forward faster than she expected.

Azul chuckled at her reaction. "That’s because your body has already adapted to the ocean environment," he explained. "The pearl doesn’t just let you breathe underwater. It helps your body adjust to life in the sea."

Roxanna stared at her hands as they moved effortlessly through the water. It was only then that she noticed thin, translucent pink webbing had appeared between her fingers.

When she turned to look at Azul, she saw that he had the same feature, except his webbing was a bluish-purple color.

Not only that, more scales had begun appearing across Azul’s body, sparkling brightly even in the darkness of the ocean.

"You’ve changed..." Roxanna said. "Are you going to turn completely into a fish?"

Azul shook his head and chuckled. "I don’t think I’m going to become a fish again."

He swam closer to her and brought his lips near her ear, as though he were whispering, even though they were speaking through telepathy.

"Actually," he said, "I might be half fish."

Roxanna blinked several times. [Then does that mean he’s half human?]

She paused. [Wait, what?] Her thoughts immediately became a mess. [Are there actually humans in this world besides me and my mother?]

But even that didn’t sound right. After all, she had taken over the body of the original Roxanna. Technically, she wasn’t fully human anymore.

As for her mother, she had never had any children, which meant that, as far as Roxanna knew, the number of humans in this world should have been exactly zero.

Roxanna stared at Azul, trying to make sense of everything. Meanwhile, Azul’s smile slowly faded.

The confidence he usually carried seemed to disappear for a moment. He even looked a little uncertain as he spoke. "I’m half fish, and..."

He hesitated. For the first time since recovering parts of his memory, Azul seemed reluctant to say the words out loud.

Moments later, he finally admitted it. "...Kraken."

The ocean suddenly felt a little quieter and Roxanna could only stare at him. "You’re what?"

Of all the answers she had expected, that had definitely not been one of them.

A Kraken?

Her eyes slowly drifted toward the enormous creature floating nearby and the Kraken noticed her gaze and immediately let out a happy sound.

"Woooooo."

Its massive tentacles wiggled slightly.

Roxanna looked back at Azul, then at the Kraken.

"..."

"..."

"No," she said hesitantly.

Azul sighed. "Yes."

"No way."

"Yes way."

As she listened to the Kraken making cheerful noises as if it were Azul’s actual father, Roxanna covered half of her face with her hand.

"Y-You don’t even have any Kraken traits!" Roxanna shouted through telepathy.

Azul’s face slowly turned red. "W-Well... that’s because I only just found out about it myself," he said awkwardly. "Maybe... I can show you one of my Kraken traits later."

Roxanna stared at him. No matter how many times she replayed the idea in her head, she still couldn’t believe it.

Half fish? Sure.

But half Kraken? That was a lot harder to accept.

"AAAA!"

Roxanna’s thoughts shattered for a moment when she heard a loud scream from above.

When she finally broke through the surface after the waves had calmed down, she saw the Kraken using its tentacles to lift Zeir and Calen into the air so they wouldn’t be hit by the waves or drown.

"PUT ME DOWN!" Calen shouted immediately.