His slender fingers grasped my ankle as he pulled me closer to him, leaning in to sniff me.

He actually seemed shy.

His upper body was incredibly sensual, his fair skin flushed with pink, and his V-line descended into the scales of his lower half.

White hair fell to his waist, and beneath thick, long lashes were those ice-blue eyes.

He was hauntingly seductive.

His gaze softened like water. "Master."

Aurelia also drifted gracefully from Caspian's shoulder toward me.

Full of excitement and delight.

It expanded like a balloon near my lips, stretching its ribbon-like filaments.

Then, it carefully tucked away its stinging cells. As if terrified of hurting me.

Their eyes overflowed with desire as they clumsily repeated the scandalous lines I had once said to them:

"Master... ravish me..."

4

This was absolute madness!

I never imagined that the first words they would speak in a human tongue would be a plea for me to ravish them!

If I had known this would happen, I wouldn't have read steamy novel lines to them even if it killed me.

What exactly had I said back then?

My face went pale as the memories flashed through my mind:

"Such a beautiful body deserves to be locked up and ravished by me on the sofa!"

When feeding them:

"Are you hungry? Little girl, just wait and see how I satisfy you!"

"Do you want to be ravished? Beg me."

When they were young, I used to practice those smutty lines in front of them every day.

I had said countless things like that. A colleague had even joked, "Careful saying those things every day, or they might come back for revenge once they transform."

I had been so smug. "That's impossible. In the decades this lab has been running, only one subject has ever transformed. If they actually do it, pigs will fly!"

...

The irony hit me like a slap to the face.

I wanted to die.

5

As strange sensations spread through my body, my voice began to tremble.

"Master... ravish..."

Their voices looped in my ears.

My face burned instantly, becoming scalding hot.

"Don't..."

Just as they were about to press closer against me.

In the nick of time.

Bang!

All three subjects suddenly collapsed to the floor, followed by the sharp crackle of an electric current. I froze, looking up only to see my arch-rival.

Scarlett.

————————————

Disbelief flashed in Scarlett's eyes, quickly followed by a searing look of jealousy.

Director Vance stepped forward, his voice trembling with excitement. "You actually cultivated three subjects with self-awareness?! This is incredible—simply historic!"

"We are going to go down in the history books!"

The faces of the other staff members lit up with thrill.

"Senior Dawn is amazing! When will we ever be able to raise subjects with their own consciousness?"

The crowd chimed in with praise and awe.

Scarlett, however, was full of disdain.

"They haven't even fully transformed yet," she sneered. "Whether they actually make it is another story."

"Last year, a self-aware subject was born. They even held a victory banquet for it, and then... it died out of nowhere."

At those words, a cold shiver ran through the room.

She toyed with the electric prod in her hand, speaking nonchalantly.

"Director, I'm an S-Class Trainer. Why not hand these semi-transformed subjects over to me?"

I fell into a heavy silence.

Scarlett had earned her S-Class rating specifically because she was the one who trained the first transformed subject in decades.

And I was just an A-Class Keeper. Such high-potential subjects were no longer considered "suitable" to stay under my care.

The thought made my heart ache.

Sure enough, Director Vance didn't object. He nodded.

"Right. We'll leave their training to Scarlett. Let's aim to get them all fully transformed!"

Remembering me, he patted my shoulder.

"Don't be too sad. I'll credit you for the cultivation of these subjects. Expect a bonus in your paycheck this month."

6

After Scarlett took my subjects away, I was assigned a new one.

It was a ten-thousand-year-old sea turtle.

It was so sluggish that it looked practically dead when it wasn't moving.

Seaweed had even taken root on its head, growing into long strands that drifted around like a green hat.

I couldn't help but feel dejected.

My previous subjects were so much better. Azul, the octopus, used to mimic humans with his tentacles against the glass when I was sad.

It felt like he was giving me a hug.

Caspian would sing to me in a voice that was ethereal and gentle, and he would offer me beautiful shells filled with shimmering pearls.

They said those were a Merman's tears.

And Aurelia, the jellyfish, would light up like a tiny lightbulb whenever she was happy.

She would blow bubbles just for me.

Thinking of them now, a sudden wave of grief washed over me.

"Dawn! Something's wrong! It's an emergency!"

Aster rushed in, shouting for me in a panicked frenzy.

I took a sharp breath and snapped at him.

"I said you're an S-Class Keeper now, can't you bring some good news for once? Every time you open your mouth, you're telling me I'm doomed. Are you trying to curse me?!"

Aster didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"I'm not cursing you! It's your subjects—they're in trouble!"

I froze, grabbing his arm tightly. "What happened? Is Scarlett mistreating them?"

"Mistreating them? That's an understatement! She's your rival, and she's found every way imaginable to torture them. I tried to stop her, but she won't listen!"

"Two of Azul's tentacles have been severed, and he's on a hunger strike. Caspian has fallen into a deep depression; even his scales are starting to fall off..."

Those were the subjects I had painstakingly raised for years. Usually, if they even scraped their skin, I would be distressed for days.

Now, his tentacles were severed.

As Aster spoke, my hands began to shake.

Even my voice trembled. "I have to go to them."

Aster looked at me in shock. "Are you crazy? That's Sector Sierra. How are you going to get in?"

I looked into his eyes, my voice almost a plea.

"Aster, help me."

He hesitated for a moment, then spoke.

"Fine."

7

I managed to sneak into the Sector Sierra lab.

When I arrived, Scarlett was holding a whip stained with dark red blood.

A thick, metallic scent of blood hung in the air.

Scarlett licked her lips, her eyes gleaming with a sick excitement.

"Cry! Why won't you cry? I want to see if your face when you weep is as tragically beautiful as the legends say."

Seeing that the Merman wouldn't cry, she lashed him twice more.

Bits of flesh flew into the air—a gruesome sight.

Scarlett grew furious, her whip moving so fast it left an afterimage. "Cry! Cry for me!"

Caspian held his head, and though his expression was one of agony, he refused to yield.

His eyes were defiant as he whispered under his breath:

"I won't cry... pearls... are only for Master..."

That beautiful fool.

Tears welled up in my eyes.

Just as Scarlett's whip was about to fall again, I screamed:

"Stop!"

She spun around, her face twisting into a sneer when she saw me.

"Oh, if it isn't an old friend."

Scarlett used the handle of the whip to tilt Caspian's chin up. He shuddered instinctively.

I clenched my fists. "Scarlett."

She gave me a triumphant smile.

"What? Are you nervous?"

Looking at her face made me feel physically sick.

"You're blatantly abusing the subjects," I demanded. "Aren't you afraid of violating the Protection Protocols?!"

"Protection Protocols?"

Scarlett laughed as if I were the stupidest person alive. "Dawn, those things are only meant to restrain low-level keepers like you. They don't apply to me."

"On the other hand, you... breaking into the Sierra-Class High-Security Vault... that's an offense punishable by erasure."

She smiled sinisterly and raised her whip.

"Today, I'll represent the lab and take out the trash."

A second later, the whip cracked.

The sound of it tearing through the air reached my ears, aimed directly at me.

I could already imagine the searing, bone-deep pain of the strike.

But the pain never came.

A silhouette lunged in front of me.

I looked up—it was the jellyfish.

"Aurelia?"