Why do I keep attracting Villainesses?

Chapter 61: THIRD POV.

Jacob was silent for a moment, still unsure if he was overreacting.

But the worry was too much to keep inside. He had to ask. "By any chance, did you happen to see Artria and Persephone this morning?" 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"Those two?" Garin was confused by the question for a moment. He tilted his head, thinking back. "Well, I actually did. I saw them near the north periphery about an hour or so ago."

"Really?!" Jacob said, his voice loud. He felt a surge of hope.

At least they were still together and hadn’t just disappeared into thin air.

"Yeah," Garin revealed an awkward smile, not expecting that sort of energetic reaction.

He stroked his chin in contemplation.

"Honestly, it was a bit strange. The both of them were heading out of the village."

"They didn’t say much, though. Usually, Artria stops to chat for a bit, but they were both moving like they had a specific destination in mind."

Garin paused, recalling how they only greeted him with a quick nod and swam by without stopping. "They looked... serious. Especially Persephone."

"Which direction exactly did they head in!"

Jacob placed both hands on Garin’s shoulders, seemingly agitated.

He didn’t mean to be rough, but he needed to know, now.

Garin was a bit spooked by Jacob’s sudden intensity. He blinked, looking at Jacob’s hands on his shoulders and then pointing outwards toward the open sea, away from the safety of the reef. "T-That way, I guess? Toward the deeper trenches?"

"Thank you!" Jacob said.

Before Garin could even ask what was going wrong, Jacob sped off.

The ocean water exploded around him as he pushed off with all his strength.

His figure quickly vanished from sight, leaving a trail of bubbles behind him.

The speed of his wake was so powerful that it actually pushed Garin back a few feet, making him tumble in the water.

"What got into the three of them this morning?" Garin blinked in surprise, rubbing his shoulder which hurt a little.

He stared in the direction Jacob had left in for a while, his mouth hanging open.

He didn’t understand why everyone was in such a hurry. After a minute of staring at the empty water, he shrugged, resumed his movements, and continued swimming off to finish his chores.

Jacob, on the other hand, didn’t slow down in the slightest after leaving the village.

Rather than pacing himself, he increased his speed to the maximum.

His tail was a blur of motion, and the pressure of the water against his face was intense.

He didn’t care about getting tired; he only cared about finding them.

’Please please please let it not be what I’m thinking!’ he said to himself as he blurred through the ocean floor.

Garin said they seemed to be normal as they swam by, but Jacob didn’t believe that for one second.

He knew the truth. He knew what sort of relationship the both of them had had for the past few days.

Jacob was aware of how Artria had been feeling for the past days.

If she ended up doing something she shouldn’t...

Like confronting her sister or if she tried to force her to leave, who knew what Persephone might do to her? Jacob’s mind was filled with images of the "Mistress" in the cave.

He thought about those sharp claws and that cold, distant look in Persephone’s eyes.

That woman was definitely not one to be trifled with, even if they were both sisters.

In the wild, family didn’t always mean safety.

Jacob knew that better than anyone.

He pushed himself even harder, his heart hammering against his ribs.

The ocean floor flew by beneath him, the rocks, the sand, and the coral all becoming a single, messy line of color.

He didn’t know exactly where they were, but he continued to swim forward.

While doing so, he prayed that he wasn’t too late. Hoping that Artria hadn’t done something foolish and that Persephone hadn’t decided that she was done playing the part of the "reformed sister."

The deeper he got, the colder the water became, but Jacob didn’t feel it.

All he felt was the burning need to reach them before the tension of the last few days finally snapped into something that couldn’t be fixed.

Jacob swam and swam, time passing by in a blur.

He didn’t know exactly how long he had been pushing himself at this speed.

Minutes, maybe an hour? but both sisters were nowhere to be found.

The vastness of the open ocean felt like it was swallowing him whole. Every direction he looked was just the endless blue, empty and silent.

Rather than giving up, he gritted his teeth and persevered. His lungs felt like they were on fire, and his tail was starting to feel heavy, but he refused to slow down.

Fortunately for him, his body was filled with supernatural stamina. Being what he was, he could push far past the limits of a normal merman.

He focused on the rhythm of his breathing and the steady beat of his heart, forcing himself to keep going.

He couldn’t stop. If he stopped, he might lose them forever.

He swam until he reached a point where he noticed something strange.

The water around him didn’t feel stagnant or calm anymore. The water current around him had begun to grow stronger and stronger, being pulled in one specific direction.

It wasn’t like a normal ocean current that moved in a wide, sweeping path; this was sharp and focused, like an invisible hand was grabbing the ocean and dragging it toward a single point.

Jacob frowned, his body tensing up. He swam even stronger through the water to steady himself against the growing force.

’There’s definitely something wrong here,’ he muttered to himself, coming to a stop.

He held his position with effort, his tail working hard just to keep him from being swept away.

He took a good look around, trying to make sense of his surroundings. He had traveled far from the vibrant coral reefs of the village.