Chapter 61

The investigation team couldn’t guess the truth, so they decided to follow yesterday’s plan and visit a local resident’s home on the island.

This was the house of the family the mayor had mentioned—the one who lost a young child to a supposed abilities user attack.

They had come yesterday, but the grieving mother hadn’t even opened the door, and after waiting a long time, they had to leave. Today, they returned, knocking persistently until finally, the door opened.

Inside, the curtains were drawn tightly, casting the room in shadows. A small girl peeked from behind the door.

She had beautiful brown curls held with a pink butterfly clip and clutched a funny-looking blue-green fish doll. Her skin was fair, with big brown eyes.

The team exchanged glances until Eda stepped forward, crouching to her level. “Hello there, little one. We’d like to speak to your mother. Is she home?”

The girl looked curiously at these strangers but didn’t say a word.

Luo Anna tried a gentler approach, smiling, “What’s your name, sweetheart?”

One by one, the team members attempted to talk to her, but the girl continued to look at them with those brown eyes, silently.

Finally, as they grew impatient, the girl darted inside and returned with a pen and paper, writing, “I can’t speak.”

Her name was Finara, and her mother wasn’t home, but she opened the door, allowing them to come inside and wait.

In the living room, the first thing they noticed was a large family portrait where a family of four beamed with happiness. Below it, on a small cabinet, sat a statue of the Thousand-Faced Moon.

Finara skipped over to the family portrait, climbed onto a chair, and kissed the faces of her father and brother in the picture. Then, she hopped down, bowed to the statue, and began to pray.

She used sign language to tell the investigators that the Mother Goddess would protect her and help her reunite with her father and brother.

However, everyone’s attention was on the family photo. Zhou Zicheng pointed at the man in the picture, asking, “Is that your father?”

Finara nodded, writing, “Yes, Mom says he disappeared when I was very young.”

The team fell silent.

Finara’s delicate, angelic appearance was starkly different from her father, who was oddly unattractive—hunched with a gaunt face, bulging eyes staring blankly, resembling a lifeless fish with upturned pupils.

Of course, no one mentioned her father’s appearance to the girl. Clearing their throats, they got back on track and asked, “We’d like to ask you some questions… Do you know anything about the other people who came to the island before us?”

Eda, afraid she wouldn’t understand, was about to explain, but Finara nodded quickly.

She wrote on paper, “I know. They killed my brother.”

According to Finara, she’d been playing near the shore as usual when these abilities users returned from the sea, furious, shouting about not finding something.

She’d been playing nearby, unaware they would come after her, chasing her even into her home. In Finara’s story, the abilities users seemed focused solely on killing her. Her brother, trying to protect her, had been savagely attacked and devoured by them.

The group hadn’t intended to spare her either, only leaving after nightfall.

Finara said that ever since, she’d been locked up in her room, unable to go anywhere. Though she didn’t say why, everyone assumed her mother, grieving her son, might have transferred her resentment onto Finara.

After all, it was because of Finara that her son had died, even if it wasn’t Fenara’s fault, the bitterness was understandable.

Everyone felt sympathy for the little girl, wanting to reason with her unhinged mother, but as outsiders, they hesitated, fearing they’d only anger her further.

When Finara’s mother finally returned, she furiously drove the everyones away.

After hearing the story, they were all silent. Though they hadn’t been the culprits, anyone with a conscience would feel guilt and sympathy.

Jiang Suliu narrowed his eyes, sensing something off about the story.

Cannibalism wasn’t something normal people could commit.

According to Finara, these abilities users had behaved like crazed cultists. Yet they’d been on the island for nearly a month, living peacefully with the townsfolk until they suddenly snapped in the final days.

He spoke up, “Before they did these things, did anything unusual happen?”

Finara thought for a moment, hesitating as she wrote, “The night before they changed, the townsfolk saw them sneaking back from the sea with something. People say they caught a merfolk… and soon after that, they went mad.”

Luo Anna looked shocked. “There are merfolk here?”

Zhou Zicheng was even more animated, his face turning red with excitement. Even the usually calm Eda seemed taken aback by the mention of merfolk.

…

As they left Finara’s house, Zhou Zicheng spoke slowly, “I think there’s something strange about that little girl.”

The team looked at him in surprise as he continued, “She has scars on her neck.”

“You mean she’s been abused?” Luo Anna frowned, her thoughts jumping to the eerie circumstances of the mute girl, locked away in her home, recalling cases of child abuse.

“No, that’s not it,” Zhou Zicheng shook his head, his expression grave. “It’s a faint mark.”

“Mute, with marks on both sides of her neck… Don’t you think those might be gills?”

Eda’s brow creased as she replied instinctively, “What?”

But then, realization dawned on her, her face paling. “Gills? Are you sure?”

Zhou Zicheng’s face darkened. “I’m sure. My God, I finally understand why those abilities users went mad when they saw Finara! Because she’s the merfolk we’ve been searching for!”

The very merfolk they’d been seeking, who’d evaded them time and time again, were right here among the townspeople, hiding in plain sight.

This was the terrifying truth. If the island’s people had gills, then the question was, were they truly human? And how many others on this island were like them?

Could they even escape?

As everyone pondered this, Eda absentmindedly held the drawing that Finara had given them as they left. It was a simple, childlike sketch of a fish person, drawn in colorful crayons.

The childish drawing depicted a fish-like creature with a huge head, and next to it, scrawled in large, messy handwriting, were the words—“Deep Ones.”

The Deep Ones, known as sea-dwelling monsters who worshiped the Thousand-Faced Moon, were described in the records.

The term felt familiar, Eda recalled seeing it in her research that morning. But distracted by the mayor’s lies, she hadn’t given much thought to the name.

Now, staring at the child’s drawing, she slowly furrowed her brow.

Reading the words aloud, she couldn’t help but murmur, “Deep Ones…”

Eda froze.

Zhou Zicheng looked at her and repeated, “Deep Ones?”

It felt familiar.

She remembered that, before they’d boarded the ship to Surina Island, Yue Yin had used that term when discussing who would join the mission.

Why would Yue Yin, who had no experience with merfolk and had never heard of them, use that term before they even reached the island?

A chill ran through everyone as they stood there, piecing together the eerie details.

At that moment, a soft voice came from behind them, “What are you all doing?”