Today is the day of my first voyage.

From dawn until now, at noon, I've been diligently pulling up nets, but all I've caught are tiny anchovy-like things that you can barely recognize as fish even with your eyes squinted, and the occasional nameless fish that gets dragged in by luck.

Fuck, this is so annoying. I didn't become a damn sailor just for this. Even while I'm grumbling, the midday sun continues to heat the wooden deck.

Thinking that, I threw the net back into the sea.

Minutes, or maybe hours. After quite a long time had passed, I pulled the net up again. Or rather, I tried to pull it up. I had to struggle a bit this time, as if something big had been caught. I could feel something trapped inside the net constantly thrashing below.

"Ugh, come on...!"

Spitting out a curse, I pulled the net with all my strength. As soon as the net landed on the deck with a wet thud, what I saw was something strange that was neither a fish nor a human. The moment I saw that mysterious creature, my thought process came to a halt. Normally, I would have screamed, but right now, I couldn't even think about wiping the seawater off my face as I just stared at the flopping creature.

"..."