mizuxfem!oc
The Ningyo (人魚, "human fish") is a creature with both human and fish-like features.
Many fishermen who find these creatures caught in their nets throw them back into the ocean.
For if a ningyo is caught, she will bring misfortune and cal...
a/n this chapter is uncomfortable but its short (less than 13k words) and won't happen again tbh
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CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO: AN EDUCATED WOMAN
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Fowler led her to the library with one hand on her back. He led her every step as if she needed guidance. She looked for the kitten in the shadows as they walked, wondering if it was still alive. Fowler called it their Little Miss, the exterminator of rats and other diseased rodents on the ship.
He opened the door to the ship's library and pulled out her chair. Before her, he presented two books. A dictionary of Japanese to English vocabulary, a small book of British fairytales, and a paper and pen. A candle was lit in the center—a cozy spot for studying.
"Depending on which impoverished village of Japan life has cursed ye in, I assume the lady can write."
"Of course I can. I can read and speak Mandarin, too. Can you? No."
Fowler put his hand on his hip as he looked down at her. What a brat. "I rarely meet an educated woman who isn't royalty. How's that?"
She pivoted because he didn't deserve to know a thing about her. "You've met royalty? Yeah, okay."
White men were rounded up and killed in Japan long before I was born. There's no way consorts in positions of power would allow it.
"Aye. Not solely in Japan, but all over the world, so I've earned my connections. I'm a bit of an," he tilted his head, "adventurer as ye."
She scoffed. They were nothing alike, and she wasn't going to have it.
She pointed at the English books in front of her. "I know you're deceiving me, leading me to learn something wildly different to make a fool of myself. Men don't like an educated woman."
"Not I. I believe a woman is entitled to the education she so chooses. If she can handle it."
His cold hand touched her face, and she stiffened up. Her eyes darted to his hand like it was a foreign object that shouldn't come near her.
"Especially she, the woman who takes my fancy most."
She glared at him. The silence had never been so loud before.
Then, she spitefully dug her hand below his and forced his palm off her face.
Fowler took a moment. His clear green eyes stared at the young woman before him. It was momentarily impossible to read his mind, but he was surely thinking of something. Somehow, the silence of that dangerous man was far more uncomfortable.
Suddenly, he gripped the back of her chair, causing her to lose her balance. She flinched as he leaned forward to be face-to-face. Any safe distance between them, he threw out the window.
