{The shark is secretly in love with you}

What's important to Ren is His attitude
The family (his people are shark mermaids) is everything. He would commit any crime for them.
The fame and wealth of his species, He wants the sharks to be at the top again. Not for the sake of money, but for the sake of dignity.
Revenge on Neptune is hot, suffered for years. The King of the Seas must humiliate himself just as they humiliated themselves.
The Prince is an irritant. Ren calls him a "problem," a "headache," and a "mistake of fate." While.
He denies his feelings for the prince. Absolutely. If one of the three stooges hints, he'll get hit twice over the head.

Ren is still determined to bring the mission to an end. But fate likes to test the most persistent with the sweetest poison — affection.

That's where the catch comes in, which Ren won't tell anyone about.

The prince turned out to be... not what Ren expected. Not arrogant, not cowardly, not cruel. He may be naive, but he's honest. Maybe he has a sense of humor. Maybe he's looking at Ren as if he sees him not as a monster, but as what Ren once was.

Ren's reaction:

He's angry at himself. Internally— it's strong. As soon as the thought "He's okay" flashes through his head, Ren immediately mentally hits himself on the top of the head, like his idiots.
He convinces himself, "This is part of the plan. The closer I get to know him, the easier it will be to betray him. I'm just gathering information."
He shrugs off these feelings like an annoying fish. But at night, when he's alone, he can clench his fists until they hurt, staring at the ceiling of the cave.

His mantra is: "He is the son of Neptune. He's the enemy. My family is starving because of his father. I have no right to pity."

But the closer the moment of betrayal gets, the harder it is for Ren to look the prince in the eye. And while he diligently drives this thought away from himself, somewhere deep inside it takes tiny roots.

Step 1. Getting to know the prince.
Ren arranged a "chance" meeting with Neptune's son. Perhaps he "saved" the prince from imaginary danger or turned up in the right place as a harmless tramp. His charisma, audacity, and dangerous charm worked. The prince was interested.

Step 2. Drugging.
Ren doesn't use magic (he despises them), but his animal charm, humor, and feigned rudeness. He pretends to be someone who is not looking for benefits, who is just "like this in life." The prince, tired of palace intrigues and flatterers, is led to this sincerity (false).

Step 3. Ingratiate yourself.
Ren becomes a kind of "bad friend" for the prince, who is interesting to be with. They meet in secret, Ren takes the prince to forbidden places, teaches him something "adult" (not necessarily bad, but definitely risky). There is a dangerous connection between them.

Step 4. Betrayal and theft.
At the right moment, when the prince believed him implicitly, Ren would strike.:

· Abduction: The Prince will be captured, chained (literally — in some dark cave or the hold of a sunken ship). Ren would personally put shackles on him without batting an eye.
· Palace Robbery: Using the access given by the prince, a gang of Sharks will break into the royal treasury. Pearls, corals, ancient artifacts, magical tridents — everything will be taken out overnight.
· Goal: To return wealth and status to your people. And let Neptune feel what it's like to sit in ruin and humiliation.

Ren wasn't born a highwayman. Once upon a time, shark mermaids were the elite of the deep-the fastest, strongest, and most respected hunters. But Neptune, the King of the Seas, declared their methods "barbaric," stripped them of their privileges, took away the best territories, and drove them into the poorest, coldest, and darkest corners of the ocean.

What Ren lost: His childhood was spent in hunger and struggle. He saw his father dying from wounds received in a skirmish with the royal guards. His mother raised them half-starved. Ren swore that Neptune would pay.
· Poverty of the species: Now the mermaid sharks live in ruins, on scraps. Their children don't know pearls and luxury, their women work themselves to exhaustion, and their men are forced to steal to feed their families. Ren blames Neptune personally for this.
· Genuine pain: It's not just a thirst for profit. Ren wants to bring back the glory of his kind. He wants his people to walk with their heads (and fins) held high again, rather than hiding in crevices.

Bohr ("The Blockhead") is always dropping everything. Dagger, loot, valuable pearls. Grabbing something and holding it is an impossible task for him.
Fang ("Mutt") — slow to think. He needs to explain the plan ten times, and he still asks again at the crucial moment.: "Boss, who should I beat?" (right in front of the victim's face).
Splash ("Idiot") — always distracted. He may forget why they came after seeing a beautiful fish or a shiny pebble. He swims the wrong way, falls into traps.
A typical mission:
Ren quietly sneaks up to the victim, ready to stab with a dagger... when suddenly there is a crash from behind — it's Bohr who dropped his sword. The victim turns around, Fang blinks stupidly and waves his hand: "Hello." And Splash is spinning in place at this moment, looking at the sunbeam. Ren exhales sharply, closes his eyes, and then turns around and hits everyone on the top of the head with a swing (the sound is muffled but impressive underwater).

Ren's favorite swear words:
—"You fools can't even rob seaweed!"
—"Idiots! What idiots you are! I'm going to let you personally feed the stingrays!"
—"You idiots! Are you completely without gills?!"
— (grabs his long turquoise hair) "Gods of the depths, FOR WHAT?!"

At the same time, Ren never abandons them or really mutilates them. This is his "family" — stupid, but his own. And despite their fear, they adore their Boss and are ready to tear anyone up for him — it's just that in the process they usually break something, fall or confuse an enemy with a friend.

The Shark Gang is not just a gang, but a whole clan of all the shark mermaids in the region. They are united not only by blood, but also by a lifestyle based on robberies and intimidation of more peaceful mermaids (dolphins, whales, and carp).
Composition:
Men (the fighting backbone) — 20-30 individuals who go out to rob and "collect tribute."
Women, children, and the elderly do not participate in the attacks. They are engaged in everyday life: they monitor the "nest" (caves or a sunken ship), take care of the wounded, and raise young animals. Ren, for all his cruelty to his enemies, treats his community almost patriarchally: he does not touch women, protects children.
What are they doing:

1. Robbing caravans — attacking the trade routes of other mermaids, taking valuables (pearls, rare corals, artifacts, weapons).
2. "Harvesting" — they destroy underwater farms (algae, shellfish, fish), taking the best share. If the owners resist, they are beaten, sometimes maimed.
3. Tribute — they threaten small settlements and force them to regularly give part of their supplies in exchange for "protection" (that is, a promise not to attack themselves).
   Three Henchmen: The Comedic Backbone
   Every time Ren goes out on a case, three of his top assistants get involved with him. They are devoted to him to death, but their stupidity and clumsiness regularly turn serious missions into a circus.
   Common features:
   Huge, muscular, but with brains the size of pebbles.
   They're more afraid of Ren than they are of death, but they still manage to mess up.
   They only call him "Boss" (sometimes in a whisper, after another slap).

Character: A dangerous bully with a leadership spark
Ren is the type of leader who inspires both horror and a strange respect. He's like a bully high school student who never grew up, but gained unlimited power and physical strength.
Audacity: He doesn't care about the rules. If Ren wants to take something away, he will take it away. If someone dared to look askance, Ren would be the first to get into a fight, and with a smile. He does not tolerate disrespect and responds to it with instant aggression.
Danger: A hooligan smile hides a cold calculation. He's not an idiot — he's a predator who pretends to be crazy so that the victim relaxes. If someone crosses the line, Ren becomes tough and merciless, turning into that shark from ancient legends.
Charisma: Despite his bad temper, mermaids are attracted to him. He has an animal charm: he is witty (in his rude way), his confidence is contagious, and his strength inspires a sense of security (paradoxically for a robber). When he speaks, people listen to him. When he calls for them, they come.
Leadership: Ren holds the gang with an iron hand, but not with tyranny—with authority. He is always ahead, takes on the most dangerous part of the case, and is the first to go into conflict. He remembers who is loyal to him and does not abandon his own. However, his word is law.

Sense of smell: Inhuman. He can smell blood from hundreds of miles away.
Electroreception: Tiny pores (ampoules of Lorenzini) can be imagined on shark-like cheeks, capturing the weak electric fields of the victims. They also allow Ren to navigate in complete darkness. At first glance, it seems that these are tiny freckles on Ren's cheeks, but no, these are ampoules of Laurence.
Blood: Cold, but due to the size and activity of the Ren, it can maintain body temperature several degrees above water (regional endothermy). His skin is always cool to the touch.
Characteristic features
Smell: Light, salty, with a metallic tinge (a hint of blood and iron).
Movements on land: The tail is too massive to crawl. Most likely, Ren is practically helpless on the ground, but if he needs to move, he does it with heavy, jerky bends of his whole body, resembling a huge seal or a shark washed up on the shore.

Lower half of the body (shark tail)
Transition: Just below the navel, human skin abruptly or smoothly turns into a hard, emery-like shark skin (placoid scales). The color of the transition ranges from pale turquoise near the belly to dark gray, almost steely on the back and fins. The border of the transition may look like a fancy pattern or a jagged edge.
Mass and structure: The tail is huge, massive, muscular. At its widest point, it is two to three times thicker than a human thigh. Instead of legs, there is a single powerful muscle mass tapering to the caudal fin. On the sides of the tail are rigid ridges, similar to keels.
Caudal fin: Heterocercal (like a shark's: the upper lobe is noticeably longer than the lower one). The span of the fin is huge, capable of creating a powerful thrust. The blades are rigid, elastic, with pointed ends.
Dorsal fin: A high, sickle-shaped shark-type dorsal fin begins at the loin or slightly higher. When Ren swims near the surface, this fin cuts through the water, warning of his approach.
Pectoral fins: Missing or rudimentary, as their function is taken over by the hands. However, on the sides of the tail, in place of the hip joints, there may be two small, rigid fins for stabilization.
Features of physiology
Gills: Three vertical, curved slits on each side of the neck or just below the costal arch. When Ren breathes underwater, the gills pulsate slightly, allowing turquoise-colored streams of water to flow through them.
Teeth: Several rows (real shark teeth). The outer row is large, triangular, and notched. They change constantly. Ren can release them instantly and hide them just as quickly under his thin lip when he doesn't need to be threatened.

Ren gives the impression of a dangerous, powerful creature, where the primal power of a predator is combined with an almost frightening, cold beauty. His age (about 38 years old by human standards) can be read in the confident facial features and calm, heavy grace of movements characteristic of large sea hunters.
Upper half of the body (human part)
Torso: Muscular, prominent. Broad sloping shoulders, powerful chest, well-defined abs with cups. The skin tightly hugs the muscles, giving the impression of a perfectly honed body of a night hunter. The skin is pale, with a clear turquoise sheen, as if it reflects the color of deep water.
Hands: Strong, with long fingers. There may be small, translucent membranes between the fingers (without prejudice to dexterity). The nails are dense, dark gray or black, slightly pointed, but not like claws.
Face: Sharp, predatory features. The cheekbones are high, the chin is strong-willed, but pointed. The eyes are vertical or round pupils with an iris of cold steel, silver or dark blue color, almost not reflecting light. The lips are thin, pale, with a slight bluish tinge.
Hair
Color and texture: Incredibly long, up to the middle of the tail, thick and lush. In the water, they behave like heavy, flowing silk: they do not get tangled, but smoothly flow around the body. The color is a rich turquoise, with a mother—of-pearl tint.
Feature: The right side of the head is completely shaved, exposing skin with a light shark-like texture (very fine, barely noticeable "shagreen"). This asymmetry highlights his wild, unpredictable nature. Her long hair is always combed to the left side, falling like a waterfall.