Baby System: I'm the Beast World's Only Hope!-Chapter 176: Episode : Nimue’s Curiosity

What do you fucking mean by your sister?

Roxy raised her head in curiosity as she looked at Nimue from head to head. She could see the resemblance; she was as mighty as Caspian.

But it was very rude for Nimue to be looking at her as if she were food getting prepared to be devoured.

"So," Nimue said, her voice a cool, resonant vibrato that seemed to hum against Roxy’s ribcage. "This is what has been keeping you busy?"

She didn’t wait for an introduction. With a flick of her tail, she glided forward, closing the distance between them in a heartbeat.

Roxy’s heart caught in her throat as she ducked into the sheets.

No way in hell will I be eaten by a mermaid.

"Nimue," Caspian said, puffing out his chest like a proud father showing off his trophies. "Behold. The Little Landwalker. Is she not... fascinating?"

Nimue ignored him. She circled Roxy, who was sweating buckets.

She moved like a shark investigating a potential meal, her dark hair floating around her head in the air pocket as if she were underwater.

She stopped behind Roxy.

Roxy held her breath. She could feel the cold radiating off the mermaid’s skin. She heard a sharp sniff.

Nimue inhaled deeply, smelling Roxy’s hair, her neck, the sweat on her skin.

"It smells... thick," Nimue critiqued, wrinkling her nose. "Like warm milk and dirt. And panic."

"It is a mammal scent," Caspian explained eagerly, stepping forward and pulling the sheets off Roxy so Nimue could get a better look, effectively exposing Roxy. "They produce heat internally. Touch her. She is like a vent."

"Caspian!" Roxy hissed, trying to grab the sheets again, but Nimue was faster.

A hand, cold and tipped with long, obsidian claws, shot out and grabbed Roxy’s wrist.

Roxy flinched, expecting to be cut. But the grip was controlled, firm, unyielding, but not piercing. Nimue lifted Roxy’s arm, turning it over to inspect the pale, soft skin of her inner forearm.

"Squishy," Nimue observed, poking Roxy’s skin with one sharp claw. The skin depressed and sprang back. "No armor. No scales. Just... meat."

Surprisingly, Nimue didn’t look at her with hunger.

She looked at Roxy’s face, her violet eyes narrowing. She reached up and poked Roxy’s cheek.

"It feels like a saltwater fish," Nimue scoffed, dropping Roxy’s arm with a look of mild disgust. "One bite, and it would pop. How has it survived the pressure of our sea? Did you wrap it in bubble-kelp?"

"She is stronger than she looks!" Caspian insisted, looking offended on Roxy’s behalf. "She has a shell inside. A bone-cage."

It’s called a fucking rib, slimy fish!

He looked at Roxy, his golden eyes shining with expectation.

"Show her, Little One," Caspian encouraged, nudging Roxy forward. "Show her the Red Flower. Summon the Sun for my sister."

Roxy stared at him. "Excuse me?" A vein pulsing in her forehead.

"The fire!" Caspian gestured to the dead embers of the fire pit. "Do the trick with the little red box. Make the light."

The humiliation hit Roxy harder than the fear. He was treating her like a circus monkey. Dance, pet, dance. Impress the guest.

Nimue crossed her arms, looking bored. "Yes, soft-female. Do a trick. Entertain me."

Something inside Roxy snapped. Roxy straightened her spine. She slapped Caspian’s hand away.

"I am not a circus monkey," Roxy snarled, her voice steady and cold. "And I am not a pet."

Caspian blinked, stunned by the sudden defiance.

Nimue’s eyebrows shot up. She looked at Roxy with renewed interest. "Oh? It has an attitude?"

She leaned down, her face inches from Roxy’s. Her breath smelled of raw fish.

"You are a soft, pink thing at the bottom of the world," Nimue sneered, her violet eyes flashing. "You are not a pet; you are a snack that my brother is saving for later. Look at you. You have no fins. You are ugly, clumsy, and weak."

She reached out and flicked a strand of Roxy’s matted, salty hair.

"And this," Nimue laughed, a cruel, tinkling sound. "What is this rat’s nest? It looks like dead seagrass that washed up on the beach."

Roxy looked at Nimue’s hair. It was indeed magnificent—a floating cloud of black silk. But right now, tangled with the residue of the deep and floating wildly in the static of the air pocket, it looked chaotic.

Roxy smiled. It wasn’t a nice smile.

"I might be squishy," Roxy retorted, meeting Nimue’s violet gaze without flinching. "But at least I don’t look like I wrestled a giant octopus and lost."

She gestured vaguely to Nimue’s floating hair.

"Seriously. That is a safety hazard. Do you catch small fish in that mess when you swim?"

Silence.

Absolute, dead silence descended on the cave.

Caspian’s jaw dropped. He looked back and forth between the two females, his gills fluttering rapidly in panic. No one spoke to Nimue like that.

Nimue was the Princess of the Trench. Nimue killed sharks for sport. Nimue stared at Roxy. Her mouth opened slightly, revealing her sharp teeth.

Then, she blinked.

The murderous tension in her shoulders dropped. A corner of her dark blue lip twitched upward.

"It has teeth," Nimue murmured, looking at Caspian. "Small, dull teeth. But teeth nonetheless."

Caspian let out a breath, looking relieved that the water wasn’t currently turning red with Roxy’s blood.

"I told you!" Caspian beamed. "She is spirited! She is a Sea Witch!"

"She is malnourished," Nimue countered. She looked Roxy up and down again. "Look at her ribs. You are starving her, brother. She looks so dirty and out of place."

Caspian looked at Roxy’s waist. He frowned. "I will bring her more schools of fish!"

"She needs fat," Nimue stated, acting like an expert on mammalian biology. "She needs the oil of the Blubber-Seals. Or the eggs of the King Sturgeon."

She looked at Caspian with an imperious wave of her hand.

"Go. Fetch the rich meat. If your pet dies of wasting sickness, it will contaminate the entire sea."

Caspian looked torn. He didn’t want to leave his new toy, especially with his predatory sister. But the criticism of his caretaking stung his pride.

"I will fetch the Sturgeon," Caspian decided, grabbing his bone spear. He turned to Roxy. "Do not fear, Little Landwalker. I will return with the finest eggs. You will be plump in no time."

Roxy rolled her eyes and ignored him.

He turned to Nimue, his expression hardening.

"Do not break her, Nimue," Caspian warned, his voice dropping to a low growl. "She is mine."

"Go, go," Nimue waved him off, examining her fingernails. "I do not break other people’s toys. I love you too much to do that."

Why do I taste sarcasm?

Caspian hesitated one last time, glanced at Roxy, and then shot through the water wall, his powerful tail propelling him into the darkness.

Roxy was alone with the mermaid. She refused to leave the bed.

The air in the cave seemed to change instantly. The playful, bickering sibling dynamic vanished with Caspian. Nimue stood motionless, listening until the sound of Caspian’s sonar clicks faded completely into the deep.

Then, she turned to Roxy.

There was no curiosity in her eyes anymore. There was no amusement. There was only the cold, hard stare of an apex predator looking at a dying animal.

One moment Nimue was by the door; the next, she was towering over Roxy, forcing her deeper into the clam shell.

Nimue placed a hand at the edge beside Roxy’s head, boxing her in.

"My brother is an idiot," Nimue said softly, her voice devoid of the earlier mockery. It was flat and terrifyingly serious. "He thinks he can keep a landwalker like a pearl in a box."

She leaned in, her violet eyes glowing with a terrifying intensity.

"But you and I both know the truth, don’t we, squishy thing?"

"So tell me," Nimue whispered, tilting her head. "How long until your lungs give out? Two days? Three? Or will you just go to sleep one night and never wake up?"