Royer clearly wanted to continue persuading, but Alfonso on the side couldnât listen anymore.
He suddenly stood up and raised his voice, âRoyer!â
âHmm?â Royer still wore his smile as he looked at his friend.
âSnap!â
Alfonso suddenly snapped his fingers, and Royer completely disappeared.
Then he said to Saul, âI moved Royer outside the laboratory. Regarding the experimental project youâre participating in, it cannot be arbitrarily changed without the Chiefâs agreement.â
Saul nodded. âI understand. Donât worry, Iâm still more interested in mermaids for now.â
Alfonso across from him was quiet for three seconds.
âHmm⊠Lord Saul, physical relations with mermaids are not recommended.â
âCough cough cough!â Saul couldnât help but cough lightly, defending himself. âLord Alfonso, I was just joking with Wizard Royer.â
Alfonso pressed his somewhat colorless lips together and nodded. âThatâs good then. I have trouble distinguishing between genuine intentions and jokes.â
Saul pressed his palms together. âUnderstood. Iâll try not to joke in the future.â
Alfonso nodded with satisfaction, then stood up. âThen letâs go to the next place.â
Didnât you just say we were done for today?
Saul followed him up in confusion. âWhere are we going?â
âTo see the mermaids youâre interested in.â Alfonso made a motion to snap his fingers. âRelax, donât resist.â
Saul blinked.
âSnap!â
Both simultaneously left the closed, busy laboratory and appeared on a wooden boat.
They were now in a dim underground waterway.
However, with Saulâs vision and mental power, he could still see the moss covering the rocks on both sides and water drops continuously dripping down.
This cramped underground waterway had only one path for a long distance, looking like an artificially excavated tunnel rather than naturally formed.
âThis is beneath the royal palace.â In the darkness, Alfonso pulled in the iron chain that tethered their boat to a nearby stone pier.
The chain made a âclatter clatterâ sound, with one end falling into the water with a âplop.â
âI can only teleport within a certain range of the royal palace. This is also an ability granted to me by the Chief.â
Saul wasnât sure why Alfonso was telling him about his power limitations.
Saul rolled his eyes, gripped the boatâs edge with one hand, and sat honestly in the boat. âHa, now I believe you and Wizard Royer are very good friends.â
âHmm?â
âYou remind me every time you teleport me, but you donât need to remind Royer. Obviously you often throw him out, and he doesnât resist.â
Alfonso remained silent, not refuting.
Although Saul didnât understand how these two had become friends, he wasnât very curious either.
He sat in the boat, watching Alfonso lower a circular device. Then motor-like vibrations came from beneath the boat, and the entire vessel shot forward like an arrow from a bow.
Alfonso touched his fingertip to the boat, and a layer of black mist appeared outside the hull.
Whenever the boat hit rocks on either side due to its extreme speed, this black mist acted like a protective film, cushioning the impact and correcting direction.
The narrow waterway suddenly opened up after a sharp descent.
It seemed they had transitioned from an artificially excavated waterway into a natural river.
The water flow here was more turbulent with undercurrents, making the boat bob occasionally.
Stone pillars occasionally breaking the surface made navigation challenging.
Fortunately, both people on the boat had reached a level where they didnât take such challenges seriously. They could still exchange interesting conversation against the background music of ârushingâ sounds echoing through the cavern.
The boat avoided blocking stone pillars with the help of the black mist, only needing to watch out for stalactites overhead.
After traveling in this area for another half hour, light finally streamed in from ahead.
Saul could finally see with normal vision.
Outside the cavern was an endless ocean. Waves sparkled, shattering the reflection of stars.
âGood weather for a night cruise.â Saul looked left and right. âDidnât you say the southeastern coast was covered with Red Sea Trees? Why canât I see any?â
Since Evernight needed to cultivate and control mermaids, they couldnât possibly build the royal palace on the northwestern coastline.
âThe tide is in. The Red Sea Trees are all underwater now. Mermaids live at the Red Sea Tree roots. But weâre not going there today.â
âThen where are we going?â
âSome individuals have appeared among the mermaid population whose resistance to black tide pollution has weakened for unknown reasons. Theyâve already shown serious pollution symptoms with contagious tendencies. To control the pollution situation, Iâve isolated all mermaids showing pollution symptoms separately on the shore.â
The boat changed direction and began traveling along the shore, still at high speed, seemingly reckless enough to throw both passengers overboard.
âBANG!â
After a few more minutes, the boat stopped by crashing into a large recessed rock. Thanks to the black mistâs protection, the hull suffered no damage.
Saul jumped down from the boat, stepping onto soft sand. âYour driving skills need improvementâIâm serious.â
Alfonso didnât answer, only directing the boatâs chain to automatically tie to a thick iron nail driven into a rock crevice.
Then he also jumped out. âItâs just ahead.â
Saul followed Alfonso further, rounding a massive reef the size of a small house, finally seeing a pool of water.
The pool was very clear and very deep, with a terrifying sense of wanting to suck people in.
Saul naturally wasnât afraid of being sucked inâheâd been to even deeper ocean floors.
At that time, heâd even obtained a special oceanic rune. Though aside from research, it hadnât been put to other uses.
âThe mermaids are below?â Saul stood at the poolâs edge, letting waves wet his shoe soles.
He sensed over a dozen weak mental fluctuations.
Not the powerful fluctuations of wizards, but normal mental fluctuations even weaker than ordinary people.
He looked at the poolâs sides constantly swaying in the water. âTheyâre all hiding inside?â
Alfonso suddenly had brown fragments in his hand, which he threw into the pool.
The originally clear pool immediately became murky. From the poolâs depths, even deeper places where moonlight couldnât reach, mermaid after mermaid emerged.
Water waves obscured their faces. Slender, graceful figures with fish tails swam upward in circles, creating a beautiful, heart-lifting scene.
When they came closer, faces that were conical both above and below emerged, reality shattering the fantasy.
After careful observation, Saul found that although these mermaids looked strange with faces more like fish than humans, they were at least more normal than the mermaid Kate currently inhabited.
They had seaweed-like dark green long hair but didnât have six breasts.
They looked somewhat more pleasing to the eye.
âMaybe that wizard in Sky City made private modifications when raising mermaids. Modifying mammary organsâcould he have wanted private breeding?â
Just as Saul was comparing Kate with the mermaids before him, a flash of fiery red suddenly appeared, entering his vision.
It was a unique female mermaid with red hair. When she swam, fine red strands bloomed in the water like a terrestrial rose.
âCoral is here.â Alfonso said softly, seemingly afraid his voice would frighten the timid mermaids in the pool. âSheâs an atavistic mermaid, with appearance closer to the ancient Azure Scale Clan.â
(End of Chapter)
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